Newburg clerk has her hands full picking up the pieces

Official who will be paid $6,000 a month is tracking down bank accounts after sudden resignations
By 
DAN BENSON
Ozaukee Press staff

Things haven’t returned to normal in the Village of Newburg following the resignation of its office staff last month, but new Clerk Deanna Alexander says progress is being made.

“We were late on our payroll by about a week and some people were underpaid, but we pretty much have that straightened out,” she said.

She’s spent a lot of time in meetings, she said.

“I have met with village trustees, the president and past village president and with employees,” she said. “There is a lot of deep history with the village. I’m asking what they would change. I’m getting a lot of good feedback.

“People love the village and they love working here but there has been a lot of political turbulence,” she said.

Last week, the village board approved a contract with Alexander that will pay her $6,000 a month. There is no set time to her contract but officials say they hope to hire a permanent replacement within three to four months.

Barb De Luka, wife of trustee Dave De Luka, is helping run the office. Newburg State Bank is helping fill the treasurer’s duties. 

Alexander, a Milwaukee County supervisor, was hired after former clerk and administrator Rick Goeckner and assistant clerk and treasurer Chrissie Brynwood resigned May 16 following several tense months in village government centered around ethics violations by Rena Chesak, a village trustee who was elected president in April.

Goeckner and Brynwood both said the atmosphere at Village Hall had become so tense they felt unsafe, complaining that they were being watched by a supporter of Chesak.

Their abrupt departure left village government in disarray.

Alexander said she spent one full day meeting with banks to identify village accounts.

“When (Goeckner and Brynwood) walked off the job they did not leave passwords or log-in information,” she said. “We are doing a lot of work backtracking.”

Alexander earns about $24,000 a year as a Milwaukee County supervisor. She is in her third term and represents the northwest corner of Milwaukee County.

  In June 2018, she was fired from her job with the state Department of Children and Families, where she worked as a section chief overseeing Milwaukee’s foster care system.

A few months laster, she filed a federal lawsuit against then-Gov. Scott Walker’s administration, arguing that she was wrongfully terminated for political reasons, saying she was fired in retaliation for speaking out against sexual harassment and declining to provide false data in a court-mandated report. 

The case remains open in U.S. District Court in Madison. Motions for dismissal were denied this spring.

She said she informed trustees of her firing and lawsuit before they hired her.

The suit seeks an unspecified amount of compensatory and punitive damages.

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Wisconsin’s largest paid circulation community weekly newspaper. Serving Port Washington, Saukville, Grafton, Fredonia, Belgium, as well as Ozaukee County government. Locally owned and printed in Port Washington, Wisconsin.

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