Nelson asks for Transparency in Franklin Open Records, but lies, lies, lie, lies - The two faces of John Nelson
At Tuesday's Common Council Meeting, Items G19 and G20, ask approval for the Common Council to release former records deemed attorney-client privilege. On the very left hand bottom of the G20 resolution it has Mayor - JRN and DOA -Hersh listed as authors. One must ask, why now? Transparency for thee but not for me? Nelson and Franklin Director Kelly Hersh continue to work the "we are transparent" angle by providing previously held "attorney-client" privileged records from 2023. In a deflection to shine the light away from Nelson and somewhere else, these records pertain to Steve Olson's time as Mayor.
FCN has been informed that the Mayor has required the city clerk to inform him of all open records requests. Why would the Mayor need to know each and every open records request that is submitted since according to the procedure that was released, he plays no part in open records requests. Appears that the mayor might want to "review" requests so he can "pre plan" his next move before becoming "transparent".
The record request was initially filed by Andy Pelkey, a personal friend of Hersh. Pelkey, sources have told FCN, had spent numerous hours with Hersh pertaining to the latest property assessment and selecting the new assessor. Same sources have also indicated Pelkey is responsible for the spike in assessments. It seems Nelson, Hersh, and pal Steve Taylor had very small increases in property tax compared to many others in Franklin. Nelson had an increase of about $200, Hersh had and increase of about $100, and Taylor had an increase on about $200. These increase appear low to the rest of the residents of Franklin.
Franklin Community News (FCN) previously reported:
Franklin Mayor Nelson Violates States Open Records Law - Caught Lying of Possessing Records - 3/31/24
As part of Nelson's investigation in Waterford, Nelson was interviewed by Steve Riffel. Riffel is a former Police Chief and Managing Partner of Community Security Solutions (CSS). CSS was hired by the Town of Waterford to conduct the initial investigation into Nelson and his former partner Lieutenant William Jeschke.
Below are excerpts from the transcript of Nelson Waterford Investigation those items highlighted in yellow are comments/clarifications from the publisher who was interviewed prior to Nelson:
STEVE RIFFEL:· So we also spoke to some people who were employed by Franklin when -- when you were not on administrative leave here, and they have informed us that you would call very frequently, daily, and conduct mayor business when they were new, and you were here at Waterford on duty.
How do you respond to that?
JOHN NELSON:· I don't re- -- I have no idea what you're talking about.
STEVE RIFFEL:· Okay.· Are you familiar with the State of Wisconsin public record laws as they relate to elected and appointed officials?
JOHN NELSON:· Pretty familiar
STEVE RIFFEL:· Okay.· Are you aware as an officer, lieutenant, and as a mayor, you are subject to open records? Wisconsin open record laws?
JOHN NELSON:· Yes.
STEVE RIFFEL:· Okay.· In the subject of emails and conversations, it's not exactly where the record is located, it's the -- or where you're located, it's the topic of the conversations; is that correct?
JOHN NELSON:· Say that again.
STEVE RIFFEL:· So if you're -- if you're here and you're doing -- if you're sending an email from here referencing mayoral business, that is a topic of an open records law -- or open records in Franklin, because it's not where you're at, it's what the -- the record's about.
JOHN NELSON:· No.
STEVE RIFFEL:· I'm not saying they're not the Town custodian. But I'm also saying that it's very clear that the subject of an email determines if it is a record, not the location of where you're at.· Because if that's the case, I could go up north and send a whole bunch of emails from up north from a part-time job, where I was working, about Chiefs of Police business and consider it not an open record.· And that's what I'm saying.
JOHN NELSON:· Well -- okay.· Let's bring this home again. So if you could rephrase that question so that I can put my head around open records.· I'm aware of open records, but what are you -- what -- what's your point here?
STEVE RIFFEL:· All right. Well, let's just put it this way:· Have you ever utilized your police email address to conduct Franklin business or communication with employees of Franklin regarding Franklin business?
JOHN NELSON:· So what I did is -- and I'm going to go back to the permission I had from the chief of police and then from Bill Jeschke to move forward. And as long as I wasn't composing an email -- so I never composed an email from Waterford. I may have responded to emails that I was included on, but I didn't compose emails and conduct Franklin business on my Waterford email.
