| By Big Radio News Staff |
Janesville City Manager Kevin Lahner is headed for court as a key witness in a criminal election fraud trial out of Waukesha, where he used to work.
Court records show a two-day trial rolls next week over a former Waukesha City Council member accused of felony election fraud in 2021.
In his former job as Waukesha’s city manager, Lahner handed authorities evidence he’d gotten from a local mail carrier that former Waukesha alderwoman Kathleen Cummings repeatedly lied about her address as she ran for re-election in 2020.
Lahner says Waukesha’s city hall tried for weeks to spur honesty, pointing out in memos and during city council workshops that it’s a felony fraud to file a false address of residence as a candidate in a mayor-alderman race, and it’s illegal to reside outside of the aldermanic district in which an alderperson is elected to serve.
Janesville has an at-large city council structure with seven city council members — a setup that only requires council members live within city limits.
Waukesha, on the other had, has a mayor-alderman setup that divides the city into legally binding, geographic aldermanic wards represented by an elected alderperson. Under criminal law governing that government structure, alderpersons must live in the ward they represent.
Court records show Cummings’ attorney has tried unsuccessfully to have the fraud case tossed, arguing it was an invasion of privacy for a mail carrier to blow the whistle on Cummings. The lawyer also alleges Lahner at the time was a political enemy of Cummings.
Lahner says he and Cummings had a working relationship he calls “tense” and “complex,” noting it was not a secret locally that Cummings had actively tried to thwart many policies and plans Lahner had put forward.
At one point, Lahner says, Cummings had been a ringleader in attempts by some on the Waukesha council to discipline and potentially fire Lahner.
This was during a tumultuous period in Waukesha when Lahner says the city also was dealing with a council member who’d been arrested repeatedly for other, unrelated personal issues.
Lahner says at the time, he felt duty bound as a public official — and as the direct supervisor of the Waukesha City Clerk, who approves city council election ballots — to report evidence of Cummings’ alleged election fraud.
Cummings also was a Waukesha County Board member at the time, although she apparently resigned her public posts just prior to being charged with political fraud in 2021.
The case is set for trial Monday and Tuesday in Walworth County Court, where it had been moved to avoid potential conflicts in Waukesha County.
Lahner has been Janesville’s city manager since spring of 2023.
