Lake Geneva Wisconsin News Alternative
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
Terry O’Neill defeated Don Tolar 138 to 122 in a closely watched race to become the alderman for the 4th District. Mr. O’Neil should bring a welcome skepticism to the financial engineering going on at city hall for the past 10 years
Ellyn Kehoe retained her seat over William Cousino 176 to 147.
Justice of the Supreme Court results are David T. Prosser 702 and Joanne F. Kloppenburg 580 in the city of Lake Geneva.
Turnout was 34.7% of the registered voters.
The President of the City of Lake Geneva Police and Fire Commission, Scott Storms, gets a speeding citation in the Town of Geneva for going 70mph in a 45mph zone, despite showing his “gold badge”. He then almost got a citation for disorderly conduct after calling the officer “an asshole” upon receiving the ticket.
On 10.14.2010 Scott Storms got pulled over after being “tracked on radar going 70 miles per hour in a clearly marked 45 mph zone” by officer Mulhollon of Town of Geneva on hwy 50. Upon contact the officer observed Commissioner Storms ” holding a black wallet which was unfolded. Inside the wallet was a gold badge….the male first looked at Officer Mulhollon and then looked at the badge. Officer Mulhollon told (Commissioner Storms) that he did not care about the badge. “Storms became very upset and began to speak loudly that he did not care about the badge.”
When Storms was informed he was going to be “issued a citation for speeding STORMS became more upset and advised the Officer in a loud sarcastic voice “you’re writing ME a ticket?”"
Officer Mulhollon then called the Lake Geneva Police Department for back up and according to the police report
“After explaining the citation to STORMS Officer Mulhollon informed him he was free to go. As Officer Mulhollon turned around STORMS said in a loud voice “you’re an asshole”. Officer ordered STORMS to stop from leaving and explained to him that he would be receiving a citation for disorderly conduct. STORMS asked in a sarcastic tone why he would be receiving a citation and Officer Mulhollon told him for calling him an asshole in a loud voice. STORMS then stated in the same sarcastic tone that he had not called Officer Mulhollon and asshole. Officer Mulhollon turned to Sergeant Melotik (the backup officer from Lake Geneva) and asked her if she had heard STORMS call him an asshole and Sergeant Melotik advised she did.”
“At that time STORMS began to open the driver’s door of his vehicle and it struck Officer Mulhollon’s left arm. Officer Mulhollon grabbed the door with his left hand and pushed it shut. STORMS advised in a sarcastic tone that he had been assaulted and then started the truck and began to put it into drive.Officer Hulhollon told STORMS if he drives away he would be arrested and confined in jail. STORMS replied sarcastically, “oh, you’re going to put ME in jail”. Officer Mulhollon informed STORMS he would if he drove away after being ordered to stay there. Officer Mulhollon then ordered STORMS to shut the truck off, which he did. During this time Officer Mulhollon noticed the female passenger in the vehicle to be crying and talking loudly at STORMS, but Officer Mulhollon did not here what she was saying over STORMS voice.”
“Officer Mulhollon then spoke with STORMS about his inappropriate behavior during the stop. STORMS would not listen and continued to speak in a loud voice, about the way his badge was not accepted and the citation he was issued.”
Storms is not in law enforcement but retired after 25 years with the Bergen County Police Department in New Jersey.
Property taxes in New Jersey are the highest in the nation as a percentage of homeowner income, and not surprisingly, the state government has been among the most corrupt.
Scott Storms does have a first amendment right of free speech, to call anyone a asshole he so desires. In a recent lawsuit settled in Clackamas,Ore a techie won $4000 in damages when he was arrested for flipping off a sheriff’s deputy during a traffic stop.
Storms has informed Lake Geneva, Wisconsin Mayor Jim Connors that he will not seek reappointment to the Police and Fire Commission when his term expires in April 2011.
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| Difference Makers – Robert Ekas | ||||
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Lake Geneva, Wisconsin’s popular reality cable TV show over the appointment of Spyro Condos continues to entertain residents when, during the last city council meeting of 2009, another attempt was made to fill the council seat vacated in July by Gary Dunham.
Perhaps the city should consider syndicating the show on a national level, it surely could compete with reality shows like Real Housewives of New Jersey. Lake Geneva’s cable access channel 25 is only available locally and it’s increasing popularity may be reflected in a 47% increase of cable TV franchise fees collected in 2009.
The real drama to the council meeting didn’t begin until 9:40 pm when Mayor Chesen, who anticipated to the next item on the agenda, gave his interpretation of a court agreement reached between his political opposition and himself.