However, again, during this whole divorce proceeding, the chief allowed me to be here and had no problem with me -- because he knew it was better for me to be here than to be at home where there was problems.· So he had no problem with me being here through that entire process.· So if you're asking me, you know, was I -- was I responding, I may have responded to things, but I never composed anything.
And did I do it from here?· Probably a few times, you know, but I -- there were -- there were emails that were -- I was part of a group that I had no control over that kept on being reply all, reply all, reply all, reply all, that I didn't respond to that were tagged into the server here.
STEVE RIFFEL:· Right.
JOHN NELSON:· And there was nothing I could do to prevent being in that group.
STEVE RIFFEL:· Well, we had -- I'll -- I'll -- just straight out, I looked at a bunch of emails that we pull -- had pulled.· There's stuff from you for the firefighters union over in Franklin.· There's stuff to Hersh.· That's why I asked you who she was.
JOHN NELSON:· Right.
STEVE RIFFEL:· There's a whole bunch of those that are there talking about Franklin business through your Waterford email address.
JOHN NELSON:· Well, there was, I believe, six responses that were made as a response to something.· That was, like, the senior lunch program, the seniors getting a 50-year plaque.· There were certain things like that were responded to, but not initially composed.· And again, I had the permission of the chief and then the number two, which was Bill Jeschke.
And another point that's very important here, that that two of them had the administrative rights to monitor any emails coming in or out of the Waterford PD. I did not have that level of ability.· But the two of them had that ability to monitor any email coming in or out of the system.
And never once ever was that brought to me that, "Hey, you can't do this.· You're doing something wrong."· Because I had advised my chief of that, and he was -- he was more happy that I was here and not home and, you know, wasn't worried about what I was doing.· But I wasn't composing, as others compose personal stuff here, and it's not even a -- a concern.
STEVE RIFFEL:· So what you're telling me is you've never utilized the Town of Waterford email address in a direct attempt to circumvent open record laws or anything in Franklin?
STEVE RIFFEL:· Yeah.
JOHN NELSON:· Never.
STEVE RIFFEL:· Okay.
JOHN NELSON:· Never ever.· I was an open -- I was then records custodian.· Bill and I were records custodians. I'm not going to circumvent anything.
STEVE RIFFEL:· Okay.· And so I'm pretty sure you guys are aware, the Town has made a record -- records request to Milwaukee County Sheriff and Milwaukee County Parks Department for your personal file contents.· The reason we did this is we believe the file contains matters that are probably pertinent to this reported behaviors in this current situation.
JOHN NELSON:· So now you want to go into what's in my personnel file?· I mean, this is -- this is dumb.
STEVE RIFFEL:· We reviewed your -- we reviewed your application for your employment and your questionnaire when you applied here.
STEVE RIFFEL:· And there's a question on there 103 -- let's see if I have it. Here it is. 103, where you said -- what did you say here? It's highlighted.
STEVE RIFFEL:· Well, it actually is.· Because looking at -- and -- and I'll move on to -- but encouraging a Franklin citizen to obtain records related to years of Town resources for Franklin.· You submitted an open records request or -- for Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office personnel records related to you to drop the issue in exchange for favors with Franklin. (Referring to the bribe made by Nelson to the Publisher of FCN) So the question becomes -- well, that's what I'm asking.· What did you think was in there?· And I'm going to go into that line of questioning, like, right now said -- what did you say here? It's highlighted.
STEVE RIFFEL:· Okay.· Okay.· So I'm -- I actually know the answer to this.· To be honest with you, I almost don't want to ask it, but I'm going to. Do you know a Franklin resident named Richard -- and I don't know why anybody can't have a Smith name, but Busalacchi.
STEVE RIFFEL:· Well, do you -- first of all, are you familiar with him?
JOHN NELSON:· Yes.
STEVE RIFFEL:· Did he also make an open records request to Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department for your personnel file?
JOHN NELSON:· Yes.
JOHN NELSON:· We -- there was a reach-out because he's -- he is a -- I call them "keyboard cowards."· He's a basement blogger that attacks me because he was a very close friend of the guy that I beat in the election. So Richard Busalacchi runs his own little blogging page which attacks me almost every day. (This would be First Amendment Rights - Freedom of Speech). And it's like -- and it's -- it's on -- you know, it's -- it's one of his things he does.
