First Hearing Against Marshfield Mayor Held

Saturday, March 20th, 2021 -- 10:00 AM

(WDLB) Marshfield's top appointed city official says he was lied to by Mayor Bob McManus, regarding missing text messages which are at the center of a complaint aimed at removing the Mayor from office.

According to WDLB, City Administrator Steve Barg made the comment last night, during the first round of testimony at City Hall on a complaint filed against the Mayor by Andy Keogh, who said during his opening statement that he believes McManus destroyed electronic records that were supposed to be included as part of an open-records request made in April of last year by Randy Gershman.

Keogh's claims appeared to be substantiated by Barg during his recollection of the events leading up to Gershman's request for the public records, and the city's efforts to comply with that request.  Gershman testified that he filed the open-records request a year after he first started working on it.

At first, Gershman said he waited to file the request to give McManus the benefit of the doubt, seeing as how he was new to the Mayor's office and city government.

But Gershman also testified that McManus had made statements during his campaign for the Mayor's office that troubled him as a member of the city's Fire-and-Police Commission, like adding staff at the fire department and eliminating a fit-for-duty requirement at the police department.

The Mayor contends Gershman's open-records request, and Keogh's subsequent complaint to try removing him from office, are politically motivated, simply because he replaced former Fire-and-Police Commissioner Nate Mueller, and recently tried replacing Keogh when his second five-year term was ending last spring.

Four hours of testimony wrapped up shortly after ten o-clock last night, with Randy Gershman still on the witness stand, waiting to be questioned by members of the Common Council.

Gershman's testimony will continue when the hearing resumes at five o-clock Monday afternoon at city hall. The Council has also set aside Tuesday evening for testimony, as well as possible action regarding Keogh's complaint.

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