Onalaska Fire Chief Billy Hayes DUI Arrest Video

Onalaska Fire Chief Billy Hayes drunk driving arrest 04/17/2019

1:45 Traffic stop
16:30 got him out of car
22:00 Field sobriety tests, he stumbled and couldn't walk straight
29:00 Cuffed him and asked him about changing his license/plates over to Wisconsin
1:14 Breathalizer scored .137 and .140
1:48 Read him rights he did NOT waive his rights and answer questions

Onalaska Fire Chief William “Billy” Hayes was arrested April 7 2019 for drunk driving. An Onalaska officer pulled over a vehicle for speeding early on Sunday morning. The driver, immediately blurted out that he was the fire chief. Hayes told the officer he was returning from dinner in La Crosse. He admitted to the officer that he had been drinking for 5 or 6 hours. The officer performed field sobriety tests which you can see Hayes failed miserably. Hayes was taken to the Onalaska Police Department, he blew a .137 and a .14 in two breathalyzer tests.

Hayes and his wife BOTH admitted they were out drinking with "Chief" Cavender. Assistant police chief Jeff Cavender was suspended a few days later and the resigned. We have yet to hear the details on Cavender's resignation

The officer wrote three citations for Hayes. One was for OWI 1st Offense, one for Operating with a Prohibited Alcohol Concentration 1st Offense, and lastly, one for speeding. He was eventually released to the custody of his wife about two hours after the traffic stop.

Hayes told the officer, Travis Gordon, at one point, “What I don’t understand is that I’m the fire chief and you’re going to do me this way.” Officer Gordon told Hayes that “he admitted to consuming alcohol and that I detected an odor of intoxicant when I approached his vehicle, and that based on that I was going to treat him as I would any other motorist.”

As a result of the arrest, Hayes must appear before the Coulee Region Joint Municipal Court on June 3 on the three charges. In the interim he was suspended until last friday when he signed a "deal" with mayor Joe Chilsen. This deal must be approved by the Onalaska police and fire commission at their next meeting on monday April 29 at 3:00 at city hall. Public input is allowed at police and fire commission meeting, so if you let them know that this sort of embarrassment and liability is NOT how Onalaska should operate.

Arrest Report 

Why does Onalaska embrace Chilsen the failure?

For whatever your personal opinion of Joe Chilsen, no one can deny the fact that he is a complete and utter failure in public service. It started long ago, but for this blogger I can only start in 2016. Joe Chilsen then the incumbent mayor lied on his nomination papers for reelection. Some of the pages he signed swearing that he was the person that circulated them were circulated by other people. Chilsen even admitted so on WIZM radio. This is the first government form that public servants fill out when running for office, and he couldn't figure it out. FAILURE!

Also in 2016 Joe Chilsen was the head of the finance committee for St. Patrick's Catholic church where he overlooked the church secretary embezzling $832,000.00! This is precisely what the finance committee exists to do. The magnitude of this FAILURE is off the charts!

Again in 2016 we have mayor Chilsen's employee Kari Neumann who stole more than $70,000 right out from under his nose at city hall! When attempted to be contacted by the La Crosse Tribune Mayor Joe Chilsen declined to comment about the case, and did not return phone calls. What is he hiding? An honest mayor would have talked to the press. FAILURE!

Former police chief Jeff Trotnic

Chilsen was mayor while Jeff Trotnic was philandering about sending illicit selfies to married women even some from his city hall office. Chilsen knew about this behavior and was duty bound by state law to report these things to the police and fire commission. Chilsen failed to report it until this blog exposed the chief's torrid behavior. FAILURE!

In 2017 the new city administrator uncovered dozens of bankers boxes filled with unprocessed citations and summons in the city hall store room. Joe Chilsen knew about these for many years. The responsibility for the debacle falls on judge Brinckman, but our mayor should have done something about it for the good of the city. Huge FAILURE!

In 2017 Joe Chilsen verbally assaulted then fire chief Don Dominick leading to the threat of a lawsuit. The city narrowly escaped the lawsuit after paying off the fire chief when he retired. Joe Chilsen is clearly not very good at management.

Snowflake Billy Hayes

In 2018 the mayor oversaw the hiring of a new fire chief who in a simple google search admitted to having an emotional breakdown because of the election of our president Donald J. Trump. Now this fire chief is found to have been driving under the influence. Bad hire Joe. FAILURE! 

Drunk Driver Billy Hayes

And in 2019 now the new fire chief Billy Hayes gets arrested for DUI after being out drinking with the assistant police chief Jeff Cavender. Both the fire chief and assistant police chief are suspended and the police chief Troy Miller is reportedly resigning because he is tired of working with the deranged mayor.

Also in 2018 Chilsen oversaw the hiring of a new assistant police chief. A quick google search of Jeffrey Cavender showed that he was fired from his last job, and has outstanding civil rights lawsuits against him. It's not too much to ask that our mayor should look out for our best interests and be on top of these things.

The failures keep racking up for Joe Chilsen and the citizens of Onalaska. The parttime mayor is responsible for supervising the police and fire departments, and appoints the members of the police and fire commission. So there is no basis to argue that these embarrassments aren't Joe Chilsen's fault  When will our neighbors realize Chilsen is such a failure and replace him? I would personally rather see a random citizen picked from a hat as mayor over this corrupt/inept old drunkard.

Diversity arrives in Onalaska

Boondi Iyer the newly elected alderman in Onalaska's 3rd district is playing identity politics. After being sworn in Boondi said "I'm the first person of color on the council, that's really exciting. Our community is changing, there is more diversity in the community now so again it makes sense."

Is this really what the citizens of Onalaska are looking for? Silly me, I've been voting for the best candidate all this time. I must be racist, or at least not "woke". Boondi as her campaign managers Diane Wulf and Kim Smith claim has "volunteered with the School District". But the only evidence of that is she set up a table at an Onalaska High School "Heritage Night" and put dots on girls foreheads.

Boondi was endorsed by the AFL-CIO and the IAFF.