So Richard Busalacchi had made an allegation that I was interfering with his -- every time he has a police complaint and -- which is untrue.(Another blatant lie, a disorderly Citation ticket a police officer was forced to write by Nelsons Directive to shut down FCN and multiple investigation requests with proof that the FPF has chosen not to investigate to ask another jurisdiction to investigate)· So I brokered a meeting in my mayor's office with him and the chief of police to, basically, say "Look, Rich, you're blogging all about the fact that I'm interfering in a police complaint."· And the chief said, "Look, what complaint are you talking about?· I don't have anything to do with his" -- "anything he's got a complaint about.· Just doit.· I don't really care." (But Nelsons has a lot to do with it. In this interview he will admit to helping an individual in conspiracy with Taylor, and Supervisor Kathleen Vincent obtain a restraining order against the publisher of FCN for exposing corruption in Franklin in an attempt to silence the publishers First Amendment Rights.)
So the chief said, "Look, I'm going to assign a detective to handle all your complaints.· And whatever your complaints are, this detective will handle them.· He'll address them with you."· And that was when Rich, you know, realized that I wasn't obstructing anything he had (Nelson played the publisher, the investigation turned out to be bogus) and what his problems were and -- because he would openly blog and complain that there was, you know, this big conspiracy, (which turned out to be true hence the Civily Rights Complaint Filed by the Publisher) and that's what he's -- that's kind of his thing. So that's when Rich offered (Nelson directly lied, the publisher never offered to withdraw the request, Nelson specifically asked if the publisher would withdraw the request.) -- he's like, "Look, I know I put in this open records request.· You've been forthright.· I've got a detective.· I'm pulling it back. I don't want it."· And I said, "Okay.· Well, I was blocking it anyway.· I was using my legal right to" --
STEVE RIFFEL:· Oh, waznuki (phonetic) you?
JOHN NELSON:· What?
STEVE RIFFEL:· The waznuki?· Did they waznuki you?
STEVE RIFFEL:· Yeah.· Okay.· They -- they notified you that somebody was looking for it, you could argue that you didn't want it released.
JOHN NELSON:· Yes.
JOHN NELSON:· Yeah.· Okay.· So that -- so that's what I was doing anyway, was I was blocking anybody from getting that file -- because he's going to use it to put on his website. (Nelson just said that the publisher offered to pull back the request and now Nelson is saying he was blocking anybody from getting the file, this is a truthful lie).
Because what he did -- going back to the emails. When he was given the emails, he posted them. He posted all the emails he got from here.· It was, like, 81 emails. Your office has them. 81 emails. He posted right away. (Nelson seems to be concerned that the 81 emails identifying that he was campaigning and doing Franklin business time were posted. First Amendment Rights.) "Look at this scandal." Nobody cared.· They gave laughing emojois.· Nobody -- nobody cared because they had nothing relevant other than the things I gave you examples of.
So going back to Rich Busalacchi, why he has problems with me is because he also was infatuated with this woman who got a restraining order, and I helped her obtain that through the women's center (this would also be proven false by multiple statement's Taylor made to individuals that he was lied to and about everything, and the publisher did not do what Taylor was led to believe.)
STEVE RIFFEL:· You helped her obtain it?
JOHN NELSON:· I helped her obtain it against him -- (Nelson admits that he worked in a conspiracy with Taylor and Vincent).
STEVE RIFFEL:· Okay.
STEVE RIFFEL:· Just so we can keep going and not -- I get it. I mean, I understand this. And I'm not disagreeing with you on some of the points that he's not very fond of you. I'll be quite honest with that. On July 5th, did you meet with him at the Hideaway in Franklin at a back corner table?
JOHN NELSON:· I know we had lunch. I don't know what day we had lunch.
STEVE RIFFEL:· Did you have it there?
JOHN NELSON:· We ate at the Hideaway, yes.
STEVE RIFFEL:· Okay. Are you aware that there are security cameras there at the Hideaway?
STEVE RIFFEL:· Okay.· So did you inform him that if he retracted his open records request for your personnel file, that you would help him have access to the Franklin police chief and police department for his complaint?
JOHN NELSON:· No. I said that we're going to have a meeting with the chief, period.· And that's when he brought up, "Well" -- you know -- you know, "I'm going to take you at your word, and if everything works out, you know, I'm going to" --"I'm going to" -- "I'm not" -- "I don't want your file.· I knowit's" -- you know -- he -- he went in -- and then he goes into this whole reasoning behind why he hates the current county supervisor, who was involved with this woman, who's got the restraining order against him, and that's where that conversation led.
