Health office records missing
Department cabinets empty when interim city official took over
There’s a mystery brewing at Milwaukee City Hall. What happened to the missing Health Department documents?
Aldermen raised questions — and concerns — about missing paperwork Thursday during a committee discussion about the troubled agency, which has been reeling for months following revelations about serious problems with its programs aimed at preventing lead poisoning among Milwaukee children.
Some of the investigations into what went wrong at the agency have been hampered by missing documents, city officials say.
For example, some records linked to the nursing programs are missing, Interim Health Commissioner Patricia McManus said.
“Is there any evidence of these missing documents being stolen or being removed?” Ald. Robert Donovan asked. “Or were they there at one time and they’re missing?”
Aldermen seemed especially concerned about McManus’ comments that her predecessor’s office was completely empty when she took over as leader of the department earlier this year.
“There was nothing,” she told council members Thursday. “Not one piece of paper.”
McManus added there were two file cabinets that
had contained documents in the commissioner’s office, but when she started nothing was inside.
“There was some question about what happened to them,” McManus said.
“Well, yeah, it’s more than a question for me as to what happened to them,” Donovan answered. “They’re not where they’re supposed to be.”
McManus was picked to head the agency as interim commissioner in February, one month after Health Commissioner Bevan Baker abruptly left his job as word broke his department failed to provide services to the families of thousands of children who had tested positive for lead — or at least failed to document those efforts.
Paul Nannis, who previously served as city health commissioner in the 1990s, briefly led the department after Mayor Tom Barrett picked him to serve as interim commissioner. But that pick was blocked by council members, who instead chose McManus to lead the agency.
It’s unclear exactly who, and how many people, had access to the room after Baker left and before McManus started.
McManus said she was surprised that the commissioner’s office was empty, but initially assumed the paperwork had been packed away. She added that nobody seemed to know where the documents had gone, or who had moved them.
“Some staff have said they did see a big barrel in the room,” McManus said.
Donovan said he’s been told removing official documents is a felony.
“The documents need to be found, or this needs to be referred to the district attorney’s office as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “Something’s not right here.”
The Freshwater For Life Action Coalition, a local advocacy group, has already called on council members to subpoena Baker, among others, over questions about how the Health Department and Barrett have handled problems with the city’s lead programs.
Council President Ashanti Hamilton said he was drafting a letter requesting Baker come to City Hall to testify.
During Thursday’s meeting, frustrated aldermen also vented about how long the personnel investigation delving into problems at the department has taken.
“Why is this dragging?” Ald. Mark Borkowski said. “I mean, my goodness, I think Watergate was quicker.”
Maria Monteagudo, the city’s employee relations director, pushed back on those questions, insisting the investigation had expanded far beyond its original scope.
“After doing this for 30 years, this is probably the most complex, intricate investigation that we’ve ever done,” she said.
Monteagudo said the first investigation conducted by her department was completed a month-and-a-half ago and delivered to McManus, and a second investigation would likely go to McManus next week.
“So for anybody to question the process without knowing what’s going on in terms of the investigation, I find offensive,” Monteagudo said.
But Hamilton told her it’s important to share information when possible with aldermen and the public.
“Saying that there’s another investigation — it’s not secret,” he said. “The committee wants to know. The public wants to know.”
Monteagudo disclosed at the meeting that there’s a third report being done.
“It’s an overall assessment of the systems that failed, and the dysfunction that we’re dealing with,” she said.