MADISON – A cabinet secretary who served with a former Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch turned against her Friday, saying she had ignored problems with the state’s unemployment system for years, leading to a crisis when the coronavirus pandemic.
Manny Perez, the first workforce development secretary under Republican Gov. Scott Walker wrote in a column in The Wisconsin State Journal that Walker and Kleefisch had disregarded his pleas to upgrade the state’s many-year-old computer systems that process unemployment claims.
“They knew this was a crisis waiting and did nothing,” Perez wrote.
Keith Gilkes, who served as Walker’s chief of staff, called Perez’s claims false. He described Perez as a disgruntled employee who left his position in 2011 after less than five months on the job.
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In his column, Perez wrote that he had flagged the problems three weeks after Walker and Kleefisch took office. He outlined a plan to work with the US Department of Labor over federal funds using state’s systems, but the idea was rejected, he wrote.
“It was clear to me that under no circumstances would the Walker-Kleefisch administration accept federal help from a Democratic president to fix a failing unemployment insurance system in Wisconsin,” he wrote. “They did not care that a failed system would hurt businesses, workers and families. They only cared about how politically they would accept President Barack Obama. It was playing politics at its worst, and it hurt Wisconsin.”
In an interview Friday, Perez said Gilkes had emphatically turned down the proposal when he raised it with him. He said Gilkes spoke for Walker and Kleefisch.
“Speaking to Keith Gilkes, it is a lieutenant governor who is automatically responsible for the department and the governor is the judge,” Perez said.
Gilkes said he and others knew that a variety of computer systems would require state-of-the-art upgrades, but Perez did not have the specific upgrades or pressure he needed to get them to pay for the federal government.
“There was nothing he could have done for us and asked for permission to go and get a whole new system paid for by the Department of Labor,” Gilkes said. “If that was the case, we would certainly have done it. But the reality is that those things were not discussed or put forward in a serious manner or in a way that drew attention to anybody.”
Democratic Gov. Tony Evers was charged in early 2020 when the pandemic hit and unemployment claims reached unprecedented levels. The state fell months behind in processing claims, leading Wisconsinites to fall behind on their bills. Frustrated callers may find it almost impossible to reach the Department of Workforce Development, and when they do, they often can’t get the basic questions answered.
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Kleefisch and other Republicans have the problems for Blamed Evers, but Perez noted in his column that Walker, Kleefisch and Republicans Who Controlled the Legislature Over eight years of needing to upgrade the computer system even though they knew it needed to be done.
Walker and Kleefisch took office and spelled out their eight-year tenure during an audit and budget memos before the system first came to light.
A statement in Kleefisch campaign manager Charles Nichols called Perez a “disgraced ex-cabinet secretary.”
“He has absolutely no credibility today, and after he left, he praised DWD and said he accomplished everything he wanted,” Nichols said in his statement.
“This is just another attempt by Tony Evers’ office to point the finger at someone else. The governor is too cowardly and weak to accept his own actions.”
Nichols’ statement said Perez had been charged with harassment.
A woman who worked with Perez said she filed a harassment complaint with the state Department of Administration in 2011, but records show she had not done so.
In 2013, Perez faced harassment allegations from a different woman who served as general manager of Esperanza Unida. A court commissioner dismissed her complaint shortly afterward.
Perez called the harassment claim falses. He said he had not been able to speak to Evers or Kleefisch’s Republican rivals.
Perez served as workforce development secretary from January to May 2011. When he announced his departure, he told employees he had “a great short period of time to put together great things.” Perez said Friday he believed he had done what he needed to do and that he had problems with the unemployment system.
Shortly after he left, Perez said he had been escorted out of the building by a Capitol police officer. The Walker administration at the time said that was not the case.
The state recently launched a yearslong program to overhaul the computer systems. It is expected to cost $ 80 million and is being paid by the federal government. The state abandoned a similar project in 2007 after delays and cost overruns.
In his Friday column, Perez noted that Kleefisch said in a September 2011 interview with WMTV that the administration had heard about “some issues with unemployment insurance.”
Perez’s decision to speak out against his former bosses echoes the 2018 campaign, when four other former cabinet secretaries criticized Walker, including three who urged voters to support Evers that year.
Kleefisch is running a Republican primary against construction business owner Tim Michels, management consultant Kevin Nicholson and state Rep. Tim Ramthun of Campbellsport.
The winner of the Aug. 9 primary will face Evers in the Nov. 8 general election.
Contact Patrick Marley at patrick.marley@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter @patrickdmarley.