The Police and Fire Commission - Who Watches the Watchers?

 

 Monday's Kronenwetter Village Board meeting agenda features Item I , identified by the vague title of "Ordinance 14-16". So what is that all about? The packet report identifies this item with the objective of "To discuss changing ordinance 14-16 to allow police and fire commission members to be appointed to other committees."

Now, why would they even consider this? I happen to know the backstory as to what this is all about. Unsurprisingly, it appears to be yet another example of Kronenwetter President Dan Joling's political biases and favoritism in enforcing ordinances or not enforcing them, as he so chooses.

Village Ordinances

Village ordinances are laws binding on those within the Village and particularly those within Village government itself, and even more particularly on the Village President who by state statute §61.24 "... shall maintain peace and good order, see that the ordinances are faithfully obeyed,..."

The word "shall" in law means "must", it leaves no discretion to let your buddies get by with violations while the common people are held to strict accountability. For the president himself to violate ordinances as he apparently has in this case, constitutes an even bigger shame and disgrace to himself, and to the Village.

Village ordinance §14-16 Police and Fire Commission states in sub (A):

"Composition. The police and fire commission shall consist of five members, none of whom may be elected or appointed officials or employed by the village. "

Ordinance §14-9 identifies all committee members as "public officials"

According to the packet, someone wants to change this. Due to the way it just popped up from the shadows, I suspect this is Joling's brainchild.

Background

Former trustee Alex Vedvik has been a member of the Utility Committee for years.

He has also been a vocal police department devotee, and apparent advocate of a "no price is too high" philosophy regarding that department. As trustee, he even called for hiring a full time detective for the Village, and last year he was instrumental in a behind the scenes secret meeting promoting police spending which, the way the 2026 budget was crafted, ended up putting the 2027 police budget over the annual $2 million mark for the first time.

This is more than double $941 thousand spent in 2022, just 4 years ago. However, this issue of the fat hog at the budget trough, is for a later article.

The point here is that Mr. Vedvik's pro-police bias seems to be well beyond that of your average "law and order" taxpayer. Vedvik's adoration and bias in favor of the police may have made him Joling's perfect choice as a minion to serve Joling's own apparent similar goals.

In the world of honest government, Vedvik's biases should have by itself disqualified him from being a Police and Fire Commission member at all.

The PFC is supposed to be particularly neutral in its allegiances due to possible disciplinary actions that might arise.

Unlawful, Improper Appointment

At the April 27 Village Board meeting Joling appointed Vedvik to the PFC in spite of the above ordinance clearly forbidding it.

On August 24, I gave public input at the PFC meeting raising the issue of the ordinance violations. I read the ordinances verbatim at least twice to the commission for clarification, and I pointed out the obvious conflict with Vedvik's appointment.

The PFC recordings are not posted to the public for some reason, so you cannot listen to that input. The minutes reflect a very misleading, watered-down version saying that I "appeared before the Commission voicing his concern over whether members of the Commission were appropriately nominated/appointed by the Village Board."

It was not about "members" it was about one member - Alex Vedvik.

The ordinances are very clear - both Vedvik's appointment and his continued holding of both positions after my input/notification appear to be clear, willful violations.

In a normal, honorable setting, you would expect immediate attention to stopping the violation and correcting the matter. Either the PCF appointment would be rescinded, or perhaps more cleanly and again more honorably, Vedvik could choose one of the positions to keep, and resign from the other. Preferably resign from both, now that he got caught.

But obviously Kronenwetter is not a "normal, honorable setting" and apparently neither Vedvik or Joling operate that way. Once again, as is so often seems to be the case, Joling simply flouts the law and ignores any legal requirements that he finds inconvenient. Vedvik also being apparently another pea from the same pod and flaunting their utter hypocrisy.

Unanswered Questions

That brings us back to this meeting agenda. Rather than comply with the ordinance, Joling is apparently wanting to pull strings to get get the ordinance changed as a Godfather-like favor for Alex. In my opinion, this personal favor at the expense of Village integrity is a prime example of what is wrong with the current village government and this backwoods "Epstein-class" mentality of privileged people exempt from accountability and "owing" each other.

If you as Joe Average were caught violating ordinances, do you think the Village would offer to change the ordinance for your convenience?

Would they spend tax money to provide you with legal advice to work around the law that you violated?

If not, then, why is Vedvik a protected class in getting this special treatment, other than due to the above mentioned observations?

Who put this item on the agenda? Why would they want to showcase to the world this example of uber-cronyism and corrupted selective enforcement?

Davel's "Investigation"?

More wasted money.

With the simplicity of the ordinance language and the already budget-busting legal expenses, why go to this extreme of incurring the cost of a legal opinion which might run $1-2000? (We don't know for sure since the special-paid "interim clerk" is not providing the invoices in a timely manner for us to see the actual cost.)

Has Joling so quickly run out of friends and neighbors to appoint to these positions, that he needs this one to do double-duty?

Nothing about this situation seems legitimate. It appears that Joling has allowed Vedvik to illegally participate on two decision-making bodies for six months so far without consequence, based purely on their common identity politics. Two full months since I notified them.

The Village Board.

This cost-is-no-object expenditure for a rare written legal opinion on Vedvik's behalf is already done and the money spent. This doesn't make sense when the information was and is readily available and understandable for free. However, the Board has yet to vote on changing the ordinance to help out "Brother Alex". Will they do it?

The interesting thing here is that APC voted to support denial the ordinance change Davel recommends leaving the ordinance as is, but not for the right reasons. Is blood thicker than water, or will the Board follow APC's lead and do the right thing?

Either way, the bad image that this agenda item revealed to the public is a bell that can't be un-rung. Perhaps the wizard inadvertently bulling back his own curtain is a good thing.