Official Complaint Filed Against Neillsville Mayor for Election Violations
Monday, August 13th, 2018 -- 12:39 PM
-An official complaint has been brought against the Mayor of Neillsville for election violations.According to the criminal complaint, this incident began back in 2017 when Clark County’s former judge, Jon Counsell, and his wife, City Council Alderman Julie Counsell, began receiving complaints from Neillsville residents that Mayor Steve Mabie was no longer living within the city. In Mayor Mabie’s recent re-election from this spring, as well as his voting in the spring elections, he listed his residency as 304 State Street in Neillsville. However, it’s common knowledge that Mayor Mabie owns a cabin at W8989 County Highway B in the Township of Hewett. Several people have claimed they’ve been told the Mayor is living at the Highway B address as opposed to the State Street address. If these allegations are true, it raises two issues. The first is that under Wis. Stat. sec. 6.10, “the residence of a person is the place where the person’s habitation is fixed, without any present intent to move, and to which, when absent, the person intends to return.” If the mayor isn’t living on State Street, this creates an issue with his residency. The second is it would be voter fraud if he voted in the spring election under a false address. In the criminal complaint it stated that when the Mayor was confronted with the issue, he said he is qualified to be mayor because he “owns a home in Neillsville” and “where he lays his head at night is nobody’s business.”
The official complaint against the mayor wasn’t filed until July 31st of this year by Jon Counsell. Neillsville Police Chief Scott Klueckmann consulted with City Attorney Bonnie Wachsmuth as he has never encountered a situation regarding election fraud. Also, there would be an obvious conflict of interest if the Neillsville Police Department would investigate the matter on their own as the Mayor is considered the Police Chief’s boss. The Police Chief has received a great amount of political pressure from several entities regarding this investigation and concern that the public would think the department is trying to cover up this issue. But the Neillsville Police Chief wants to make it absolutely clear that that’s not the case.
At this point in time, the complaint has been made and the City Attorney informed Chief Klueckmann that she didn’t believe the investigative part of the complaint required any further action on the department’s part. She also stated that she found Wis. Stat. 61.32 & 62.11 (3) (a) states “with regard to municipal governing body members, each city and village governing body may determine the residency of its members. This is because village boards and common councils have the power to judge the qualifications of their members.” That could potentially clear up the residency issue if the council found Mayor Mabie qualified to continue to be Mayor. But there would still be an issue with the potential election fraud. Chief Klueckmann will be consulting with the State Attorney General’s office today in regards to the next step. There’s no word on whether Mayor Mabie is considering stepping down from his position.
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