After being on paid leave for almost three months for several accusations of corruption, The Village of Pleasant Prairie’s Public Works Director is now out of a job. In an internal email leaked to KCE, Village Spokesman Steven Linn wrote “The Village of Pleasant Prairie is announcing the retirement of Public Works Director John Steinbrink Jr., effective June 28, 2022.” The email was sent at 6:51pm tonight, June 28, 2022. Linn did confirm that the email leaked to KCE was genuine.
Multiple allegations were made about Steinbrink junior embezzling money from the Village taxpayers. Some of the allegations are:
Mishandling of Village Assets
Falsifying State Reports
Mismanagement of Public Contracts
Purchasing Village assets for significantly less than they were worth.
Using Village assets for his private tree trimming business.
Using Menards Rebates for personal items meant for Village
KCE can also report that we spoke with Sheriff Christopher Schmaling who told us that “We [Racine County Sheriff’s Department] recommended felony charges to our district attorney [Patricia Hanson] reference the Pleasant Prairie Investigation. However, the case is very detailed and complex. That said, even though felony charges have been recommended, we are also still actively investigating.”
KCE reached out to Racine County’s Deputy District Attorney who was able to share with us that the prosecutor reviewing the felony referrals is in trial until the week of July 11, 2022. Although formal charges could come sooner, they aren’t expected until then.
This case is being investigated and charged in Racine County because D.A. Graveley said he had a conflict.
KCE was told by a source close to the investigation that Steinbrink’s exposure is “more than ten years in prison.”
Steinbrink’s Dad is the Village President and he hasn’t said a word about this investigation. Many Village residents and employees tell KCE that Senior and HR Director Carol Willke have been told about Junior’s behavior for years but ignored the complaints. Steinbrink, Sr. hung up with kce when reached by phone and has ignored countless requests for comment including inquiries if he will resign or not. It is unknown if Willke and/or Senior will be facing charges for their alleged rolls in the cover-up.
127 Responses
Just the tip of the iceberg, time to drain the swamp. Hopefully they dig deeper there is plenty of underhanded dealings to review starting with Village board.
Shame on the Village for letting this crook get away with this!!!
So does he still get paid a pension since he was allowed to retire? I’m a resident of Pleasant Prairie and don’t want to pay that for a criminal. What exactly would they fire someone for? Maybe his Father should be investigated too?
The Village has already paid for his pension, as required by the State, into WRS. The individual pays half and the employer pays half during employment. I’m assuming his ex-wife got some when they divorced years ago, and what is left: A. He can’t retire out of WRS until age 55, and B. 2019 Act 71 authorized ETF (WRS) to withhold money from the retirement payments for court ordered restitution: which authorizes ETF to withhold money from a member’s Wisconsin Retirement System annuity or lump-sum payment if a court has issued a restitution order for a crime that is both felony theft and misconduct in public office, the crime resulted in a loss to the defendant’s employer and the defendant’s employer participates in the Wisconsin Retirement System. Federal law limits the amount that can be withheld to 25% of the annuity or lump-sum payment.
“The crime results in a loss of the defendants employer” well, he retired so their all working to protect him…still.
The crime has already been committed and “resulted in a loss TO the defendants employer”, prior to his “retirement”, so no, he is not protected.
If you are going to quote what I wrote, which was taken directly from the ETF website, get it right.
https://etf.wi.gov/news/legislative-update-tarna-hunter-etf-government-relations-director-0
“the crime resulted in a loss TO the defendant’s employer”
Don’t “quote” me and change the words. He is not protected if he is charged and there is court ordered restitution.
Thats good to hear IF he gets charged! The prosecutor is in the pockets of corruption. Is always, if someone is paid off, it gets swept under the rug which is what I’ve read that this prosecutor does in situations like this. Hopefully the corruption will stop here, but there really is so many others in VPP Admin that need to go!
Ironically John was notorious for firing employees for making a mistake or having an accident. As a former village employee I witnessed numerous questionable acts by him. The funny thing is he didn’t hide them because Daddy was the president. But when someone had the gall to go against the Village of Steinbrink his career ended two weeks after Jr was walked out. Tells you alot by the Steinbrinks character and morals. Willing to shit on everyone and their livelihoods. Dirtbags
Totally agreed .
