Testimony begins in felony misconduct trial of Grand Chute Town Supervisor Ron Wolff

APPLETON – Testimony began Wednesday in the trial of a Grand Chute town supervisor charged with a felony for misconduct in office.

Ron Wolff, 64, is charged with having private interest in a public contract, a Class I felony, for accepting a landscaping contract with Grand Chute while serving as a member of the town board.

While Assistant Attorneys General Nathaniel Adamson and Robert Kaiser Jr. argue Wolff willfully ignored ethical obligations he had in office, Wolff's defense attorney Nathan Otis said Wolff did nothing criminal, and acted in good faith.

The trial began Wednesday morning with jury selection, during which 13 jurors were selected out of a pool of around 75 people. Twelve of the jurors will decide the verdict at the end of the trial.

The trial was scheduled to last just two days, but Outagamie County Circuit Court Judge Mark McGinnis said it will likely extend into Friday.

Current and former Grand Chute town officials have been involved in multiple legal battles related to the case, but McGinnis has barred attorneys from bringing up most details about other lawsuits and accusations.

What did attorneys argue in their opening statements?

During opening statements, both the prosecution and defense explained to the jury circumstances surrounding the incident that occurred nearly three years ago.

Both sides generally agree on the basic facts of the case:

• In June 2021, Wolff's landscaping company, Lakeshore Cleaners Inc., was hired by Grand Chute to do plantings around the ponds at the Champion Center, at 5000 W. Champion Drive.

• Wolff was elected and sworn in as a town supervisor in April 2021. He submitted a quote for the Champion Center pond restoration project on May 11, 2021, after engineering firm McMahon Associates, Inc, which is employed by Grand Chute and had prior approval to hire a contractor for the Champion Center project, reached out to Wolff directly.

• Wolff's company submitted the only bid for the project. The town of Grand Chute authorized the quote June 1, after a unanimous vote that Wolff abstained from. Lakeshore Cleaners completed the work, and the town paid Wolff's company a total of $27,948 by December 2021.

According to Wisconsin law, it's illegal for a public official to make money exceeding $15,000 in a year from a private contract, if they have decision-making authority regarding that contract.

During the prosecution's opening statement, Adamson told the jury Wolff's company submitted a bid for the project on the same day he attended a virtual presentation on ethics that specifically addressed the law he is accused of breaking.

"Mr. Wolff violated state statute. He violated it around the same time period that he was being trained not to do this," Adamson said.

For the defense's opening statement, Otis argued Wolff did everything in an "open and honest manner," and should not be held criminally liable.

At the June 1, 2021, meeting when the town unanimously voted to approve Wolff's company's bid for the project, there was "well over 50 years municipal governing experience. And then there was Ron Wolff, who had 42 days," Otis said.

Wolff was a fresh town official, and training that addressed the issue with having private interest in a public contract was the content of about one page in an approximately 400-page binder, and one five-minute presentation in five days of virtual training sessions, Otis said.

Additionally, the only time any concerns were raised to Wolff, Otis said, was by former Town Administrator Jim March — but March told Wolff there was a "loophole," where the $15,000 limit did not apply to projects dealing with soil erosion control, like the Champion Center project.

That exemption was not applicable in this case, but Otis said Wolff had no reason to believe otherwise from anyone.

However, March spoke to the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation about his concerns Wolff was breaking the law, but did not raise those concerns to Wolff or other county officials, Otis claimed. If he had, there were ways they could have worked around the law to ensure everything was legal, Otis said — for example, the town could have written a check to Lakeshore Cleaners for under $15,000, then made up the rest of the payment in the following calendar year.

What did witnesses testify about Wednesday?

The prosecution called its first three witnesses to testify Wednesday.

• The former Grand Chute deputy town clerk testified that she provided a binder of training materials to Wolff, including an approximately one-page section that addressed the ethics of having private interest in a public contract.

• Grand Chute had a town attorney on retainer who commonly attended town meetings, and was present at the June 1, 2021, meeting when the board voted to approve Lakeshore Cleaners' bid. No one, including the attorney, brought up concerns about any possible conflicts of interest that would violate state law.

• An attorney with the Wisconsin Towns Association testified that she gave a presentation in April 2021 titled "Ethics for Town Officials." Wolff was signed up for that training session, the former town clerk testified. Portions of the recorded webinar were played for the jury.

• The attorney testified that the law about private interest in a public contract is "a tough statute to understand," and that town officials are always encouraged to reach out to attorneys for help understanding laws. The Wisconsin Towns Association has a hotline that town officials can utilize to ask an attorney any question related to municipal law, she said.

• Outside the presence of the jury, McGinnis asked the attorney if a town official would need to have sought legal counsel's opinion in order to have a valid "good faith defense" — the essence of Wolff's case. The attorney said she would not have an opinion on that, but the Wisconsin Towns Association "tends to err on the side of teaching caution."

What other legal battles are tied to this case?

• In March 2022, Wolff and his wife, Karri Wolff, filed a federal lawsuit in which they say their civil rights were violated when law enforcement, including Outagamie County Sheriff's deputies and Wisconsin Department of Justice state agents, executed a search warrant on their properties. The lawsuit was dismissed in October, when U.S. District Judge William Conley ruled the investigators' actions were protected under the doctrine of qualified immunity.

• In May 2023, March filed a federal lawsuit against Grand Chute, Town Chair Jason Van Eperen and supervisors Jeff Ings and Wolff, arguing he was fired in retaliation for cooperating with state investigation into Wolff. The case is ongoing.

• In July 2023, Wolff was charged with a felony for having private interest in a public contract.

• In December 2023, Wolff filed a counter-lawsuit to March's lawsuit, claiming March set him up to be charged with a crime for the Champion Center landscaping project. Wolff argues March planned to entrap Wolff either so Wolff would need to leave the Grand Chute Town Board or so that Wolff would abandon his political platform of abolishing Grand Chute's use of special assessments to pay for public improvements.

RELATED: Grand Chute Town Supervisor Ron Wolff's trial begins today. Here's what to know

Kelli Arseneau can be reached at 920-213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @ArseneauKelli.

This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Testimony begins in trial of Grand Chute Town Supervisor Ron Wolff