The Mayor believes the reappointment of Mr. Condos before the April election was planned all along, and threaten “repercussions” if his interpretation of the court agreement is different than his political opposition’s.
Alderman Spellman said the mayor’s statement has “no truth in significant parts….It was inconceivable that you (Mr. Chesen) would represent to the public what went on from that point of view.” He wants the court agreement read into the record.
Alderperson Roehrer made a motion to appoint Stew Mathison to fill the vacate seat till April. It died for the lack of a second.
Marsala doesn’t want the seat filled till April, it is not” worth rekindling this fire and starting this war.”
Krause pointed out ” it is your call, but it seems like political suicide to me.”
Alderperson Krohn made a motion to appoint Spyro Condos with Alderperson Fesenmaier seconding it.
Voting to appoint Condos: Krohn, Fesenmaier, Spellmen
Voting against : Marsala, Krause, and Roehrer (strongly against)
Mayor Chesen voted against.
A very upset Aderperson Roehrer could not understand why her motion to appoint Stew Mathison was not seconded by anyone.
Mayor Chesen speculated “that maybe there was another agreement to do it differently.”
The Mayor pointed out “there are only six meeting till April, that is what we are fighting about.”
Alderman Spellman, who being recalled gave a very passionate speech below.
Property Tax Demon
The city of Lake Geneva, Wisconsin balanced their 2009 budget with the last of it’s 2006 bond issue proceeds. Residents will be paying off one bond issue till 2010, and making payments on the other till 2016.
In 2006 Lake Geneva floated one bond issue of $4.39M with level payments amortized over 10 years and another issue of $1.11M that will be paid off in March of 2010. The last of the proceeds of those bonds were spent in 2009 for capital projects. For example the politically powerful Lake Geneva Fire Department purchased another ambulance (resulting in four) at $140K by raiding a sinking fund for equipment purchases in 2012.
Despite earlier assurances by Finance Chairman Alderman Krause that taxpayers that will see no increase, Lake Geneva’s (LG) portion of your real estate tax bill will increase 3.6% in 2010.The consumer price index for all urban consumers has decreased .2% in the last 12 months.
Chairman Krause reported that over $1M in requests for capital purchases were axed in the 2010 budget, except $70K for roads and $200K for new technology (ProPhoenix) which will help the the Lake Geneva Police Department comply with a new State of Wisconsin mandate for all electronic reporting.
Finally after 15 years one of LG’s two TIF districts was closed, TID #3 (Geneva Lake Developments Corporation’s). The closing of the district added almost $100K in revenue to LG’s bottom line, helping to mitigate revenue losses in other areas like parking fees, room tax, interest income.
It is unclear if the 2010 budget allows for a increase in salaries for city personal subject to union contracts.The union contracts for Fire, Police, Street, and Office workers expires on 12.31.2009. City management (staff), not subject to union contract, will receive no salary increase.
Spyro Condos believed staff should get an increase of 3%; that it is “demoralizing” to not give them a raise when others are getting raises. Mr. Condos questioned why the city was going to write off between $300K – $400K in open accounts receivables . According to Mayor Chesen if staff had gotten raises, that would have resulted to over $100K increase in city expenditures.
Alderperson Roehrer is bothered with passing a budget when the audit for 2008 has not been completed. The new city Controller needed help in catching up with the books that were not kept up by the prior Controller, but according to Roehrer the council was not notified of her need for help until recently.
A big variable in next years budget is the Undesignated Reserve Fund (URF) balance which will not be known till the audits of 2008 and 2009 is completed. Comptroller Pollitt is not a fan of reducing the URF down to the bare minimum. The URF has three components:
1. As a cash flow cushion between when the city receives property tax payments.
2.As a rainy day fund in case of unexpected emergencies.
3.As a indicator of a municipalities financial health.
Business Administrator Jordan pointed out that LG has had the ability to tap into revenue from the lake front and parking funds. In 2001 the city took 25% of the revenue from these funds for general fund expenses, the rest went into reserve; for the 2010 budget all of their revenue went into the general fund. Health insurance costs for the city increased 8% in 2009. The 2010 budget started with the assumption there would be no furloughs or reduction of city services.
The breakdown Lake Geneva Wisconsin’s real estate tax bill:
Voting for the city 2010 budget: Tolar, Krohn, Marcella, Krause,and Roehrer (reluctantly).
Voting against the budget increase: Spellman, and Fesenmaier.
