Letter: Lukas has already proven worth as sheriff
Editor’s note: Open letter guidelines can be found here. For the Aug. 9 primary race, letters of support for county and state candidates will not be accepted after Monday, Aug. 1, and may or may not be included in our weekly print edition.
To the Editor-
I am writing this letter of support for the re-election of Sheriff Mike Lukas.
Portage County needs to keep a sheriff who believes in the service and protection of our citizens and visitors—and at the same time is fiscally responsible with our tax dollars.
Sheriff Lukas has been an officer with our sheriff’s department for 28 years, the last eight years as our sheriff. He has led our sheriff’s department to be one of the best in the State of Wisconsin.
He has formed a great relationship with other county law enforcement officials, our county board, other elected officials, department heads, community leaders, and the citizens of our county. He has taken on the responsibility of taking over the Emergency Management and Emergency Medical Services Divisions in Portage County.
Sheriff Lukas has been successful in obtaining several million dollars in grants and donations to assist his office in offsetting shrinking budget dollars. He has recently applied for and will be receiving a $616,000 grant to purchase body cameras for the deputies to show the department’s transparency in their interaction with our citizens and visitors. The same grant will also provide in-car cameras for all our squad cars. A great savings of our tax dollars.
The COVID-19 pandemic put a strain on the emergency scheduling of both the deputies and corrections officers as well as the office staff. He had to monitor daily the health of staff and jail inmates.
As the chairman of the Public Safety/Emergency Management Committee for the past four years and as the present vice-chairman of this committee, I have worked closely with Sheriff Lukas and I have never seen him falter when he had to make some tough decisions. I believe he has the support of the county board and the majority of Portage County citizens as well as past and present county judges.
I urge all citizens who want to keep professional law enforcement in Portage County to vote Lukas for Sheriff on August 9.
Stan Potocki, Portage Co. Sheriff (Ret.)
District 11 County Board Supervisor