Gregg McManners has been the executive director of Monona Terrace since 2011.
An employee of Monona Terrace Convention Center has accused the center’s executive director, Gregg McManners, of several ethics violations, including circumventing the competitive bid process and failing to enforce the city’s affirmative action requirements.
The complaint was filed by Katherine Hurtgen, associate director of finance and operations at Monona Terrace, with the assistance of the law firm Kramer, Elkins and Watt.
Attorney Leslie Elkins tells Isthmus that Hurtgen “came to us with some concerns about the actions of McManners and his failure to follow rules and being loosey-goosey with ordinances. Despite her consistently telling McManners and a couple of other players to follow the rules, they failed to do so.”
The city Ethics Board decided on Sept. 1 that it had standing to hear the complaint and scheduled a hearing for Sept. 22 to consider the evidence and question witnesses.*
McManners declines to comment on the complaint, writing in an email to Isthmus: “As this is an ongoing internal process, I feel any comment of mine would be inappropriate at this time. Once this process is completed, I would be in a better position to comment.”
Hurtgen claims that McManners sidestepped competitive bid procedures when it came to the Hiebing Group, which has provided advertising and marketing services for Monona Terrace for 18 years, which predates McManners’ employment.
“For the past 17 years, Hiebing has not participated in the competitive bid process,” the complaint states.
Last year, the city switched to a new software program, which was more regimented in requiring that all contracts meet city requirements before checks are written. Because of this, the system required documentation proving that Hiebing was exempt from the bid process, applicable to projects that exceed $25,000.
McManners and William Zeinemann, associate director of marketing and event services, allegedly instructed Hurtgen to complete this documentation. When she refused, McManners and Zeinemann did it themselves. Their rationale for not going out to bid, according to the “sole source justification form” included with the complaint, was that using Hiebing “saves money by saving time, and makes money by obtaining high-quality marketing support for Monona Terrace.... We don’t have to spend time educating them on who we are, what we do and why it matters.”
Last year, the Common Council approved a $100,000 no-bid contract with Hiebing — renewable for the next three years.
Ald. David Ahrens finds this the “most troubling” accusation in the complaint, noting correspondence about the contract with the finance department, which stated a need for a competitive bid.
“There had been thought and rethought about how to get around this well-known rule,” Ahrens says. “There were remarks from purchasing...that they can’t do this. Regardless they did it.”
On two occasions, the complaint alleges, Monona Terrace also failed to comply with the city’s affirmative action policies. The city requires vendors with contracts of $25,000 or more a year to fill out an affirmative action plan that, according to city ordinance, “is designed to ensure that the contractor provides equal employment opportunity to all and takes affirmative action in its utilization of applicants and employees who are women, minority or persons with disabilities.”
McManners allegedly instructed Hurtgen to pay one of these contractors, Studio Gear, with a credit card in order to circumvent the requirement. “Paying with a [credit card] would bypass the system and allow payment without the affirmative action plan in place,” the complaint reads. “Hurtgen refused.”
Similarly, Tai Ping Carpets of Georgia won a bid process to provide carpeting in 2013 and 2014 to Monona Terrace. The company declined to provide an affirmative action plan, but “McManners and Zeinemann chose to look the other way,” the complaint claims. “The Tai Ping Carpet contract further [violates] the general policy and city opinion against the use of public funds for the purchase of goods made under sweatshop conditions.”
The lack of an affirmative action plan later caught the attention of the city’s contract specialist, Dana Hanaman, who in an Aug. 12, 2015, email (included in the complaint) to city officials questions why the company was awarded the contract. “Apparently, the company even initially ‘took exception’ with [affirmative action] compliance during the 2012 RFP process, but in spite of all of this, still was awarded the bid and was paid over $579,600 [in 2014].
“If this bidder actually said they would not comply with [affirmative action], as its rep claims, then this company’s bid should never have been accepted, nor should they have been paid.”
The complaint also alleges that Monona Terrace staff violated federal, state and city law regarding compensation of employees.
When Hurtgen was temporarily assigned to review timecards for employees between October 2014 and February or March of 2015, she noticed that the maintenance employees were not correctly completing their timecards. “They may have been leaving early or working extra on certain days.... In addition, every time the employees painted, the employees had each put exactly two hours of overtime onto their timecard.”
“Upon information and belief, this was not reflective of actual time worked,” the complaint states.
Hurtgen claims that McManners and Zeinemann dismissed her concerns and “possibly cost the city a large sum of money and may amount to timecard fraud.”
The complaint also alleges that Hurtgen was asked to manage the checkbook and compile tax returns for Friends of Monona Terrace, a nonprofit group that supports the terrace but is separate from the city. The complaint states: “This was work that Hurtgen did on city time at the direction of McManners on many different days, and the work was not within her job duties or description.”
If the complaint is upheld, the ethics board could recommend “various sanctions all the way up to and including removal from office” of McManners, says city attorney Michael May. However, he was uncertain who would have the final say on discipline — the mayor or the Monona Terrace Board, both of which McManners reports to.
Ahrens notes that no damages are being asked for in the complaint and suspects that Hurtgen sought out the help of a law firm because she fears for her job.
“It must be very painful for her to be under this pressure,” he says. “She wanted to do things according to rules and is pressured to do otherwise. We need to make sure she gets the kind of protection she deserves.”
Elkins says that what her client wants is very simple: “We’re hoping to see some type of instruction that the rules be followed and hopefully to see some of these ordinances stop being ignored.”
Editor's note: This article was updated to reflect that the Ethics Board decided Sept. 1 that it had standing to consider all of the accusations. It scheduled a hearing on it Sept. 22.
