Report on Complaint Against Havn Sheds Light on Former Trustee's Role

While former Mount Pleasant Trustee Karen Albeck read an anonymous letter that accused Trustee Sonny Havn of having an inappropriate relationship before the complaint was sent to Village Hall in October, Albeck told police she was not involved in writing that letter, a report released Monday said.

The long-awaited report from Racine Police Chief Art Howell, who headed the investigation, says Albeck knew who authored the letter and saw it before it was delivered. However, she told Howell she reviewed it for "grammatical corrections only," and had nothing to do with the content of the letter.

In October, a resident delivered an unsigned letter to Mount Pleasant Village Hall alleging that Havn had "a very close and special relationship" with the employee. The resident was concerned that as a trustee involved with a staff member, Havn had a conflict of interest when he voted on this person's salary and/or benefits.

Howell conducted an investigation into whether the allegations rose to a criminal level after former Village President James Majdoch passed the matter to the Mount Pleasant Police Department. MPPD Chief Tim Zarzecki asked Howell to take over to avoid any conflicts of interest.

In Howell's report, he states several times there is no basis for a criminal investigation into the complaints against Havn. Howell notes that the anonymous source doesn't want to be identified and does not have "any tangible (direct) knowledge of inappropriate conduct on the part of Trustee Havn."'

Was Albeck Behind Anonymous Letter?

Havn has consistently maintained that he hasn't done anything wrong, and in March issued a statement accusing Albeck of authoring the letter and targeting him for removal from the village board.

In his original report, concluded in January, Howell writes: "Albeck stated that she personally authored this communication; however, doing so on behalf of the anonymous grievant."

But the addendum to that report was triggered based on a March 25 closed session of the Village Board when Albeck disputed Howell's take on their conversation, objecting to that specific language. The addendum reads:

Albeck wanted to make it clear that she assisted the author with 'grammatical corrections only' ... that the decision to draft and subsequently circulate the (letter) was made and carried out by a local constituent who wishes to remain anonymous.

The addendum also describes a conversation Howell had with the author of the letter who confirmed, "(he/she) drafted the letter in question following a neighborhood meeting in October 2012 ... (and) took it upon himself/herself to bring the matter to the attention of Village officials."

'I Had Nothing To Do With It'

Albeck responded Monday with a statement confirming her lack of involvement in the writing of the letter.

"I had nothing to do with authorship of the complaint. That fact has been affirmed," Albeck said in a written statement to Patch.

Howell's report also indicates that Havn submitted a written rebuttal on Dec. 31, to the letter and questioned whether or not Patch had anything to do with the anonymous letter.

Patch did receive a call in October from a resident who didn't wish to use their name, but wanted to know how to file a complaint after staff members didn't return calls.

While stating there was nothing criminal in nature to the allegations, Howell did urge village officials to draft a code of conduct for both employees and trustees.

Was Criminal Investigation Warranted?

Trustee Gary Feest said Monday that he wasn't surprised by the outcome of the investigation. He thinks elevating the issue so immediately to a criminal level without full involvement of the board puts trustees in a position of not being able to address any possible conflicts of interest.

"My opinion is that the previous village president overstepped his bounds by forwarding the matter to the police department for a criminal investigation," he said. "First, it should have been a board decision on how to proceed. Second, there wasn't an investigation into the conflict of interest first to determine if there were grounds for a criminal investigation so I knew this would be the outcome."