Lake Geneva City Council Faces Developer Threats, Trolley Costs, and Closed-Session Decisions

Tree requirements spark legal threats, bulk pickup stalls, and a BID trolley proposal raises questions about cost, storage, and accountability.

In Lake Geneva, nothing says “good government” like a developer threatening to sue because somebody asked him to plant trees. Not money trees, mind you. Not magic trees that spit out TIF dollars and tourism brochures. Just ordinary, dirt-and-water trees—the kind that grow when you stop treating the public realm like a disposable napkin and start acting like human beings actually live in the places you’re bulldozing.

But we’re beyond that now. We’re in the realm of pure corporate feudalism, where asking a developer to plant a few extra maples is treated like armed robbery.

Act I: The Symphony Bay Tree Jihad

The developers of Symphony Bay Development—Bloomfield Holdings, LLC and Fairwyn SB, Inc., two corporate entities hiding behind the kind of antiseptic names that scream “we have lawyers on retainer”—threatened litigation against the City of Lake Geneva because the City Council had the unmitigated gall to overrule Mayor Todd Krause’s developer-friendly Plan Commission and require the developer to put in more trees than he wanted.

More trees! The bastards wanted fewer trees, and when the council said no, they went for the legal throat.

This was an overwhelming request of some residents of Symphony Bay who contacted their Alderpersons, meaning actual human beings who live there asked for basic landscaping. The city’s planning consultant, Jackie Mich, AICP Vandewalle & Associate, backed them up with perfectly reasonable recommendations:

“Staff recommend the following additional conditions of approval be attached:

On the Landscaping Plan, large, deciduous and evergreen shrubs should be added along North Road to provide screening for the homes and backyards and to buffer the traffic on North Road.
On the Landscaping Plan, trees should be placed behind the homes along North Road (in addition to between the homes) to provide better rear yard screening from North Road.
On the Landscaping Plan, all trees should be placed fully on the lot (i.e., not on the lot line), and evergreen trees should be shifted several feet back from the lot line to avoid right-of-way encroachment.”

Read that again. Shrubs. Trees. Screening from traffic. A few feet back from the lot line. The kind of mild, sensible requirements that most towns handle without anyone reaching for the courtroom revolver. But here, the mere suggestion of screening North Road’s traffic grind was treated like a hostile takeover of the Sudetenland.

It is not known what the basis such a law suit was contemplated since this was all done when the council went into closed session on January 26, 2026 after the Plan Commission meeting on January 6, 2026, but at that meeting developers Rick Zirk and Brian Pollard kept bleating about compliance with their sacred April agreement.

And that’s when the “letter of the law” made its entrance, wearing its usual greasy tuxedo. Brian Pollard planted his flag in the sacred bog of technical compliance:

“I believe we met the letter of the law. I believe we’ve met what was asked for us to do. So, and in our developer’s agreement, you know, we ask that we be comparable and similar to what we did in phases one through 7. I think we’ve been consistent with that.”

The letter of the law. Beautiful. When a developer starts talking about the “letter of the law,” you know someone’s about to get screwed.

“This was about phase 8 development of Symphony Bay.”

Then came the Lake Geneva specialty: decision-making by submarine. Quiet as a pickpocket. Smooth as a back-alley handshake.

So very quietly on January 26, 2026 the city council met in closed session and when they returned to open session ‘Motion by Hoiland to amend a previous action regarding Bloomfield Holdings, LLC and Fairwyn SB, Inc., second by Smith. Voice vote, 6-approved, 2- opposed (Fesenmaier & Ames), motion carried’ according to the minutes.

The fix was in. The developers had won Round One in the dark room where democracy goes to die.

