Gimme Some Truth

Waunakee Village Board broadcasts its February 15th closed session on Facebook, Board members up for re-election in April rant against affordable housing in private, may have violated federal law against housing discrimination.

On February 15, the Waunakee Village Board entered into closed session to discuss “deliberating or negotiating the investing of public funds or conducting other specified public business” around the development of workforce housing on West Main Street.

For reasons unknown, the Village continued to broadcast the audio of this closed session online. I personally listened to it live, as did several others. At least one recording of this session was made by the Village, and another recording was made by a private citizen, which is available here.

In summary, members of the Village Board went well beyond the noticed closed session items, disparaging the Cohen-Esrey project, it’s perceived effect on market rates for housing, and bemoaned the influx of poorer residents who would have more children. These comments, which were stated largely by trustees Bill Ranum and Gary Herzberg are concerning. The comments may have violated the federal Fair Housing Act, which prohibits discrimination against individuals based on familial status. Village legal counsel was present on the call. He did not appear to advise the Board that housing discriminating against individuals based on their having children is illegal.

I encourage everyone to listen to this closed session recording in its entirety. It is not a complete recording of the closed session, as the individual who recorded it was unable to capture all audio. The audio ends abruptly when whoever was broadcasting the audio appeared to realize it was being live streamed.

It is my understanding that an open records request for the Village’s recording of this meeting audio has been made to obtain better audio quality. I noted that the video/audio was scrubbed from the Village’s Facebook page almost immediately after the livestream was shut down.

It’s not all bad. Village President Chris Zellner attempted to steer Mr. Herzberg off of his rants about the project and onto items that were appropriately in closed session. He clearly failed, however. Trustees Erin Moran, Kristin Runge, and Nila Frye all spoke candidly in favor of the project, and appeared to stick to appropriate discussions regarding the project.

Amazingly, the Board counted votes in closed session, with Mr. Zellner, Mr. Herzberg, Mr. Willems, and Mr. Ranum all indicating various levels of misgivings about the project. Notably, Mr. Zellner and Mr. Willems both supported the project out of the Village plan commission, yet now appear to have flipped on the issue.

Waunakee must face the fact that elected officials within its government appear to be engaging in closed-door discriminatory behavior to keep certain folks out of the Village.

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UPDATE – The Village has since published the closed session audio, which is of a higher quality.