Chvala repays legal fees to state
10:44 AM 3/21/02
Phil Brinkman State government reporter
indentSenate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala has reimbursed the state $10,000 in fees, initially charged to taxpayers, for lawyers to represent him in the ongoing legal probe into campaign activity by the now defunct partisan caucuses.
indent"Sen. Chvala has paid and will continue to pay any legal bills from his personal funds," Chvala spokesman Mike Browne said Thursday.
indentSenate Chief Clerk Don Schneider confirmed he had received a refund Thursday morning from Gimbel, Reilly, Guerin & Brown, the firm representing Chvala, D-Madison, after he paid the bill in November.
indentAlthough the reimbursement came just days after Chvala's legal tab became public, attorney Patrick Knight said Chvala had sent him a check covering his fees in mid February.
indentNeither Browne nor Knight would say what the legal help concerned. In October, a Senate committee approved paying up to $10,000 for each lawmaker and staffer questioned as part of a legal inquiry into alleged abuses of state ethics and campaign finance laws by the partisan caucus staffs and their leaders.
indentSchneider previously released an edited copy of the bill, with the client's name blacked out, in response to several requests for copies of all caucus legal bills.
indentThe connection to Chvala was made after Knight revealed he was representing Chvala in response to a deposition request by Common Cause in Wisconsin, which is suing to stop payment of the legal fees.
indentTo date, taxpayers have paid more than $99,000 in legal fees in the Senate and $380,000 in the Assembly.
indentAssembly Speaker Scott Jensen, R-Waukesha, also charged more than $89,000 in private legal fees to negotiate a settlement with the state Ethics and Elections boards. The boards in October agreed to drop their investigation into the caucuses in exchange for abolishing the partisan offices. District attorneys in Dane and Milwaukee counties continue to investigate, however.
indentAlso Thursday, state Rep. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee, urged Jensen to reimburse the fees he has incurred in the investigation, thought to amount to $45,000.
indentAsked whether Jensen had or planned to do so, his spokesman, Steve Baas, said only that it "wouldn't be proper" to say anything about the pending investigation.