A New Clerk - How Do We Get to There From Here?

 

 

How do we get to there from here?

So, two of the most critical employees in the Kronenwetter organization have in my opinion been very unwisely and crudely trash-canned as a sacrifice to the Joling/Davel ego-system.

What is the administrative plan for recovery after what appears to be "mission accomplished"? Apparently nothing good, I'm afraid. The village clerk's 2-week notice was apparently wasted with no known preparation, no request for hand-off instructions, no knowledge of duties, no apparent management cares: nothing that indicates even a bit of administrative responsibility. Perhaps the idea is that no incompetence is too great that money can't fix it if enough is thrown at the situation.

I said in the previous post that the last vestiges of a solid work ethic, integrity, and principles left in the office management walked out with the clerk on her last day.

As if to prove me right, Admin Davel shut down the whole office to the public for two days "for training". It appears that only two people from Kronenwetter went for training last week. Where was Davel and the others to mind the store? Shouldn't that tell us that we have an indolence/competence/diligence problem there?

By the way, many of these "trainings" are at Wisconsin Dells resorts. I have been informed several times that events like this are more of a vacation/party, than anything else.

In the past 10 months Davel never so much as even developed a file of standard operating procedures (SOP) for the various tasks that now,  basically only the current or former employees know how to do. Instead of "figuring it out" an SOP should tell anyone immediately how to do this task or that.

So, where might the new clerk come from, given the the Village's smoldering ruins of an employment reputation, given the "leadership's" numerous S.C.U.D. missiles of intrigue, double-crossing, and vindictive office politics that they themselves took great pains to publicize and showcase to the world?

Given the circumstances and the people involved here, the following is what I believe we can expect from the current money-burning mismanagement.

The Village Clerk "Quick Fix"

The Monday Village Board meeting agenda lists Item H - "Appointment of interim clerk and set interim wage for position"

Kim Coyle, wife of Trustee Kelly Coyle appears to have a 99.9% chance of being this interim person referred to here, as if by design and regardless of nepotism issues concerning a trustee being a direct supervisor over his wife.

If she is indeed chosen, why did they not name her in the agenda? Why is there no packet material about this? How about a resume and job description for the public to examine?

 Why are they even talking about a higher wage at this point? The standard procedure has always been for current employees to fill in for vacancies while a position is being filled, and this was always done without extra compensation because that is part of the job descriptions. Public works director Greg Ulman's statement  to Wausau Pilot that "it's only fair" that they get paid extra ($1,000 every two weeks) to copy and paste Wegner's work into a few agenda reports, is just not true. Salaried workers are expected to take on extra duties without extra pay. It is part of the job description that they agreed to.

Jennifer Poyer for example filled in as Village Clerk for 2 months without a pay raise, until she was actually appointed and sworn in as full time clerk. That was the "culture" here before Mr Davel came along to change it.

The "new culture" appears to foster self-interest and lock-step obedience above all else. I will have more on this in another article entitled "The investigation - follow the money"

Perhaps I am wrong, and I hope I am, but here is my opinion - my speculative story-line that I believe the Board will follow:

• The board will likely have a single resume waiting for them at the Monday meeting. It will likely present only minimal qualifications for the clerk position.

• The Board may briefly mention several options, though those options if any, will not be realistic.

• I hope they decide to bring in an outside temp to professionally handle the clerks duties, but I doubt this will be mentioned, unless it happens to be Davel's own wife.

• Admin Davel will probably verbally extol Ms Coyle's ability beyond any realistic limit. After all, one hand washes the other.

• They will set her wage at $70,000, which is the wage that apparently she herself listed in the job posting, but which was intended for an experienced, diligent clerk. Job postings before this one always feature a salary range ($55-75,000 for example) to give the Board flexibility based on the applicant qualifications. This advertised, single figure of $70K that has been posted locks the Board in to that amount, and it seems to me like an open door to overpay to whoever fills the spot.

• They will likely ignore the fact that she has basically no experience or temperament for the Village Clerk position.

• I believe that she would do only a mediocre job in this interim position as clerk, but Mr. Davel will praise her for great work.

• In my experience, she did a sub-par job as clerk for the Plan Commission, and I have heard complaints of embarrassing and costly screw-ups in simply processing utility bills/payments.

