Details on harassment, discrimination claims against Wisconsin lawmakers released

MADISON - The Wisconsin Legislature released new details Wednesday on harassment and discrimination investigations of lawmakers, including a 2016 claim against a senator. 

But leaders again resisted providing the public with a fuller look into accusations that legislators have mistreated their employees. 

Senate Chief Clerk Jeff Renk and Assembly Chief Clerk Patrick Fuller released the added details after an attorney for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel asked them to reconsider earlier denials of the newspaper's open records requests. 

In a letter to the newspaper, Renk and Fuller disclosed that in January 2016 an aide filed a discrimination complaint against a state senator, who wasn't named.

"The matter was investigated and was found to be unsubstantiated, because the employee was terminated based upon performance and other non-discriminatory reasons," the letter from Renk and Fuller reads. 

Legislative leaders of both parties have declined to release full internal complaints and findings about discrimination, saying they want to protect victims and encourage them to come forward.

Renk and Fuller said again in their letter that victims might be identified by releasing investigations — even if their names are redacted — and that victims have expressed concern about this in recent weeks. 

MORE:Letter to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel from Assembly, Senate chief clerks

MORE:Legislature's sexual harassment investigations won't be released to the Wisconsin public

Critics of the policy have pointed out that it prevents the public from learning whether lawmakers are failing to deal with credible complaints. 

Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council, noted that the recent news has been littered with examples of other public bodies and private companies that have failed to address sexual harassment. Voters have a right to know if their elected officials in Wisconsin have also failed to do so, he said. 

"Other state and local governments have been far more forthcoming about investigations," Lueders said. 

There have been at least four complaints of sexual harassment in the Legislature in the past decade — two in the Senate and two more in the Assembly. 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.

The latest complaint disclosed by the clerks appears to correspond to an unsubstantiated discrimination claim filed two years ago by a former aide to Sen. Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee). 

The Journal Sentinel reported in 2016 on the complaint by Brandon Jackson, who alleged then he was told he would be terminated or have his pay cut because of work challenges he faced because of Crohn's disease. 

In their letter, Fuller and Renk also released a few details from the internal investigation into former Assembly Majority Leader Bill Kramer, a Republican who in 2014 was convicted of two misdemeanor counts of fourth-degree sexual assault.

For years, the Journal Sentinel has sought the report from the internal investigation unsuccessfully. 

The letter from the clerks said that in February 2014 a female Assembly employee and her supervisors had reported that Kramer had sexually harassed the woman and had "unwanted physical contact" with her. 

The letter said that Kramer did not cooperate with the Legislature's investigation, leaving it unclear whether the review was ever completed. Kramer was also told by Fuller not to attend legislative functions or go into legislative offices without Fuller's approval, according to the letter.

But Renk and Fuller said that to release the complaint and investigation to the newspaper, officials would have to black out too much of it.

"The redacted version of the complaint/investigation would result in little/no substance left," they wrote. 

Republicans who control the Assembly stripped Kramer of his leadership post in 2014 after the accusations against him were made and he did not run for re-election.