On this part of the morning show, we're going to put the focus on Richland County, and we have County Board Chair, Kerry Severson in.
We have Trish Clements, County Administrator joining us as well today in the studio.
We appreciate you both coming in today.
Thank you for having us.
We appreciate that.
Yeah, well, let's talk a little bit about some things going on, because it's not for a lack of things to talk about today, Trish.
That's right.
So let's start a little bit about the budget.
Recently, we're able to get that through, and let's talk about that a little bit, and how that went.
Yeah, so we got our budget passed on Tuesday night.
We do have a balanced budget.
We did not have to use fund balance to balance the budget, which was really good.
We had to use a little bit last year, but we were able to make some adjustments this year and not have to touch our fund balance, which was good.
Kind of enlighten us a little bit with, you know, in the county.
Where are some of the expenses, some of the biggest expenses for the county?
I think our biggest expenses are health and human services, our highway department, and our sheriff's department.
Those are our three biggest expenses that we have.
And as far as challenging, we all know it is, you know, trying to balance it.
What are some of the biggest challenges in trying to balance it?
I think what's happening is we're continuing to ask being asked to do the same, if not more, and the revenues don't increase.
You know, our county doesn't grow and that's how counties get additional revenue is by net new construction.
And we're not there.
And honestly, across the state, there isn't a single county whose net new construction matches or exceeds inflation.
So it's an issue that every county has across the state.
If you get out of a say in it, how would you like to see it change then maybe from less far as statewide funding and what the counties are allowed and things like that?
I really wish the state would take a look at what they're mandating us to do and then having the funds to match what our mandates are.
You know, some of the mandates that we have have been there for decades and the dollar amounts have moved very, very little.
Last year we did receive some new funds for the clerk of court's office with some different things which has been helpful and that was one of the things that helped us balance our budget this year was that.
But it seems like it's piece work.
It's a little bit at a time.
that we're trying to do.
Kerry, we welcome you to the broadcast.
Good morning to you.
How are you doing?
I'm doing OK.
How are you?
Wonderful.
Wonderful.
That's
good.
Taking over as the county board chair, kind of a tough time.
Has it been a kind of learning experience so far?
More than a learning experience.
It's been pretty challenging.
I've been on the county board for about 10 years now.
And in this role as chair, I think this is probably the most
I don't know really how to describe it.
We've had more contentious issues going on at this term of the county board than I've experienced.
You know, there's always been some issues and they've happened.
We've dealt with them, but there's been multiple at once and dealing with the campus, EMS, our budget constraints, all at once and it's kind of challenging.
Yeah,
well, that's part of the reason we invited you down here because I think a lot of times, you know, transparency is key, you know, people can talk about you should be doing this or, you know, standing on the outside, you know, when you're put in there, you know, you got to make some tough decisions sometimes, don't you?
Yes, you making tough decisions, but it comes down to the team that I have with me with the county board supervisors and with our administrator also.
So I do rely heavily on
our county board vice chair and our administrator.
I take feedback from both of them, but also our supervisors and then our constituents also and make up a determination of what would be best to move forward objectives and different things for our county.
Oh, you brought up the ambulance service.
Now that you did, I'll ask you about that.
How about the county board and how you stand on that one,
Kerry?
I really am passionate about EMS.
I really like EMS.
a licensed provider for EMS for the state of Wisconsin currently.
I work for Vernon Health and I cannot be with Richland County EMS or employed by them because they are a county entity and with me being on the county border supervisors,
doesn't allow me to.
However, I have a strong risk background in EMS and understand the functions of how it goes.
Um, far as the patient care wise, everything where I've learned and gained knowledge at was in my last 10 years of being on the county board is the financial aspect of it and the governance of how EMS is actually operated.
And so there's a, there's a difference between providing patient care and then funding patient care.
So.
Okay.
Trish?
Yeah, one of the things, you know, when you asked how, you know, things we'd like to see different, you know, EMS funding is one of the big ones, you know, there really isn't any funding out there by the state to help support us, you know, it's a mandatory service.
