Tommy Washbush
The Madison Metropolitan School District Doyle Administration Building.
A second investigation into former spokesman Tim LeMonds found that communications department employees experienced significant challenges as a result of his leadership style.
An investigation done for the Madison school district by an outside law firm has found that former spokesman Tim LeMonds “engaged in retaliation against and bullying toward” two district employees and that he “was dishonest with district employees, including his supervisor, and insubordinate toward his supervisor.” According to the investigation’s findings and conclusions, written by attorney Shana Lewis, who conducted the probe, no evidence was found that LeMonds engaged in discrimination. The July 5 summary was obtained by Isthmus through an open records request.
An earlier internal investigation by the district into bullying complaints lodged against LeMonds found insufficient evidence that he had violated district policy and did not recommend disciplinary action.
On May 1, the district hired Renning Lewis Lacy, a management-side law firm, to conduct the district’s second investigation into LeMonds. The launch of the investigation was about a month after LeMonds sued to prevent the district from releasing a 14-page complaint that triggered the first investigation. That complaint accused LeMonds of “years of consistent emotional abuse, bullying, unequal pay, and harassment on the basis of gender, and race or ethnicity.” Staffers also noted how he mistreated and disparaged journalists, calling one female reporter a “pig of a journalist.”
For her investigation, Lewis says that between May 11 and June 16 she interviewed 12 district employees and witnesses and reviewed documents from them. Her July 5 summary finds that LeMonds retaliated against two employees after he learned in December of the complaints filed by current and former colleagues in October.
In one instance, LeMonds stopped answering the calls and emails of one employee and avoided interactions with her, which interfered with her ability to do her job. LeMonds reassigned another employee who had filed a complaint to the reception desk at the district office and “resurrected prior discussions about eliminating” his position in order to remove him from the department. LeMonds continued to try to eliminate this position through May 2023. The summary also notes that LeMonds stopped pursuing a raise for one employee in retaliation for her reaching out to human resources to check on the status of that raise.
“While Mr. LeMonds led the district’s communications department, the communications department employees experienced significant challenges as a result of Mr. LeMonds’ leadership style. They struggled to understand their role and to work collaboratively and efficiently as a result of Mr. LeMonds’ refusal to utilize a set structure, organizational chart, job descriptions, or other methods of assigning responsibilities to employees,” found the report. “Nearly all of the communications department employees confirmed that their job duties often changed based on Mr. LeMonds’ directives.”
After learning of this less structured approach, Dr. Richard McGregory, who is chief of staff for the district, “encouraged LeMonds to work closely with HR” on district procedures, which LeMonds did not do according to the report: “When he did not receive the answers he wanted and/or when the systems interfered with his goals/objectives, Mr. LeMonds would disregard or undermine the efforts of HR and the district’s established systems.”
Paul Kinne, LeMonds’ attorney, was defiant in his July 7 response to the investigative findings. “There is considerable overlap between this investigation and report and the first complaint and investigation report. Tim was absolved of nearly all allegations from the original complaint and investigation. A repeated investigation over matters already resolved constitutes labor-law double jeopardy,” Kinne wrote to the school district’s legal team.
He argued the district was feeling pressure from the media to fire LeMonds. “Please allow me to address the elephant in the room. The media have decided to lead a vendetta against Tim. We realize that the media’s unfair obsession with Tim puts MMSD in a difficult position. The media want MMSD to fire him, and as long [as] Tim remains employed by MMSD, MMSD itself has a public relations problem. The simplest thing would be to pay the ransom and terminate Tim.”
But, he added, that would come at a cost. “Should the district decide to terminate Tim or to impose significant discipline, please let me state the obvious. He will litigate this matter using every legal option available to him…. He has nothing to lose by fighting a termination as vigorously as possible and as long as necessary…. But this costly and time-consuming legal fight can be avoided if MMSD does the right thing. It should refrain from terminating Tim,” wrote Kinne.
On Aug. 3, news broke that LeMonds had received a $40,000 lump-sum payout plus unused sick leave in a separation agreement in which LeMonds voluntarily retired and waived any potential legal claims against the district.
Kinne declined to comment for this story. The school district could not be immediately reached.
