Night Meetings---2 Votes Short

At today's county board meeting, I took a bold step.  A proposed ordinance would move the county board meetings from 9:00 a.m. to 7:30 a.m.  I proposed an amendment that would instead move those meetings to the evening at 7:00 p.m.  Supervisor Kelling was quick to step up and second the motion.

I have heard from many of my neighbors regarding the desire to move meetings to the evening, to increase public access to our proceedings.  I am working to try to make that a reality.

I knew going in that there was fairly strong support for night meetings.  While the amendment was 2 votes short, it was closer to succeeding than any previous attempt at making night meetings permanent.

The fight on this issue is not by any means over.  Instead, there are a lot of positives.

1.      I now know for sure that I have 10 other Supervisors who definitely share my view on night meetings.

2.      Three of the other Supervisors who voted in favor of this motion were on the executive board, including Mike Bassill, Tim Michalak, and Kris Diess.

3.      I also know that, if our rules would have allowed for an amendment to move the day of our meetings to Thursday, the amendment might have picked up another vote or two.

4.      Most importantly, the old guard knows how close that motion was, and can guess that the days of meeting during the daytime, away from public scrutiny, are coming to a close.

I plan to look at options for bringing this up again next summer.  Worst case scenario, we might pick up a vote or two in the April 2018 election, depending on how those elections go.

Theft of County Funds

Yesterday, I was notified by County Board Chairman Rick Gundrum that there was a theft of County Funds.  This afternoon, County Administrator Josh Schumann sent out a press release, which has been reposted on Washington County Insider at this link: http://washingtoncountyinsider.com/2016/07/washington-county-victim-of-wire-transfer-fraud/

This incident is still being investigated, so the information I have is heavily limited until that investigation is concluded.  I basically don't know any more than what is in the press release.

I want to apologize to everyone in Washington County that this happened.  Anytime something like this happens, an apology is due, no matter what precautions were in place.  I can imagine that each of the other 25 County Board Supervisors was just as surprised and dismayed as I was at this news.

I am gravely disappointed that something like this occurred, and that our county government failed to prevent it from occurring.  While many precautions were taken, they simply were not enough in this instance.  Rest assured, changes will be made to reduce the likelihood that this will occur again.

When I was first elected 3 months ago, I sought to be an advocate for responsible government.  That hasn’t changed, and in this case that means ensuring that additional precautions are taken.  While the county will never achieve perfect security to protect our financial resources in this digital age, we need to take the most reasonable and prudent steps possible.

I have submitted a request to the County Administrator, specifically requesting that our digital security be audited by an outside firm on at least an annual basis.  This will help to reduce the likelihood of a recurrence of an incident like this.  I will also be encouraging the County Board Supervisors who are on the Administrative Committee, as they oversee our Finance Department and I.T. Department, to make sure the funding is in place for these audits.  I also know that Josh and he County’s financial team are working to put other safeguards in place to further reduce the likelihood of another theft of this nature.

I also want to look at the positives from this incident, including:

1. This could have been much worse than it was. I say that not to minimize what happened, but to recognize that there was the potential for this to have been much larger in scale. We have been a fiscally sound county, with adequate financial reserves. While this theft was significant, it was not anywhere close to being as catastrophic as it could have been.
2. This appears to have been found relatively quickly, within two weeks. Many times, a seemingly isolated incident is a test, to see if the theft will be detected. If the theft is not discovered, the thief will return and begin to escalate the theft levels. One such incident at a previous employer persisted over 4 years. That didn’t happen here, because the incident was discovered so quickly.
3. Our response to this incident was quick. Immediate safeguards have been put in place to prevent these particular hackers from using the same tactics to return and victimize our County Government again.

I apologize again to all of the taxpayers of Washington County for this unfortunate incident, and hope the perpetrators are brought to justice..

June 14 Board Meeting (Wrap-up)

I questioned the SEWRPC regarding their involvement with Milwaukee's trolley.  The director stated that they definitively were not involved in an aspect of the trolley project.  He stated that they were being considered for involvement in the planning of the trolley, but ultimately the city went with a different vendor.  The director pledged to inform me if that changed in any way.

If this is true, it is great news, as it means that we don't have to worry that money we contribute to SEWRPC is being used to fund Milwaukee's streetcar debacle.  I plan to keep a watchful eye for any involvement, just to make sure.

The plan to help E.H. Wolf & Sons in Slinger with a 0% interest loan went through.  Slinger is also providing help.  The County will be repaid through a TIF district.

The Shoreline & Wetlands revisions were approved as well.  I did ask some questions about a 3 foot setback requirement, as it seemed too close.

June 14 Board Meeting

There are a few significant items that will be addressed in the June 14 board meeting.

SEWRPC (South-Eastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission)

SEWRPC will be giving their annual report.  In addition, Resolution 15 will fund the assistance of SEWRPC in develop a plan we are required to maintain for the state, the Washington County Multi-Jurisdictional Plan.  The cost for their assistance will be $43,700 for their assistance in 2016-2018.

Since they are involved in regional planning, I checked in with the County Administrator to find out if they have any role in Milwaukee's trolley project.  I have always maintained that the trolley project is foolish, but as long as Milwaukee is only spending Milwaukee's money, they have every right to be foolish.  I have also maintained that no Washington County taxpayer money should ever be used to fund Milwaukee's trolley in any way, ever.  All of the neighbors I spoke to about my position on Milwaukee's trolley were in complete agreement with me.

I found out that the SEWRPC has been retained by Milwaukee to help in the planning for their trolley.  I also found out that the County currently gives roughly $250,000 per year to the SEWRPC, and that we have no concrete assurances that some of this money is not being used to fund the planning for Milwaukee's trolley.

