Accusations of arrogance, vagueness pepper Milwaukee city attorney debate.

Byline: Michaela Paukner, mpaukner@wislawjournal.com

The candidates running for Milwaukee city attorney argued at a Milwaukee Bar Association forum on Friday whether it's time for a shakeup in leadership at the city attorney's office.

Grant Langley hasbeen the Milwaukee city attorney for 36 years. He was first elected in 1984 and leads anoffice of 38 attorneys. He's running for a ninth four-year term in office.

Tearman Spencer is Langley's challenger. Heworked as an engineer before earning his juris doctor fromUW Law School and opening a law firm in Milwaukee.

Spencer said he's running to improve customer service, the Milwaukee Police Department's relationship with residents and fairness in the city. He accused Langley and the city attorney's office of not being visible to the community over the past decades.

Langley said he purposely kept the office apart from politicians to ensure independence and non-partisanship in policy decisions. He fired back at Spencer,sayingSpencer doesn't have the experience to serve as city attorney and calling his goals for the position vague.

The candidatesdebated the current state of city affairs, including litigation and settlements involving the Milwaukee Police Department and the city attorney's role in preparing for the Democratic National Convention in July.

Spencer said Langley hasn't done enough to keep the city out of costly litigation and cited the high-profile case involving the Milwaukee Bucks player Sterling Brownas an example. Langley said he had no regrets related to Brown's lawsuit.

"Any lawyer would know that if you don't put in an affirmative defense like that, you waive it," Langley said, "and I was not about to waive any affirmative defense in that case."

"You should have been more in-line with the mayor," Spencer replied. "Sometimes, when it's blatantly clear that the fault is there, we need not spend four or five years litigating at the cost and expense of the city."

When asked about qualified immunity for police officers, Langleyaskedif Spencer knew what that meant...