KENOSHA, Wis. — For more than 18 years, David F. Bogdala (R), a MAGA Republican who previously served as Sergeant at Arms on the Kenosha County Republican Party board, has held political power in the City of Kenosha. The longtime Republican spent 16 years as an alderman before winning the April 2024 mayoral election. During that time, his wife and daughter have secured government jobs in Kenosha County, members of his family have received appointments to public boards, and his son has attended a private college that benefited from a city land agreement championed by Bogdala.
Bogdala was long known as a conservative Republican. However, in the years leading up to his mayoral campaign, he appeared to shift toward the left. After all, Kenosha is a majority-Democratic city, and Bogdala faced the challenge of appealing to voters outside his traditional Republican base. Critics, including Kenosha County Eye, believe Bogdala increasingly presented himself as a Democrat, or at least someone who shared their political views. Some conservatives have even labeled him a “RINO,” short for “Republican in Name Only,” questioning whether he abandoned his conservative principles for political convenience. Voters elected him mayor in April 2024.
His wife, Lynda Bogdala, was hired in 2018 at a starting salary of approximately $110,000 and now earns $142,154 annually as administrator of Kenosha County’s Brookside Care Center, an increase of more than $32,000, or approximately 29%, in eight years. She is among the three highest-paid employees in Kenosha County government. His daughter, Katherine “Kate” Bogdala-Stone, earns $65,000 annually at the publicly funded University of Wisconsin-Parkside and was recently appointed by her father to the Kenosha Area Tourism Corporation.
The two women collectively receive $207,154 annually in taxpayer-funded salaries. Both have obtained public-sector employment during Bogdala’s political career, although their hiring decisions were made by institutions separate from the mayor’s office.
Were those opportunities earned entirely independently of Bogdala’s political influence, or did nearly two decades of relationships, connections and power help open doors for his family? Kenosha County Eye wanted to ask the mayor those questions directly. He was given an opportunity to explain, but did not respond by the publication deadline.
Kenosha County Eye generally believes the children of public figures should be off limits, particularly when they are minors and have no involvement in their parents’ public lives. However, just as with President Donald Trump’s adult children, that changes when those children become adults, participate in their parents’ political activities, accept public positions or become involved with institutions that do business with the city. At that point, legitimate questions about influence, favoritism and conflicts of interest become matters of public concern.
Kenosha County Eye is not suggesting that Bogdala or any member of his family has committed a crime or engaged in illegal wrongdoing. The purpose of this investigation is to examine public employment, political appointments and government decisions involving his family, and to give the mayor an opportunity to explain whether his position played any role. His refusal to answer those questions leaves the public without his explanation, and Kenosha County Eye believes his silence is deafening.
Mayor Appoints His Own Daughter To Tourism Board — Council Approves Without Discussion
On Monday, October 19, 2026, the Kenosha Common Council unanimously approved Mayor Bogdala’s appointment of his own daughter, Katherine “Kate” Bogdala-Stone, to the Kenosha Area Tourism Corporation. The appointment was made through a letter signed by Bogdala himself and was approved without any public discussion identifying her as the mayor’s daughter or addressing a potential conflict of interest.
The appointment runs from October 20, 2026, through April 30, 2029. The Kenosha Area Tourism Corporation is involved in promoting tourism, attracting visitors, encouraging public events and strengthening the image of the greater Kenosha area.
The mayor’s October 19 appointment letter identified his daughter simply as “Katherine Stone,” omitting both the Bogdala portion of her hyphenated surname and the first name she commonly uses, “Kate.” The letter also made no mention that the appointee was the mayor’s own daughter, even though she identifies herself as Kate Bogdala-Stone on Facebook.
Those omissions raise questions about transparency. Residents familiar with the mayor’s daughter as Kate Bogdala-Stone might not immediately recognize “Katherine Stone” as a member of the mayor’s immediate family when reviewing a Common Council agenda or appointment letter.
The use of Katherine Stone, rather than Kate Bogdala-Stone, made the family relationship less apparent to anyone unfamiliar with her legal or professional name. Kenosha County Eye has not established that the naming choice was intended to conceal her identity, but the mayor’s failure to identify the family relationship in his appointment letter is an issue he was asked to address.
Kenosha County Eye contacted every member of the Common Council to ask whether they knew they were approving the mayor’s daughter and whether any alderman consulted the city attorney’s office about a possible conflict of interest. Not one alderman responded to those questions.
The appointment went through unanimously, without any alderman publicly raising the issue.