Thanks to Mr Thiel for exposing the corruption, sorry it cost him his job, but that’s what happens when you hire outside of nepotism-they expose BS! Jr has been embezzling for decades. Built his house on company time, company materials, and it was reported way back then to deaf ears. VPP leaders would “eliminate” those that didn’t keep quiet or complained about Steinbrinks. Now let’s look at all others who knew and did nothing: Mike Pollocoff (former Administrator current board member); Jane Romanowski (former Vlg. clerk); Kathy Goessl (Finance Dir. current Administrator) & Jean Werbie (zoning chief). How does your Chief finance person NOT know of theft? Shame on her for not speaking up, and she’s a CPA!? They all are complicit in the corruption. Sr had land rezoning and land purchases orchestrated by that group to make millions. What was their kickback? Promotions, increases, job stability? Also, his election campaigns were run on village time, with village staff, planning lid drops, putting labels on his election materials. Don’t stop digging on Jrs crimes, get to the bottom of ALL those corrupt, nepotistic group.
They are currently CREATING wetland on 200 acres of farmland. There should be a HALT put on that! It’s all corruption. It’s not wetland. They are making it so they can parcel it up later through Bear Realty (again Steven Mills), have it listed as LLC and then change the zoning to sell it to a developer (most likely, Steve Mill or someone else in their clan). I hope all this is exposed and they get everyone arrested that has stolen from PP Citizens over all these years. No more slaps on the wrist prosecutors! The police and Sherriff’s Dept try their hardest but it’s the PROSECUTORS that refuse to charge people!
Well Gravely a spineless piece of shit that couldn’t prosecute anything to save his life because he cares more about his fat ass than doing what is right. Does anyone recall how at the trial for the murder of Kaylie Juga he was front and center with the prosecutor but then when the Rittenhouse trial happened- literally one of the biggest and most high profile case in Wisconsin history he was MIA. Why? Because he sucks and knew he wasn’t going to win but to save face with all the democrats he has to waste tons of taxpayer dollars and try to convict. If I was the prosecutor in that case I would be disgusted and ashamed of my boss. He sucks and is as slimey as Steinbrink. I am sure they are buddies and by the looks of the Walworth and Racine DA’s the dirty democrats stick together. Makes you wonder what cases they send to Gravely to repay the favor? Shameful!
Wasn’t Steinbrink SR. A state representative at the time he was Village President too? Certainly would be interesting to see how his state representative position AND local president lined his pockets! Farmland? Rezoning perks? What else? Jr is playing checkers (and got caught) all while Sr is playing chess! Wake up taxpayers and RCSD- get daddy too, he’s just as corrupt.
HR Carol Wilke has a bad habit of ignoring all complaints against management at PP. Steinbrink is just one of many that get away with doing things that the regular employees get fired or harassed for.
Has anyone checked on the new house built in the Steinbrink compound on 88th? I wonder if they had to pull all the same permits like the rest of the builders do?Never any silt fencing around that new house either so no permit there. Cut corners to avoid fees for their buddies. Wonder if the even pulled any new construction permits at all? Likely no, since rules don’t apply to them as long as Werbie has her say in it. Drain the swamp!!
Where is that on 88th st?
North of 8633 88th Ave
South of the round about on 88th and Bain station.
Interesting it shares a driveway with Steinbrink JR’s home. It should be public record about the permits, right?
It’s his sisters house.
Oh! My Goodness! Really? They are building a COMPOUND! SR should have all that property of his behind his house sold and given to the farmers he swindled money from. The unethical practices of Steve Mills too! He went to a farmer recently (within the last 6 months) and offered them $3,000 for TEN acres (yes! you read that right…TEN acres) of the property! He should be arrested AND HIS BROKER LICENSE PULLED!
There was a lady who started remodeling/building a house on 28th avenue without a permit, got caught and had to tear it down. HMMMMM….I wonder…..maybe what goes around comes around…. It would be a shame to see a nice house like that have to be torn down, but it would send a nice message…NO MORE CORRUPTION!
There where permits pulled for the new house built and inspected and passed per State codes
Charges are “immanent,” not “eminent.” Sheesh
Thank you for reading Michael!
It is nice that all of you are perfect and never make spelling or grammar mistakes. Thanks Kevin for keeping us updated on the corruption that the Kenosha News doesn’t bother to cover.
Haha, immanent?
If you’re going to correct people at least get the ‘correction’ correct.
The word is “imminent.”
He’s charged with 1-mishandling of Village assets; 2-Mismanagement of public contracts: 3-purchasing village assets for significantly less worth; 4-using Menards rebates for personal items meant for Village. All are crimes of Financial Fraud. Where are the financial internal controls to catch this? I want my tax dollars used on a forensic fraud audit (from an external auditor not currently associated with VPP) to ensure ALL amounts of theft from this corrupt group be uncovered. If the finance department hasn’t caught this over the last 20+ years they are equally incompetent and certainly untrustworthy. So hey, let’s promote the finance gal to the administrator role. Sounds fishy to me….screams of more cover up!
