Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Aide to Taylor files complaints

He alleges penalties linked to illness

- By PATRICK MARLEY pmarley@journalsen­tinel.com

Madison — An aide to Sen. Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee) has filed complaints alleging he was told he would be terminated or have his pay cut because of challenges he faced with work when his Crohn’s disease flared up.

The aide, Brandon Jackson, was put on paid leave from his $35,000-a-year job in January while his claim was being investigat­ed. Senate Chief Clerk Jeffrey Renk said he did not know how long the human resources review would take.

Jackson this week announced he is running for the 11th Assembly District seat held by Rep. Mandela Barnes (D-Milwaukee). That would indicate, as many have expected, that Barnes will challenge Taylor this fall for her Senate seat.

An assistant attorney general representi­ng Taylor filed a response Thursday saying Taylor denied making some comments and said Taylor was not aware Jackson had Crohn’s disease until after he filed his first complaint. Taylor contended Jackson’s work performanc­e was lacking and she had offered him a different job rather than firing him.

Jackson started working for Taylor in August. In one complaint he filed, he wrote that he worked long hours leading up to a Senate floor session in November and missed doses of his medication for Crohn’s disease, a chronic inflammati­on of the digestive tract.

At that point, Jackson asked Taylor if he could leave work for health reasons, according to his complaint.

Taylor responded in a text message to Jackson and two other legislativ­e aid es .“NOW Brandon wants to be gone. For the record these were the concerns I spoke of,” Taylor wrote, according to a screen shot of her response Jackson provided.

Jackson said later that month, after he was hospitaliz­ed because of his disease, Taylor told him he needed to quit because he couldn’t keep up with her pace.

In January, he took a leave from work because of his disease. In his complaint, he said when he returned to work, Taylor’s chief of staff, Donna Shepard, told him that he had to choose between being terminated or having his pay cut from $16.83 an hour to $10 an hour.

Jackson called Taylor’s behavior retaliator­y. In an interview, he said he hoped to be assigned to another legislator. His attorney, Antonique Williams, said she wanted to work with state officials to find the “best solution” for Jackson.

Jackson has also filed a complaint with the state Equal Rights Division.

In responding to that complaint, Assistant Attorney General Steven Kilpatrick wrote that Taylor had not made some of the comments Jackson claimed she had and that those she did make did not create a hostile work environmen­t.

Taylor believed Jackson had not adequately run an intern program and had left her unprepared for a Senate floor speech she was to give. She did not know of his disease and had him offered a job with fewer responsibi­lities rather than firing him.

The “proposed transfer to another position was legitimate, reasonable, charitable and certainly not done because of his alleged disability,” Kilpatrick wrote.

Jackson collected signatures to run for the Milwaukee County Board this spring, but he didn’t turn them in because Taylor told him not to, he said. But her comments won’t stop him for running for office this fall, he said.

“I allowed it to deter me once, and I am not going to let it deter me again,” he said.

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