Know Who You are Voting For Part 2: Same As it Ever Was (or Worse)

 Be sure to hit the "other posts" button at the end of this article to see other issues facing us as we strive for open, honest, Kronenwetter government.

 

   What has changed since the last (2023) election for Village president? Chris Voll won that election, and we see what has happened since, for example:

•    Personal agendas of animosity and politics run amok.
•    Cronyism - Favoritism for some, Exclusion for others  
  
•    Unfettered Spending - driving Village finances into the ground.
  

   I am not running for village president this year, but I thought I'd take a look at my response to those reporter's questions to the candidates in 2023. I mentioned Village issues and Voll's failures as I saw them at that time. Let's see what progress has been made by Mr. Voll since then to improve things.

   The following is a Wausau Pilot reporters' questions (in blue) to the 2023 president candidates. My answers back at that time are in black and my current comments are in red.

Is there a particular issue that motivates you to serve?

At a fundamental level, I saw a problem with the Village Board, and particularly the Village President, taking their direction from the Village Administrator, instead of the other way around. In effect, it looked to me that with very few exceptions the Village was being run by an un-elected Village Administrator and other staff viewed as the "authority" by the Board. The Administrator and staff controlled the information that the Board received and provided the recommended action, and for the most part the Board approval was simply a formality.

I saw this as a violation of those Board members' oath of office and a short-circuiting of the representative form of free government. Since I was first elected in 2018, I challenged that paradigm and eventually turned the tide to where the Board actively examines and discusses issues more thoroughly now.

UPDATE 2025: I think that Village Board meeting discussions are worse than ever, with personal politics and animosity making intelligent discussion very difficult at times, if not impossible.

 Mr. Voll seems to still be staff-dependent, and unable to function without direction from some un-elected person or other; whether it is his wife, certain staff members, or one of the village administrators. 

With no current interim administrator to lean on, Voll seems to now be relying heavily on the village attorney for direction, as evidenced by greatly increased annual legal costs to the taxpayers.  Mr, Vill drove 2024 costs to about $130,000, as compared to about $45,000 for 2023, which itself was high, compared to $10-$12,000 annually for years leading up to 2022.

Can you explain the primary role of this position?

First and foremost, the president should set a tone of integrity and competence in Village operations. That would include dealing directly and decisively with village issues. There are always some people who won't be happy with a particular decision, but that fact cannot excuse can-kicking wishy-washiness in the elected leadership.

For example, tap water quality has been an issue for many years, but with no action to solve the problem. A water treatment system was proposed for the 2018 budget at $1.5 million, but there was no backbone to pull the trigger on that project. Mr. Voll made the motion to skip that project. Now, after the State has forced the Village to act, the price tag has more than doubled, and the water bills will do almost the same.

There are numerous other examples of issues big and small that have cost the village money and/or caused great disruption, because there just is no response or leadership from the current president.

The president should maintain peace and good order in the Village. Even-handed enforcement of ordinances is a big responsibility, as well as a duty. Accountability is very important, and an absolute ban on insider special treatment should be observed. In the next year, we will need the president who will decisively clean up the fallout of years of administrative mismanagement. I have seen no such initiative from the current president in that regard.

  UPDATE 2025: The water treatment plant is nearly complete, but Mr. Voll has no business taking any particular credit for that. It took residents' complaints to the DNR, and a DNR ultimatum to the Village in order to get this project moving. Even then, Mr. Voll diverted efforts to a water metering station plan, rather than going right to building a treatment plant as I had suggested. My suggestion would have had the treatment plant up and running probably a year or more sooner, and at a lower cost than what it now turned out to be. 

The cost to water customers did not increase as much as anticipated due to a special 2% DNR loan for the project, and the use of hundreds of thousands of dollars in ARPA funds spent on the metering station which was never used. Those ARPA funds were diverted from potential use by the Village general fund which could have been used to benefit all residents, not just water customers.

The  "peace and good order" duties and "special treatment" issues seem to have only gotten worse over the past two years due to his increasingly extreme personal politics.

What does a village president do?

If you're talking about the current president, I'd say he does none of the above. He's a nice guy to talk to, and he conducts a decent meeting, but that's about it. He is said to be non-confrontational, but to me, that is a code word for avoiding dealing with hard issues.

 UPDATE 2025: He doesn't even "conduct a decent meeting" anymore. The 5 hour January 27 meeting is a good example.

What is the biggest challenge that Kronenwetter faces today, and how will you tackle it?