I wonder how much of a raise she gave herself.
Sky’s the limit, the board certainly doesn’t want an outsider in to see all the corruption, so pay her what she wants to keep quiet! Oh and she’s part of the problem too- how is the 26+ year finance director (now Administrator) unaware of his fraud? I call BS- she’s a pawn who knew to and kept quiet, looked the other way! If not for Thiel blowing the whistle on Jr, and the rest of the “leadership” the public would NEVER have known and Jr would have had a slap on the hand, if that! Prosecute them ALL and get our tax dollars back from them!
The comments about Theil make sense since his departure happened around the time of this opening up. We’ll see if the below excerpt from the Kenosha News will have any accuracy.
Pollocoff described the split as “mutual.” He called Thiel “professional” and a “bright guy” who could be successful in future endeavors.
“He’s a professional,” Pollocoff said. “But I think there were things we felt needed to be improved on and needed to get done.”
Village says not related to probe
Pollocoff said Thiel’s departure was not related to the ongoing investigation related to Public Works Director John Steinbrink Jr.
April 27 Kenosha News
The PP taxpayers need to hire an outside professional investigative firm to go over everything with a fine tooth comb.Prosecute to the full extent of the law.Seize anyone involved assets.I am sure those Trustees were involved too starting with Serpe and Yuhas and all the others who walked in lock step with Daddy Steinbrink.
Absolutely agree…corruption at its best.
Clearly the village is still protecting the Steinbrink’s. Whoever started this, needs to go bigger because the corruption at Village Hall and HR is still there. Blow the roof off of these assholes so residents actually see where their hard earned tax dollars are going…To pay salaries for liars and thieves! Sr. NEEDS to GO! Half of the shit Jr. did profited him yet nobody is even headlining that. The board needs to GO!!!! They are all on Seniors pocket and clearly none of them have the balls to stand up to him or crooked Polocoff!
The public has the right to know what allegations are out there and being investigated especially, as Alyssa put it, Jr. would have to give 25% of his pension back! Go Big or Go Home!!!!!! Expose them since the Village HR failed to do their part!!!
The worst thing they did was let PP become its own government. They thought they were small enough to get away with nepotism, corruption and making their own rules. It’s about time Pleasant Prairie is exposed for what it truly is–arrogant, egocentric, farmers turned fancy a-holes.
???
Great work Kevin and your team.
Any and all who has knowledge of this is an accessory to the felony and should be immediately removed from office, temporarily replaced, and face the appropriate level of charges. LGB
Hey folks…anyone want to fill some positions at the Village of Pleasant Prairie. I have a feeling they will be opening up soon! (BIG smile)!
As many others have stated, Carol Wilke along with many other managers and the Village board president were all aware of the complaints and theft that Jr. was doing. It all fell on deaf ears. Hopefully RCPD digs and charges those individuals accordingly. I’ll guarantee once you start charging the others, someone will open up and fully expose Jr.. Has anyone filed a complaint against his professional license? He should be stripped of that immediately.
hmmmm, now that’s interesting, can you do that?
What professional license? Id bet the village paid for his education and all training and gave him a company truck. I bet he was working on the family farm as a dropout. If we see his quick upward progression within VPP nobody would be surprised with daddy as president whose gonna stop him? He probably came in as a part timer under the radar then shot up to the superintendent within a few months. Is that the license you speak of?
100% the Village paid for his education. Let him drive the Village truck to and from classes too!
And ironically his personal truck and company truck without company logo are exact same models. Village was paying for gas in both personal and company vehicles.
Didn’t they do a nationwide search for a supervisor (JRs position)? Then, conveniently, jr graduated & the supervisor they’d been looking for was right under their noses all along!
Didn’t they do a nationwide search for a supervisor (JRs position)? Then, conveniently, jr graduated & the supervisor they’d been looking for was right under their noses all along!
His Professional Engineering license in the state of Wisconsin. Any person can file a complaint against his professional license through the Department of Safety & Professional Services. These are clear ethical violations and his license should be revoked immediately.
All of the fraud, misbehavior and BS would of continued if a Village Employee didn’t stand up to Jr. I don’t know how many times we had to hear that we were all replaceable and that Jr thought of himself as a genius. He sure is a genius.
Jr treated all of his employees horrible and if you complained the target was put on your back. Eventually Jr would fire that employee.
All Ex Village Employees that Jr fired and Carol Willke signed off on should get together and do a Class Action Lawsuit against the Village.
John Steinbrink Jr. was able to terminate employees without cause. All of those families, good families that bore the brunt of John Steinbrink Jr. They were not afforded the luxury of three months of paid leave. Those employees lives changed in a moments notice and we’re left trying to figure things out, finding a job with benefits, medical and retirement and then being walked out the door and told that they were “disgruntled Village Employees “.
