FREDONIA, Wis. – Taxpayers in Wisconsin’s Northern Ozaukee School District are learning a very expensive lesson about public school spending.



Residents of the small town of Fredonia recently learned the district has already spent roughly $167,000 in legal fees on an $8,000 lawsuit over a storm water dispute with a school neighbor, who is also a school board member, Fox6 reports.

Board member and adjacent property owner Kendall Thistle “says it all started back in 2006, when a new residential development caused excess storm water to flow across the school’s property and onto his. So Thistle built a berm to protect his farm,” the news site reports.

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“The school district says that berm caused flooding on school property” and created a safety hazard for students, and paid $8,000 to fix the problem permanently, according to Fox6.

The district also voted to sue the Thistles to recover the money in February 2011, and the case has been tied up in the courts since. After three years of legal wrangling, ballooning legal costs eventually convinced school board members to drop the lawsuit this May.

Ozaukee County Judge Paul Malloy scolded district officials over the “imprudent” lawsuit this spring, pointing out the obvious fact that it “never should have gotten this far” and the district elected leaders will “need to answer to their electorate,” Fox6 reports.

“Certainly, it’s gone on longer than we would like and cost much more than we would like,” the school board’s vice president, Stacie Stark, told the news site.

“You have to continually look at the cost-benefit analysis,” superintendent Blake Peuse said.

That’s seems like an appropriate comment, had the district ditched the lawsuit once legal fees crested $8,000, but most reasonable taxpayers would agree that spending $167,000 is not only way out of line, it’s financially reckless and stupid.

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“My wife and I and our family, we’re taxpayers also. And at some point, the elected officials need to held accountable for their actions,” Thistle said.

He believes the district should reimburse him for $80,000 he spent to fight the case, but Malloy denied his motion for the full amount last month, Fox6 reports.

“You should pay our costs for dragging us through this,” Thistle told the news site.

Thistle said he’s still considering further legal options, while district officials are hoping to forget about the whole mess.

“It certainly would be nice to place this behind us,” Peuse said.