April 18, 2025 at 5:50 a.m.

Rhinelander ethics committee mentions rumors about change of polling place

Sorenson advises it wasn’t an ethical issue because statute mandated council meeting

By TREVOR GREENE
Reporter

The Rhinelander ethics committee went into closed session at its April 14 meeting, but reconvened in open session at the recommendation of town attorney Steven Sorenson.

While no action was taken by the committee following the closed session, city clerk Austyn Zarda said committee members reconvened into open session after Sorenson said what they began to discuss in closed session wasn’t exempted under state statute.

“I guess there was some concerns shared on social media that the city council calling that special meeting (March 30) to change polling locations … some people were concerned that that was just done in a way to get (council members) extra per diem for their meetings,” Zarda said. “So there were some folks talking about social media on that so (the committee) started talking about that in closed session and then the attorney immediately said ‘Nope, let’s go to open session to talk about that.’”

He said Sorenson explained to the committee that state statute requires the council to hold a meeting if time is available to do so “to not only declare the Hodag Dome wasn’t a suitable place to have the election … (but) that we were going to be moving it to the junior high.”

“So that’s what the attorney just discussed out in open session for the ethics committee, that this is not an ethical issue, this is required by state law to do it the way that we did it,” Zarda said. “So letting the ethics committee members know they can tell members of the public if they had concerns about that, that that’s not an ethical issue.”

The Hodag Dome was damaged from severe weather the weekend before the April 1 election and the dome was where the city of Rhinelander’s election was to be held. As Zarda noted, a council meeting was needed per state statute to change the polling location to the James Williams Middle School across the street.


Other matters

Besides different updates with regard to disclosure forms and status of committee alternate positions, the committee informally agreed to keep the same committee leadership it’s had and is expected to take formal action on that at its meeting next month.

Additionally, an ethics presentation and training for the city council by the UW-Extension was scheduled for April 21 at 6 p.m. 

Trevor Greene may be reached via email at trevorgreene@lakelandtimes.com.


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