Mayor’s Daughter Lands $65,000 UW-Parkside Fundraising Job — Her Résumé Raises Questions
Public records obtained by Kenosha County Eye show that Katherine Bogdala-Stone is employed by the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in a fundraising position with an annual salary of $65,000. University hiring records identify six applicants for the Major & Planned Gift Officer position, including Bogdala-Stone.
The position involves cultivating relationships with donors, developing fundraising opportunities and securing financial support for the university. Those responsibilities make one particular entry on Bogdala-Stone’s résumé especially noteworthy.
Bogdala-Stone graduated from the University of Iowa in May 2024 with a bachelor’s degree in health sciences and a minor in political science. Her résumé lists employment as a nursing operations specialist at Froedtert South beginning in November 2024, along with earlier employment as a leasing agent.
But perhaps the most interesting qualification she listed was her claimed role in her father’s successful mayoral campaign. Bogdala-Stone identified herself as the “Mayoral Campaign Manager” beginning in June 2023.
According to her résumé, her responsibilities included developing campaign strategy, coordinating fundraising events, cultivating relationships with donors, overseeing campaign communications and helping direct fundraising efforts. Those are substantial responsibilities, particularly for someone applying for a taxpayer-funded university position centered on fundraising and cultivating major donors.
The claimed experience would be directly relevant to the job she ultimately obtained, making the accuracy of that résumé entry an important question. But there is something about that description that has confused people familiar with Bogdala’s mayoral campaign.
Kate was attending the University of Iowa during much of the campaign, graduating in May 2024, shortly after her father won the election. People who attended Bogdala’s campaign events told Kenosha County Eye that they recall seeing his daughter at only a couple of them.
That does not establish that she performed no campaign work. Fundraising, donor communications and strategic planning can take place remotely, but her limited reported presence at campaign events raises questions about the extent of her involvement, particularly given the sweeping responsibilities she claimed on her résumé.
Kenosha County Eye Editor Kevin Mathewson, who has known Bogdala for many years, put the question directly to the mayor. Mathewson challenged the characterization of Kate as campaign manager, telling Bogdala, in substance, that a local mayoral race generally does not operate with the kind of formal campaign manager suggested by her résumé and that, even if Bogdala had someone filling that role, Mathewson did not believe it was Kate.
Mathewson asked Bogdala to explain exactly what his daughter did for the campaign, whether she actually directed fundraising and campaign operations, and whether he considered her the person responsible for managing his successful mayoral bid. The mayor was given an opportunity to correct Mathewson’s understanding, identify his daughter’s specific responsibilities or defend the accuracy of the résumé she submitted while pursuing a government job.
Bogdala did not respond.
The issue is not whether a college student can help her father run for office. The issue is whether the title and extensive responsibilities claimed on a résumé accurately reflect the work performed, particularly when that experience may have helped distinguish an applicant competing for a $65,000 position at a taxpayer-funded university.
Kenosha County Eye is not asserting that Bogdala-Stone falsified her résumé. But when a mayor’s daughter claims significant campaign management and fundraising experience, subsequently secures a government fundraising position and then receives an appointment from her father to a tourism board, questions about the accuracy of those credentials deserve straightforward answers.
A Growing List Of Community And Political Connections
Bogdala-Stone’s résumé and the mayor’s appointment letter identify a number of other community and leadership positions. She lists membership in the Kenosha Chamber of Commerce’s Future Leaders in Kenosha program, service on the Events and Promotions Committee of Go Downtown Kenosha, and participation in Youth in Government through the Kenosha County Board.
Her college activities included serving on the University of Iowa Panhellenic Council’s Judicial Board and holding a leadership position with Gamma Phi Beta. Now she has been appointed to the Kenosha Area Tourism Corporation by her father, the mayor.
Participation in civic organizations is not inherently improper. But when the mayor’s daughter moves among political campaigns, local business organizations, a taxpayer-funded university fundraising position and a mayoral appointment, the public has a legitimate interest in knowing whether her father’s position or political relationships have helped facilitate any of those opportunities.
Mayor’s Wife Hired For County Job During His Aldermanic Tenure — Now Makes $142,154
The mayor’s daughter is not the only member of his immediate family employed by a taxpayer-funded institution. His wife, Lynda E. Bogdala, was hired as administrator of Kenosha County’s Brookside Care Center in 2018, while her husband was serving as a Kenosha alderman.
Her starting annual salary was approximately $110,000. Public records obtained by Kenosha County Eye show that five other applicants were rejected for the nursing home administrator position.
The county’s records identify four of those applicants by name, while the fifth applicant’s identity was withheld under Wisconsin’s public records confidentiality provisions. The other applicants included individuals with substantial professional qualifications, raising questions about how the county evaluated the candidates and ultimately selected Bogdala.
