Letter: Three elected officials make case for county administrator
To the Editor-
Why switch from a county executive to a county administrator?
In 2006, Portage County voted to create a county executive position. The first county executive was Mark Maslowski, followed by Patty Drier for two terms, Chris Holman for one term, and recently John Pavelski who has now served for two years.
While all of them have certainly been well-meaning and committed public servants, none of them came to the position with the requisite experience in handling a $100+ million budget or hundreds of employees.
Additionally, in 18 years of having a county executive position, not one major county capital improvement project has been accomplished, such as building a new jail, law enforcement center, or courthouse in spite of these things being issues for nearly two decades. Instead, each of the prior elected county executives has had to wage a large county-wide campaign followed by a year or more getting up to speed on how the county and its finances work.
All the while, they have had to consider whether they would run again, and how their decisions would impact their chances of reelection. The required training period to understand county operations, the amount of time devoted to campaigning and seeking re-election, and the uncertainty of a likely change in leadership every four years present real costs to county operations and project planning and completion.
It is time to get a professional administrator to oversee our county departments, without fear of political reprisal or influence. It is time to hire a person who has the education, experience, and vision to manage a $135 million annual budget and over 630 full-time permanent employees.
Wisconsin statute 59.18(6) is clear on those qualifications and specifically requires the following:
“The county administrator shall be appointed solely on merit. In appointing the county administrator, the board shall give due regard to training, experience, administrative ability, and general qualifications and fitness for performing the duties of the office, and no person shall be eligible to the office of county administrator, who is not by training, experience, ability and efficiency qualified and generally fit to perform the duties of such office. No weight or consideration shall be given by the board to residence, to nationality, or to political or religious affiliations.”
In stark contrast, the only training, experience, and temperament required to be elected to the County Executive’s position is that the person be a Portage County resident. This limits the candidate pool geographically, as well as by experience.
While we’d like to believe that the voters will do their homework and always elect the most qualified person the reality is that other limitations come with the requirement of waging a county-wide political campaign. The candidate knows that they may lose their job in four years if the voters become disgruntled, or someone simply has more money to spend on advertising.
Who would run for such a job, knowing that they may be fired by the voters in four years, as was the case with two former Executives who both waged unsuccessful reelection campaigns?
Further, our entire county board is up for election every two years introducing flux every two years on the county board. Who at the county level is ensuring continuity, thoughtfulness, and adherence to county goals and values? Who at the county is ensuring that all projects are moved forward with consistency and logical rationale to ensure that the county’s requirement to serve our residents is accomplished without any major breaks in service or neglect of infrastructure?
It also begs the question of who is providing leadership and support to departments allowing them to strategically plan and carry out needed services. Currently, the county exec goes through a four-year cycle of learning the job, working on a budget, figuring out how to implement their goals, and then running for office again. Only one county exec has been successfully re-elected in our county.
Consider municipalities like the Village of Plover that have had the same Administrator for 21 years; as it expanded, as roads were rebuilt, and through countless trustees from both political parties. Their administrator was the constant that allowed the Village to accomplish tremendous growth in a relatively smooth fashion. Compare that to what the County has achieved during the same period; turmoil, indecision, seesawing, and reversing course.
It is time to move the County forward in a unified direction with a qualified, non-political person bringing the structure of the County together in a values-driven fashion. It is time to focus on root causes and community welfare, not political gamesmanship. It is time to do away with the county executive position and replace it with a qualified county administrator.
Presiding Portage County Judge Trish Baker
Portage County Board Chair Ray Reser
Portage County Sheriff Mike Lukas