(Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
(Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
Defeated Village President Diann Tesar and Trustee Michael Culat weren’t in the mood to be photographed Monday night. They tried to cover their faces, but they can’t avoid “The Eye.” Others have tried. We later snapped a photo of the two discussing a campaign flier that they criticized as being “false.”
(Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
Tesar gave a farewell speech but didn’t offer any apologies to the taxpayers or congratulations to her successor. At the end of her speech she did thank four people by name including KCE Editor Kevin Mathewson. “In closing, I must not forget to thank Chad, Steve, Brian, and most of all, Kevin. Without you, I wouldn’t be where I am today.” The first three are local business owners and vocal opponents of Diann’s leadership. If my reporting of the truth affected this election in some small way, I chalk that up to a win for KCE. The candidates were sharp, motivated, and worked hard to meet residents.
Former Trustee Kmiec didn’t’ say anything and Trustee Campion was excused from the meeting.
(Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
(Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
Noticeably missing from tonight’s meeting were Village Administrator Mike Murdock and Fire Chief James Lejcar, perhaps the two employees most involved in upsetting the residents enough to replace the government over night.
The board surprisingly tabled all of the important decisions, including the appointment of 12 members of various committees and commissions. This means the new Village President will get to appoint the new members. The four will be sworn in this weekend.
33 Responses
Just watched the meeting online.
They decided to not make any appointments due to a procedural mistake. Or was that a excuse? Though that’s what this board has done for years, make mistakes. Or they just finally looked up the rules and realized they couldn’t do what they thought they could. Then tabled a few things for the new guys.
Then bowed out Gracefully and quietly.
I say that for lack of any other words.
You remember, if you can’t say anything nice,……….
Looking forward to a Brighter Future !
And the Silver Lake District Guy. Really ??
Thanking the board for tossing the hearing on the Lake District formation to the county because “We’ve never done it before “
Sure the hearing was during Covid but Diann could’ve got it done !!
Let the new board remember,
Salem “is” a Village !!
We control ourselves !!
No running to the county anymore !!
Diann Tesar Do you remember the old saying what go’s around come’s around , Well just think what you did to Linda Valentine , that was evil
What is amazing, Diann blamed 4 people for her failures. Shocking almost 3000 people voted against her, too funny. Us folks in Salem Lakes were elated that four people stepped up to say NO MORE. Let’s hope we never have to defeat Diann again, next time it will be 4200 votes, good riddance. Hopefully the new board members will shine, probably not going to take much. Good Luck to the new board!
I attended the Pleasant Prairie board meeting tonight. Major difference. Outgoing board member Kris Keckler gave a classy speech and board members, including a retired board member and the village president, welcomed the incoming board member. What could have been an awkward and difficult moment was not.
Nice!
First two images are of children. To think she is a teacher. And Mike Culat? Embarrassing. They will run again. Remember this when they campaign.
I wonder if Mike Murdock is on an interview? I hope they do a Google search. We can see that Lejcar is not the quality level of Chief Slover; which is so very disappointing. Resignation should be their action issue when Rita takes the chair. I would expect she has a plan.
Allow me to caution you about expecting immediate miracles. There is a learning curve.
Just knowing different people are in is a plus! Wish we had done the same in PP! Step it up PP people!
The two headed snake Steinbrink and Pollocoff are still running the show wish the Feds could step in! New village administrator is nothing but high priced stooge!
Wrong story…
The problems in Pleasant Prairie are different. The village has a fairly well-run government and good municipal services. It doesn’t need a massive dose of chemo to fix what ails it but rather some careful excision. However, as the frequent acidic posters did not run against either Messrs. Pollocoff or Steinbrink, they have little standing to comment. Pollocoff is a very capable administrator but it can be difficult for anyone else to do the job with him on the board. Hindsight being 20/20 if they wanted his expertise they should have hired him as a consultant for, say, $25K a year. That way it’s also easier to take or leave his advice without the notion that he’s a vote on the board. As for the village president, surprised for all the complaining no opposition. Jury still out on the new administrator. Not fair to say he is a “stooge” but certainly given the past history he may be reluctant to make waves and/or he’s learning the ropes. Pruning is needed but where is a challenge and maybe not easy with the current makeup of the board.
