Milwaukee City Attorney Tearman Spencer's second chief of staff is leaving after a year
In a blow to Milwaukee City Attorney Tearman Spencer, his second chief of staff has decided to leave his office after just about a year on the job.
Chief of Staff Celia Jackson announced at a staff meeting Tuesday that Friday would be her last day. She was hired June 21, according to the city's public database.
Jackson told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that she is leaving for "personal reasons." She would not elaborate.
“It’s been an interesting experience,” Jackson said Tuesday. Asked to elaborate, she said, “Politics can be very challenging.”
Jackson said she doesn’t know if she’s going to retire or take a job elsewhere.
“I haven’t decided what I’m going to do,” she said.
Her departure follows that of former Chief of Staff Kimberly Walker last year. Spencer had fought with personnel officials for months to bring her onto his staff in the newly created position.
Jackson's decision to leave comes as the embattled department contends with a continuing exodus of experienced staffers that has hampered its ability to represent the city and has caused consternation among top officials.
The latest to depart is the lead attorney for the city's effort to win the 2024 Republican National Convention, Andrea Fowler. She was also one of the lead city attorneys for the 2020 Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee, along with former Deputy City Attorney Mary Schanning.
It's not clear who will replace Fowler as the city's lead attorney in the RNC talks, given the heavy turnover in Spencer's office. The city could hire outside counsel, as it has done in a number of other areas.
Fowler is expected to move to a new city position leading oversight on the administration and project management of hundreds of millions of dollars the city is receiving in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds.
The two new departures will bring the total number of lawyers who have left the agency to 29 since Spencer was elected in April 2020. The number includes staffers who resigned to take other jobs, left in protest, retired or were fired.
Overall, that means that 72.5% of the legal staff has turned over during his tenure. The office has funding for 35 assistant city attorneys and five deputy attorneys, including one special deputy who serves as chief of staff.
Staffers began leaving early in Spencer's tenure, citing allegations that he sexually harassed female staffers and created a hostile work environment.
Spencer has denied wrongdoing, blaming critical media coverage, poor pay and, most recently, racial issues for staff shortages.
He has also recently been criticized for initiating a private talk with a judge in a city case and instituting a dress code that polices cleavage and skirt length.
Now, as he faces additional departures, Spencer's department is under the microscope of the city's Inspector General Ronda M. Kohlheim.
She is investigating a 27-page whistleblower complaint filed last month by a former city worker. The complaint accuses Spencer's office of intentionally botching certain legal cases, regularly expressing an open anti-police bias, retaliating against critics and settling cases inappropriately.
The complaint focuses primarily on Spencer and two of his top two aides, Deputy City Attorney Yolanda McGowan and Jackson.
And while much of the criticism has focused on Spencer, Jackson, too, has drawn the ire of some at Common Council committee meetings where she has appeared as Spencer's representative in tense exchanges with council members.
She also urged staff to offer professional support and have "an open mind" to a new assistant city attorney who previously worked for organizations dubbed anti-Muslim hate groups. That attorney was fired earlier this year.
Contact Alison Dirr at 414-224-2383 or adirr@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter @AlisonDirr.
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee City Attorney Tearman Spencer's 2nd chief of staff leaving