• I believe there will be a pronounced lack of "qualified" applicants for the clerk position either real or contrived. No one will be found acceptable for one reason or another.

• In the end I think the "solution" will be to hire Kim Coyle permanently. Which I believe was the Coyle goal since November 2024, and the Davel/ Coyle plan at least since February 27th.

• And so, the theater show will end as I believe it was intended to by certain actors from the beginning.

From a 30,000 foot view, it appears that the best interest of the Village is on the ropes, and there is nobody home to deal with it.

Hiring a professional temporary worker is the most logical, intelligent bet. Aside from that, I believe there are few good options left, unless by some miracle some random exceptionally qualified person happens to put in an application, and village politics doesn't drive that new person out. Anything else would appear to be classic cronyism.

Insult to Injury

In my opinion, one of the most disgusting moments of all this, was at the August 24 special meeting where Trustee Kelly Coyle performed his strikingly disingenuous little tribute and praise to the work ethic of the departing clerk.

It has been common knowledge at Village Hall and beyond that Trustee Coyle and his wife had their hearts set on the Village Clerk position, and were extremely upset when Jennifer Poyer applied for the job. Kelly Coyle personally berated her for that with the rest of the office to hear. Details of this being in Poyer's augmentation.

The apparent animosity, and undermining of Poyer's character appears to have persisted ever since then. That would explain why a number of people including myself believe that Trustee Coyle should not have been involved with any of these investigation or redaction discussions at all, since any decisions made by him would tend to be based in self-interest and hostile to Poyer.

I and others have heard Kelly criticize and try to undermine Poyer. There doesn't seem to be any secret about that.

I would be willing to bet that in the April 30th closed session where they fired Wegner "with just cause", that Coyle may have taken a shot or two at firing Poyer the same night as well.

More Factors

The Board should be aware by now that Kim and others with Davel's apparent support have reportedly been overtly hostile and disrespectful to Poyer in the weeks prior to her resignation. This appears to have been a factor in her complaint, and in eventually driving her out of the position. Kim Coyle reportedly walked away from helping with the National Night Out without telling Poyer, and also no help for the Movie Under the Stars event.

During the investigation,during Kim Coyle's interview she inexplicably veered away from the subject matter at hand, off to the unrelated topic of attacking Wegner and Poyer, which appears to have been a great favor to Davel.

Her interview answers seem to have raised a question of her own credibility which the investigator never pursued. The report says she knew of the tattoo story but couldn't remember who she heard it from. Does this sound credible, or dodgy?

Two people have said that Kim Coyle approached them before the investigation and told them about Davel's "tattoo story" which included details unknown to Sorensen, Wegner, or Poyer, and when in theory Coyle should have known nothing about it unless she heard it straight from Davel himself, just as Wegner had said.

One office worker quit early this summer, citing Kim Coyle's bullying, lying, and lack of support from Davel to address the matter.

It appears that Davel and Joling worked together to prevent this person from submitting an exit interview, or telling her story to the Village Board.

The Coyle's apparent grudge against Wegner appears to go back a few years, but I'm not sure of the exact reason. I know Wegner would not recommend Kim for the planning tech position due to lack of qualification.

The Root of All Evil

As for the interim position on Monday's agenda, the item immediately calls for more money which has never been the norm in Kronenwetter. Davel appears to me to be buying staff loyalty using taxpayer money.

There is also the allegation and time card evidence of Kim Coyle claiming overtime while receiving the $1000 bonus for "extra duties". I am certainly no expert on payroll, but this looks like some kind of double-dipping to me. 

   I believe that an investigation needs to be made into payroll going back 3 years to the time they stopped including employee payments in the monthly check register for the public to see. Secrecy breeds suspicion.

Here is information that I believe should be taken into consideration before the interim clerk position is filled:

• In January, 2025, Kelly Coyle participated in closed session to recommend that his own wife Kim Coyle should get a $2000 bonus for unspecified "hard work". This appears to be a State Ethics violation.

• May 11, 2026 in closed session under the deceptive guise and secrecy of "staff's annual evaluation and/or pay increases", Kim Coyle was awarded a $1000 per pay period ongoing bonus for again, unspecified "extra duties" of the Community Development Director. 

