Holewinski to serve third term as county board chair, Mikalauski re-elected as council president

A record seven women took the oath of office last Tuesday morning when the new members of the Oneida County Supervisors were sworn in following the April 7 election, but the board leadership will remain the same as Sugar Camp’s Scott Holewinski was re-elected by the group to serve a third term as board chair. Russ Fisher of Pelican and Dan Hess of Newbold were re-elected as first vice chair and second vice chair respectively. Holewinski was the only nominee for the board chairman position. He also ran unopposed for his board seat.
Following the vote, he noted that he has served on the county board nearly a quarter of a century.
“I’d like to thank the whole board for trusting my leadership to vote for me for my third term as your county board chairman,” he said. “Also, I’d like to congratulate all of the returning board of supervisor members and also acknowledge our first term supervisors… I now start my 25th year on the county board, along with Ted Cushing.”
Holewinski also offered prepared remarks on the board’s recent accomplishments.
“Today I want to talk about the positive accomplishments that the county board did for the past two years to save money and improve the quality of services. We completed the elimination of the Tri-County Human Service Program — Oneida, Forest and Vilas County — into each county having their own human service center, and we did this with all three counties agreeing on how we settled ownership of buildings and assets, along with distribution of remaining funds. We also agreed that if any costs for the old human service program materialized, each county would pay their share of the debt. Social services and human services are now under one department and committee.

“The next item is the creation of a county administrative coordinator position (held by Tracy Hartman who also serves as county clerk), which is a go-between between the county board supervisors and departments. This position reports to the Executive Committee, which coordinates management functions not assigned to other elected officials or commissions. It assists the county board supervisors with reports, agendas, policies and research. It also develops, maintains and trains department heads on countywide procedures, processes and manuals. She also assists in the proper preparation of our annual budget and participates in the county risk management program. The administrative coordinator puts out a monthly newsletter to keep all county supervisors informed on what’s happening in all county departments.
“We eliminated the administrative committee made up of five supervisors and created the executive committee made up of seven supervisors. The county board chairman and first and second vice chairs are automatically on this committee, and the chair appoints four additional supervisors to the committee. The committee oversees the county’s core administrative functions, acting as a direct link between the county board and departmental operations. We have also created a much better department head yearly evaluation form, which all supervisors can input on. It is now a better system to keep department heads accountable for their job descriptions — talk about what’s positive that they are doing, what’s not being done to expectations and how to improve them.”
Holewinski also spoke about the county’s financial challenges.
“Over the years we’ve increased revenue through stumpage, zoning fees, register of deeds fees, housing of inmates, and moved some expenditures into non-levy-limit accounts to balance our budget — and now we are running out of options for a balanced budget,” he said. “We have to look at this: do we want to cut back on ambulance service, law enforcement, less winter maintenance on our roads, less road construction to repair our rural county roads, or maintenance of our county facilities — or do we address wages and benefits and all non-mandated services? These will be the hard decisions moving forward for this county board.”
The seven female members, one-third of the 21-person board, are Debbie Condado, Lenore Lopez. Linnaea Newman and Collette Sorgel, who were re-elected, and newly elected members Mary Roth Burns, Sandy Hamburg and Andrea Sheppard. Kyle Kilbourn of Woodboro was the other newly elected board member sworn in last week. Newman, who was also elected to the Rhinelander Common Council, took the oath of office for that position Tuesday evening. She now holds the District 6 seat vacated by David Holt who chose not to seek another term. Also taking the oath of office Tuesday were incumbents Bob Lueder, LeAnn Felten and Steven Jopek, who ran unopposed in this spring election, and Mayor Kris Hanus who officially began his second term as mayor. District 3 alderperson Carrie Mikalauski was re-elected as council president on a unanimous vote of the council.