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MAYOR KLEIN RETAINED
Charlene Klein won the election, held on Tuesday, to retain her position as mayor of the City of Lake Geneva for another two years. With a total number of votes cast, Mayor Klein won a narrow victory (which has become her continuing tradition) against Todd Krause by only 49 votes. Krause’s wife did, however, retain her position on the local school board. Charlene’s victory in the previous election (two years back) against Tom Hartz, was even narrower.
The public’s willingness to reward Charlene for her guidance and dogged participation and determination in getting the city ‘through’ the virus and all of its effects, her near single-mindedness in restoring the Riviera to its former glory, and her near-constant attendance at her wide-open office at the city’s municipal building, all helped to carry her through to a second term.
Todd Krause was supported by the very influential Lutheran church, many of the members and families of the Lake Geneva Fire Department, and the interests of major home and business developers, but to no avail. Those political forces have been particularly effective in helping to determine the results of past elections in Lake Geneva but over the past few years, their power has become more restrained and less effective.
The counting of votes was an interesting affair for the Geneva Shore Report to video and report on. The one-hour operation, following the closing of the polls at exactly 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday night (actually heralded by a most effective city employee named Amanda going through and around the building letting everyone know at the top of her voice that the polls were closed!), was like out of a movie set. The ballots were counted by a dozen poll workers and their individual team results in working on paper ballots were put up against the machine totals held by Lana and Amanda. When the numbers did not true-up, which happened several times, the ballots had to be laboriously recounted, in front of the public, more times by different workers.
To see this display was a satisfying exercise in this day and age of ‘fake news’ and supposed ballot chicanery. When the numbers were all trued-up Lana came forward immediately to announce the winners, losers, and totals in every category and area of the voting. What a remarkable team of workers was on display that night.
The video is available free to the public on the GSR Facebook page.
The other results of import that were announced were the unopposed votes awarded to the three city council members returning to their current positions (Mary Jo Fessenmaier, Joanie Yunker, and Tim Dunn) while the only new council alderperson (Cynthia Yager) was also voted in unopposed.
There were other voting results of interest, that were also announced on Tuesday night. The Lake Geneva local school board members up for election were unopposed and re-elected except for one contested position that was won by Chad Bittner (over Linda Bailey Boilini and Steven Bartos).
In the Town of Linn, Alex Palmer won, unopposed while running for the board, and Kathy Leith won unopposed, as well. In Fontana, there were three candidates for an open trustee position and that position was won by Rick Pappas by 34 votes over the other two in the race. Two of the Fontana joint school district board up for re-election won by being unopposed, as well. The only referendum (increasing the school revenue limit over the next four years) up for a vote also passed. Williams Bay elected a new village trustee named Lowell Wright. He won Robert Umans by a hundred and six votes.
There is no question that the last two years have been among the most turbulent politically in recent times for almost everyone, whether on the national or local level, which with the multipole strikes by the pandemic, reactions to these, the war in Ukraine, and economic worries and woes closer to home. It was good to see and participate in the application of honest and hard-fought results so important to keep the USA as the most vibrant and effective democracy in all of the world.