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On 11.25.2009 Walworth County Judge Gibbs in a pretrial conference of a lawsuit filed against Mayor Chesen came to an agreement that all the elected alderpersons that the Mayor “suspended” from office in September 2009 would be returned so the “ city could present united front in the event or the face of litigation in federal court.”
In the Court’s own words: “Everyone agreed it would be an appropriate lubricant if I were to give Mr. Condos a call and I will tell you this that Mr. Condos graciously, for the good of the city, indicated that he would tender his resignation as First District alderman with the proviso that it only need be in such a fashion that would allow him to be eligible to run for the First District aldermanic position and/or mayor…”
Of course this agreement did not come easily. To begin with the pretrial conference was originally to take place on 11.16.2009, but Mayor Chesen couldn’t attend due to a trip to Florida . Then someone (it is not yet clear who) contacted Wisconsin’s Attorney General to try to scuttle the whole mediation, claiming it would be a violation of the open meeting law. In the past Mayor Chesen has contacted the Attorney General and the Walworth Co. District Attorney to try to get them to charge the four alderpersons he had suspended with an open meeting violation; both declined his request, despite the fact that they do prosecute open meeting violations.
At the city budget hearing on 11.30.2009 Mayor Chesen and District One Alderman Krause tried to convince the city council to hold a special election for the now vacated Aldermanic District One prior to the April 2010 general election, contrary to the court agreement. The council voted unanimously to hold the election in April. Alderman Krause is up for reelection in April.
Mayor Chesen being Chesen couldn’t help himself by including in his order, rescinding his suspensions, taking a dig at his political opposition by calling the appointment of Spyro Condos “illegal” and stating that Mr. Condos agreed to resign his seat “based on his improper appointment”. No court, prosecutor, or any of the three Attorneys representing Lake Geneva in this matter has ever found that Mr. Condos was appointed illegally or improperly. They are innocent, just like every American, until proven guilty in a court of law.
In his resignation Spyro Condos, not to be out done, got some digs in about filling past vacancies at the City Council and School Board. Stating that Bill Chesen,Ron Weber, Dick Folman,Bob Fleming, Pete Bolt, Gary Dunham (twice), Todd Krause had been appointed to the City Council and Bea Dale, who is behind the current recall against Alderperson Spellman and Mr. Condo’s recall when he was Mayor, was appointed to the school board without a special election.
Lake Geneva, Wisconsin Mayor William Chesen, unable to get the funding for a special prosecutor, may remove two alderpersons and appoint two new alderpersons so he can get the votes he needs on the city council.
Mayor Chesen at the city council meeting on 11.09.2009: “I want this over with; I will do everything I can in the next two weeks to bring this to a conclusion. And that may well be appointing two new aldermen.”
“So can’t get the funding for a special prosecutor (with the current city council)……what option do you offer?”
Alderperson Condos: “This is my option, you dismiss the charges and reinstate the alderman, and you knock out the BS and the personal attacks, and going after people because they don’t agree with you. You have gone way to far Mr. Mayor, way to far. And you got yourself in some hot water. Be humble and bring these people back and we can move forward. Sometimes you have to be a little humble.”
Mayor Chesen: “I’ll make you another deal … You agree to only serve out till the election in spring and I will reseat your four friends?”
Alderperson Condo: “Dismiss the charges. And that’s a deal.”
Mayor Chesen: “I’ll take it under advisement.”
Alderperson Condo: “You have been making deals here tonight now it is my turn. Dismiss the charges and I’ll run for office in April.”
Mayor Chesen: “I may take you up on that.”
Alderperson Condo: “That is my offer and I will run in April, and I may run against you Mr. Krause. This is a smoke screen for the development that is hanging in the wings out there. And it is a smoke screen for the actions on that development and that he has disposed of crucial information with his computer. And I think these are the things behind the smoke screen.”
Mayor Chesen: “I’ll dismiss the charges against your friends; I’ll reseat them, if you stand for a special election on December 15th.”
During the vote on whether to hire a special prosecutor, Attorney Gulya representing the city, cautioned the Mayor and council regarding the city ordnance section 2341.
Attorney Gulya: “Before you can occur any obligation, this is in your ordnance section 2341, … it has to be part of any appropriation in the budget. So be careful in regard to occurring any indebtedness to the city…..if the money has not been appropriated.”
Mayor Chesen: “Then how is it you are giving legal advice without that resolution passed”
Attorney Gulya: “Our firm has long represented the city of Lake Geneva.. on an as needed basis, and we were brought in this because City Attorney Draper believed there was a conflict of interest existed. Therefore we are continuing that representation on an as needed basis…. If you would like to go it alone that is your call and as you know we represent the best interests of the municipality and we are trying to do that.”
