By Tracy Ouellette
Staff Writer
Waterford Sanitary District Commissioner Rick McNeiley says he is certain no documents are missing from the district offices.
Town Chairman Robert Langmesser says he is not.
Questions about missing paperwork arose at a Sept. 12 Sanitary District meeting – the first meeting after Dan Dickinson ousted district President Bill Gerard in an Aug. 14 recall election.
On Aug. 1, Gerard told a Waterford Post reporter that he had sent “to the county” more than 30 pages of official meeting notes and financial data, dating as far back as 2003, in case newcomers to the WSD board started destroying records.
Gerard’s reported comments were then placed on the Sept. 12 WSD meeting agenda as an item for discussion and possible action.
At that meeting, Dickinson directly asked office administrator Debbie Nelson if she had knowledge of what those documents are and if in fact any “official” documents had been taken from the WSD office by Gerard.
Nelson responded by saying she didn’t know what the documents are, stating: “There are no documents that have left my office.”
Commissioner Jeff Santaga, who served on the board with Gerard when the documents were supposedly sent to the county, said he doesn’t know about them either, but would like to.
A request for information sent Sept. 25 by the Post to Gerard was not answered.
At the Sept. 12 meeting, McNeiley, who retired from the Racine County Sheriff’s Department after more than 25 years in law enforcement, offered to contact county and state officials to begin a “foot search” to find out what is going on and report his findings to the WSD board.
In a telephone interview Tuesday, McNeiley said he went down to the Racine County District Attorney’s Office and spoke to an assistant DA, who told him there is nothing in their office from Gerard or the Waterford Sanitary District.
McNeiley said he also went over to the Sheriff’s Office and talked to the patrol captain, who said the Sheriff’s Office has not received any documents from Gerard or the Sanitary District.
McNeiley said he then went to the county’s Ives Grove Office Complex in Sturtevant. McNeiley said no one there has any documents regarding the Waterford Sanitary District.
“There are no missing documents,” McNeiley said. “I am 100 percent sure, from my experience that nothing is missing.
“There are no more places for me to follow up to find answers. I did as thorough of a job as you could do.”
But Langmesser said he is still concerned that Gerard specifically indicated that official WSD material had been sent by him to the county.
“We’d like to know what documents Gerard is referring to,” said Langmesser. “What documents has he stashed away? We’d like to know.”
Editor Patricia Bogumil contributed to this story.
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