Supervisors Challenge Department Head

Fireworks erupted at the monthly meeting of the Door County Board of Supervisors on May 26 when Emergency Services Director Dan Williams reported on the final report from the Ad Hoc EMS Study Committee.

Supervisors Dave Enigl and Ken Fisher questioned some conclusions in the report, specifically Williams’ comparison of Door County’s countywide EMS model to “traditional town established systems.”

Williams had pointed out that only one other county – Waukesha – has a countywide EMS system like Door County, and even there they contract out some of the services. In the rest of the state, towns are largely responsible for their own emergency services.

With the Door County model, Williams said the county saves about $2.7 million compared to the typical operation in the rest of the state.

Enigl said he did some homework over the weekend and found Williams’ figures skewed in favor of his conclusions. Fisher took it further by saying, “You can’t just make up numbers. That’s an economist’s trick. It’s not right, Dan.”

“I would argue that they are accurate,” Williams said.

“I don’t like numbers being thrown at me. They’re used to manipulate. That’s not right,” Fisher said.

“And I take offense that my numbers are trying to manipulate you. It’s not true,” Williams said.

County Board Chair Dan Austad intervened by saying Williams had introduced the town established systems into the report as an addenda to illustrate the difference between providing service elsewhere and how it’s done here.

“In my opinion, they (the committee) did a good job,” Austad said.

The board moved to send the committee’s recommendation for a new Sturgeon Bay EMS headquarters on Ministry Door County Medical Center property, across from the YMCA, on to the Property Committee.

In other action by the board:

• Two candidates for the position of Door County Administrator will undergo second interviews on June 1. The candidates are John Fitzpatrick, assistant city manager and director of administrative services for the City of Oshkosh, and Ken Pabich, director of planning and economic development for the City of De Pere. Door County Corporation Counsel Grant Thomas has been filling in as administrator since the sudden resignation of Maureen Murphy on Nov. 3, 2014.

• Heard from Tim Ullman, head of the county Information Systems Department, on the fiber route and maintenance agreement for the previously authorized $2.7 million high-speed fiber optic project with NSight, the parent company of Cellcom. The six strands of fiber will run from Southern Door to the top of the peninsula, with 10 laterals that include the Gibraltar and Sevastopol school districts.

• Paul R. Kok was sworn in as the new supervisor for District 5, replacing Tim O’Connor, who recently resigned. Kok will assume the remainder of the term, which ends April 18, 2016.

• Mark Janiak was appointed Door County Finance Director. He had served as assistant director of the department under Shirley Scalish, who retired. Janiak accepted temporary leadership of the department upon Scalish’s retirement, but said he did not want the job. David Lienau, chair of the Finance Committee, said there were a number of applicants for the position from across the nation, but after a first round of interviews, the committee decided to keep looking, which is when Janiak threw his hat in the ring “and he rose to the top,” Lienau said. “We’re all very happy he agreed to take the position and we wish he had done it earlier.”

• Resolved to join other counties in asking the state to support a $5 million budget line item per biennium specifically earmarked for local health departments. Rhonda Kolberg, head of the Door County Public Health Department, said the resolution was being passed by counties throughout the state. “Rates are very low for state support for public health,” she said, pointing out several public health areas where Wisconsin has slipped, including worst in the nation for pertussis cases.

• Accepted a $1,400 donation from the Town of Gibraltar to fight invasive Phragmites, and $28,000 from the USDA Forest Service to protect against invasive species.

• Approved the transfer of $400,000 dollars for the Human Services Resource Center.

• Authorized issuing general obligation refunding bonds in the approximate amount of $9,875,00 for the purpose of achieving debt service cost savings.

• Issued an In Memoriam resolution for Arthur Mueller, a former supervisor who served on the board from 1980 through 1987. He died on April 30, 2015.