STEVE RIFFEL:· Okay.· Well, let me ask you this:· Did you further advise him at the meeting that you had contacted the then president of MATC, which apparently was his employer, to complain about him and get him fired, and then you were surprised at how fast they acted and he got fired?
JOHN NELSON:· So I'm going to answer this, but can ask why this has anything to do with Waterford Police Department?
STEVE RIFFEL:· Because it has to do with the fact that we're talking about this open records request.· It's also -- and I understand what you're saying.· But he's saying that this is also playbacking to when he did the open records request here. And I'm going to lean into that. Because he did an open records request here as well.
JOHN NELSON: Oh, I know -- I know he did. He told me he did.
STEVE RIFFEL:· Okay.
JOHN NELSON:· I mean, so why Rich Busalacchi thinks that I helped him in his demise.· So he had been an employee of MATC for about 33 years (how would Nelson know this?), and he was of a director level. Okay? He sent -- and I don't know exactly what month, but it was late last year -- an email to all the Franklin electives and certain department heads and members of The Rock that -- and he just blasted them. Openly blasted them. Meaning, hypercritical, making all his crazy allegations like he's got on his website.· And he does this. And he does this from the MATC domain.· Okay?· So for -- and I open it up in my mayor's email.· I'm like -- I'm reading this whole hit piece, and I'm like, "Oh, Rich Busalacchi."· His signature on the bottom about his position at MATC.· So it came from MATC. (This is correct I stated during public comment at a February 2024 that I mistakenly used the default MATC account on the iphone instead of my personal account. A search of MATC recrds will show no other Franklin emails exist that were sent from the MATC server.)
STEVE RIFFEL:· Uh-huh.
JOHN NELSON:· So that's why they worked quick.· So they gave him, apparently -- in his words, they gave him an offer, whether -- you know, retire, or you're on your last chance out. (Nelson again lies, there was never any mention of an offer or last chance out by MATC).
So then what he does is he goes on this whole big thing on his page, including coming to -- to Common Council meetings, and saying, "Hey, I'm retiring.· I'm" -- and he would come to every Common Council meeting.· If you really want to have fun, look at all those citizen comment periods.· He would come there and just go at me every time.
STEVE RIFFEL: Yeah, I hear that's what -- I don't doubt that.
·JOHN NELSON: That's what he does. So what I'm saying is -- so I was the only one.· I told him, I said, "Rich" -- I said, "If you're asking me to tell you the truth, I will." I said, "I did say" -- "I did contact the president of MATC."· And I did reiterate what I just told you about the 5.2 percent, and that his is from the domain.· I said, "But anybody could have did it.· You gave it to every elected, department heads, The Rock.· Anybody could have contacted MATC.· I'm just telling you that I did." (Nelson admits that he intentionally interfered with the publishers employment for exercising his First Amendment Rights.)
STEVE RIFFEL:· Let me ask you this:· Did -- when --during this meeting at the -- the Hideaway, did -- did you raise your fist to him and -- and in an aggressive manner, basically, where he made a comment that "What are you going to hit me in public"?
JOHN NELSON:· No.· I was talking like this to him because he asked me --
STEVE RIFFEL:· So you were -- you were pointing your finger at him?
JOHN NELSON:· But I'm sitting in my seat. (Nelson lies, he stood up with his fist in my face leaning over the table).
STEVE RIFFEL:· Okay.
JOHN NELSON:· But I'm talking.· I'm not yelling at him.· I'm threatening him.· But he asked me about this -- the restraining order.· And I said, "Yeah, if I" -- because the --the woman -- the younger -- much younger woman, that he was some sort of involvement in, that had the restraining order against him, her parents come to the council meetings, and they see him. (Nelson lies that he was not yelling at me but just threatening me? Is that same? Nelson also lies that the discussion was about the restraiing order, it was not. The discussion was about me being interviewed by Mr. Riffel as part of the investigation and providing many open records to them proving Nelson is deceitful and vindictive.)
And I said, "Rich" -- I said, "I don't know how the dad handles seeing you knowing that his daughter's got a restraining order against you."· I don't -- I don't understand how the -- I give that guy the -- Nobel Peace Prize, I believe is what I said.· But there was never any threatening anything. There was never ever, you know, whatever. (Nelson lies and makes up a complete fabricated story to deflect that the Parents and the Dad went to common council meetings. The Mayor could never identify one meeting that the publisher was at that the parents were there when the publisher was there or even at all. Never. Ever.
