You will still have to wait a few weeks before special outside counsel is hired on for the Kewaunee Common Council. The city’s Committee of the Whole voted 6-2 to hire Michael P. May of Boardman & Clark of Madison, Wis. as its own outside special counsel in addition to the city’s attorney Randy Nesbitt. According to the resolution and accompanying emails in Monday’s agenda packet, some members of the council have grown frustrated with not being able to ask Nesbitt questions without prior permission from Kewaunee Mayor Jason Jelinek and City Administrator Fred Schnook. Jelinek says the process was put in place to rein in spending on the use of the attorney. Kewaunee Common Council President John Blaha sympathizes with Jelinek after being in his shoes as mayor previously. They also put certain restrictions on council members asking questions of the city attorney, instead of pushing people towards department heads and other city employees. He says, however, they never completely limited access to the city attorney, which is where the special counsel comes into play.

Blaha says they are not adding additional dollars to the budget for a new attorney, but rather using funds that are already there. What happens next is in Jelinek’s hands according to Blaha, who adds he has not had a chance to talk to him about the resolution since it was first introduced last week.

Pictures courtesy of City of Kewaunee