Holewinski wins unanimous re-election as Oneida County chairman

Oneida County board chairman Scott Holewinski won an emphatic vote of confidence from the full county board Tuesday as supervisors unanimously elected him to a third term as chairman of the board.

It was organization day at the county level, with circuit judge Mary Sowinski swearing in the 20 supervisors (Connor Showalter was absent), including four newcomers. The board quickly settled the county’s top leadership positions before turning to a ballot that was slightly surprising, as Robb Jensen was removed from the powerful public works committee.

The other four committee member were re-elected by their peers. The county public works committee is elected by the county board by statute. Jensen, a longtime outspoken advocate for a new highway facility, lagged far behind his fellow incumbents, garnering only 10 votes.

That followed a spring election in which Jensen barely returned to the board at all, winning his supervisory race by just three votes, 317-314.

Winning new terms on the public works committee were supervisors Ted Cushing, Billy Fried, Dan Hess, and Robert Almekinder. Supervisor Greg Oettinger took Jensen’s slot on the committee.

Otherwise, the reorganizational meeting was marked by fairly smooth sailing. Like Holewinski, Russ Fisher was unopposed for the board’s first vice chairman position. In a contested race for second vice-chairman, supervisor Dan Hess defeated supervisor Michael Tautges by a 13-7 vote.

The four new county board members are Sandy Hamburg, Andrea Sheppard, former circuit judge Mary Roth Burns, and Kyle Kilbourn.

A board in transition

Despite the modest infusion of new members, leadership elections suggested continuity rather than change — so far, at least — with incumbents retaining control of the board’s top positions and newcomers lodging no dissent, including from at least two progressives capturing seats in the spring — Burns, the former judge and past Democratic donor to Kirk Bangstad, and Kilbourn, who ran for Congress as a Democrat against U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany in 2024.

Holewinski, beginning his 25th year on the board, acknowledged both the returning and incoming supervisors in remarks following his election.

“I’d like to thank the whole board for trust in my leadership to vote for me for county board chairman,” Holewinski said.  

He noted the board’s institutional continuity, citing his long tenure alongside fellow veteran supervisor Ted Cushing, and observed that, over that quarter century, he had served with 83 other supervisors. Holewinski then turned to what amounted to a state-of-the-county address, outlining what he described as major accomplishments over the past two years.

At the top of that list was the dissolution of the tri-county Human Service Center (HSC), which had previously served Oneida, Forest, and Vilas counties. Oneida County folded HSC services into a Human Service Department, along with social services, an outcome many in the social services field had long hoped for.

The transition, Holewinski said, required agreement among the three counties on the division of assets and liabilities.

“We also agreed that if any costs for the old human service program materialized, that each county would pay their share of the debt,” he said. “Social services and human services are now under one department and committee.”

Holewinski also highlighted structural changes within county government, including remaking the county administrative coordinator into a substantive position, which has been filled by county clerk Tracy Hartman. That role, Holewinski said, serves as a bridge between the board and county departments.

“This position reports to the executive committee, which coordinates management functions not assigned to other elected officials or commissions,” he said. “It assists the county board supervisors with reports, agendas, and policies, research. It also is developing, maintaining, and training department heads on countywide procedures, processes, and manuals. She also assists in the proper preparation of her annual budget and participates in the county risk management program.”

In addition, Holewinski said, the administrative coordinator publishes a monthly newspaper to keep all county supervisors informed about what’s happening across all county departments.

Finally, Holewinski said, the county eliminated the administration committee, composed of five supervisors, and created an executive committee composed of seven. 

“The county board chairman, first and second vice chairs, are automatically on this committee, and the chair appoints four additional supervisors to the committee,” he said. “The committee oversees the county’s core administrative functions, acting as a direct link between the county board and department operations. We have also created a much better head of department yearly evaluation form that all supervisors can use. It is now a better system to keep heads and departments accountable for their job descriptions, to talk about what’s positive that they are doing, as well as what’s not being done to expectations, and how to improve them.”

The new structure, Holewinski said, strengthens oversight of core administrative functions and improves coordination between the board and county operations.

Budget pressures

If Holewinski’s review of past accomplishments struck an optimistic tone, his short-term outlook was more sobering. The chairman laid out what he described as mounting fiscal pressures, spurred by rising expenditures and constrained revenue growth.

“Between 2020 and 2025, the federal government gave us roughly $7 million in additional funds called the American Rescue Plan Act or ARPA,” he said. “This money went to major capital projects in about 12 county departments, but it is no longer available moving forward.”

Between 2021 and 2024, Holewinski said, county revenues exceeded expenditures. 

