Village Board meeting — Minutes

MEETING MINUTES Special Village Board Meeting Village of Palmyra Monday June 22, 2026 100 W. Taft St. Village Hall Meeting Room 6:45 p.m. The meeting was called to order by President Gorsegner at 6:45 pm. Roll call: Ball, Gorsegner, Pfahler, McAllister, Smith, Tucker, Wallace-present. Business 1. Discussion/possible action on ordinance 2026-06, Abolishing the Village of Palmyra Police and Fire Commission. Trustee McAllister asks the cost to have the Attorney write up this ordinance? McAllister says she doesn’t know the history of why the board has gotten to this point. Board estimated $250-$300. Trustee Pfahler says only by being here for a month and half he wants an explanation of past history as well. Trustee Ball said that we hold the purse strings, they were spending money. Trustee Tucker said one of the biggest conflicts was that the PFC was doing things outside of their scope and outside of state statute authority, and once we looked into it and asked the League of WI Municipalities legal, we realized they were overstepping. They thought they had more power than they actually had. Tucker said that we must consider money, our budget and our employees. The PFC’s purpose is to be completely unbiased, and it did not seem that way. McAllister asks why her and Jeff don’t know about this. A lot of these discussions took place in closed session, but McAllister was told she could have called the Village President at any time to get brought up to speed and she could read back through old emails that are on her tablet. Pfahler says they seemed like they were overreaching, personnel issues, our need to have personnel here and spending costs and moving the goal posts for job requirements. Tucker and Wallace said that it was starting to open up liabilities for lawsuit. McAllister asked why the Village Board didn’t just remove the person(s) that they felt were the problem. The Board said because they didn’t know, the PFC conducted business in closed session. Ball/Wallace motion to adopt Ordinance 2026-06, Abolishing the Village of Palmyra Police and Fire Commission. Ball, Gorsegner, Pfahler, Smith, Tucker, Wallace-aye, McAllister nay. Motion carried. 2. Discussion/possible action on ordinance 2026-07, governing the department of public safety department personnel management, and disciplinary actions. Public Safety Director Blount said that he and Chief Gartzke agree that this ordinance matches the job descriptions. Blount went on to explain that they do the background checks for new hires for Fire/EMS/Police and bring candidates to the Village board. Their detective writes a summary and brings it to the village board. The checks and balances will go to the village board. For all discipline the Village Board will call in a 3rd party mediator. McAllister is worried that we have had a lot problems in the past of hiring PD/FD chiefs and maybe we need to stop using the same company as in the past. McAllister is also concerned that the Village Board doesn’t have enough experience with this type of thing and could the board be sued individually. The Clerk explains that they have immunity as elected officials, they can’t be sued personally, the village liability insurance would handle anything that might come up. Smith/Wallace motion to adopt ordinance 2026-07, governing the department of public safety department personnel management, and disciplinary actions. Ball, Gorsegner, Pfahler, Smith, Tucker, Wallace-aye, McAllister abstains. Motion carried. 3. Discussion/possible force main agreement between the Village of Palmyra and the Blue Spring Lake Management District. Tim sent a copy to the BSLMD for their review, and they will need more time to look it over. Scott Halbrucker is ok with the agreement. Tim’s thought was that we approve on our end and then BSLMD can present to their board. Wallace/Ball motion to approve the force main agreement between the Village of Palmyra and the Blue Spring Lake Management District. All ayes- motion carried. Smith/Wallace motion to adjourn at 7:32 pm. All ayes-motion carried. Respectfully submitted, Laurie Mueller, Village Clerk/Treasurer Minutes approved without corrections July 6, 2026