I led the Charge on Moving Meetings to the Night

When I was first elected to the County Board, I thought it was odd that the full meetings of the County Board were at 9 a.m.  Nearly every city council, village board, town board, and school board in Washington County meets during the evening hours, to increase public accessibility.  Why is the County Board meeting during the daytime.  It almost seemed like the goal was to keep the public away from the meetings.

When an ordinance change was brought forward in July of 2016, I had only been on the board for 3 months.  The proposed ordinance change would move our meeting times from 9:00 a.m. to 7:30 a.m.  I saw an opportunity to try for night meetings, and I took it.  I let Chairman Gundrum know ahead of time that I would be raising this issue, and found an ally in Supervisor Kelling who would stand with me on this issue. 

When the ordinance was brought forward for discussion, I quickly made a motion to amend the meeting time to 7:00 p.m., and Supervisor Kelling quickly offered a second, so that the motion would be considered.  Concerns were expressed, many of which revolved around the concept that we all ran for office knowing that the meetings would be during the day.  When the dust cleared, the motion fell 2 votes short, and I had to settle for 7:30 a.m. meetings, at least temporarily.  Se my comments from after that meeting here: http://district3bossert.blogspot.com/2016/07/night-meetings-2-votes-short.html.

A contentious highway project heightened the attention on night meetings.  Several angry e-mails from residents from the Town of Hartford accused us of conspiring in secret, at daytime meetings that were difficult to attend.  In one instance, I was communicating with a resident from the Town of Hartford, who indicated that her boss would not let her off from work to attend a County Board meeting about this highway project, and interestingly enough, her boss was a fellow supervisor.

Dennis and I worked together, to continue to push this issue.  Chairman Gundrum formed a committee to develop a proposal for night meetings that allayed the concerns many other had.  Both Supervisor Kelling and myself were put on the committee.

In our work, we developed a proposal to move meetings to the 2nd Wednesday night of the month, the same night my kids have 4H meetings.  The cause is bigger than my commitment, and I can work to find ways to make it work, so I supported the effort.  We also realized that it might not pass if we implemented it immediately, so we delayed the effective date until after the 2018 elections.  Our proposal went in front of the County Board, and this time it passed.  Starting in May, just 2 months from now, we will be meeting on Wednesday evenings.  http://district3bossert.blogspot.com/2017/12/night-meetings-start-in-may.html.

We already have the 1st signs that it is working.  In 2016 there were 4 contested races for County Board Supervisor, and 22 races where someone ran unopposed.  With night meetings, we now have 9 contested races.  I look at some of the incoming Supervisors I've seen, and I see a lot of talent.

Comments From the Campaign Trail

Here are some of the comments people are telling me while I'm on the campaign trail.

• "I've e-mailed you a couple of times, and you've always gotten back to me."
• "I'm voting for you because you listened to me."
• "You care about our community, and it comes through in the decisions you make."
• "You're the conservative we need."
• "You have gotten so much done."
• "You have been a great surprise, and a fantastic addition to the County Board."
• "I know who you are, I love what you're doing, you've got my vote."

 

Campaign Announcement---My 3rd promise to voters---Reducing the Board Size

Back in 2015, the County Board voted to reduce its size from 30 board members to 26.  With the current board structure, we have seen a significant increase in efficiency, but I believe that we are also still too large.  Unfortunately, we are only allowed to adjust the size of the board 1 time between census periods.  Consequently, we cannot reduce the size of you board again until after the 2020 census (probably around 2022)

My 3^rd promise to my neighbors in district 3 is that, after the 2020 census, I will support further reductions in the size of the board.  I think a prudent strategy is to be cautious, and reduce to a size of maybe 20-22 members, and long term I could see the County board being reduced to as small as 13-15 members over the next couple of decades.

I am concerned about reducing too much, too quickly.  I have had a few neighbors who believe the County Board should reduce to 5-7 board members.  I worry that too much power in the hands of too few could have undesirable implications.  For example, the West Bend school board has 7 members.  They experience dramatic policy swings whenever 2 or 3 new people come onto the board, only to experience another round of dramatic policy swings in the opposite direction a year or two later.  I worry that a County board that is too small might become similarly inconsistent in its policies, in contrast to the policy consistency that our County Board has generally maintained over the last several decades. 

Because of those concerns, I believe a careful, measured, long-term approach to reducing the size of the County Board will yield the best results in improving efficiency while maintaining consistency in how our County Government is run.

Past Promises:

I will reintroduce resolution to reduce County Board Supervisor pay and end per diems.
http://district3bossert.blogspot.com/2018/02/campaign-announcement-1st-promise-for.html

I will continue to refuse all mileage and per diem payments
http://district3bossert.blogspot.com/2018/02/campaign-announcement-2nd-promise-for.html

Yard Signs Are Available

Do you want to help me continue to reform County Government?  If so, one way you can help is to put out a yard sign for my re-election campaign.  Just send me an e-mail to chris.bossert@yahoo.com or cluke04@yahoo.com with your address, and I'll drop off a sign for you.

