Monona community rallies around police

By Audrey Posten | Times-Register

Community members rallied around the Monona Police Department at the Nov. 18 city council meeting, sharing concerns over what they felt were inadequate wages and a lack of appreciation from city officials for the officers.

Concerns came to a head at the recent announcement by police chief Jo Amsden that she plans to resign, effective in January. Already working to fill a full-time officer position, the move tasks the city with finding a second as well.

Brenda Jones was one of several citizens who questioned what was going on.

“We’re losing good officers, some of the best I’ve seen in a long time. The kids love these officers,” she said.

“Jo was the best thing for the city of Monona, the best cop we’ve had...She just went up and decided, ‘Oh, hey, I’m gonna resign.’ There’s stuff going on around. I’ve heard it,” echoed Josh Tayek.

One of the top concerns was officer wages, which meeting attendees accused of being among the lowest in Clayton County. 

“Wages weren’t good,” when he was an officer, according to Terry Doeppke. “You lost a lot of people throughout the years. Think about that: when you don’t have anybody to call and nobody’s there at the door when you want them, it’s going to hurt.”

In his six years on the council, Preston Landt said it’s a topic the council has continually addressed, giving “significant raises to the police year after year—significantly more than the other employees.”  The council was poised to do it again in order to attract more applicants for the full-time officer position vacated by Nick Matelski several months ago. 

A proposed scale would up the starting wage for a non-certified officer to $22 per hour and $25 for one who is certified. Officers with one year of experience would earn $26.50 per hour, with the amount increasing to $28 for two years of experience and $30 for three or more.

“We have been investigating what other departments in the county are earning, because we want to land somewhere fair. We’re not going to be the highest, but certainly not the lowest, because we also take into account that we have a school here,” mayor Grant Langhus shared. “We can’t pay them a million bucks a year, though, so we’ve got to land on some numbers that are reasonable.”

The mayor noted the difficulty of compensating officers fairly while also keeping taxes in check.

“We’re sensitive to we want everybody to make as much money with the city as we possibly can, but then our job is also to make sure we don’t raise taxes too high. It’s good we have you here because we hear half the town doesn’t want to pay more taxes and the other half wants to pay more taxes. We are stuck trying to make a decision where we think you guys want to land and sometimes that’s tough,” he explained.

“I’d pay more taxes to have good law enforcement,” Jones responded.

Billie Jones, another meeting attendee, believed having the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office cover shifts wouldn’t alleviate a financial burden.

“Nothing in this world is free, and the county is not going to come in here and police this for free. And you know what? They’re not going to sit here 24/7 and be readily available if we need them. They have other things to do. Clayton County is huge,” she said.

Attendees said they appreciated the officers’ willingness to serve—that they were always there when they needed them.

Pat Wille, whose nephew, Austin Wille, is an officer, worried at the toll working short staffed was having on the department. Without quick action, she feared it would worsen with Amsden’s impending departure.

“Once we lose our chief of police, we are basically going down to one certified officer. You’re going to put a lot of stress on one officer if other ones don’t accept the position, and then at least one of them is going to have to go to the academy. That’s four months. So, then again, that one person is covering another four months. We’re talking six to eight months before we’re back to two to maybe three officers. That’s a lot,” she said. “Anybody that’s done that job, it’s not easy, so I’m very grateful. I hope that everybody takes a good, hard look inside themselves and understands that words do hurt, and it’s not about a power trip. It’s about sitting down and having a real conversation and taking notes about that conversation, because then we’re not questioning who said what and when and where.”

Chief Jo Amsden’s daughter, Taylor Amsden, also referenced the toll of the profession.

“My mom has spent a lot of time up here, protecting the people here, serving the community here...because she was the only officer at one point. People are making false claims about her and creating false narratives of her and the officers who have left. My mom makes a good schedule with what she has with the officers that she has on her roster,” she stated.

Taylor Amsden and others in attendance said it wasn’t just wages, but a believed lack of respect and even micro-management, that’s pushed officers to leave. 

“Nick’s intention was to never take advantage of the process and then move on up or move on out. We have a home here, and we plan to be here long term,” said Billie Matelski, the wife of former officer Nick Matelski.

Jo Amsden did not comment on specifics at the meeting. When encouraged by the audience to reconsider her resignation, she said the bridge was already burned. “I’m not here for the money,” she said. “Have I ever asked for a raise?”

“I had a team and they didn’t stay,” she later added.

Mayor Langhus told attendees multiple times there has been no ill intent on city officials’ parts.

“I didn’t know any of the drama, nor do I care about the drama, because I came on with fresh eyes. I’ve always liked Jo, I’ve always liked the police department, and I see that in the council. There’s nobody here that means anything malicious against the police department,” he said. “I think the issue is, when we don’t set high enough wages, that’s what looks like we don’t care. We absolutely respect Jo.”

“We also can’t police what we think we’ve heard,” Langhus added. “We can ask for better behavior moving forward, but we cannot police anything we have hard evidence of.”

Council member John Elledge sought a path forward, proposing Monona gets back on the track of having the mayor, and not city staff, oversee the police. He, and other council members, supported the raise in wages, and Elledge also proposed elevating officer Wille’s title to assistant chief.

“I understand how important police officers are, so I want to make a change to the current police department pay rate. My motion is we increase the wages to this point and get it posted and start getting some more officers in,” he said. 

Elledge was hopeful Wille could move into Amsden’s role, carrying on what she’s built at the Monona Police Department over 10 years. He encouraged the audience to stand and applaud the chief.

“Jo has done a fantastic job on building a great foundation and a tremendous team. I want to see that type of culture get built here, not with officers that are bouncing. ‘I’m here. I love my community. I have a livable wage, and I’m not totally stressed out by the workload.’ That’s what perfection looks like. How are we going to get there?” he wondered. “I don’t know, but I know we’re not there right now.”