No evidence of discipline over secret recording
MADISON - No one in Gov. Tony Evers’ office was docked pay after one or more of his aides secretly recorded a conference call with top lawmakers in May.
In addition, there is no record of any other type of discipline for the two top Evers aides who were on the call, according to records released under Wisconsin’s public records law.
The documents provide few clues about who on the Democratic governor’s team recorded the Republican leaders in May. Evers has declined to say who made the recording or whether he took any job actions against those who did.
Evers has said he did not know the recording was being made and that he has told his aides not to do it again.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on the recording in June after obtaining a copy of it under the public records law.
After the story posted online, Evers texted two aides about a headline that suggested he had made the recording.
“I don’t remember recording this,” Evers wrote.
His spokeswoman at the time, Melissa Baldauff, responded that she would make clear in a statement that staff, not Evers, had made the recording.
Evers did not have any other text messages or emails that mentioned the recording.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau said Evers should tell the public who made the recording.
“He should call and apologize, first of all,” Fitzgerald said in an interview. “And then the second thing he should do is lay out some type of standard operating procedure for that staff and fully disclose what the situation was.
“I think if he would just kind of air that whole thing out, that would help kind of everyone. Why not tell everyone what happened? I don’t know what the downside is unless he’s protecting someone who really did something out of line. It’s an ongoing distraction that’s going to hamper the ability of the Legislature and the executive branch to work together.”
The conference call was held to discuss what to do after the state Supreme Court threw out the administra
tion’s stay-at-home order to fight the coronavirus pandemic. The call came a day after the court issued its 4-3 ruling in response to a lawsuit brought by Republican lawmakers.
Speaking on the call were Evers, Fitzgerald, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos of Rochester, Evers chief of staff Maggie Gau and Evers attorney Ryan Nilsestuen.
Gau set up the audio-only call through Skype, according to records from the governor’s office. Vos chief of staff Jenny Toftness and Fitzgerald chief of staff Dan Romportl were listed as “required attendees” on the call.
Two other staffers were notified of the call for scheduling purposes but did not listen in on the call, according to Evers’ office. Other aides to Evers and the lawmakers were able to listen in, but they are not listed on the records.
During the hourlong call, Evers and Republicans made no headway on how to battle the coronavirus. Fitzgerald and
Vos said they believed local officials could handle the pandemic and didn’t see a need for statewide rules.
Also on the call, Vos blamed a coronavirus outbreak in his district on a “difference in culture” among immigrants — drawing rebukes from Latino leaders, some of whom called on him to apologize or resign. Vos said he didn’t need to apologize for anything.