Alec Johnson, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Updated ·5 min read
A Wauwatosa School Board member and the Wauwatosa School Board have reached a more than $100,000 settlement of in an open meetings lawsuit.
Board member Michael Meier and the School Board settled his lawsuit for $132,500. The entire board met with Meier and his attorneys June 11 to mediate the dispute, according to a news release from Meier's attorneys, Ben Hitchco*ck Cross of Cross Law Firm and Tom Kamenick of the Wisconsin Transparency Project.
The settlement also resolves Meier's claims that the board had retaliated against him for publicly speaking about complaints he received from parents and record requests he fulfilled, the release said, although it did not specify what the complaints or the record requests were about.
In his civil lawsuit, Meier alleged the Wauwatosa School Board violated the state's open meetings law at least five times, including "discussing a records request he had fulfilled in closed session, holding a policy committee meeting in secret and using a Google Docs file to collaborate outside of a properly noticed public meeting," the release said.
Meier said in a phone interview that he is "pleased with the settlement," but added that "there's more work to do."
"That's the whole point of the open meetings law, is that things are known about what's going on," Meier said. "The real issue here, the real shock, is not the procedural issue of the open meetings law. It's what the procedural violations — the culture it was covering up."
"What we're standing up for here is the right of all school board members to say we need to talk about this, whatever their issue is. To have the rest of the board say 'we don't want you to have that discussion, so therefore you can't talk about it and if you do talk about it, we're going to punish you' — that can't happen," Hitchco*ck-Cross said in a phone interview.
Kamenick said in the release that the settlement amount "speaks volumes about how seriously districts should take the open meetings law."
“Lawsuits are sometimes necessary to remind school boards of the importance of transparency. Members like Mr. Meier who are willing to stand up and object when laws are being broken are vital to accountability,” Kamenick said in the release.
A statement provided by school district communications director Sarah Ellis said, "It is the intention of the Wauwatosa School District to continue to focus on achieving its mission, vision and values, and the ambitious goals articulated in its Strategic Plan."
Timeline of events
Meier filed two open meetings complaints in September 2022 with the Milwaukee County Corporation Counsel, which determined the School Board did not violate state open meetings law.
Meier filed a civil lawsuit in November 2022 alleging:
On Dec. 9, 2021, the Wauwatosa School Board and Steve Doman, who was a member of board at the time but is no longer on the board, violated open meetings law by discussing open records responses in a closed session meeting that was not noticed. The suit further alleged board members violated state open meetings law by talking about items not included in the meeting notice.
In spring 2022, Doman and the board violated state open meetings law by appointing a policy committee in secret. The suit alleged the committee met and worked in secret.
On Aug. 10, 2022, the board used a Google document to collect shared feedback and deliberation before an April 17, 2002, meeting to discuss the district's strategic plan that would be presented for board action on Aug. 22, 2022. The complaint noted that the shared documents in the Google document is "actually a policy discussion between board members and therefore a meeting" and was not listed on the notice for the Aug. 17, 2022, public meeting, and that the board planned to vote Aug. 22 on a document created in secret.
The weekend before the board's Aug. 22, 2022, vote on the district's human growth and development curriculum, "a faction of the board" violated state law by directing district employees to scrub survey data in secret related to the human growth and development curriculum.
The complaint alleged that the weekend before the board voted on the human growth and development curriculum, the board excluded Meier from the process of removing selected survey responses from the survey data pool for use at the Aug. 22, 2022, meeting.
In briefs supporting their motion to dismiss the case last November, attorneys for the board and Doman, Lori Lubinsky and Paul Matanaer, both from the Axley Brynelson law firm, argued that Meier failed to prove violations of open meetings laws.
In December 2023 and issued as a written order in January, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Glenn Yamahiro ruled partially in favor of Meier. Yamahiro ruled in favor of Meier's claim that Doman and the board had violated state law by holding a meeting of the policy committee without proper notice and not in open session in spring 2022.
He also ruled that Meier's claims of discussing public records responses in closed session and the board's use of a Google Doc to discuss the district's strategic plan were disputed and needed a trial.
He dismissed the two claims related to the human growth and development survey.
The case was dismissed June 25 pursuant to the settlement agreement, according to online court records.
ContactAlec Johnson at(262) 875-9469 oralec.johnson@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter at@AlecJohnson12.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wauwatosa School Board, board member reach settlement of $132,500
