Oneida County Circuit Court Judge Patrick O’Melia took a few minutes out of his schedule to swear in six new supervisors to the Oneida County board last Tuesday morning. Those new members include Bob Martini, Jack Sorensen, Jerry Shidell, Bob Mott, Jim Intrepidi and Candy Sorensen.

The board also unanimously voted to re-elect Ted Cushing as chairman of the board. Supervisor Paul Dean nominated Supervisor Bob Metropulos but he declined the nomination. “Thank you very much for the nomination but I am going to respectively decline,” said Metropulos. “I feel I can better serve being a board member only and have more latitude as far as independence goes.”

The board then elected Dave Hintz as first vice chairman and Tom Rudolph as second vice chair. Highway committee members were also chosen and include Sonny Pazak, Gary Baier, Scott Holewinski , Jerry Shidell and Mike Timmons.

Another agenda item included adopting an amended signage resolution. One point of contention with this revision was the size of political signs. “Some of these signs are as big as billboards,” said Candy Sorensen. The original resolution stated that a political sign could be no more than 12 square feet while the amended resolution changed that size to 32 square feet. Martini was against this change. “We don’t need these signs getting any bigger,” he said. “There’s too many of them as it is. I make a motion we change the amendment back to 12 square feet.” Supervisor Tom Rudolph agreed. “These signs pollute our landscape,” he said. “Let’s keep our landscape looking attractive. Twelve square feet is more than adequate.”

Shidell had a different take. “This is about freedom of expression,” he said. “If we keep going downhill I’m not going to support that.”

The motion to keep political signs at 12 square feet failed. Those voting for the amendment included, Intrepidi, Romelle Vandervest, Carole Pederson, Rudolph, Mott, Martini, Metropulos, Candy Sorensen and Billy Fried. Those voting to allow 32 square foot signs and not change the resolution included, Shidell, Denny Thompson, Jack Martinson, Greg Berard, Jack Sorensen, Dave Hintz, Scott Holewinski, Mike Timmons and Gary Baier.

In other business the board:

• Appointed Larry Mathein as the new medical examiner. He will work 13 hours a week;

• Appointed LuAnn Brunette as the new building and grounds director after the resignation of Curt Krouze in March.

• Voted to reduce per diems for board members when they attend the monthly county board meeting from $75 to $70. Board members will be paid $40 for every committee meeting they attend and board chair persons will receive an additional $10 when they preside over a meeting.

• Adopted a Code of Ethics and Dispute Resolution document for county board members.

• Approved a tentative agreement for 2012, 2013 and 2014 between the Labor Relations and Employee Services committee and the Wisconsin Professional Police Association.

Associate Editor Mary Ann Doyle is available at [email protected].