Battle brewing as Fredonia school district sues school board member



FREDONIA (WITI) -- How much would YOU spend to collect an $8,000 debt? For an Ozaukee County school district, the answer appears to be whatever it takes -- and school officials are preparing for a trial.

Kendall Thistle is the target of a lawsuit filed by the adults in charge of Northern Ozaukee School District in Fredonia -- about 35 miles north of Milwaukee.

Thistle lives in a modest farm house on a four-acre tract of land, directly north of the high school soccer field.

The school district is suing Thistle over a storm water flooding problem that cost the district $8,000 to fix. But it's how much money they've spent on the lawsuit that will take your breath away.

Jamie Nickerson has three kids in a Fredonia elementary school, and is also a taxpayer. She wasn't happy to hear the district has racked up $100,000 in legal fees to solve a storm water issue.

"It's just water," Nickerson said.

Thistle agrees.

"You know, you're taking away from kids by spending that much money," Thistle said.

It all started back in 2006, when the district swapped land with a new residential development. As part of the deal, the district agreed to let storm water form the neighborhood drain onto school property.

Thistle says the water drained right across the school's property, and onto his.

"I'd have a 60-foot wide swath of water runnin' across my property.  I was just flooded all the time," Thistle said.

What he did next is now the focal part of the lawsuit.

Both the developer and the school district kept promising to solve the flooding problem. When they didn't, Thistle says he built a berm to stop the storm water from flowing across his property.

According to the lawsuit, Thistle's berm pushed storm water back onto school property, creating a safety hazard for students.

The district dug a path around the berm, and then tried to get Thistle to pay for it. When he refused, the district sued him.

"I guess that's just part of living in America, that's your right to sue and be sued.  It's just nice if you use your own money instead of taxpayer money," Thistle said.

What's even more peculiar is that Thistle isn't just the school district's next-door neighbor. He's also a member of the school board!

Thistle says what bothered him most was the district's efforts to block his request for emails and legal invoices.

A judge ruled the documents are public records, but not until after an expensive hearing.

"That's taxpayer money being used to hide taxpayers' information," Thistle said.

One of those memos shows the district's own law firm warned in advance about the "high costs of litigation" -- costs it said could exceed $35,000.

So why did the district go ahead with the lawsuit?

Superintendent Blake Peuse says he has "no interest" in doing an on-camera interview. It seems he would prefer letting the lawyers do the talking in court, at the taxpayers' expense.

The trial had been scheduled to start Thursday, August 29th, but earlier this week, the judge decided to push the case back to January 2014 -- meaning the tab for taxpayers will continue to rise.