Who Really Killed Milwaukee's Food Trucks? A Politically Homeless Investigation

This is a republish of an article written by Michael Jaekels originally published at Politically Homeless on April 29, 2026. Find the full version with images and cited evidence there. Jaekels is continuing to investigate and his article may have been updated after we republished it.

A private developer with restaurant interests testified in support of the ban. The most affected operator found out while she was asleep. And the city had no data to justify any of it.

Editor's note: Alderman Bauman responded to a request for comment at 6:47 PM on April 29, 2026. His full response is included in this story. Kendall Breunig did not respond to a request for comment by deadline. This is an ongoing investigation and will be updated as new information emerges.

On April 21, 2026, the Milwaukee Common Council voted 14-0 to restrict food truck operations in the downtown entertainment district to a 10 p.m. cutoff. Alderman Robert Bauman — the ordinance’s sole sponsor — called it a public safety measure.

What followed was 48 hours of digging through official public records, open records requests, firsthand testimony, and city correspondence. What I found changes the story entirely.

THE ORDINANCE — AND THE ADMISSION

File #252101 was created on March 24, 2026. Alderman Bauman was the only sponsor. It passed the Public Safety and Health Committee 4-1 on April 10th, sailed through the full council 14-0 on April 21st, and was signed by the Mayor the next day. Effective date: May 9, 2026.

I emailed Alderman Bauman directly to ask him to justify the decision. He wrote back. And what he told me was remarkable.

The entire basis for restricting the operating hours of small business owners across the downtown entertainment district was verbal eyewitness testimony from Milwaukee Police Department officers. No published data. No incident reports. No statistical analysis linking food trucks to violence or disorder on Water Street was ever presented to the public or the council.

When I filed a formal open records request with MPD demanding every document, report, and briefing underlying that claim, the clock started ticking. We are still waiting.

THE ONLY PERSON WHO SHOWED UP TO FIGHT

Jennifer Antunez Martinez runs a food truck on Burnham Street. On April 10th she walked into Room 301-B at Milwaukee City Hall and testified against this ordinance. She was the only food truck owner in that room.

I sat down with Jennifer yesterday. She told me that when she spoke, it felt like her words were a bother. Like she had never spoken at all.

While she was sitting in that hearing room waiting for it to begin, she called Alma Juarez — who runs Tacos Almita on Water Street, one of the most directly affected operators — to ask what time she was arriving.

Alma told her she hadn’t been notified. At all.

Jennifer Martinez in front of her Food Truck; Tacos El Pastorcito Mixe

I obtained the official notice distribution list for the April 10th hearing through an open records request to the City Clerk. The list — sent on April 2nd, eight days before the hearing — was distributed exclusively to Milwaukee Common Council members, their aides, and city department heads. Not a single food truck operator appears on it.

Alderwoman JoCasta Zamarripa’s office sent an informal email to nine Burnham zone operators on April 7th — three days before the hearing. That email told operators the Burnham zone outcome had already been negotiated before they had a chance to testify. Alma Juarez was not among the nine recipients.

I have the text messages.

At 9:07 AM on April 10th — as the hearing was beginning — Jennifer texted Alma to ask if she was coming. At 9:42 AM, while the hearing was already in progress, Alma responded: “I didn’t get anything.” At 10:01 AM, after waking up from a night of work, Alma asked: “Is it over?”

She learned the outcome of a hearing about her own business hours from a text message. After it was over.

The hearing was scheduled at 9 AM on a Friday morning. These are operators who work until 2 and 3 AM serving the late night crowd this ordinance specifically targets.

Translated text messages between Jennifer Antunez Martinez and Alma Juarez of Tacos Almita — timestamped April 10, 2026, the morning of the hearing | Email from Alderwoman Zamarripa

WHO WAS IN THAT ROOM

The official legislative minutes for the April 10th hearing read as follows:

“Appearing: Sponsor Ald. Bauman MSOE Rep Kendall Breunig — in Support MPD Chief of Staff — Heather Hough Food Truck Owner Jennifer Antunez Martinez”

Let me tell you who Kendall Breunig is.

Kendall Breunig is the owner and principal of Sunset Investors, a private real estate development company with significant holdings in downtown Milwaukee. He is also a co-owner of Aperitivo Restaurant in the Historic Third Ward.

He did not identify himself as a restaurant owner. He did not identify himself as a real estate developer with downtown holdings. He identified himself as an MSOE representative.

Here is what Kendall Breunig’s relationship with MSOE actually looks like. He sits on MSOE’s Board of Regents. In 2023 his company Sunset Investors sold a building to MSOE for approximately $1.09 million — more than $8 million below its assessed value of $9.275 million. He donated an additional $2 million to the university. MSOE named the building after him — the Kendall Breunig Center for the Built Environment.

At the April 10th hearing, Alderman Bauman stated on the record that this ordinance was introduced “basically in response to MSOE.”

The institution Bauman cited as his primary motivation for introducing this ordinance had its most significant financial benefactor — a man with a building named after him on their campus — testify in support of the same ordinance. That benefactor is also a restaurant owner whose testimony at the hearing explicitly referenced restaurant patronage. And he identified himself in a way that concealed every one of those financial interests.

