Galesville reworks council committees, Schulz removed from three

Galesville city council member Tory-Kale Schulz took issue with being removed from three council committees last week, but Mayor Vince Howe told the Times that the changes were necessary to protect city order.

Schulz was removed by Howe from the council’s parks and sanitation committee as well as its streets and sidewalks and IT committees. 

The council on Thursday voted 4-2 to approve new appointees to the committees with Schulz and Tyler Truax voting against the changes.

When the item came up for discussion on Thursday, Schulz asked Howe to tell the board why he was being removed from the committees. 

“I was removed from those three committees without a reason why with only ever having attending five committee meetings,” Schulz said.

Howe told Schulz that he is not obligated to tell him why before later explaining to the Times that it was for behavioral issues.

“It’s based on his behavior,” Howe said, saying Schulz has “made some phone calls that he shouldn’t have made”, before adding that Schulz has asked others to resign from their committees.

Howe sent a letter to Schulz on Jan. 6 to notify him of his removal from the committees, effective that day.

The removal came on the advice from city attorney Dan Arndt, the mayor said. Howe had been considering removing Schulz when he received calls from city contractors, and that’s when action was needed, he said.

“After I talked with the attorney in great length about it, we felt the best thing to do was to take him off these committees,” Howe said.

After the removal letter was sent, Howe said a representative from the state Department of Transportation (DOT) called him the following week to say Schulz had reached out about bump-outs on sidewalks downtown.

“He’s not on that committee. He absolutely should not be going forward and doing that, undermining the committee. And that’s what he’s doing,” Howe said.

Council member Kelly Kreger was appointed to fill the parks & sanitation committee opening through Thursday’s vote, with Tom Thatcher filling the streets & sidewalks committee seat and Linda Skwierawski taking over the IT opening.

Schulz now sits on a single committee as the chair of public utilities, while every other council member sits on at least three committees.

With the April 2023 election looming and reorganization of committees required shortly after, Howe said he feels comfortable adding the extra work for other councilors in the short term. This is a slower time for those committees also, he said.

Schulz wrote in an email to the Times that he believes the changes are a result of “personal problems” between him and Howe.

He pointed to multiple council agenda items on Thursday — the Highway 35 speed study, High Cliff Park and the council’s order of business — as proof that he is working hard to represent his ward.

“For the mayor to remove me from committees that I have had the voters’ voices on (and replace me with one person running for reelection and another who has declared no intent to run for reelection) is purely asinine,” Schulz wrote.

 

 

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