Aldermen: Krause, Tolar, Magee, Marcella, and Taggert then ignore Attorney Gulya’s advice and pass a motion to retain a special prosecutor without funding.
Lake Geneva area citizens strongly criticized Mayor Chesen’s actions as a“vendetta” at the finance and council meeting on 9.28.2009. Surprisingly,none of the citizens who spoke in favor of a special election and spoke-up in defense of democracy when Spiro Condos was appointed on 8.24.2009 have spoken either in defense of Mayor Chesen’s actions or against them.
Former Alderman Dick Peterson: “No attorney in their right mind is going to recommend the Mayor suspend four elected alderman, if he is not going to take the advice of the City Attorney it is up to the alderman to say no. We are not going to fund this fiasco … cut out the funding and you might stop this nutty behavior by the Mayor. Stop this nonsensible spending for a vendetta against the old mayor.”
Dave Williams: “Anyone with a grudge with the city could come up with a verified complain asking for removal for cause. It is very simple to file a complaint for cause, and providing an attorney at taxpayer expense, will encourage over persons to files complaints.”
“The appointment of a “Special Prosecutor” is not required by statue ….and you are setting a very bad precedent. If someone has a complaint against any city official, you’re setting a precedent whereby the city, in addition to paying for council to the city council, are also going to provide an attorney for everyone who has a complaint against another city official? …. Anybody that his a grudge is going to do this, and the city is going to help them by hiring an attorney. There is not going to be any end to turmoil in this city.”
Peg Esposito: “Approving fees to this firm is like giving drugs to an addict….. This mess is more about personality than politics; it has fallen to the level of kids in the back seat of a family car.”
Terry O’Neil: “Where is the 2008 financial status report(Audit)? State law requires the city financial statement to be filed by March 15 2009 …..It either has not been done, or it is being hidden. The city financial statement has not been done as required by state law, since Mayor Chesen began his two year term 18 months ago.” (The City Controller replied “We do not have a 2008 audit.”)
“How can you have an unbudgeted item of $148,000 (for another ambulance) when the city is facing escalating legal fees?”
“Mayor Chesen established an ad hoc committee to look into the misuse of city credit cards, but without a resolution the committee could do nothing and did nothing…. The committee did not look into the past credit card misuse or who approved the past misuse. Why would a committee would be formed and do nothing?”
Former Alderman Bill Huntress: “Mayor Chesen is trying to get rid of people who have been elected 9 or ten times, they never lost. Now the paper, the Regional News, they don’t put these kind of things in the paper…..the mayor says this is for the good of the city, so now he is going to eliminate these people and replace them with people who have lost 9 or 10 elections. Now he says it’s for the good of the city…. I think it is for the good of himself.”
“Now how can you replace four winners with four losers? The people have spoken– they don’t want these other people in office. Now Mr. Chesen states the four people he is trying to eliminate they don’t vote the way his constitutes want. ….If they don’t vote the way their constitutes want, they won’t be in office. The reason he wants these replacement (loser aldermen) people in here is because he is telling them what he wants them to do. These people he is trying to get rid of are free thinkers, and think for themselves. A lot of people don’t like that, they want to manipulate things.”
…..”The eight elected council members are the ones that are suppose to determine the direction of the city, not the mayor, not the public works director Mr. Winkler, not Vanderwale -who we pay tens of thousands of dollars to every year and (the city officials) don’t pay attention to a dam thing they tell us–not the fire department, not the business park, not any church group, not any developer. The eight council members are the ones that are supposed to run this city; and that’s the problem we have–we have all these other people trying to run the city. And, unfortunately, Mr. Chesen has done everything to make it hard these four people. He has degraded them; he has laughed at them; and now he is trying to tell us they are criminals…. There is no evidence against these people. The only thing he does is he hates Mr. Condos, he is holding this city hostage.”
The city council on 9.28.2009 voted to hire two separate the law firms at $200/ hour plus expenses to adjudicate and prosecute at the coming hearing brought by Mayor Chesen as a private citizen against the four alderpersons he tried to suspend on 9.10.2009.
Mayor William Chesen made it quite clear that he would bring back the four suspended alderpersons if Alderman Spiro Condos would step down and hold a special election for the vacated aldermanic seat in the First District.
