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Petition seeks end to political fight in Lake Geneva

LAKE GENEVA — Peg Esposito said she's had enough of the nonsense at City Hall.

She has started a group called Welcome Home Lake Geneva and is asking residents to sign a petition calling for the city council to put a stop to the mounting legal battle between the mayor and the four council members he has accused of violations.

Esposito believes Mayor Bill Chesen was wrong to charge and suspend council members Mary Jo Fesenmaier, Arleen Krohn, Penny Roehrer and Tom Spellman.

"To take these four and to smear their names … it's everything that is wrong with government, that is wrong with people," she said. "For these four to be kicked off (the city council) just because they don't agree with the mayor, it's egregious and it's wrong."

Esposito voiced her concerns in a letter to the editor in the Lake Geneva Regional News on Oct. 15. She asked residents to call their city council representatives and ask them to put a stop to the "nonsense" so the city doesn't spend more money on the already costly legal battle.

Esposito received phone calls from residents, who thanked her for saying what she had said. She was moved to take her crusade more public. Esposito registered as a political action committee, created an informational flyer and set up a Web site. Her flyer says, in part, that the city so far has spent $16,000 on an independent attorney to handle the matter and it likely would spend more as the battle continues.

"We cannot afford this fight," the flyer states. "We do not need this fight. There is no need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to find out what happened."

Esposito is asking residents to rally behind her.

"I'm asking them to join me in telling the city council to put the two alderman (Fesenmaier and Spellman, who remain suspended) back in their seats and to get on with business," she said.

Esposito started collecting signatures more than a week ago and so far has collected more than 65 signatures from residents in all four aldermanic districts. She plans to present them to the city council at its Monday, Nov. 9, meeting if there is a related item on the agenda to which she can speak.

"This isn't a personal attack on anybody," she said. "We need fair representation. We've elected people. They are who we need."