By Dave Fidlin
Correspondent
And then there were five.
Trustee Jerry Filut announced recently he was stepping down from the Waterford Village Board, resulting in another empty seat on the seven-member elected body.
Filut was re-elected to the board in April.
The most recent announcement comes on the heels of a vacancy that occurred in April when former Trustee Jim Schneider relinquished his seat to assume the role of village president.
The sitting board in May opted to hold a special election in November to fill the remaining six-month term of Filut’s trustee position at a cost of at least $2,000.
At a Village Board meeting Monday, the five remaining trustees discussed next steps for the newest vacancy.
Village Clerk Rachel Ladewig had consulted with state election experts on a variety of issues, including canceling the November special election for Filut’s old seat and changing the ballot question to two, instead of one, candidates.
In email correspondence to the village, Diane Lowe, lead elections specialist with the Wisconsin Elections Commission, said the village must move forward with the special election in November, as planned.
“You have noticed the election as filling one position,” Lowe wrote. “You cannot, after the fact, decide that you are now filling two positions.”
Following the board’s motion last month, village staffers moved through the proper protocol, including noticing the special election in the Waterford Post and making all of the necessary accommodations with the Racine County clerk’s office.
Because all of the statutorily required steps were taken, Lowe, in her professional opinion, said the village cannot cancel the original election.
“The WEC staff is not aware of any statute that allows for canceling an election that has been properly called, noticed and has candidates who have qualified for the ballot,” Lowe wrote.
During a discussion of next steps at this week’s meeting, the five sitting trustees opted to address Filut’s now-vacant seat after the November election.
The decision and course of action this week means the Village Board will likely remain under-represented throughout the remainder of 2017.
An item on this week’s agenda also included a discussion of an overarching board policy on filling board vacancies as they occur.
“No policy was set or voted upon for replacement of trustee positions for now,” Deputy Clerk Kathleen Lindbloom said. “This will be addressed after the election in November on a case-by-case situation.”
The village has to carry the entire cost of the November election because no other items will be on this fall’s ballot.
In addition to printing ballots, other incidental costs include programming voting machines, installing memory packs, staffing at least one poling location and bringing in election inspectors.
State statutes give local governing bodies several options as vacancies occur. Appointing a resident for the remaining length of a seat is the most common course of action since it costs less.
Despite the expenditure of an election, there have been proponents on the sitting Waterford Village Board of going the election route.
“We live in a Republic, and I think the people need to pick an elected official,” Trustee Andrew Ewert said in April. “The people should be selecting the candidates. The cream rises to the top.”
-
-
-
-
-