A lawsuit claiming that the plaintiff was denied ADA-compliant access to a meeting discussing permitting for a new golf course at Kohler-Andrae State Park will prompt action at tonight’s Common Council meeting.
At issue is the course of a November 12th (2024) Plan Commission meeting during which Dr. Belle Rose Ragins, a disabled resident who has been actively opposing plans for a new Kohler-owned golf course in Black River, was not given proper accommodations to speak at the meeting. The Commissioners were to consider extending a Conditional Use Permit to construct the course based upon Kohler’s original plans…plans that, according to Ragins’ suit, could not be considered valid due in part to the facts that they were no longer accurate given subsequent physical shoreline changes at the site, and ignored archeological discoveries, among others issues.
In her lawsuit, Ragins alleges that, per an investigation by the Wisconsin Law Journal, Kohler had shared revised golf course plans with Mayor Ryan Sorenson months before the planned meeting, but that Sorenson knowingly withheld that information from the Commission. Kohler, she claims, was thereby allowed to present false statements to the Commission, representing that the original, not the revised plans, were being submitted for extension, essentially keeping the Commissioners in the dark on revisions. And by encountering conflicting instructions on remotely accessing the meeting – and eventually being denied a chance to speak by the Mayor directly during the meeting – her rights through the Americans with Disabilities Act were denied.
Ragins told WHBL news that: “This lawsuit was completely preventable. City leaders ignored their legal responsibilities, putting corporate influence over accountability, transparency and Sheboygan taxpayers. These elected officials must remember they serve the people—not the Kohler company.”
Tonight the Council is expected to approve the hiring of Jill Pedigo Hall of von Briesen & Roper, s.c. as outside legal counsel to represent Mayor Sorenson and the City of Sheboygan in federal court.
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