“That money went back to the general fund to fund capital projects,” he said. “Our 2025 unaudited estimate is a zero dollar return to the general fund to fund future capital projects. Over the years, we’ve increased revenue stumpage, zoning fees, register of deeds, housing of inmates, and moved some of the expenditures into non-levy limit accounts to balance our budget.”

But those days are over, Holewinski cautioned.

“And now we are running out of options for a balanced budget,” he said. “We have to ask, do we want to cut back on ambulance service, law enforcement, winter maintenance on our roads, road construction to repair our rural county roads, or maintenance of our county facilities, or do we address wages and benefits and all non-mandated services? These will be the hard decisions for this county board moving forward.”

Public works vote delivers surprise

If the leadership elections underscored continuity, the vote for the public works committee introduced an element of change.

As reported, Jensen has long been an advocate for a new highway department, and he alluded to that need in his pitch to supervisors on Tuesday, referring to repairs and upgrades to the existing facility as band-aids.

“I think we really need to continue our work to get to the full county board all the information on the highway facility, whether we continue to do the band-aid, just doing $5,000 a year out of the general fund, or whether we look at the three options that were presented back in 2014 and 2015.”

Those options were included a highway facility study, two of which called for remodeling the current facility and a third to construct a new facility, which led to a contentious debate over whether to sell the current facility and property to Kwik Trip and build on another county-owned parcel. That previous effort famously failed in a 10-9 vote to reject an offer by Kwik Trip to purchase the current highway department property.

Despite the county board’s decision, Jensen has continued to press the matter over the years, including this year. At a February public works committee meeting, according to the meeting minutes, he again pitched the long-term benefits of a new facility, while supervisor Billy Fried called for staying the course, at least for a while. His remarks came during a discussion on a Rhinelander shop facility plan, specifically two proposed capital improvement projects (CIP).

“Jensen noted the $16.5 million estimate did not include a retention or fencing, adding he needed those numbers, questioning if there was a problem holding off on the two CIP projects,” the minutes state. “Jensen added the County Board had not had this information to make decisions.”

According to the minutes, Fried said he believed they had some of the information.

“Fried noted if they ever needed more room, they have other property,” the minutes stated. “Fried commented he would like this to last another ten to twenty years adding they had been kicking the can for ten, twenty years.”

At that point, the minutes state, Jensen returned to the idea of a new facility.

“Jensen commented the people he had spoken with questioned putting money into a facility to make it last how much longer versus a facility that would last fifty to seventy years and would provide an opportunity to add on if you want to move other departments to the site,” the minutes stated.

On Tuesday, Fried acknowledged the shop’s age in his pitch to the board.

“There’s a lot going on with the highway department as far as moving forward with funding for just doing the roads that need to be done, the equipment they need to do the work,” he said. “And then more importantly, an aging building that we’ve been working on a number of different options over the years. And I think it’s going in the right direction.”

He described the county’s progress as incremental: “Two steps forward, one step back,” he said.  

In his bid for election, Almekinder stressed his six years of service on the committee.

“There’s a lot of challenges ahead of us with the inflation and budget restraints, cost of equipment, repairing roads,” Almekinder said. “There’s a lot of issues that aren’t resolved yet. I’ve been a businessman in construction all my life, so I’d like to continue on with this and see it resolved at some point.”

Cushing, a 12-year veteran of the committee, emphasized the scale of the issues.

“I’ve been on the highway committee for 12 years,” Cushing said. “I’ve chaired it for the last six years. I was voted onto the Wisconsin County Highway Association board of directors for the North Central District, which I fairly enjoyed. You gain a lot of important information learning what other counties are doing and the networking that can take place.”

There are some major obstacles, Cushing said.

“The building is one of them,” he said. “The cost of equipment is mind-boggling, and the maintenance of equipment is just incredible. You could be on this committee for 24 years and probably not understand it completely.”

Hess highlighted infrastructure and safety concerns.

“I’ve been on the highway committee for the last two years, and I think it’s an awesome committee,” he said. “If you look at our county infrastructure, we must continue to improve it. Public safety on the roadways is very high on the list. We’re probably right under law enforcement and social services, but it’s important to keep our infrastructure up to speed.”

Hess emphasized his background as a public administrator.

“I understand budgeting very well,” he said. “We have to look at different grants related to county highway infrastructure. I think it’s really important to look at the grants, and we do have a big building to deal with. There’s a lot of decay in our building and we must continue to improve the building infrastructure as well.” 

Oettinger, the successful challenger, fashioned his candidacy around private-sector experience.

“I’ve been in the construction business probably 30 years,” he said. “I pretty much understand everything that these guys have been talking about, having dealt with it for 30 years. I’m dealing with employees. I deal with the same issues as the highway department every day. So I feel like I could help the other supervisors with decisions.”

Richard Moore is the author of “Dark State” and may be reached at richardd3d.substack.com.