Remember the story about the Wausau, WI mayor who tried to disappear Wausau’s only ballot drop box over a weekend by donning a hard hat and moving it himself? It was diaried in “Wisconsin mayor broke election law?” and this diary is a follow-up to that. The earlier diary is worth reading but here’s a brief summary:
Mayor Doug Diny removed the city’s drop box on Sept. 22 without consulting with the clerk, who has the authority under a Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling to make one available. They are not mandatory in the state.
Diny, who ran as a conservative and opponent of drop boxes in the nonpartisan mayor’s race, has said he wanted the city council to discuss whether to use a drop box. The council is scheduled to discuss the issue at a meeting Tuesday.
[…] The box was locked and no ballots were in it when the mayor took it. City workers planned to bolt it to the ground but did not have a chance to do it before the mayor, wearing a hard hat and posing for pictures he later distributed, wheeled it away.
Initially, Diny wanted the council to take up a resolution to prevent use of the drop box. City Clerk Kaitlyn Bernarde wrote a letter to the Common Council recommending against taking up Diny’s resolution and restating her authority to use a drop box and designate its location:
A Sept. 26 letter from [City Attorney Anne Jacobson] to Bernarde provides an analysis of Wisconsin Elections Commission guidance regarding drop boxes and concludes, “you are permitted to employ the use of absentee ballot drop boxes for the safe and secure collection of absentee ballots, without Council approval. Different rules in this regard do not exist for elected clerks as opposed to appointed clerks under existing law.”
[…] “Based on these discussions, legal advice, and election administration guidance, I already made the decision to use an absentee ballot drop box in the City of Wausau,” Bernarde said.
The piece also notes the security measures Bernarde intended to implement:
Bernarde also repeats the security measures the clerk’s office has in place for the drop box, which includes 24/7 video surveillance, the box is bolted to the pavement, it has a small opening that can only accept paper and envelopes, and two staff members collect, log and secure the ballots in the same way they secure absentee ballots that are returned using other methods.
Apparently, the mayor didn’t want to be told to STFD and STFU in council chambers, so he amended his amendment to now have the city spend an additional $3000 for security measures that may or may not be needed:
The amended resolution states the mayor “reviewed video surveillance capabilities and determined inadequate nighttime lighting” and “the Front Door Camera is at the end of its service life with inadequate coverage day or night.”
The resolution, if approved, would authorize up to $3,000 for installing temporary or permanent lighting on the drop box and a high-resolution camera and video storage capacity for the front door of City Hall.
He knew his original gambit was toast but apparently thought he needed to try to put something in front of the council since he’d gotten on the agenda:
Diny told a Wausau Daily Herald reporter Tuesday afternoon the reason he changed the resolution from the “use of” the box to funding for security was because he had gotten a sense from conversations with alderpersons through the week that they would not support the original resolution.
For the council to consider the resolution, a procedural hurdle needed to be overcome, but it wasn’t;
Alders failed to suspend their rules regarding committee consideration for the item. Such suspension requires a 2/3rds majority vote, which never came. None of the alders made a motion on that item, preventing the council from voting on the suspension, and in turn the proposal itself.
[…] As for bringing the proposal back to the Alders through traditional channels including the Finance Committee, Diny says they could still order and install the items through procurement, given the $3,000 price tag, but he will leave that decision up to Clerk Kaitlyn Bernarde.
[…] Council President Lisa Rasmussen also noted that procurement policy. In a statement emailed to WSAU News following the meeting, she said Diny could have secured those items weeks ago and noted that his decision to put the purchase on Monday’s agenda felt like a stunt.
The original item that was on the agenda when it was issued was not within the council’s authority. Knowing that, the mayor chose to pull that item because he knew the council had received legal guidance that the item was not within our purview and the recommendation coming from his own staff was that we not consider it.
So, late yesterday, he chose to substitute the item with one about funding $3000 for a security plan but that plan was not the clerk’s work. What he ignored is that HE has the authority at any time to spend up to $5000 for anything he chooses with no approval from council or any committees. He had the funding and staff could have purchased these items weeks ago if it was important to him. It seems the funding item was placed before the council for political purposes. The finance director advised the mayor he did not need council approval, there was funding and no modification to any budget was needed. He knew that BEFORE he changed the items on the agenda in the 11th hour.
Council knew this also. We are not willing to be put in a position to operate beyond our authority, and we should not be asked to decide issues that do not require our approval, just to give him political cover.
So the council didn’t take up the matter and Diny’s being a typical RepubliCon, whining about “corruption” on the council:
Speaking after the meeting, Diny said he feels there was “corruption” or “collusion” among the alders. “I did expect a more robust discussion among Alders. Quite frankly, they were discussing behind the scenes. As evidence shows, not one decided to offer a motion or a second. That indicates to me there was some collusion behind closed doors, and I would call it corruption. I know over half of them had discussed their opinions with the Clerk.
“They want to be able to put their foot on the scale with the Clerk, but they didn’t want to be able to do that in public. They were able to do it privately, but they didn’t do it publicly,” added Diny.
The bolded text sounds so trumpian, like a mob boss.
Diny’s removal of the drop box is being investigated by the Wisconsin DoJ, so he’s not out of the woods yet!
However, the drop box is properly installed outside city hall and ready for use.
Happy voting, Wausau residents!
