Meeting times generate discussion at county board

Supervisors vote to keep time the same
By: 
Luke Reimer
Reporter

Meeting times will remain the same for the Shawano County Board of Supervisors.

Members of the board discussed whether the times should be changed during their county board meeting on Nov. 17. Some on the board wanted to change the meeting time from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

The final vote was 17-8 against changing the time. With a majority of supervisors voting no, this means that the time will remain at 3 p.m. for the next term, starting April 1.

Discussions arose surrounding who would be able to show up to the meetings and when they would be available.

“It is my opinion that if you are running for a county board supervisor position, you know what time the meeting is and you will take appropriate action with your employer to be absent that time,” said Supervisor Theresa Serrano. “It is not necessary to change it to 6 p.m.”

Shawano County Board Supervisor Aaron Damrau said that he believes changing the meetings to 6 p.m. is appropriate.

“Right now, we have about three people on our county board who are under the age of 50,” said Damrau. “That kind of shows that our population is not represented on our county board.”

Damrau elaborated, saying that he thinks there should be more younger representation on the county board.

“There are a lot of people that are retired right now,” said Damrau. “I understand that if you change the times, that might create some competitive races. I think that is democracy.”

Damrau said that it is important to get more people and more ideas to the county board meetings.

“We should get the opinions of people that are in the workforce,” said Damrau. “There are a lot of people with good ideas out there, that aren’t running right now because of the inconvenient time.”

Damrau said that the county is not running to its full potential.

“Right now, I do not think that our county is a well-oiled machine and, at times, is a dumpster fire,” said Damrau. “I think that we need to do better, and changing the time will help.”

Supervisor Deb Noffke said that the time does not only pertain to the board.

“Aaron (Damrau) is right,” said Noffke. “Who wants to burn all of their vacation time just to attend board meetings?”

She added that in her past experience serving on the board, there have been people with good ideas who may have missed meetings due to work commitments.

“It is about the public and the ability to run,” said Noffke. “You should not be restricted to board service if you are retired or unemployed.”

Noffke added that changing the meeting time to a later date also gives the public an opportunity to attend meetings and give their input.

“If the public wants to participate, it should be easier to do so,” said Noffke.

Supervisor John Ainsworth added that the board should keep in mind that there are people who don’t work during the day, but at night.

“What would happen if we elected a dairy farmer?” said Ainsworth. “Would we have to change the time to 8 p.m.?”

Supervisor Sandy Steinke said that in her experience serving on the board, there was a compromise where half of the year, meetings were held in the morning and the other half of the year, meetings were held in the evening.

“It would be nice if we could go back to a compromise of half and half,” said Steinke.

Supervisor Gene Hoppe said that he has been asked by the public why there aren’t meetings in the evening.

“There are pros and cons to both suggestions,” said Hoppe. “You are not going to please everybody. I know that new people want to get on this board; the only thing holding them back is their job.”

Supervisor Richard Ferfecki said that the board should not rely on department heads to come in at 6 p.m.

“If someone wants to be in this board, they can find a way to do it,” said Ferfecki.


lreimer@newmedia-wi.com