This is the term coined by Pollocoff, Sr., and Jr. All those people were not disgruntled they were frustrated as no one was listening and taking them seriously. Carol Willke is just as culpable in this. Carol knew there were problems but the answer was to protect the Village and terminate good employees that had just had it with all the crap they had to deal with.
Disgruntled no, honest employees yes, just not the employees at the top of the pay structure.
As a taxpayer, I’d be glad to give the employees that were fired a nice amount of money for all the crap the Steinbrink’s and the Village put them through.
If Carol or anyone in HR or on the village board were really trying to protect the village they wouldn’t have allowed this to go on. They cared about under the table transactions. At some point there was bound to be one person who wasn’t afraid of John or losing their job. I would love to know how this finally happened. How much money did the village lose in training costs for the high turnover? How many great employees were lost because of all your of this? Every position STILL needs to be turned over because what has happened the last 3 months just shows the Village HR ONLY cares about the Steinbrink’s not the employees he abused over the years. It is pathetic and I agree a class action lawsuit should take place to get justice for all the abused employees. Perhaps a financial punishment to the corrupt HR and Board would make them rethink how they run the village.
More Questions to ask
How does farmland go unsold for years on the market for years, is then bought by a Steinbrink who lives in Texas? Two weeks or so after this purchase the Village announces the extension of Cooper Road right thru the middle of his new property.
How does a public works department head have the time to open 2 business’s that utilize similar equipment as a public works department on a regular basis, no one saw this as a potential conflict of interest?
How many save 11% at Menard’s commercials does one see and hear on average a year, one would think that some one in the finance department might ask where the rebate for the Village is as they pay the monthly bills.
I’d join that lawsuit. Was told they eliminated my position and a week later someone else was doing my job.
Hire a good attorney and file a lawsuit. Such BS
It is well known throughout the village staff that JR would steal fuel from the Village fuel pumps. Add that to the theft charges!
He would steal it for his personal vehicle and to fuel up his boat. I’ve watched him do it on many occasions.
Karma comes back…I think we are seeing that happening! ???
It is well known throughout the village staff that JR would steal fuel from the Village fuel pumps. Add that to the theft charges!
This has been going on since the early 90’s.
Hansen won’t do anything, she’s the da that’s OK with the VOTER FRAUD CHARGES THAT WERE REFERED TO HER.
There is so many things wrong here. Jr. should have not been allowed to “retire”.
He should have been fired and ordered to pay full restitution to the village of PP residents like any other criminal.
Next, Sr. needs to be fired. What he knew and allowed for all these years. Created a position and inserted his son. They owe us residents every penny they stolen.
As for Carol Wilke, she should be terminated immediately. She allowed and signed off on illegal and corrupt practices for years.
The residents of PP are speaking loudly. Remove them all. Every single one in positions of authority that looked the other way for YEARS! Pay us back for everything stolen!
Fire and prosecute ALL the corrupt, incompetent “leaders” who looked the other way Werbie, Goessl, Romanowski, Pollocoff, the entire Steinbrink family, the list is endless…
Don’t forget about Rick Greeno.
Carol is going to retiring by the end of the week or up coming week we herd. She is running from the mess she created. She new what was going on
She’s.stil.workong there.as of last week(7/6)
Carol is retiring, I believe her last day is Friday.
She said that was a rumor. She should be fired.
Totally agree. I believe Jr’s son lives and or lived in TX.
Senior lives right across the street, do you think he did not know what was going on? I have lived in PP for 40+ years and I am weary of this regime. There is no way Jr should gave been allowed to retire. Anyone else would have been fired on the spot. Karma will win, it always does.
So let’s be REAL here. We all know VPP is corrupt, and has been for decades. But with a current board dominated by corruption, what’s gonna change?
Here’s the current board: PRESIDENT John Steinbrink Sr (262) 694-5863 who has profited for decades from numerous land deals for his family (see other comments)- and used his elected position for personal gain such as insider information on land deals in advance of zoning changes; whose son John JR is finally under investigation for decades long of theft, running a pool installation company with taxpayer equipment & materials, and a tree trimming service with taxpayer & stolen equipment; stole all the Menards rebates for PW purchases (likely to build his personal pool) ALL while on the $120k payroll “working” FT as the PW Director) whose daughter built a new house on their compound, likely permit free, and whose other son worked for the village for multiple years, guaranteed he was stealing as well).
