The Lafayette County Board of Supervisors met on Tuesday, April 21 to elect officers, reorganize committees and hear from President and CEO of Attolles Law Andy Phillips regarding roles and responsibilities within county government and ethics and conflicts of interest.
There were only two contested races for the county board of supervisors in District #1 and District #12. Both incumbents Larry Ludlum and Carmen McDonald won their district races so the entire board stayed the same. District #16 Rita Buchholz stepped down from her position. A write in candidate was elected into the position but that person declined the position. David Halloran was appointed to the seat. Halloran has served on the board for seven years about 10 years ago. He told the other supervisors he looks forward to working with all of them. District #17 Bob Boyle made the motion to appoint Halloran to the District #16 seat with McDonald seconding. The motion passed unanimously.
District #2 Supervisor Jack Sauer, who has held the chairman position for several years, was absent from the meeting so it was run by District #15 Supervisor Scott Pedley. Sauer expressed to Pedley that he would like to remain as chairman. Ludlum made the motion with District #15 Supervisor Emmett Reilly seconding the motion to have Sauer remain as chairman of the board. The vote passed unanimously.
First-vice chairman was unanimously voted on as Pedley. Second-vice chairman had two nominations of McDonald and District #5 Supervisor Luke McGuire. McDonald won the seat 9- 6.
Those voted onto the Highway Committee were District #4 Supervisor John Reichling, District #13 Supervisor Lee Gill, McDonald and Boyle.
For the Executive, Rules, and Legislative Committee are required to have the firstand second-vice chair on the board. Sauer requested that Reichling, Gill and District #8 Supervisor Jed Gant be placed on the committee. The motion passed unanimously.
The board also approved the adoption of the rules of the county board. The only change made was to update Memorial Hospital of Lafayette County throughout the rules to Lafayette Hospital + Clinics.
District #9 Supervisor Joe Schutte informed the board that the village of Argyle recently purchased the former First National Bank and Trust building to convert it into their community center and library. The library board has requested to expand their board by two additional members. This can only be done with an allowance by the county board. Schutte made the motion with Gill seconding to approve the appointments to the Argyle Library Board of Valerie Steiner and Jean- Margaret Beech. That motion passed unanimously.
Rules within county
Andy Phillips from Attolles Law has been working with the county for 25 years. He came to give a refresher course on roles and responsibilities within the county and ethics and conflicts of interest.
The county board is ruled by Wisconsin State Legislature Chapter 59. These rules tell the board what authority they have over certain things. They can also have different forms of government: county executive, county administrator and county administrative coordinator. Lafayette County has an appointed administrative coordinator, that being the board chairman and operates under a self-organized structure. Administrative coordinator is the most flexible. For example, Lafayette County has the authority to be able to set their own amount of supervisors.
Many counties are going towards having a county administrator due to the amount of time it takes to do everything that needs to be done to run a county and the ever changing laws and mandates.
There is no one definition as what a supervisor does in the county. Supervisors don’t have individual authority. They have two responsibilities: to adopt policy and hold staff accountable for the policies adopted.
Committees are where most of the heavy lifting is done. Committees make sure the information is fully vetted before it goes on to the county board. Staff have two roles: to carry out the policy and give supervisors information to make good policies. Phillip told the board that it is okay to say you don’t know something. County board supervisors can’t solve all of their constituents problems but are there to guide them to the person who can help.
In a small county conflict of interests can sometimes be tricky. The Lafayette County board doesn’t have an ethics code but Phillips helped the board members understand the difference between a conflict of interest versus the appearance of a conflict.
Future agenda items
The board talked about future agenda items. One was an update on the old hospital. There is a discussion happening at the Manor Committee about if that space is viable for their new home and the intent to try and have a referendum question on the November ballot.
Ludlum stated the committee has hired a financial advisor and are having meetings talking with that person on the subject of a new Manor facility. He felt that bringing that to the board next month might be premature. He felt that June or July might be a better time.
“I have a strong feeling that we should go out in the country, buy land and get it big enough to maybe have an assisted living. We have to be careful that we don’t create such a big burden on taxpayers,” Ludlum said. But the general consensus amongst the committee is the need to leave their current facility.
Both Gant and Pedley stated they haven’t seen or heard of the Manor being in such a good financial way before and it is very good news. Ludlum would like to see if the Manor could generate enough income that they don’t have to burden the general fund but be able to support it.
“We have a very good financial person there and the administrator is working diligently. We are looking at a positive summer. We are better off financially now then we have ever been. We are very dedicated to taking care of our elderly,” Ludlum said.
The board then discussed about possibly having the Manor up near the hospital’s campus but not on the campus due to Medicare rates would decrease if the Manor were to share a campus. The Manor would need to be placed on a separate parcel. Pedley made a point in mentioning that the hospital is not on anyone’s tax bills and that it is self sustaining.
The next board meeting will be May 19 at 7 p.m. in the county board room.
