JANESVILLE — An annual employee review of former County Administrator Josh Smith was completed in 2023 but not included in documents sent to former Rock County Board member Mike Zoril, nor to the The 69, in response to recent open records requests separately made by Zoril and the newspaper.
That’s according to Rock County Board Supervisor Rich Bostwick.
In response to The 69’s request that the county clarify why no documents related to a 2023 annual review of Smith were included in documents shared with it, when the newspaper did receive copies of other annual reviews, Bostwick said the omission was an oversight on his part.
The 69 questioned the omission because annual employee evaluations were a condition of Smith’s employment agreement.
Bostwick acknowledged that the 2023 document was left behind in a filing cabinet when the newspaper’s open records request was fulfilled. He said after reading in The 69 that there was no evidence that a review had been completed for Smith in 2023, he checked the filing cabinet and found it there.
“I just put it in my file cabinet and there it sat in my file cabinet and I gave it to (Human Resources Director) Amy (Spoden) on Monday,” Bostwick said.
John Light, the current county administrator, on Wednesday sent The 69 a copy of Smith’s 2023 evaluation.
2023 evaluation details
Josh Smith received a composite score of 3.61 on his evaluation in 2023. In almost all areas he received comments saying that he met or exceeded expectations.
“Josh does an excellent job. He has to deal with multiple personalities. He is very respectful and patient with everyone,” was a note under the administrative support section.
In the performance management section, a comment said there was “some work needed here regarding giving some supervisory staff a bit too much slack.”
In a strategic planning section, a writer commented that Smith was helpful but in some instances he didn’t provide the most “accurate reflection of the situation,” saying that the recap of the 2022 strategic plan was the best reflection on the situation.
The 69 requested the five most recent employee evaluations of Smith, Corporation Counsel Richard Greenlee and Human Services Director Kate Luster, all after Zoril filed a lawsuit against the county to have the records released. The county and Zoril recently reached a settlement to have the records released.
Smith had evaluations, according to the documents reviewed by The 69, on May 12, 2020; Feb. 21, 2019; Nov. 15, 2017; Oct. 5, 2016 and Sept. 28, 2015.
Bostwick told The 69 that Smith didn’t received an evaluation in 2022 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Just to be fair, Josh’s focus was outside of his duties,” Bostwick said, citing stresses tied to COVID-related mandates at Rock Haven, the county-run nursing home.
An informal review was done in 2021, Bostwick said. The county re-did Smith’s contract in December 2021, Bostwick said.
Bostwick said Smith received a raise in both 2021 and 2023 and was on track to receive one in 2024 but resigned to become the senior associate vice president of finance at the Universities of Wisconsin.
Zoril made the records request in April. The county denied the request, citing erroneously that the records were protected because they are personnel files. The records do not qualify under the statute because the personnel in question are government officials in leadership roles.
Zoril was represented by Tom Kamenick, president and founder of the Wisconsin Transparency Project, which specializes in government transparency.
As a part of the settlement, the county is to pay Zoril’s attorney fees, court costs and statutory damages of $100.
