Wisconsin DOT “Flagrantly Ignored” Federal Civil Rights Requirements

How could a state agency fail in so many ways? The feds publish plenty of guidance and Title VI is not exactly an obscure statute. Title VI is a really big deal.

The federal report details the many ways Wisconsin ignored the law. Wisconsin’s Department of Transportation assigned duties related to Title VI to an administrative area that no longer exists, the report notes. As a result, “it is not apparent as to how WisDOT will be implementing Title VI/Nondiscrimination requirements.”

The feds found that key WisDOT employees did not have even a basic understanding of Title VI. They “consistently” said they understood Title VI to be about WisDOT employment diversity, contracting diversity and disadvantaged and small business opportunities. Those things, though, “do not constitute Title VI/Nondiscrimination requirements,” the report said.

And when the law did come up at WisDOT, it came up very quietly. The agency liked to keep such issues to itself, according to the federal report. Written records that might become public? Nawww.

WisDOT spokeswoman Peg Schmitt, in an abysmal attempt at spin control, told the Journal Sentinel that the OCR’s investigation was “routine” and the department was now in compliance with federal requirements. Maybe. But the OCR’s finding that WisDOT was deficient in fulfilling its Title VI obligations was hardly routine.