Bid to reduce Waukesha County board position hits bumps

By Laurel Walker of the Journal Sentinel

Waukesha - A suggestion that the new Waukesha County Board chairman's job could be reduced to half time as soon as this month appears to have been overly ambitious.

Newly elected Chairman Paul Decker of Hartland, a business owner who took on the chairmanship in the belief that the board would vote to reduce the job to part time, got a mixed reaction to the change Monday from the County Board's Executive Committee.

Decker himself said that in his first four weeks in the office, he's learned the job is bigger and more time-consuming than he had expected, even as he tries to bring technological efficiencies to the County Board office operation.

He's asked staff to prepare information on the leadership responsibilities and comparisons with other counties. He'll schedule more discussion at future Executive Committee meetings, he said.

Supervisor Patricia Haukohl of Brookfield, the board's vice chairman who heads the Finance Committee, said at Monday's meeting that she didn't want to see the chairman's job diminished when it should be an equal partner with the executive and judicial branches of county government.

"I think we're running things very well here so I hesitate spending a day or weeks studying this," she said.

Supervisor Gilbert Yerke of the Town of Mukwonago, a new member of the Executive Committee, called the timing of the idea "politically charged" with the "first blast" coming from the county executive.

"I guess we can look at it, but I just think it's politically motivated," he said.

County Executive Dan Vrakas last month called on the County Board to consider moving to a part-time board chairman after longtime Chairman Jim Dwyer, who was defeated in his re-election bid for county supervisor, left a vacancy.

Vrakas said the move to part time would likely attract more candidates, especially those employed in the private sector. He no doubt had Decker in mind.

Decker was approached about running for the board and said he'd be willing to consider it with the belief it could be half time. Decker is co-owner of Maverick Innovation Lab in Delafield, which works with mostly manufacturing businesses to bring innovation to their products.

Decker said Monday he has even greater admiration now for the job Dwyer did for a county whose population is approaching 400,000.

Because of Waukesha County's size, for example, the County Board is expected to have a representative on the Wisconsin Counties Association Executive Committee. Decker said when Waukesha County isn't there, it's noticed.

Yerke said a part-time chairman would result in a weakened County Board, strengthening the hand of the executive and the board staff.

"If we think it will save money, we're going to be penny wise and pound-foolish," he said.

Two other committee members - David Swan of Pewaukee and Jim Heinrich of Brookfield - said they believed the timing was right to study a part-time chairman.

"This is the time," Heinrich said, though he said he didn't disagree with the sentiment of "why fix something that's not broke."

Committee member Duane Paulson of Waukesha said he wasn't prepared for "radical changes" but would not object to a deliberative study during the current board term.

Decker said he had explored the possibility of having two vice chairmen take on added responsibilities at added pay while reducing the chairman's salary. However, while the chairman's salary and hours could be reduced, he said, the county's lawyer has reminded him that supervisors can't adjust their own pay during their current terms.

However, he told the Executive Committee that since fellow supervisors put faith in him, "I will not be derelict in this job. We will not lessen what this job means to the citizens of this county."

Asked after Monday's Executive Committee meeting whether he would have run for the job had he known he'd have to devote full time to it, Decker declined to answer. He said he couldn't see performing full-time duties at half pay. The chairman's current full-time annual salary is $58,586 a year.

Haukohl said she didn't object to finding more efficient ways to do the job. She also didn't look at the job as how many hours someone spends in his office, but rather as an elected position for which a salary is set in expectation of certain duties performed.

Decker said he has addressed his private work hours with his business partner and has given up his role on both private charitable and public boards, namely the Hartland Plan Commission.

When Vrakas called for consideration of a part-time chairman, he noted that of 11 counties in Wisconsin with county executives, only two of them - Milwaukee and Waukesha - have a full-time County Board chairman.

In calling for the change, he said the county must continue to become more efficient and save taxpayer dollars.