Just a reminder of some of the things I have gotten accomplished:

• No Funding for Milwaukee's Trolley---I found the hidden funding (a regional tax plan) for Milwaukee's trolley and commuter rail plans in the Vision 2050 regional transportation plan.  I led the board in saying "No, Mayor Barrett, we won't fund your trolley." 
• Night Meetings---Starting in May, the County Board will hold its meetings at night.
• Combating the Darkstore Loophole---National retailers are using a tax loophole to shift their property tax burdens onto homeowners and small businesses.  I am working with Senator Duey Stroebel and Assemblyman Rick Gundrum to combat the darkstore loophole.  My efforts include authoring a County Resolution supporting efforts to end the darkstore loophole.

Campaign Announcement---2nd Promise for the 2018-2020 Board Session

In the lead-up to April's election, I am going to be releasing a series of campaign announcements.  Today I make my first campaign announcement, a promise for how I will vote on an issue during the 2018-2020 board session.

I promise that I will continue to refuse all mileage (for travel within Washington County) & per diem pay during the 2018-2020 board session.  I encourage other County Board Supervisors to join me, and follow the example I set during the 2016-2018 board session, during which I refused all mileage and per diem pay.  I have never received mileage pay for a normal commute to work, and consequently as a County Board Supervisor I have always refused all mileage pay for travel within Washington County. 

I got elected to serve the taxpayers, not myself.

History Center is Making Progress Towards Self-sufficiency

Last week Monday, the History Center met with the Quasi-Governmental Agency Committee (which I am a member of).  Our County Administrator, Josh Schoemann, summarized the meeting this way:

The Washington County Historical Society (WCHS) also presented to the committee regarding the initial findings of a feasibility study they did for their organization and the future of the Old Courthouse Museum.  They indicated to the committee that this study proved to them that it is feasible to investigate a strategic reframing of the organization, directed toward a new relationship with the County.   WCHS also laid out a rough timeline for the next step in the process, developing their Strategic Plan which will help to create a proposal for working toward financial independence for the ad hoc committee’s consideration.

While I have in the past been critical of the History Center, which formerly called itself the Washington County Historical Society, I am seeing positive movement from them.  

I am in a unique position to speak on this issue.  When I first went to college, I was giving strong consideration towards becoming a high school history teacher.  While I ultimately decided to pursue other career options, my affinity for history never subsided.  I took 21 credits of History classes, all as electives, while in college.  After graduating college, I continued to explore history through various activities including museum visits.  Once of my favorite museums is a recently-renovated private museum in Wheaton, Illinois, called Cantigny (website is https://cantigny.org/), and specifically their First Division Museum (website is https://www.fdmuseum.org/).

Our History Center and Funding

Our History Center receives a lot of County Funding, while our neighboring counties do not fund our History Center nearly as much.  We give (through a grant) more than $134,000 to our History Center.  In contrast, neighboring counties give their Historical Societies funding in the range of $10,000 to $25,000,  In those neighboring counties, their historical societies do all of the same history preservation and education that our History Center does.  We also give the History Center use of the County's Old Courthouse building for free (technically, we rent it to them for $1/year but we never bother to collect the rent since the point of renting something for $1 per year is to essentially be free).

The funding arrangement seems destined to change.  Prior to my being elected, the County Board (while chaired be Herbert Tennies) decided to implement priority-based budgeting.  That process led to the identification of several programs that were over-funded, including the History Center.  During the 2016-2018 County Board session, we decided to remain consistent with the policies relating to priority-based budgeting (policies put in place while Herbert tennis chaired the County Board).  Consequently, we will be working to transition he History Center to a model that is much more self-sustaining and much less dependent on funding from the County tax levy.

Culturally, our history center has in the past been resistant to change, overly dependent on County funding, and overly adversarial towards the County Board.  Fortunately, that seems to be changing, which is excellent.

I look forward to continuing to watch this change, as the History Center works to become more vibrant, more self-sufficient, and more partner-focused in its relationship with the County Board.

Campaign Announcement---1st Promise for the 2018-2020 Board Session

In the lead-up to April's election, I am going to be releasing a series of campaign announcements.  Today I make my first campaign announcement, a promise for how I will vote on an issue during the 2018-2020 board session.

I promise that I will reintroduce Resolution 13, a resolution that proposed ending per diem pay for County Board Supervisors, and reducing County Board Supervisor pay by $600 per year (from $6,600 to $6,000 per year).  I believe County Board Supervisors are overpaid, and that per diem payments are wasteful and incentivize County Board Supervisors to hold unnecessary meetings.

Resolution 13 needed 18 votes for passage, but only got 16 votes.  I was one of the 16 votes in favor of reducing our pay and eliminating per diems.