Bill Freudenberg remains past noon for meeting

STAR JOURNAL REPORT

An Oneida County supervisor, who has been criticized by his peers for continually leaving the monthly County Board meetings early without all the agenda items being voted on, stayed past noon for Tuesday’s meeting.

Bill Freudenberg, who represents Wards 7, 11 and 13 in the city of Rhinelander, remained to vote in favor of the resolution calling for the Department on Aging to merge with an Aging and Disability Resource Center in the county and for the county to withdraw as a partner from the ADRC of the Northwoods.

After that vote, which passed 16-4 following a lengthy discussion, the County Board took a 5-minute recess at around 12:25 p.m. when Freudenberg was excused from the rest of the meeting by County Board chairman Dave Hintz.

Because of Freudenberg’s previous early departures before noon at County Board meetings, which typically begin at 9:30 a.m., another county supervisor, Tom Kelly, who represents Wards 3 and 4 in Rhinelander, brought to Hintz’s attention a provision in state law in which the County Board chairman could issue a warrant to require the sheriff to arrest Freudenberg for leaving a board meeting “without good cause or without first being excused by the board” and have him brought back to the meeting.

Freudenberg also drew criticism for previously leaving committee meeting early, prompting the county’s Administration Committee to direct corporation counsel Brian Desmond to revise the rules of procedure for supervisors, for which he will be drafting language based on suggested changes provided by the committee members for them to consider when they meet next month.