Bob McManus. MWC file photo.
MARSHFIELD, WI (WSAU-WDLB) — Hearings regarding an open-records complaint against Marshfield Mayor Bob McManus are set to continue Monday evening.
On Friday the City Council and residents heard nearly four hours of opening statements and witness testimony about the complaint, which centers around text messages that may have been deleted from the Mayor’s city-issued cell phone.
“Removing messages from your phone requires purposeful steps,” said Andy Keogh, who filed the complaint against McManus. “I can’t say whether the Mayor took steps to remove messages from his phone, or someone did it for him. But somebody had to take purposeful action for the text messages to be removed.”
Those text messages were the subject of an open-records request made in April of last year by Randy Gershman who says he filed the request one year after he started working on it. Gershman says he was concerned about what he described as “hostility” towards the Commission.
City Administrator Steve Barg said he believes he was lied to by the Mayor about the incident, according to his sworn testimony. Barg opened by saying he had received a call from Gershman in the Summer of 2020, saying he had reason to believe there were messages between the Mayor and “one or more individuals referenced in his records request.”
“It’s pretty clear from what IT indicated that there’s no text messages showing prior to July 22nd, 2020 and we have no idea what those may have been,” said Barg. He went on to add that because the messages aren’t showing, there is no way of knowing if they are related to the open records request.
He says he is trying to give the Mayor the benefit of the doubt. “I’m not here to judge the Mayor, but unquestionably he lied to me. There’s no doubt about it from what I’ve seen in the various instances from the different stories I’ve gotten.
“Someone else can judge his intent, but I danced around that word and I shouldn’t do that. I believe I was lied to.”
The matter was also brought to investigators in Portage County last year, who turned the results of their investigation over to the Wood County District Attorney. No charges were filed as a result of that investigation.
McManus defended himself by calling the situation a “witch hunt.”
“Andy Keogh’s term was up. He had just served two five-year terms, for a total of ten years, on the [Fire and Police] Commission. However, there were some issues I was concerned with and I thought ‘now would be a good time for some new ideas and input on the Commission.'”
He says three days after he attempted to appoint someone else to the Commission Gershman, who also serves on the Commission, filed the wide-ranging open records request against the Mayor which covered three areas.
“That is what we are here about today. It would appear the Commission is not happy with me. One member filed the open records request, and another member filed to have me removed. If that’s not a witch hunt, I don’t know what is. It is crystal clear. They are trying to take things into their own hands when it should be the citizens of Marshfield that decide.
“The citizens of Marshfield decide all of us, if we’re not doing a good job or they don’t like us or if they think we are making a mistake they will vote us out. Commissions shouldn’t, how do they even think that they have the power to do that?” added McManus.
Over a dozen witnesses have been issued subpoenas for the hearings, which will continue Monday at 5 PM and are scheduled to wrap up Tuesday evening.
Any action taken by the City Council, who are acting as jurors for the hearings, would require near-unanimous approval.
(Information and audio from WDLB Radio in Marshfield was used in this report)
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