FOUR TRUSTEES AT LARGE
Mike Pollocoff (262) 697-3564 recently retired VPP Administrator of 30+ years, hired by Steinbrink (and his cronies) who after 30 years managing the village never once disciplined his bosses kid? (Yet guaranteed he knew of all the theft & BS- but either fired or pushed out “disgruntled employees” who complained. Recruited & hired Nathan Thiel, an outsider with no familial ties that we know of, who ultimately took down his former bosses (and close family friend), who then felt compelled to sign Thiels resignation/non renewal since the optics of having Steinbrink Sr sign would be bad.
Kris Keckler (262) 818-4315 day job @ KUSD as Executive Director of IT/CIO
Dave Klimisch (262) 697-3658 Counselor
James Kedow (847) 707-7723 newest board member, retired PA, quoted as saying he’s “no stranger to leadership, honor & integrity”
First the jury is out if Keckler, Klimisch and Kedrow are truly corrupt, or just “yes men or puppets” on the board. but, do taxpayers REALLY THINK Keckler, Klimisch and Kedrow have the integrity, balls and confidence to force a thorough external independent financial investigation against the known corrupt members who have sugarcoated the real issues to cover their own ass?
Time will tell, but CALL them and force their hand! As taxpayers we should demand answers and FULL restitution of our tax dollars!
Well said. All the village people need to see this and start blowing up the phones. Maybe this needs to hit the TV
Yes! Blast this! Channel 4, 6, 12 spectrum news. Kevin Mathewson, KCE can you alert the media of all your findings?
I just came across this tonight. Posted December 2007.
https://steppingrightup.blogspot.com/2007/12/everyone-bow-to-king-steinbrink.html
Maybe we should say thank you to the couple people that brought this to the table. Respectfully heard it was three individuals that brought this to the table. From what I heard 2 of the individuals no long work there and left because of the fear of the retaliation if this wasn’t going to go any farther than the HR office and the administrator and set it up so that this happened on their last two weeks of employment and luckily one of the three is still currently employed. If it wasn’t for them this would be still currently an on going thing. With respect to that I can only ask that the village residents step up to the plate and help restructure the village. Also I agree with the comments that this need to go to national news and tv and pray that this makes a statement for all parties involved. Let’s put an end to corruption once and for all. I am asking that all village residents help the three people that started this and show them unity and assist them in making sure the village is a better place.
Interesting. We’re the two employees who left even worth keeping? You would hope that the HR office would try to keep good employees especially if they were trying to help expose the corruption. It would be another Village HR issue if fear of retaliation was the reason and HR did nothing to guarantee their protection. I even heard John was frantically searching for the whistleblowers at village hall and getting aggressive and using intimidation and these employees had to leave through a back door. Does this seem like the behavior of a good man? A representation of the Steinbrink name? A person who for 20 years abused his staff and everyone looked the other way. I guess if I was the whistleblowers there would be no other way to view this given all that has been written about how the village HR is run. The village will never be a great place to live unless the people Supporting the infrastructure are treated with respect and dignity as employees. Otherwise the residents are guilty of supporting suppression and abuse of village employees by those in power. Super sad reality in 2022 and I still hear no noise from residents outraged by all of this. They are sheep and people with no hearts or empathy.
From what I heard the public works employee’s that brought this to the table we’re some of their better if not some of the best guys there. Even still they did an amazing job for the community with what they brought to the table.
“The village will never be a great place to live unless the people Supporting the infrastructure are treated with respect and dignity as employees.”
This is the core of the issue, if the fire or police department disappeared residents would notice eventually. But if PW disappeared it would be chaos. No one to manage the water system, the village would run out of water in a day. Sewers would backup into basements and streets would crumble from lack of maintenance.
There is word that when they sat down at village hall they had a 3inch thick binder of proof and list with approximately 30 items listed. I can only imagine what these people had to go through to achieve that.
There is word that when they sat down at village hall they had a 3inch thick binder of proof and list with approximately 30 items listed. I can only imagine what these people had to go through to achieve that.
Those individuals who have that documented should take it to the media or social networks. EXPOSE THE CRIMINALS!!
Can we also discuss the massive amount of sexual harassment and misconduct by Steinbrink JR? I see why his lovely wife left him. He is a serial cheater and constantly making advances and inappropriate remarks to the ladies. Only a gullible idiot would be with this disgusting asshole of a pig! Shame on him for being one of the worse human beings one can be.
Just another item HR turned their head to. Talk about putting women’s rights and safety 50 years back…again democrats cherry pick what they will stand up to. Since he is a democrat a blind eye was turned. Anyone getting sick yet on how tax dollars were used to keep him in his job even with his gross abuse of power. Why aren’t lawyers trying to track down employees? This case seems like free money with the documentation that is claimed to prove these accusations. Gross negligence by the village board and leaders to provide a safe work environment, free of harassment and retaliation.
