Complaint: Burke manipulated payroll
11:09 AM 6/26/02
Dee J. Hall Wisconsin State Journal
indent Sen. Brian Burke manipulated his taxpayer-funded payroll to pay his staff for - and hide their involvement in - his race for attorney general, according to the criminal complaint filed against him Wednesday in Dane County Circuit Court.
indentIn one case, aide Liz Schilling complained to Burke chief of staff Tanya Bjork that work rules established Nov. 1 as a result of the caucus scandal were making it difficult to hide the campaign work she was doing on state time. Although she was paid by the state, Schilling's job was to handle finance reports and thank-you notes to political contributors for Burke's race for attorney general, according to the criminal complaint.
indentSchilling told Bjork that "it was very difficult to keep track of her time, as she was working a large part of her time in the private Burke campaign office near the Capitol building, but was now required to log in 30-minute increments what she was doing in the Capitol," the complaint said.
indentTo get around the reporting requirements, Burke agreed to raise Schilling's salary by $832 a month from - $2,334 to $3,166 - in November. Then in December, Schilling's hours and salary were cut by roughly 25 percent, so she could continue to work on the campaign but make the same amount she made while working full time, according to the complaint.
indentThe complaint alleges that the same mechanism was used to pay Katherine Heringlake for her fund raising for Friends of Brian Burke. In November, Heringlake was given an $886-a-month raise at her Senate job, from $2,850 to $3,736. Two months later, in January 2002, Heringlake dropped her work hours by roughly 25 percent, and her salary reverted to $2,802 a month, nearly its old level.
indentThe raise and reduction in hours were given because Bjork was "concerned about the amount of time Heringlake was spending doing campaign work on state time," the complaint said.
indentHeringlake was placed on unpaid leave in April after she was charged in Dane County Circuit Court in an unrelated case with taking $12,938 from the National Abortion Rights Action League of Wisconsin, where she was head of the board of directors.
indentSchilling left Burke's staff in March.