Why a recall election? Concerned taxpayers gathered information from minutes of town, planning and zoning, and Calumet County Board meetings that raised a conflict of interest concerning Supv. Jerry Criter, specifically that he planned to put wind turbines on his property and voted on changing wind turbine ordinances at these meetings.

They presented the information to Calumet County Dist. Atty. Ken Kratz in August. Kratz exonerated Criter in an Oct. 11 letter, where he also encouraged Criter to abstain from official action regarding any matter for which he may have financial interest, warning him that doing so could lead to a sanction or criminal prosecution under the misconduct in public office statues.

On Oct. 29, Criter voted against a request from Merlin Gentz, county board chairman and head of the ad hoc committee, to set aside up to $5,000 for committee members to spend the night near a wind farm, to get a realistic idea of wind turbine noise.

Criter also showed this letter to people, saying that he did nothing wrong and would be able to vote on wind issues. Criter also said in the Tri-County Newspaper that he could vote on ad hoc recommendations.

On Jan. 8, a letter had to be sent from Kratz to corporate council telling her to provide legal advice to county board supervisors who plan to act in future meetings.

Did we want to have a recall election against Mr. Criter? No. But this is a way to hold elected officials accountable in the "good ol' boy network" for their actions. His actions, after being warned by the DA to not vote on issues where there might be a conflict of interest, prompted this recall election. We want future votes on all issues to be made without a conflict of interest.