I hope that part of that plan will be to ask Chief Slover to come back as an advisor, to get the department back to the way that the members were proud to be apart of and the community knew that they were getting the best care possible.
Chief Slover had a big heart. But, he advised this change and laughed at the fire fighters who pushed back at promoting an internal, unqualified candidate, with no interview and no competition to Chief or hiring a fire inspector with the exact same situation. Fire commission needs to spend some time finding the right leader. It will take years to undo what Lejcar and his crony inspector have done to public safety in our village and this was on Slover’s advisement, let him enjoy his retirement.
I’m glad the appointments aren’t going through, and Diann Tesar left without congratulating those that won the election. Gee… why does this not surprise me.
I am going to hold off forming any opinion on the new board for a year . Then we will see if they ran for the right reasons.
It’ll take time. They need to hired a solid administrator.
Interesting that they did the right thing by holding off on the appointments. Many thanks to those who pointed out how much it would go against the wishes of the public for them to have done otherwise. Whether because they just wanted to do the right thing, or wanted to make controversy go away faster, it is still appreciated that the next group will be allowed to lead without people from the past unless it is with their own choosing.
I’d like to know as a resident what exactly do those signs mean that say “change is coming?” Are higher taxes on the way? What change is needed? Will you lower my taxes? Change is coming? What change? New lipstick on an old pig? Take the signs down please.
I think your take is fair, but I believe they were acknowledging the change certain voters want and need. If your not familiar with the problems that exist then the signs probably has no meaning to you. I’ve been a resident for decades and I personally appreciate the signs as a acknowledgment of casting a vote for change.
You may not want change, maybe things are fine in your life, but asking for better government is a fundamental right of all citizens. Let’s hope these new elected members of the board can offer the change that is needed in our village. If you think things are fine, you’ll have a opportunity to make your voice heard in a year. Having candidates say thank you to the voters is actually a pretty decent things to do, not seen very often. If the signs bother you, probably not worth stressing over them, I’m sure they will disappear soon.
Did you read every tab on their website..? Change salem lakes board?
Sounds like you didn’t. Get on it and you will know the Change.
I’m not interested in empty promises. I prefer a balanced government, not one with slate of candidates. Isn’t that what y’all were whining about with the last board? So are you going to lower our taxes or not?
Not from around here, we can tell.
I recall another instance not so long ago of a politician promising “change”.. His brand of change turned out to be a nightmare for America as we once knew it.
Kmiec looks like he’s going through fentanyl withdrawal.
Did anyone do any vetting of the new board members?
Yes. The voters did
If you have had your head in the sand or buried uo your ass the past 3 years, you deserve what you have gotten from the current board and administrator.
The WAR on businesses is coming to an end, starting immediately. Cutting the red tape and bringing back to the table all the business owners, risk takers, job creators, and common sense people who were told NOT HERE, NOT IN SAFETY LAKES by the punch drunk, life safety Czar, who is concerned with improving the village ISO rating and the miniscule effect it will have on insurance rates for the village. All At the unnecessary and illegal expense of the businesses and once they’ve done to safety lakes like they did to silver lake, the citizens will see continuing double digit increases in taxes.
The end goal: improve ISO rating with the NFPA which will give the already HUGE government budget (in the red, of course), the ability to BORROW, BORROW, SPEND, AND TAX THE LIFE OUT OF YOU, your families, your businesses, and your customers. Then they can build more fire stations and increase their budget even beyond the 3.2M it is now.
BIG GOVERNMENT AND A ONE SIZE FITS ALL M.O. WORKED SOOOO WELLL IN ILLINOIS. LET’S BRING OUR FAILED, UNNECESSARY, AND EXTREMELY COSTLY BULLSHIT TO WISCONSIN…
After all, we are too stupid to decide for ourselves what’s SAFE and how to live our lives.
Take the money from Madison, drink the Kool aid, and now we’re slaves to the worst governor EVER and the agenda tied to it..
All at the expense of the businesses and their employees, ultimately shit rolls down hill and you won’t be able to afford to live in your community anymore…
Change? Sounds like a great idea to 5000 voters who are tired of being told they need to SHUT UP AND OBEY!
The fish stinks from the head down, cut off all the heads of the corrupt leaders in Safety Lakes
Can’t raise ISO ratings when the Chief can’t keep members to respond to fires, or provide any training. Relying on mutual aid to handle a small fire should be embarrassing.
