Weekend Reads: Wisconsin Sex Scandal Raises New Questions of Scott Walker’s Administration
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Morry Gash / AP File Photo
Also: A rejected bribe demand in Louisiana could cost the state $20 million and New Jersey’s black bear hunt expands.
MADISON, Wisconsin: Gov. Scott Walker and his Republican allies in the Wisconsin state legislature have made civil service reform a top priority prompting an ongoing fight in the State Capitol over state worker protections. Walker’s administration has pointed to a 2011 case involving two railroad commission employees caught having sex on state property as justification to reform the Wisconsin’s civil service protection rules, which the governor says makes it difficult to fire state employees for misconduct. But as the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports, there’s no evidence that Walker’s administration even discussed firing the employees involved in the sex scandal, which also involved exchanging sexually explicit photos over state email. There were only letters of reprimand handed down to the employees, which were later removed from their personnel files. The newspaper reports:
Susan Crawford, an attorney who served as an executive assistant at the Office of State Employment Relations under then Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat, said the reprimands represented "extraordinarily light" discipline in the 2011 case, given the repeated nature of the conduct using state emails and facilities and the fact that the investigation found that other employees in the work unit had complained that it had made them uncomfortable.
A personnel director for former Republican Gov. Scott McCallum concurred that the punishment was light: "My observation is someone didn't want to come down hard on them. … It has the appearance of being something that was desired to be handled in a low-key manner," Peter Fox said. [Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel; Route Fifty]
MONROE, Louisiana: A state official’s alleged demand of a bribe from a contractor could cost Louisiana taxpayers $20 million. On Friday night, a 12-member jury awarded contractor Jeff Mercer that amount in damages stemming from a lawsuit he filed against the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. Mercer accused the agency retaliating against his business when he refused to give a bribe demanded by a bridge inspector, according to The News Star. Mercer’s attorney told the newspaper:
"As he went to other jobs, they continued to really punish him," [David] Doughty said, "It culminated in them actually reporting him to the FBI on some false criminal charges that wound up being dropped, but they didn't check with him or his prime contractor or anybody. ... Rather than paying him, they reported him to the FBI."
The state is expected to appeal the jury’s decision. [The News Star]
TRENTON, New Jersey: With a state Supreme Court ruling on Friday, New Jersey’s expanded black bear hunt will go on to start as planned on Monday, The Record reports. The new rules allow hunters more territory to target black bears but also allow state officials to extend the season if hunters don’t hit the state’s goal of reducing the state’s black bear population by 20 percent. The new rules will allow hunters to go after nuisance bears in more suburban areas of the state. [The Record]
PARSONS, West Virginia: The lack of broadband Internet in isolated parts of West Virginia has had an impact on health service providers which have had difficulty tapping into networks that allow for telemedicine consultations or sharing digital medical records. But that’s changing for one isolated clinic. As the Gazette-Mail reports, 12 miles of new fiber-optic cable is providing the St. George Medical Clinic in Parsons with a high-speed broadband connection. [Charleston Gazette-Mail]
GREAT FALLS, Montana: Back in 2003, the city of Great Falls adopted a municipal ordinance governing rules for signs with a deadline of Dec. 31, 2015, for all signs to be in compliance. With that deadline rapidly approaching a high number of nonconforming signs, the city government is looking at proposed changes to the rules, the Great Falls Tribune reports. One proposal would allow “some minor changes to signs be permitted without requiring that the entire sign be brought into conformance, such as refacing and rewiring,” the newspaper reports. “Structural alterations would still require that the entire sign be brought into compliance.” [Great Falls Tribune]
Michael Grass is Executive Editor of Government Executive's Route Fifty.
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