The Wisconsin State Employees Union Local 281 called Monday for the firing of a legislative aide who sent an offensive e-mail to Assembly Republicans.
Steve Baas, assistant to Assembly Speaker Rep. John Gard, R-Peshtigo, sent the e-mail to the entire Republican caucus.
In the e-mail, Baas suggested that the employee contracts, recently rejected by the Joint Committee on Employee Relations, be sent back to the negotiating table to allow state employees the right to have sexual contact with prison inmates as part of a fringe benefits package. Gard is the chair of the JCOER, which rejected the employee contracts last month.
Baas sent the e-mail in response to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story that recorded WSEU executive director Marty Beil’s opposed legislation to make sexual contact between prison guards and inmates a felony. Wisconsin is currently one of only four states without such a law.
The legislation is expected to receive additional support in light of a recent incident involving a prison guard at Taycheedah Correctional Institution who impregnated a mentally ill inmate.
“There are a lot of pissed off state employees, and it’s because of more than not having their contracts approved,” said John Congdon, president of the Wisconsin State Employees Union Local 281, which represents prison employees. “On top of it, you have political mudslinging going on.”
Baas said he had discussed the e-mail, its possible implications and any disciplinary action with Gard. Assembly Minority Leader Jim Kreuser, D-Kenosha, had asked that Baas be disciplined, and Rep. Tom Hebl, D-Sun Prairie, suggested Baas be fired.
“It is an issue the Speaker and I have addressed, and it won’t happen again,” Baas said. Baas also said because the matter was a staffing issue, he was not at liberty to discuss it further.
Congdon said Gard had organized the rejection of the contracts as a political move to set himself up for a possible run for governor and suggested the rejection could be spun as the discovery of additional budget cuts.
“Our contention is that rejections of the contracts have nothing to do with money. The money is already there, it has already been budgeted for, and Gard stands up as chair of JCOER and says we can’t do it,” Congdon said.
Baas said Gard was not considering any future plans to run for governor and that he expects the legislation to outlaw sexual contact between prison workers and inmates to receive strong bipartisan support when it comes to a vote in the Assembly.
Gard had said upon JCOER rejection of the contracts that the contracts were fiscally irresponsible, especially during such tight budget times.
Department of Corrections public-information director Bill Clausius declined comment regarding the e-mail.
The guard involved in the incident at Taycheedah is no longer employed by the Department of Corrections.
Baas was involved in controversy as press secretary for then-Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen, R-Waukesha, in February 2001 when Steve Cady, a cameraman for Green Bay’s WBAY-TV Channel 2, filed a report stating that Baas allegedly grabbed and spun him by the tie. Baas filed a report alleging Cady tried to punch him. He was placed on probation.