Kendall Breunig does not appear on the official notice distribution list. He was not one of the nine operators Zamarripa’s office informally contacted. No available documentation explains how he knew to be in that room.

What I do know is this: after the hearing, when Alderman Bauman replied to my constituent email about this ordinance, Kendall Breunig was copied on that correspondence at his private email address — ken@sunsetinvestors.com.

So was Matt Dorner of the Milwaukee Downtown BID — whose member businesses compete directly with food truck operators.

THE INSPECTOR GENERAL

I have filed a formal complaint with the Milwaukee Inspector General requesting an inquiry into whether private commercial interests improperly influenced the legislative process underlying this ordinance. I have submitted five supplemental filings with eleven exhibits drawn entirely from official public records, open records responses, firsthand testimony, and primary source documents.

The complaint documents the complete chain: Bauman introduces an ordinance citing MSOE as his motivation. MSOE’s most prominent financial benefactor — who also owns a competing restaurant — appears to testify in support while concealing those interests. That same individual is later copied on official aldermanic correspondence about the ordinance. And the people whose livelihoods are most directly affected found out from text messages after the hearing was already over.

We are waiting for the Inspector General’s response.

ALDERMAN BAUMAN RESPONDS

On April 29, 2026 — after being contacted for comment by Politically Homeless — Alderman Bauman responded at 6:47 PM. His full response is published here verbatim:

“The main advocate of this legislation was MPD. They have been advocating for some time. They advocated for the 1 am curfew that was adopted two years ago. MPD has legitimate concerns about public safety supported by specific incidents of deadly crime and disorder and eyewitness testimony about how food trucks contribute to the loitering, disorder and confrontations mostly by underage people who cannot patronize the bars.

BID 21 has consistently expressed concerns about public safety over several years and advocated for this legislation.

I cannot speak to Kendall’s holdings. I can only say that he has been a strong advocate for MSOE for all the years I have known him.”

Several elements of this response warrant attention.

First — Alderman Bauman now identifies MPD as “the main advocate” of this legislation, while in earlier written correspondence he stated the council relied solely on MPD eyewitness testimony with no published data, incident reports, or statistical analysis ever presented to the public.

Second — Alderman Bauman confirms that BID 21 — the Business Improvement District whose representative Matt Dorner was copied on his constituent correspondence about this ordinance — actively advocated for this legislation. This is the first on-record confirmation that the BID, whose member businesses compete directly with food truck operators, played an advocacy role in the passage of this ordinance.

Third — when asked directly about Kendall Breunig’s financial holdings and their relevance to his appearance at the April 10th hearing, Alderman Bauman responded: “I cannot speak to Kendall’s holdings.” He did not deny that Breunig holds financial interests in the downtown dining and real estate market. He did not address whether those interests were disclosed at the hearing. He offered only a personal character reference.

Following publication of this story, Kendall Breunig responded to Politically Homeless’s request for comment at 9:43 AM on April 30, 2026. His full response is published here verbatim:

‘The issue here is safety and security. The food trucks themselves are not the problem. I like food trucks. The problem is that the current situation on N Water Street is creating a block party around all the food trucks and this is causing violence around them and multiple deaths and injuries. Safety of the public is more important than the later hours of operation of the food trucks. It may still require other measures, which is unfortunate. MSOE has 300 students living at Water and Juneau in the Grohmann Tower. Multiple gun shots, on multiple occasions, not just at the times of the high profile deaths, have gone through the windows of the Grohmann Tower. So far, no injuries. We are all looking for solutions.’

Breunig’s response confirms for the third time — following his on-camera statement to CBS 58 and his testimony at the April 10th hearing — that food trucks are not the problem. His response does not address his ownership of Aperitivo Restaurant, his financial interests in the downtown dining market, or why he identified himself exclusively as an MSOE representative at the April 10th hearing rather than disclosing those interests.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

Tomorrow morning — Thursday, April 30th — food truck operators will gather at Milwaukee City Hall at 8 AM ahead of the Public Safety and Health Committee meeting. They are organized. They are exploring their legal options. And they are done being invisible.

The next full Common Council meeting is May 12th. The ordinance takes effect May 9th.

I have requested all MPD documentation underlying the verbal testimony cited as the basis for this ordinance. Whatever comes back — or doesn’t come back — will be published here in full.

This is an ongoing investigation. Every document referenced in this story is on file. Every claim is sourced.

If you are a Milwaukee food truck operator affected by this ordinance and want to share your story — contact me at michael@politicallyhomeless.net.

If you believe this ordinance should be repealed — show up on May 12th. Because the only thing that changes decisions like this one is noise.

CBS 58 is reporting on this story tonight. This is an ongoing Politically Homeless investigation. Everything published at Politically Homeless will be updated as new information emerges.

Michael Jaekels is the founder of Politically Homeless, an independent investigative journalism outlet based in Milwaukee. This is an ongoing investigation.