(File Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
SALEM LAKES, Wis. – Fallout intensified Monday for Village Administrator Cassandra Hiller after the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources issued a formal notice of noncompliance to the Village, citing unpermitted grading and fill work in a protected wetland near the Salem Lakes Village Hall.
According to a certified letter obtained by Kenosha County Eye, the DNR determined that Hiller—or those working under her direction—oversaw earthmoving activities within regulated wetlands without the legally required approval under Wisconsin Statute 281.36. DNR officials documented the violations during a May 7 site visit, where they observed that fill material from a park trail project had been discharged directly into sensitive wetland areas.
Despite Hiller’s claims to the contrary—including statements made during the inspection that the area was a “man-made wetland” and that no machinery had been used—video footage from a DNR warden’s body camera tells a different story. KCE reviewed the footage, which strongly suggests Hiller was either untruthful or mistaken about several key facts. The wetlands in question are naturally occurring, and evidence shows machinery was in fact used in the grading and plant life removal process.
Photo by Village of Salem Lakes
KCE heard that the staff at Village Hall had a photo of a skid steer stuck in the wetlands area – evidence that Hiller was lying when she said no mechanical equipment was used. We made a public records request to the village. They denied our request, saying there was no photo. We threatened to sue, and the day after, they provided the photo.
The body-worn video, described by sources as “damning,” is expected to weigh heavily in the Village Board’s closed session meeting scheduled for tonight. The agenda includes discussion of “possible disciplinary action” related to the DNR letter and the unauthorized construction work.
The letter, signed by DNR Water Management Specialist Sonya Ponzi and dated May 14, gives the Village until June 15 to either file for a nonfederal wetland exemption or submit a restoration plan. Until one of those steps is taken, the project remains in violation of state environmental regulations.
The stakes are high: the violations could expose the Village to fines, mandate costly restoration efforts, and result in further scrutiny from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Kenosha County—both of which may have overlapping permitting authority.
Internal DNR correspondence copied on the letter includes Village Board President Rita Bucur, Public Works Director Brad Zautcke, and County Conservationist Paul Tollard, signaling that top local officials were formally notified of the compliance issues.
Tonight’s meeting may determine whether Hiller keeps her job. Board members are said to be weighing whether her alleged misrepresentations to state officials and apparent disregard for permitting laws rise to the level of firing. Multiple Village sources tell KCE that trust in Hiller has been severely eroded in recent weeks.
This is not the first time Hiller has faced scrutiny. As previously reported by KCE, she sought legal counsel after DNR officials began investigating the wetlands disturbance—a move that raised eyebrows within Village Hall and suggested early awareness of potential violations.
KCE will attend tonight’s meeting and provide updates as the board deliberates behind closed doors. Residents and environmental advocates have also begun raising questions about how this could have occurred with no public oversight, and whether further consequences—legal or political—may follow.
The future of the wetland, and perhaps Hiller’s tenure, hang in the balance.
14 Responses
Irresposible at best…and likely as shady as it appears to be especially because a company specializing in doing wetland work legally has an office right down the road.
Ohhhhhhh Bristol…… you should read this!!!!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 so you mean to tell me the town do have jurisdiction of wetlands like I been saying for years? 😂😂😂😂
The towns have zero jurisdiction on wetlands for the record!!!
Even Stevie Wonder saw this one coming.
Illinois Democrat needs to go back to the city where she’ll do just fine.
Who hired this misfit??
The lovely elected officials. But ultimately it doesn’t matter, she’s here to stay. If the board was responsible and were going to do something, it would have already been done. Looks like VOSL swapped one corrupt regime for another.
I hated to see the DNR video where the administrative cried at the end stating “never in her wildest dreams”.
I sadly witness an elected official cry at the May 19 meeting implying everyone is out to get her.
The only way out is to quit being so “progressive” and follow a republic rule of government, follow the law and not the lawyer!
Haha, nothing is going to happen to her. She’s going to blame shift, that’s what she specializes in…the new ones are “boys and their toys”, “it was a training exercise”, blah blah blah, queue the crocodile tears. Unfortunately, karma moves slowly and the Village employees and residents will be the ones who suffer under this administrator and board. Two more years with this board and who knows how many more with this administrator. God save VOSL…we’re gonna need it.
This Village Administrator has a real problem with truth-telling. This board must have real brain damage, they couldn’t find their way out of a hallway with doors on both ends.
The administrator has vast experience in wetlands. Looking at her background, it’s hard to understand why she did this. The Village must investigate to determine who lied and when. The Public Works employees deserve to have their reputation restored for the treatment they received in the DNR video from the administrator.
The village doesn’t care about anybody’s reputation, For Decades this village has picked on residents and businesses destroying their reputation and all the facts go to closed session then buried out back in those wetlands. Never an apology, Or even a press release to clear it up. They’re never held accountable for destroying Or negatively impacting peoples lives, businesses, Even none for profits, This has been going on for 30 years. Look at the legal fees and all the closed session meetings, its amazing, Then they wonder were all the rumors come from, Facts are the community pushed out 18 businesses with heavy force since 2010 3 Of those businesses closed their doors, the other 15 moved to other communities and are thriving, of the 15, 12 of them moved to Illinois and are thriving, Last year a resident cleared some trails in a conservation district Which snowballed into a bunch of ordinance violations, and the owner was threatened with 560K In fines by the village, These threats weren’t specifically from Cassandra, but they were done by a village employee and a village attorney. The attorney took the fall and was let go. the employee is still employed by the village, BUT ALL THAT WAS DONE UNDER CASSANDRA’S SUPERVISION, For decades the problem in this community has always been lack of leadership or the wrong corrupt leadership, All we want is a community to be proud of and somewhere we can all have a place to lay our head at night but most importantly also a place to be proud of, Honestly Iam extremely embarrassed to tell people I live in salem, Its sad to think that i brought my family and my businesses to salem in 2003 with the dream of living in this amazing rural village made up of all these smaller hamlets (as the old residents would say,) this is such an amazing resilient community, we need the right leadership, the leadership to bring the village together, Together we will succeed, The leadership to positively advance the village instead of negatively digging the village a hole, The leader ship keeps saying that we can’t pay our employees what they are worth, But to fix that you need to reign in the spending, KEEP IN MIND WITH OUT OUR TEAM (STAFF, FIREFIGHTERS, AND OUR PUBLIC WORKS EMPLOYEES) WE HAVE NO VILLAGE. Last month the village spent over 16k In legal fees, if we stay at that trajectory we could give 8 employees a $10 hr raise. Think about that. Multiple board members including our madam president need to resign and get some new blood in there. Bottom line we NEED LEADERSHIP ON THE BOARD AND OUR ADMINISTRATION!!!!!! God please guide us to better times,
Spot on!
VOSL residents beware! The village administrator is also trying to give public wetlands to a private citizen on Rock Lake.
These lands were donated to the public many years ago. She has no right to trade them to a wealthy home owner. This
same homeowner tried to get a WDNR permit in 2024 for Round Up application on land he did not own in these wetlands. The permit was denied. Now she
is going to reward him with a land swap . This is absurd! The village board needs to stop this action immediately. See the P &Z agenda for this Wednesday 5/21???
Free, village owned, 1/2 acre valuable lake front(check out the contingent property next door on Rock Lake) in exchange for 1/2 acre unbuildable protected vegetation, zoned c2. This is an awful(being kind)deal for the village. But let’s all be happy, positive and move forward. This should not even be considered
Didn’t Kenosha County do some massive altering of wetlands in the Paddock Lake area, without DNR permission? My neighbor told me that the county is in some deep shit because of wetland altering, as well. Would be curious to know more about that.