Curmudgeon's Corner

Washington County Case Settled

Posted by Al Campbell on April 24, 2010

County Board, Political, Quality of Life

This is a follow-up to the Blog titled Washington County Dust-Up that appeared on April 19^th.  Information available at that time indicated that a court hearing would be held on Monday, April 26^th.  All that has changed with the settlement negotiated between Assistant District Attorney David Feiss of Milwaukee County and County Board Chair Herb Tennies and his counsel.

The Assistant District Attorney wrote:

“I am writing to let you know that this case will not proceed to trial next week.  As you are aware, prior to the issuance of this case attempts were made to agree on language of an apology that adequately expressed Tennies conduct.  After the case was issued I continued to explore that avenue.  I informed Tennies attorney that if Tennies signed a statement that I felt appropriate and made a charitable contribution, I would move to dismiss the action.

This week I received from Tennies attorney the attached statement along with proof that a charitable contribution had been made.  The maximum penalty if Tennies had been convicted was a $300 forfeiture.  In my judgment, this statement, along with a charitable contribution that significantly exceeded the amount of the possible forfeiture represented a fair resolution of this matter.

I understand that this resolution is not perfect and that this should have been done by Mr. Tennies a year ago so this matter could have been laid to rest.  However, given the range of possible outcomes I believe that this was preferable to bringing everyone to Port Washington and tying up the court for a day on this matter.”

The statement signed by Mr. Tennies follows:

“As a result of my actions on March 24, 2009, County Supervisors Bill Meyers and Don Berchem were mistakenly excluded from a portion of the Executive Committee Meeting held on that day.  I recognize that Section 19.89 of the Wisconsin Statutes provides that any member of the County Board may attend such a meeting.

I wish to apologize to the Supervisors and I can assure them as well as all members of the Washington County Board that this will not happen again.”

* * * * * *

It is said that all is well that ends well.  That doesn’t apply in this situation in my opinion.  All this spent time and money could have been avoided had Mr. Tennies simply not taken the action he took.  All this spent time and money could have been avoided had Mr. Tennies simply apologized a year ago, as Mr. Feiss suggested in his letter.

Mr. Tennies drug this matter out for over a year and only at the last minute did he relent and send a donation someplace and sign the statement that appears above.  He incurred attorney’s fees presumably and he has presided over a conflicted body for the past year.  The County Attorney was present according to witnesses when this originally transpired.  She could have defused this matter at the time it would seem.  The law is quite clear and the exception rule had never been proposed and passed as would’ve been required.

Mr. Tennies was re-elected as Board Chair on Tuesday, April 20^th.  The letter from Mr. Feiss is dated Wednesday, April 21^st.  Meyers was the sole opponent in that race.  It seems interesting that the dates are so close but that the public disclosure didn’t occur until the day after Tennies had secured the Chair for a second term.  Mr. Tennies’ statement carries no date.

If this is politics as usual in Washington County, it is time for a change in politics as usual in Washington County.