County Board voids vice chair and committee election results

COUNTY - The Waupaca County Board of Supervisors voted 22-3 during a special meeting on April 28 to restart its election process for vice chair and a committee assignment after discovering that votes held the previous week violated state statute and county ordinance.

The special session was called after officials realized that candidates for the vice chair and highway committee seats during the previous week’s organizational meeting had won with only a plurality or relative majority of votes, rather than the required majority.

At the April 21 organizational meeting, newly elected Supervisor Joel Bartel initially sought the board chair position, but James Nygaard was elected chair by an 18-8 vote over him. Bartel was then nominated for vice chair alongside Pete Bosquez, Ricky Ertl and Allen Kraeger. Bartel received nine votes, Bosquez received five votes, Ertl received seven votes and Kraeger received five votes. Bartel was then named vice chair.

At the special meeting, attorney Andy Phillips, who represents the Wisconsin Counties Association, explained that the vice chair and highway committee candidates were nominated by a plurality of votes, meaning they received more votes than any other candidate but did not receive a majority.

Phillips noted that state statute, county ordinance and Robert’s Rules of Order all mandate a majority vote of the county supervisors to carry an election. He said the board had three options: ratify the previous week’s flawed results, ratify the results but hold new elections moving forward, or adopt a “clean slate” by redoing the elections entirely.

The board’s decision to pursue the clean-slate option was opposed by Bartel, who called it “manipulation” and “an attempt to overturn a valid election after the fact.” He argued that the county clerk and corporation counsel had overseen the original election without raising any procedural objections at the time.

“Let’s be clear about the precedent that this sends,” Bartel said. “If this stands, then any future election can be overturned the moment the majority decides they want a different outcome. That is dangerous, reckless, and it undermines the integrity of this entire board.”

Bartel also reprimanded the board for spending time on “political infighting” at the meeting while constituents in Fremont and New London were actively losing their homes to flooding along the Wolf River.

Other supervisors argued that legal and procedural integrity had to be maintained regardless of the oversight.

“If we don’t follow the rules, every time we make a mistake and we correct it by making another mistake ... that’s not the way it’s going to be done,” one supervisor stated.

Supervisor Pete Bosquez said that the board should not stick to a mistake just because no one questioned it during the initial meeting.

“Let’s start with a clean slate, figure out where we went wrong and let an appropriate election take place,” Bosquez said.

An attempt to amend the motion to instead ratify the original election results was ruled out of order by the chair because it directly contradicted the main clean slate motion. An appeal to overturn the chair’s ruling failed in a 6-19 vote.

Following the vote to restart the process, the board opened the floor for new vice chair nominations. Bartel and Ricky Ertl of Iola were nominated. Ertl was then selected as vice chair, defeating Bartel by a margin of 13-12, with two supervisors absent.

“Thirteen out of 27 supervisors changed the outcome of last week’s organizational meeting election today – not even a majority of the full board,” Bartel wrote on social media after the meeting. “Rules were bent to get the result they wanted. That is not [a] fair process and the public should be paying attention.”

The board also voted to select one highway committee member as part of the clean slate motion, and Fred Zaug won the seat in the re-held election, securing 13 votes against the 11 votes Barry Bartz received.

Following a recess, the Board of Supervisors reconvened to conclude their special meeting. Before adjourning, supervisors voted to donate their day’s per diem meeting compensation to support flood victims in Waupaca County.