Self-governance Implementing Ordinance

Sauk County is empowered by §59.10(1), Wis. Stats. and through its County Board to elect to become a self-organized county. Self-organization is a process used to give county boards alternatives to some of the specific procedures otherwise mandated in Chapter 59, Wisconsin Statutes. A self-governing county provides itself some flexibility in the manner in which its board of supervisors may operate. This narrow power to control several elements of county board functioning is found in §59.10(1) and was given to counties during the 1970s, when the legislature decided that counties needed some flexibility in these matters. Counties do not have constitutional home rule authority as do cities and villages and are subject to much greater state control. A county which has undergone self-organization may adopt its own policies regarding: 1. Use of staggered terms for the supervisors, electing half of them each year rather than electing them all each even-numbered year. [§59.10(1)(b)] Without self-organization, all supervisors are to be elected on the first Tuesday in April in even-numbered years and take office of the third Tuesday in April of that year (except in 1996, when the desire for an early presidential preference primary led the legislature to move the spring general election to mid-March). Self-organization allows the use of staggered terms. [§59.10(3)(d)]; 2. Compensation of supervisors for attendance at board meetings and paying mileage. [§59.10(1)(c)] Non-self-organized boards already have several options. Self-organization would allow the board to be as creative as it wished, except that compensation would have to be set by the statutorily required date and the board could not give a mid-term compensation increase for itself. For the statutes that control board compensation in the absence of self-organization; 3. Filling vacancies in the office of county supervisor. [§59.10(1)(d)] A county may adopt its own procedures. Without self-organization, vacancies are filled by the board chairperson for the unexpired term, with the approval of the board. [§59.10(3)(e)].