TOWN OF LITTLE RIVER – Tom Portier, one of town's two supervisors, was hired as its part-time maintenance worker, and two of his children got part-time jobs in the municipality, without the town board officially hiring them, the town chair has acknowledged.
Mike Shew also concedes in an interview the town board did not vote on two road projects that were completed last year.
Shew called not holding votes on the hirings and the road projects oversights.
“I’m the chair,” Shew said. “I’m responsible.”
The omissions were raised at town meetings in recent months by former town chairman Tom DesJarlais Sr., who recently shared his findings with the Oconto County Reporter.
DesJarlais said he wasn’t opposed to the hirings or the road projects, just the fact they weren’t voted upon before they started work.
“I want it done properly and legally,” DesJarlais said. “I don’t think I’m out of line for wanting that.”
The board’s minutes of its January 2021 meeting indicate that longtime road maintenance worker Ron “Butch” Rouer planned to resign at the end of winter.
The following month, the minutes say Shew will prepare a job posting, and a month later, the job will be advertised in the paper and online, with the applicants to contact Portier.
The April 2021 minutes indicate Portier spoke with one person about the job and is scheduled to talk to another the following day.
At the May 2021 meeting, the minutes say there’s “no person yet. Portier will do work with help from his son...
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