The Kronenwetter harassment investigation followup
The village board sets new rules for how it handles misconduct of elected officials in the wake of an investigation into a staff member's harassment complaint against board member Ken Charneski
CORRECTION: The Wausonian has learned that the village has hired a new public works director. The story has been updated to reflect that.
Last week, The Wausonian revealed the existence of a major investigation that no one else seems to have reported on.
That yet-unreleased investigation, which The Wausonian obtained last week, suggested that Board Member Ken Charneski had harassed not only the village clerk, Bobbi Jo Birk-LaBarge, who initially filed the complaint in February, but had been harassing multiple staff, leading many of them to quit the village. And it determined that Charneski is creating a hostile work environment.
You can read our full Kronenwetter investigation here:
Report: Ken Charneski is creating a hostile work environment
A new report obtained by The Wausonian investigated the harassment claims put forth by a village employee against Village Trustee Ken Charneski. Its conclusion? Charneski is creating a hostile work environment.
The village currently is without an administrator and, until recently, a public works director. It has been unable to keep an administrator for more than a few months at a time since Richard Downey left in 2022, and is starting to get a reputation in the broader community.
Charneski disputes the findings of the investigation which he refused to participate in (after a lengthy back and forth with the investigator). Charneski called the report’s conclusions “guilty by accusation” and called the report a “biased piece of $%#&.”
You read the report’s full details and Charneski’s full response at the link above.
On Monday, the village board made an attempt to rectify the situation.
A new code of conduct
The village board Monday passed a new code of conduct. It spells out potential violations in which a complaint could be filed, such as failure to perform duties, violating public records laws and failure to maintain fiduciary responsibility to the village.
The codes also spell out potential consequences for violating the code of conduct, ranging from public censure to removal from office. Removal from office because of inability to perform duties or because of “gross neglect of duty” would happen by a majority vote of the village board. For other violations, the village board would determine how to proceed.
Charneski didn’t agree with those ideas. He and others said the code was hastily put forth (it was not included in the meeting’s packet material) and that members didn’t have enough time to debate it. He said there was too much room for interpretation and that more needed to be clarified before it was ready to be voted on.
Charneski and Cindy Lee Buchkowski-Hoffmann voted against the code’s adoption.
That discussion came following a closed session meeting in which the board discussed Charneski’s lawsuit against the village, his two Wisconsin Election Commission complaints against Birk-LaBarge, former county board supervisor David Baker’s election complaint, cease and desist correspondence to Charneski, and the Von Briesen investigation.
The new code of conduct policy seems to be the result. What happens next will remain to be seen.
At the same meeting, the village board voted to renew Birk-LaBarge for another two years as the village clerk. Charneski voted against it.
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