Some applicants were screened out during the application process, while others were marked as declined for different reasons. The records do not establish whether all five received interviews or how the county ranked their qualifications.
At the time of Lynda Bogdala’s hiring, Kenosha County was led by County Executive Jim Kreuser, a Democrat who served in that position from 2008 until 2022. David Bogdala had a longstanding political relationship with Kreuser, who had spent decades in local and state government.
Whether that relationship played any role in Lynda Bogdala’s hiring is one of the questions Kenosha County Eye sought to explore.
Her current annual salary is $142,154, according to a payroll report obtained through Wisconsin’s Public Records Law. That places Lynda Bogdala among the three highest-paid employees in Kenosha County government.
Her salary represents an increase of $32,154, or approximately 29.2%, from her reported starting salary of $110,000 roughly eight years ago. Kenosha County Eye has not obtained a complete year-by-year salary history establishing the size or timing of each individual raise.
Bogdala was asked whether he had ever contacted county officials concerning his wife’s hiring, compensation, raises or continued employment, and whether anyone involved in her selection had political or personal connections to him. He did not respond.
Kenosha County Officials Resist Releasing Mayor’s Wife’s Salary Records — Back Down After Threat Of Lawsuit
Obtaining documentation of Lynda Bogdala’s $142,154 annual salary should have been a simple public records request. Instead, Kenosha County officials initially claimed that no existing documents responsive to Kenosha County Eye’s request existed, providing no document showing her salary and forcing the news organization to threaten legal action.
On October 16, 2026, Kenosha County Human Resources Director Clara-lin Tappa responded to Kenosha County Eye’s request for records documenting Bogdala’s compensation. Tappa maintained that the county had no existing document containing the requested salary information and failed to produce a single record showing what one of the county’s three highest-paid employees was earning.
Kenosha County Eye challenged that denial. After all, the county processes payroll for its employees, and the notion that it could pay one of its highest-paid employees without maintaining accessible payroll documentation was difficult to accept.
Kenosha County Eye threatened to file a lawsuit in Kenosha County Circuit Court to compel production of the records under Wisconsin’s Public Records Law. Then, almost magically, four days later, on October 20, Tappa produced a payroll document showing Lynda Bogdala’s $142,154 annual salary — the very information the county had previously claimed it had no existing document to provide.
The county continued to defend its original position, arguing that the law did not require it to create a new report in response to a records request. But the salary information had been sitting in its electronic payroll system all along, and it took the threat of litigation for Kenosha County Eye to finally obtain documentation of it.
For a government that claims to value transparency, forcing a news organization to threaten a lawsuit to obtain basic payroll documentation for one of its highest-paid employees raises serious questions about its handling of public records requests. The fact that the employee happens to be the mayor’s wife makes the county’s initial refusal to produce the requested documentation all the more noteworthy.
Mayor’s Wife Also Holds Leadership Position On City Museum Board
Lynda Bogdala’s government connections do not end with her $142,154 county position. In 2021, while her husband was still a Kenosha alderman, then-Mayor John Antaramian appointed her to the Kenosha Public Museum Board of Trustees.
She was reappointed in March 2024, just weeks before David Bogdala became mayor, for a term extending through April 30, 2027. Records from February 2025 identify her as president of the museum board, although her current leadership title has not been independently confirmed.
That means the mayor’s wife holds a highly paid position in county government while also serving on a board connected to city government. Meanwhile, Bogdala has now appointed his own daughter to the Kenosha Area Tourism Corporation, another organization with ties to city government.
The issue is not whether family members of elected officials are permitted to hold public positions. They are. The issue is whether nearly two decades of political connections have provided the Bogdala family with opportunities that other Kenosha residents without those connections might not have received.
Those are questions the mayor was given an opportunity to answer. He declined to respond.
Carthage College Gets Valuable Public Land While Mayor’s Son Attends School
Perhaps the most controversial intersection of Bogdala’s public duties and his family’s private interests involves Carthage College. In September 2025, Kenosha County Eye reported that Bogdala had championed an agreement giving the private college exclusive use of city-owned land at Alford Park beach for athletic facilities.
At the time, Bogdala’s son was attending Carthage College. Under the agreement, Carthage received access to valuable public lakefront property for athletic purposes.
In exchange, the college agreed to provide two full-tuition undergraduate scholarships annually to qualifying Kenosha residents, with an additional scholarship to be added after 20 years and a maximum of five scholarships under the arrangement. The scholarships are limited to students meeting specified financial-aid requirements, and they do not cover room, board, books or other expenses.
