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

The full report - and addendum - from Racine Police Chief Art Howell has been released regarding an anonymous letter that alleges Trustee Sonny Havn committed ethics violations.

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

The full report - and addendum - from Racine Police Chief Art Howell has been released regarding an anonymous letter that alleges Trustee Sonny Havn committed ethics violations.

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 …

•  7 Comments
• Photos (1)

C. Sanders

6:23 am on Tuesday, May 7, 2013

Albeck is not a sociopath. She is a politician which is decidedly worse.   more ›

Whom Are You Backing in The Mount Pleasant Village Board Elections?

There is a contested races for Mount Pleasant village president and for three Village Board seats. We want to know who is going to get your vote on Tuesday — and why.

Mount Pleasant voters head to the polls on Tuesday to cast ballots in several key local races  — village president and three seats on the Village Board. Here's who is running: Mount Pleasant Village President Mount Pleasant Village Board We're giving Mount Pleasant voters an opportunity to tell us whom they support in all or any of these races — and why. Take our unscientific poll to let us know whom you plan to vote for, and also post a comment at the bottom of this article to weigh in on either race. Here's you chance to tell the rest of Mount Pleasant whom you're backing on Tuesday, and why you think that person will do the best job for the village. And before you vote, check out Mount Pleasant Patch's 2013 Spring Election Guide for …

•  10 Comments
• Photos (1)

Mount Pleasant Budget Remains in Limbo

With a $326,000 hole to plug, trustees must decide what to cut—or how to get more money. A budget review session Friday afternoon brought forward lots of ideas, but no solution.

Mount Pleasant officials  tossed out ways to plug a $326,000 hole in the 2013 budget, caused by higher-than-expected insurance costs. Board members floated ideas like borrowing money, not hiring firefighters or a village administrator, closing a fire station, not paving roads and delaying capital purchases to balance the not-yet-approved proposed 2013 budget.  But no decisions were made at the Friday afternoon meeting. Trying to make the budget more palatable to taxpayers, the words dire, hemorrhaging, dysfunctional and egregious were used by several board members as they reviewed the budget. Several plans were pitched, but none had enough support to pass. The proposed budget published in the newspaper included a $16.9 million tax levy, a…

•  3 Comments
• Photos (1)

Mount Pleasant Trustees Don't Agree About Administrator

Not everyone on the board thinks the Village needs a full time Administrator.

Views on having a full time Administrator in Mount Pleasant are split along the same lines as the narrow 4-3 vote that approved a search to fill the position. Trustees Sonny Havn, John Hewitt and Harry Manning with Village President Carolyn Milkie believe having a full time Administrator is the way to go. Trustees Karen Albeck and Gary Feest believe otherwise, and while he didn't voice an opinion at the Oct. 10 board meeting, Jerry Garski voted against a full time position. "I think the job description has been embellished to make residents think we need a full time person," Albeck said. "I think we need to determine whether or not some of these duties are even the responsibility of the Administrator." Specifically, she was referring to …

• Photos (1)

Mount Pleasant Trustee Angry About Administrator Procedure

The board voted that the Personnel Committee should look to fill a full time position after an ad was already placed to find interested candidates.

The search for a full-time Administrator in Mount Pleasant is a go, the vote taken after an ad was placed for the position. Trustees voted 4-3 at the Oct. 10 Village Board meeting to direct the Personnel Committee to continue trying to fill the position with a full time employee. The job has been vacant since May 9 when the board voted unanimously to fire former Administrator Mike Andreasen, who died of a heart attack on June 1. "Who authorized this?" asked Trustee Karen Albeck. "The board did not confirm this was the direction we were going to go. What were you thinking?" Albeck believes so strongly that the village Personnel Committee may have acted illegally by directing the clerk/treasurer to place an ad for a new Administrator that …

•  4 Comments
• Photos (1)
• Documents (1)

Mount Pleasant Technology Needs Going to Finance Committee

Originally slated for when the new Village Hall opened, some purchases are expected to get the green light from the Finance/Legal/License Committee.

Moving into a new home usually means getting new stuff and the Village of Mount Pleasant is no different. Some of the needs listed with the Technology Committee, however, have not been filled. That committee's list came before the Village Board on Sept. 26. Trustees voted to turn matters back to committee so the Finance/Legal/License Committee will take up the purchases at its next meeting in October. They are expected to approve several purchases from that Techology Committee list. "I'm on the committee and am a little disturbed that these purchases were in the original plan and are still not done," said Trustee Karen Albeck at the start of the discussion at Board meeting. But Trustee Gary Feest, also on the committee, said he thought the…

• Photos (1)

Andreasen Dismissed 'Without Cause' to Save Time, Money, Employee Stress

Mount Pleasant-Sturtevant Patch readers asked so we found the answer to the with cause vs. without cause question and how it applies to the Mike Andreasen situation.

When Mount Pleasant trustees voted 6-0 on May 9 to terminate Mike Andreasen without cause, they did so, in part, because it was the most expedient way to address the allegations contained in Juliet Edmands' May 6 letter. In that correspondence, Edmands accused Andreasen of sexual harrassment, violating the personnel manual and of initiating financial irregularities. She hand-delivered her letter to nearly every member of the board on Friday, May 6. Within days, employees named in Edmands' letter had been interviewed by Mount Pleasant Police, Andreasen's computer had been seized and his office sealed. "Without cause means no reference to anything," said Village President Carolyn Milkie. "It really just means that we're parting ways and …

•  1 Comment
• Photos (1)

Heather Rayne Geyer

11:25 pm on Friday, August 26, 2011

Geez Louise. Everyone will certainly be wanting to hear the whole story. Whether or not it is our business is debatable, but I would sure be more than interested in the whole, true story. Now we know too much too forget about it but not enough to know what the heck this is really all about. Holy soap opera.   more ›

Public Meeting Recordings Available Online By End of Year

Mount Pleasan'ts new website will feature unedited files from meetings in community rooms.

After a bit of back-and-forth between trustees, the new Mount Pleasant public meeting recording policy was approved 5-2 on Aug. 22. Recordings are expected available by the end of 2011, when the new Mount Pleasant website goes live. Hosted by Racine County, the new website will also have the capability to feature video from public meetings at some point in the future. "We are confident the new website will be live by the end of the year," said Logan Martin, community development coordinator. "Recordings should be online within 24 hours of the meetings end." But before the village could get to that point, there was some confusion about whether or not meeting minutes would still be hard-copy. During the reading of his executive summary, …

•  2 Comments
• Photos (1)

Heather Asiyanbi

9:25 pm on Wednesday, August 24, 2011

You're right! Sorry about that ... it's fixed now.   more ›