Trustee’s lawsuit alleges village conspiracy

Grafton Trustee Susan Meinecke has filed a lawsuit against two fellow village officials over records she contends will reveal they conspired against her ahead of last year’s election.

The lawsuit, which was filed in Ozaukee County Circuit Court on Feb. 19, names Grafton Village Administrator Jesse Thyes and Fire Chief William Rice as defendants and seeks a writ of mandamus — a court order — compelling them to release emails they have refused to provide to Meinecke.

Meinecke is also suing for punitive damages and legal fees.

Although no trustees are named as defendants, Meinecke argues that at least some members of the Village Board were part of a conspiracy aimed at torpedoing her 2018 re-election bid. 

“Meinecke believes that public records exist that will prove that members of the Village Board, Thyes and Rice improperly conspired against her election campaign and made false statements about her,” according to the civil complaint filed by Meinecke.

Responding to Meinecke’s accusations in an interview last week, Thyes said some records were properly withheld because of exemptions in Wisconsin’s Open Records Law.

He denied conspiring against Meinecke. 

Meinecke’s claims are rooted in a controversy that began shortly after Trustee David Liss was married on Dec. 31, 2017. Liss and his wife are members of the fire department and had their wedding photos taken outside the station standing in a ladder truck. 

According to the lawsuit, Meinecke met with Thyes on Jan. 26, 2018, to discuss the resignation of an employee and mentioned that a resident had asked her whether the village’s insurance policy provided liability coverage when firefighters used department equipment for personal photographs.

A month later, a policy was changed to prohibit the use of fire department equipment as props for personal photos.

According to the lawsuit, Thyes changed the policy but Meinecke was blamed for it, and as a result she has been portrayed as being unsupportive of firefighters.            

Referring to unnamed trustees, Thyes and Rice, the complaint states, “Those same individuals have a history of falsely claiming that Meinecke is generally not supportive of village fire personnel, claims that Meinecke has repeatedly and vehemently denied.”

Thyes and Rice denied the allegations.

Shortly after the policy was changed, trustees Lisa Uribe Harbeck and Dave Antoine expressed opposition to the change at a Village Board meeting. The Finance Committee changed the policy in March to again allow firefighters to use department equipment in photos.

The controversy became fodder for Meinecke’s critics leading up to the April 2018 election.

According to the lawsuit, a poster entitled “Lies and dirty politics,” was created and circulated by Harbeck or her husband that “disparaged and made false statements about Meinecke.”

Harbeck said in an interview that the statements on the posters were accurate.

In an apparent attempt to prove the conspiracy, Meinecke filed seven open-records requests with Thyes and Rice between July 30 and Sept. 9. The majority of requests involved emails sent or received by fire department members and Thyes. Although she received some of those records, others were not released, which according to the complaint include:

• One email that Thyes did not release because it was a to-do note.

• At least 40 emails that Thyes did not release because of “confidential attorney-client privilege.”

• At least three emails that Rice did not release because he said they were between he and his wife and are “purely personal in nature and have no nexus to village business or operations.”

• All emails sent to two fire department mailing lists — gfdstaff and gfdeveryone — that Rice did not release.

Rice said in an interview that the request was denied because it was too broad.

Meinecke was appointed to the Village Board in 2007 and elected the following year. She has been re-elected five times.

Meinecke’s husband John is running for a Village Board seat in next month’s election. 

Mrs. Meinecke’s lawsuit has been assigned to Ozaukee County Circuit Judge Sandy Williams.