GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) - After nearly two years of investigation and innuendo, Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt was handed his punishment for breaking Wisconsin's campaign finance laws.
Outagamie County Judge Mitchell Metropulos sentenced the 58-year-old Schmitt to 40 hours of community service and ordered him to pay a $4,000 fine on Monday morning.
Schmitt agreed to plead guilty to 3 misdemeanor charges: attempted false statements to an election official, attempted accepting campaign contribution funds not belonging to reported contributor and attempted accepting campaign contribution in excess of limits.
"Your honor, I am really sorry," Schmitt said in Brown County Circuit Court when asked by Judge Metropulos if he had anything to say. "I apologize to the court, to my family and especially to the citizens of Green Bay. This will never happen again and I'm sorry, I'm responsible."
The punishment Metropulos gave was exactly that sought by the special prosecutor in this 20-month investigation, Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney Bruce Landgraf. Landgraf did not make himself available for comment after court.
Schmitt's attorney, Patrick Knight of Milwaukee, sought a more lenient sentence of just a $1,500 fine. Knight primarily argued that there was never an intent to break the law, like pocketing or laundering the money, but rather a misunderstanding of the often confusing world of the state's campaign finance laws.
"It was the manner in which it was characterized," Knight said during a press conference after court. "Mr. Landgraf viewed it as there was an intent to mislead, but if you recall during his address to the court, at the same time, everyone that he approached and went out and interviewed, he didn't receive one indication that there had been contact by the mayor to steer their comments or change their response at all."
Judge Metropulos ruled that Schmitt must pay the fine and fulfill the 40 hours of community service within the next 60 days. Schmitt has 20 days to file a notice of appeal and also must submit a DNA sample as part of his conviction. No indication was given by Schmitt or Knight that they intend to appeal the sentence.
Schmitt plans to serve at least some of his community service at New Community Shelter on Green Bay’s west side.
SCHMITT TELLS HIS SIDE
From the beginning of this affair, Schmitt has not publicly commented about the allegations, charges, whispers nor anything else tied to his publicly-available campaign finance records. So Monday was the first chance to hear from the top Titletown leader what he was going through at the time he erroneously filed, and re-filed these reports.
"I didn't take the accuracy as serious and I should've spent the money to have an accountant or a lawyer do that for me, I didn't," Schmitt explains. "My mindset back then was the City of Green Bay and my family. And that's all I work on, and that's all I do. It came to something to get this campaign finance report, I just sat down at the kitchen table and put things together. There's all these checks, it was that 10-15 minutes of my life that's caused me 2 years of pain."
Schmitt says that he doesn't do his own taxes, and that this was a hard lesson he won't soon forget. Especially since it was the first time ever he had to appear before a judge.
"I just don't know that I, or a lot of other people quite honestly, take this as seriously as one should," says Schmitt. "You tell people they over gave (funding), they're like, how can I give more?? I always thought, and was told, that one could split donations. That was from people in this community who send money. I've been doing this for some time, I've been under the understanding that a couple could give $2,000 and it's not. It's $1,040 per person. It was something that I was wrong on."
Knight followed by saying that there's a protocol with making campaign donations that most people don't know anything about. While it's not an excuse, Knight believes that anyone could see the high level of misconceptions about what's legal and what isn't.
TOO LIGHT OF A SENTENCE?
The sentencing recommendation provided by Landgraf to the judge in this case, which was ultimately used, was based upon the investigative report conducted by the Brown County Sheriff's Office. There were an additional 34 counts which the special prosecutor gave for consideration.
According to the criminal complaint filed in Brown County, all three attempts are written as class I felonies. They carry a maximum penalty of nine months in prison and $10,000 in fines per count.
Schmitt on Monday pled guilty to three class A Misdemeanor counts. So how did they arrive at those charges?
"The exact same conduct is identified as everything from a felony to a forfeiture," Knight says. "This is an area in which there's a great deal of prosecutorial discretion. It is unusual, in this sense, that there's this wide gamut. I don't want to put words in his (Landgraf) mouth, but I thought he laid out from the outset that he, at no time, did he view these as rising to the level that they would warrant an attempt to prosecute on a felony. I think you'd be very, very hard pressed to find a prosecutor in the state who has decided that differently."
Knight cited a lack of historical basis for that in Wisconsin, nor would how these matters are viewed, investigated or responded to that would justify felony charges.
"That was never a consideration because the facts involved didn't warrant that," says Knight. "And the disagreements that we had was whether it should, in essence, rise to the level of a misdemeanor."
Knight defended his belief that misdemeanor charges were too harsh of a penalty for his client. He also talked about the timing of when the public learned about this plea deal, which came in September before formal charges were filed.
"The prosecution controls that and there are a number of considerations, there were discussions that took place over a protracted period of time," Knight stated. "Because he was a special prosecutor assigned to Brown County to investigate this, there was also the consideration that he's got to coordinate with another county he's not familiar with, and that there then will be a process by which a judge is assigned and because of the mayor's prominence in that regard, anticipating that there will be recusals by a number of judges. Yes, it is not the norm to announce that there's been an agreement, but in this instance, the logistics of everything involved, I think that he felt more comfortable getting it out there in front and he could address that with the Brown County authorities involved and get the process involved."
Also part of Knight's explanation of that question was the tidbit that the plan was to get everything wrapped up in one court appearance. However, Knight says "extraneous matters" from Landgraf that had nothing to do with these proceedings, which caused the extra court hearing.
SCHMITT'S FUTURE
Not everyone was satisfied with the sentence given to Schmitt on Monday. Frequent mayoral critic, Alderman Guy Zima, attended the proceeding and spoke to the media afterward.
"It was a summary whitewash of the whole affair," Zima said. "And I don't think it does justice to the people of Green Bay that he gets by with a fine and a little community service."
Zima, who also was one of three alderman who filed this complaint against Schmitt, continues to believe that Schmitt is not contrite or sorry for what he did.
"This is not a naive gentleman that didn't know what he was doing, he attempted to blame others in the beginning," said Zima. "He only cooperated when he knew he was trapped. He still claims it was unintentional."
The next step at the common council level could be removal from office, which requires 9 votes from the 12-member body.
"Since he pled guilty I'm assuming we would at least censure to removal from office, I suppose it's possible. We might say since the court handled this the council doesn't need to do anything,” Alderman Randy Scannell told FOX 11, “If the public wishes to start a recall against him then that's the political consequence."
Scannell added that he anticipates "something will happen." There could also be an ethics complaint filed by a Green Bay resident. WTAQ has learned that could be filed within the next few days. Council members also may have a session in 2 or 3 weeks to determine whether the council would take any further action against the mayor.
But Knight is throwing cold water on all of this talk.
"The statutes clearly define that you can't then take action to remove someone for conduct that isn't related to their performance to their mayoral duties," Knight says. "If they (council members) have the sense to go to the city attorney, because otherwise you could incur a lot of expense in doing something that the law does not allow to be done."
Schmitt maintained that he would not resign and wanted to turn the page on this chapter in his life. However, he was not committing to announcing another run to lead Titletown.
"I have another chapter in my life to write and it will benefit Green Bay, but I'm not sure it's gonna be in elected office," says Schmitt. "Look, I want to look at Jim Schmitt too. Thinking about the next 20 years of my life, and I love the city and I'm going to benefit the city but it may not be as mayor."
After 16 years serving as Green Bay's leader, Schmitt opined that he believes someone is out there with vision, a strong work ethic that could do this. He also urged them, whomever it might be, to begin giving their potential future in his position some "serious thought."