Outside Counsel Will Represent City On Complaint Against City Attorney

The City Attorney would ordinarily represent the city on any Equal Rights Division complaint, even if it came from an active city employee.

But Milwaukee faces a special situation: the latest complaint is against City Attorney Tearman Spencer.

Naomi Gehling filed a complaint against Spencer in January. She alleges Spencer touched her inappropriately and created a “toxic and uncomfortable” workplace. Gehling previously disclosed that she was the once-anonymous attorney that accused Spencer of placing his hand on her knee during a meeting in July 2020. She alleges that after she reported the incident she was both mistreated and ostracized, and that Spencer sought to reassign her to an “undesirable” position. She left the office in April 2021, taking a job as chief of staff for the city’s Fire & Police Commission.

On Monday, the Judiciary & Legislation Committee unanimously recommended adopting Spencer’s request to hire outside counsel on the case at a cost of up $20,000.

After meeting in closed session, the committee agreed to increase the amount from the initial request of $10,000. The amount would come from a recently filled account.

Spencer had previously unilaterly hired Daniel J. Finerty of Lindner & Marsack, the firm the council is now recommending formally hiring.

In March, then city-HR director Makda Fessahaye ordered Finerty to suspend his work because of her concerns regarding potential conflicts of interest.

Deputy city attorney Todd Farris, who joined the department in the past year, worked for 31 years in a firm that Finerty’s father John Finerty founded (Friebert, Finerty & St. John). Because Farris is an at-will employee he has no rights to civil service protections and can be fired without explanation, an additional potential conflict.

Fessahaye, a non-practicing attorney, warned that the city’s interests and Spencer’s interests may not align, and that a written plan is needed to deal with that potential ethical conflict.

The new structure of the agreement will have the outside counsel report to the Common Council and committee chair Ashanti Hamilton. The alderman previously served as the council’s point person on the case involving former Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales and worked directly with the city’s outside counsel.

Spencer previously denied Gehling’s claims. In April 2021, he said the accusations were “false” and “unfounded.” He attributed the issue to a Black person taking a position of power and wanting change. But Fessahaye, who is Black, said that an investigation of Spencer by her department found problems and only ended because the city’s anti-harassment policy was found not to apply to elected officials (an issue since fixed).

Assistant city attorney Christian Thomas, who inherited much of Gehling’s work load after he was hired following her resignation, accused Spencer and deputy city attorney Yolanda McGowan of an “intolerable abuse of power” in assigning him to write a memo detailing Gehling’s failings. “Mr. Spencer’s request immediately struck me as politically motivated, retaliatory and inappropriate,” wrote Thomas in an October resignation letter widely shared around City Hall. Thomas’ claims are now part of Gehling’s complaint, which argues Spencer sought to denigrate her work.

Gehling alleges Spencer is now doing it again.

“The filing came on the heels of learning that a new assistant city attorney had been tasked with disparaging Naomi’s work,” said Gehling’s attorney Peter Fox via email in March. “This revelation was the proverbial last straw.”

Spencer did not speak publicly during Monday’s meeting.