Wisconsin Government Accountability Board

The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board was a regulatory agency for the State of Wisconsin which administered and enforced Wisconsin law pertaining to campaign finance, elections, ethics and lobbying. The agency was re-organized, over the opposition of many Democratic legislators, into two separate agencies (Ethics and Elections Commissions) following several controversies.

Composition

The Board consisted of six members, all former state judges, who serve staggered, six-year terms. Board members were appointed by the Governor, and served part-time, receiving per diems for each meeting they attended. The Governor of Wisconsin nominated a judge to fill a vacancy from a roster of potential Board members previously selected by a panel of Wisconsin Court of Appeals judges; and nominees were confirmed by the Wisconsin State Senate.[1]

History and controversies

The Board was created in 2008 as the result of the merger of the former State Ethics Board and State Elections Boards.[2] Wednesday, June 29, 2016 was the last day of the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board. The following day, the Wisconsin Elections Commission and the Wisconsin Ethics Commission began operations. [3]

In 2014, an audit of the G.A.B. by the nonpartisan state Legislative Audit Bureau (LAB) found problems with the G.A.B.'s handling of complaints and rules governing campaign finance, lobbying and ethics. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos was quoted in responses to the LAB audit, "The audit, unfortunately, was not surprising. We know that the G.A.B. routinely doesn’t follow the law and there’s no accountability whatsoever. The audit is another illustration of why we must change the G.A.B.".[4]

In 2018, in the wake of multiple "John Doe" investigations which were ultimately halted by the Wisconsin State Supreme Court, the state's Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel issued a report on the John Doe investigation and the role of the G.A.B. in them. The report focused on the 2016 leaks of hundreds of court-sealed documents to The Guardian which more than likely came from inside the G.A.B.. The report also took aim at the G.A.B. and its successor, the Ethics Commission, for maintaining hundreds of thousands of John Doe-related records long after they were to have been turned over to the custody of the state Supreme Court. And the report detailed “dysfunctional record-keeping at the G.A.B.” and lax security. David Halbrooks, a Democrat who chairs the state's Ethics Commission, disputed portions of Schimel's report but did agree on other points. Halbrooks was quoted as saying, "All of the information that the Ethics Commission found should have been turned over per the Supreme Court order…We don’t know what he [Francis Schmitz, the former federal prosecutor and G.A.B. investigator who was tapped by the G.A.B. and the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office to lead the secret political probe] took and what he left”.[5] Attorneys for two consultants for the Wisconsin Club for Growth, one of the groups investigated, argued in a filing that Schmitz had not returned all the property he had obtained and failed to follow the Supreme Court's December order requiring him to detail what records had been taken.[6]

Schimel's report claims that “[A]lthough G.A.B. apparently labeled this investigation as '2012-01 State time campaigning', G.A.B. did not maintain this evidence separate from other cases, and did, in fact, comingle this evidence with the John Doe II investigation, which was labeled as 'G.A.B. investigation, 2013-02 Confidential' ... 'John Doe III' was not the only investigation evidence comingled … In fact, 'John Doe III' was just the tip of the iceberg of old evidence and allegations maintained by G.A.B. for future use against Wisconsin politicians." The report found that as a G.A.B. attorney, Shane Falk, continued to collect and compile hundreds of thousands of documents long after a judge directed investigators to cease. Falk kept materials on an external hard drive that later went missing. DOJ investigators found reams of John Doe materials in what were called "Falk Boxes". Some of the materials ended up in folders labeled "Opposition Research". State records retention laws call for the destruction of closed ethics investigations or the transfer of related documents to the State Historical Society. "It appears that G.A.B. did not honor the public records law regarding final disposition of records, and instead kept select files on hand to serve as a library of past allegations to be referenced in some future investigation or dispute ... This maintenance and comingling of evidence further supports the conclusion that G.A.B. had been weaponized to achieve partisan advantage", Schimel concluded.[7]

References

1. Wisconsin Public Radio, © Copyright 2019, Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System and Wisconsin Educational Communications Board GAB background: "Once A Symbol Of Bipartisanship, Government Accountability Board Targeted For Overhaul – Republicans Back Bill To Split GAB Into Two Commissions", wpr.org; accessed March 5, 2019.
2. "About the Government Accountability Board" State of Wisconsin Government Accountability Board website; accessed September 14, 2012.
3. "Transition from G.A.B. to Elections and Ethics Commissions", State of Wisconsin Government Accountability Board website; accessed July 4, 2016.
4. "Wisconsin Republicans critical of G.A.B. in light of nonpartisan audit". madison.com. Retrieved March 6, 2019.
5. "Ethics Commission Chairman Blames John Doe Special Prosecutor For Documents Drama". MacIver Institute. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
6. Walker probe figures allege prosecutor ignored court order, wislawjournal.com, January 19, 2016; accessed March 5, 2019.
7. G.A.B. weaponized to achieve partisan advantage, maciverinstitute.com, December 2017; accessed March 5, 2019.