Urban Triage CEO Brandi Grayson and other Black women in Madison say they have been targeted in a campaign of harassment from a group of white, mostly unelected men.
Grayson, former Dane County Supervisor Dana Pellebon and east side alder Sabrina Madison told Madison365 that former Madison Common Council member and recent Common Council candidate Nino Amato, current Dane County Supervisor Jeff Weigand, and Madison resident Sean Burke have engaged in targeted harassment, racism, and “dangerous” behavior towards women of color in particular, and have worked to undermine the work of Urban Triage and discredit Grayson personally.
Amato, who downplayed his involvement in a phone interview with Madison365, lost by just nine votes to incumbent John Guequierre to represent District 19 in the most recent city council election, even though Amato lives in District 9.
Weigand raised eyebrows a year ago by claiming in a County Board meeting that “sin is the root cause” of homelessness.
Sabrina Madison contends that Burke has also engaged in explosive, rage-filled behavior toward her. Burke ran against Madison in the spring election.
Over the last two years, Burke, Amato and others have contacted local news outlets, including Madison365, to complain about Dane County contracts awarded to Urban Triage.
On April 8, Channel 3000 published an article reporting that Urban Triage was awarded rehousing and housing navigation contracts exceeding $100,000 without the required full vote of the Dane County Board. The piece also pointed out inconsistencies in dates between the resume Grayson submitted to the County and her LinkedIn profile.
The article contains no allegations of any financial impropriety.
“There was an issue with the dates on her resume as opposed to the dates on Linkedin,” Pellebon said. “But people are only looking at this because Sean Burke continually harasses this woman … They are holding her to a level of accountability they don’t hold anyone else to because (they) don’t like Brandi.”
Urban Triage has been doing housing navigation and housing work on behalf of the County for nearly five years.
“Dane County has been an amazing partner of Urban Triage,” Grayson told Madison365. “They’ve been so supportive. They’ve worked with us to build our infrastructure.”
Pellebon, who is also chair of the Urban Triage board of directors, agrees that the county has largely supported Urban Triage.
“There’s nobody sitting around [the County Board] saying Brandi is not doing the job,” Pellebon said. “Nobody at the grant organizations she works with. Nobody is complaining about how the grants were administered. She passed multiple audits.”
Grayson said the Channel3000 piece implied that Dane County Department of Human Services interim director Astra Iheukumere was essentially rubber-stamping contracts for Urban Triage.
“Sean Burke and Nino Amato want to prove that I’m in cahoots with Astra, that it’s her giving Urban Triage these grants because I guess we’re both Black,” Grayson said. “I don’t even know Astra.”
The Channel3000 piece only quoted Weigand and Grayson, and said a “Madison resident” provided a recording of himself speaking with members of the County Executive’s staff.
“The biggest thing to note is that all of these attacks are prompted by Sean Burke, Nino Amato and Jeff Weigand,” Pellebon said. “These couple of people have it out for this woman. Urban Triage is only receiving this pattern of harassment because of those three people.”
“Waste, fraud and abuse”
“The only thing I target is waste, fraud and abuse in any organization that is doing things and conducting itself the way Urban Triage is,” Weigand said. “The only thing I’ve ever advocated for is an audit of Urban Triage.”
Weigand cited “overspending” by Urban Triage and noted that Grayson said on social media that she regretted speaking to a white news reporter.
“Her behavior is my concern. I don’t care about anything else,” Weigand said. “And if other organizations’ leaders do that, there should be an audit.”
He also criticized Grayson’s salary.
“Tell me what CEO of a white nonprofit makes $292,000 a year or regrets talking to a reporter because they’re white,” he said.
Madison365 examined publicly available records of 73 nonprofit organizations currently contracted to provide human services for Dane County. Grayson’s salary is higher than the $198,000 average; however, those organizations spend, on average, more than 7% of their budget on executive compensation. At 2.9%, Urban Triage’s spending on executive salaries is relatively low.
Amato downplayed his involvement in an interview with Madison365. “It’s defamatory to falsely accuse someone of racism who has fought for civil rights,” Amato said. “My advice to Urban Triage and its board is to let them do an independent audit to clear their name. If there’s problems in the audit, make improvements.”
Amato identified Burke as the “whistleblower.”
“If he and his mother were given the homeless services he was entitled to, this would have never happened,” Amato said.
He said he’s tried to “coach” Grayson for years.
“When she started Young, Black and Gifted (sic) (in 2014), I tried to coach her and get her involved in the NAACP,” he said. “Brandi has gone through a lot of trauma and I’ve always wanted to coach her.”
“This is dangerous”
Sean Burke has displayed a pattern of angry outbursts publicly over the past several years. Burke often complains about living conditions in motels he is forced to stay at due to homelessness. When speaking to agencies, media or community leaders about the conditions he often pivots to attacks on Grayson.
“Sean Burke is someone who has harassed me for the last two years,” Madison said. “He has harassed so many local agencies here that no one will really help him anymore. He just screams, yells, and lies. So, no one will really work with him.”
Burke does the same with members of the media.
In addition to contacting Madison365, Burke called several reporters at The Cap Times over the past year and a half, encouraging them to “investigate” Grayson’s money management, Burke’s living conditions as a housing insecure person, Burke’s applications for housing assistance being processed by Urban Triage, Grayson’s “racism,” and Grayson’s associations with other community leaders such as Pellebon.
Multiple reporters felt uncomfortable with Burke’s behavior towards them and Burke was ultimately referred to the Editor-in-Chief of The Cap Times. Burke, however, continued to call reporters until he found people unfamiliar with the situation and The Cap Times published an article in September 2024 that leaned heavily on information clearly provided by Burke and included commentary from Weigand.
After that did not result in Grayson’s downfall, the group went to Channel3000 to have it publish even more information about the perceived shortcomings of Urban Triage.
“I don’t have words for the damage at all,” Grayson said of the article. “It’s the same thing Cap Times did. We are a Black-led organization. When things are written that are obviously not true from a sabotage angle, there’s no way we can fix it.”
Brandi Grayson said she has unsuccessfully explored legal options against Burke and the others.
“I have called nonprofit attorneys, defamation attorneys, civil rights attorneys. No one wants to touch this,” Grayson said. “I tried to seek legal counsel and directions after the Cap Times article dropped and I was like ‘This is not true at all’.”
Grayson said her detractors did manage to force a federal audit of Urban Triage, which came back clean.
“We just finished that with (accounting firm) Corporate FACTS, which said we were doing better than most nonprofits our size,” Grayson said. “It’s three white dudes who are literally causing hell for us. Everybody knows who they are and what they’re doing.”
Sabrina Madison has also had to explore legal options to combat the behavior of Burke, specifically.
“It got to a point where his behavior towards me and county staff was escalating,” Madison said. “He caught me outside a meeting and I had to tell him to back up because he was yelling. He screamed at me at another engagement event. I called for an emergency meeting, like this is dangerous. I asked for a threat assessment.”
Pellebon hosted a press conference on Tuesday evening from Urban Triage’s office to respond to the inaccuracies in media coverage and public attacks on Urban Triage.
