Who are the political activists in the Village of Richfield?

12/3/2015

Remember this when you vote for Richfield referendums April 2016.

Earlier this year Danah Zoulek (resident of Village of Richfield) and Jeff Gonyo (resident of Town of Polk) canvassed the residents of Richfield getting signatures to add 2 more people to the Richfield village board and mandate term limits for Richfield village board members. They got the necessary number of signatures to require a referendum but since then many people have said they wish they never had signed that paper.

Jeff Gonyo has for years been vocal about what he calls the "EXCESSIVE" RICHFIELD BUDGETS.". If you have not heard, the 2016 Richfield tax rate is reduced by $0.01 per thousand, so if you are a resident of Richfield you will pay less on the village portion of your tax bill.

Recently the residents in the Town of Polk voted, in a referendum, to raise their taxes by $0.36 or $0.37 cents per thousand. While the elected officials of Polk know what is needed to efficiently operate that community, where is Jeff's outrage that the taxes on his mother's home will go up?

Jeff Gonyo is a known political activist and has been active in Richfield since 1997. According to the First Amendment of the USA he has the right to free speech.

No one seems to know where he works. Does he have a job? Yet this is the man, along with Danah Zoulek, who wants to make demands on the residents of the Village of Richfield.

Does the Village of Richfield need to have 7 people on the village board when his home Town of Polk only has 3 members? Does the Village of Richfield need to constrain the opportunity for good people to offer their services to the community by enacting TERM LIMITS? Town of Polk does not have TERM LIMITS.

December 1 is the first day someone can begin to get nomination signatures for elected positions in towns, villages and cities. Is Jeff going to run for Town Supervisor in the Town of Polk because the residents voted to increase his mothers taxes? Is Jeff going to get his buddies to run for office in the Village of Richfield? Is Danah Zoulek, Jeff's buddy, going to again run for office like she did in 2015?

Yes, we all have the protection of free speech. Each of you has the same right and it can be used on election day.

9 Comments

Marie

12/3/2015 07:31:04 am

Jeff have a job? Yep it's to harass the village residents!! He always says he is representing the hwy j group. Well I would like to know who they are and do they really live in Richfield. Or is he just representing danah and gill. He also needs to pay the court costs. does the hwy j group have $$, then they should be paying up.

marie

12/3/2015 01:21:41 pm

Does Jeff still solicit $$ from people? and if so, where is the $$ going? His pocket? I know of people who he was at their door looking for $$ a while back. I wonder if the Government knows that he has $$ coming in.

Danah

12/6/2015 11:20:34 am

It shouldn't be hard to find who belongs to the HWY J group as many of them have submitted affidavits in the case that was won in 2009. I don't understand why we can't just stick to the issues, there's no need to personally attack people.

I will answer a few questions about Jeff because some of them were questions I had for him as well when I met him. All of these personal facts are irrelevant to term limits and board size but nonetheless, for those who are curious, here is what I know. (He gave me permission to post this btw) Jeff is a tax attorney. He has a private practice where he practices law.

Jeff also specializes in environmental law and his work for Highway J Citizens is 100% volunteered with all fundraising going towards legal expenses for other attorneys as Jeff does not represent the Highway J Citizens as legal counsel. I personally think he should compensate himself for the hours and hours of research and fundraising he's done, but HWY J is his passion and he doesn't feel right doing that.

There is a UA set up for HWY J with steering committee members and a treasurer.

I have personally met many HWY J members and they are kind and wonderful people who are very appreciative that Jeff takes the time to help protect their property. I've talked to many of them about the Scenic Pit and they are supportive of the restoration project. They like that I'm a fourth generation resident who really does care about the community. Many of them know my family from both sides (my family has been in Richfield since the 1930s and 40s). People remember the quarry when it was in operation and don't understand why it was left in its current state. They also don't know why the village was so supportive of the Jacklin Pit restoration and why the village doesn't try to stop the clean fill site on hwy 175 yet they want to stop the Scenic Pit.

As far as the Town of Polk goes, they still have a lower "resident to board member" ratio than we do, which means residents have more representation than we do.

The reason you don't see Jeff fighting with Polk about raising taxes is because the board DID NOT choose to raise the taxes, they let the Polk residents decide by referendum. Less government power, more people power. Whether or not Jeff agrees with the tax raise is irrelevant when the people decide.
Yes, the board may have presented the referendum to the people, but they let the people decide, which is the way it should be on all major issues that affect residents.

I am very proud to be Jeff's "buddy". I encourage everyone who may have a negative opinion of him to meet him and talk with him and hopefully you'll see how passionate he is about his work and that he is a highly intellectual person who simply has a unique approach to societal norms.

