MOUNT PLEASANT, WI MARCH 14, 2022 – This morning, Mount Pleasant residents submitted 1282 petition signatures—hundreds more than the 981 signatures that were required—to force a referendum vote on a charter ordinance designed to extend the terms in office for village officials from two to three years, making them the only trustees in Racine County with three year terms.
On January 24, 2022 the Village of Mount Pleasant Board of Trustees voted unanimously to lengthen their terms in office beginning in 2023. Instead of choosing to send this charter ordinance to a referendum for residents to approve first, trustees said, if the people didn’t like it they had sixty days to circulate a petition for a referendum.
Dozens of volunteers circulated the petition and gathered the needed signatures which included three former village trustees and a former village president.
“During a time of intense political divisiveness, residents in Mount Pleasant—of all political points-of-view—agreed that they should be the ones to decide how long terms in office should be, not politicians,” said Kelly Gallaher of local watchdog group, A Better Mt. Pleasant. “With only two weeks’ notice, village trustees rushed through a vote designed to preserve the current administration and decrease the ability of voters to hold them accountable. It was a self-serving initiative and the residents have said no.”
The Mount Pleasant Village Clerk has fifteen days to certify the petition. “We are confident the petition will succeed,” Gallaher continued. “Residents will have the opportunity to decide for themselves how long village officials serve in office.”
