WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAU) — Wausau’s city council members met as a Committee of the Whole with one thing on the agenda, the investigation by the Human Resources Director into the conduct of a city council member.
Council President Robert Mielke called for the investigation into the actions of Keene Winters, who has admitted using profanities during a verbal altercation with City Transit Director Greg Seubert. The investigation led to over 250 pages of information, the hiring of Attorney Dean Dietrich from the Ruder Ware firm for the H.R. Department, and the likely lawsuit by Winters against city officials for alleged wrongful actions in the investigation and the unauthorized hiring of Dietrich.
After a few months of statements by various parties, Mielke says this meeting was necessary to get to the truth. “There’s been so many rumors and innuendo. That’s the reason why I called the meeting. And, I did it on behalf of Mr. Winters who asked for it, just to get the facts out, get the discussion out there, who did what, how this all came about, the events leading up to it, and to try to get down to the truth.”
After about an hour and twenty minutes of closed session, the Committee of the Whole returned and unanimously passed four motions. Lisa Rasmussen moved to forward a recommendation to the full city council for Tuesday night’s agenda to make the reporting authority and reporting chain of command for the city attorney temporarily different. Rasmussen proposed that City Attorney Anne Jacobson report to the council and not the mayor from next Tuesday until April 19th when Mayor Jim Tipple leaves office. City Attorney Ann Jacobson has issued a legal opinion that doesn’t match what some others in the administration support, and she was reprimanded by the mayor February 4th.
Mielke says this action is necessary. “There’s been some issues, if you will, between the mayor and the city attorney, and we want to make sure that she felt protected and had our support, you know, so that she would be answering to us. Mr. Tipple will be leaving April 19th. This way, she’s going to be okay as far as her doing her job without fear of any more reprisals.”
Rasmussen’s second motion was to recommend the full council commence an independent investigation into the chain of events and facts of the H.R. department’s investigation of Winters.
A third motion by Keene Winters was to direct H.R. Director Mila Hite to turn over all documents and communications with Dean Dietrich to City Attorney Anne Jacobson.
A fourth motion by David Oberbeck was to hire an independent investigator and to authorize City Attorney Jacobson to contact the City, Village, and Municipalities Insurance Company (CVMIC) for a recommendation on who to hire. Romey Wagner offered a friendly amendment to request that investigator have no prior knowledge or working relationship with any of the parties, which would include most of the city’s staff.
All four motions passed unanimously, which means all four motions are likely to get full council approval Tuesday night.
Alderman Winters believes the committee’s actions are a step in the right direction, saying the investigation against him has several problems. “The city attorney issued a legal opinion earlier that said really four things, that I broke no rules or policies of the city, that the investigation that was launched was not properly authorized. It could only be authorized by the council, and it never was. That the hearings and the process deprived me of my due process rights, and that an outside attorney was hired in violation of the procurement policies.”
Winters was eliminated from the spring mayoral race by 77 votes Tuesday, and he says the investigation did damage his campaign. “I think it certainly did, and that’s something we’ll never be able to correct.”
Winters says the damage caused by the actions of a few city officials is a, “bell that can’t be un-rung.”
Winters has an attorney and is preparing for legal action against certain city officials. He would like to see this resolved, and says it may involve some kind of settlement which includes getting the truth out there.