At the next meeting on Febuary 9, 2026 very quietly the council voted 6 to 1 with Aimes abstaining and Fesenmier absent voted to ”amend the previous action taken by the Common Council on January 12, 2026 approving the precise implementation plan for Symphony Bay Subdivision Phase 8 at the Southwest corner of Townline Road and North Road, Lake Geneva Wisconsin, Tax Key No. ZYUP500003 and amend the approval by adopting the recommendations made by the Plan Commission on January 6, 2026.'”

Another quiet shuffle. Another whisper-vote. Another chunk of public interest fed into the woodchipper.

No one wanted to talk about it. Not the city council members and definitely not the developers.

Even the typo screams dysfunction.

Act II: The Garbage Apocalypse

From trees to trash—the natural progression of most municipal meetings once the oxygen runs out.

The city’s dustmen John’s Disposal was requesting the once-a-month bulk pick be on call. Alderperson Hoiland pointed out that only three areas in Walworth County do John’s still drive down every street once a month. He made the eminently sensible suggestion that just as delivery services like UPS and Fed Ex use algorithm to plot the most efficient delivery route so could John’s saving fuel and time. As a sweetener they were going to pick up electronic equipment.

A straightforward efficiency move. The kind of thing that should take five minutes and one functioning adult brain.

Instead, the council did what it does best when leadership abandoned ship: it drifted like a leaky rowboat in Lake Geneva’s polluted waters.

Now in the end the council were frozen by the kind of indecision that corrodes the will—all because their fearless leader Council President Mary Jo Fesenmaier skipped town to holiday in Japan for the next three weeks and left them to stew in their own confusion.

Japan! The woman who’s supposed to lead this circus was eating sushi in Tokyo while her underlings tried to figure out garbage collection!

The council and mayor yammered on like a pack of drunken parrots, flapping their jaws in a cyclone of hot air, never once landing on a point before taking flight again into the next round of noise and nonsense on this issue for 20 minutes.

Twenty minutes of pure bureaucratic jazz—a symphony of indecision that would make Kafka weep with recognition.

Mayor Todd Krause finally surrendered to entropy: “Okay, does anybody want to make a motion on this? All right, I’m not seeing any motion. All right, lack of a motion that means will stay status quo, which is once a month pickup.”

No motion. No decision. No spine. Status quo survives another night because nobody had the balls to actually vote.

Act III: The Trolley Madness—A $344,664.54 Fever Dream

Then came the trolley saga, which reads like a fever dream sponsored by spreadsheets and fueled by municipal incompetence.

Just like purchasing a used boat or used Mercedes Benz the initial purchase price is a small cost of operating and maintaining the toy.

Here the Downtown Business Improvement District (BID) presented a pro forma like a sacred scroll spinning a carnival of numbers based on the idea that everything looks flashy and entertaining on the surface, like a rigged game—a way of packaging numbers to distract from their lack of substance and based on assumptions of where the money is coming from.

And the numbers, once you stop admiring the shiny decimals, bite like a rabid wolverine.

The initial cost of $100K goes to $344,664.54 real fast because the city now must build a place to store them. Add to that the annual expense of $94,664.54 not including insurance.

Note the precision—$344,664.54. Down to the penny. That’s how you know they’re serious about the grift.

The taxpayers are on the hook for this trolley numerical delusion. The BID who benefits from this canary is generously (sic) committing to contribute 50% of the advertising revenue they receive after getting $15K from the tourism commission for marketing who haven’t met for the last two months because they are all overseas on Holiday. Except for Alderperson Frame.

Overseas! On holiday! The Tourism Commission, the very body supposedly backing this madness—hasn’t met in two months because every single member is living it up abroad!

Of course, Alex the BID director couldn’t be there. The travel bug has apparently infected half the civic apparatus like a plague of bureaucratic wanderlust.

Mary Daley from Delavan and the director of sales for the Fairfield Inn in Lake Geneva spoke on behalf of BID because Alex couldn’t be here because she was going on a trip.

