Town Supervisor Craig, Ashamed?

For those of you who don't know, the Village President Jamie Soneberg is a deputy Sheriff with the Waukesha County Sheriff’s office. From what I understand, Deputy Soneberg has an impeccable service record. Deputy Soneberg is assigned by the Sheriff to patrol areas that include the Town of Vernon.

Bill Craig at last Thursday’s meeting has asked that Jamie be reassigned. Here we go again….

Mr. Craig has a history of this. Everyone that disagrees with Mr. Craig and his view on how he governs comes into his crosshairs. First it was Marilyn Gauger, then president of the Big Bend-Vernon Fire Board. Mr. Craig said some things that implied that Mrs. Gauger had done wrong. If fact, she conducted herself with the utmost integrity. She continued to follow policies that had been in place for years in the conduct of the Fire Board’s business. As it turns out, these policies violated the letter of the law as written in the intermunicipal agreement between the town and village. Mrs. Gauger continued to conduct the Fire Board’s business following an unwritten policy explicitly condoned by the Town Attorney John Macy, and the past two Town Chairs. Yet she was taken to task by Mr. Craig and was not reappointed. (This relates to verbal approval from the Town Chair and Village President to seek legal counsel for private matters relating to Fire Board performance evaluation issues. The key word being PRIVATE matters. The subject of legal closed session meetings.)

And then there’s me….Mr. Craig pushed for me to not be reappointed to the Fire Board when my term was up. I was at the meeting in the third week of May 2009 when Mr. Craig urged the other board members to not reappoint me since “new blood” was needed even though significant progress was being made in applying stabilizing controls to the Fire Department budget and leadership. No, he didn’t want to overlook minor details of operation issues (i.e. verbal approval for legal fees) to see the big picture and the progress being made. In a follow-up meeting with Mr. Craig he continued to ask for minute details of the Fire Board’s dealings and ignore all progress made by the Fire Board in years of hard work. My integrity was questioned and I decided to resign knowing that continued personal attacks would most likely follow….

So, now we get to Jamie. Jamie is in Mr. Craig’s sights. This is despicable; Mr. Craig should be ashamed. The voters should be outraged. The voters in this community need to start paying attention. We do not need this in our community. Not one of us deserves this, not one of us has done anything other than serve this community with the best of intensions. What are Mr. Craig’s intensions?  What’s he trying to accomplish? Is this really Town business?

So, Mr. Craig cites a conflict of interest? Is it a conflict of interest when Mr. Craig (a real estate agent) lists a property for sale in the Village of Big Bend? Is a conflict of interest when Mr. Craig is a member of the Town Board and Town Plan Commission when a land division is considered for approval by the Town? Is it a conflict of interest when Mr. Craig’s business is located in the Village and not the Town? These questions are as absurd as claiming that Jamie’s patrol duty as a Sheriff’s deputy is a conflict of interest. Where will this insanity end?