John Jr. was caught on two separate occasions having sex and having sexual acts performed on him on Village property.
I’ve heard there is video tape of these incidents and PPPD was aware too.
I’ve personally witnessed Jr sexual harassment toward his female employees. A particular girl confided to me that she was uncomfortable being alone with him. He seemed to always find things for her to do that would have him and her alone.
caAs not
an
1/1/1) Chipper- Had work done 1o it and was supposed if go 0 audion Now missing
Picked up Before acution
Check Village cameras
V V/2) 7001 Dump truck- had a bunch of new pans put on it and was supposed to go to auction
3) Truck hit train on Bain Station
property by village employees.
15) Bill & John – nobody did a proper investigation of
asked John.
W0) Grincrete around his pool. il wag, euljgd efajgo to instal the conorele around his pool curng
village working hours.
7) Drunk driving at Rivals and John put his work truck in the ditch. John called PD to cover it. I
got this statement from a retired police officer.
8) Smash window out of truck stealing culvert and end wall for grandma’s driveway on Hwy H
(pic to follow)
9) Dumped approximately 1000 railroad ties at ML from his side job and had Wyatt Witt bury
them for over a week.
10) Dumps big logs and stumps at the Prange from his side job and village employees on
village time have to haul them to the RRC and if they are too big, they have to go to the
landfill. Have pictures
Prang vieleò
11) Hiring the bug man – John hired the bug man to spray at the park three times for $15,000.
This is also the same guy that sprays John Sr. and John Jr. yards and also his stores his
boat at Johns house.
12) On September 26, 2017 (Tuesday – a working day) John’s friend’s water pump went out on
his Jeep and Tom Hupp was told to bring it in the garage and fix it. The mechanics did all
work on the village dime (Have pictures)
Projects
13) Has @lacematerial hauled off village jobs to his house so he can resell
14) Menards Rebates – For years the village has been purchasing materials from Menard’s and
his secretary has been sending in the rebates. Employees have never been given rebates to
purchase village materials. Where are they going. An example is the materials for the
DesPlaines River Bridge – the village rebate should have been around $3,000. We talked to
Menard’s and rebates are trackable so you can see who used them all.
None
is tace by willage
/45) Dave Schaffer Incident/Fatality – While snow plowing he backed up over a woman while she
was getting in her car and pulled ahead and ran over her a second time. The truck was
impounded by the State and taken to Roger Prange parking lot. Under direct orders from
John Steinbrink to three employees Whe-ara-
rare pertaining to the work
performed on that vehicle over night so it would pass inspection. Leaf spring was replaced, 4
ways were fixed and back up lightsledded back up alarm, adjusted brakes and changed
slack adjusters (inoperable) and two new rear tires because truck would not pass inspection.
State trooper arrived at the next morning for inspection and passed vehicle. Employees
worked on that truck all night of the 17th to the morning of the 18th until it was done. The
deceased resident was Yvonne Wheeler – December 17th 2000
3 employes
involved
2 come
and talked about it
Wyatt Witt is an amazing guy! He didn’t like Steinbrink! If he did anything for Steinbrink, he was FORCED, intimidated or lied to by VPP in order to get it done!
/19) just Bane chol alouniona 0% late snares (ur thou line proudion,and warn pit auntie
bR umbers in penci and big th aye, Andrea for aharenna indestavation number to have pi
UNR of his back, procaledad with, (nan Sipimpunn onenped thesiledihe prorecion (thave pics)
17 addist Will was improperly abated john had someone go in after hour at night. to fil the
well hole with Betanite and cover with concrete.
V 18) RRC papers were forged for the DNR – John had Andy Cry have the utility crew forge
numbers on compost papers for the DM because they were so far behind. DR was having
an inspection the next day.
V 19) 104th Repave Job – Bike Lane was paved over grass signed off by John
V 20) John had steps built for a party at his house during village hours, with village money and
materials. Steps for his hay wagon.
121) Why doesn’t John have a village logo on his truck?
V 22) Who tracks John’s time on when he is working/not working?
V/ 23) Have video evidence of John driving to Hansen’s pool and spa during the day for personal
reasons
24) Pictures of John doing tree work with his village truck
25) Have picture of John’s truck parked at a house in FoxMoor during working hours while snow
plowing (Nicole Beddigs)
John8
x wife
26) Sarah Wilfort and Stacy Mason (sex in village buildings, during working hours)
Demanded wilfont
sewer
sex sation
get tired
C’of quite
green
tree
ADOResS
sompump
laberal
Johns
Filenel
to
main to house hooked
up folly
for
Horse farm
on state
lone
Jonh
Bedaged them Daily
and
coursing
commited socide
police investigaolin
to Keep. going PNMPD.
until homeoener
Jom
walked
a horse
of there proporty himelf.
