Sheboygan to make City Attorney position appointed instead of elected
Instead of electing the City Attorney every four years, the Sheboygan Common Council will appoint the City Attorney for an indefinite term
SHEBOYGAN — The Sheboygan City Council could soon have the power to decide who the City Attorney is and eliminate the elected role, depriving citizens the ability to decide for themselves.
According to the proposal submitted by Alderperson Dean Dekker and Alderperson Trey Mitchell, the City Attorney shall be appointed by a majority vote of the Common Council and shall hold office for an indefinite term, subject to removal by the Common Council at its pleasure and without cause. Currently, the position is an elected one with four-year terms. In April, City Attorney Charles Adams abruptly resigned halfway through his four-year term. He was re-elected in April 2023.
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The city’s Finance and Personnel Committee will hold a meeting on Tuesday, May 27th at 6 PM inside the Common Council Chambers to amended the charter of the City of Sheboygan related to the manner of selection and tenure of the City Attorney.
This is not the first time the City Attorney position was proposed to be appointed. The first proposal came in January 1981. Alderperson Richard Schneider was against the proposal and wanted to put the issue to a referendum. "I find it hard to believe that there is anybody up here who would not allow their constituents to decide this,” said Schneider, who was later elected Mayor of Sheboygan in 1985. In April 1982, voters decided they didn't want to give up electing their City Attorney, even if they did not have more than one candidate on the ballot for nearly two decades.
With voters rejecting the referendum, the city attorney continued to be an elective position. In June 2014, former Alderperson Mary Lynne Donohue proposed giving the Common Council the power to appoint the City Attorney and taking away the power from voters. Donohue, who is married to former Circuit Court Judge Timothy Van Akkeren, has been an attorney herself since 1979. Two months later, the proposal was voted down in committee and did not advance.
A year later, City Administrator Jim Adodeo sought to outsource the City Attorney's Office but the idea went nowhere.
Sheboygan is one of nineteen cities in Wisconsin that elect their City Attorney. At age 28, Konrad Krez was elected the first Sheboygan City Attorney in 1856. Three years later, he was elected Sheboygan County District Attorney. The longest serving City Attorney was Stephen G. McLean with nearly 29 years of service. When he retired, Charles was elected in April 2015 and was re-elected in 2019 and 2023.
The City Attorney’s Office performs legal services for the City of Sheboygan, including organizing or rendering legal advice to city officials, preparation and review of contracts as well as representation of the city and city officials in lawsuits. Additionally, the City Attorney prosecutes those accused of violating city ordinances. The office does not provide legal advice to members of the public. The City Attorney is a member of the city’s Executive Leadership Team and acts as a legal advisor.
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