• When I asked Mr Davel, he said the assignment of duties would be determined weeks later in June.

• When I asked Kelly Coyle why he abstained from that vote on May 11, he said

  "I left the room because Kim has been filling the role of the planning tech for the past two years and would almost certainly be involved in the temporary coverage of responsibilities of the community development position."

• A Sept 4, 2026 Wausau Pilot article confirmed that the bonus money started about May 1,not after the May 11 meeting, and it is reported that admin Davel announced the bonuses at a staff meeting on the 4th or 5th. So while it was proper on the surface for Coyle to recuse himself from the meeting, to me, his feigned ignorance and "assumption " seems disingenuous given the fact that his wife was fully aware of the payoff 10 days earlier and had in fact already started getting the bonus money.

• On May 20th, I asked Mr Davel "have you come up with a written plan for the division of the ZA/CDD duties?" Davel replied "The duties will be discussed with the board during the individuals evaluation next month as directed by the board. After the board has approved I would be happy to inform you."

• So, according to the facts, the "free money" started flowing on about May 1st, but according to Davel there was no division of any duties planned to take place until the June 8 meeting, 5+ weeks later.

• The June 8 closed session meeting was held again under the seemingly deceptive guise of "Staff Performance Evaluations". Three evaluations appear to have actually been discussed and raises decided on. However, the Board apparently also discussed at some point the division of duties for the bonus money, just as Davel said they would be, but that subject was not mentioned at all on the agenda.

  One trustee at that meeting reportedly asked how the duties were specifically to be divided, that question was left unanswered.

• Davel never answered my May 20th inquiry about division of duties like he said he would, because the Board apparently never "approved" any specified duties, which was apparently because no specific assignments of duties were ever determined, which in turn I believe was because there were no duties that either Coyle or Ulman were even capable of competently doing other than the kind of work formerly done by a planning technician, not full-fledged director-level work.

• In other words, it certainly looks like this was a very generous payoff of unearned money to Kim Coyle and Greg Ulman for something OTHER than assuming Wegner's duties.

• The June 8 minutes state "Motion by Mortensen/Coyle to approve the monetary decision we made in closed session with regards to the evaluations." So we see that aside from the flagrant open meetings violations, Kelly Coyle did not recuse himself this time but instead apparently participated in whatever secret discussion was had that might potentially benefit his wife. "Monetary decision" seems deliberately vague as though to include more than the "pay raises" moved after the May 11 closed session. Again, it looks like ethics and open meetings violations happened.

As Kelly Coyle stated in his email to me - wife Kim Coyle had been doing [low-level] planning tech work for two years, but it appears that neither she nor Greg Ulman were ever tasked with actual Zoning /Community Development Director's work, but only planning tech work like preparing packet material.

There is also the current complaint investigation of which Kim Coyle is apparently a subject. I think it would be irresponsible of the Board to put Kim Coyle in a position of trust before that investigation and other possible litigation works its way through.

There seems to have been an effort to minimize Wegner and the status of his position by claiming he was "replaced" by two other employees, and by how quickly they hired someone for the spot. I won't belabor the point, other than to say point blank that according to his resume, I believe the Board did the new ZA/CDD and the Village a disservice by hiring him for that position. "Learn on the job" situations have not ended well in the past.

Pete Wegner's position required extensive knowledge and familiarity with a multitude of laws and regulations by a number of regulatory agencies; not just Village ordinances. It seems clear that neither Davel or Joling understood or appreciated that fact.

It is obvious to those who understand the job, that no one in that building has the knowledge to perform actual Zoning Administrator/ Community Development work effectively, even if they were so directed. This position needs to sign off on things for which the village becomes responsible if the regulations are not met. It is not a place for beginners.

The village clerks position requires similarly extensive knowledge of laws, etc. with consequences to the Village for failure to observe.

So, there is a lot to unpack there. Check it out and decide for yourself. The information provided is all true to the best of my knowledge, but you can take it as "alleged" if you wish.

The clerk position is the most demanding and critical to effective, honest, and legal Village operations. We have seen in the past the disastrous results of putting the wrong type of person in that position.

I hope the Village Board treads carefully and objectively as they deal with this situation.