While a student at Marquette University Law School, Sean Brown interned at various organizations, including the National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum in Milwaukee. After graduating in May 2017, he landed a job at the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services. Nine months later, he’s getting a huge promotion — on Monday he begins work as a division administrator at the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP).
As the administrator of the Division of Trade and Consumer Protection, Brown will oversee three bureaus — trade practices, consumer protection, and weights and measures — with 140 employees and an annual operating budget of $14.4 million, according to Bill Cosh, communications director for the department. Brown will make $99,590 a year.
The division is responsible for handling consumer complaints, regulating unfair and deceptive business practices and providing inspection and weighing services for grain, fruits and gas pumps, among other things.
Department Secretary Sheila Harsdorf announced Brown’s appointment in an internal departmental posting obtained by Isthmus. She said Brown, in his recent state government post, “performed General Counsel legal duties for the Division of Industry Services and prosecuted professional licensing violations through the administrative law process.” She noted he completed law school, but did not mention his graduation date. She also did not cite any experience related to consumer protection or trade practices.
Cosh said he was prohibited from providing Brown’s age. He did not respond to questions asking what experience Brown had in the area of consumer protection and trade or what his other relevant qualifications might be. He said only that Brown “expressed interest in the job.”
Brown, according to his LinkedIn account, went straight to Marquette University Law School after graduating from Marquette University in 2013. In law school he participated in the Milwaukee Bar Association, Sports Law Society and Criminal Law Society. Under “experience” on his LinkedIn account, Brown lists a legal internship with the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (Sept. 2015-May 2016) and a law clerk position with McManus & Associates LLC of Elm Grove (May 2015-May 2017). He has also volunteered for the Milwaukee Rescue Mission, Milwaukee Center for Independence and Marquette Volunteer Legal Clinic.
Brown’s last day at the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services was today. He did not return a call left for him with the agency’s assistant deputy secretary.
In her announcement, Harsdorf thanked Jeremy McPherson, who was appointed interim administrator by Frank Frassetto, the former division administrator who left late last year. When asked why McPherson, who has been at the agency for more than 10 years, did not get the job, Cosh said that McPherson “did not submit his name for consideration of the position.”
Frassetto is now the state director for rural development for the United States Department of Agriculture. His bio on the USDA website notes that he has more than 30 years of public sector experience.
Jay Heck, executive director of the watchdog group Common Cause, says Brown’s appointment raises questions given his apparent lack of experience in the area of consumer protection and trade. “Is this a political appointee being awarded for loyalty and good campaign work rather than someone steeped in the intricacies of consumer protection?”
“This is supposed to be a position that serves and protects citizens,” adds Heck. “To appoint someone an administrator who has no experience ought to make citizens feel their tax money is not being well spent.”
In his email Cosh said Brown’s position, like all of the department’s division administrator positions, is “a political appointee position and has always been so.”