Mr. Chesen stated: “Four aldermen got together and decided to make a deal behind closed doors, violate opens meetings law, and appoint their friend…… I have no problem with Mr. Condos. $1200 (the price of a special election) could have avoided this problem; there could have been an election for the first district seat. Another way to avoid this problem is that Mr. Condos could have accepted my offer and he steps down and I will reseat his friends and we can have an open election. Third solution to the problem is I will step down as mayor and Mr. Condos steps down and there will be an open election for both seats. Mr. Condos rejected that offer as well.”
Mr. Condos replied. “I don’t know where these deals took place but I never have spoken to him at all. The mayor brought this on himself; he filed the complaint himself because he didn’t get his way. And then as Mayor he suspended them on his own complaint. It seems the four that get suspended are the four that don’t always agree with him…. It’s foolish (to take this to the Wisconsin Supreme Court) because the city is not in good financial shape….. This is a vendetta by the Mayor; he doesn’t like what went on. Whatever happened to the taxpayers and voters in Lake Geneva? He took it upon himself to decide for the voters and its costing money that we don’t have.”
Alderman Roehrer stated,” I have heard too many times tonight that I am accursed of holding meetings with three other alderman, I never did. I will go on the record tonight and I will go on the record in the hearings that never happened. And if you want to put the taxpayers through pain to hear it again, go right ahead.”
Lake Geneva City Attorney Dan Draper went on to explain why he retained Kyle Gulya of vonBriesen & Roper to maintain the integrity of his office and the process.
“It happened very quickly, it happened on a Thursday and I had to make a decision on Monday. …there are cases out that state if I had acted on behalf of the city in this removal action due process rights would have been violated, and we would have ended (up) in appeal and could have ended in double the fees. People have gotten used to the fact that I do my work for the salary that I’m paid; this is not one of those instances that I would have been paid my salary …..I have not created this situation; this is not a city legal matter per se …. If I had really wanted to be greedy about this I could have said my firm would have represented the city in this removal action and you can pay me all the extra fees that would have been generated as a result of this. Overseeing a removal action or a suspension is not one of my duties…….I didn’t start this action.”
” The verified complaint is brought by the citizen alone (Mr. Chesen), the City Attorney would not sign off on any documents brought for removal action.”
Kyle Gulya of van Briesen & Roper has so far charged the city $16K for legal services in this matter. When the matter of how much this “hearing” was going to cost the city came up Kyle Gulya stated, “Removal hearings are unpredictable; you don’t know how many days the hearing will encompass, you don’t know if there will be any prehearing litigation to the matter, weather there will be any litigation during the hearing or whether there is going to be any post hearing litigation. It is difficult to forecast the amount of fees….we are talking four separate hearing here a range of $7K to$15K unless there is prehearing or post hearing litigation that arises. …..They are a very costly experience.”
Alderman Marcella read a prepared statement stating that if there is a possible wrong doing we should look into it. Marcella is in a rather precarious position since he abstained from the vote when Mr. Condos was appointed to fill the aldermatic vacancy in the first ward, also he was “elected” as alderman with no opposition in 2008.
Alderman Tolar wants to get started with the hearing and fund the process with $200K.
Alderman Krause (now chairman of finance committee) noted that the city’s contingency fund has only $44K left in it.
“We don’t have enough money left in contingency to do the legal fees.”
Krause noted we have $2M in the general reserve fund. .”If it costs $200K so be it.”
Magee made the motion seconded by Marcella to approve to hire outside attorneys contingent upon getting the necessary funding and putting a cap on it at a later date.
Kyle Gulya went on to explain the separate roles he and the Special Prosecutor (SP) will play in the future drama.
“Our role is to represent the city, we do not represent Mr. Chesen in his personal capacity, we do not represent him with regard to the charges he has filed in this matter, and our role is to represent the council, to keep the councils noses clean in this matter.”
On Special Prosecutor (SP): “Council should decide what the role of the SP should be. If the role of the SP is to persecute the charges filed by the mayor than get it clear on the record tonight. Or does the SP represent the interests of Mr. Chesen personally, or whether the interests of the city are in some way taken into account.”
“My role is not prosecutorial in nature my role is ajudicatorial in nature. I am advising the council in regard to the charges that have been filed. In no way shape or form will I be advising Mr. Chesen in regarding presentation of his case, regarding the witnesses to be presented, the questions to be asked, regarding the motions to be made, and regarding the objections to be made. That is the role of the SP…..Both I and Mr. Draper cannot serve both the role prosecutorial and the judicatorial role at the same time.”
