Kewaskum, WI – During the August 17, 2026, meeting of the Kewaskum Village Board, resident Eric Anderson addressed trustees during the public speaking segment of the meeting. Many in the audience said Anderson talked about what a lot of them were questioning which included the 1-year salary payout to Adam Gitter who resigned yet received $123,600 and healthcare benefits.
Eric Anderson said, “When the last administrator gave his resignation. Rumor around town is that he got a severance package for quitting his job and moving on.
If that’s true, some of the scuttlebutt is that it was written into his contract. My question to the village is: Was it written into his contract that if he resigns, he gets a severance package? And the other question is, was it a current contract, or was it a newly rewritten contract recently that had that severance package written into it?
And did the last village president have anything to do with helping rewrite that contract if it was a newer contract that had the severance package in it?
Never in my 50 years of working in a full-time job have I seen somebody get a severance package for quitting. Everybody’s saying that’s the way they do it these days. If you leave a job, we’re going to pay you for leaving. That this is commonplace now. I find that hard to believe. I also find it hard to believe that we would have given a severance package if we did.
You know, Adam got it. I don’t blame him for taking it. But the other thing is, we just had charges dropped against two officers who spent the whole summer paying legal fees to fight their case. The village board turned off paying their legal fees, but yet we’re paying somebody who quit the job to get a severance package. Part of that just doesn’t seem right to me.
Whether it’s accusations or assumptions about the severance package, we will never know. But in a sense of being transparent, you should let us know exactly what transpired with the severance package.
And will there be a severance package for the next new administrator who takes the job written into their contract if they happen to quit?
Because in between the severance package, the lawyers’ fees we paid to the police and fire commission for the litigation that went on earlier this year, and the third party hiring a new administrator, those are all costs that we as taxpayers have to absorb and pay for.
Where is all that money coming from? We could definitely be using that money in the parks. We could be using it on the river, or we could be using it for the area downtown to make that look better than what it looks right now.
It’s just a few questions out there. Let’s quit spending money that we don’t necessarily have to be spending all the time. Thank you.”
Several open records requests have been placed to try and answer the public’s questions on how a person who resigns can receive a 1 year, $123,600 payout.
Below is the 5-page separation agreement. A request has been made for a timestamp on when this paperwork was received and the time it was signed, since Village president Michael Martin quit the board July 20, 2026 and his position officially ending at midnight July 21, 2026.
Click the arrow in the lower left corner to advance the page.
Below is a copy of the 7-page admin contract.
Via an email dated August 6, 2026 – 7:48 a.m. Attached is a copy of the signed Administrator contract.
The payout is as follows according to Kewaskum assistant admin/clerk Tammy Butz:
- Severance Payment: $123,600
- Accrued Leave Benefits: PTO benefits accrued through July 17, 2026
- Health Insurance: Employee may continue to be covered by Village’s group health and dental insurance benefits consistent with Employee’s COBRA continuation rights, which shall cease when Employee becomes eligible for coverage under another group health and dental insurance plan. The Village will reimburse employee for the employer’s portion of the total Cobra premium, if any, for the months of August 2026 through April 2027 (nine months)
Respectively,
Tammy Butz
Assistant Administrator/Clerk | Village of Kewaskum
Click the arrow in lower-left corner to advance the page.
On a side note:
- Below is the 2024 Village of Kewaskum wage study
- Gitter was hired as interim administrator in Rhinelander on August 3, 2026. Click HERE for the article.
- Rhinelander’s administrator announced his resignation July 14, 2026. Click HERE for the article.
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Below is a list of the Village Trustees and their contact information
Jim Hovland – Village President
Phone: 262-626-1996
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Jim Wright – Trustee
Phone: 262-909-0117
Richard Knoebel – Trustee rknoebel@kewaskumwi.gov
Phone: 920-980-1392
Justin Weninger – Trustee
Phone: 262-689-8583
Mary Schlitt – Trustee
Phone: 262-305-8312
Wendy May Muckerheide
262-626-6772
Below is the article and video from the July 20, 2026 Kewaskum Village Board meeting.
July 20, 2026 – Village of Kewaskum, WI – The Kewaskum Village Board came out of a more-than one hour closed session to vote on accepting the resignation of Village administrator Adam Gitter. No details were given on why Gitter stepped down, and he refused comment after the meeting. After the board voted to accept the resignation, Village president Michael ‘Fuzz’ Martin read a lengthy statement announcing he quit the board.
Details on the agenda (below) show a closed session with Gitter present. The second half of the closed session did not include Gitter present, however he was called into the closed door session about 15 minutes after the second part started. The board emerged into open session after 9 p.m.
Gitter did not join the board on the dais, instead he sat in the audience section.
Pursuant to Section 19.85(1)(f) Wis. Stats. considering financial, medical, social or personal histories or disciplinary data of specific persons, preliminary consideration of specific personnel problems or the investigation of charges against specific persons except where par. (b) applies which, if discussed in public, would be likely to have a substantial adverse effect upon the reputation of any person referred to in such histories or data, or involved in such problems or investigations. Specifically, to be discussed is personnel. Present in Closed Session will be Village Board, Village Administrator and Assistant Administrator/Clerk.
b. Pursuant to Section 19.85(1)(c) Wis. Stats. considering employment, promotion, compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility and Section 19.85(1)(e) deliberating or negotiating the purchasing of public properties, the investing of public funds, or conducting other specified public business, whenever competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed session. Specifically, to be discussed is Village Administrator’s contract. Present in Closed Session will be Village Board and Assistant Administrator/Clerk
Returning to open session Village president Michael ‘Fuzz’ Martin called the meeting to order and announced the resignation of Gitter. A unanimous vote was registered.
