Executive & Legislative and
Finance Committees Meeting Minutes


DATE: September 15, 2005
TIME: 11:00am
Place:
Room 213
West Square Building
505 Broadway
Baraboo, WI

Members Present: Endres, Wenzel, Montgomery, Hartje, Sprecher, Dippel, Bychinski, Kriegl, and Fordham

Others Present: Wiegand, Mielke, Liebman, Koehler, Schauf, Beghin, Gasser, Atty. Prentice, and news media representative

The meeting was called to order by Chairperson Wenzel at approximately 11:00A.M. with compliance to the Open Meeting Law and committee members agreed to have the Chairperson continue to conduct the joint meeting.

Motion by Dippel, seconded by Fordham to approve the agenda, as amended. Motion carried.
Discussion followed regarding Resolution #104-05 (Increasing County Board and Committee Per Diem, Effective with the April, 2006, Reorganization of the County Board), as referred back for consideration at the August County Board session. It was noted traditionally, the juror and bailiff per diem had been tied to the Committee per diem; consensus of Committee members was that this tradition cease.

Several Finance Committee members expressed a desire to implement a system that would accommodate the payment for more than one meeting held each day. It was Attorney Liebman‘s opinion such a system would only be legal if the County chose to become “self-organized”, an option available under Wisconsin State Statutes. Discussion continued regarding the changes that could occur under self-organization.

Motion by Hartje to allow the per diem (one meeting per day) option to remain, and recommend the per-diem dollar amount be reviewed every two years and increased by a percentage equal to that of raises given to other County elected officers and department heads.
This motion received no second.

Discussion continued and a motion was then made by Montgomery, seconded by Hartje to re-submit the resolution with the rates of $60.00 for day of service involving a meeting of the full County Board and $50.00 for each other day of authorized Committee meeting service and that a review of County Board and Committee per diem is hereby recommended to be conducted by the Executive and Legislative Committee as part of the budget process in the summer, and be completed prior to the first day for circulating nomination papers for the position of County Board Supervisor. Roll call vote was taken on the motion with the following results: AYE: (7) Wenzel, Montgomery, Hartje, Sprecher, Dipple, Bychinski, and Kriegl. NAYE: (1) Fordham.
Motion carried.

Motion by Hartje, seconded by Montgomery to go into closed session pursuant to Wis. Stat. s. 19.85(1)(g) conferring with legal counsel for the governmental body who is rendering oral or written legal advice concerning strategy to be adopted by the body with respect to litigation in which it is or is likely to become involved. (Personnel matters) and allow the following individuals to remain: T. Liebman, B. Mielke, M. Koehler, and Attorney Prentice. Gene Wiegand noted (for the record) that he was an ex-officio member of the Executive and Legislative Committee and should be allowed to remain; the Committees did not honor this request. Roll call vote was taken on the motion to go into closed session with unanimous aye results. At 11:45 A.M. the Committee went into closed session.

At 12.20 P.M. the Committees returned to open session and announced that Gene Wiegand, Administrative Coordinator, will be offered an early retirement package, with parameters to be established by the Corporation Counsel and brought before the next County Board session scheduled for September 21, 2005 at 6:00 P.M. At 12:21 P.M. the meeting adjourned.

Respectfully submitted: Beverly J. Mielke, Sauk County Clerk