Toxic Campaigning

 

   There is a quote that goes something like “Adversity doesn't make a person's character; it reveals it”.

    2022 is an interesting year in that we actually have real competition in our local election for the first time in many years, and the adversity of election competition has certainly revealed the character of candidates Randy Fifrick for County Supervisor, and Jordyn Wadle-Leff for Village Trustee.

    After years in public office Fifrick (county supervisor) and Wadle-Leff (as a citizen committee member) have done nothing worthy of note. Wadle-Leff has not bothered to even attend many committee meetings to which she was assigned, and she often leaves in the middle of others. She has had a conflict of interest complaint filed against her which President Voll has basically refused to deal with, in an apparent effort to shield Wadle-Leff's actions from public awareness.

    Fifrick works for the City of Wausau, which many consider to be a conflict of interest with the County Board position.

    It is a matter of public record that he left Kronenwetter employment under a cloud of scandal and controversy. It is also no secret that he is currently under police investigation because of allegations of document tampering while working in his position at Kronenwetter.

    So, it seems obvious to me that in order to compensate for their port-side list toward unelectability, these two candidates have revealed their character by the apparent tactic of choice, which seems to be to unjustly smear their opponents, rather than deal with real issues.

Let's look at Randy Fifrick's actions first:

    While replying to a Wausau Daily Herald request for candidate information, and a question asking “What makes you the better candidate in this race?” Mr. Fifrick replied, in part:

“In less than a year on the Kronenwetter Village Board, my opponent’s bullying and toxic behavior has caused almost the entire professional staff to find new jobs in order to leave the dysfunctional environment he has fostered.”

    Really? Mr. Straub caused all that? As a Kronenwetter trustee for the past 4 years and in a position to observe many activities at Village Hall, I happen to know that this statement is patently false on its face.

    Let's take a look the last year's resignations, and see if we ca find what Fifrick is referring to in his accusation.

1 The Planning Technician Jarod R, resigned around August to take a job in Waupaca that involved a promotion to Community & Economic Development Director. I had been expecting him to leave Kronenwetter at some point, as it was generally known that he had a very heavy workload laid on him by his supervisor, Randy Fifrick. 

   Jarod was respected for his work ethic, but I knew that that kind of workload could not go on forever.

There was no indication from anyone that Jarod left because of any trustee behavior, let alone Straub's in particular, as Fifrick asserts.

2 The Village Clerk, Cindy F, simply retired. She told me personally, and others,that it was because she didn't want to deal with any more elections.

3 The Treasurer, Alicia R, quit in October. I recall nothing that Straub might have done to particularly be a cause for her leaving.

Mr Downey had indicated months before Mr. Straub was even elected, that Ms. R probably would not be around for too long.

4 The Public Works Director, Austen F, was hired in May of 2021 and given a much higher pay because of his engineering degree. He had made incredibly inaccurate calculations that resulted in an embarrassing village Declaration of Disaster. We knew when we hired him that we were taking a chance due to his inexperience. He left at the end of January with no word from the Village Administrator as to why. 

   I have seen or heard nothing to indicate that Straub in particular had anything to do with the PWD leaving. We can be very sure that if he was in any way at fault, the Administrator would have had no hesitation whatsoever if reporting that to the Village Board.

5 The latest Fire Dept Chief, Chad Z, left to take a similar position much closer to his home town and family. This kind of move is not unusual. Trustee Straub seemed to be on amicable terms with Chad.

6 A communication specialist left for unknown reasons, but that position has little to do with any trustee interaction.

7 The Zoning Administrator, Randy Fifrick can tell you himself why he has resigned.

    From my point of view, after losing the trust and the respect of much of the Village Board, his value as an employee was greatly reduced. I can at least thank him for leaving.

    I believe that if Mr Straub called out Fifrick's administrative failures and lack of candor with the Board, that this could not be fairly construed as the “bullying” that Fifrick claims it to be.

    When staff people cost the Village Taxpayers north of $100,000 a year to employ, it seems to me that they should demonstrate some level of trustworthiness, competence, and professionalism. That goes for the former Treasurer and PWD as well.

    Aside from the new Treasurer cleaning up the financial mess left by the previous treasurer, so also the new Zoning Administrator is left dealing with the regulatory havoc left behind by Mr. Fifrick. The Village will also need to locate and purchase a new yard waste site at some point, due to Fifrick's mishandling of the sale of the old yard waste site.

    I'll stand by my statement that the Village is much better off today with the new Treasurer, Public Work Director, and Zoning Administrator, than we were 6 months ago with the old ones.

    Candidate Fifrick uses the term “dysfunctional environment”, and while that description is true, this condition certainly does not exist because Joel Straub “fostered” it.

    Dysfunctionality at the Kronenwetter Village Hall was here before I was elected, which was 3 years before Mr Straub even became a trustee.

    I believe that Fifrick knew his statement to the Wausau Record Herald was false when he made it, and that it was said with malice and for political purposes of altering the outcome of the vote in his own favor.

    As evidence of this, it is known that the staff reviewed the performance of Village Administrator Mr. Downey in 2019 and 2020. Details of that are under closed session confidentiality, but in open session, the Village Board for the first time voted a 0% raise for the Administrator. Mr. Fifrick is aware of what the office conditions were at that time. Yet suddenly before an election the “dysfunctionality” has become the fault of his political rival for the County Board position.

    Mr Fifrick was also sent an exit interview questionnaire after he resigned, as were the others, but which he never returned. If Straub was such a problem and disruption, why didn't Fifrick use that opportunity to report it to the Board, rather than waiting for months until Straub was a candidate running against Fifrick?

The same basic story can be told of Candidate Wadle-Leff. In a reply to a question at a public forum, she made the claim:

“In conversations with multiple of those individuals the majority of those we have lost have been due to our current board,” she said. “It’s very frustrating when you can’t rely on your leadership and you cannot count on them to move the village forward. We’ve lost a lot of good talent.”

    Again, I ask – Really? Who were these “multiple of those individuals”, and what did they say? Where is all this “good talent” that Ms.Wadle-Leff mentions?

    I just went through the whole list from the past year's resignations of former staff. Had any one of them said a negative word about any trustee behavior, it would have been Mr Downey's responsibility to bring it to the Board's attention. He has not done so. Yet suddenly at election time Wadle-Leff claims to have some kind of inside information to the contrary, and it has become the left's main talking point in this election.

    So it is apparent that Ms. Wadle's statements, like Mr.Fifricks, were baseless political cheap shots made for the sole purpose of misrepresenting the character of their election opponents.

This is exactly the kind of disreputable election behavior that the State Legislature was trying to clean up when they passed Wisconsin Statute 12.05, which reads:

“12.05 False representations affecting elections. No person may knowingly make or publish, or cause to be made or published, a false representation pertaining to a candidate or referendum which is intended or tends to affect voting at an election.”

    Most candidates have conducted themselves respectably, but in the case of these two, I certainly hope the voters of this Village can see through this ruse, and focus on the real issues facing this municipality.

    Real issues like maintaining low tax rates, dealing with unfair assessments, water issues, and the hundreds of thousands of dollars that remain unaccounted for.

Thanks,

Ken Charneski