Nine Madison alders and Mayor Satya Rhodes Conway have co-sponsored a resolution to censure Alder Charles Myadze citing allegations by three women — a fellow alder, a city employee and a member of the public — that Myadze sexually harassed them.
The resolution does not mention three other women who alleged that Myadze physically abused them over the course of many years, including while he was in office.
An independent investigation initially found that the allegations of sexual harassment were credible, but Myadze’s conduct did not constitute sexual harassment, nor did it create a hostile work environment for two of the women.
The initial report, completed in August, indicated that Myadze did create a hostile environment for Alder Juliana Bennett. However, a supplemental report reversed that decision, citing text messages between Bennett and Myadze that seemed to indicate a cordial working relationship.
Two days after those investigative reports were made public, Madison365 reported that former school board president, deputy mayor and mayoral candidate Gloria Reyes alleged that Myadze physically abused her during a “volatile” three-year relationship, including for seven months after he joined the Common Council. Reyes’s allegations come several months after Myadze’s former girlfriend Michelle McKoy and ex-wife Jamie Johnson alleged that he had abused them for several years between 1998 and 2013.
Alder MGR Govindaranjan, who authored the resolution and announced it in a social media post, also called on Myadze to “resign immediately.”
Today I’m introducing a resolution alongside my colleagues to Censure Alder Myadze.
The City should be a safe work environment. The patterns of unethical behavior we’ve seen are unbecoming of an alder, and Myadze should resign immediately.
madison.legistar.com/LegislationD…
— MGR Govindarajan (@murali-mgr.bsky.social) November 20, 2024 at 12:13 PM
In an interview with Madison365 Wednesday, Govindaranjan said he authored the resolution because “it was the right thing to do,” and also because Bennett urged him to.
“Juliana and I are friends,” he said. “She is my predecessor (representing District 8). She was my mentor, and she is my friend. So when I was asked that, obviously my answer is going to be yes. So it was a big task that I felt honored to do for my friend and my mentor, but also knowing that it is the right thing to do.”
He said the resolution focuses on the allegations of sexual harassment because an independent investigation, during which due process allowed Myadze the opportunity to defend himself, found that Myadze engaged in conduct “unbecoming of an alder.”
“Due process was served,” he said. “Charles Myadze did have the opportunity to defend himself and explain his side of the story. And even through all of that, they found … that there is a pattern of inappropriate behavior coming from him, and that needed to be addressed. All of that was from the report. He had due process to defend himself, and therefore that’s why we felt that now, in a much more formal setting, we could censure him.”
The domestic abuse allegations have been reported by Madison365, but haven’t been the subject of a formal investigation. While Myadze has denied the allegations, he has declined the opportunity to defend himself further in the media.
“This is not about the court of public opinion,” Govindaranjan said.
Bennett said she is satisfied with the censure resolution as written, but she hopes the stories and voices of those who alleged domestic abuse by Myadze aren’t “lost in the discussion of a censure resolution.”
She said a resolution to expel Myadze from the council would require a public hearing, during which he could question witnesses.
“I can’t imagine how traumatizing that would be” for survivors of the alleged harassment and abuse, Bennett said.
Alder Sabrina Madison, a cosponsor of the resolution, said the investigative reports on the sexual harassment allegations were “a hard read, an emotionally taxing read” and that her “stomach was turning” reading Reyes’s allegations days later.
“I just have a lot of questions with not a whole lot of answers,” Madison said. “I’m just frustrated. I’m also hopeful that Gloria and the other women can be surrounded by people who really care about them and love them.”
In a statement issued Friday, Rhodes-Conway said the city is limited in what it can do because Myadze is not an employee.
“The recourse is with the public and the political process,” she wrote. “No one who harasses or abuses women should be in a leadership position at any level of government. While such behavior may be normalized elsewhere, I would hope that in Madison we have higher standards.”
More than two dozen elected officials and community leaders called on Myadze to resign in April, when Madison365 first reported the allegations by McKoy and Johnson. He renewed that call in a social media post Monday.
“Gloria Reyes has been a supporter and friend for years, but more importantly, she is a woman and a human being who deserves to be treated with safety, dignity and respect,” he wrote. “In April of this year, a group of 26 electeds signed on to a letter condemning the actions of Madison Alder Charles Myadze, urging him to step down. I stand by this call and amplify it in the wake of the revelations from his former partner Gloria, as well as the accounts of his colleague Juliana Bennett and various other women of threats, predatory conduct, and harassment. I urge other men, particularly those in our community with a platform, to speak up on this matter and stand with his victims.”
State Rep. Francesca Hong, another signatory on the statement seeking Myadze’s resignation, also issued a new statement Tuesday.
“It broke my heart to hear these deeply troubling accounts of sexual harassment, domestic abuse, and workplace hostility over the weekend,” she wrote. “Alder Myadze must be held accountable for the pain and suffering he has inflicted, and these allegations must be dutifully and thoroughly investigated … The Madison Common Council has a responsibility to take these reports seriously, address this apparent pattern of violence, and act decisively to ensure safety and justice going forward.”
The vice president of the Madison Professional Police Association, which endorsed Myadze in each of the past two elections, said in an email to Madison365 that the organization is “troubled by these reports which describe serious wrongdoing.”
In the statement, vice president Charles Pratt noted that the allegations were “not available during the campaign.”
“Needless to say, we do not support domestic violence and we trust and support that Alder Myadze will be thoroughly investigated and due process will be followed,” he wrote.
Myadze did not respond to a request for comment in response to the censure resolution.