Clearly you have details and evidence. Please take to the media and get this publicity so the board and their cronies cannot cover this up. Taxpayers deserve better!
“Clearly you have details” did you read any of that? I’m curious why a person with all that information is posting to the comments section of a news outlet anonymously. Sketchy.
Can anyone make any sense of that jumble of words? I’m not sure THAT would constitute “evidence.”
Probably because of retaliation from.the Steinbrink Mofia
To Kenosha News and author,
Kindly remove this false comment.
To I Mean Why Not,
But why? You clearly work at PPPW and think you know me. Which means you know I did everything I could to make your experience better. ‘I mean why’ would you speak falsely of me?
I organized tutoring for one employee to pass the ASFAB and worked on Math with them at lunch.
I brought coffee to the crews after a 16 hour day caused by a water main break.
I consistently pulled the job description out and made cases to prevent PPPW employees from being written up or terminated without grounds.
I fought to give deserving workers better conditions, training, treatment, and evaluations.
And my reward for a job well done was termination, thanks Jr, Rick, and Carole.
But here you are anonymously and chaotically rambling about issues to which you know nothing. Your talk is just as cheap as the day you heard these nasty and untrue rumors.
Pretty sure it’s Sarah Wolford
Kevin Mathewson I believe the people would like to sit down with you to get this out there since the village decided to yet again protect them selves and let this douche bag retire
I find it humorous how the D.A. of Kenosha can excuse himself from fillfilling his duty and shooting it off to a friend in a neighvoring county because a conflict of interest? So not prosecuting a criminal for committing various felonies is ok because he is a “friend”? Did Gravely not commit to an oath to uphold the law no matter who it may be? I guarantee you if it was some minority who committed these same crimes, they would be sitting in jail right now with atleast a few dozen charges. This shows the voters and taxpayers that Gravely is incompetent of doing his sworn duty! Get rid of all these fraudsters!!
Employees embezzling money from local government is not new. Rita Crundwell from Dixon, IL stole over $53 million over the course of a 20 year period. She got away with it since she was a prominent employe/citizen. (Sound familiar?). They even made a movie out of it “All the Queen’s Horses” on Netflix. Perhaps one day we will see a similar movie on Steinbrinks theft of money, disgusting harassment of employees, corrupt leadership that looked the other way and most importantly, the complete loss of trust in local government. When this is all over, I sure hope village hall is cleaned out of all the leaders who collided with them. Anyone got any good ideas for a movie title?
Oh, and I’m so glad we passed a referendum to increase our tax dollars to support expanding our police & fire departments. Perhaps if the Steinbrink clan didn’t embezzle our tax dollars, no referendum would have been needed. Who knows, when this is all over maybe we will recover $53million, just like Dixon IL did.
Up next, remove & replace the entire incompetent finance department. How the hell did they not find this? Menards rebates alone (as the other commenter stated) should have gotten their attention!
And now the finance director is the acting VOPP administrator? There are so many red flags here! Village Hall needs to be cleaned out before they are allowed to do any more cleaning up of their own. We, the residents, are being bamboozled, lied to and stolen from and it’s been proven. Why isn’t anything happening!? It’s maddening!
On the “Brink”, Stolen Loot
Recently when they were cleaning out Johns desk they found 100 rounds of 9mm in his desk drawer. That’s almost as bad as the day he brought a gun to work with him cause he was having sex with some guys wife and he was scared outta his mind cause the husband found out.
I would say that any ex-employees who feel they were wrongfully terminated due to issues surrounding this should consult with an attorney ASAP…..whether it be sexual harassment, wrongful termination, etc.
Also, has the KNews reported on any of this? Most of the PP residents have no idea any of this is going on.
Look good now ? There might be an option for me to allow people to edit their comments but that is above my pay grade
Thanks bud!
Something seems really off and I need someone’s opinion. Steinbrinks have farmed (alternate corn and soy beans) several acres in my neighborhood for years. The land is owned by someone out of Orland Park, IL and has been for sale in the $3-5 million range. I just looked up the taxes for this property. $42.22 Yes, $42. You read that correctly. How is this even possible? I understand it’s agricultural but can it really only be a couple of bucks per acre per year? The highest was in 2016 which was $47.47. PARCEL NO. 91-4-122-102-0401. Could they be underassessing/undertaking in exchange for farming it?
