Wausau Mayor Doug Diny moving an absentee ballot dropbox. Image courtesy: Doug Diny
CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – We will find out tomorrow if the frivolous ethics complaint against Wausau Mayor Doug Diny has legs. Equally important we will learn if this silliness will begin wasting taxpayer money.
Tomorrow the City Council will debate whether to fund an outside law group to assist the city’s Ethics Board to investigate the mayor. The lawyer’s fee: $250 an hour.
To review: the complaint against the mayor is that he removed an unsecured, not-bolted down, absentee ballot drop box last fall and rolled it inside City Hall. The allegation is that he prevented people from casting ballots. The state’s Department of Justice, occupied by Democrats, is already conducting an obviously partisan criminal investigation into this.
My input for the City Council is this: I’ve already endured a large property tax increase. Obviously I’m paying very close attention to make sure my tax dollars aren’t squandered. This ethics complaint is waste writ large. It should be dismissed on its face. Consider, the absentee ballot drop box, when it was placed outside city hall, had a lock on it. The number of people who could have placed ballots in it was zero. It was also placed outside before early voting had begun, and it was indeed unsecured. If any ballots had been placed inside it, the entire drop box could have been carted away by anyone. The number of people who were denied an opportunity to cast a ballot was no one; this is obvious on its face. No investigation is necessary.
The goal here is nakedly obvious: to drive a duly elected conservative mayor from office.
Well, two can play at that game. If there are city council members who want to fund a frivolous ethics investigation, I call for their removal from office. A majority of Wausau voters chose Doug Diny last spring. There are many people in all districts of the city who would sign a recall petition against any council members who vote to waste money. My broadcast partner Meg Ellefson knows many people who are ready to stand up for our mayor. And she is an excellent community organizer.
On Wednesday morning, I will share the names of any council member who is part of this unwarranted ethics investigation. We have a loud megaphone and a bright spotlight to shine on your malfeasance. You can expect a petition drive to begin quickly to remove you from your place in city government.
Chris Conley
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