June 19, 2020 at 7:30 a.m.
Supposedly missing records found in search of Rhinelander City Hall
Guild told newspaper that records were gone but released one to TV reporter
Supposedly missing records found in search of Rhinelander City Hall
In 2019, former Rhinelander city administrator Daniel Guild had said personnel-related files requested by the River News had been "inappropriately removed" and were missing.
Assisted by various law enforcement agencies, the sheriff's department executed the search warrant last Nov. 21 in its investigation into alleged misconduct in public office and tampering with public records, an investigation in which Guild was named as a person of interest. He has since been charged with one felony count of misconduct in office/failure to perform known duty. He was fired from his position as city administrator last month after approximately two months on paid administrative leave.
Not only did officers find records they believe were responsive to the River News's open records request, but, the documents show, Guild prevailed upon a WJFW Newswatch 12 reporter to make requests for specific records that included at least one document officers believe would have been responsive to the Rivers News request.
Guild immediately released the requested documents to the reporter he had asked to make the requests - about 10 months after River News reporter Jamie Taylor made his opens records request, with no documents released.
The search warrant and related charge stems in part from that open records request, made on July 23, 2018, when Taylor requested "any and all written disciplinary records and documentation involving any investigation conducted into any adverse complaints therein, made against Public Works Director Tim Kingman between Jan. 1, 2017 to present (July 23, 2018). The complaints may or may not have been determined to be actionable."
Not long after the request was sent, Taylor received an initial reply, dated August 3, 2018, in which he was notified that the city had received his request and had found at least one document that may have been responsive to the request. The response also indicated the city was in the process of notifying the subject employee.
The next month, on September 17, Guild took over his new position as city administrator, but no more was heard of the records request for almost a year. Then, in July 2019, after Kingman was placed on leave on June 3, 2019, according to officers' reports, Taylor sent a reminder message to the city about his July 2018 request, only to be informed on August 7, 2019, that the records were missing.
"Since Mr. Kingman has left the city, it has been discovered that his personnel file was inappropriately removed from the city's files," Guild wrote in that response to Taylor. "That conduct was wholly contrary to city policy and procedure, and the city is continuing to investigate how this may have occurred. As a result, as of present date, the city is not in possession of any records responsive to your request. The city is deeply troubled that Mr. Kingman's personnel file was tampered with and, to the extent records responsive to your July 23, 2018, request are located in the future, the city will provide them to you."
As it turns out, at least some of the records apparently were in city hall all along and were seized in the November 21 raid, according to the sheriff's department. What's more, not only were the records in city hall, but officers say Guild knew at least one of them was there because in May 2019 Guild suggested to WJFW TV reporter Ben Meyer that he make a series of records requests to Guild that included at least one document that would have been responsive to Taylor's request.
Meyer did. Guild fulfilled the request within a day, including the document responsive to Taylor's request.
Missing no more
In a January 2, 2020 review of documents taken during the search warrant, Oneida County sheriff's department captain Terri Hook said officers had extracted electronic data from the city of Rhinelander's server and electronic devices in Guild's office, including his email account.
In all, Hook reported, 16 documents were taken, though only six were later determined to be relevant to the case (the sheriff's department attempted to return the unneeded documents). Those documents fit the request made by the Northwoods River News in July 2018, Hook concluded.
In her probable cause supplemental report dated March 11, 2020, Hook said, in reviewing all of the information collected during the search warrants , she found numerous instances of Guild's failure to perform his duties as a public official.
"The following is a list of documents that Guild should have released in reference to the July 23, 2018, request from The Lakeland Times or Guild should have provided a reason why he was not releasing them," Hook wrote.
One document contained information about a complaint that was filed by Justin Ernst on January 20, 2017, against Kingman. The document was located in the personnel file of Justin Ernst in the locked cabinet in the locked area of the basement of the Rhinelander City Hall, Hook wrote.
Another document contained information about an incident between Kingman and Tony Gilman for which Gilman and Kingman had to attend some meetings with a mediator. The document was found in a folder on the bookcase in Guild's office, the report stated.
Another document containing information about disciplinary action involving Kingman and Gilman with a letter on top of the information dated April 19, 2017, was found in Gilman's personnel file in the locked cabinet in the locked area of the city hall basement.
A fourth document contained drug test results and background investigation information about Kingman, most of which was outside of the dates requested by the River News, Hook reported, except for a memo dated March 29, 2017, about issues between Gilman and Kingman.
