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Story, YouTube video: Sheboygan Mayor Bob Ryan accused of sexual harassment
By Kate McGinty • Gannett Wisconsin Media • September 24, 2009
SHEBOYGAN — City leaders are crossing their fingers that the uproar dies down quickly over an Internet video that shows a drunken Mayor Bob Ryan making sexually explicit comments about his sister-in-law.
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More than 6,500 people have already watched the YouTube video — posted on Tuesday evening by a user named “MrMeyerjoe” — of Ryan talking in a bar about his sister-in-law’s looks and sexual abilities.
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The video was the topic of talk radio programs across the state, and media from across eastern Wisconsin showed up Thursday for a news conference Ryan gave to apologize to the community.
Ryan also is facing a sexual harassment complaint from the city’s former human resources director, whom he fired in August.
“Over the past 48 hours, multiple events have put my reputation and my personal lifestyle in question,” Ryan said. “This situation has made it quite obvious to me that it is time to choose between my personal lifestyle and the job of running this city, and I choose the job.”
He said he plans to hire a medical professional “to guide me through my personal life to make sure that I’m heading in the right direction,” but he refused to say if that will be specifically related to alcohol use.
Asked if he has a drinking problem, Ryan said, “No, I do not.”
The few city and county leaders who would speak publicly on Thursday voiced support of Ryan, praising his work during five months as mayor. They hope, albeit with some uncertainty, that public attention will return to his political agenda.
Ald. Bill Wangemann, also a city historian who has been a public employee since 1963, called the video “character assassination.”
“I don’t give it much credibility. … We don’t know who took it, or where it was taken, or when it was taken,” Wangemann said.
That kind of video can be very damaging for a politician, though, said Bruce Browne, an English and communication arts professor at the University of Wisconsin-Sheboygan and adviser to the student newspaper.
“I think the truth of the matter is that this can carry a political sledgehammer, simply because this kind of media can easily go viral,” he said.
“If it’s on YouTube today, it may well be on Jon Stewart tomorrow, and it may well be all over the blogosphere after that. The speed with which these things go is so much accelerated that this can get out of hand.”
Ryan said the two-minute video was shot in July without his knowledge. Wisconsin statues require that only one person in a conversation know that exchange is being recorded.
He said he learned of the video Wednesday but has not seen it. In an interview on WHBL-AM radio, he said there are “probably” additional videos out there and urged anyone who has them to release them now and “get it over with.”
