Former Deputy City Attorney Sues City Over Inspector General Report

Odalo Ohiku appears before the Finance & Personnel Committee in 2022. Image from City of Milwaukee City Channel – City Clerk’s Office.

One of former City Attorney Tearman Spencer‘s top deputies is now suing the city over what happened near the end of his tenure.

Earlier this month, Odalo J. Ohiku filed a civil lawsuit against Inspector General Ronda Kohlheim and other city officials for allegedly falsely accusing him of a crime in how he managed his duties to the city and his outside law practice.

The issue was publicly discussed by the Common Council in November 2023 when Kohlheim issued a scathing 57-page report about Spencer and Ohiku that alleged Ohiku was representing private clients while on the clock for the city.

Kohlheim, during public questioning by council members, said it is her belief that both Ohiku and Spencer committed “misconduct” and violated various city ethics rules and state policies, but confirmed under questioning from the council that she is not an attorney.

“I’m making a referral, that’s all I do,” she noted of her submission to the District Attorney’s Office.

But Ohiku is now alleging Kohlheim committed libel and slander by defaming him. And that Kohlheim’s supervisors, Council President José G. Pérez and City Clerk Jim Owczarski, were guilty of negligent supervision for failing to properly oversee her.

“She made a blanket accusation that if Ohiku’s name appeared at a hearing, it meant that he stole time from the City by failing to take a day of vacation,” says the complaint.

“The Milwaukee County DA’s Office refused to issue charges or prosecute Ohiku for this alleged crime because it was clear to any attorney that no such crime had taken place,” says the lawsuit, filed by Nathaniel Cade of Cade Law Group on behalf of Ohiku. “Kohlheim was reckless in her publication of a report without seeking actual facts that could be [relied] upon.”

The lawsuit says Ohiku resigned as a result of the report.

Ohiku was charged with a crime in 2024 – misconduct in public office. The misdemeanor charge stemmed from Ohiku allegedly intentionally falsifying three economic interest reports with the city to leave out income and ownership of a private law practice. It was resolved with a deferred prosecution agreement, where Ohiku entered a guilty plea, then had the charge later dismissed after completing ethics training, writing an article about his conduct and completing 20 hours of community service. Cade also represented Ohiku in that case.

Spencer, in 2020, said Ohiku was given six months to wind down his outside work. By 2021, he couldn’t commit that this had happened. Kohlheim’s report and online court records show that didn’t happen.

The complaint says that Kohlheim failed to interview Ohiku, though Kohlheim said Spencer and Ohiku would only respond via email and with notable delays. Spencer, said Kohlehim, gave conflicting answers.

Ohiku’s civil lawsuit is currently assigned to Brittany Grayson.

Much of the issue with Kohlheim’s report is that it was released publicly, and widely reported on.

“The City created the position of Inspector General with zero oversight. Essentially, Ms. Kohlheim created her own job description and decided how she would apply it to her work without oversight. She made herself the judge, jury and executioner as Mr. Ohiku’s career without oversight or considering what she was alleging might be wrong,” said Cade in a statement to Urban Milwaukee. “If the District Attorney had charged Mr. Ohiku with stealing time from the City, she would have had a leg to stand on to publicly release her report. But the DA did not charge him with that crime, but she decided to release anyway. It is unclear why she did not have the Judiciary Committee go into closed session to discuss her alleged findings, rather than publicly air something that is patently false.”

Deputy and assistant city attorneys are not prohibited by ordinance from doing outside work, but they must disclose outside sources of income to avoid conflicts of interest. The Common Council couldn’t agree in March 2024 on whether to bar outside work.

Multiple city officials involved in the lawsuit declined to comment or did not respond to a request for comment.

The Inspector General position was created in 2018 over the veto of Mayor Tom Barrett. Future mayor Cavalier Johnson, then a council member, voted to sustain the veto and not create the position. Kohlheim is the only individual to have served in the role.

Spencer, who lost his bid for reelection in April 2024, is scheduled to go to trial in October in a felony misconduct case. He is alleged to have used his position for public benefit by using his staff to craft a legal opinion that he did not need an occupancy permit to store his vehicles in a warehouse.

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