Senate Republicans have spent over $400k in surveillance lawsuit targeting Green Bay mayor

Green Bay City Hall | Green Bay government photo

Wisconsin Senate Republicans, led by Sen. André Jacque (R-DePere), have spent more than $400,000 fighting a lawsuit over the use of audio recording equipment in the City of Green Bay’s security system in an effort to politically damage Democratic Mayor Eric Genrich, according to federal court documents made public Tuesday.

The lawsuit was filed ahead of last year’s Green Bay mayoral election, in which Genrich handily defeated Republican Brown County official Chad Weininger by six points. The Examiner reported last year that many of the people involved in raising complaints about the city hall audio recording equipment and the lawsuit were connected to Weininger and his campaign. The Examiner also reported that local officials and Jacque knew about the audio surveillance months before it was raised as an issue in the weeks leading up to the election.

Since the lawsuit was filed last February, the case has wound through Brown County and U.S. District Court while most of the records in the case have remained under seal. On Tuesday, the city filed a motion to stay further discovery, which details how Weininger himself had a phone call with Jacque in October of 2022 to discuss the audio recording.

“Despite seeking ‘emergency’ relief in February 2023, Senator Jacque learned of the audio surveillance at least as early as October 2022 when his friend Chad Weininger — and notably defendant Mayor Genrich’s political opponent for the Spring 2023 election — had a call with Senator Jacque and alleged that Mayor Genrich had ‘installed secret listening devices in Green Bay City Hall,’” the motion states.

ECF #29 Defendants’ Motion to Stay Discovery

The motion also details how the Brown County judge who first oversaw the case, Marc Hammer, questioned the timing of the lawsuit’s filing.

“At the March 3, 2023 TRO hearing, Judge Hammer noted the ‘extremely suspicious’ timing of the lawsuit and his concern that there was ‘some type of underhandedness or strategy in waiting until after the city primary and before the city election to dirty up the Mayor and that’s unfortunate,’” the motion states. “Notably, Judge Hammer’s suspicions were aroused even before anyone knew that the genesis of the lawsuit can be traced to Chad Weininger reporting the allegations against his political opponent Mayor Genrich to his friend Senator Jacque.”

In the lawsuit, Jacque alleged that he had a private conversation in Green Bay city hall last January which would have meant he was recorded without his knowledge. That claim is undermined by the revelation that  Weininger told Jacque about the recording equipment the previous October. In a response filed as part of the lawsuit, Jacque stated that Weininger only told him about a “rumor” that Genrich was installing the audio equipment. But after the phone call, Jacque requested a legal memo from the Legislative Council on the legality of audio surveillance in public buildings.

The motion states that this means Jacque knew his conversation was being recorded and therefore consented to it.

“To the extent Senator Jacque actually had a conversation recorded on January 9, 2023 in the public hallway of Green Bay City Hall, then he consented to it, and with knowledge of the devices — he could have no reasonable expectation of privacy for the conversation,” the motion states.

When the surveillance controversy first broke in the news, it was raised by a number of Green Bay City Council members, most notably Alder Chris Wery. The Examiner previously reported he did “consulting” work for Weininger’s 2012 Assembly race. Campaign finance records show that Weininger’s campaign paid Wery $600 for consulting fees ahead of that race. The records also show that the Weininger campaign paid Wery’s wife $600, Wery’s mother $600 and his children, who at the time were nine and six years old, $500 each. In total, the Weininger campaign paid the entire Wery family a total of $2,800.

Despite the issue being raised at a city council meeting last February, a number of council members allied with Weininger also knew about the recording equipment for months prior to the lawsuit.

Wery wrote in a Facebook post he knew about the recordings in November or December of 2022.

An email written by the city IT director in December of 2021 shows that all city staff was made aware of the recording equipment at that time.

“We have installed security cameras with microphones in the city hall 2nd floor hallway with a recording retention period of 120 days,” the email to every person with a Green Bay municipal email account states.

The Wisconsin Senate is a party in all sorts of lawsuits, however it is unusual for it to get  involved in a case targeting the minutiae of municipal security systems. Jacque and the Senate, the motion states, used a measure passed by the Committee on Senate Organization last January to direct state funds to cover the legal costs of the suit. That measure also makes Senate Majority Leader Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) responsible for approving the financial costs of litigation.

Invoices filed to the Senate by the law firm representing the body in the lawsuit, obtained by the Examiner, show that Jacque’s lawsuit has cost state taxpayers $436,638. Green Bay city staff estimates the cost of defending itself has hit around $200,000 and add that the city has a self-insured retention limit of $250,000.

Weininger, a former state representative, remains a Brown County employee. Last week, he told a Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reporter that he was “weighing” a run for the open seat in Wisconsin’s 8th Congressional District. Weininger did not respond to multiple phone calls to his cell and office numbers.

LeMahieu’s office did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for Jacque declined to comment.

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