MONROE - In a case pending in Green County Circuit Court regarding violations of the state's open meeting law, legal counsel for the defendants, City of Monroe Common Council Salary and Personnel Committee, was not in the courtroom for a status conference at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Attorney Gregg Gunta of the law firm Gunta and Reak, Wauwatosa, was assigned by the city's insurance company in March to represent the city and four aldermen, Brooke Bauman, Reid Stangel, Charles Schuringa and Louis Armstrong, in the case.
Green County Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Kohl appeared in court for D.A. Gary Luhman, who is the prosecuting attorney for the State of Wisconsin. Lafayette County Circuit Court Judge William D. Johnston was assigned to the case April 7 and conducted the proceedings for the status conference by telephone.
Comments by Johnston and Kohl indicated that neither of them had received word that Gunta would not be present; though, Johnston suggested that perhaps Gunta was still new to the case and had not been informed of the scheduled conference by anyone from the city.
Judge Johnston and Kohl set another status conference for 1 p.m. June 5.
The city has until May 8, according to Kohl, to file an answer in response to the forfeiture complaint.
D.A. Luhman filed a complaint Feb. 6 in Green County Circuit Court, naming the four elected officials of the City of Monroe for violating the state's open meeting law in 2013. He filed an amended complaint and summons March 19.
Members of a governmental body who knowingly violate the state's open meetings law or attend a meeting held in violation of the law is subject to a forfeiture of between $25 and $300 for each violation.
The complaint stems from a city Salary and Personnel Committee meeting on Sept. 10, 2013, and regards a closed portion of that meeting during which a vote was taken to dismiss a city employee, then-Director of Utilities Alan Eckstein.
The complaint alleges members of the committee took formal action in the closed session without giving proper public notice of the subject matter of the closed session and without giving actual notice to the public or to the affected employee that formal action concerning his dismissal might be taken.
The agenda item indicated the closed session subject matter was a "Preliminary Consideration Of Employee Issues Addressed by Utilities Director."
The complaint also alleges the committee failed to reconvene in open session, as indicated by the agenda, to take its formal action to terminate Eckstein, and without proper public notice of the subject matter of the closed session.
The complaint further alleges committee members during the closed session violated Wisconsin open meeting laws by taking the formal action of offering a compensation package to Eckstein, "as an inducement" for him "to waive all claims he may have against the City of Monroe, and voluntarily resign from his employment with the City of Monroe, without giving an adequate notice of the subject matter of the closed session, and without first reconvening in open session."
Eckstein's attorney has filed on his behalf a motion to intervene as a plaintiff in the case and to file a complaint against the city.
According to state law, if the city is found to be in violation of the open meeting laws, any action taken by the committee members at that particular meeting could be voidable.
However, the attorney general or district attorney must first pursue a legal path to void the action, and then the court must find voiding the act to be better in the public interest than allowing the action to remain enforced.
In its demand for relief, the State of Wisconsin is seeking to have the committee's dismissal action voided, as part of the court's judgment in the case.
Attorney Gregg Gunta of the law firm Gunta and Reak, Wauwatosa, was assigned by the city's insurance company in March to represent the city and four aldermen, Brooke Bauman, Reid Stangel, Charles Schuringa and Louis Armstrong, in the case.
Green County Assistant District Attorney Jeffrey Kohl appeared in court for D.A. Gary Luhman, who is the prosecuting attorney for the State of Wisconsin. Lafayette County Circuit Court Judge William D. Johnston was assigned to the case April 7 and conducted the proceedings for the status conference by telephone.
Comments by Johnston and Kohl indicated that neither of them had received word that Gunta would not be present; though, Johnston suggested that perhaps Gunta was still new to the case and had not been informed of the scheduled conference by anyone from the city.
Judge Johnston and Kohl set another status conference for 1 p.m. June 5.
The city has until May 8, according to Kohl, to file an answer in response to the forfeiture complaint.
D.A. Luhman filed a complaint Feb. 6 in Green County Circuit Court, naming the four elected officials of the City of Monroe for violating the state's open meeting law in 2013. He filed an amended complaint and summons March 19.
Members of a governmental body who knowingly violate the state's open meetings law or attend a meeting held in violation of the law is subject to a forfeiture of between $25 and $300 for each violation.
The complaint stems from a city Salary and Personnel Committee meeting on Sept. 10, 2013, and regards a closed portion of that meeting during which a vote was taken to dismiss a city employee, then-Director of Utilities Alan Eckstein.
The complaint alleges members of the committee took formal action in the closed session without giving proper public notice of the subject matter of the closed session and without giving actual notice to the public or to the affected employee that formal action concerning his dismissal might be taken.
The agenda item indicated the closed session subject matter was a "Preliminary Consideration Of Employee Issues Addressed by Utilities Director."
The complaint also alleges the committee failed to reconvene in open session, as indicated by the agenda, to take its formal action to terminate Eckstein, and without proper public notice of the subject matter of the closed session.
The complaint further alleges committee members during the closed session violated Wisconsin open meeting laws by taking the formal action of offering a compensation package to Eckstein, "as an inducement" for him "to waive all claims he may have against the City of Monroe, and voluntarily resign from his employment with the City of Monroe, without giving an adequate notice of the subject matter of the closed session, and without first reconvening in open session."
Eckstein's attorney has filed on his behalf a motion to intervene as a plaintiff in the case and to file a complaint against the city.
According to state law, if the city is found to be in violation of the open meeting laws, any action taken by the committee members at that particular meeting could be voidable.
However, the attorney general or district attorney must first pursue a legal path to void the action, and then the court must find voiding the act to be better in the public interest than allowing the action to remain enforced.
In its demand for relief, the State of Wisconsin is seeking to have the committee's dismissal action voided, as part of the court's judgment in the case.