It should be a mandatory service.
It's something we should provide.
And there isn't funding there.
Medicaid dollars keep continuing to decrease.
That's part of the funding revenue.
It just keeps getting tougher and tougher to be able to provide quality services.
You know and this is one of those things that started as a volunteer service back in the 70s when it started and it started out that way everywhere We just don't have the volunteers that we used to life has just gotten so much busier It's harder for people to take time away to volunteer and it has become a profession which it should be
So let's talk about the decision because initially I think you were looking at the end of next year, like next December.
I think we heard recently that it's next June when the EMS will be no longer.
So maybe you could talk about that.
Yeah, so we had earlier this year had hoped and planned and passed a resolution that we would cover all county services levy and outside of the levy limit.
We had a couple of municipalities that indicated that they would take legal and regulatory action against us if we followed through with that.
And it was really about the inequitable distribution of those funds.
We did consult with legal counsel and the decision was made we can't chance losing additional funding for the future, not additional losing funding for the future.
So we had to take that off the table.
That put us in a position where we now are saying to the municipalities, we need you to continue to fund it as you had been.
Our costs continue to go up, their funding isn't increasing, and so we're in a position where some of our services were, some of the municipalities hadn't committed.
to using our service for 2027.
Doesn't mean they're not going to, they just hadn't committed.
Based on that, with our budget the way it was, we didn't have the ability to support the service full-time in 2027 if all the municipalities didn't participate with us.
Based on that, we made the decision that June 30th would be our end date.
When we made that decision, the main three things we took into consideration was, let's make sure we're taking care of our staff.
At the board meeting on Tuesday night, we approved a union contract that included a severance package.
If they stayed till the end, they could get a severance package, so we were taking care of our staff.
The second part was making sure we're taking care of our community.
Our community needs somebody to provide that ambulance service.
Like we've said earlier, it's a required service.
We really need to have that in place.
And then the third thing is to give the
municipalities ample time to put something else in place They've been meeting they've been talking about engaging with the third-party provider.
I know this past month They've been working on drafting a request for proposals so they could get some bids coming in So we're hopeful that the eight months plus that we're giving them will be enough time
carry anything you want to add
Yeah So Richland County has provided EMS since 1972
And that is not a requirement of county government in chapter 59 of the state statutes However in chapter 60 of the state statutes, which refers to towns Is chapter 60 a believe five Chapter 60 point five six five Provides that towns shall provide EMS and so
Since 1972 the county has been providing that which there is a state statute in chapter 59 that allows counties may provide EMS service.
I was not born in 1972 so I don't know why that all happened where counties were providing that and
Right now we're just at a point where we do have fiscal constraints and some of those constraints are due to 2006 legislation that Counties are not in even local governments are not able to increase their levy their property tax levy and That is at a hold and so
The only ways that counties can or local governments can increase their tax levy is through net new construction, which means new houses being built new businesses, you know being built or Coming to our area or borrowing money
And so we see that with counties that we're borrowing a little bit more than normal, especially in our area where we're not having that net new construction.
So when we have a mandated services and non mandated services, and so right now we're the statute say counties may.
Provide amulet service and you got in chapter 60 where towns shall provide amulet service We're at this point right now where what is mandated and not mandated?
just because the cost of inflation has increased to An absorbable amount of money.
Um, we have to consider
Where are we at right now and what we can provide?
And so we want to work as a county Being a team effort with the Towns Association How could we provide EMS and I think the Towns Association right now the Russian County Towns Association They want to take it and run with it and do what they please and we wanted to work with them
Um, but right now they're on their own little, um, learning experience and feel that they can go outside and provide EMS coverage, uh, in a different way.
How do we as residents then, you know, next year, how will we know who's coming to get us if we are in need?
Um,
That would be up to the towns They are looking at maybe going to a third-party contractor Richland County government
as a whole is open and willing to talk with the Towns Association on considering our EMS level.
But if they want to go to a third party, that's up to them.
