Municipal Dropbox in Wausau. MWC photo by Mike Leischner
CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – That empty feeling in your pocket is Wausau city leaders wasting your money.
On Tuesday night the City Council voted to hire an outside lawyer – which bills at $250-per-hour – to assist the Ethics Board in a complaint against Mayor Doug Diny.
The council members who voted for this waste were Carol Lukens, Michael Martens, Tom Neal, Gary Gisselman, Lisa Rasmussen, Sarah Watson, Lou Larson, and Chad Henke. Each one of them should be recalled and removed from office for malfeasance with the city purse.
There are three problems with the resolution:
First, the Ethics Board has not formally decided to take up the complaint. If and when they do, that is the proper time to request outside legal counsel if it’s necessary. Spending money before it’s even requested is wasteful.
Second, taxpayers may wind up paying twice or three times for this investigation. The state Department of Justice has already started a criminal investigation into Mayor Diny’s removal of the locked un-secured absentee ballot drop box. It’s being paid for by the taxpayers. Doug Diny will argue that he was acting in his official capacity as Mayor of Wausau. If so, he might submit his legal bills to the city council for reimbursement.
Lastly, the ethics complaint is a farce. The allegation is that they mayor prevented people from casting ballots. That’s untrue on its face. The dropbox had a padlock on it. No one could have placed anything inside. It was not bolted down, and the notoriously flimsy state Supreme Court ruling that legalized dropboxes said they shall be secure. The mayor also wheeled the box away before early voting had begun. The number of people who were kept from casting ballots was no one. An ethics committee investigation is unnecessary because the allegations don’t stand up to the most basic review.
I’m sure that’s not how this will unfold. The Ethics Board, which is stacked with holdovers from former Mayor Katie Rosenberg, will find this case irresistible. Remember what the endgame is: to remove Mayor Diny from office. That train is already starting to move down the tracks unless you, the citizens of Wausau, stand up to stop it.
Chris Conley
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