Tie vote keeps Todd as chair

Half of the Trempealeau County Supervisors voted to remove Andy Todd as chairman of the board, with one accusing him of undermining the administration and others citing concerns about trust and leadership. The other half voted to retain him, with some questioning whether the concerns justified removal and one saying the board embarrassed itself with the meeting. The 8-8 tie means Todd will remain chair.

Todd was elected county board chair by a 9-8 vote at the county’s reorganizational meeting last April. During Monday’s special meeting to discuss his removal from the position, Todd said he is not perfect, but seemed confused about why the other supervisors were attempting to force his exit.

“If I have made some mistakes, I haven’t been told,” Todd said. “Nobody ever came to my office or gave me a call. Nobody has ever come to me and discussed anything with me face-to-face.”

Todd encouraged supervisors to bring concerns to him, and said he believes they can fix the issues through communication.

“Can we improve things? Absolutely, there are a lot of things that need to be improved in this county,” Todd said. “Can we do it together? Absolutely we can. But we gotta talk. We gotta speak up.” 

Supervisor Richard Anderson had County Clerk Mary Martin read a statement in which he expressed issues with the process of removing the chair and the precedent it would set. 

“Having the legal authority to do something does not automatically make it the right thing,” Anderson’s statement said. “I believe we need to consider the precedent we are setting. What happens if we elect a new chair and three months from now another group of supervisors is unhappy with that person’s decisions? Do we initiate another removal effort and another after that?”

Supervisor Renee Lyon accused Todd of micromanaging, undermining Administrator Rebecca Glewen, and personally interviewing disgruntled employees and department heads regarding administrative decisions. She said doing so encourages a “culture of anti-establishment and that such behavior may be rewarded.” 

“We cannot expect all administrative decisions to be popular,” Lyon said. “An administrator’s role is to act in the best interest of the county, and that should be our benchmark… we know negativity prevails. We have a human resources department, legal counsel, both in-house and through the Wisconsin Counties Association, if needed, who are all well-equipped to handle all personnel issues. We, as county board supervisors, are simply not qualified and do not have the expertise or experience to investigate and make cursory judgements.” 

Lyon said that another supervisor told her that Todd was pushing to eliminate the county administrator position in order to make himself the county’s administrative coordinator. Todd denied the accusation, saying the county could not pay him enough to become the administrative coordinator. He also questioned the source of Lyon’s information.

“Is my office recorded? Are you assuming I’m talking, or do you know I’m talking? If you do know, I need a time, a day, a minute so we can figure out… you’re just assuming I’m a bad guy,” Todd said. 

Lyon said that she was referring to two events that she spoke with Todd about, specifically him referencing complaints he received about Glewen. Todd said that county policies allow employees to meet with him and that because Glewen also serves as the county’s HR director, employees are uncomfortable coming to her. 

“We made a huge mistake hiring an administrator as an HR director,” Todd said. “That was a mistake. Nobody ever feels comfortable going to an HR director if the issue is about that HR director.”

Supervisor Bridgette Turner accused Todd of consolidating power on certain committees with what Supervisor Dawn Truog said were “like-minded” people. 

Turner also said there was a report that raised “significant concerns within a department including inappropriate email communications involving the county board chair, staff and outside business during work hours using county computers.”

She said that was reported to the Executive and Finance Committee and “effectively killed.”

Anderson, who is chair of the Executive and Finance Committee, said he never received such a report. Truog said the report came forward when the committees were changing, and that the conversation about the emails was held in closed session. Todd said that issue was related to an open records request regarding concerns about an employee and that he did not want to discuss that matter in open session. 

Turner said that Todd promised to be transparent, but she said he hasn’t been. 

Supervisor David Larson said that he considered Todd to be a good person and, “I think we’re almost friends,” but he said he has “serious concerns about the county being able to go forward under your leadership. I believe too much has been lost.” 

Another point of disagreement involved Todd’s handling of a county ordinance restricting Supervisor Scott Leonard from serving on the Law Enforcement Committee. Supervisor Andy Parrish questioned Todd about Leonard’s continued service on the committee. Because Leonard’s wife works for the county district attorney’s office, which is overseen by the Law Enforcement Committee, a county ordinance passed in November prohibits Leonard from serving on the committee. 

Todd said he spoke with Corporation Counsel Susan Fisher and WCA attorney Andy Phillips, who indicated the county had two conflicting ordinances. He said Phillips said the county should eliminate the ordinance that was passed in November. At Supervisor Kristin Husby’s request, Fisher said she disagreed and did not think the ordinances conflicted.

Parrish said he began questioning Leonard’s position on the committee in August. During the board’s August meeting, a resolution that would’ve moved oversight of the DA’s office from the Law Enforcement Committee to the Executive and Finance Committee failed. Leonard requested to be removed from the Law Enforcement Committee on Sept. 28, a request Todd said was made because of repeated comments Parrish made toward Leonard and his family on social media. Parrish told Leonard to “f--- off” during a July meeting of the Law Enforcement Committee. 

Supervisor Robert Baecker said Leonard should have been removed from the Law Enforcement Committee sooner, and that Todd isn’t perfect. He said that concerns should have been brought directly to Todd instead of being aired at a public meeting.

“A lot of this stuff they said is hearsay … Hearsay doesn’t carry water,” Baecker said. “It’s too bad we embarrassed Andy. We embarrassed ourselves with this meeting.”

Baecker said he does have quite a few disagreements with Todd, but he didn’t think anything he heard in the meeting was enough to warrant removing him as the chair. He said he discusses disagreements with Todd in-person, just as he did with former chair John Aasen.  

Two resignations may have affected the meeting: one was submitted, and another was withdrawn before the meeting. District 17 Supervisor Ron Johnson said, in a letter read by Todd, that he resigned for health and personal reasons. Johnson was among the nine supervisors who signed a petition to force the special meeting calling for a vote to remove Todd as chair, but he could not vote because he resigned before the meeting. 

Leonard had apparently submitted his resignation last week but changed his mind before it became official. Leonard voted to keep Todd as the chair. 

Supervisors Truog, John Skoug, Larson, Husby, Turner, Parrish, and Aasen voted to remove Todd. Supervisors Baecker, Ryker Todd, Andy Todd, Paul Syverson, Anderson, Leonard, and Kevin Whalen voted to keep Andy Todd as chair.