Grand Chute faces another lawsuit while awaiting the outcomes of two ethics complaints

GRAND CHUTE — The lawsuits and ethics complaints involving Grand Chute officials just keep coming.

The latest federal lawsuit was filed by utility foreman John Urban, who alleges Human Resources Director Sue Brinkman retaliated against him after he went over her head to complain that he and other utility employees were being underpaid in comparison to employees in other municipalities.

The Town Board overruled Brinkman and approved a pay raise for Urban and other employees of the Utilities Department, the complaint says. Months later, Brinkman informed Urban that he was being investigated by the Human Resources Department for alleged violations of town policies.

"Urban is suffering from severe emotional distress including extreme stress and being unable to sleep because of being concerned that the job that he has held for 29 years is in jeopardy due to being targeted and put under the microscope by a supervisor who is upset about the resolution of a wage issue," the lawsuit says.

Urban is seeking a court order to prevent Brinkman from retaliating against him, from disciplining him for leaving an Oct. 26 meeting and from participating in any future disciplinary or investigatory proceedings against him. In addition, Urban is seeking pay for "uncompensated on-call time."

Brinkman, in turn, filed an 18-page motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

"He asserts no facts that would lead any reasonable person to conclude that an employment investigation initiated over six months later was in retaliation for his alleged protected speech," Brinkman's motion says.

The case is pending before Judge William Griesbach in U.S. District Court in Green Bay.

Town Administrator Richard Downey told The Post-Crescent on Friday that Urban no longer is employed by the town. Urban's last day was Nov. 17.

Urban's attorney, Eric Olsen of Madison, declined to answer questions about the situation due to an ongoing grievance procedure between Urban and the town.

What other lawsuits concern Grand Chute?

Grand Chute officials and the town have been involved in three other lawsuits and one criminal complaint in the past two years.

March 2022: Supervisor Ron Wolff and his wife, Karri Wolff, filed a federal lawsuit alleging their civil rights were violated by state agents during the execution of a search warrant on Wolff and his properties.

Court records show the search warrant sought evidence of misconduct in public office, which is a felony.

The lawsuit was dismissed in October 2023. U.S. District Judge William Conley ruled that the Wolffs' claims were barred by the doctrine of qualified immunity, which shields government officials from liability so long as their conduct didn't violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights.

May 2023: Former Town Administrator Jim March filed a federal lawsuit against Grand Chute, Town Chair Jason Van Eperen and supervisors Jeff Ings and Wolff, alleging they fired him in retaliation for cooperating with a state criminal investigation involving Wolff.

Van Eperen, Ings and Wolff acknowledged they knew March had been interviewed by state agents, but they disputed that March's participation in any interviews caused them to fire him.

The case is pending before Griesbach.

July 2023: Wolff was charged with a felony in Outagamie County Circuit Court for allegedly having one of his companies land a contract with the town while he was in office.

According to the criminal complaint, his landscaping company, Lakeshore Cleaners Inc., was hired by Grand Chute to do plantings around the ponds at the Champion Center. The quote totaled $26,865, which is in excess of the $15,000 limit set by state statute.

The case is scheduled for a motion hearing on Jan. 26 and for a jury trial on Feb. 28 and 29.

December 2023: Wolff filed a counter lawsuit claiming March set him up to be charged with a crime.

March's plan to entrap Wolff, the counter lawsuit alleges, was done either so Wolff would have to leave the Town Board or to cause sufficient chaos that Wolff would abandon his political platform of abolishing Grand Chute's use of special assessments to pay for public improvements.

Ethics complaints arise amid the lawsuits

In September, former Supervisor Walt Nocito filed a complaint with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission against Supervisor Beth English, who defeated Nocito in the April 2023 election.

Nocito claimed English spoke to March about matters discussed by the Town Board in closed session in exchange for not being named as a defendant in March's lawsuit. English, Ings, Van Eperen and Wolff voted to fire March, but English later made a motion, which was unsuccessful, to rehire March.

March's attorney, Michael Fox, called Nocito's allegation "absolutely untrue." He said English wasn't named in the lawsuit because she wasn't involved in the alleged retaliation against March.

English said Nocito's complaint makes a number of assumptions that are false.

"At no time did I collude or interact with Administrator March," English said. "My actions were done in the interest of the town and not for personal gain."

In October, Grand Chute resident Connie Raether, on behalf of herself and Patti Clark-Stojke, filed a complaint with Wisconsin Ethics Commission alleging Ings violated state law by using his position on the Town Board to benefit him and his family.

The Town Board had been discussing since late 2021 whether to fully reconstruct North Gillett Street between Elsner Road and County JJ. It further discussed whether to install sanitary sewer and water utilities, which could have cost adjacent property owners thousands of dollars in special assessments. Ings owns property on that section of Gillett.

The complaint says Ings at times abstained from the discussion and votes on the project but at other times engaged in the debate to steer the project away from utilities. In September, Ings made a motion to simply repave Gillett.

"He then cast the decisive vote on the matter, securing the personally favorable outcome that would have failed 2-2 had he not voted," the complaint says.

Ings characterized Raether's complaint as politically motivated and frivolous.

"The complaint has no basis in fact because neither Supervisor Ings nor any member of his family received a substantial benefit, either direct or indirect, in nature," Ings said in response to the complaint.

The status of the two complaints are unknown. The Wisconsin Ethics Commission neither confirms nor denies that it has received a specific complaint and doesn't disclose its findings until the conclusion of its review.

Contact Duke Behnke at 920-993-7176 or dbehnke@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DukeBehnke.

This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Grand Chute finds itself entangled in another employment lawsuit