SPICER -- Spicer Mayor Perry Wohnoutka has checked into the Project Turnabout residential treatment program in Granite Falls.
He entered the program Tuesday, one day after a city employee sought a harassment restraining order against him -- just the latest in a series of incidents that have brought the mayor to court to answer for his alleged actions.
Jill Wohnoutka, the mayor's niece, confirmed to the Tribune on Wednesday that Perry Wohnoutka, 47, checked into the detoxification center around 4 p.m. Tuesday.
Jill Wohnoutka had posted a related comment Wednesday on the Tribune Online story comments board.
According to the program's Web site, Project Turnabout is a nonprofit detoxification and rehabilitation campus that was developed in the 1970s in Granite Falls. Project Vanguard, a treatment program for compulsive gambling, is also offered at the campus.
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Spicer Public Works Director Dan Haats, of New London, filed Monday for a harassment restraining order against Wohnoutka, alleging the mayor was verbally abusive to him and other city employees on multiple occasions Monday over the phone. The initial request for a temporary restraining order was denied, but a hearing on the matter was scheduled for Nov. 15.
Haats contacted the Kandiyohi County Sheriff's Department around 1 p.m. Monday, saying that City Clerk LaNae Osmond wanted officers to come to the office. Court documents indicate the officers witnessed one of the alleged phone calls from Wohnoutka. Haats noted in the request to the court that the deputies believed Wohnoutka had been drinking and believed the mayor was verbally abusive during the phone call.
Wohnoutka was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in District Court on a misdemeanor charge for tampering with a fire alarm in a Spicer apartment building. That charge stems from the mayor disabling a fire alarm at a senior apartment building when residents there called him to resolve the issue. The residents of the building believed it to be a false alarm, court documents state. The mayor disabled the alarm and then went to Melvin's on the Lake where he asked a bartender to call the Fire Department.
The hearing on that charge was continued to an unscheduled date. Wohnoutka nor his attorney appeared before the court Wednesday morning.
Wohnoutka's attorney, Ralph Daby of Mack & Daby Attorneys at Law in New London, said he did not "have the authority" to comment on why the mayor did not appear in court.
"Ordinarily I would, but I haven't spoken with him, and without permission, I can't," Daby said in a Wednesday afternoon phone call.
Jill Wohnoutka said she did not know how long Perry Wohnoutka would be in treatment.
In a separate matter, Wohnoutka has requested a jury trial after pleading not guilty to two misdemeanor assault and disorderly conduct charges stemming from a Sept. 1 incident at Melvin's on the Lake. Wohnoutka was accused of hitting two bar employees after a night of drinking. One of the employees was trying to help the mayor get on his bicycle to go home, court documents state. His blood alcohol level was 0.217 in a breath test taken after he was arrested that evening.
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He spent the night in county jail and was released on bail the next day. He formally apologized to the citizens of Spicer during the Sept. 12 City Council meeting.
On Wednesday, the city office in Spicer had no information about the mayor having entered treatment.
Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem Terry Holmquist said in a phone interview Wednesday afternoon that he could not confirm Wohnoutka's entry into treatment but said he had heard rumors about it.
Holmquist said Wohnoutka's recent incidents have been "very distracting" for the city. Holmquist said no action regarding the mayor's strings of incidents would be taken by the council until a grievance hearing was brought forth.
Wohnoutka was elected mayor of Spicer in November 2006, ousting incumbent Bill Taylor by a 285-to-255 margin.
-- Staff writer Gretchen Schlosser contributed to this story.
