County Board Opts To Let Voters Fill Seat On Nov. 2

The City of Marinette 27th Supervisory District seat on the Marinette County Board will remain vacant until Tuesday, Nov. 9, after the winner of a 2-way race for the position has been decided at the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 2, County Board Chair George Bousley announced at the monthly board meeting on Tuesday, July 27. The winner of that election can be seated in time for the annual budget meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 9.

The post has been vacant since April, when the term of incumbent Supervisor Carol Faucett ended. Faucett did not seek re-election and no one else chose to run. There were no write-in votes. Bousley’s attempts to interest someone in the job were fruitless until just recently, when two potential candidates came forward. The agenda for the monthly board meeting on Tuesday had included possible appointment of a District 27 supervisor.

Instead, Bousley asked County Clerk Kathy Brandt to explain the effect of waiting. Brandt said two candidates had filed nomination papers for the position by the deadline of 5 p.m. Tuesday, July 13, and both will be on the ballot on Nov. 2. They are Brandon Gauthier and Tom Mailand. If there is no petition for a recount, the winner could be certified in time to be seated prior to the board meeting on Nov. 9.

“We had scheduled an appointment,” Bousley told the board, “but with two candidates, we felt it would be better to wait.”

All 29 supervisors were present.

Major discussion preceded a change in policy and the enabling ordinance governing payment of “bills, claims and accounts.” By previous policy, each governing committee reviewed and either approved or disapproved bills before payment. Except for the Highway Department, all bills exceeding $5,000 had to go to County Board for approval before payment.

Under the new policy, bills will be reviewed by the Finance Department and paid weekly and as long as the expenditure is in the budget. Parent committees will have authority to examine the expenditures only after the bills have been paid. An attempt to modify the policy to exclude purchases of real estate and equipment costing more than $10,000 failed by 14 to 15 vote. The 14 supervisors who voted in favor of the modification were Russ Bauer, Alice Baumgarten, Mike Behnke, Bob Fraik, John Guarisco, Paul Gustafson, Shirley Kaufman, Al Mans, Jerry Pillath, Joe Policello, Al Sauld, Vilas Schroeder, Connie Seefeldt, and Mel Sharpe. The 15 opposed were Chair George Bousley, Steve Dill, Russ Bousley, Cheryl Wruk, Ken Mattison, Melissa Christiansen, Nick Lakari, Laurence Nichols, Jerry Martens, Ken Casper, Kathy Just, Ken Keller, Bill Walker, Mike Cassidy and Ted Sauve. The ordinance change enacting the new policy then was approved, 25 to 4, with Guarisco, Bauer, Baumgarten and Kaufman opposed.

The Finance Committee had approved the change at their meeting Monday, July 19, and at the same meeting approved a change in the Personnel Policies and Procedures Manual removing committee review and approval of expense account statements and assigning that review instead to the Finance Department. Formerly department head expense vouchers were to be submitted directly to the Committee of Jurisdiction for approval. The policy change eliminated that requirement, and they now apparently will go directly to the Finance Department.

Before the vote, Guarisco said he understands the policy change was proposed to expedite paying of bills, but he said the board should know what the ramifications would be. He also asked if the wording could be changed to allow committee review of bills before payment as well as after.

Finance Director Pat Kass insisted the review should remain “after” payment only.

Supervisor Jerry Pillath wanted to know the reasons for wanting the change and the results it would bring about. Kass referred him to information from the Finance Committee that was in the board packet.

Listed under internal controls were that the item to be paid must be in the approved budget, which is approved by the parent committee, Finance Committee/Executive Committee and the county Board. Payment of each invoice is approved by the department head or designee, and all invoices will be reviewed by the Finance Department. Any items not budgeted will not be processed unless the Finance Director deems it necessary to process the invoice before the budget transfer. Schedule of all payments are to be presented to the parent committee at their monthly meeting, and all documentation is available at the Finance Department.

Listed as reasons to process the invoices on a weekly basis included, among other things, taking advantage of discounts and avoiding late fees.

“There are concerns about delays in payment from snowmobile and ATV clubs ad other vendors being paid over $5,000, who currently wait 45 to 60 days to be paid. Most of our vendors are part of the community and have their own expenses that need to be paid, including payroll,” the supporting document stated.

It also said the accounts payable process will be streamlined further. Payments already had been removed from the departments and centralized by the Finance Department, “which has already created efficiencies and effectiveness. Weekly payments would also make accounts payment more consistent.”