So there are really 2 issues here:

• Resolution 15, which ONLY funds the assistance of SEWRPC in developing our multijurisdictional plan, a document we are required to maintain.  This plan must be updated for 2018.  I will probably be voting for that resolution, so that our county employees have the resources they need to put together a satisfactory plan.  I would not want us to lose any state funding because we did not put together a satisfactory plan.
• County contributions to SEWRPC.  I will be questioning the SEWRPC about their role in the planning for the trolley, and more specifically how that planning is funded.  Unless Milwaukee is paying for the trolley planning above and beyond their normal contribution, I will be pushing to drop the county's contribution to the SEWRPC from the 2017 budget.

E. H. Wolf & Sons

Resolution 16 would give economic development funds in the amount of $260,000 to help a company named Edward H. Wolf & Sons to grow their business.  You can view the company's website here: http://www.ehwolf.com/

They have acquired property adjacent to one of their existing facilities, and need some financial help with some site preparation expenses including an environmental assessment, environmental remediation, and tear down of the existing structure.  If it is the property I am thinking of, it is currently useless property that has been an eyesore in Slinger for years.

The belief is that, with this expansion, Edward H. Wolf & Sons would be able to grow their business, bring more jobs to Slinger, and strengthen the tax base for Slinger and the County.

This proposal has already passed the Executive Committee, and generally seems like the type of economic development we should be looking to support.

Shoreline & Wetland Legislation

In April, the outgoing county board attempted to review changes to chapter 23 of the county code, which impacts the use of shoreline property.  Because the legislation had been given tot he board only a day or two before the board meeting, the board decided to refer it back to committee.  At that time, there were concerns that the new ordinance was too restrictive.

Ordinance 4 will be a new version of the Chapter 23 amendment.  In checking in with the County
Parks and Planning Director, I learned that the new version of chapter 23 will be more favorable to landowners and less restrictive than the current code. 

Unless I hear that the new code will trigger lawsuits, unduly trample the rights of landowners, or require landowners to tear down existing structures, I plan to support this legislation.

Those are the major things with the upcoming board meeting.  Please feel free to e-mail me with questions, comments, or concerns.

Request for Public Input

This morning for the Executive Board meeting, one agenda item struck me as one that I would like to get some public opinion on.  There is a proposed ordinance change that would adjust the time for morning meetings from 9:00 a.m. to 7:30 a.m.  The times for afternoon and evening meetings would not change, and nothing in this ordinance addresses which meetings would be done during the morning, afternoon, or evening.

I need to check and see if that ordinance passed and whether or not it was amended.

So I want the thoughts of the people I serve.  Please e-mail me at either my county e-mail address or my personal e-mail address and tell me if you see this as:

• A good change
• A bad change
• A meaningless change
• A weird change

Thank you in advance.

Today's Human Services Committee Meeting

Prior to today's Human Services Board meeting, I spent almost an hour and a half meeting with Eric Diamond, the Human Services Administrator.  Eric gave me a lot of great and useful information about the department, and it was a very productive meeting.  He also gave me a tour of the department's facilities.

Vice Chair.
Today we elected the Vice-Chair, and chose a citizen member of the Human Services Committee and a past County Board Supervisor who was the chair of the Human Services Committee at one point in his tenure.  Leslie "Les" Borman is our Vice-Chair.  In talking with him, he seems like a very experienced and knowledgeable resources, so I am glad we have him on the committee.

High Risk Client.
We approved an extra 2% profit for an organization that is assisting us in transitioning a high risk client out of the Winnebago Mental Health Institute ("WMHI") to a residential facility.  The extra profit works out to about $550 per month, and will cover some of the provider's costs in making upgrades to this facility.

For some additional background, WMHI charges $1,289 per day, and this client has been there for 14 months.  So far the county's costs since March of last year for this one case exceeds $500,000.  As well, WMHI is at full capacity when they have 189 patients, and they currently have 210 patients.  With the new arrangement, the daily charge will vary, however a good working estimate is $700 per day.  In discussing this case with Eric prior to the meeting, he gave me every assurance that this new arrangement will very likely improve her recovery prognosis, and that everyone involved in the case agrees that this is a positive step for her.

The net outcome is that we improve the client's prognosis for a recovery and save the county roughly $600 per day.  That works out to $18,000 per month, or $126,000 for this year if the client moves in on June 1st.  This is a win for both the client and us taxpayers.

Thank you to Eric and Jackie, and everyone else on their team, for their hard work in helping this client!

Closed Session
We did go into close session related to a contract negotiation.  I cannot speak to the specifics that were discussed. 

When we came back into open session, I did report that I previously had an employment relationship related to the vendor roughly 2 decades ago for a period of approximately 6 months.  Since I have no current financial arrangement with the vendor, the County Attorney saw no reason for me to abstain from voting on the issue.  Our County Attorney is very ethical on these matters, so I am confident that if there was a conflict, she would have advised me to abstain from voting on the issue. 

Human Services Committee---First Meeting

This Thursday will be my first meeting on the Human Services Board.  For me, I plan to ask a lot of questions so that I can get up to speed as quickly as possible.

There will be 2 key items on the agenda:

1.  Election of a Vice-Chair.  From a realistic perspective, I would be surprised if I received consideration for this position.  That said, I would not turn down the Vice-Chair if neither Dawn or Joe wanted it.

2.  Residential Services for High Risk, High Need Client.  Essentially, right now the county is paying $1,289 per day for this client to be treated at Winnebago Mental Health Institute.  He is being allowed to transition into a community-based arrangement that may help his recovery while providing some cost savings to the county.  Coming into this situation mid-treatment, I want to make sure that we have fully reviewed this arrangement to make sure that it presents more positives than negatives in relation to the treatment, and make sure that any risks have been minimized.  I also want to look at the additional profit the vendor is requesting, and see if that is appropriate.