Village election hinges on accountability

Five candidates are vying for three trustee seats in next week’s Grafton Village Board race. 

Newcomers John Meinecke and AnneMarie Wenten are challenging incumbents Thomas Krueger, John Gassert and David Antoine in the Tuesday, April 2,  spring election.

Village President Jim Brunnquell is running unopposed. 

All the candidates said they support controlled growth for the village but are divided on issues involving the transfer of the village’s dispatching services to Ozaukee County’s Sheriff’s Office, Grafton Fire Department staffing and government transparency.

Gassert, Krueger and Antoine said they support the controversial decision to consolidate all emergency-dispatching services to the county in December. The transfer occurred because the village didn’t achieve accreditation for an emergency medical dispatch program, which resulted in the village losing its medical direction with the Aurora Medical Center in Grafton. That left the village liable for handling emergency calls.

Krueger said the move will save the village about $360,000 annually. Wenten and Meinecke disagree.

At a candidates forum last month, Meinecke said the transfer has led to a 2% increase in county taxes for residents. He also said the board didn’t do its due diligence to support the police department by retaining police support specialists who know the village better than the county’s dispatching center.

Wenten, who is the wife of Grafton Police Chief Charles Wenten, said that one of the reasons she’s running is because of the consolidation of services.

“The actions of many board members and finance committee members have created the atmosphere that caused many of our police support specialists to leave Grafton, and in turn has necessitated the closing of our (police department) lobby many evenings and overnight,” she wrote in an email. 

When asked about adding more full-time firefighters-paramedics to the fire department, Meinecke said the village should outsource firefighters through a contracting service and do away with the department’s three full-time employees.

Antoine, Krueger and Gassert disagree. 

“Since 2010, the volume of calls has increased 34%. Obviously, we do need help,” Antoine said. 

Gassert said contractual services are typically more expensive than in-house employees and the quality of service would decline if village firefighters are outsourced.

Wenten said a “partial moratorium on building (in the village) should be imposed until the village can increase staff in all departments.”

With regards to government transparency, all candidates are in support of keeping citizens informed on village matters. Wenten and Meinecke, however, said the board can do more.

“Transparency in government is a big area for improvement. The board has made it impossible for residents to remain informed on village business,” Wenten said.

“Even with the addition of the Grafton YouTube channel, the village is only recording Village Board meetings. Our leadership should be making it easier to be informed, not more difficult.”

According to village documents, the vast majority of open-records requests between July 2, 2018, and Jan. 22, 2019, were related to the transition of dispatch services. More than 60 requests were made by Wenten, who was seeking correspondences between village officials mostly involving the Grafton Fire Department, emergency medical dispatch and written directives given to her husband regarding dispatch services.

Krueger said he supports a transparent village government and said the board is now video recording its meetings. He also said anonymous social media posts have spread misinformation to the public.

“It’s better to take ownership of ones words and defend them,” he said.

Gassert and Antoine agree. 

“Clearly it’s not transparent. You can’t counter an argument against an anonymous post,” Gassert said.

Meinecke said anonymous posts happen all the time and the voters “will decide where the truth is.”

Meinecke’s wife Susan is a village trustee and is suing Grafton Fire Chief William Rice and Village Administrator Jesse Thyes to obtain documents through several open-record requests. She is also accusing Rice and Thyes of conspiring against her in last year’s board election, and is suing for court costs and punitive damages.

Mr. Meinecke said, “I fully support this action of last resort to get to the truth.”

If elected, Wenten and Meinecke do not believe that there will be a conflict of interest even though their spouses are village officials.

“I believe I can vote on police department matters,” Wenten said. “I understand that some people may find my situation to be a potential conflict of interest, however precedent has already been set.

“In the past, we have had a previous trustee married to a Grafton police officer. Currently, Trustee (David) Liss is an employee of the Grafton Fire Department and is married to another Grafton Fire Department employee. Our village president runs Celebrate Grafton and votes on behalf of it. Trustee (Lisa) Uribe Harbeck is another board member and her husband is on the Grafton Zoning Board of Appeals.

“If there was a time to be concerned about conflicts of interests, I believe that should have been long ago.”

Meinecke said the election process eliminates the potential conflict of interest and increases the transparency of the board.