The agreement has an initial five-year term and provides for automatic renewals unless the college opts out. Critics have questioned whether the public receives adequate value in exchange for allowing a private institution exclusive use of public property.
Bogdala previously told Kenosha County Eye that his son could not receive one of the scholarships established by the agreement because doing so would constitute a conflict of interest. That assurance addressed one potential benefit, but it did not answer every question about the relationship between the mayor and the institution attended by his son.
The arrangement also raises broader questions about whether the mayor should have sought an independent ethics opinion or publicly addressed his family connection before championing the agreement.
And there is another detail that has attracted attention. At Carthage’s homecoming festivities, Bogdala has reportedly been provided his own reserved parking space.
While a reserved space for a visiting mayor is not inherently unusual, the arrangement adds another dimension to questions about the relationship between the mayor and the private college receiving access to city property. Kenosha County Eye has not established who authorized the parking accommodation or whether it was provided because of Bogdala’s office, his relationship with the college or another reason.
The mayor was asked whether his son had received scholarships, tuition reductions, preferential treatment or other benefits connected to his public office or relationships with Carthage. He was also asked whether he had disclosed his son’s enrollment or sought legal advice concerning potential conflicts of interest.
He did not respond.
A Republican Mayor, Political Relationships And Questions About Influence
Bogdala spent 16 years building political relationships as a Kenosha alderman before becoming mayor in 2024. His previous service as Sergeant at Arms on the Kenosha County Republican Party board underscores his longstanding involvement in Republican politics, even as some conservatives have questioned his political direction and labeled him a RINO.
Those relationships extend across political parties and different levels of government. His longstanding connections include former Democratic Kenosha County Executive Jim Kreuser, who led the county when Lynda Bogdala was hired at Brookside Care Center.
Political relationships are a normal part of government, and having relatives employed by public institutions is not, by itself, evidence of misconduct. The questions arise when those institutions hire, compensate or appoint relatives of elected officials who may have relationships with the people making those decisions.
The circumstances examined by Kenosha County Eye include a wife hired into a well-paying county position during her husband’s aldermanic tenure, a daughter hired into a $65,000 university fundraising job after claiming to manage her father’s political campaign, that same daughter’s appointment to a city-affiliated tourism organization by her father, and a land agreement benefiting a private college attended by the mayor’s son.
Individually, each situation has a possible explanation. Taken together, they present questions that deserve answers from the person who has occupied one of Kenosha’s most influential political positions for nearly two decades.
Mayor And Aldermen Refuse To Answer Questions
Kenosha County Eye sent Bogdala a detailed media inquiry addressing his wife’s employment, his daughter’s university position, the tourism board appointment, his son’s attendance at Carthage College and the possibility that his political relationships had benefited members of his immediate family.
The mayor was asked whether he had ever contacted hiring officials, recommended family members for positions, discussed their compensation or used relationships developed through public office to assist them. He was also asked whether his daughter truly served as his mayoral campaign manager, as claimed on her résumé, and whether he believed the public should have concerns about potential conflicts of interest involving his family.
Bogdala was given until noon Thursday, October 22, 2026, to respond. Kenosha County Eye explained that the shorter deadline reflected several previous occasions when the mayor had ignored requests for comment.
He was expressly offered additional time if he indicated that he intended to provide substantive answers. He did not respond by the deadline.
Kenosha County Eye also contacted every member of the Common Council concerning the appointment of the mayor’s daughter to the Kenosha Area Tourism Corporation. Aldermen were asked whether they knew her relationship to the mayor and whether they had consulted the city attorney about possible conflicts of interest before approving the appointment.
Not one alderman answered. The silence is particularly striking because the Common Council unanimously approved the appointment without publicly addressing the family relationship.
Kenosha County Eye is not alleging that any of the Bogdala family members obtained their positions illegally, nor has the investigation established that the mayor improperly influenced a hiring decision. But public officials should be willing to answer reasonable questions about whether their government positions have benefited their families.
Bogdala has held public office for more than 18 years. His wife earns $142,154 annually running a county nursing home, his daughter earns $65,000 at a taxpayer-funded university and has now received a mayoral appointment, and his son attends a private college that received a city land agreement championed by his father.
The mayor had an opportunity to explain those circumstances, address questions about political influence and reassure taxpayers that every decision was made independently and appropriately. Instead, he chose not to answer.
For an elected official who has spent nearly two decades asking Kenosha residents to trust him with public power, that silence leaves some important questions unanswered.
2 Responses
Wife was already employed, I have no problem with that. The daughter getting hired stinks of corruption. He needs to be held accountable next election.
Corrupt as hell in plain sight