Daley delivered this perfect piece of corporate doublespeak: “From the BID standpoint, we are prepared to manage marketing, sponsorship development, and activation, ensuring the trolley is visible, used, and supported by the business that it directly benefits from. And yes, the BID full-heartedly agrees that this program does not negate the need for a parking structure.”

A trolley plan that doesn’t negate the need for a parking structure is like a bandage that doesn’t negate the need for surgery. But yes, let’s keep smiling for the brochure while the patient bleeds out.

Oh yes, the $20M parking structure for a downtown that only fills up 6 days of parking a year.

Six days! They want twenty million dollars for infrastructure that’s only needed six days annually!

Next up was the recalled ex-mayor—the political zombie lumbering back to the microphone to haunt the living.

The only ex-mayor Speedo Condos the people sent packing and recalled.

Speedo Condos! I swear to Christ that’s what the everyone calls him—a recalled ex-mayor with a nickname that sounds like a bad Eurotrash superhero.

This character proclaimed the BID “voted unanimously to bring this to you bring this issue to you and ask for your support in the purchase of these trolleys. Lake Geneva has needed a parking structure probably for 50, 60 years.”

Except—and this is beautiful the residents of Lake Geneva voted down a $12M parking structure 20 years ago.

The people already said no! Two decades ago, they rejected a fifteen-million-dollar version, and now these bastards want twenty million!

Now dear reader, Good old Boy Speedo than had the audacity to say they could offer remote parking areas with a trolley. You may recall it was Speedo how only last month recommended the city sell it’s only remote parking area to ex-mayor Tom Hartz. And Alex from the BID who also was in favor of thistle.

You cannot make this up. The same clown advocating for remote parking just recommended selling the city’s only remote parking area last month! The hypocrisy is so pure it’s almost admirable. Now he wants a Trolley to go to a remote parking lot!

Then a resident—one actual taxpaying citizen—said the quiet part out loud:

Lake Geneva resident Kelly Happ: “I think the tourists who are coming to our town need to ante up for this also thank you.”

One voice. One sane person pointing out the obvious.

The people who live in Lake Geneva voices which are rottenly ignored at city hall. The downtown businesses constantly want more taxpayer handouts but 80% of the residents don’t shop downtown but at the shopping centers off Edwards Blvd. Why do you think Tom Hartz wants to move out of downtown.

Rottenly ignored. That’s the whole story of American municipal democracy right there.

Now according to Mayor Krause “the BID is going to go ahead and purchase these trolleys.’ But the BID doesn’t have a place to store them.”

Beautiful! They’re buying trolleys with nowhere to put them!

The City Administrator talked about some T grants, but the city is still exploring options so as usual nothing is a sure thing yes or maybe ever.

Maybe. Possibly. We’ll see. The official language of governmental incompetence and fiscal delusion.

The Voice of Reason Gets Steamrolled

Then Linda Frame—sounding like the only adult in the room with a calculator and a pulse—started asking dangerous questions:

Alderperson Linda Frame “‘Originally, I’m a little confused because suddenly the city was involved in this before they were supposed to be. But originally the BID was going to ask the city if they would purchase these out of capital funds…. they would be paying back the city.'”

Then the killer question: “‘who’s actually purchasing these things?'”

“who’s actually purchasing these things?”

Linda Frame

“Who’s actually purchasing these things? And if you are by the city, what is your plan? Are you going to put this on the residents’ taxes? Because if you are, that’s not going to fly really well at all.'”

She twisted the knife on the Tourism Commission vacuum: She went on to point out concerning Tourism Commission” Two meetings have been canceled. So, there’s been no discussion with them. And you’ve mentioned tourism a couple times. And so, I’m not sure who you’re talking to. The other thing is now the city, I’m hearing, is doing all the takeover of the purchase.'”

The last two meetings of the Tourism Commission have been cancelled because you guested it, they are all on vacation except Alderperson Frame.

Everyone’s on vacation! The entire Tourism Commission, living it up overseas while committing the city to a quarter-million-dollar disaster!

