By Kevin Boneske
Staff Writer
ASHWAUBENON – In anticipation of the current elected clerk-treasurer leaving the position, the village board voted Tuesday, July 28, to amend Ashwaubenon’s charter ordinance.
The amendment strikes language related to the clerk-treasurer being an elected position and adds wording to separate the clerk and treasurer as two appointed positions.
Like most of the other officials and department directors appointed by the village president, the clerk and treasurer would serve at-will for an indefinite period of time, according the ordinance amendment.
In the April 7 general election, a two-to-one margin of village voters backed an advisory referendum which stated, “Should the Village of Ashwaubenon charter ordinance be amended to provide for an appointed (instead of an elected) clerk-treasurer in order to allow the treasurer duties to be absorbed by current staff and ensure the most qualified candidate for the clerk position due to the training and expertise necessary to run elections and other essential administrative functions?”
Village Attorney Tony Wachewicz said a charter ordinance doesn’t take effect until 60 days after its passage and publication.
“This is all certainly anticipated to go on this fall, and the clerk-treasurer position is expected to be vacated in January 2021,” he said.
The village’s clerk-treasurer, Patrick Moynihan Jr., who was re-elected in April 2019 to a three-year term, is running unopposed this year for Brown County clerk on the Republican ticket.
If elected county clerk in November, Moynihan said he plans to resign as village clerk-treasurer Jan. 5, 2021.
Moynihan, elected Ashwaubenon’s treasurer in the spring of 2013, was appointed by the village board to also be the clerk after the elected clerk, Dawn Collins, resigned in the fall of 2014.
The board combined the positions of clerk and treasurer into one elected clerk-treasurer, which the first term was elected for four years in the spring of 2015, before a three-year term took effect with the 2019 spring election.