Supervisor questions land and water conservation committee’s lake district liasion appointments

During the Aug. 12 meeting of the Oneida County land and water conservation committee, county supervisor Robb Jensen of Crescent took issue with the fact that supervisor Linnaea Newman had been appointed as the liaison to the Squash Lake and Crescent Lake Districts. As the District 11 representative to the county board, Jensen said he felt he should have those appointments.

The matter became slightly heated when committee chair Collette Sorgel reiterated that the appointments had already been made and that Newman had already made contacts with the groups. Jensen demanded that, with his recent appointment to the board, those appointments be revisited. He said the lake districts had not yet met, so there was no reason why Newman could not be removed as county board liaison to those districts and he appointed in her place.

“If this had been April and I would have been put back on this committee, would this discussion ever have happened?” Jensen asked. “Would it ever come up?” 

He cited his long history of living on both Crescent and Squash lakes and his familiarity with the people who live there as further basis for him taking over the appointments to their districts.

“No,” Jensen continued. “We would just do what we did last time, Rob you take Crescent Lake, Squash Lake, somebody else take — and away we go. But for some reason, in June a decision wasn’t made, and then it wasn’t on the July agenda, and now here we are in August. And that’s not my fault. Not my problem.” 

He said two people had already asked him why he was not at the Squash Lake meetings. Newman said she had attended every meeting of the districts to which she had been appointed.

“Here’s my feeling,” Sorgel said. “We made the decision for this year. We had one open, and we had Lenore [Lopez] talk to the town and she will come off the town committee and became the voting person for the county. I would like to keep the positions as they are and, in two years, when we have different people, we can re-look at them.” 

She said she felt no need to change the appointments at this time.

Jensen said those who voted for him to represent District 11 probably will not agree with that decision.

“I don’t understand the logic in that,” he said. “It doesn’t hold water.”

“I’m concerned about the precedent it would set if you took an appointed and voted in representative and said, no, you’re not there anymore because someone else wants your lakes more.” 

In response to Jensen’s point that he had ties with Crescent Lake going back to the ‘50s and Squash Lake from 1967 until he went to college, Newman said she owns property in the Town of Crescent that has been in her family since 1895.

“Where’s that property?” Jensen asked.

“You don’t need to know where my property is. It’s lakeshore property. You don’t need to know where my property is,” Newman replied. 

“I didn’t find you on the Oneida County tax rolls, I’m sorry.” Jensen said.

“Well, you didn’t look hard enough,” Newman told him. 

While she has many relatives that live in Crescent, many of whom voted for Jensen, she said she resides in Rhinelander. (She represents city wards 14-16.) She noted that when she first came to the committee, she did not get first pick of lakes. The only open lake district at the time was Nokomis, which she said she happily picked up.

“As far as you coming into the meeting and demanding, to me it felt like you demanded the lake districts and still are,” Newman said. “You seem upset. It may just be your nature, but it doesn’t sound like you honor, and in fact, you voted for me, on the county board, to be assigned to those lakes.” 

To remove her from those lakes now, after being appointed and subsequently voted to represent the county on those districts, would set a bad precedent for the future, she added. Any time a supervisor would be appointed to the committee, they could simply come in and undo an appointment that had been made and approved by the entire county board, simply because that supervisor, newly appointed to the committee, wanted that lake district, she said.

Just as Crescent Lake and Squash Lake do not belong to Jensen, it would not be right for her to go back and demand the Nokomis district back from the supervisor who was currently the county liaison for that district, she added.

She also mentioned that Jensen was on the board, representing District 11, when then supervisor Bob Mott from District 7 was appointed to Squash Lake. Jensen battled back, telling Newman she should do some research on what the politics were back then so she could “improve her standing” on the matter.

“You can do what you want.” Jensen said to Sorgel. “If you don’t want to make the changes, that’s up to you.” 

Sorgel asked the other committee for input  cutting Jensen off.

“I think that if it was voted on the way it was voted on, then it’s appropriate to keep it the way it was,” Lopez said. 

With seemingly a consensus of the committee, other than Jensen, Sorgel said Newman would continue to serve as the county liaison for both the Squash Lake and Crescent Lake Districts, telling Jensen there were plenty of other things the committee needs his help with.

Jensen said he would take that into consideration and bring the matter to the full county board.

Beckie Gaskill may be reached via email at [email protected].