By Kim McDarison
Among items included Tuesday on the City of Whitewater Common Council agenda was an executive session, after which, as listed on the open-session agenda, the council announced it would reconvene in open session.
The agenda listed a closed-session discussion regarding employment terms for the city’s Police Chief Aaron Raap.
At the end of the regular and open-session portion of Tuesday’s meeting, City Manager Cameron Clapper announced that plans to reconvene from the scheduled closed session had been “pulled” from the agenda.
Clapper noted that the agenda item relating to the city’s police chief “just needs to be attended by myself, city attorney, city clerk and the council.”
Council President Lisa Dawsey-Smith next cleared the chamber and adjourned the open session meeting to reconvene in closed session.
According to the agenda, council planned to discuss Tuesday in closed session the consideration of “employment, promotion, compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility.”
The agenda continued: “Items to be discussed: 1) consideration of the terms of a Release and Employment Disposition Agreement between the City of Whitewater and the City of Whitewater Police Chief.”
After a regularly scheduled Common Council meeting held March 1, a closed session was held to give council members an “update on investigation of Police Chief.”
The city announced through a press release in December that Whitewater Police Chief Aaron Raap had been placed on paid administrative leave.
According to the release, “An internal investigation will be conducted by an outside agency based on an incident that occurred outside of the city of Whitewater. The leave is not considered punitive, rather part of the Whitewater Police Department policy.”
The operations of the department, the release announced, would be handled by Deputy Chief Dan Meyer, who would serve as acting police chief “until further notice.”
Citing an “ongoing investigation,” the release noted that “no additional information will be released at this time.”
In November of last year, Raap was arrested in his Waukesha County home and charged with “simple battery,” according to a criminal complaint filed by the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department.
In early December, Waukesha District Attorney Susan Opper told Fort Atkinson Online, that she had “declined prosecution” of any charges as outlined within the criminal complaint filed by the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department relating to the November incident, further noting that she did not find sufficient evidence that there was an intention to inflict bodily harm.
On Dec. 16, 2021, in an updated press release, city officials, noting that they were responding to “a number of media inquiries about the city’s ongoing investigation,” wrote: “The procedure is part of a broader effort to maintain the integrity of the organization as a whole, not a criminal investigation. As a result, the internal investigation runs independent from any decisions made by other agencies including Waukesha County’s District Attorney’s Office and will be completed as soon as possible.”
An earlier story, which includes the criminal complaint regarding the events leading to the police chief’s arrest in November, is here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/waukesha-county-sheriff-department-records-pertaining-to-arrest-of-whitewater-police-chief-released/.
Whitewater Police Chief Aaron Raap
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