Information about a complaint filed by Tom Froehlich on April 7, 2018, was located in Froelich's personnel file in the locked cabinet in the locked area of the basement.
Other relevant evidence not released to the River News included a document dated March 28, 2017, to Justin Ernst from Keith Kost located on a thumb driver in Guild's office; a document dated April 17, 2017, from Keith Kost to Kingman and Gilman located on a thumb drive in Guild's office; a document dated April 23, 2018, from Kost to Froehlich located on a thumb driver in Guild's office; and a document dated April 24, 2018, from Kost to Kingman located on a thumb drive in Guild's office, the report stated.
Only Guild had the ability to provide those records to the newspaper, Hook observed.
"These documents were in the control of Guild and would not have been accessible to the Rhinelander city clerk unless Guild provided them to her," Hook wrote.
Selective release
In her case supplemental report dated January 1, 2020, Hook said she was reviewing information obtained through the search warrants when she came across several PDFs from journalist Ben Meyer, who was then with Newswatch 12 WJFW-TV, seeking documents from Guild about Tim Kingman.
Hook said she contacted Meyer because some of the documents could have fit into the original open records request from the Northwoods River News and she wanted to see if Meyer would allow her to view any documents Guild might have sent in response to his requests.
Meyer suggested they meet, Hook reported, and they did in early December at the sheriff's department.
"Meyer explained he had a meeting with Daniel Guild at the beginning of May 2019," Hook wrote in her report. "Meyer said the meeting was off the record. Meyer said that the meeting was somewhat unusual in that Guild gave Meyer a document that outlined eight open records requests that Guild suggested Meyer should make."
All of the requests pertained to Kingman, Hook continued, and she said some of them were very detailed in that they contained specific employee names that had filed a complaint about Kingman.
"Meyer said that Meyer believed that Guild wanted Meyer to do a story about this information," she wrote.
After the meeting with Guild, Hook wrote, Meyer said he returned to his office and made eight individual open records requests for the information Guild had suggested. Meyer told Hook that he subsequently received a link to a cloud storage file and received all the documents within a day of submitting the request.
In the end, Hook said Meyer indicated that he never did a story based on the information. Hook also wrote that Meyer turned over copies of all the documents he had received from Guild based on the open record requests.
Among those documents was one containing an email from Kingman to Kost dated March 19, 2018, and titled 'Kris Arneson - Discussion 03-19-18,' as well as a three-page typed document dated March 22, 2018, with a closing that Hook said indicated it was created by Kris Arneson. The document was released as part of Meyer's request to Guild for "copies of any grievances or employee complaints from either Tom Froehlich, Joe Patrone, Dylan Spiegelhoff, Kris Arneson, Ryan Roeser, Joel Halminiak or Jennifer Berger."
"In the typed document from Kris Arneson, Arneson reports that Kingman had an 'extremely abrasive and threatening tone' during their discussion," Hook wrote. "It is plausible that there was some type of investigation into this contact between Kingman and Arneson as she was asked to write a statement about what occurred between herself and Kingman. Kingman's email was also about what occurred during the meeting."
Hook observed that the document would have been within the time period of the River News's open records request and the subject matter that the Northwoods River News requested on July 23, 2018.
The date and subject matter was relevant to the investigation of Guild, Hook concluded.
"This document was not released to the Northwoods River News by Guild though Guild was aware of it because Guild released it to Ben Meyer in response to the open records requests that Guild suggested Meyer make," she wrote.
Timeline of missing records
Not only was Guild aware that that record existed, he continued to tell others through the following months, through June 2019, that Kingman's records were intact, though Taylor's open records request went unfulfilled during that time.
On June 23, 2019, for example, according to Hook's probable cause supplemental report, Guild reported to then city attorney Hector De la Mora that he had a file cabinet with employee files for most all current and many former employees of the city, "including a file for Public Works Director Tim Kingman."
However, Kingman was fired on or about June 25, 2019, and the narrative changed after that.
For one thing, Kingman soon had an attorney - he ultimately filed a federal lawsuit alleging that his employment with Rhinelander was "wrongfully terminated" and he was 'wrongfully retaliated against" - and the attorney was also seeking his client's personnel records.
He, too, would come up short. As River News associate editor Heather Schaefer has reported, in July, following his termination, Kingman requested that his entire personnel file be forwarded to his attorney.
"Guild responded to this request on July 24, 2019, with what the city then had in Kingman's personnel file which amounted to a total of 19 pages," Kingman's federal lawsuit complaint stated. "On or about August 1, 2019, Guild indicated that the documents sent to Kingman's attorney was really an inadvertent response to (River News reporter) Jamie Taylor's July 23, 2018, request and it was discovered that Kingman's personnel file had been inappropriately removed from the city files," the complaint states.
