News from around the area.....

By Wally Smetana, Editor Emeritus
Monday, February 18, 2008 11:15 AM CST
www.dunnconnect.com

BOYCEVILLE — There’s a vacancy on the Village Board. It’s the office of president.Using a scathing letter as his vehicle, Steven Fischer submitted his resignation to the board last Monday evening. He was serving his third term as village president.The board will address the issue Monday evening when it holds a special meeting.Fisher was first elected president in April 2003. His resignation concludes an approximate five-year period in village history that was often marked by feuds between Fischer and certain board members.

While Fischer’s resignation was unexpected, one observer (who preferred not to be named) commented, “He intended to resign when he came to the board meeting. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have prepared a letter of resignation.“He (Fischer) did the village an enormous injustice because of the negative attitude he exhibited. His action reflects badly on the board and village. The strife that existed couldn’t continue any longer. Something had to happen — and it did.”The observer did point out, however, that the office of village president does entail an immense amount of time and is becoming more difficult each day as new regulations are promulgated. Hiring an administrator, with the assignment of bringing all factions together, might be the best solution, according to the observer.(Reportedly, one of the trustees came to the board meeting with the intention of resigning. However, he was “talked into” staying on the board by other trustees.)Fischer’s letter of resignation follows:To Village Board members and the Boyceville community:“This letter is my formal letter of RESIGNATION as the village president for the Village of Boyceville.“These past few months, I have been slandered and my family has been drug through the mud. I have received ZERO support from the village board members and in fact have been called a liar. In the terms that I have served as village president, I have always had the best interest of the COMMUNITY in mind and heart. NOT ONE TIME have I benefited from anything that I have supported while village president. I HAVE NEVER LIED!!“During the time of budget changes for 2008, a personal attack on myself and family began. The Boyceville Police Department has used several ploys in order to make this happen. These ploys include pushing a complaint within the school that involved our daughter, not handling that complaint, but turning it over to other police departments, collaborating with those other police departments to assure that I got a ticket, providing individuals with information regarding the incident so that they could publicize it as ‘concerned citizens,’ following me to work several times, using harassing police techniques from other police departments to ‘prove’ to the board that more police are needed in town, and by rallying his friends to become village board members.“After receiving the minutes for the Public Safety Committee [chair Bill Sempf, Herb Dow and Keith Sorensen] meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 5 (the meeting which the village attorney, John Higley, advised me that I could not attend because of my emotional involvement) it was clear to me that the presiding board members are clearly swayed by those people that are the smoothest talkers, not by the facts that are clearly part of the ‘bashing Steve’ that occurred at that meeting and are written in the meeting minutes. These board members clearly lost control of the meeting, which instead was ‘ran’ by Dan [Wellumson] and Brian Hurt.“The police policies which I suggested changes on were based on other local police department policies, state law, the liabilities of the village, and consistency among all village department heads. Please refer to the Employee Handbook in which you will see that all department heads report to the village president. This should be no different for the Police Department. This is by no means my way of having ultimate ‘power,’ because in fact, it takes the whole board to make decisions. It is called consistency and accountability.“I am a progressive thinker that wants positive changes for Boyceville, and a person that wants accountability from the employees of the village and the board members that serve the village. I guess this is not what the current board wants. I am FRUSTRATED, tired of being the target for every employee and board member’s actions (or inactions as it may be), tired of fighting for the good of this town all by myself, and refuse to be part of this any more. My resignation in no way means that anyone has ‘WON,’ but I will not put myself or my family through the stress and personal slander that this position entails.”

Wally Smetana can be reached at (715) 235-3411.