GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Three Green Bay Alderman recently discovered they are no longer being looked at for campaign violations by Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf.
Tom De Wane, Chris Wery, and Andy Nicholson held a press conference Tuesday at City Hall.
De Wane says he spoke with Mayor Jim Schmitt Tuesday and Schmitt told him that he requested the probe because he was asked to by a constituent.
The aldermen say Mayor Schmitt knew a year ago that the investigation had been closed.
“It’s very disheartening to hear that the mayor and his attorney have known for a full year that our campaign accounts are not going to be investigated,” Wery said.
In a written statement released to the media, Wery states that he reached out to Landgraf inquiring why the investigation was taking so long. Wery stated that he received an e-mail reply last week from the Assistant D.A. that included a letter dated one year prior, February 2, 2016. The letter was addressed to Mayor Schmitt’s lawyer Matthew O’Neil.
Wery has questions.
“Why, when he was notified there would be no investigation did he withhold that information, especially when a public news story was done when he was asked about it?”
Wery calls Schmitt’s “deceitful, dishonest tactics” a way to distract the spotlight off of Schmitt’s own campaign finance violations. He says tactics like this have affected the relationship between the city council and the mayor.
“Well, I think you can see over the past couple of years there’s been a mistrust. There’s been this tit for tat type of thing…it’s been negative. We need to be a team,” Wery states.
Wery wants an apology from Schmitt for not clearing their names.
WTAQ went to Mayor Schmitt’s office Tuesday but he was not around for comment.
