Glendale officials voted to remove the city clerk on Aug. 11 after a hearing that unearthed allegations she had spent around $10,400 on unapproved purchases over eight months.
Some of now-former City Clerk Megan Humitz’s unauthorized purchases included food, office supplies, holiday decorations, professional development trainings and gifts, though around 50 receipts are still unaccounted for. In total, Humitz allegedly failed to report 173 purchases in violation of reporting procedures laid out in the city code and employee handbook, staff said.
Humitz, who was appointed to the role in January 2020, also allegedly shipped many purchases to her home and often used a personal Amazon account connected to a city card instead of a tax-exempt account, resulting in unnecessary taxes charged to the city, according to staffs’ testimonies.
The council’s vote to remove Humitz on Aug. 11 was unanimous.
What do we know about the allegations of unauthorized purchases?
The allegations were brought forth by Glendale’s Mayor Bryan Kennedy who requested Humitz’ removal on July 29, citing “serious misconduct” and a “continued pattern of poor work performance,” Hunter Cone, the attorney representing the city, said.
Deputy City Administrator Jessica Ballweg testified that on May 19, she asked Humitz to provide missing receipts for purchases made between October 2024 and May 2025. On May 20, Humitz provided some of the receipts but many were deemed unauthorized for a city clerk to make.
Under the city’s code, the clerk’s purchasing power is restricted to election-related activities.
In July, the city hired an outside council, attorney Christina Katt, to investigate potential credit card misuse. Katt said Humitz did provide reasoning for some of the missing receipts, such as forgetting to obtain them, Katt said. In an interview, Humitz allegedly told Katt that reporting receipts became less of a priority during the busy election season.
Ultimately, Katt found Humitz’s actions “could reasonably be considered misappropriation or theft,” but she did not make a conclusion, saying it would need to be referred to law enforcement for formal determination.
Humitz was allegedly cooperative throughout the investigation and provided some reasoning for the purchases
City Administrator Karl Warwick testified concerns over Humitz’s performance dated back to August 2023, when she was placed on a performance improvement plan for actions “allegedly creating a hostile working environment.”
Humitz’s attorney Tristan Bullington noted Humitz successfully completed the terms of the plan and had cooperated throughout the investigation, even assisting staff in locating unaccounted-for items.
His questioning of Katt revealed many of the items stored in Humitz’s home and car were used at polling places and that she sent items to her home out of concern they might get stolen if shipped to city hall.
Bullington also noted Humitz had been on family and medical leave for much of the period when the unauthorized purchases occurred, including during Katt’s investigation. He said Humitz had continued to work throughout that period while on leave, as the city had not appointed someone else to take over her duties.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has requested copies of the investigation report and data on the unauthorized purchases from the city but has not immediately received it.
Contact Claudia Levens at clevens@gannett.com. Follow her on X at @levensc13.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Glendale removes city clerk for allegedly spending over $10K on unauthorized purchases
Reporting by Claudia Levens, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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