Wisconsin Statutes State Employment Relations (Ch. 230) § 230.80. Definitions

(1) “Abuse of authority” means an arbitrary or capricious exercise of power.

(1m) “Appointing authority” means the chief officer of any governmental unit unless another person is authorized to appoint subordinate staff by the constitution or any law.

(2) “Disciplinary action” means any action taken with respect to an employee which has the effect, in whole or in part, of a penalty, including but not limited to any of the following:

(3) “Employee” means any person employed by any governmental unit except:

(4) “Governmental unit” means any association, authority, board, commission, department, independent agency, institution, office, society, or other body in state government created or authorized to be created by the constitution or any law, including the legislature, the office of the governor, and the courts. “Governmental unit” does not mean any political subdivision of the state or body within one or more political subdivisions that is created by law or by action of one or more political subdivisions.

(5) “Information” means information gained by the employee which the employee reasonably believes demonstrates:

(6) “Merit further investigation” means reasonably indicates the existence of a situation justifying inquiry.

(7) “Mismanagement” means a pattern of incompetent management actions which are wrongful, negligent or arbitrary and capricious and which adversely affect the efficient accomplishment of an agency function. “Mismanagement” does not mean the mere failure to act in accordance with a particular opinion regarding management techniques.

(8) “Retaliatory action” means a disciplinary action taken because of any of the following:

(9) “Substantial waste of public funds” means an unnecessary expenditure of a substantial amount of money or a series of unnecessary expenditures of smaller amounts of money.