Home » News » Swanson accuses union of violating policies

Swanson accuses union of violating policies

By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer


ASHWAUBENON – Following the Ashwaubenon Public Safety Officers’ Association (APSOA) vote of no confidence in Village Manager Allison Swanson, she now accuses the union of making false and misleading allegations.

In documents the APSOA obtained in an open records request and provided to The Press Times, Swanson said the union issued a press release Feb. 6 with “numerous lies” to “imply illegal and unethical conduct by me.”

“I feel their actions violate 4.14 and 4.16 of the Village Policy Manual pertaining to the anti-harassment and whistleblowing policy of the village due to my enforcement (and perceived enforcement) of anti-harassment, Family Medical Leave Act, as well as other state and federal laws and village policies and procedures,” she said in a Feb. 13 email sent to Village Attorney Tony Wachewicz and copied to Village President Mary Kardoskee.

The APSOA’s press release included a list of complaints about Swanson with 22 bullet points containing what it called a “partial list of just some of the egregious behaviors the association has witnessed.”

State and federal lawsuits along with labor grievances filed on behalf of past and present union members are now pending related to some of those complaints, such as:

• Public safety officers who retired claiming not being paid in full after Swanson changed the payout structure for officers without negotiations or advance notice to the union to do so.

• A lieutenant terminated last year claiming he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and was not granted a leave of absence by Swanson.

• Swanson ordering an outside investigation into the off-duty participation of officers at a 2018 Fraternal Order of Police golf outing, for which they were given letters of direction after not found to have violated village policy.

The union also noted an internal affairs investigation conducted by then Captain Jody Crocker into Village Trustee Ken Bukowski’s involvement in a disturbance last September concluded what Bukowski was accused of doing “rises to the offense of battery and disorderly conduct.”

Swanson emailed Crocker and interim public safety chiefs Randy Tews and Tom Rolling stating she and Wachewicz were “comfortable that this matter can be closed and no further action should be taken.”

A letter from Swanson dated March 3 disputed the union’s characterization of her involvement in Bukowski not being charged.

“The union’s claim that I ‘personally disregarded criminal charges recommended by an internal affairs investigation related to a village board member’s conduct…’ is false and a malicious allegation given that the interim chief of the department (Rolling) specifically contacted me as soon as the event transpired and sought out the assistance of me and the village attorney in regards to civil forfeitures and direction in this matter,” she said.

Swanson said no criminal charges or any other recommendation was made by any officer.

“We were asked by public safety to provide an opinion as to whether civil forfeiture/municipal ordinance tickets should be issued in this matter,” Swanson said. “There was never any indication that this was believed to be a criminal matter and if that would have been the case, public safety officers would have contacted the district attorney’s office as they do in other criminal matters.”

Swanson said the business owner lacked credibility after admitting to the public works operations supervisor she lied to the village to receive additional trash and recycling cans upon relocating within Ashwaubenon, because a business needing more than one of each would need to use a private dumpster at its own cost and the business seemed aware of this.

“The follow-up by the public works supervisor revealed a lack of credibility and the motivation for the business not being honest about ownership of the garbage cans,” she said. “Based upon this information, the village attorney and I felt that pursuing civil forfeitures/municipal ordinances citations would not be successful.”

In response to the APSOA’s complaints, the village board approved an independent investigation by hiring the Von Briesen & Roper law firm to address those complaints and report back to the board.

The Press Times submitted an open records request to the village for details about the terms for hiring the law firm and the scope of the investigation.

Village Attorney Tony Wachewicz said the law firm is being paid $275 per hour.

Facebook Comments
Scroll to Top