In a split vote, the McFarland Village Board last week confirmed appointments to three committees and one commission, replacing Trustee Mike Flaherty after he was stripped of his committee seats over communications he had with other board members.
The board voted 5-2 on Jan. 10 to make the new appointments. Flaherty and Trustee TJ Jerke opposed the move, with Jerke citing questions about Village President Carolyn Clow’s legal authority to make committee removals and Flaherty leveling accusations of bullying by the rest of the board.
The vote placed Clow on the sustainability and natural resources, finance and senior outreach committees. Trustee Carrie Nelson was placed on the landmarks commission.
Clow’s choice to remove Flaherty came on Jan. 5 after he repeatedly contacted another trustee, Ed Wreh, outside of village meetings. Flaherty had wanted to discuss diversity, equity and inclusion-related budget items that he had opposed in November, and later to respond to an email in which Wreh, the board’s only Black member, accused him of opposing DEI work in the village.
Wreh has said Flaherty’s behavior bordered on harassment. Flaherty claims he was defending his character after untruthful attacks.
Clow sent Flaherty a letter informing him of his removal from his appointments after Wreh had requested to be removed from the sustainability and natural resources committee, which he and Flaherty sat on together.
Village ordinance gives the McFarland village president authority over committee appointments, with those appointments needing confirmation from the full village board. Flaherty argued in the Jan. 10 meeting that his removals, not just the replacement appointments, should require a confirmation vote.
Al Reuter, the village’s attorney, said he believed the action was taken correctly.
“In my opinion, the appointment is made by the president, therefore the president alone has the power to remove any appointment she has made,” Reuter said.
Flaherty asked village staff at the meeting if McFarland was obligated to pay for an attorney, should he choose to obtain one over the removal process. Village administrator Matt Schuenke said he would need to look into it.
After the meeting, Flaherty said he had no desire to prolong the conflict but still had concerns about the legality of the board’s action.
“I have not had due process … I feel this is bullying, and I won’t be bullied,” Flaherty told the rest of the board. “Go ahead and vote as you will, but this is not the way good people do business.”
Jerke, the other vote against the new committee appointments, cited another village ordinance that says all trustees “shall serve on at least one standing committee.”
Reuter said that the village president’s power to make removals overrides that ordinance, because it comes from state statute.
“The statute effectively preempts the application of the ordinance in a situation like this,” Reuter said. “It’s a perfectly valid ordinance, it just can’t override a statutory provision that it conflicts with.”
The village board could override that statute if it wanted to by passing a charter ordinance regarding committee approvals, Reuter said.
New appointments to committees and commissions will be made after the April election, so Flaherty may be returned to committees at that time, Clow said.Trustees Stephanie Brassington, Carrie Nelson and Hilary Brandt are up for reelection to the village board, and Clow is up for reelection as village president.
DEI position, which incited flare-up, to be defined
During November’s budget process, Flaherty had opposed the inclusion of $25,000 for DEI training and $60,000 for a yet-to-be-defined DEI staff position within McFarland. Citing concerns with the process by which those items were added, he was the sole vote against the 2023 budget.
In December, Flaherty emailed staff and board members asking that a public notice be posted on the village website explaining the inclusion of two DEI items in the village’s final budget.
Wreh responded to Flaherty’s request in the same thread, calling it a “publicity stunt.”
“During my time on this Board, Trustee Flaherty has opposed all DE&I efforts whose scope extended beyond symbolic gestures,” Wreh wrote.
Flaherty continued to email Wreh directly after that exchange, refuting the claim that he was against DEI in the village. Wreh has said that Flaherty also repeatedly emailed, called and texted him in the lead-up to the budget votes, attempting to meet and discuss the DEI funding.
Before the Jan. 10 meeting, board members had met to discuss the role of village government in regards to DEI work. That conversation was an introduction to the task of defining the DEI position funded by the 2023 budget.
Board members decided to revisit the discussion with input from the village’s department heads about their own efforts and needs. The village hopes to hire someone to fill the position for the second half of this year, after taking time to define its roles and recruit.
