A group of DeForest residents has filed a petition to recall village trustee Bill Landgraf over his vote to remove fluoride from the municipal water supply, along with what critics call a pattern of unprofessional and intimidating behavior.
The Village Board voted in February to remove fluoride from the village’s water at the prompting of an anti-fluoride activist from Green Bay and over the objections of many residents who spoke against the measure at public meetings and wrote to the board.
The fluoride vote prompted Alicia Williams to run a write-in campaign to unseat one of the incumbents, but the campaign came up 128 votes short. Incumbents Jan Steffenhagen-Hahn, Rebecca Witherspoon and Jim Simpson retained their seats.
Landgraf was not up for re-election to the board in 2025, but unsuccessfully ran for village president.
Recall petition organizer Marc Storch said he learned from village officials that several ballots had Williams’ name written in the wrong place and were therefore not counted. Storch said he and others believe Williams may have won if those ballots were counted.
Williams told Madison365 Monday evening that she will run against Landgraf if the recall petition is successful.
“I think we can demand more accountability and professionalism out of those who are on our board,” Williams said. “I am always going to put my name in the hat. It’s my intention to run again and put my name on the ballot.”
Williams said, “the people spoke loud and clear” in giving her 1,739 write-in votes. Storch said her showing was a “statement” even though she didn’t win a seat on the board.
“That statement was that people are unhappy with the current makeup of the board and the fact that they don’t think the board is listening to what they want,” he said.
How the recall works
To trigger a recall election, a petition must bear the signatures of 25% of the number of people who voted in the most recent gubernatorial election; in DeForest, 5,567 people voted in the 2023 election. That means the petition needs 1,392 signatures, all of which must come from residents of DeForest.
Petitioners have 60 days to collect signatures. If they gather enough, the village staff have 30 days to review and validate them, and a special election would be set 60 days after that.
The petition was filed on Friday, so the deadline is August 12.
Concerning behavior
Petition organizers said Landgraf often acts inappropriately, sometimes attempting to intimidate critics.
Police records indicate he admitted to calling the workplace of a dental hygienist who’d sparred with him on social media over the fluoride issue, seeking to report misconduct. A week later, that same hygienist told police she’d received a letter from the state agency that licenses dental hygienists, saying someone had filed a complaint against her.
During the runup to the fluoride vote, a resident opposed to removing fluoride used a pseudonymous email address to express her opinion to the board; she later receieved a message from an email address associated with Landgraf claiming to be a “chief national reporter” and offering $200 for her time and opinions on the fluoride issue and asking for her phone number. Journalists typically do not offer payment to sources.
Chris McDonald, who lives just across the border in the village of Windsor but is supporting the petition, told police that Landgraf drove past him several times as he was campaigning for Williams in April. Landgraf even rolled his window down and reversed his car to confront McDonald, but McDonald told him not to talk or he would call police, so Landgraf drove off, McDonald said.
Landgraf has also posted jokes about sexual assault featuring images of Bill Cosby, who was convicted of indecent assault in 2018.
Landgraf did not respond to email and phone messages seeking comment.
McDonald said the petition got 100 signatures in the first three days of canvassing public parks and events.
“I’m actually quite optimistic,” Storch said. “We’ve just begun to reach out to individuals. We know that there are a variety of large events that will be occurring in the DeForest area, which we will engage our volunteers at to get signatures. We also know individuals within the community that have been very supportive of a progressive movement … I think the key for us is to get out there, talk to people, explain what things have happened, and show them that they have an opportunity to make change.”
