‘Unprecedented.’ Shelia Stubbs rejected by county panel she once led | Government

State Rep. Shelia Stubbs was rejected for a top Dane County job by the same committee she once chaired, a decision the county executive blasted on Friday as an “unprecedented” attack on a highly qualified nominee.

Stubbs’ nomination as director of Dane County Human Services will next go to the Personnel & Finance Committee for a recommendation on Monday, then on to the full County Board on Thursday.

The county’s seven-member Health and Human Needs Committee voted unanimously Thursday evening to oppose her appointment. Among those protesting the decision were Stubbs’ family and friends, other community leaders and Dane County Executive Joe Parisi, who nominated her.

“Members of the Dane County Board last night went on record saying an African American woman with a master’s degree in management and bachelors’ degrees in criminal justice and political science, 16 years in county elected office, who has lived experience volunteering in community centers and working for decades to fight poverty and racism while advocating for those less fortunate is not qualified to lead the county’s work in serving vulnerable populations,” Parisi wrote in a statement issued Friday afternoon. “What occurred last night was unprecedented.”

County Board Chairman Patrick Miles and others expressed concerns that Stubbs had indicated she planned continue in her job representing the 77th District in the state Assembly while taking on a high-level, full-time leadership role for the county.

But Stubbs sought to head off that concern before the committee meeting Thursday when she issued a statement saying she would leave the Assembly.

“Dear Constituents, I have decided that upon confirmation my intention is to submit my resignation to the Governor. Sincerely, Shelia,” the Madison Democrat wrote in a tweet.

Parisi announced Stubbs as his pick for the position, which has a salary of $181,500 per year, earlier this month. Her legislative salary is $57,408 per year.

Stubbs represented the south side of Madison on the Dane County Board from 2006 to 2022. The resolution supporting her hire noted that during that time, Stubbs introduced the legislation that created what is now known as the Dane County Behavioral Health Resource Center.

“She also initiated Dane County’s Community Restorative Court which provides alternatives for those who commit non-violent crimes,” the resolution says. “Mrs. Stubbs served five years as chair of the County Board’s Health and Human Needs Committee, the oversight body for the Department of Human Services.”

She was elected to represent the 77th Assembly District in 2018, becoming the first Black person to represent Dane County in the Legislature.

She did not respond to previous questions from the Cap Times about whether she planned to step down if confirmed to the new role, but the Wisconsin State Journal reported on Wednesday that she had indicated her plans to hold both positions during a recent speech at End Times Ministries International, the church she and her husband co-founded. According to the State Journal report, the speech was available in a Facebook video last week before the post was taken down. Stubbs had also signaled her plans to hold both roles in an email to constituents.

The State Journal report detailed Stubbs’ comments at the church; she argued she was facing heightened scrutiny because she is Black and urged people to “pray, fast and believe with me, and I believe we’ll take it by force.”

Members of the Health and Human Needs Committee cast doubt on Stubbs’ appointment ahead of Thursday’s meeting. The committee chair, Supervisor Heidi Wegleitner, asked the county to produce application materials, interview questions, references and interview notes for all finalists, as well as the applications from the other 21 people who applied.

Ultimately, county officials decided to turn over materials for the four finalists: Stubbs, as well as Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs official April Heim; Astra Miriaku Iheukumere, the current interim director of Dane County Human Services; and Regina Vidaver, a chronic disease and cancer control manager for the state Department of Health Services and Madison City Council member.

County officials withheld identities and materials of the other applicants, citing a concern that releasing them would discourage future applications for high-level jobs.

Parisi characterized the pushback on Stubbs as different from the response to any other nomination he’s presented to the County Board. He stopped short of calling the committee’s vote racist, but his implications were clear.

“Rep. Stubbs and the community she represents have seen this unprecedented response, political tactics under the false guise of process, and like any population that struggles to achieve equity and only seeks fairness have been understandably frustrated,” he said.

Stubbs’ resignation from the Assembly would create a vacancy that would be filled by a special election.