They have to provide that coverage in Chapter 60.
They shall provide that.
And so that's up to them.
If they request for proposals, there are third party providers that are out there that are willing to provide service.
that would happen.
Um, ultimately with me being in a first responder role, I guess you would call that, you know, I'm a licensed EMT and I'm also a firefighter with the original center fire department.
Um, this care to, um, the citizens that I represent, um, I do not want to see that lack being there.
And so I'm going to help facilitate that in whatever way that it is.
And if the third party is they want to go with that, that's up to them.
So
Okay, we wanted to talk a little bit about the proposal for a new jail been talking a little bit about that recently Trish and that's another hot topic
It is it is so we the county board has created an ad hoc jail committee and what the purpose is is to really look at
Do we need a new jail?
If we do, what are our options?
So last night we had a meeting and really talked about some options.
You know, can we just build an addition on?
Do we build a whole new facility?
Can we remodel our facility?
But part of remodeling our facility would then be housing our inmates someplace else.
And what would that look like?
And so they had a lot of great questions for us last night.
The committee did and we're gonna come back in end of November with a lot of
different ideas and suggestions for them.
So this is really just an exploratory option.
Our jail is old.
It's time that we need to do something different really to ensure the safety of our staff and the safety of our inmates.
It's really just deciding what is that right next
step.
So we talked about the the mandated and non-mandated services that counties provide, right?
So we talked about the ambulance that is non-mandated, but but we do think that ambulance is an essential function of society and it is it is The requirement and statutes of what we're supposed to provide and what we're allowed to by levy by tax dollars to provide Our jail is is a high cost
we have to provide jail services and that's in the statute.
And so we need to focus on what we are mandated for.
However, I wouldn't be opposed to funding like non mandated stuff because parks are non mandated also.
So our jail is was built back in 1980s.
We are grandfathered right now to this point from our jail inspector.
We are in compliance.
It's just that we need to start looking at how can we update to Today's modern terms, I guess or modern stuff
And one of the things I think people don't realize is that there are different levels of people that are incarcerated.
You know, I mean, you can't do it like you used to.
They've got to be housed in different areas, right, Trish, as I understand.
That is correct.
There's nine different classifications.
And they're grouped into three different sections, those nine classifications.
And so a one can't be with a nine and a one and a two can maybe be together, but they have to have separate funks.
It's very complicated.
And this is something that the state has insisted that we comply with.
Carrie talked about certain things being grandfathered in.
That is one thing that they said, we're no longer grandfathering you in.
You have to follow the classification system.
So even though I believe our jail is a 42 bed jail.
Typically the most we can have in there is about 26 because of that if everybody committed the exact same crimes We'd be in a much better spot, but that doesn't happen
then you talk about carry the cost of if you have to Transport inmates to somewhere else to house them then that's an expense for the county as well
It is an expense for the county and then we're relying on those other counties of what their cost would be And we still have all the medical expenses to pay for that inmate the food in housing them and
So that's a, we're exploring that in that jail ad hoc committee.
Cause one of those things is, do we build a new jail?
It's just not going out and wanting to build a new jail, but what would it be?
And what would the cost be to transport to maybe Vernon County or Iowa County or Grant County?
But then you would probably need a full-time transport person, you know, benefits and vehicle to haul them.
It's just what, what is that number?
And so, right.
That's why we have an ad hoc committee to explore that and to look into it a little bit more.
There must be an astronomical number because Trish just about
kipped over in her chair there.
And it is, it's a very large number so it is something that the committee is not taking lightly.
The other thing that I wanted to
add on with what Carrie had to say.
The other challenge we have, if we house our inmates elsewhere, if they all of a sudden have an event and they have five people coming into their jail, they have the right to call us up and say, you need to come and get them now.
And then we'd have to come get our inmates and move them.
And so that is an additional challenge that we would look at with...
transporting them.
So these are all the things that committee is going to look at and really weigh in the pros and cons of what is the best solution in the end.