Mayor Chesen clarified he wanted the SP to bring the charges to a hearing, not to represent himself personally.
Mr Gulya went on to explain the role of the city council in this matter.
” The city councils role is of a fact finder it is a judicatory role. You are like a judge but without the strict parameters of a trial. …….It is a political determination on whether to appoint a SP not legal determination.”
Alderman Condos argued against hiring a SP.
“Mr.Chesen has brought this complaint as a citizen. Mr. Chesen should hire his own attorney. The burden of proof is on Mr.Chesen, a private citizen, brought this complaint and they should hire attorney to represent themselves. It’s a matter of precedent; whenever we are doing here we are going to set a precedent for the future. And remember anybody else can be a target. …….There are other bodies that could have looked into this…….I find the whole thing a zoo with a bunch of kangaroos in it. And we are setting a bad precedent that is why I will vote no.”
Voting to hire a SP without any specification to their duties were: Marcella, Magee, Krause,Tolar, and Taggert. Voting No was Condos. Both Roehrer and Krohn abstained (they are two of the four alderpersons in the docket).
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Mayor William Chesen on 9.23.2009 appointed his cronies Larry Magee and Sturg Taggart to fill the seats of the elected Alderpersons he has “suspended.” The Mayor claims he has an agreement that these persons will serve in this capacity for a maximum of 90 days and they will not run for those positions if a special election is held.
Despite being held at 2:00 in the afternoon, this special meeting was mainly filled with citizens in opposition to Mayor Chesen. When the crowd started to laugh at the Mayor’s statement he threaten them with removal. A Walworth County Sheriff was there armed with a Taser. The Mayor several times seemed to be signaling him when laughter broke out; the officer didn’t move.
Mayor Chesen claimed this is the same appointment process Mr. Condos used when he was Mayor to replace the Huntress Brothers.
Spiro Condos then corrected him. The Huntress Brothers were not suspended, they quit and the council waited over two months for them to come back and then appointed replacements.
The vote to appoint Taggart and Magee was along party lines with Chesen’s supporters: Tolar, Marcella, and Krause voting for and Roehrer, Krohn, and Condos voting against. Mayor Chesen, broke the tie and voted for his own appointments.
Mayor Chesen stated that he reluctantly reinstated Roehrer, Krohn; it was the attorneys that strongly suggested he do so. (Dah, if there is not quorum there can be not council meetings.) He is not dropping the charges against Roehrer, Krohn; charges will go forward.
Mayor Chesen then tried to go into closed session, but Attorney Kyle Gulya suggested that since the city is not a party to any action the council should “forgo” the closed session at this time.
Attorney Kyle Gulya wanted the council to retain the services of his firm, van Briesen & Roper. Alderman Marcella makes a motion to retain them with Tolar seconding it.
Alderperson Roehrer then made a surprise offer.
“That in order to stop these extra Attorney fees the city is going to have to pay, and the continued legal fees in this whole mess,…the four aldermen who have charges pending are willing to drop the suit if you, Bill Chesen, as a citizen, will remove the charges and rescind the suspensions of the other two alderman and get on with the city’s business with the council that was elected.. .. And let the recalls and elections that occur as they may….. Otherwise it is going to be a long drawn out thing.”
Marcella defended the Mayor and said the charges have been filed and “I feel with substantial evidence to precede it…… and spend the money on it.”
Condos wanted to know where the money to pay these Attorneys is going to come from.
Krause moved to do it the “right way and put it before Finance on Monday”
Voting to table and send issue for legal services to finance Roehrer, Condos, Krause, Magee, Krohn.
Alderpersons Tolar, Taggert, and Marcella wanted to retain the Attorneys now, without knowing where the money was going to come from.
Mayor Chesen will make another try at turning the losers into winners on 9.23.2009 at another special council meeting at 2:00pm in the afternoon. The agenda is similar as Monday’s aborted meeting except on this agenda the Mayor lists who he wants to “temporary” appoint.
He wants to appoint Larry Magee who lost to Penny Roehrer in 2008 by 218 votes to 171, and Sturg Taggart who Arlene Krohn beat in 2007.
These handpicked “Temporary Alderpersons” will then sit in judgement on Alderpersons Mary Jo Fesenmaier ,Tom Spellman, Penny Roehrer, and Arlene Krohn (his political opponents) that he wants to remove.
Mayor Chesen rescinded the suspensions of Alderman Penny Roehrer and Arleen Krohn at 2:06 pm after Mondays special meeting was supposed to start.They were notified after the 15 min. “meeting” ended.