Town council votes to replace their attorney

Attorney received multiple infractions for violating nuisance ordinance

ELECTRIC CITY — Town officials issued their attorney Wayne Svaren two $500 citations Saturday for apparently violating Electric City's nuisance ordinance, prompting him to resign as the town's attorney by Tuesday.

On Tuesday evening, the Electric City Council voted to replace Svaren, giving Mayor Raymond Halsey authority to appoint a new attorney, Councilman Jerry Sands said.

Sands said Svaren's property at 51 Pearl Avenue in Electric City has been in violation of the town's nuisance ordinance for three or four months. His front yard is littered with old trucks, piles of rock and weeds growing 2 or 3 feet high, he said.

In October, the town informed Svaren he was in violation of the nuisance ordinance for allegedly having unused building materials and old vehicles scattered in front of his property.

"He's had a pretty bad looking front yard for quite a while," Sands said.

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, is it not," Svaren countered in a Thursday interview.

Since October, Svaren moved some of the old vehicles to another piece of his property in town.

Council member Mark Borden said the second property looks like a junkyard now.

"He's just playing this little shuffle game," Borden said.

The apparent junk in Svaren's front lawn on Pearl Avenue resulted in at least seven written complaints and a number of verbal complaints from area residents, Sands said.

The infractions issued Saturday stemmed from the apparent continued presence of vehicles described as unused or abandoned, along with vehicle parts, in front of Svaren's home. When he was cited, Svaren said he had a 1951 pickup truck in view, a 1948 dump truck parked on his semi-circular driveway and the dump truck's front fender removed for maintenance.

"They're very much in public view," Svaren said. "What they aren't is abandoned."

And neither vehicle was unused, he said.

The pickup is used seasonally and the dump truck currently holds welding materials, he said.

His conclusion is the infractions are the result of a personal vendetta by two or more members of the town's council.

Council member Mark Borden said Svaren's suggestion of a vendetta is laughable.

"He's no different than any other resident in this town," Borden said. "It appears that he's in violation of the law he authored."

Sands, Svaren and Borden all ran for the same town council position last fall. Sands prevailed in the election, in which cleaning up the town was an important issue. Borden was later appointed to an open seat by the council. Svaren maintained his position as attorney.

"It was designed to attempt to make an example of me," Svaren said. "But I think they have an uphill battle to prove those infractions."

Svaren may be right, he drafted the legal language used in Electric City's nuisance ordinance. He's been Electric City's attorney since 1997. He also serves as the attorney for Grand Coulee and Coulee City.

He questioned whether the town can mandate the amount of time an owner must spend operating a vehicle before declaring it in use, or out of use.

As for being abandoned, he said abandoned property must first be discarded by an owner. Then, the owner must have no intention of regaining it.

"How can you abandon something on your own property?" Svaren asked.

He suggested he has not relinquished his rights to the property and plans to contest the citations.

The town's code enforcement officer Kenneth Dexter has pursued a total of more than 35 complaints of nuisance violations, said deputy town clerk Jackie Perman. She said one property owner has paid an issued citation.

On Thursday, Svaren said he received what he suspects is another code enforcement letter regarding the second piece of property he owns and is using to store some of the old vehicles.

"I suspect this is round two," Svaren said.