And we all know though, the longer you wait on something, construction costs continue to rise, don't they?
Yes.
Most definitely.
The other thing I want to talk about is the 765 kilovolt lines, another light topic here.
And we want to talk about the county's decision.
And we're seeking legal advice on that.
And how does the county stand right now on that?
Um, so right now our corporation council has been meeting with the Wisconsin counties association and the other counties that are impacted by the Becky line and really are trying to talk about what is the best.
Next step.
What's the best solution?
You know, what role should the county have in that?
So we do plan to talk again about this topic Monday night at our executive and finance committee meeting.
Kerry, anything you want to add?
Right now the nine counties that are impacted by the Becky line we are meeting at the county board chairs our corporation councils and administrators or administrative coordinators are meeting virtually and talking about how what the next steps are for us to be interveners in this proposal.
So we we're not taking it lightly.
This is a serious issue.
And I do, um, agree that I think there could be other proposals out there that maybe, um, MISO or MISO could, uh, look at alternative routes for our area.
Right.
One of the things, and there's just all these varying, uh, information coming in all the time, but I heard something about if they gain utility status, um, then
Your ability to stop them goes away.
Is that correct?
I don't know if it goes away That would come down to The public service commission Allowing them to go through so what right now so mid-continent grid solutions is a company that was awarded by me so to
install these lines and put them in.
Right now, they're just a private entity company out of Iowa.
They're looking for utility status in Wisconsin.
Well, right now, like Richland Center Utilities has a utility status.
American Transmission Company has utility status.
There's various other utilities just that Midcontinent Grid Solutions put in a bid to me, so they were awarded this.
They need to have that.
And in reason why they want utility status is for condemnation.
And to be able to say, hey, we need our line is going to come through your property.
We want to negotiate with you what it's going to cost for your land to have this here.
What is that?
And that landowner says, no, I don't want you to go through here at all.
And then you go through the process of element domain.
And that's where that utility company has that legal authority to come in and go in front of the court system.
as with the landlord and them to say, hey, we need to have this tower on your property.
And the landlord says, I don't want it here.
And so that's where that legality comes in.
OK.
I've heard, too, that townships have quite a bit of clout in this.
Have you ever heard that, either of you?
I have heard that the towns may have a little bit more authority than what the counties do.
I know the towns have been busy passing resolutions, and they are concerned about this just as we are.
Okay, another topic we wanted to ask you a little bit about is the recent suit between the county and the city in terms of the veterans Graves and maybe you could talk about that from your standpoint either of you
Yeah, so um state statute Authorizes anybody who runs a cemetery whether it's a municipality or whether it's a
private entity or church or a cemetery group to be reimbursed for veterans graves.
To have the reimbursement happen, the data and the paperwork has to be submitted to the county clerk by the 1st of September.
When that didn't happen and we received it from the city two weeks later at that time, we denied it.
It's really difficult to maintain budgets to be able to have
government that runs smoothly if we don't have timelines and if we don't have expectations.
And so if we start to make exceptions for one, we have to make exceptions for all.
I know last year we denied a couple because they were turned in late.
This year the city wasn't the only one that was turned in late.
So we denied the other ones too.
So we're just waiting to see.
You know, the writ of mandamus was filed and it sounds like that's as long as there's like a baseline, the judge signs it.
And we have submitted our rebuttal to quash that writ and we're going to just wait for next steps.
Okay.
I think that maybe trying to understand it a little bit, but I mean, you're pretty well strapped financially too, right?
So like dates, deadlines are pretty important then.
And they are very much so.
Yeah, very much so important.
And I think the other challenge with this is, you know, we had budgeted about 8,000 to reimburse for vet graves.
What the city submitted to us was around 17.
I mean, that is not at all why we denied it.
We denied it because of the time frames.
But yeah, absolutely.
It wasn't like we already had it in our budget and we could have paid it.
It was more than what we expected.
Kerry, anything that you wanted to add?
