Milwaukee Will Pay More Than $60,000 To Settle Tearman Spencer Harassment Claim

City Attorney Tearman Spencer speaks at a Oct. 7, 2021 press conference. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The City of Milwaukee is poised to spend more than $60,000 to resolve a sex discrimination claim against City Attorney Tearman Spencer.

The city, in a settlement agreement publicly reviewed Wednesday morning, would pay $40,000 to settle the claim. The Common Council has already approved spending up to $50,000 for an outside attorney to defend the city.

The settlement comes as Spencer is seeking reelection to a second term.

Naomi Gehling alleges Spencer touched her inappropriately in July 2020 when she was an assistant city attorney and created a “toxic and uncomfortable” workplace. She claims Spencer placed his hand on her knee inappropriately during a meeting and she is one of the six attorneys to file a complaint with the Department of Employee Relations (DER), which launched an investigation. A subsequent complaint, filed with the state’s Equal Rights Division in 2022 by Gehling, alleges that after she reported the incident, she was mistreated and ostracized and Spencer sought to reassign her to an “undesirable” position.

Gehling left the City Attorney’s Office in April 2021, a year after Spencer was first elected. In her resignation form, she said she was taking another city job and “fleeing the toxic and hostile work environment that was created in the City Attorney’s Office in the last year.” Gehling continues to work for the city as the deputy director of the Fire & Police Commission.

The settlement would pay Gehling $30,000, $20,000 of which is structured as compensatory damages, and her attorney Peter Fox would receive an additional $10,000. Outside attorney Daniel J. Finerty, based on a 2022 council resolution, is reported to have already exceeded $20,000 of the $50,000 approved for his costs.

“We were able to reach an amicable resolution with Ms. Gehling’s attorney,” said Finerty to the Judiciary & Legislation Committee Wednesday morning. “The total $40,000, in my mind, is a reasonable resolution.” He said, due to timing issues with Gehling’s claim and the lack of supporting documentation, the city is in a strong defensive position, but that settling the case limits the risk and avoids costs for his work further increasing.

Committee chair Alderman Mark Borkowski confirmed that the committee discussed the matter three times in closed session. No other council members spoke about the matter, with Ald. Michael Murphy moving approval.

Despite happening in 2020, the issue hasn’t gone away.

In April 2021, Spencer said the accusations from six attorneys were “false” and “unfounded.” He attributed the issue to a Black person taking a position of power and wanting change. But then-human resources director Makda Fessahaye, who is Black, said that the investigation of Spencer found problems and only ended because the city’s anti-harassment policy was found not to apply to elected officials (a loophole since fixed). Gehling also identifies as Black and there are accusations that Spencer targeted her even after she left the City Attorney’s office.

Assistant city attorney Christian Thomas inherited much of Gehling’s workload after he was hired following her resignation and quickly accused Spencer and then-deputy city attorney Yolanda McGowan of an “intolerable abuse of power” in assigning him to write a memo detailing Gehling’s alleged failings. He resigned in October 2021, issuing a public resignation critical of the conditions within the City Attorney’s Office.

Gehling incorporated Thomas’s claim in her complaint. “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 in a March 2022 email. “This revelation was the proverbial last straw.”

Spencer also, according to Fessahaye, inappropriately hired Finerty. In March 2022, Fessahaye ordered Finerty to suspend his work because of her concerns regarding potential conflicts of interest. Deputy city attorney Todd Farris, who had joined the department within the past year, worked for 31 years in a firm that Finerty’s father John Finerty founded (Friebert, Finerty & St. John). Farris is an at-will employee with no rights to civil service protections and can be fired without explanation, creating 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.

Farris, on Wednesday, told the council that a firewall was established and has been maintained throughout the process.

The full council is to review the settlement on Feb. 27.

Related Legislation: File 231600