JANESVILLE — Janesville city officials say a candidate for city manager has given no indication he’ll pull himself out of consideration as revelations of a sexual harassment scandal at his former workplace continue to emerge.
Former Sheboygan City Administrator Todd Wolf, fired from that job without cause in early January, was reportedly accused of retaliating against a city of Sheboygan employee who was working through a sexual harassment investigation involving city employees.
That’s according to a news report jointly published Feb. 6 by nonprofit media watchdog Wisconsin Watch and the Sheboygan Press newspaper.
The Feb. 6 news report indicates that several male police officers in Sheboygan were disciplined in a 2021 sexual harassment case involving female police department employees. A woman who is a former human resources employee for the city of Sheboygan, and privy to the investigation, argued the city didn’t take appropriate action or proper disciplinary measures in a case alleged to have involved, among other indiscretions, officers illegally sharing partially nude photos of two female officers without their consent.
According to the news report, the city of Sheboygan city human resources official filed a complaint in January 2022 with the state’s Equal Rights Division, alleging that the police department hid from the city the scope of the sexual harassment complaints and that Wolf had “retaliated” against her after she “opposed discrimination and sexual harassment” at the police department.
Wolf was fired as Sheboygan city administrator in early January 2023, around the same time Sheboygan County’s district attorney reopened a complaint against the officers accused of sexual harassment in 2021, saying another officer implicated in the case had made misleading statements about his involvement.
A lawsuit filed in federal court in Milwaukee on Feb. 6 — the same day the Janesville City Council selected Wolf as a finalist for Janesville city manager — alleges the city of Sheboygan improperly fired Wolf in January without cause. The suit alleges the city failed to disclose why it had launched an investigation into Wolf’s conduct, a move the suit indicates Sheboygan city officials said was the impetus for placing Wolf on paid administrative leave in November 2022.
Wolf’s attorney didn’t immediately respond to inquiries from The 69 about the February lawsuit.
The lawsuit doesn’t directly link the police department scandal to Wolf’s dismissal. It alleges Wolf was suspended and fired after a stranger wandered into a city meeting and shouted a racial epithet last year. After that incident, which some officials said Wolf didn’t do enough to address, a local equity and inclusion group said he refused to include $70,000 in the city budget for the group to offer city employees equity and inclusion services and programs, the suit alleges.
In a response to an open records request filed last week by The 69, the city of Janesville on Sunday provided a cache of email correspondence between city council members and city staff regarding Wolf’s continued candidacy as one of four finalists for city manager.
In the only email from Wolf that the city appears to have on file since he was named a finalist on Feb. 6, Wolf told Chris Lowe, a consultant the city hired to recruit and vet candidates, that the overlapping timing of his lawsuit being filed and his being named a city manager finalist was coincidental.
In the email, sent to Lowe last Wednesday, Wolf signed off on bio information the city had requested of candidates, to include in a news release it expects put out in advance of a public interview process for the finalists in early March. Wolf appeared to indicate in the email he intends to continue as a finalist for Janesville city manger, writing that he “looks forward to explaining to Janesville my situation and love to be chosen for this position.”
“I did point out that I was released from the city (of Sheboygan) for no cause,” Wolf wrote to Lowe. “I did file a suit to defend my reputation (against) the many illegal actions the city took in this process and slander against me. It was totally a coincidence that Janesville’s announcement happened at the same time.”
In an earlier application cover letter and resume Wolf submitted to the city of Janesville in mid-December, he listed his then-current employment as Sheboygan’s city administrator. But a review of those materials by The 69 found nowhere did Wolf disclose to Janesville officials that he had been placed on paid leave in early November, pending a conduct investigation by a third-party attorney hired by the Sheboygan City Council.
City manager is considered the city of Janesville’s top administrative role. Official job postings show the city is offering an annual salary of up to $225,000.
Janesville City Council member Heather Miller, in a Feb. 11 email to the city’s human resources department and Interim City Manager David Moore, wrote that she believes Wolf “may be justified” in his wrongful termination suit against city of Sheboygan officials. But Miller wrote that under the circumstances, she believed Wolf should step down as a candidate for the Janesville job.
Miller sent the email a day after The 69 published a report that Wolf had filed the workplace lawsuit. Miller pointed out that in the midst of the ongoing hiring process in Janesville, Wolf had made no mention he intended to sue his former employer.
Miller indicated that local media coverage of Wolf’s lawsuit had put a spotlight on the situation playing out in Sheboygan. That, Miller indicated, could force the city to shift into public relations “damage control,” a distraction as Janesville officials work to hire a new city manager.
The 69 this weekend shared with Janesville City Council President Paul Benson a copy of the Wisconsin Watch and Sheboygan Press report, and a reporter on Sunday asked Benson if he or the city had had any contact with Wolf since late last week.
Benson did not immediately comment on the Wisconsin Watch report nor respond to The 69’s inquiry. But the council president had told The 69 in a brief email early last week that he had not spoken with Wolf nor had contact with Wolf about the lawsuit.
Benson told The 69 last week that Wolf had informed the Janesville City Council of his firing in an interview in January, although Benson said Wolf indicated at that time he was limited in what he could say about the firing. Benson said he only learned of Wolf’s wrongful termination suit after a Sheboygan resident emailed him on Feb. 9, the day after the city of Janesville had publicly named named Wolf a finalist.
In an email Benson received Thursday, obtained by The 69 through the open records request, Aaron Guenther, a Sheboygan resident who identified himself as a Sheboygan City Council candidate and “open records advocate,” told Benson that Janesville officials should not discount Wolf as a potential hire. He indicated that Wolf’s firing was a “setup” coordinated by local activists and political rivals.
Guenther called the city of Sheboygan’s handling of Wolf’s firing “an embarrassment.” He told Benson he probed the city of Sheboygan for records and could find no evidence the city had completed an investigation into Wolf’s conduct prior to firing him Jan. 9.
As of late last week, Wolf and four other finalists remained slated to visit Janesville March 2 and March 3 for final interviews and meet-and-greets with Janesville residents.
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