Supervisor's second arrest sparks debate, proposed new rules about conduct
One county board member is proposing rule changes in response to The Wausonian's story about a board member's arrest
Last weekend The Wausonian published a story about Marathon County Board Member Nicholas Endres’ second arrest.
The arrest came because Endres is alleged to have entered his wife’s house in violation of a no-contact order a judge imposed on the previous case, which The Wausonian reported last September. (Mistakenly reported that was when the first arrest took place - charges were filed in August. The story has been corrected.)
The Wausonian’s first story seemed to have gone under the radar. Perhaps because it was part of the Weekly Wausonian roundup. But this one got the attention of Supervisor Ann Lemmer and other members of the county board.
Lemmer on Thursday addressed the Marathon County Executive Committee during its agenda item on rules. A new county board is about to be seated following the April election, and they will adopt rules for themselves. Lemmer asked for stronger measures relating to supervisor conduct.
And that sparked debate about the limits of the power of government officials, the presumption of innocence and what the standard should be for supervisor conduct.
The Endres case
As a quick summary, Endres was arrested last summer on charges related to domestic abuse. As The Wausonian discovered, Endres allegedly threw a supplement bottle at his wife during a heated dispute.
Endres on March 21 was arrested again, this time for allegedly showing up to his former home where his wife and child lived and gaining entry. He allegedly refused to move his vehicle, ignoring officers who told him his wife and child would be trapped in case of an emergency, and allegedly told officers multiple times that he was both a county board supervisor and a member of the county’s public safety committee. (The officer said in the report that he wasn’t sure that Endres was attempting to dissuade them from arresting him, but noted that it seemed odd, according to the report.)
So far, The Wausonian is the only media outlet to report on either of the arrests.
To date, no charges related to the new arrest have been filed against Endres. District Attorney Kyle Mayo told The Wausonian that due to a conflict of interest, the Wood County District Attorney will be weighing the charging decision.
The first arrest seemed to go largely unnoticed. But this new one sparked outrage among some supervisors and led to a new proposal for supervisor conduct and how the board should treat it.
A new proposal
Lemmer brought up five points in her proposal to the board Thursday:
Domestic violence zero-tolerance: The board should formally affirm support for domestic violence victims and establish a zero-tolerance policy for such behavior among its members.
Code of ethics: A formal code should be established that clearly defines “conduct unbecoming of a supervisor” to serve as a trigger for further action.
Formal censure process: The rules should outline specific, objective reasons for bringing a censure forward, including clear actions and timeframes.
Provisional suspension of committee privileges: The board chair would be granted authority to immediately suspend a supervisor’s committee privileges and voting rights if they are facing criminal charges that directly conflict with the work of that committee. (Lemmer gave an example that if she were charged with embezzlement, for instance, she ought to be removed from the Finance Committee.)
Lemmer also questioned why the issue was never brought before the board so that the board could have discussed the matter.
Innocent until proven guilty?
The proposal sparked debate ranging from the balance of power of county leaders to the principle of innocent until proven guilty.
Marathon County Board member Stacy Morache argely agreed with Lemmer, but brought up the principle of innocent until proven guilty and questioned how that would apply to this situation. Board Member Jean Maszk suggested any action involving supervisor removal ought to wait until the case is resolved. As of yet, no charging decision on the second arrest has been made; Endres is slated to head to trial on the first case stemming from the alleged domestic situation in June, with a plea hearing scheduled next week.
But, Maszk said, she would have been ok with committee removal. Endres has not participated in the committee since the time of the first arrest last year, she told the board. (Maszk is the chair of the Public Safety Committee.)
Board member Jennifer Aarrestad questioned whether the county might incur any liability if it acted prior to any conviction. Marathon County Administrator Lance Leonhard told the committee that the board has the right to censure (it essentially involved a closed session trial-like process), but that staff would need to confer with corporation counsel on how that intersects with a legal proceeding.
Wausau, for instance, moved forward with an ethics process against Mayor Doug Diny despite a legal process also underway. The legal process did complicate the ethics board process since many witnesses felt they couldn’t testify to the ethics board without compromising the investigation.
And Marathon County Vice Chair Chris Dickinson didn’t care for the idea of giving the board chair the power to suspend members from committees; and he expressed skepticism about third party investigations.
The committee took no actions on the proposal Thursday, but instead Lemmer was directed to work with the county attorney and administrator to refine the proposal, which would likely come before the new board’s organizational committee.
Board member Matt Bootz agreed that a process is needed. He said that right now there doesn’t seem to be a process in order to deal with a situation such as Endres’, when a board member is arrested. “When something serious like this happens there needs to be something done, but our hands are kind of tied right now the way things are right now,” Bootz said. But Bootz called for a cleared process to be set forth, keeping track of all applicable laws.
Lemmer called for action on her proposal sooner rather than later so that the process is spelled out clearly, with clear triggers that county board members and government officials can rely on. “Without those, then it’s the wild west.”
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