Zepnick pulled from committees after harassment reports surface
MADISON – State Rep. Josh Zepnick was removed from his committees Tuesday after allegations surfaced that he had drunkenly kissed two women without warning. Zepnick, a Milwaukee Democrat who has said he has since curbed his alcohol abuse, has apologized for kissing the women without their consent but also declined calls for him to resign.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (RRochester) removed Zepnick from all his committees at the request of Rep. Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh).
“Yesterday I took one of the few disciplinary actions available to me as minority leader and removed Representative Zepnick from his assigned committees. Moving forward, I will consult with members of the Assembly Democratic Caucus, as well as the majority party, to ensure this issue is addressed in an appropriate manner,” Hintz said in a statement Tuesday.
Rep. Gary Hebl (D-Sun Prairie) showed up in Zepnick’s place Tuesday for voting by the Committee on Federalism and Interstate Relations. Hebl and another Democratic on the committee, Rep. Jimmy Anderson (DFitchburg), both said they supported calls for Zepnick to resign and his removal from the panel.
Rep. David Bowen (D-Milwaukee), the vice chairman of the state Democratic Party, also called on Zepnick Tuesday to step down.
“While I am sympathetic to Rep. Zepnick’s struggle with addiction and applaud his commitment to sobriety, that is no excuse for his actions toward women and staffers for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and in the state Legislature,” Bowen said.
The Capital Times on Friday reported the accounts of two unnamed women who said Zepnick had kissed
them without their consent at political events in 2011 and 2015.
Hintz, Senate Minority Jennifer Shilling (D-La Crosse) and chairwoman of the state Democratic Party Martha Laning responded by quickly calling for Zepnick to resign.
Zepnick has said that he had been drinking irresponsibly in those years and has since gotten sober after a 2015 drunken driving arrest and conviction. He said Tuesday he would decide in the coming months whether to run for reelection.
Wisconsin is seeing its own reckoning with allegations of sexual harassment by elected officials as part of a national wave of revelations against
Monday, a 2015 settlement was disclosed in which Wisconsin taxpayers shelled out $75,000 to resolve a sexual harassment and racial discrimination claim made by an aide to then-state senator and now City of Milwaukee Treasurer Spencer Coggs.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Laning, the state party chairwoman, had no response to requests for comment on the Coggs disclosure. Bowen said he was still reviewing the news about Coggs but stressed it was important to support women and their right to a workplace free of harassment.
The allegations by the aide made news in 2012 in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other outlets but Monday’s report was the first time that the settlement itself and the amount were made public. The Wisconsin State Journal first reported on them.
An administrative law judge in 2015 found there was probable cause to believe that the Coggs aide, an AfricanAmerican woman, was discriminated against because of her race and sex, according to documents obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
“Coggs both tolerated and contributed to the creation of a hostile work environment in his office that consisted of both verbal and physical gestures directed at her because of her sex, race and color,” Administrative Judge Deborah Little John wrote.
Mary Spicuzza of the Journal Sentinel staff in Milwaukee contributed to this article.