Walden officials reassure residents amid leave, subpoenas and leadership shakeup

Walden is trying to keep its government functioning while its top administrator is on leave, its housing program is under subpoena and its police department has opened an internal investigation. At the April 21 board meeting, village officials faced residents who are watching a small municipal government absorb one blow after another.

Village Manager John Revella was placed on paid administrative leave starting April 1, after the board approved that step at a special meeting March 31. On April 9, trustees went further, adopting a resolution that temporarily assigned Deputy Mayor Lynn Thompson all duties and responsibilities of the village manager while Revella remains away. The vote included Mayor Becky Pearson, Thompson, Trustee Cheryl Baker and Trustee Gerald Mishk. Revella has served as village manager since April 2010, and he also served as Orange County legislator for District 17 after being appointed in April 2025 and then elected to a full term in November 2025.

The personnel strain extends beyond the manager’s office. Pearson said Village Clerk Marisa Kraus had been out of the office since early February and had been working only intermittently on a part-time basis in recent weeks, leaving deputy clerk Kaitlyn Laux to cover both roles along with her own duties. The village was also advertising for a full-time clerk and an interim village manager, a sign that officials were still trying to shore up basic operations while the administration was in flux.

The legal pressure is just as serious. Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler said on April 10 that his office was in the initial phases of an investigation into Walden’s Residential Housing Rehabilitation Program, which was created after the village received funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Reporting said the subpoenas seek records from a period when loans were approved under Revella’s oversight. Questions have centered on eligibility, use of funds and whether proper safeguards were followed. Separately, Revella was charged in a federal indictment on March 19 with four counts of filing false tax returns, with prosecutors alleging he failed to report more than $1.1 million in income from his solo real estate law practice between 2018 and 2022.

Even with that backdrop, Pearson said the tentative 2026-27 budget was “coming together well” despite rising electricity, gas and other costs and while the village works under the state tax cap. The tentative budget totals $1,529,468, including $1,372,948 in the general fund, $82,328 in the water fund, $61,092 in the sewer fund and $13,100 in the library fund. Mayor Becky Pearson’s salary remains set at $7,905, and each trustee’s salary remains $6,375. The April 21 meeting also brought a political shakeup when John Ramos, who won a trustee seat in the March 18 election, resigned from the board and told residents he hoped the village would persevere through its current turmoil.