Martin then announced he was stepping down as Village president. He read a prepared statement which included his accomplishments in the Village, a note of thanks to staff and fellow board members, and then he mentioned how the recent series of events regarding initiating charges against the Police Chief and Lieutenant on hiring officer Jeremy Haske took a toll on his family. “I’m resigning because my family deserves peace,” said Martin.
Below is Martin’s full statement.
“Before we adjourn, I have a letter that I’d like to read to Tammy, members of the Village Board, and residents of Kewaskum.
I am writing to formally announce my resignation as Village President of the Village of Kewaskum, effective midnight on Tuesday, July 21, 2026.
Serving this community has been one of the greatest privileges of my life. I did not come to this decision easily, but I leave with my heart full of gratitude for the people who made it worthwhile.
I joined the Village Board as a trustee in April 2022 because I believed that Kewaskum deserved leadership that was willing to do hard things. I ran for Village President in 2023 on that same belief. I ran again unopposed in 2025 because the residents of this community trusted me to keep doing what was right, and I have tried every single day to honor that trust.
Together, we have accomplished things that have been discussed, delayed, or deferred for many years. We built the new Village Hall and Police Department, reversing years of inaction by previous boards and giving our staff and officers a facility worthy of their service. It was a promise that I made to the Police Department when I ran, and I fulfilled that promise.
We found a new permanent home for the library and brought in leadership that has given it new life. We legalized UTVs and ATVs on village streets and opened our parks and trails to dogs. Both are promises that I made and kept.
We negotiated an ambulance transport agreement with the City of West Bend that solved the critical volunteer EMT shortage and improved the level of paramedic service available to our residents.
We launched the countywide EMS shared services initiative that will strengthen emergency response across all Washington County communities for generations to come.
We brought development in Kewaskum back to life. TID No. 4 established Drexel’s Blue Door District, which delivered more than 376,000 square feet of new jobs, opportunities, and future tax revenue to the community.
TID No. 5 replaced a vacant, deteriorating building across from our high school with the Regal Place condominiums.
TID No. 6, while still currently in progress, represents the largest development in Washington County history with an estimated $260 million investment projected to increase our village’s tax base by 20 percent.
We revived the failed TIDs No. 2 and 3 with a signed developer agreement that will bring new businesses and housing to the south end of town.
Further, we created a pay-as-you-go policy on all TIDs to protect Kewaskum taxpayers from the upfront risks that previous boards put us under.
As the now past president of the Wisconsin 9/11 Memorial and Education Center Board of Directors, I’m proud that our team built a brand that helped bring that memorial to life. The memorial now welcomes thousands of visitors to Kewaskum each year with official state highway signage, and our new indoor museum that is in development will be transformative for our downtown and for our community.
These accomplishments belong to Kewaskum. They belong to the village staff, who showed up every day with professionalism and grace under circumstances that were often unfair to them. Day in and day out, they showed us all what integrity and public service looks like.
These accomplishments also belong to the residents of this community who trusted us to lead.
I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge that the past several months have been among the most difficult in my professional life and, more importantly, my family’s life. I raised serious concerns about the integrity of our Police Department’s hiring practices. I followed the proper legal process. An independent investigation validated those concerns.
And yet, rather than accountability, what followed was a coordinated effort to intimidate, discredit, and silence not just me, but the staff and administrator who served this village with distinction.
I am disappointed that the systems designed to ensure accountability chose instead to protect the status quo. I am disappointed that some who once sat and currently sit at this table chose allegiance to one man over their obligation to this community. And I am deeply troubled that the message sent to the residents of Kewaskum is that the standards of integrity we should demand from those entrusted with public safety are negotiable.
I refuse to accept that, and I refuse to allow this community’s future to be defined by that message.
I am resigning because my family deserves peace. My wife, Shanna, has stood beside me through all of this. She has been supportive, steady, and proud in ways that I will never fully be able to repay. My daughters deserve to simply grow up in their community. They did not sign up for this. They deserve better, and I am choosing them.
I am also resigning because I believe this community deserves to chart its own course. Either way, whatever happens next to Kewaskum belongs to Kewaskum.
So to the village staff, Adam, Tammy, Amanda, Tocarra, Dennis, Ben, Jim, Stephanie, and all those you lead, thank you. You showed up every day. You served with dignity. You signed your names when it would have been easier not to, and I will never forget that.
To the Kewaskum Fire Department, the chief, the assistant chief, retired Chief Groeschel, thank you for your trust, for your partnership, and for showing up when it mattered most. Earning your respect has been one of my proudest accomplishments.
To those on the board who have shown courage through all this, thank you. Your integrity matters, and it will continue to matter in my absence. Don’t let those without character change yours.
To the many residents who reached out privately, who sent messages of support, who stopped me in parking lots and at different events to say that they saw what was happening here and they were grateful, I say thank you. You kept me going on days when it was hard.
My hope for Kewaskum is that the leaders this community chooses now and into the future will lead with integrity and have the fortitude to do what is right, even when it is hard. This community deserves nothing less. Do not accept less.
It has been the honor of my life to serve you with gratitude and love for this community.
Michael P. Martin.
The board appointed assistant administrator/clerk Tammy Butz as the interim administrator.
