Village marshal’s computer breach discussed

The Village of Magdalena held a special meeting on July 1, to approve the notice of November elections before their deadline.

Carleen Gomez, deputy clerk explained that for the trustee positions the top two vote getters get the four-year terms and the next gets the two-year term.

“This is because the Village of Magdalena is not districted, it is considered a run-off election. We confirmed that with the County Clerk’s office and they double checked with the Secretary of State’s office,” Gomez said.

The board approved the election resolution unanimously.

During public comment, Teri Winchester brought up concerns that the Village Marshal’s computer had been hacked.

“When was the marshal’s computer hacked? Secondly, what information was compromised when his computer was hacked?” Winchester said.

She continued by citing concerns by local citizens who had received phishing emails from the marshal.

“When I first found out about this one of them, a father who said I’d like to know why the marshal sent my daughter an email. So why was the community not made aware of this?” Winchester said.

Mayor Richard Rumpf said they had no idea where or who the email went out to.

She asked why the community wasn’t notified via the post office and MagE board.

“Well, I’m sorry, I have no clue that we were supposed to notify everybody immediately. We had no idea where it all went till later,” Rumpf said.

Rumpf recommended that Winchester follow up with the marshal directly with her concerns. He reported that they contacted the IT department, and they were working on resolving the issue.