That was supposed to read under-taxing not undertaking
Everyone knows this is how the Steinbrink’s make their money. They give non-resident land owners an ultimatum, either you let me farm your land for free or we will have your land rezoned and increase your taxes. I’ve seen this happen first hand.
@A Thank you for responding. I figured something was off. How do I find out what the taxes should be per acre for agricultural land?
It would be interesting to know if the “Oak Brook Company” had any affiliation with the Stinbrink family. Do they own it and use it to run their businesses under that name?
I think the fbi should be involved if there not already
For those following this story, read the Kenosha News article published July 1. Daddy makes Jr sound like a saint and Racine DA sounds like no prosecution of Jr. This is hard to swallow. If Jr walks after having stole millions, there had better be an uproar in the Village! Keckler, Klimisch and Kedrow had better get and internal audit for the village or their equally culpable. What’s their kick back? PLEASE TAKE THIS STORY TO THE NEWS STATIONS!!
The same FBI that staged January 6th breach? Nobody coming to save us from any government agency. Collectively, WE have all the power. Citizens of pleasant prairie need to band together and take back their government.
All Village residents sick of this corruption need to attend the next board meeting. John Sr. Needs to go, Polocoff needs to go, the finance director/interim administrator needs to go. Unless the residents demand more nobody will resign. You are all kidding yourself if you don’t think Sr. Knew about this. JR. Literally stole a culvert and used village employees on village time to put in a culvert on their land!!! The employees provided photos and the work order to HR!!!!! John Sr. Has zero integrity and doesn’t care about stealing from residents either. He knew what his son was doing!! He knew about the chipper and truck!!!! Come On people wake up!!!!
I found this tonight.
https://steppingrightup.blogspot.com/2007/12/everyone-bow-to-king-steinbrink.html
Don’t you have to be 55 years old to retire in the state of Wisconsin? Jr is 53. Wouldn’t the proper word for the Village to use be resign, not retire.
Jr RETIRED asap (before they fired him- but we know SR wouldn’t let happen) so he can take full advantage of the VPP post retirement health Insurance benefits. Isn’t that grand? A four time felon STILL ripping off taxpayers!
Facebook still has Jr’s endorsement of Kenosha sheriff candidate Zoerner last time he ran as a democrat.. just search for Jr’s name and the endorsement comes up. Decades of favors are owed to him… he also endorsed judges in Ktown. Even if they charge him, he’s got friends at the courthouse.
How dirty are Mike Pollocoff grubby fingers he has been there for way to many years to be clean?
Pollocoff is fat. How can you trust someone to show responsibility with power, when their can’t even be trusted to act in their bodies best interest? The guy accepts little debbies as kickbacks
I lived in south Kenosha and when pp did the sewer we watched rick greeno go from door to door hooking up sewers with his own trucks loading stone from a stock pile the village had.he had his own trucks hired to the village for years. Talk about conflict of interest,who let this happen!
Well when John sells the heavy equipment for a song, and drives off all the skilled workers, the village has no choice but to contract out
My neighbor even contacted the village about rick greeno and his private business working for the village and nothing was ever done about it.he’s a crook just like the rest of them!we actually hired another contractor to do our work and he bad mouthed them to high Heaven! Not a fan of him neither! I’m sure him and jr were in each other ‘s pockets ! Everyone in power in that administration so be should be held accountable and run out of the village..PERIOD!
I have doubts of what you accuse Rick of. The verdict is still out on him.
Dick Verde is right rick greeno is as crooked as the rest of them!
I assume that if the Racine County Sheriff referred its investigation to the DA with recommendations for charges then obviously something is there. But you only need probable cause to charge while a conviction (as we all learned in the Rittenhouse case) requires proof beyond a reasonable doubt. If charges are filed, the evidence will be summarized in the criminal complaint; if not, the sheriff’s report will become a public record. Perhaps we should step back until one or the other happens. Meanwhile, now that jr.’s job is open, what is being done to fill it?
Village residents, we need to start calling and asking what is the status of this investigation. John worked for you as the tax payer. What is taking so long, call or email the Racine DA and ask what is going on with this investigations. You are the victims if he was stealing from the Village, you are the victims if the Village (daddy) is covering up for his son.
Racine County District Attorney
Contact Information:
Racine County Court House – 9th Floor
730 Wisconsin Avenue
Racine, WI 53403
Phone number: 262-636-3172
Fax number: 262-636-3346
Email: rcda@da.wi.gov
Hours:
Monday – Friday
8:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Closed Noon – 1:00 PM
Here is my prediction on Jr. He will enter a plea agreement , get probation and get fined (which Sr. will pay to keep him out of jail!).
Village has hired 2 attorneys regarding Jr. more village money taken from taxpayers!