Infighting with Tony Evers aide, problems electing officers mire Wisconsin tourism council

MADISON - The state board that promotes tourism is ensnared in a fight over the open meetings law and whether an aide to Gov. Tony Evers tried to prod a board member out of office.

Kathy Kopp, a longtime member of the Governor’s Council on Tourism, maintains Tourism Secretary Sara Meaney asked her to resign as soon as December, a year and a half ahead of the end of her term on the council. Meaney disputes that claim. 

Meanwhile, the effort to elect officers and members of the council’s marketing committee have hit a series of snags.

The council tried to hold those votes through an online poll, but that appears to violate the open meetings law. Council officials dropped the plan Friday. 

"It seems to be a pretty irregular situation," said state Sen. André Jacque of De Pere, who sits on the council. "There are a whole lot of things that are not very transparent."

The online poll was plagued with other problems as well.

Some council members were told not to vote even though they were eligible to do so. In at least one case, there were more votes than voters. And it appears anyone who had a link to the online poll — even if he or she wasn't on the council — had the ability to cast a vote. 

"Prior electronic votes are inconclusive. Consequently, the council will hold elections at our next publicly noticed meeting where all present and eligible members will be able to vote," Deputy Tourism Secretary Anne Sayers wrote in a Friday email to council members.

The state Department of Justice has issued guidance that says voting by email violates the state's open meetings law. That prohibition applies to other forms of internet voting too, said Bill Lueders, president of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council.

"If that's what's happening, they're breaking the law," he said. 

The first attempt at online voting began Oct. 18, when council members received a link to the poll and were asked to choose officers and the members of the marketing committee.  

Ten days later, on Monday, council members got another email saying they needed to vote again because five council members had voted more than once. It was soon after that council officials gave up on the effort.

The council consists of 21 members, including seven who serve on it because they are lawmakers or hold offices that have tourism-related duties. Those seven were told they could not vote for the council's officers. 

But the nonpartisan Legislative Reference Bureau has determined all members of the council can cast votes. 

The election for a chairperson pits Kopp against Joe Klimczak. In the midst of the voting, Kopp alerted her colleagues that Meaney had asked her to consider resigning. 

Kopp is the director of the Platteville Regional Chamber and is leaving that position. But she said she would not step down from the tourism council before her term is up in July 2021.

"You asked that I consider resigning as early as December 2019," Kopp wrote in an Oct. 23 letter to Meaney that she provided to all members of the council. "As I indicated to you, I had not thought about resigning early, especially not before my duties here at the Chamber are completed."

"I’m disappointed in the gross mischaracterization of our conversations and in your choice of this public channel to communicate what would otherwise have been a straightforward follow up telephone conversation," Meaney responded in an email that was copied to other council members. "From here I’d like to move this conversation back to one between you and me."

Meaney and Kopp did not respond to interview requests Friday. 

Contact Patrick Marley at patrick.marley@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at @patrickdmarley.