Can’t maintain the rating ya have either. F R A U D
Miniscule affect? Are you a fool? A 9 to 6 is easily 500 a year every year to a homeowner. Failure to maintain the rating one has will cost the homeowner as well. Proxie, yours is dribble.
Any rationally thinking, educated citizen, and business owner knows that the 500 the chief has attempted to “save” taxpayers on insurance comes with a cost unbearable to business owners and ultimately their employees, families, and eventually the citizens.
Short sighted, community destroying, big government SPENDING will never reduce taxes, improve retention at fire department, and most importantly, will not improve the quality of life or give anyone the choice to decide what’s “safe” for you, your family, your businesses, your employees, and ultimately your customers. Keep telling yourself you know how to live our lives better than we do. Keep forcing an unrealistic fire code on business owners who you don’t like, or who you unelected, unprofessional, and unqualified libtards want to target and impose catastrophic, unnecessary economic harm all in the name of “Life Safety “. Everything was fine until the swamp of fire chief reporting to administrator, who the had to report to the chief, somehow drank the Kool aid of crooked Culat. There is a shadow deep state swamp in every village, town, and city in Wisconsin. Shining the light on incompetence, double standards, illegal use of village property, is only the beginning.
Here’s a thought, stop forcing thousands of dollars in needless costs down the throats of the evil business owners who pay your salaries and risk everything they have built. Problems looking for solutions belong in Illinois. Keep your costly,.job killing failed policies where they belong.
Or we can easily repeat the ass whipping in your sad, feckless attempt at a recall next year. Yall ain’t seen nothing yet. Try as hard as u may to lie to yourselves and voters about the goal of growing the village’s budget, while destroying the history, community, relationships, families, small businesses, and PRIDE in our local fire and rescue. Residents and business owners used to be proud of the efficient, common sense, low cost of living that is.now used as a means to the end result of targeting businesses who are the heart and soul of the community you’re actively seeking to destroy- all in the name of covid and “life safety “.
U do not tell the risk takers how to live their lives and what’s best for their businesses, employees, and customers. FREE MARKETS DO THIS WITHOUT INTERFERENCE!
Solutions looking for problems in order to justify your existence is wrong and u can now see the results of your big government agenda concoction of unelected overpaid, under qualified village employees who screw the tax payers and job creators at the direction of their crooked dictatorship.
You forgot who supported you from the beginning. Sadly unchecked power, abuse of, and hiding things from the taxpayers may land up in several arrests in the near future.
Next time you want to make.up the rules as you go, and enforce them without regard to common sense, you may want to get your stories straight prior to consulting with the dumbest attorney this side of California.
Hope you all have lots of cash to defend your disastrous actions, terrible decisions, and illegal everything you’ve knowingly done to taxpayers, businesses, and FORMER gullible voters. We look forward to exposing the real shitty things you all colluded to and kept the common sense taxpayers in the dark.
Let there be light, personal responsibility, and freedom to decide what’s best for your family and a business if they still have a fighting chance against your ridiculous Illinois rules and unnecessary regulations.
I don’t expect an answer, nor any straight answers. Happy retirement, or resignation, it’s a good thing Illinois doesn’t tax your pensions. Wait, you live in Wisconsin? Hmmmm sounds familiar, Blagojevich, Rostenkowski, and your libtard idol, Ed Burke. Seems like the chickens are coming home to roost.
Eerily Similar to arrogant narcissistic Illinois politics. Should be interesting to see what comes out and where the bodies are buried. The cover up is always worse than the crime….get em Schroeder!
Dumbass, 500 a year at the cost of thousands of businesses and employees (of which you’ve clearly never hired or created a single job). Big government, small minds, and stupid ass career government employees. Ever wake up and make a decision that affects real families? Didn’t think so. Elections have consequences and the lopsided “obey our rules as we make them up” days are over. Can’t wait to pass ur Fiat with my Yamaha and take back our village. Eat shit and go back to Illinois or Califuckinfornia where your fantasy dictatorship was born..
Failure to embrace common sense, community, and history……all the things u shitbags want to erase, will lead to double digit tax increases and unaccountable life safety Czar’s who know what’s best for my family. Your logic is just like the masks. Create a pissing section in your sess pool of lies and bullshit