The document also claims there would be time efficiency by minimizing the number of check runs each month from 18 to six. The six would be the four weekly runs, plus runs for the Highway Department and Health and Human Services. The County Clerk’s office prints the checks, which then go to the Treasurer’s office to be sealed. There should be fewer checks printed because multiple checks for the same vendor could be combined into one. Weekly checks would eliminate the need to call the committee chair for approval for checks that must be processed immediately, and any missed invoices could wait until the next week, were other arguments in favor of the plan.

Kass said before proposing the plan they had gone through it with the auditors and with Corporation Counsel Gale Mattison. “Several counties are doing this, and it’s legal,” he said.

“Why are we pushing this through when our administrator isn’t here?’ asked Bauer. “Let’s wait until he’s back.” (Corbeille is serving a 30-day suspension involving misuse of county Youth Restitution Program personnel and equipment. He will be back at work Monday, Aug. 2.)

Bauer noted the budget book is over two inches thick and declared, “I for one will admit I don’t know every item that’s in that budget ... Somebody back when saw the need for a $5,000 limit without County Board approval...I can see the need for change, times change - let’s make that limit $10,000...I can’t vote for this and give automatic approval for a wants list!”

Kass said this plan was started months ago when Corbeille was on the job, and had been worked out with Corbeille’s help. “You still will have access to every bill and all the documentation,” Kass said, “and the internal controls are in place.”

Bauer said he was mainly concerned about big purchases, like real estate, machinery, cars and such.

Kass said one of the reasons for the change was complaints coming to the Forestry and Parks Department from snowmobile and ATV clubs that do work on trails with state grant money. They have bills to pay but sometimes have to wait 60 days for the money they have earned. Bill Walker, who chairs the Parks, Forestry and Outdoor Recreation Committee, said the long waits for payment have caused major problems for the clubs that work with the county and the problem needs to be corrected.

“If this was in effect, would the land purchases last month have gone through?” asked Guarisco. He was referring to two transactions that had been recommended by the Forestry and Parks Committee, which has accounts for land acquisition. There had been strong opposition at the June County Board meeting from at least one of the towns affected, and the transactions had been voted down.

Mattison said because there were contingencies attached to those proposals, “The answer is ‘no.’”

“So,” Guarisco asked, “if there is money in the budget and it’s a straight offer, the answer would be yes?”

Mattison said that almost never happens. Guarisco argued that it could.

Supervisor Nick Lakari felt it unreasonable for some vendors to wait 60 days for payment.

“As chairman of the Finance Committee, I feel very comfortable with this,” declared Supervisor Vilas Schroeder.

Supervisor Connie Seefeldt had more questions about possible land purchases. Mattison said typically there would be an offer to purchase, even if money had been put in the budget specifically for that land purchase. County Board would have to act on the offer to purchase, and she didn’t think she had ever seen a land purchase without one.

Supervisor Jerry Martens asked if the new policy could specifically exclude purchases of land. Kass said in the budget everything for capital outlay greater than $5,000 is specifically listed, and would have gone through the whole budget approval process.

“As corporation counsel said, that has not happened before,” Martens argued, “but now that the window is open, it could.”

Kass said he hated to add anything that would make the process less simple.

“I understand your concerns,” Mattison agreed, “But I just don’t see how you could sneak in a big land purchase.”

Bauer, with a second from Baumgarten, moved to exclude land and machinery purchases, and at Mattison’s prompting specified machinery purchases to mean equipment costing $10,000 or more.

Baumgarten was unhappy that the proposed purchase of land in Athelstane had come up again at the July Forestry meeting after County Board had voted it down.

Walker said the land purchase issue had been put on the agenda at the request of the town. The Town of Athelstane chairman and treasurer had been at the Forestry Committee meeting to talk about it because they had received an offer that their town board was going to look at. “I don’t see why we’re nit picking and changing this thing around,” added Walker. “We’ve got a good thing here.”

Vote was then called on Bauer’s amendment, which failed on the 14 to 15 vote. After a few more comments from supervisors who favored the new policy, it passed by the 25 to 4 margin and the meeting moved on to the next issue.

With no discussion and one dissenting vote, from Guarisco, who is a member of the Land Information Committee, County Board approved a slight change in the ordinance governing makeup of the county’s Environmental Site Assessment Committee. After the change it consists of the County Administrator, Emergency Government Coordinator, Land Information Director, County Treasurer, Forestry/Parks Administrator, Corporation Counsel, County Conservationist, Public Works Director and the chairman of the Land Information Committee or his or her designee. Formerly the ordinance allowed any member of the Land Information Committee to be the representing member.