Alderman Smith asked the obvious due-diligence question, which in Lake Geneva apparently counts as radical behavior:

Alderman Smith wanted to know if the city has from a “due diligence standpoint whether we’ve talked to any other municipalities or any even locals as far as what their challenges have been related to running a trolley, buying a trolley, maintaining it?'”

The City Administrator said that Alex from the BID who is on vacation “did but that is all he knows.”

Alex researched it. Alex, who’s on vacation and unreachable. Perfect.

But Smith had actually done his homework, and what he found was a horror show:

Alderman Smith has done some due diligence, and this is what he found. “Because I did speak with somebody that’s actually running trolleys right now and just jotted down some of his challenges and comments that he made to me. So, the trolleys that we’re proposing to get are the 32 that require CDL?'” A Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) would be needed to drive the trolleys.

“‘So, one of his challenges is he’s just being able to find operators and keeping them. From a maintenance perspective, the number of service days that he’s had as trolleys out of service has been quite voluminous. Certainly, expressed staying away from the diesel side of the trolley versus the gas for maintenance purposes.'”

Every word was a warning sign. Every sentence screamed “bad investment.”

“‘Yep. Well, and they just break down. He also indicated that, like you said, Dave, that you guys are going to have a cleaning maintenance program that’s going to go on. And one of the things he expressed was if you’re not cleaning those trolleys on a regular basis, especially in the winter with the salt and brine, the corrosive activity that goes on underneath, if we aren’t washing them out in the bottom, He expressed something about the AC units within the trolleys are not all that optimal, so in the summertime it could be a little problematic, keeping people cool while they’re sitting on it. And then he indicated that the only place, very few garages are maintaining these trolleys that have that expertise in it. He’s having to take his to Milwaukee.'”

Milwaukee! They’d have to haul these pieces of shit to Milwaukee for repairs!

But don’t worry, according to Mayor Todd and Tommy Earl the city has a mechanic that can work on them.

So, the trolleys need CDL drivers you can’t find, maintenance you can’t easily get, cleaning you must constantly do, repairs requiring a hundred-mile round trip, and AC that might not prevent tourists from baking like bratwurst on vinyl seats in the Wisconsin summer.

But wait—it gets better.

Mayor Krause when he presented the possible purchase of these trolleys was delighted along with public works director Tom Earl that the diesel trolley was pre–Diesel Exhaust Fluid or DEF.

They were delighted about pre-emissions diesel! Thrilled to have avoided modern pollution controls!

DEF is a urea-based solution that gets injected into the exhaust stream to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions. It’s mandatory for most modern diesel engines. Before DEF systems were mandated, diesel engines pumped out a lot more nitrogen oxides and particulate matter—basically, smog-forming and health-damaging pollutants. They were fuel-efficient, sure, but at a serious cost to air quality. In cities, that meant more smog, respiratory issues, and overall environmental damage.

In plain English: more NOx, more particulate matter, more smoggy nostalgia for the bad old days when air quality was optional.

And the plan? Now dear reader the BID or should I say city plans on using this diesel trolley not only downtown but during the highway 50 reconstruction and route them through residential neighborhoods in the summer. Another well researched plan by the Todd Krause administration.

Beautiful! Route pre-emissions diesel buses through residential neighborhoods in summer when people have their windows open! What could possibly go wrong?

The Last Stand of Reason

Yeager tried to bolt some structure onto the runaway wagon:

Alderperson Yeager them made a motion “continuing to pursue the purchase of the trolleys. But what I would like to add into that is a definite date for bringing an operational plan back to the council for review, and then a definite date to evaluate their use by the end of the 50 construction.'”

Hoiland came in with the full list of missing organs, calling the proposal “well-intentioned” and “prematurely structured”, which is polite talk for this thing is a cardboard airplane heading for a cliff.