Let's do our best to stop personally attacking people and stick to the issues!

Happy Holidays!

Danah
262-355-6078

Shellly

12/7/2015 08:40:48 am

Great point Danah - lets put the landfill on a referendum. We'll let the residents decide instead of the government & the courts. We would all save a lot of money, time, and every person could have their voice heard through their vote. Really, I'm serious.... lets get it on a binding referendum.

Danah

12/7/2015 10:06:41 pm

Shelly,

The clean fill site that will be operating to restore the abandoned quarry is privately owned, NOT owned by the public. Referendums are for voters to vote on government functions not private functions. I can see why you would see it as public since it was used by the community for a period of time, but it's not public. In fact, the property was privately owned and had private access roads to it when it was mined, and it was privately owned while it was for sale for over 10 years while people in the community continued to use it, both with permission and without permission.

At the public hearing you misrepresented that you were not trespassing onto our property but the picture on Facebook clearly shows Lakeview Drive (which is the boundary of our property) well to the north of where you're standing. Basically, it all boils down to the fact that the RRAD members and certain folks in Windemere have never been open to hearing the facts and have refused to meet with us time and time again.
The invitation still stands and I am open and willing to meet with anyone at anytime to answer questions, concerns, etc. I personally think once our project gets going people will see that it's not near as disruptive as they think it will be. Our plan is a great plan and only time will show the community that.

The court system is there for a reason and my personal belief is that it is the Village costing tax payers money because the State of Wisconsin wants abandoned mines restored. The WI Supreme Court has already said clean fill sites are exempt from local approvals (which never would have been an issue if the Village would have worked with us in the beginning because we were following THEIR Comprehensive Plan).

One more thing that's important to note is this property WILL HAVE to be restored eventually. There's no way around it. It's falling apart, deteriorating, eroding, and there's literally no appropriate vegetation for the surrounding habitat. Please take the time to read the environmental assessment regarding the effects of abandoned mines in communities. It was written by many experts who understand environmental issues and land use.

Property rights are protected under the 5th Amendment to the US Constitution. This whole pit thing has turned so political and so personal that people aren't willing to look at the facts. The property was zoned M-5 Mineral Extraction/Mine Restoration since 1963 until March of this year. This means that the subdivisions built around it (over a clearly adequate buffer) were built and home owners purchased their homes next to a site zoned for mining and restoration.

Our site will be beautiful, will compliment the area, and will restore the property to an appropriate land use.

Danah
262-355-6078

marie

12/7/2015 08:30:40 am

2009? this is 2015 and I still don't think the group is active. except for maybe 3-4 people. Treasurer? WHO? I want the court costs paid. Why not give the Richfield board some credit for LOWERING our taxes. As far as Jeff is concerned. I have met him. Still don't think much. If posters say things that you don't like, that is free speech and this is only a BLOG. If Jeff goes after us then it is fair game to turn the tables.
Merry Christmas to all!

Danah

12/7/2015 10:26:03 pm

Marie,

The group is still active and are currently in federal court again. The group, in the last 6 months, has had approximately 400-500 people actively supporting HWY J. Most of those members are in Richfield.

The board has raised Richfield property taxes every year since 2010 with the exception of 2015 where the taxes stayed the same. It's interesting that the taxes were lowered by $.01 per $1000.00 with a referendum coming up on the Spring election to limit terms and add 2 more board members. Seems more of a political move than economical, but hey, anytime taxes are lowered it's a good thing right?!
They could have reduced taxes significantly more.

The court costs would be paid to the insurance company that was representing the Village because they are the ones that paid the attorney's fees. The Village no longer uses this insurance company.

Are you sure you've actually met and talked with Jeff? I don't think you have. Jeff isn't going after anyone's personal life.

Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year, Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Hanukkah, etc. I wasn't attempting to achieve political correctness, I simply just wanted to say Happy Holidays. The politics are insane. The weird part is that you would probably find my political views to be in line and even further right with our conservative area, but since you've never talked to me I've never had a chance to show you that.

As always, I'm willing to meet with you.
Danah
262-355-6078

Tom

12/9/2015 04:20:37 pm

Dahna,
Spin it any way you wan't but after listening to you and Jeff it still
Does not pass the smell test that your right and everybody is wrong.
Stop costing the taxes payers in Richfield there had earned money.

Tom

marie

12/13/2015 10:39:53 am

Tom:you are correct. however, there is so much $$ involved she cant let it go. She can attack anyone of us, saying that we trespass, toilet paper her house (which none of us did), take surrounding neighbors land saying its hers,. and then say we are wrong. I hope you come to the village meetings and see exactly what the village has to put up with.

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Who are the political activists in the Village of Richfield?

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