{"id":5357,"date":"2023-09-01T22:13:40","date_gmt":"2023-09-01T22:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=5357"},"modified":"2023-09-01T23:05:57","modified_gmt":"2023-09-01T23:05:57","slug":"wisconsin-gov-tony-evers-must-remove-chief-of-staff-maggie-gau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wifamily.news\/?p=5357","title":{"rendered":"Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers Must Remove Chief of Staff Maggie Gau"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post originally appeared at https:\/\/www.wisconsinrightnow.com\/maggie-gau-britt-cudaback-evers\/<\/a><\/p>\n

People around the Capitol only half-jokingly refer to Maggie Gau as \u201cGov. Maggie\u201d due to her powerful influence with Gov. Tony Evers.<\/strong>
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Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers must remove his chief of staff Maggie Gau. If he doesn\u2019t, he is putting Gau\u2019s subordinate, other office workers, and state taxpayers in a terrible position.<\/p>\n

He also needs to develop a clear workplace policy banning\/regulating supervisors from dating their subordinates. The haphazard way that Evers and Gau have handled this situation is completely unacceptable, utterly non-transparent, and simply wrong.<\/p>\n

In case you missed it, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported<\/a> that Democratic sources believe it is likely that Gau is in \u201ca longtime romantic relationship with another senior employee whom she directly supervises\u201d in the governor\u2019s office. Both are public employees in prominent positions.<\/p>\n

According to the Journal Sentinel\u2019s Dan Bice, Evers \u201cacknowledged that his office doesn\u2019t restrict supervisors from engaging in consensual romantic relationships with the staffers they oversee.\u201d He then snapped, \u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s anybody\u2019s goddamn business.\u201d What an appalling response.<\/p>\n

We have filed an open records request for the subordinate\u2019s performance evaluations, the name of the person who conducted them and emails or texts between Gau and the subordinate using state devices or accounts.<\/p>\n

This indefensible position makes the Democratic governor look very hypocritical, but it also exposes taxpayers to the dangers of a future potential sexual harassment or workplace claim. During the governor\u2019s race, Evers tried to capitalize on sexual harassment claims against his Republican opponent\u2019s large company, releasing a critical ad, and allowing his campaign manager Cassi Fenilli to say: \u201cCulture starts at the top, which is why these allegations of harassment and discrimination at the Michels Corporation are extremely disturbing.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s right, governor. Culture starts at the top. In fact, Evers issued an executive order<\/a> on non-discrimination demanding that all state agencies \u201cshall take steps necessary to prevent and stop discrimination, sexual harassment, or harassment.\u201d He urged an emphasis on \u201charassment prevention\u201d and fairness in the workplace.<\/p>\n

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Maggie gau<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Evers also issued an executive order<\/a> demanding sexual harassment and accountability protocol in the Wisconsin National Guard.<\/p>\n

In 2020, Evers also authorized<\/a> Attorney General Josh Kaul to file a complaint opposing federal efforts to weak \u201cprotections for sexual assault and harassment victims.\u201d This smacks of the old phrase, for thee, but not for me. In this post \u201cme-too\u201d era, the Democratic governor should know better.<\/p>\n

According to the Journal Sentinel story, the subordinate was making $62,000 in a deputy position in 2019 that did not report directly to Gau but \u201cwas still under her chain of command.\u201d Evers appointed the subordinate to a \u201ctop-level position\u201d reporting to Gau in November 2020 with a salary of $100,006, and the pay rose to $112,008 per year in January, meaning the staffer received an \u201c80% pay increase in four years,\u201d according to Bice.<\/p>\n

To be clear, we don\u2019t care whom Maggie Gau dates, nor would it generally be any of our business and by all accounts, the relationship appears consensual and free of sexual harassment allegations (such as those that derailed former Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist). What Maggie Gau does as the governor\u2019s chief of staff, though, is all of Wisconsin\u2019s business. Bice wrote that \u201cemployment attorneys said managers should be strongly discouraged from having a relationship with a subordinate because of the potential for sexual harassment claims or discrimination complaints.\u201d<\/p>\n

This concern is exacerbated by the powerful nature of Gau\u2019s position. As Tony Evers\u2019 chief of staff, Gau is so powerful that she is commonly called the \u201creal governor\u201d or \u201cGov. Maggie\u201d by people around the Capitol. When we went to the Capitol with the family members of murder victim Johanna Balsewicz, who were seeking a meeting with Evers on a looming parole, it was Gau who initially spoke with them inside Evers\u2019 warren of offices, for example.<\/p>\n

A 2019 article in the Capital Times described<\/a> Gau\u2019s incredible influence with Evers, whose campaign she ran. It also describes the tight-knit nature of the office staff and meetings.<\/p>\n

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