Alderman Joel Hoiland also came prepared; “Right Cindy actually covered the topic I was gonna talk about. Again, I wanted to state from the top of it, the proposal is well-intentioned… but prematurely structured.'”

Then he laid out seven requirements—every one of them reasonable, every one of them ignored:

“1. ‘It makes a compelling case for why mobility will be needed during Highway 50 construction, but it doesn’t yet justify purchasing and owning two trolleys. And then I thought there were a number of things that were conditioned, and as Alderman Yeager pointed out, number one, a finalized operating plan. That would include routes, hours, staffing, contingencies, and also ADA accessibility. I know that in the packet, there’s a reference to the fact that one or maybe both have ADA ramps, but I think we need to clarify just the ADA capabilities that these trolleys have.

Is written funding commitments from the BID. I think we need to have something in writing as to what they will provide. They’re buying them and then the city. Anyway, written funding commitments from BID.
A grant status memo. What that means is applied, awarded, and speculative so that we have some kind of a understanding about these various grants and what the requirements are.
A two-to-five-year cost projection. That’s a two-to-five-year cost projection. So, if we’re going to own them for two years, three years, four years, you know, we have a sense of what that cost is going to be on an annualized basis.
Defined key performance indicators and a stop-loss trigger. Number six is a post-construction exit or disposition plan. And number seven is a comparison memo of lease versus contract versus purchase, because I think there are other alternatives to purchasing trolleys. Lease, contract with a third-party company, or purchase.
And it’d be interesting to find out the cost variables between those three and the potential availability, but none of these are currently in the packet, including the fact that these are not part of the 2026 operating budget, so just to keep that in mind. So, bottom line is, I support solving the mobility problem.
I’m not prepared to approve any capital purchases, and I don’t think we are as well'”

Every word was sensible. Every requirement was basic due diligence. Every point should have stopped this train wreck cold.

And then, because gravity is optional in municipal theater, Yeager plowed ahead anyway:

Alderperson Yeager makes a motion “to continue the purchase process of the two trolleys and have put together an operational plan by a certain date for this council to review and an evaluation by the end of the Highway 50 reconstruction.'”

Mayor Krause offered the soothing lullaby that always precedes taxpayer pain—the big lie so brazen it deserves to be carved in stone:

Mayor Todd Krause “Yeah, and I will reiterate, Dave brought it up at last Wednesday’s (BID) meeting that the city is at no level at all on the hook for these trolleys. The fact that they’re purchasing them at this point, is all on them. So, until we figure out our exact plan. So, I just want to be very clear about that.'”

“At no level at all on the hook.”

Mayor Todd Krause

Except for the $150,000 storage facility. And the insurance. And the drivers. And the maintenance. And the fuel. And the cleaning. And the $39,664.54 annual contribution after all the imaginary grant money fails to materialize.

But sure “at no level at all.”

The vote: “All present voted in favor: Council Vice President Cindy Yager, Alderpersons: Sherri Ames, Linda Frame, Joel Hoiland, JaNelle Powers, Brian Smith and Cathy Stoodley.”

Every single one. Even Frame and Hoiland, who’d just laid out devastating arguments against it. Unanimous.

The Savage Truth

So that’s where we are: developers threatening lawsuits over landscaping, councils whisper-voting in closed sessions, trash pickup stuck in paralysis because leadership fled to Japan, and trolley fantasies rolling forward on diesel fumes and pro forma delusions.

The numbers go to the penny. The plans are vapor. The Tourism Commission is on vacation. The BID director is traveling. And the public is told, again, to relax and trust the process.

Lake Geneva runs on two fuels: tourism optimism and municipal amnesia. The rest is exhaust—literally, in the case of these pre-DEF diesel trolleys that’ll be belching pollutants through residential neighborhoods come summer.

The American Dream didn’t die in Lake Geneva. It just bought two trolleys with your money, promised they wouldn’t cost you anything, and left town on vacation.

—HST, somewhere in the wreckage of the republic