The email, quoted by Hook in her review of emails obtained in the search warrant, does reference Taylor but repeats the essential claim: the files had been inappropriately removed.
On August 20, according to the Kingman's court complaint, the city sent Kingman's attorney all responsive documents they could locate on Kingman's personnel file, which again amounted to only the 19 documents previously provided on July 24.
"[T]here was no document detailing any investigation into prior complaints made over the last several years by DPW workers against Kingman which were determined to be without basis," the complaint states.
A major point of interest for law enforcement during their investigation was the question of access to the records: If the records were removed, who had the ability to do so?
According to a sheriff's department timeline of important events, in a July 11, 2019, report to the city attorney that he had received a request for the personnel file from Kingman's attorney, Guild maintains the files were removed by "actors unknown": "Tim's file was purged prior to my arrival by actors unknown. However, through my own investigation and conversations with current and former employees, I was able to reconstruct a lot of document."
On July 23, according to the timeline, Guild reached out again to the city attorney and reported: "Tim's personnel file was purged. Someone went into the city's employment records and removed everything from Kingman's file."
To law enforcement officers, though, the ability to access the records circled back to Guild. For one thing, from the start of his tenure, Guild moved to assert his authority over all personnel matters.
"Guild began as the city administrator on September 17, 2018, and in an email on September 25, 2018, identified himself as 'the chief personnel officer for the city,'" Hook wrote in her probable cause report.
Also in that report, Hook noted officers' interviews with city clerk Valerie Foley, who reported that the personnel files of the city of Rhinelander were under the control of Guild.
"Foley was shown the email sent to Jamie Taylor on August 1, 2019, by Daniel Guild," Hook said of her and captain Tyler Young's interview with Foley on October 23, 2019. "Foley said she was not involved in the preparation of this email. Foley said she was not involved in this request as the city administrator is in possession of the personnel files."
On October 22, 2019, Hook and Young interviewed Stephanie Rajnicek, who was the city administrator's assistant for the city of Rhinelander from July 2017 through May 10, 2019.
"We explained to Rajnicek that we were investigating the missing personnel file from the city of Rhinelander for Tim Kingman," the report states. "We explained we believed Rajnicek could provide us with some basic information about how personnel files were handled and where they were kept when Rajnicek worked at the city of Rhinelander."
Before Guild, Rajnicek had worked for the previous city administrator, Keith Kost.
"[W]hen Rajnicek worked for Kost, the key to the filing cabinet where the personnel files were kept were kept in Rajnicek's desk," the report of the interview states. "Rajnicek said Rajnicek could not access Kost's office unless Kost was present. Rajnicek said Rajnicek would access the personnel files to file things like DOT test results."
Things changed when Guild took over, Rajnicek told the officers.
"Rajnicek said when Guild took over as the city administrator, Guild asked Rajnicek for the keys to the cabinet and Guild kept the keys in his possession," the report states. "Rajnicek said when Rajnicek left the employment of the city of Rhinelander, the personnel files were still kept in the city administrator's office. Rajnicek said Guild would keep Guild's office locked."
Rajnicek told the officers that the last time she saw the keys for the filing cabinet, there was only one set of keys and there were two keys on the key ring. She also said there was a time when Guild had received new furniture and that he had moved some files to the basement.
"Rajnicek said Rajnicek did not know if any of these files were personnel files," the report stated.
The missing Kingman files were only part of the investigation.
Another aspect was whether Guild had tampered with certain emails Guild had sent to the League of Wisconsin Municipalities between the dates of January 31 and February 7, 2019.
"These emails were significant in that they occurred at a time when four city council members and the mayor were alleged to have been involved in a walking quorum over the subject of the performance of city council president George Kirby and the possibility of removing Kirby as the president of the council," Hook wrote in her report. "... Guild had originally written an email that contained the words 'we' and 'us.' By February 6, 2019, the date of the second email, there had been concern expressed about the walking quorum and Guild altered the email string so that the words that showed a group interest in the information was removed."
After Hook reviewed an investigation into that issue by a Price County investigator, she wrote that she, too, believed Guild had tampered with public records as well as committed misconduct in office based on the information the investigator had collected.
That aspect of the investigation will be explored in another story.
Richard Moore is the author of the forthcoming "Storyfinding: From the Journey to the Story" and can be reached at richardmoorebooks.com.
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