Darien keeps one council incumbent, sends two others packing
Complete election results
Click here to view complete results from Tuesday's election.
Village of Darien
Trustee
Debi Olmstead 183
Craig McCue (I) 183
Cheryl Kaufenberg 163
Allen Kenyon (I) 160
Philip Putman (I) 157
Cynthia Holmes 104
DARIEN — Only one incumbent managed to hold on to his seat in a tough race for Darien Village Board.
Incumbent Craig McCue tied with challenger Debi Olmstead as the top vote getters in the six-way race for three seats. They earned 183 votes each.
Challenger Cheryl Kaufenberg took third place with 163 votes.
Incumbents Allen Kenyon and Phil Putman narrowly lost their bids for the board. They were three and six votes behind Kaufenberg, respectively.
Challenger Cindy Holmes took sixth place.
With a storm of newsworthy events coming out of the village of late, it's no surprise the race was hotly contested.
One of the biggest topics of discussion is the 5-2 board vote March 7 to fire Police Chief Steve DeVoy.
Some have speculated that a new board might vote to re-instate DeVoy.
Olmstead said the new board should at least question the evidence that led to the March 7 decision.
Olmstead hasn't seen all the evidence against DeVoy that the board has so far collected, but she has seen other evidence that could change some minds.
"I think some of the other board members would be interested in seeing it," Olmstead said.
The Janesville Gazette was unable to reach McCue or Kaufenberg by this morning's deadline.
McCue is in construction. On Tuesday he was re-elected to his second term on the board. In March, McCue voted against firing DeVoy and against adding additional charges to the list against the chief.
He has said repeatedly he is against increasing taxes or fees to cover anticipated construction work on the village's aging sewer system.
All the candidates—those who won and lost—listed the sewer system as a priority.
Kaufenberg is hopeful the village will land grant money to help pay for the cost of sewer repairs. But she's previously disagreed with McCue about how to pay for repairs.
"We as homeowners and taxpayers are going to have to foot part of the bill," Kaufenberg has said.
Kaufenberg is a retired business teacher in the Delavan-Darien School District.
All seven members of the current board, including McCue, Kenyon and Putman, have been accused of violating the Wisconsin Open Meetings Law.
The seven will be in court Tuesday, May 5. A settlement is likely, village attorney David Danz has said.
Apr 19, 2009 at 10:26 p.m.
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Is it just me or............has somebody lost their common sense!??? "Darien village trustee alleges impropriety at polls"
I wonder why it is so hard to accept the facts. It was not intentional. Sorry to pop your bubble but NO ONE risked their job to remove "certain" names from the roster!! Duh!!! I voted for this person who is so carelessly accusing ridiculous things. Did I make a mistake? I am afraid there might be a little slander in this article. Can we just be nice to one another? I am sick of this already!!!
http://www.mywalworthcounty.com/main.asp......
Apr 9, 2009 at 12:43 p.m.
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you 2 need to get a life
Apr 9, 2009 at 5:38 a.m.
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I never did get an answer.
Apr 9, 2009 at 5:35 a.m.
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Oh that's right he was going to make sure that the serial #'s matched up on the ballot box before and after the count.
Apr 8, 2009 at 11:51 a.m.
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hey Craig did the numbers on the machine match up?
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