HomeMy WebLinkAboutSheriff’s Emergency & Veterans’ Services Committee - Minutes - 6/19/2023
Sheriff’s, Emergency Management, Veterans, Child Support
Committee of the Bayfield County Board of Supervisors
Minutes of the:
Bayfield County Sheriff’s Committee Meeting
June 19, 2023, 4:00 p.m.
Meeting Held in the Bayfield County EOC, Washburn, WI
The meeting of the Bayfield County Sheriff’s Committee was called to order at 4:00 p.m. by
Bayfield County Chair Jeremey Oswald. A roll call was taken by Chair Jeremy Oswald, as follows:
Dennis M. Pocernich-present; John Rautio-present; Jeff Silbert- present; Vice Chair Larry Fickbohm
– present virtually. Total: 5 present. A quorum was present to conduct business.
The following were also present for today’s meeting: Child Support Director- Jennifer Jones;
Emergency Management Director- Meagan Quaderer; Emergency Management Assistant- Maria
Renz; Chief Deputy - Andy Runice 4:01 pm; Sheriff - Tony Williams 4:08 pm.
2. Approval of Minutes of May 15, 2023
Motion by Fickbohm, seconded by Rautio to approve the Minutes of the Monthly
Bayfield County Sheriff’s Committee Meeting held on May 15, 2023. Motion carried, 5-0.
3. Public Comment: None.
4. Child Support Office
a. The Budget Summary was presented by Jennifer Jones, Director for Bayfield County
Child Support Services. In packet. Furniture was paid out and will not be an expense
for next year. No hard expenditures for the next budget year.
b. Department Overview: Jones reports the department continues to exceed
statewide average, and they are striving to get to 80% by Sept. 30, highest was 77%,
currently at 75%. The office is now accepting cash payments, but it is not processed
by the office. The payments are turned into a check through the clerk’s office. The
new office is complete, and the department has been working in the new space for
just over a week. The new office space is more secured than the previous space and
in a better location. There will be an open house at the end of the summer.
c. Procedural Justice Presentation: slideshow added to packet. Jones attended the
presentation in May. Brown County will have a longer presentation on this topic in
October at the conference. Procedural justice is meeting people where they are,
giving people the opportunity to have a say and feel heard. The goal is for people to
understand that the office is here to help them.
Sheriff’s, Emergency Management, Veterans, Child Support
Committee of the Bayfield County Board of Supervisors
5. Emergency Management
a. The Budget Summary was presented by Meagan Quaderer, Director of Bayfield
County Emergency Management. She reports the budget is doing well. They
received donations from local companies for fair funding. The state sent out more
reallocated funds, they received an extra $7,000 from the 2022 funds.
b. Department Overview: Quaderer reported that utility safety is the fair theme, and
they’re working on booklets with information on how to handle certain situations.
The Incident Command Trailer has been used by the health department for different
events including the testicle festival this past weekend in Port Wing. The trailer will
be used at the fair as well. The county administrator inquired as to how this
committee would like to select a representative for the Consolidated PSAP board.
This is a 6-person board, one board member, one sheriff, one county admin from
each county. Chief Deputy Runice suggests the possible tiebreaker represents
Ashland County. Sheriff Williams suggests the Director is the tiebreaker. It was
suggested that this committee would appoint or make a nomination for the board
member representative. The board will recommend their nomination be from this
committee, Larry Fickbohm, to be the representative in the PSAP board to the
county board.
c. Discussion and Possible Action Regarding SAR MOU with Ashland County
The purpose of the MOU is to cover liability insurance between the SAR team and
both counties.
Motion by Pocernich, seconded by Silbert to bring the MOU between the SAR team,
Bayfield County, and Ashland County, to the full board with recommendation for
approval. Motion carried, 5-0.
6. Sheriff’s Office
a. Budget Summary: Budget Report included. Sheriff Williams shared that the Chevy
Silverado’s have arrived and will be picked up next week. The office will be trying a
new outfitter for the equipment for the squads. The Durango’s have been waiting to
be outfitted for 4 weeks and are still waiting with the earliest being the end of the
summer. The Sheriff’s Office will be selling five of the old squads.
b. Department Overview: Sheriff Williams announced that Chief Deputy Runice
graduated two Fridays ago from Command College as a Certified Public Manager.
Chief Deputy Runice reports that he was one of the 36 out of 90 applicants
accepted. He applied for the college a year in advance and attended for one week
every month since last August. Chief Deputy Runice reports his take a way was the
Sheriff’s, Emergency Management, Veterans, Child Support
Committee of the Bayfield County Board of Supervisors
inspiration to come up with new ways to inspire the staff to do well. He learned
about team building, communication, and how to keep the county from being sued.
He would like to implement a change to the whole evaluation process for the
county. He suggests giving the employees the opportunity to input on what they get
evaluated on. Sheriff Williams reviewed their incident numbers since the last
meeting. He reported there were 1069 incidents, besides traffic stops, there were
four OWI’s, one ATV OWI, three THC, five domestic arrests, 36 car accidents. There
was one fatal car crash, a semi versus truck. The state patrol used drones to help
with reconstruction. Our county is 2.5 times the state average of speeding crashes
according to the highway committee meetings. The office is putting in for a grant for
$50,000 for six new radars since most radars in the squads are not functioning well.
The new radars will go in the new squads since radars are not easily transferable
because they are hard wired in the squads. Lidars are handheld radars that will be
used, and they need one for each squad. The grant needs a 25% match, coming out
of the squads and overtime for extra speed enforcement. Ashlee Larson starts June
27th in dispatch, which brings every department in the office fully staffed. K9 Parker
is doing well and was involved in the big detail last weekend. Sheriff Williams gave a
Body Cam update, stating that both quotes were very close, so they are looking into
which one will have better integration. Body cams will arrive within a month of
accepting a quote. There is already a policy in place for the body cameras.
c. Jail Overview: Sheriff William gave the jail overview stating that in the month of June
they averaged 11 boarded inmates, 25 male inmates, 6 female inmates, and 1
transgender inmate. April’s average was a little higher than June. The transgender
inmate is kept in a two-person cell block, voluntarily agreed upon by the inmate due
to their worry of treatment by the other inmates. The current policy follows state
policies and goes by birth gender. Chairman Oswald would like to add to the next
agenda to present more on the state and county policies. Chief Runice reports that
each year the jail is evaluated on how they follow the state policies, and he would
the forms to the Dropbox.
7. Next Meeting Date, July 17, 2023, at 4 pm in the EOC
8. Adjournment:
There being no further business to come before the Sheriff’s, Emergency Management,
Veterans, Child Support Committee of the Bayfield County Board of Supervisors, Chairman
Oswald adjourned the meeting at 5:10 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Maria Renz
Bayfield County Emergency Management