Given the administrative melt-down of 2022 and the scorched-earth left behind, I believe the big issue is to get the new staff organized and operating in a well-designed and efficient environment. As Administrative Policy Committee chairman, I have already been working on that goal with a great committee. We have scheduled lots of special meetings, developing and updating numerous policies, creating a new Employee Handbook, increased wages to market level, and recommending new, efficiency-enhancing technologies to the Board.

What is the best way to address differences of opinion between trustees and the administration?

Communication, obviously. I would generally ask for clarification or information on a perceived issue to avoid misunderstanding, then inform them of the issue as it appears to me. If there is a disagreement or lack of resolution, then refer the matter to the president, and when we get no response from him, then to the Board. The problem in the past has been a lack of effort by the president to do anything about anything. 

UPDATE 2025: Case in point - Voll's obvious inability to deal with the village clerk's numerous episodes of complaining, which got out of control due to Mr. Voll's "non-confrontational style" , which apparently is a code term for complete inaction in dealing with the first few complaints.

His failure led to ongoing insubordination (Listen to the first 20 minutes of the May 13th Village Board meeting found here)

 https://soundcloud.com/kronenwetter/2024-0513a?si=e38d2867c1b64b77bc2c348c8c47ab6e&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm

_campaign=social_sharing

This political activism and defamation by staff, in which Chris Voll was involved, is a good example of why Kronenwetter suffers under its current bad "clown show" type of reputation. After listening to that audio, is there any wonder why professional hiring organizations repeatedly will not return Voll's phone calls?

In my opinion, the lack of leadership here is so bad, that it has not only destroyed any trust of the residents, but also any credibility with those that Mr. Voll seeks to business with as village president.

Voll along with others with apparent political motives, chose to ignore the Employee Handbook in dealing with alleged employee complaints. Instead, in defiance of a Village Board instructions to the contrary, they spent $65-70,000 to have someone write an extremely biased, selectively edited "hit piece" on me, misrepresenting my actions of simply for asking questions. Once again, this was an example of Voll's obvious use of Village money to further his own personal political agenda.

My email titled "unbelievable" was sent to village administrator Leonard Ludi on April 30, 2024 questioning how and why he contracted with a law firm for this purpose, when he had no authority to do so. Ludi resigned 5 days later, left town, and would not return efforts to contact him.

That post on this site is called "Unbelievable" begins the story of the origin and falsehoods of the "von Briesen report".

 

The following is from City Pages

What do you see as a board member’s role? What do you see as the president’s role? 

   First and foremost, they both need to abide by their oath of office. That oath, and the requirements built into it, covers a lot of territory.

   The subject of the oath alone could take a whole article. In fact, I did write an article on it for the Village Board, and also one similar, directed at the Citizen-Committee level. I recently wrote a general Code of Conduct centered around it as well.

   The role of the trustee is to be trust-worthy in applying their best rational, independent judgment and best efforts in pursuing the over-all best interests of the People of the Village. This may include extensive homework, or establishing communication and a working rapport with staff members as well as with the People of the Village.

   I believe there should be no “friends” or insiders connected with any elected position; No cliques, no favoritism, selective treatment, or “free passes”, no secrecy, withheld information, hypocrisy, collusion or conspiracy, or any of what is commonly called a “Good Ol' Boys Club”.

   All of the above would also apply to the Village President position, but in addition, there are duties of the president which are specifically directed by both local ordinance and State Statute, as well as a more general moral obligation to provide leadership.

   The President is not a dictator, but attitudes and examples, whether good or bad, flow from the top down. The president therefore, should set the tone of the meetings, the administrative organization, and the priorities of the various issues facing the Village.

   The president does not need to be the smartest person in the room, but should know how and where to find reliable knowledge or advice, and have the discernment to evaluate and put that information to good use. 

  The Village Administrator should be one of those sources, but at the end of the day, it is the Village President who should be directing the Village Administrator on policy and action, not the other way around.

The position of Village President is not just that of a figurehead of assumed prestige or self-glorification that some people might derive from it, but instead it should be viewed as a position of additional obligation and service.

This person should be putting forth twice the time, effort, and concern, as you would expect from an average trustee. It is no place for slackers.

The President is also responsible to maintain peace and good order, and to ensure that all ordinances are obeyed. Technically, for anything that goes wrong in the Village, the buck stops with the Village President.

  UPDATE 2025: I and many others believe that Chris Voll has failed to demonstrate the positive qualities necessary for the role as village president. One person has confirmed that Voll offered a committee seat if that person if they agreed to support him in his run for re-election. I believe that person, because from what I have observed,nearly every citizen committee member is a die-hard Voll loyalist. 

Only the voters can correct this corrupt situation.