NEWBURG — Village Board members agreed this week to hire an interim clerk after a pair of high-profile resignations last month temporarily hobbled Newburg’s administration.
Deanna Alexander will fill the key local government role for at least a few months after her predecessor, Rick Goeckner, abruptly stepped down in mid-May.
The Milwaukee County Board member with other past government finance experience beat out Chris Jenkins for a job that’s expected to include helping Newburg begin writing its next budget.
Board members met for about two hours in closed session Thursday night to interview both candidates. Discussions in open session to fill the position were brief.
Alexander said one of her first tasks will involve familiarizing herself with what’s gone on in Newburg the past few months.
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Goeckner had been Newburg’s clerk and administrator for several years before resigning on May 16 — the same day that Chrissie Brynwood, Newburg’s deputy clerk and treasurer, also handed in her own resignation.
The resignations followed shortly after a local ethics commission in April agreed to censure Rena Chesak, who was then Newburg’s newly elected president, after a former village trustee accused her of violating an ethics policy when she’d served as a board member in 2018.
The ethics accusations, which centered around board discussions last year to renew a service contract with the local fire department where Chesak’s husband is chief, led to some occasionally tense exchanges at meetings this year. A former village president verbally confronted Chesak’s husband during a meeting in May, and a former police official publicly urged board members to sanction the new president as much as the law allowed. The board later declined to levy sanctions against Chesak.
Wow….
Over Chris Jenkins?
Newburg must be rolling in money if they going to pay her $72,000 a year.