kyle kordell administrative leave and council oversight

City Manager Kyle Kordell is on paid administrative leave pending an investigation, with the City Council scheduled to take up a management-conduct matter again in closed session Oct. 26. The leave’s start date, terms, scope and outcome have not been made public. Council’s Oct. 6 closed session did not name an employee or record public action afterward, and the Oct. 26 notice likewise does not identify anyone.

The dispute became public after Nathan Klein, owner of Hardware Hank, used AI to alter a Kordell family-and-artist photo into an image of aliens and posted it. Kyle Kordell responded in an Oct. 4 opinion column published by the Herald Times Reporter and syndicated by AOL. He condemned the unnamed business owner, described the image as humiliating to his daughters and urged critics to address him directly rather than through Facebook. The image itself showed five gray aliens before the mural; Kordell’s description of it as removing his daughters’ clothes was his characterization, not proof of nude human children or a criminal offense.

Text screenshots attributed to Kordell show him contacting Police Chief Ben Meinnert, whom he supervises, after saying his wife, Kayla, was preparing to confront Klein at the store and that he expected a scene. Kordell asked whether an officer could speak with Klein about whether the post involving children was borderline criminal, then requested an officer to supervise at the store. Meinnert initially directed the complaint to Manitowoc because Kayla lives there, then conditionally offered an officer to keep the peace, with sheriff involvement if matters escalated. A city manager asking a direct report to intervene in a family dispute raises a concrete supervisory-boundary concern, especially where the request involved a public critic. It remains unknown whether Kayla went to the store or whether an officer responded.

The personal dispute also overlapped with a fight over expanding the Business Improvement District, which uses property assessments to support Main Street. Kordell had advocated a broader expansion, while Klein publicly opposed it; Kordell is an appointed Main Street board member and Kayla serves on its Design Committee. The Plan Commission recorded withdrawal of the expansion petition Oct. 12 after backlash against Kordell and the proposal. The minutes do not assign a cause, but publicly attacking a business owner while promoting assessments tied to an organization connected to the manager and his wife could reasonably deepen distrust of both the proposal and its advocates. Two related court cases have been filed and are sealed.