County Board votes to pay $24,000 to end complaint against Holloway

Source: Milwaukee Journal SentinelDec.迷你倉尖沙咀 19--Milwaukee County supervisors -- some reluctantly -- voted 16-2 Thursday to pay $24,000 to a county employee to settle her sexual harassment claim against former County Board Chairman Lee Holloway."A mess has been created, and it's our job to clean it up," said Supervisor Tony Staskunas. "It may be bad politics, but it's good policy."It could cost far more to let the case go to court, perhaps as much as $500,000, Staskunas said.Denise McCaskill, who works in the county's retirement office, filed the claim, saying Holloway on his last day at work in April 2012 forcibly kissed her and grabbed her breast and buttocks when she came to his office to discuss his retirement details.McCaskill's claimwas found credible by the state Equal Rights Division, and she threatened to sue the county in federal court if the settlement offer wasn't accepted.District Attorney John Chisholm declined to prosecute Holloway on misdemeanor sexual assault charges following an investigation this year of McCaskill's complaint.She will get $16,000 of the settlement sum and her lawyers, Hawks Quindel, get $8,000, under the plan approved by the County Board. County Executive Chris Abele said he'll sign off on the settlement.He struggled with the issue, but decided "the most prudent move is to approve this deal and hopefully allow the employee some closure," Abele said in a statement.Holloway, through his lawyer, has denied McCaskill's claims.Reached by phone Thursday, Holloway declined to comment on the settlement."I don't have anything to say about that," Holloway said, before hanging up.Holloway, 66, served on the County Board for 20 years, including eight as board chairman. His tenure was sometimes a stormy one.He survived a recall election after the county pension scandal and retained his chairmanship despite an attempt to oust him in 2007. He paid $3,000 in 2006 to settle six counts of filing ethics disclosures that failed to list his business links to a county contractor.Supervisors Mark Borkowski and Steve F. Taylor voted against paying the settlement."This is personal," Borkowski said. "I've got a long history with mini storageee Holloway. ... In a perfect world, Lee Holloway would pay for these charges himself."Holloway, however, was not a party to McCaskill's complaint. She filed her harassment complaint and threatened the lawsuit against the county, as Holloway's employer, and not against Holloway personally.The harassment case was about the work environment in the County Board offices, Supervisor Patricia Jursik said. It's a reminder that "elected officials don't get to act like they're above the law," Jursik said.She advised supervisors to approve the settlement, noting that the board elected Holloway chairman twice "in spite of some well-known concerns." Jursik said she had a "clean conscience" on the issue because she never supported Holloway for chairman.Supervisor Peggy Romo West voted for the settlement, but warned supervisors that it could encourage future claims of sexual harassment against male county supervisors.She noted that the harassment case against Holloway was the second involving a county supervisor "where we paid an amount to settle."In 2006, the board approved a settlement of a sexual harassment case against Supervisor Michael Mayo Sr. His then-office assistant, Barbara Talbert, agreed to drop her case in exchange for a payment of $9,300 to cover her lawyer's fees and a job transfer within the county.Talbert claimed in 2004 that Mayo demanded she have sex with him to keep her part-time job. Mayo denied the charge.The $24,000 settlement of McCaskill's claim will be sent to the county's liability insurer for payment, said Corporation Counsel Paul Bargren. The county pays the first $1 million in claims for the year before the insurance coverage kicks in.Holloway retired in 2012 with a $24,672-a-year county pension.He closed his campaign account in January. His last two transactions were to pay himself back for a $7,000 loan to his campaign and to write off a $2,608 campaign loan from his wife, county records show.Facebook: fb.com/steve.schultze3Twitter: twitter.com/SteveSchultzeJSCopyright: ___ (c)2013 the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Visit the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel at .jsonline.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