Yeah, I actually want to recite the actual statute that
is in Wisconsin statutes for the care of veterans graves in his chapter 45 85 it says every town board village board or common council of every city shall at all times see that the graves and tombstones of all veterans including women's auxiliary organizations created by the act of congress um in my opinion that would mean the vfw auxiliary in american legion auxiliary um
who shall at any time have served in any branch of the U.S.
Armed Forces and of the spouses or serving spouses of all those veterans receive proper and decent care and may employ all necessary assistance to carry out this section.
The expense of the care of the graves in tombstones shall be borne by the county where the graves are located, except where suitable care is otherwise provided.
The amount of expense charged the county for the care may not exceed the charge made for the care of other graves in the same cemetery.
In parent two, it says the governing body specified in sub one, which I just read shall report to the county clerk of its county on.
or before September 1st of each year, the locations of the graves cared for by the governing body under sub one, which I previously read, together with the names of the deceased in the amount claimed for care of the graves for the fiscal year from the previous July 1st to June 30th.
And then in parentheses, only three points here.
the chairperson of the county board and the county clerk upon receipt of the report under sub two, which I just read, not the one before, but I just read she'll draw an order on the county treasurer for the amount of the expenses incurred and caring for the grace payable to the person or persons designated in the report as being entitled to the payment.
So previously we had a county clerk who
function and help out recent county.
That person resigned and moved away.
We have a new county clerk in the new county clerk looked at the statute and he said, Oh, honor before September 1st.
And he's following the guy because we are charged as a county board is to follow the law.
He did and
denied that payment because they were late by 14 days It's not that we don't care about veterans.
It's just that this is what it said and they um our clerk denied that um and We're at where we're at right now with the writ of mandamus because the city feels that maybe they should have been granted because of the previous years that our clerk did allow that to be paid and
but that was the previous one and we got a new one and that was his interpretation of it.
In terms of numbers that's a big jump in terms of what is needed.
What would you say like an eight or nine thousand dollar more than you expected them
to?
Yeah and I don't know why you know we didn't review their claim to take a look at what was the difference from last year to this year.
We didn't take a look at that so we're not really sure what caused that jump.
In terms of numbers, Trish, how much does it cost to run the county?
I mean, I can't balance my own checkbook.
I don't know how you do
that.
So our budget was just under 50 million.
Well,
so yeah, it is a lot.
It is a lot.
We have a finance director and she does amazing work and really keeps on top of the department heads.
I think we have some amazing department heads who really keep track of their budget, understand what their constraints are, what they can and can't spend.
And so I think they've done a great job.
The department heads also this year did a great job in helping us balance the budget.
They really took a deep dive and came with budgets that were workable, which was much appreciated.
A lot of tough work.
You still enjoy your work.
Most days, yes.
And last year you were here, you said that as well.
You
like
numbers, you like crunching numbers
and
things
like that.
There's a
lot of numbers to crunch.
And I definitely enjoy county government.
I truly believe we're here to help and support people and you know, that's the purpose of government.
So I do enjoy that aspect of the job very much.
I appreciate you guys coming in today and kind of shedding some light on some of the things that have been talked about in the community.
Carry anything else that you want to add?
County government is kind of unique and we're an arm of the state legislature and so the powers that are granted to counties Are only through the administrative function of government or what the state statutes allow us to do and so people may say hey, why can't you do this?
Why can't you do that?
Well
We can't do that.
It may seem reasonable, but the state statutes in our constitution of Wisconsin in the United States say, hey, we need to do this and we have to follow that.
We're a little bit unique other than other municipalities where they have home rule.
Counties have administrative home rule and that's where we get into what we're granted to do.
I just want people to understand that
that levy from 2006 or that levy freezes and I'm you know I'll get criticized for this and I'm willing to take it I've been in government for 10 years and seen stuff here um everybody needs to be be thrifty with their finances and in things like that but the ideology of um
Want winning over taxpayer votes or winning over votes to gain is like as an example Read my lips no more new taxes
government needs to stay out of things and do that mentality I do agree with that to a certain extent but when we are charged with mandated services and That levy is not there that we're making we need to be able to increase that right well I mean some of the provide those essential services right and that funding is not there and everybody's worried about raising your taxes and
I totally agree with that, that it is an issue, but that's a far bigger issue than what local government is.
