Large Turnout In Mayville Over Police Chief Position

9/26/17 – City officials in Mayville last night heard from a packed house on the future of the acting police chief. Acting Chief Ryan Vossekuil recently rejected a contract offer from the city. Mayor Rob Boelk said in a press release last week that the city would begin looking for a new candidate for the position. Last night, the citizens group Voices for Vossekuil presented the city’s Public Safety Committee with an online petition with over 800 signatures asking that Vossekuil, a 15-year veteran of the department, stay in the leadership position.

Also in attendance last night were colleagues of Vossekuil, who spoke highly of their working relationship. Among them, Horicon’s Police Chief Joe Adamson and Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt. The sheriff encouraged the council needs to go back and get all the facts in order to have a decent negotiating process. Schmidt asked city officials to leave the politics out of the matter.

Mayor Rob Boelk addressed the audience last night saying there are two sides to the story, which was not made clear in some media reports. Boelk called into question the working relationship between Vossekuil and former Chief Chris MacNeill, who is facing felony charges for allegedly altering documents in 2011 to get the family member of a former Mayville police officer into the army. Boelk says Vossekuil was aware of the allegations months prior to the internal investigation. He says MacNeill confided in Vossekuil that he did indeed change a report three to four months before a Department of Justice search warrant was issued.

We spoke to Vossekuil after the meeting about Boelk’s comments and he says MacNeill told him in fall of 2016 that a complaint had been filed against him which MacNeill denied the validity of. He says he never conducted an investigation or looked for the report because he felt the State Department of Justice, which was handling the case, would take care of it. Vossekuil says any attempts by him to inform other people about the situation would have obstructed the investigation. He did say he is thankful for the support shown by the community. The city council voted two weeks ago to accept Vossekuil’s rejection of the contract. Boelk notes that the matter could be brought back to the council by an alderperson at any time.