Calls for Coulee Region municipal judge to resign, recall also suggested

Onalaska Mayor Joe Chilsen has reportedly added his voice to the calls for Coulee Region Joint Municipal Court judge John Brinckman to step down.

Brinckman’s been increasingly under fire for how he’s managed the court and it’s led to both his resignation and even a recall election for the part-time judge.

A recent audit cited significant organizational issues and mountains of unprocessed citations. Another report pointed to maybe 30 boxes of unprocessed tickets from the court in a basement, though the city administrator suggests that’s an inflated number.

One Onalaska city council member called for Brinckman’s resignation in January. Another, Ron Gjertsen, did the same last week.

“I’m very, very uncomfortable in many different ways with what’s going on over there having that individual run a chunk of our city,” Gjertsen said. “Voters can be misinformed.”

Gjertsen also suggested a recall for Brinckman or having the city simply pull out of the joint municipal court agreement.

“We’re not going to get a better performance out of this judge,” Gjertsen said. “It’s not going to happen.”

Onalaska is, by far, the biggest contributor to the operation of the court, which also involves seven other local municipalities (Bangor, Holmen, Rockland, West Salem, Campbell, Holland and Shelby).