More than seven million dollars is headed to agencies which helped provide security during Capitol protests — but Madison police will have to wait awhile. A letter from 13 GOP lawmakers asked state officials to delay payments to Madison and Dane County, and State Senator Glenn Grothman took a pot shot at Madison police some of whom he claimed were participating in the protests. “There’s evidence out here that some of the Madison police were kind of participating in the protests, so you want to make sure than we’re not getting billed out for them showing their orange shirts around here and kind of egging people on,” Grothmann told Martha Kerner with the State Division of Administrative Services. Kerner is overseeing the audits of the 199 local law enforcement agencies and seven state agencies which provided security at the Capitol during protests earlier this year. “I just want to make sure that you guys are not just accepting what comes under your noses,” said Grothmann.
“We did receive follow-up information in answer to that exact question last Friday evening,” Krener told Grothmann and other members of the legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance. “We’re still looking it over. We would anticipate having this resolved in the next week or two.” State Representative Tamara Grigsby, a Milwaukee Democrat, took issue with Grothman. “It’s insulting to make the comments that have been made, about the very individuals who protected you, more than anyone, through the demonstrations,” she said.
The Joint Finance Committee approved reimbursing most of the agencies which provided security at the Capitol. Madison and three others — the Columbia County sheriff’s department and the Columbus and Tomah police departments — will have to wait until audits are complete. The Madison Police Department submitted the largest bill of all, more than $735,000 dollars.
AUDIO: Senator Glenn Grothmann (3:20)