There was no discussion before a unanimous vote in favor of creating a Land Information Council except for a technical correction pointed out by Pillath. He noticed that there were 10 members listed, but the body of the document said it would be an 8-member council. Wisconsin statutes require creation of the council and identify the composition and responsibilities. Their responsibilities will include reviewing the priorities, needs, policies and expenditures of the Land Information Department related to land records and advising the County Land Information Committee on matters affecting the Department as it relates to land records. Members will include the County Register of Deeds, Treasurer, Real Property Lister, Land Information Director, Land Information Committee Chairperson, and Emergency Management Director, along with a realtor, registered land surveyor, assessor and abstractor employed within the county. Members are to be appointed by the County Administrator, and serve 2 year terms. Members who are not county employees will receive per diem and mileage. They would be expected to meet two or three times a year at a cost of about $444 to $666 per meeting, depending on members and distance they would have to travel.

As recommended by the Finance Committee, the board without dissent approved applying for federal funding for the Early Retiree Re-insurance Program under the recently passed federal “Affordable Health Care Act,” which provides a total of $5 billion for employers, unions, etc. to encourage them to continue providing health insurance benefits to bridge the gap until 2014 when those who retire as young as age 55 will be able to choose from health insurance exchanges in the program. The application includes a statement that “Marinette County will continue to maintain its level of support for the health plan by shifting resources as necessary.” Estimates accompanying the application state the county would expect to receive between $55,000 and $200,000 for 2010 and $100,000 to $250,000 for 2011. There were cautions at the Finance Committee meeting that the $5 billion will not be enough to cover all requests.

In 2009 the county’s self-insured health insurance fund had a surplus in the neighborhood of $1.5 million before they signed with Wisconsin Counties Mutual health insurance coverage and started saving some $1 million a year in premiums. Since the county is no longer self insured, those are considered to be excess premiums. The Finance Committee had forwarded to County Board without recommendation a proposal to transfer that money to the General Fund, subject to funds to be retained to cover a possible insurance claim related to a workman’s comp issue, “to subsidize health/dental insurance premiums on a county/employee pro-rated basis.”

Since the $1.5 million was generated entirely in 2009 by current county employees and the county budget Kass explained they want to divide the benefit on a pro-rated basis based on amounts paid in so employees get back the amount they overpaid. Kass said use of that money is already part of the spending plan he and Corbeille had been working on to help balance the 2011 and 2012 budgets.

Guarisco noted committee discussion had been a debate between putting the county’s share into the general fund, or using it to start a plan to finance the unfunded debt looming in the county’s future because of unfunded benefits to retired employees. Kass agreed the unfunded liability “is substantial,” and putting some money away for it is probably a good thing, but he said there are many ways that future liability can be handled, including pay as you go. He added that new employees are not getting those very generous benefits, which will help reduce that liability in the future.

Supervisor Kathy Just agreed retiree benefits need to be addressed, “but that’s a whole separate issue.”

Kaufman cast the only vote against using the self insurance fund as Kass recommended.

A Finance Committee recommendation to increase expenditures and revenues to show Gates Grant Funding of $27,860 was approved, as was appropriation of $16,250 for pre-engineering of the communication tower previously approved in 2009.

The Land Information Department was authorized to charge $27 each for the 2010-2011 plat books, sales tax included, to print all $2,750 plat books. Retailers with sellers permits will be charged $20 per book. One plat book each will be provided free to County Supervisors and to each municipality within the county.

The board approved hiring AECOM for site investigation of the property previously known as the Wausaukee Laundromat, and Bonestroo for the U.S. EPA Brownfields Petroleum Assessment Grant Project, as recommended by the Land Information Committee, both contingent on approval of Mattison.

On motion by Committee Chair Mike Behnke, the board approved a recommendation from the Buildings and Property Committee to contract with Andhole Engineering, LLC for engineering and construction management services for Courthouse HVAC improvements as part of the EECBG grant. Supervisor Lakari cast the sole dissenting vote.

On motion by Just, and as recommended by Health and Human Services Director Robin Elsner, the board decided the vacant HHSD Child and Family Services Manager position should be kept at the current pay grade. Just said they need to get it filled as quickly as possible.

The next regular board meeting will be at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 31.

During time for public comment at the start of the meeting, retired UW-Marinette professor Wendell Johnson spoke long and eloquently, urging the board to be pro-active and get a bike and walking trail built along Shore Drive and County B in the Town of Peshtigo. “It’s a serious safety issue,” he declared. “To do nothing about it is not an answer.”

The board saluted Peshtigo’s Lady Bulldogs Softball Team on winning the first state championship for Peshtigo High School in 34 years.

Bonnie Beamer gave a presentation on the “Every 15 Minutes” program offered at most area high schools to encourage students to make wise choices when it comes to drinking and driving, and there was a presentation on NEWCAP programs including demolition of the old Wausaukee School Buildings and the weatherization program.

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