VILLAGE OF PEWAUKEE, Wis. — A judge struck down special charges the villages of Pewaukee and Dousman imposed recently for fire services, saying residents can only be charged for services they actually use.
A Waukesha County judge has ruled that fire and EMS fees imposed by the Village of Pewaukee and the Village of Dousman on their communities are unlawful.
TMJ4 News reporter Rebecca Klopf has the story in the video below:
The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed in 2024 by Mike Heise, who owns Hawthorne Place, an independent senior apartment complex in the Village of Pewaukee, along with Quail Pointe Apartments, a Dousman trucking company owner and Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce.
In 2022, the Village of Pewaukee introduced a new formula to assign fees for emergency services, known as ESE fees. Hawthorne Place and nearby Quail Court — both independent senior apartment complexes — were charged more under a formula that determined they would likely use more emergency services.
"We were charged four times what a normal resident would be charged," Heise said.
The first year of the fee for Hawthorne Place totaled $145,000, breaking down to $150 per month per resident. Heise paid the fees personally for the building and began pushing the village to change the policy. The Village of Dousman was imposing a similar fee.
By 2024, Heise joined with the other plaintiffs to sue, asking for the fees to be declared unlawful.
"When this came along it gave such an unreasonable increase that we had to do something," Heise said.
After two years in court, a judge agreed, striking down the special charges the villages were imposing for fire services. The ruling found that residents could only be charged for services they actually use — not services that could potentially be used — and that the fees were not lawful special charges but unlawfully imposed taxes.
"The village has tried to do this — imposed fees that were really camouflaged taxes," Heise said.
Richard Peterson, a former Hawthorne Place resident, said the ruling was a long time coming.
"I think, finally, right has been done," Peterson said.
Peterson said village officials were aware of the nature of the fees.
"They knew it was a tax. If they didn't they should have," Peterson said.
TMJ4 News reached out to both the Village of Pewaukee and the Village of Dousman about the lawsuit but have not heard back.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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