Helke seeks court review of Rhinelander commission’s police captain promotion

A Rhinelander Police Department officer who was interviewed last month for the role of police captain, but was not offered the promotion, is taking legal action.

Patrol sergeant Kurt Helke was one of only two candidates for the police captain position, together with then-fellow patrol sergeant Chad Brown. Each was interviewed separately in the executive board room behind the council chamber at Rhinelander City Hall in a closed session of the Rhinelander Police and Fire Commission the morning of Feb. 5. Helke was called back in a second time by the commissioners and emerged a few minutes later, leaving the council chamber before the announcement was made that Brown would be the new police captain.

On March 6, the day Brown was sworn into his new role, Helke filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari, Proposed Writ of Certiorari, and Brief in Support of Petition for Writ of Certiorari against the Rhinelander Police and Fire Commission with the Clerk of Circuit Court at the Oneida County Courthouse.

According to the brief, Helke is seeking a common-law certiorari review of the commission’s decision to promote the other candidate despite Helke’s “substantially greater supervisory experience and training, without disclosing objective standards, without making findings, and without obtaining the recommendation of the Chief of Police.”

Also in the brief, Helke alleges that he has approximately 22 years of supervisory experience compared to Brown’s approximately five years, and that the commissioners “did not apply or disclose any objective scoring rubric or promotional metric, and did not provide any explanation or findings supporting the selection of the other candidate.”

The Petition for Writ of Certiorari states that the commission’s decision “violated Wisconsin law, exceeded its statutory authority, and was arbitrary, unreasonable, and unsupported by the administrative record. The Commission failed to follow the requirements of Wis. Stat. SS 62.13(4), failed to base its decision on merit, efficiency, and fitness, failed to utilize or disclose objective evaluation criteria, and failed to articulate a rational basis for selecting a demonstrably less qualified candidate.”

According to the brief, Wisconsin Stat. SS 62.13 assigns police and fire commissions authority over appointments and promotions, but that authority must be exercised according to law and in a manner tied to merit, efficiency, and fitness.

The Petition for Writ of Certiorari alleges that relevant open records were requested on Feb. 16 to both the Rhinelander Police Department and Rhinelander City Hall but that to date no records had been provided, “suggesting an unnecessary or intentional delay.” 

It states, “You are hereby commanded that within thirty (30) days of service of this Writ, you shall certify and return to this Court the complete record of the proceedings relating to the promotional decision at issue, including but not limited to: All meeting notices and agendas; minutes of all relevant meetings; audio or video recordings of proceedings; all documents reviewed by the Commission; any scoring sheets, notes, or evaluation materials; correspondence relating to the promotional process; any written decisions, findings, or memoranda.”

In a certiorari review, the brief explains, “the Court examines whether the respondent kept within its jurisdiction, acted according to law, acted arbitrarily, oppressively, or unreasonably, and made a determination supported by evidence reasonably contained within the record. Certiorari is the ordinary mechanism for judicial review of a municipal body’s quasi-judicial decision where no other adequate remedy at law exists.

“The bottom line is, it’s our position that the Police and Fire Commission followed their rules and they did their job,” Rhinelander city attorney Steve Sorenson told the River News. “To the best of our knowledge, they did exactly what they were supposed to do. They have the right to hire and fire the chief, the captain, and they did it. We have no reason to believe they didn’t do it. As far as the city is concerned, we have no reason to believe they did it improperly.”

Helke did not respond to the River News’ email and phone messages.

Ardith Carlton may be reached at [email protected].