Payment, document, and ballot dropbox in Wausau. MWC photo by Mike Leischner
CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Joe Hoppa used to serve on Wausau ethics committee. He’s written a letter to the Wausau Pilot and Review about how off-base the current ethics committee is.
He notes that former mayor Katie Rosenberg dissolved the ethics committee. At the time, the committee had been inactive for some time because there were no ethics issues that came before it. But then the former mayor reconstituted the board – with her making all of the appointments.
Mr. Hoppa notes that when he served on the Ethics Committee there was diversity of opinion. He writes “We had a minister, lawyer, business owners, retired Air Force Special Agent, and other professionals.“ He says what we have now is “shameful, like minded people” with a guilty until proved innocent mindset.
As I’ve pointed out repeatedly, last fall the ethics committee chair Kay Palmer wrote a letter to the U.S. Attorney demanding a federal voting rights investigation into Mayor Doug Diny’s removal of an absentee ballot dropbox. She was prepared to sit in judgement of Mayor Diny until that letter became public. Then she recused herself. Also on the committee: Doug Hosler, a campaign donor to Mayor Rosenberg, and Jesse Kearns, who Doug Diny defeated in a city council race.
The state supreme court ruling on absentee ballots is flawed. It makes no distinction between communities with elected city clerks, and clerks who are appointed and are city employees. Wausau’s clerk is hired. It’s non-sensical that she would have more power over dropboxes that the mayor, whom she serves.
Former Ethics Committee member Hoppa also points out the guidance of the Wisconsin Elections Commission on drop-box use. They are to be “secured, well lit, well marked, and used for absentee ballots only.” The dropbox that Mayor Diny removed was none of those things. It was not bolted down, there were no lights trained on it, and it was marked for city payments as well as ballots.
The Ethics Committee meets one week from today. I call on them to drop this farce immediately. However, I’m certain they won’t.
Chris Conley
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