Drainage board back to drawing board: Committee to nominate new members

By Tim Damos / News Republic

 

A board established to oversee the future draining of Sauk County lands overstepped its legal authority by selecting two new members, and a new selection process will take place.

After voting to increase its size to five members in July, the three-member Sauk County Drainage Board selected and swore in former Republican state assemblywoman Sheryl Albers and farmer Don Hartung during its September meeting.

Despite complaints that the action was illegal, Drainage Board Chairman Don Stevens insisted during a phone interview last week that the board had the authority to pick its new members.

But during a meeting Monday of the Sauk County Board’s executive and legislative committee, Sauk County Acting Corporation Counsel Alene Kleczek said state law mandates that the county board’s agriculture and extension education committee nominate people to fill drainage board vacancies. A judge must then appoint the new members from that list of nominees.

"At that particular time we thought we had done it right, but evidently we’ve done it in error," Stevens said during Monday’s meeting.

He then asked for nominations from the county’s agriculture and extension education committee.

The drainage board is a legal entity all its own, although its members can be nominated by county government. Aside from being the drainage board chairman, Stevens is also a county board supervisor, and sits on the committee that heard the legal opinion Monday.

During last week’s phone interview, Stevens said the drainage board had selected Albers and Hartung and was awaiting a judge’s approval after submitting paperwork in court.

But paperwork relating to the two appointments  doesn't exist in the drainage district’s file within the Sauk County Clerk of Courts Office.

Stevens also said last week that Albers and Hartung have not been active members since they were sworn in.

"They are not voting members nor do they have anything other than an ordinary citizen to do with it until the court approves it," Stevens said in that interview.

But meeting minutes show that Albers and Hartung began taking action as drainage board members during the September meeting.

The minutes, kept on file at the Sauk County Planning and Zoning Department, say Albers motioned to seek input from engineering firms regarding a solution to Spring Green flooding.

"If they’re going to seek two new members, maybe they should appoint people who aren’t confused so easily," said Lone Rock citizen Roger Reynolds during Monday’s meeting.

Reynolds had complained about the drainage board’s action to Kleczek and County Board Chairman Marty Krueger of Reedsburg.

He also said he believes two current drainage board members have a conflict of interest because they own property where they are hoping to establish a drainage district.

The state’s land drainage law says any drainage board member may request that a judge appoint a substitute for any member if the board is considering matters related to a district in which that member is interested.

Reynolds said he does not want to see Albers become a member of the drainage board. Her public statements to this point indicate she merely "wants to fight the DNR and beat them," Reynolds said.

The drainage board was created by a Sauk County judge following a signed petition filed by landowners who want a drainage district in a flood-prone area of rural Spring Green.

Stevens said Monday the drainage board is struggling to find ways to fund the formation of a drainage district, and any construction that might go along with that.

The state’s land drainage law says construction costs of draining lands cannot exceed 75 percent of the assessed benefits of the district.

Stevens said because the Spring Green area floods only once every 15 years, the drainage board would only qualify to spend about $47,000 per year. Although, he said, the true cost of the project could be as high as $3 million.

"Then maybe you don’t need a drainage district," said Judy Ashford, who chairs the county’s agricultural and extension education committee and attended Monday’s meeting.

If a drainage district is not established, all the costs incurred by the drainage board to date could fall on the shoulders of the landowners who petitioned for its creation.

Stevens said he does not want to see that happen.

Krueger said he has already been contacted by petition signers who sought to have their name removed from the original petition.

"While it is possible that the ditch is simply too expensive to construct, usually people have found ways to finance this well within the letter of the law," said Seth McClure, state drainage engineer with the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade & Consumer Protection, during a phone interview Monday.

McClure said Stevens has been focused on the ditch as a form of flood relief.

Because the proposed drainage district area in Spring Green has standing water table issues as well, a ditch could make additional land available for cultivation. That could be considered a "benefit" that could raise the allowable construction costs, McClure said.

He also said it is not clear whether those benefits must be seen every year, adding that the law is "flexible" in that area.

 

Send e-mail to tdamos@capitalnewspapers.com