Eric Murphy
Shelia Stubbs confirmation vote May 4, 2023
Supv. Heidi Wegleitner, standing, said the recruitment and appointment process lacked 'transparency, objectivity, and diligence.'
The Dane County Board of Supervisors voted overwhelmingly Thursday night to reject County Executive Joe Parisi’s nominee to head the Dane County Department of Human Services, offering harsh criticism of the administration’s hiring process and the conduct of the nominee’s supporters in comments before the vote. The full board acted after two county board committees voted unanimously to recommend the board deny the nomination of Shelia Stubbs, a state representative and former Dane County Board supervisor.
“The recruitment and appointment process for this very important management position lacked transparency, objectivity, and diligence,” said Supv. Heidi Wegleitner. “I’m deeply concerned about the misinformation campaign used by the county executive and Rep. Stubbs to attack this institution of the county board.”
Wegleitner also said she was concerned that Stubbs “will not have the managerial and administrative experience to lead such a large county agency. When she came before our committee, she did not give direct or complete answers to our questions.”
The contentious confirmation process made fully public what has been a growing estrangement between the county executive and board.
“Joe Parisi had a legacy of being one of the most even-handed and thoughtful leaders in Dane County,” county board supervisor Yogesh Chawla tells Isthmus the morning after the vote. “However in the past few years, he has become increasingly erratic and unfocused, evidenced in many of his public statements in recent weeks.”
Chawla points to the statement Parisi released after the board vote, saying the county executive gave an inaccurate accounting of how the nomination moved forward. One thing he says all can agree on in Parisi’s statement, however, “is that we need a reset for reflection and healing.”
In his statement, Parisi criticized the board’s decision, saying supervisors had been looking for a reason to vote against his nominee since the beginning of the process. “I will review options for the county's hiring processes to help minimize the risk that those with a desire to serve who step forward in the future aren't subjected to what has occurred and instead are evaluated on their education and experience — the objective merits that are supposed to guide an appointment process,” Parisi said. “After allowing a reset for healing, I will announce next steps to fill the position and minimize the impact of what has occurred on county operations.”
Supervisors had their own ideas for change after the combative weeks since the announcement of Stubbs’ appointment. “I will be working with Chair Miles to introduce an ordinance amendment to very clearly state what our process is and what we will need from the county executive moving forward,” said Supv. Dana Pellebon.
Pellebon also referenced the strained relationship between the board and county executive. “I also call on the leadership of the board and county executive to work towards normalizing the relationship between the two entities,” said Pellebon, who voted against Stubbs’ nomination. “This rift has been ongoing for years and we have seen the result of the lack of communication and partnership between us. This is an all-of-us problem and requires an all-of-us solution.”
Stubbs did not appear before the board or make public comments during Thursday’s meeting, but supporters, including recent Madison mayoral candidate Gloria Reyes, spoke in favor of her confirmation. “The entire community has witnessed a dysfunctional process that has been based on personality, lack of respect, and political allegiance,” said Reyes. “It’s unfortunate we haven’t focused on Shelia’s lived experience, deep roots in this community, [and] over 20 years of budget experience."
Reached Friday, Stubbs echoed Reyes’ comments.
"I was under attack from the moment I sat in that chair. They spent time focusing on everything except my vision," Stubbs tells Isthmus in a phone call. "This board feels very hostile. This board feels very aggressive, angry. This board gets in fights with Executive Parisi."
Adds Stubbs: "I think they did this to attack me politically, they attacked Joe politically."
In comments before the board vote, Wegleitner said the executive’s announcement of Stubbs’ appointment as director of the county’s human services department came only three weeks after the job posting closed. She noted that there was no scoring of applicants, and no notes taken from interviews or reference checks. Supervisors said they started receiving messages from the public accusing them of refusing to move forward on the nomination shortly after Parisi’s announcement, but said they followed their normal pace and procedures for reviewing the administration’s appointments.
“The board did its job, it did it without delay,” said Supv. Mike Bare.
But Stubbs says she thinks Wegleitner's requests for additional information from the administration about other candidates, and the extensive questioning by supervisors, were a break with she calls the "traditional process." She notes that her questioning by the Health and Human Needs Committee lasted hours. "[Other] confirmation hearings have been sometimes four minutes at most." Stubbs believes that she was treated differently due to her race.
Race was a fraught issue throughout the confirmation process. During the board meeting, supervisors took issue with a racial slur uttered by a member of the public speaking in support of Stubbs at the earlier Health and Human Needs committee meeting, which they said also was used in private communications by the same member of the public.
“What was beyond disappointing to me was that there was not immediate and widespread condemnation of this event,” said Pellebon, referring to Stubbs. “There was not immediate repudiation of the remark.” Other supervisors also said they regretted not intervening at the moment the remark was made at the committee meeting.
“The nominee has been unable to manage the process without harmful rhetoric from those around her and a reticence to admit mistakes and work to resolve harm,” added Pellebon. “This lack of leadership is not reflective of what I want running our largest department who deals with our most vulnerable. The action since that meeting from the nominee is disqualifying.
“Where is the truth? That she can supervise or that she is not responsible for those in her circle?”
Stubbs says that since the first committee meeting she has reached out to every member of the board's Black caucus for one-on-one conversations about comments made by her supporters.
Previously, supervisors had criticized comments Stubbs made before her church that were recorded and posted to Facebook, then deleted, in which she said the board needed to be “shooken up” and that she and her supporters could take the position “by force” if needed. "They took a scripture I was quoting and turned around and turned me into an extremist," says Stubbs.
Before voting to abstain on Stubbs’ confirmation Thursday night, Supv. Michele Ritt summed up her view of the turmoil of preceding weeks: “The ugly of humanity came out.”