That's at your national and state level that they need to be talking about that.
The local level, we're struggling with where we're at right now and we need the funding.
And if we're not growing as a community and we could try all we want to try to get people to come here to live and whatever, how can you build a newer house in this day and age?
with even a single homeowner in work and then be able to pay for that with the utilities and everything that it costs.
You can't do it right now.
You can't.
And so that's where I think our state legislature and our national government needs to recognize that.
You're going through a lot of the same challenges that our school, our public schools are as
well.
You know, it's kind of the same thing.
And they go to referendum all the time, you know, just to.
operate well counties do have an ability so that's one of the ways that counties have the ability to increase our levy that we have is to go to a referendum and ask to increase that increase your taxes that's a school districts do it quite a bit um that's their mechanism that they have but one mechanism that counties do have is to go to referendum
And we could ask the taxpayer, Hey, this is our operational levy.
We can't raise taxes for, you know, non mandated stuff and, but we can ask them to increase our levy and maybe that's an option.
But, um, we explored that here like four years ago and, um, we chose not to raise that.
Um, I know that it caught the eye of our then Senator, state Senator Mark loin and.
Assemblyman Kurtz, who are both on the Joint Finance Committee for the State of Wisconsin, maybe the chairs of that, and they thought that that wasn't a good idea.
We ultimately chose they know we could do that, but I'm willing to have a discussion on should we implement that?
Should we implement going to referendum?
I can't make that decision.
The 21 supervisors make that decision.
Well, wasn't it talked about when you were discussing all the options for the ambulance or for the EMS as well, like the possible referendum to help fund that or not?
Or did I dream that?
Well, it wasn't really a referendum.
So counties have the ability to.
So the government agency, you know, towns have to provide EMS, but counties out of all that.
So so towns and municipalities.
shall provide EMS.
The state legislature made a statute that said counties can levy above the actual levy limit for EMS service.
And that's what we were doing.
And we were the only entity that could.
There are 14 counties in the state of Wisconsin that are levying right now a countywide.
for service and we chose to go that route to help alleviate or Reduce some expenses, I guess on our general levy not really.
Oh, I'm saying um, so yeah
Trish?
Yeah, there was some discussion you know when we were trying to decide what to do and that was one of the discussion points was should we continue to operate our service as we do because there's a lot of capital projects that need to be taken care of there and is it one that should go to the taxpayers you know where we go to the taxpayers and say do you want us to continue our service we can't do advisory referendums but we could have a referendum that says you know
Shall Richland County continue to provide the service and would the taxpayers pay for that?
So it was one of the options that we did talk about.
In all those 14 counties, six of those are county operated and county funded.
So Door County is one of those.
Washera County.
Marquette County Sawyer County Russ County are all part of a county owned and operated ambulance But the other counties that are have this levy that do operate or support EMS whether they own the equipment operate that or Fun County wide but then distribute that to let's say like the the smaller services in our area like
the Kikapu Viola, Kazanovia, you know, Muscaday.
All those counties that do levy attacks are like Milwaukee County, Door County, Portage County, Oneida, Green Lake County, Washira.
Taylor, Marquette, Florence, Sawyer, Lincoln, Rusk, Bayfield, and Lafayette County.
And Lafayette County is similar in size and similar in Lavey in many ways to Richland County.
And they are a county operated and owned ambulance service.
Interesting.
Appreciate you guys coming in.
Good talk today.
Good luck with you.
Keep on keeping on.
Yes indeed.
I know it's not always easy topics to talk about but we invite you to come back and you know on a regular basis who'd like to see you again.
Appreciate you having us.
Thanks
a lot.
You bet.
Trish Clements joining us.
County Administrator and County Board Chair Kerry Severson on the morning show.