A budget standoff and eventual compromise that settled Kenosha County’s budget bonding plans made the Kenosha News list of top stories of 2022. It ranked No. 7.
A compromise to the Kenosha County bonding stalemate passed unanimously during a special County Board meeting Dec. 19, ending more than a month of contention among board members.
A tentative agreement was announced earlier by County Board Chairman Gabe Nudo and Supervisor Monica Yuhas at the county’s Executive Committee meeting.
According to Nudo, the agreement was the first time since 2013 the board has approved bonding without opposition.
The agreement restored funds for the community development educator position at the UW-Extension and created a hybrid project manager position in the county’s Department of Public Works
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In November, bonding to pay for $16.5 in capital improvement projects failed to secure the necessary three-quarters supermajority to pass. The dispute was centered around three employee positions, which equaled about $316,000. The jobs had been eliminated in October to create funds to add three sworn officers in the Sheriff’s Department.
A group of six board members argued that the positions — a community development educator for the UW-Extension local satellite office, a public customer service superintendent and a facilities project engineer — brought value to the county and should be restored.
Nudo, for his part, along with County Executive Samantha Kerkman, began looking at what needed to be prioritized for funding if the stalemate continued. The most drastic of the proposals was laying off workers in the highway division, in addition to closing county parks for the winter and reconsidering funding certain commitments, such as a $350,000 contribution to the City of Kenosha’s development plans in the Uptown District.
As the standoff over the bonding went on, county workers sought answers as to why they were being targeted for layoffs.
“Employees were concerned about the layoffs … we’re not here to make employees feel uncomfortable or feel like their job is on the line,” said Yuhas. “We want to have employees who come to work and know that they’re here to their job every day.
Kenosha County’s bonding stalemate has ended after an agreement was reached and announced jointly by County Board Chairman Gabe Nudo and Supervisor Monica Yuhas Thursday night.
Nudo unveiled the compromise agreement during the board’s Executive Committee meeting. A special meeting of the County Board will be held Monday to review and vote on the county’s bonding resolutions for 2023. Under the tentative agreement, funding will be restored for a now-vacant Community Development Educator position in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Division of Extension’s Kenosha County office.
Also, a newly created, hybrid project manager position in the county’s Department of Public Works will move up a step on the county’s pay scale. The changes will not affect the tax levy that the board approved with the 2023 budget Nov. 2.
Under the compromise reached Tuesday in his meeting with Yuhas, Nudo said the bonding resolution that was defeated last month will return to the board with one minor change — the addition $100,000 to replace a generator that failed recently at the Kenosha County Center at highways 45 and 50 in Bristol. The other two resolutions that never went to a vote after the Nov. 2 meeting was adjourned will return to the board as originally presented.
Nudo thanked Yuhas for coming back to the table to work out the compromise. Yuhas, likewise, praised Nudo for his willingness to continue negotiations. County Executive Samantha Kerkman praised the board for working to negotiate a compromise.
“This agreement will allow us to implement all of the provisions of the responsible budget that the County Board adopted last month,” Kerkman said. “It will ensure that we can embark upon essential projects while providing the vital services that our residents depend upon. I thank Chairman Nudo, Supervisor Yuhas and the entire board for its work to resolve this issue.”
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Terry Flores
Glenn Fenske, who had held the highway superintendent job, has since accepted a severance package with retirement benefits. The project manager job is currently held by Frank Martinelli.
That job will give way to a new hybrid post, to include both the highway superintendent and the project manager duties. The post was reclassified to a higher salary of $141,000, about $3,000 more than previously assigned. The UW Extension educator will be added back at $44,900.
The restored UW-Extension position and hybrid project manager position will be funded by surplus funds the county received for transportation needs, about $450,000 more than had been anticipated.
Nudo thanked the board for the additional efforts made to resolve the stalemate. Nudo thanked Supervisor Monica Yuhas specifically for her “willingness to come to the table” to negotiate the compromise.
“There were disagreements along the way after the board failed to approve the bond resolutions last month, but I am proud of the consensus that we were able to reach before the end of the year,” Nudo said.
“At the end, we were able to come up with what we believe is a good compromise for everybody,” he said. “Since Day One, I always felt confident that at the end we would come up with something that would be feasible and good for all the citizens of Kenosha County.”
In addition, $100,000 was added to the bonding resolution to replace a generator that failed recently at the Kenosha County Center at Highways 45 and 50 in Bristol. The original bonding amount was just over $16.15 million and would increase to a little more than $100,000.
Additional resolutions also passed unanimously during the Dec. 19 meetings. They approved bonding authorizations of up to $19.5 million for highways and bridge projects, and providing more than $2 million in grants administered by the Kenosha Area Business Alliance.
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