· STEVE RIFFEL: Well, on July 6th, at the Franklin Civic Celebration, did you go up to him and inform him based upon your lunch meeting, that you'd set up a meeting with the chief of police to discuss this whole complaint that he had?
JOHN NELSON:· All I remember is when I saw him at -- at the Franklin event, I walked up, I shook his hand, he shook my hand, and I went to the bathroom. (Nelson lies. He came up to me and indicated that the Chief would not be in the office until Wednesday due to the 4th Festival so I should plan on meeting with him and the Chief then. Nelson would let me know the time.)
STEVE RIFFEL:· And you never said anything about setting up a meeting?
JOHN NELSON:· I thought we talked about that prior to.
STEVE RIFFEL:· Okay.
JOHN NELSON:· I mean, we talked about setting up a meeting with the chief, and then we had a meeting with the chief.
STEVE RIFFEL:· Yeah.· Did you set that up for July 10th, like, in the morning with the chief?
Were you there?
JOHN NELSON:· I -- I -- well, I set up a meeting.· And yes, I was there. (Nelson admits after denying that he set up a meeting).
STEVE RIFFEL:· Okay.
JOHN NELSON:· It was three of us.
STEVE RIFFEL:· So July 12th, he's telling us he met with Detective Zalewski over at Franklin and -- to discuss this unrelated matter.· And he said right after that, he delivered an envelope containing a hard copy email that you had sent -- he had -- that he had sent the Milwaukee County Corporation Counsel withdrawing his open records request. Did you send him a text message -- to him on July 25th saying "received" and "thank you"?
JOHN NELSON:· I -- I do recall sending him something saying, I believe, receive -- because he had said he was going to do it, and just -- I wanted to acknowledge it, because I wasn't there whenever he dropped it off.· I mean, I get a stack in that mayor's inbox daily. (Nelson admits that he bribed the publisher in return for police services).
STEVE RIFFEL:· Okay.
EDITORIAL
It should be plainly clear that John Nelson is a crooked politician and lies at any opportunity to cover his back side. The question remains why given complaints with evidence the Franklin Police Department has refused to investigate Mayor "it was a hit job Nelson". Why won't the City of Franklin Common Council step up and do the right thing. Ask for an investigation of the Mayor? What is it or who is it the Common Council is afraid of by doing the right thing?
Some thought provoking questions for your consider from this little blogger who is a "Keyboard Coward" according to Nelson, and who will not be swayed for doing the right thing - exposing the stench emanating from 9229 West Loomis Road, Franklin City Hall.
It should be apparent that Nelson has a disdain for "transparency" and will go to any length including working in a conspiracy to have the publisher of FCN given a restraining order and subsequently working to have him charged and sentenced with violating the restraining order with his co-conspirators. All to shut down the "keyboard coward" from filing ethics complaints and exposing the deception and lies between Taylor, Eichmann, Nelson, Vincent and Zimmerman?
Why was Nelson so upset that FCN published the 81 open records it obtained from Waterford? Because the emails proved that Nelson was doing campaign work and City of Franklin work from his Waterford Computer while on the clock at Waterford? To be thorough FCN has asked for another batch of open records from Waterford from June 1, 2022 thru June 30, 2024. In addition FCN has asked for all of Lieutenant Nelsons time sheets from this same period. You can be sure we will be transparent just as Nelson wants and make them available to you.
Nelson admitted that he vindictively and maliciously interfered in the publishers employment because of Nelsons disdain for the publisher posting what Nelson calls "Hypercritical, crazy allegations, hit piece". Nelson somehow knew that the publisher had worked 33 years at MATC. How would Nelson know that? Nelson lied in the investigation as the publisher never shared with Nelson of an offer or last chance out by MATC. Here is a link to that blog from February 2, 2024. FCN stands by this piece which was not a "hit piece" or "hypercritical" but called out Nelson, Taylor, Eichmann and others with facts of lies, deception, and being sleazy politicians, who do not have morals, ethics, or values nor do they have the best interest of Franklin residents in mind but their own political future. Franklin - Bought and Paid for by ROC Ventures, Steve Taylor, and Mike Zimmerman.
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