A complaint filed against Mayor Dave Cieslewicz involving a campaign advertisement was dismissed Wednesday after the complainant failed to show up to a Madison Ethics Board meeting.

The complaint, filed by former Ald. Dorothy Borchardt, District 12, alleges the mayor violated campaign finance laws when he posed with four members of the Madison Fire Department on a fire truck while wearing a firefighter's jacket.

Borchardt's complaint said this ad demonstrated that the mayor used taxpayer and city resources "for his own personal gain."

However, in his written response to the complaint, Cieslewicz said his then-campaign manager Megan McGrorty contacted the State Elections Board to make sure the ad would not violate any campaign law.

According to the response, McGrorty was told "it would not be problematic" as long as the firefighters were off-duty and the words "city of Madison" did not appear on the ad.

"After learning that we may have erred, my campaign immediately ceased distribution of the brochure," Cieslewicz said in the response. "If a violation occurred, it was an honest mistake."

Neither Borchardt nor any other party has the opportunity to file the complaint again.

The ethics board also decided at Wednesday's meeting that they would hear the complaint Ald. Zach Brandon, District 7, filed against a former limited-term city clerk's office employee.

Brandon alleges the employee, Michael Quieto, falsely signed campaign finance documents for the Teaching Assistant Association's Political Action Committee. He also alleges Quieto signed the documents while he was chair of the committee, which Brandon sees as a conflict of interest.

"When the person who is ultimately responsible for reviewing and taking in those documents is also the same person who seems to be falsifying those documents, you've skipped a step — you've skipped a point at which we have the ability to investigate," Brandon said during the meeting, adding he felt uncomfortable with Quieto reviewing his campaign finance documents.

In the complaint response, Quieto's attorney, Aaron Halstead, said the complaint "fails to allege any conduct" that would violate any of the Madison General Ordinances Brandon cites. The response also says Quieto denies any accusations of forgery.

At the meeting, Halstead said Quieto's affiliation with the TAA should not prevent him from being employed by the city.

"Neither the state or the federal constitution would permit the city to screen candidates for employment based on political affiliation," Halstead said.

Halstead also said Brandon has failed to satisfy his burden of proof, and called his use of the word forgery "irresponsible."

Mark Supanich, spokesperson for the TAA, said in an interview with The Badger Herald that Quieto did not serve as chair of the organization's PAC while he was employed at the city clerk's office, and added the website listing him as chair had not been updated in a long time.

Brandon plans on introducing an ordinance proposal that would prevent people from doing election work for the city while they are "engaged in the profession of politics."