The village of Rosendale wants to sever its ties with the Lakeside Municipal Court, but electing a new judge to run their own municipal court may have to wait. Village board president Duane Ciske says the village sent a letter to the municipal court in January indicating their plans to drop out of the intra-governmental agreement. “We feel the court has gotten too big. We don’t feel we have a good enough voice,” Ciske told WFDL news. But what caught many people by surprise was a write in campaign last Tuesday. Ciske says local resident, Jim Zahn, received 70 write in votes to be the new municipal judge. The write in campaign was launched after Fond du Lac County Circuit Judge Robert Wirtz wrote a letter dated April first stating that he cannot certify the Village of Rosendale’s request. Wirtz said that in order to eliminate a municipal court notice would have to have been filed with the municipal clerk last November and that if Rosendale has its own municipal court the municipal judge would need to be a resident of Rosendale, and Judge Jaye does not live in Rosendale. Lakeside Municipal court judge, Jerry Jaye, was re-elected to another four year term in the spring election. “I just didn’t understand because based on the letter from the chief judge they would not be able to establish their own municipal court until the end of my term, April 30th of 2019,” Jaye told WFDL news. Ciske says the village board will meet with its attorney this week to decide what to do next.
