Bob McManus. MWC file photo.
MARSHFIELD, WI (WSAU-WDLB) — The Marshfield City Council voted to remove Mayor Bob McManus from office late Monday night on an 8-2 vote as the result of a complaint regarding the handling of text messages from McManus’ city-issued cellphone.
During closing arguments on Monday, now-former Mayor McManus didn’t deny the allegations that he deleted text messages that were subject to open records, but he did say he thought they were being backed up automatically.
“If I had my phone right now I could sit here with my email and clean it out of my inbox,” said McManus. “It goes to the trash folder. If I really went in and did something [to get rid of] that, kicked it out of the trash folder, it’s still archived. I had no reason to think that anything else was any different.
“Nothing [was] intentional,” he added.
McManus went on to add that an investigation into the matter by the Portage County Sheriff’s Office never resulted in criminal charges. He says the actions by the members of the city’s Fire and Police Commission were politically motivated because he had tried to replace Andy Keogh after he served two five-year terms on the Commission.
“They had trust issues with me when I took office. Not one other committee was as sensitive as they are, as you heard from testimony,” said McManus.
Keogh, who says he worked on the complaint for more than a year before filing it, said he finds it hard to believe that McManus didn’t know he should be saving the messages sent to and from his city-issued phone.
“We know of at least three times where you were told directly that text messages were not archived. That’s not complicated,” said Keogh. “I find it hard to believe that you were unaware that text messages were not archived.”
He went on to cite the Mayor’s cell phone bills which showed more than 1,000 messages sent to and from his phone over a period of time prior to July 22nd, 2020.
None of those messages were found on the Mayor’s device.
The two-day hearings concluded just before midnight Monday and included a two-hour closed-session meeting of the city’s alders. A third day of deliberation and possible action had also been scheduled for Tuesday, but that was canceled when the council delivered its decision.
As of Tuesday morning, former Mayor McManus’ name and image had been removed from the city’s website, and the email address for the Mayor was changed to that of the Mayor’s assistant.
City Administrator Steve Barg told WSAU News that the current City Council President, District 6 Alder Tom Witzel, will take over the role of Mayor on a limited basis including overseeing Council meetings and signing documents. No further information, including how a new Mayor may be selected, was given.
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