Crowley Chief Tells Mental Health Board to Get in Line or Resign

Mike Lappen. Photo from Milwaukee County.

The relationship between County Executive David Crowley‘s administration and the Milwaukee County Mental Health Board is falling apart over the unexpected departure of former Behavioral Health Services (BHS) Administrator Mike Lappen.

The Crowley administration maintains that Lappen resigned, but no one seems to be buying it, and mistrust is growing between board members and the administration in the wake of Lappen’s departure.

During a nearly hour-long discussion Thursday, board members lamented being left in the dark, and questioned the administration’s motivations. In turn, Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Director Shakita LaGrant-McClain told the board to move on, to focus on collaborating and building trust with the administration, and said that the board needed to focus on “what’s best for the community, what’s best for our staff, not a person.”

If the board wants trust and collaboration, it needs to demonstrate that “through action,” she said. “If we show up and it’s nothing but attacks or judgment or not understanding, that’s not collaboration.”

Crowley’s chief of staff Mary Jo Meyers capped off the discussion, telling board members they need to evaluate whether they “can continue to support the vision and mission of Milwaukee County and represent the duties that you’re here for on behalf of the county exec… I would just encourage all of you to think about whether you still want to stay with us on this journey or not, and I’ll leave it at that.”

Mary Neubauer has served on the Mental Health Board since it was first established in 2014. It was created through state legislation as part of a reform of the county mental health system. The board is tasked with overseeing system policy and the annual budget. The reform paved the way for the eventual restructuring of the system away from centralized, institutional care to decentralized, community-based care. The meeting Thursday was Neubauer’s last as a member of the board. It was also the first time in more than a decade on the board that a representative of the county executive’s office had demanded loyalty from the oversight body, she told Urban Milwaukee.

“You know, ‘listen to us and do what we say or leave,’ nobody’s ever done that,” Neubauer said.

Lappen Forced Out

The Crowley administration has refused to explain Lappen’s departure, even to members of the Mental Health Board. During the meeting Thursday, LaGrant-McClain repeated the claim that Lappen resigned, telling the board she cannot discuss personnel matters.

“I’ve never said anything bad about Mike,” LaGrant-McClain said during the meeting Thursday. “Mike resigned on March 30. That is what happened. We are moving forward.”

Reached for comment by Urban Milwaukee, Lappen told a different story.

On Friday, March 30, he was summoned by LaGrant-McClain to a conference room on the fourth floor of the county’s new Marcia P. Coggs Human Services Building. After all his years in government, he probably should have seen it coming when the meeting was scheduled for 4 p.m. on a Friday, he said.

“She had a folder with two pieces of paper in it, and I pretty much at that moment, realized it was happening. I said, ‘Wow, so it ends like this’.”

One of the papers in the folder was a blank resignation form. Lappen said he was informed that he could resign or be fired, that he wasn’t given much time to think. He called his wife.

“She supported my decision to resign, given the financial implications and the fact that, what am I going to do? I’m an at-will employee with no civil service protections, and so I signed the form.”

Lappen said he still doesn’t know what specifically led the administration to force him out. He never received any indication that he was failing in his role and headed for termination. “I have no idea.”

In July last year, the agency’s chief medical officer, John Schneider, resigned after the agency faced public scrutiny for failing to notify the Milwaukee County district attorney’s office that an individual previously charged with homicide had been released back into the community from a state mental health hospital.

Mental Health Board Left Out

When the Mental Health Board meeting began Thursday morning, the first item brought up for discussion was the now-vacant position of BHS administrator.

Board Chair Kathy Bottoni attempted at first to address the issue delicately, acknowledging the board does not have authority over firings. They’re not trying to meddle, she said, but the board has a role to play and should be informed of important decisions.

“But I need to say this, and I know that others on the board, in this community, recognize and can attest to the unwavering and zealous commitment of Director Mike Lappen  to Behavioral Health Services over the last 10 years,” Bottoni said. “I don’t know that we could be here without his direction and help.”

Lappen had led the agency since 2016, presiding over a period of major structural change for the county’s mental health system, which included the opening of the new Mental Health Emergency Center. He previously worked as the director of the Ozaukee County Department of Human Services and as the Ozaukee County Behavioral Health Division Manager.

Bottoni said she planned to ask the board “to develop a way to honor him for his work and contribution to behavioral health.” Neubauer extolled Lappen’s deep understanding of mental health laws, as well as his role in shaping those laws in Wisconsin and Milwaukee. Dr. Jon Lehrmann said the board was “very satisfied” with Lappen’s job performance and that Lappen’s ouster was making him “question whether or not the county is fully committed to the best mental health that we can provide.”

LaGrant-McClain said it would be difficult to inform the board of a resignation before it happens: “It’s a resignation, some resignations are planned and some are not.” And in any case, personnel matters were not the purview of the board, she said.

“The elephant in this room is that nobody thinks that he resigned on his own, that it was a forced resignation,” said board member Ra-Kweku Amoasi. The board needs answers if it is going to move forward on anything else with the administration, he said. “I think people need to understand what is really going on.”

Others were more willing to move forward. Joy Tapper said LaGrant-McClain’s “passion for this work and the broader work of the county is unquestionable” and that she was ready to focus on concrete steps to improve collaboration. Another board member, Shirley Drake, said the board needs to “be okay with not knowing, because that happens in organizations and companies across the country.”

Other members were less content with the line from the administration, refusing to believe that Lappen decided to abruptly resign without warning anyone. Others wondered what role the board would play, or why members were volunteering so much time, if they would become a rubber stamp for the administration.

“No one is going to tell us differently, because we’re not dumb-dumbs. There was no resignation. It was a forced resignation. He packed up and left in a day. He would not have done that without a transition period,” Bottoni said.

If the administration wants trust, it needs to be open with the board, Bottoni said. She even suggested that board members were withholding comment on the situation for fear of professional retaliation: “My board members have spoken, those who feel they can speak without the risk of their jobs or their opportunities in the future.”