Mount Pleasant Hires New Clerk, But Some Board Members Irked Over Process

Mount Pleasant hired a new village clerk Monday night, but several board members abstained from voting on the appointment because they were angry about the hiring process that was used.

Stephanie Kohlhagen, who worked part-time as a chief election inspector and helped out during tax time for several years, will be the new clerk and treasurer for Mount Pleasant. She’ll be paid a $60,000 salary and will need to earn her clerk/treasurer certification, which she currently does not have. However, she’ll be starting the training when she starts the position on Monday.

Kohlhagen’s appointment was approved in a four to one vote with Gary Feest casting a no vote. Village trustees Don Shulz and Jerry Garski also abstained from voting.

Village administrator Kurt Wahlen used a panel of individuals, including Sturtevant Village Administrator/Clerk Mary Cole, Racine County Clerk Wendy Christensen, and Mount Pleasant Police Tim Zarzecki to help him interview the final seven candidates, whom Wahlen chose after reviewing applications. The final hiring decision was essentially discussed in the closed session then brought to a vote in front of the village board during an open session.

In protest, Shulz and Garski also refused to go into the closed session.
“I refused to go into the closed session meeting because I felt that it was an illegal meeting, and so did Jerry Garski,” Shulz said.

Shulz also took issue with Kohlhagen’s qualifications because Kohlhagen does not have the municipal certifications that were outlined by the personnel committee.

“I’m not saying Kohlhagen is a bad person, but she didn’t have what we asked for,” Shulz said. “We had to go into closed session to see the resumes.”
Feest voiced his frustration over having the closed session meeting.

“It is my feeling that this entire process to this point, is – I won’t say illegal because I don’t have a legal opinion on that – but suffice to say that I am trying very hard to determine who runs this village. Is it a seven-member village board or is it a village president dictating to six trustees?” Feest said.

But village trustee Sonny Havn said he was happy with the hire and the hiring process.

“We hired the administrator to do a job, to bring the best people he could to do the job, and that’s what he did. We still had a choice on whom to hire, and he relied on experts to help him,” Havn said.

Wahlen said he outlined the process to the board well over a month ago, but some board members chose not to go to the meeting. "We had an audit done a few years ago, there has been a lot of micro managing cited in the report and the previous board tried to handle everything, but they handled nothing well... I just feel like they walked away from the process themselves," Wahlen said.