Former GC school superintendent files lawsuit to keep forensic audit from being released
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TIM JOHNSON
By LeAnn R. Ralph
GLENWOOD CITY — Tim Johnson, former superintendent of the Glenwood City school district, has filed a lawsuit to keep the results of the forensic audit ordered by the Board of Education from being released to the public.
The summons and complaint, filed in St. Croix County Circuit Court on Monday, July 8, is seeking an injunction to prevent the school district from filling an open records request for the audit report and to prevent the school district from holding a meeting on July 24 about the audit report.
The Glenwood City Board of Education approved an external forensic audit and investigation report in March related to allegations concerning reimbursements to the former superintendent.
Several school district residents over the past couple of years have approached the Board of Education on three different occasions to talk about alleged irregularities concerning reimbursements to Johnson between July 1, 2017, and September 10, 2021, for continuing education classes Johnson said he had taken at Viterbo University in La Crosse.
The reimbursements amounted to $40,650.
The reimbursements have been questioned because the receipts Johnson provided to the school district that he said were from Viterbo do not look like the receipts for payments to Viterbo that had been obtained from another teacher in the school district who took Viterbo classes at the same time as Johnson.
An e-mail message from the Viterbo business office dated April 7, 2022, said that the documents did not originate from Viterbo.
Viterbo also communicated to one school district resident that the last date Johnson had taken classes there was May 31, 2016, and that there was nothing in the university’s records to indicate Johnson had taken classes at Viterbo after that.
The reimbursements from the Glenwood City school district to Johnson for Viterbo classes started more than a year after the university said Johnson had taken any classes.
Prior to the July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2024, administrator contract with the Glenwood City school district, it appeared that Johnson had automatically received $25,000 per year to go toward continuing education, which apparently was in addition to the reimbursements for classes taken at Viterbo.
Resignation
Johnson resigned as superintendent of schools in Glenwood City in May of 2023 and then went to work for the Chippewa Falls Area Unified School District as the Executive Director of Human Resources and Public Relations.
The Chippewa Falls Area Unified School District placed Johnson on administrative leave January 23 of this year after officials in the Chippewa Falls district became aware of a report published by Fox 9 KSMP on January 17.
On January 29, the Chippewa Falls Area Unified School District Board of Education accepted the resignation of Tim Johnson as Executive Director of Human Resources and Public Relations “effective immediately.”
Notification
The Glenwood City school district sent a letter to Johnson on June 27 indicating that the school district had received an open records request for the forensic audit report.
The letter also indicated that the school district had decided to provide the report and to hold a public meeting July 24 about the report, according to the civil complaint.
Through his attorneys, Johnson notified the school district that he intended to seek a court order restraining the school district from providing access to the requested records.
The civil complaint also notes that Johnson has not yet received a copy of the report and that he has not had an opportunity to review the report.
According to state statute, “ … if an authority decides under s.19.35 to permit access to a record specified in this paragraph, the authority shall, before permitting access and within 3 days after making the decision to permit access, serve written notice of that decision on any record subject to whom the record pertains …,” the civil complaint states.
Open records
The civil complaint points out that regarding the state’s Open Records law, “the general presumption under Wisconsin law is that public records shall be open to the public.”
On the other hand, “Multiple statutory exceptions exist in this case that protect the release of the report. Wis. Stat. 19.35 (1)(am)1 states:
“The right to inspect or copy information in a record under this paragraph does not apply to the following: 1. Any record containing personally identifiable information that is collected or maintained in connection with a complaint, investigation or other circumstances that may lead to an enforcement action.”
The civil complaint goes on to say that if the court finds that the report should be released in spite of Wis. Stats. 19.35(1)(am)1 and 19.36(10)(b), “the report should not be released as it fails the common law balancing test.”
The “balancing test” compares the presumption of the law to allow complete public access to records versus the public interest of protecting the privacy and reputation of an individual citizen.
The person seeking non-disclosure of the public record “has the burden to show that ‘public interest favoring secrecy outweighs those favoring disclosure,’” according to the civil complaint.
“The public does not actively benefit from the release of the report, most notably because Mr. Johnson is no longer an employee of the District. Mr. Johnson’s privacy and reputation interests as a former employee of the District outweigh the presumption of complete public access,” the complaint states.
Johnson “respectfully requests this Court for an injunction preventing the District from providing access to records requested in an open records request, both to the specific requestor and at the open session school board meeting scheduled for July 24, 2024.”
General public
The school district residents who asked the Board of Education to investigate the reimbursements to Johnson have gone on the record in the past to say their motivation was to make sure the taxpayers had actually received what they paid for.
Those residents are still waiting to have their question answered.
As of July 12, a St. Croix County Circuit Court judge had not yet issued a decision on whether to grant the injunction.
