County board elects Young as veterans service officer

On a 12-9 vote, the Oneida County Board of Supervisors this week elected Matthew Young as the county’s next county veterans service officer, narrowly ratifying a 3-2 recommendation from the county’s hiring panel for the position.

The county’s human services committee had unanimously forwarded that split recommendation to the county board. Young will replace county veterans service officer (CVSO) Tammy Javenkoski, who retires Feb. 27.

The vote came after numerous veterans urged the board in often emotional testimony to appoint assistant CVSO Jason Dailey, who has served in the office for more than a decade. The meeting also featured a dispute over voting procedures and a lengthy discussion of qualifications, accreditation, and the relative importance of experience versus leadership skills in the position.

After public comment, county clerk Tracy Hartman explained the hiring process and the board’s authority, and she reminded the board that it had the power to vote for someone other than Young.

“As you all are aware, Tammy Javenkoski will be retiring as the Oneida County CVSO,” Hartman said. “When there is a vacancy as a department head position, the human resources director works with the committee of jurisdiction chair to create a hiring panel. The hiring panel is tasked with interviewing all of the qualified candidates and making a recommendation to the committee of jurisdiction on the candidate to be recommended for the position.”

For the CVSO interview panel, Hartman said, there were five voting members and the human resources director, who served in an advisory role. 

“During the interview process, all candidates were asked the same questions and were given an opportunity to provide the panel with any additional information that they felt would assist the panel,” she told supervisors. 

“In the decision-making process, the panel interviewed five candidates and a majority of the panel recommended nominating Matthew Young as the Oneida County CVSO. That recommendation was sent to the Human Services Committee, and that committee voted unanimously to forward that nomination to the county board.”

However, Hartman noted the board retained authority to nominate and vote on other candidates.

“Today, per state statute, the CVSO is elected by the county board,” she said. “Today is a resolution nominating Matthew Young to be elected as the next CVSO. However, as members of the county board, you have the ability to nominate other candidates to be considered. If other candidates are nominated, the county board will cast ballots for the candidate that they feel will best fill this position.”

Supervisor Linnaea Newman promptly nominated Dailey to make it an official contest.

Candidates present credentials

The board gave both candidates the opportunity to present their credentials, and first up was Dailey, who described his experience serving veterans.

“I was five years in the National Guard before being medically discharged, one year in Afghanistan,” Dailey told supervisors. “I have been the assistant county veteran service officer for a little over 10 years. I’ve been in the office for closer to 10 and a half. When I started in this position, I thought I was just filling in, answering some phones. It turned out to be something that I am absolutely passionate about.”

Dailey said the veterans he works with are among the most important people in his world. 

“I’ll do anything for them,” he said. “I make sure that everything I can do, I do. I made sure to learn everything that I possibly could so I can do my job to the absolute best of my ability, and I have all the accreditations that you are capable of having in Wisconsin for being accredited with various veteran service organizations.”

Dailey said the most important thing is to make sure the veterans are well-taken care of, and he would continue to fight for them as he has in the past.

“I’ve been fighting the VA [Veterans Administration] for over four or five years, and veterans are finally starting to get benefits that they’ve earned,” he said. “I’ve talked countless individuals out of suicide. I’ve gone out in the middle of the night looking for veterans who have gone missing. I’ll do whatever’s necessary.”

Young, also a veteran, described a military career involving administration, recruiting, and leadership positions.

“Much like Jason, I started off in the National Guard,” Young said, observing that he was mobilized to the European Theater for duties mostly involving “standard stuff” —  vehicle searches, traffic control points, and security patrols around the perimeter. Then he was assigned to the Seventh Army Training Command, which he said is a division-level headquarters under a one-star general. 

“From there, I was assigned as the administrative assistant to the deputy chief of staff for the base,” he said. “For those of you who don’t speak military, that’s like working for the chief operating officer for a corporation. That’s where I really cut my teeth.”

He later served in administrative and recruiting leadership roles and deployed twice on combat tours to Iraq. His last stop was the recruiting station in Rhinelander, Young said.

“I chose to retire up here because we fell in love with the area,” he said. 

Interview committee reasoning

The interview committee had heard both those presentations before, of course, and supervisor Robb Jensen, who served on the interview panel, explained the selection process.

“Nine people applied, three did not meet minimum qualifications, and we interviewed five,” Jensen said. 

Panel members ranked candidates, Jensen said: “Three of us had Matt first ... two of the Veterans Service Commission members had Jason as their first choice.” 

Brian Jopek, the commission’s chairman, was one of those who backed Dailey, and he stressed that point in the public comments of the meeting: “Mr. Young did indeed interview very well. But he was not my first choice … [My] first choice is Jason Dailey. Combat veteran. A lot of experience working with fellow veterans, helping them out. I’ve heard stories from different people how he has helped them out … through all kinds of different situations. The bottom line here is, Jason is qualified. Mr. Young is not.”

[Brian Jopek is an employee of The Lakeland Times but is not involved in any way with the reporting on this issue].

That said, in his comments, Jensen said he believed that even though Young wasn’t the first choice of all five members, “he was determined to be an acceptable candidate, and then we moved forward with that.”

He said the panel evaluated both technical abilities and interpersonal skills.

“You’ve got hard skills which are technical abilities within that job description, but you also have a number of what I call soft skills,” he said. “And that’s your communication, your ability to look forward in terms of being a team member.”

Jensen said there was agreement that Young had a lot of those skills, and that he was acceptable. The accreditation process was also discussed, Jensen said.

“It’s my understanding that the accreditation process is not unusual for people who don’t have that accreditation prior to accepting a veterans service officer position, that it’s pretty standard protocol that they get that accreditation after they’re hired,” he said. “… So the qualifications of accreditation I think can happen on the job.”

Supervisor Dan Hess also supported Young, saying he had focused on qualities that would make not only a great veterans service officer but a leader as a department head.

“These include excellent communication skills, administration, customer service skills, empathy, confidence, budgeting, and the ability to lead,” Hess said. “As we all know, this position requires the ability to work with veterans and their families by acting as liaison with the Veterans Administration to seek services that are needed and required by these veterans.”

Hess said the department head needed to be able to work with other county department heads and with supervisors.

“The ability to work with department heads is crucial throughout our county,” he said. “Two in particular, human services, as well as the board of health, may have different services that are available to veterans. So they have to work closely with those organizations.”

After an extensive, objective review of all the applicants, Hess said he chose Young as the top candidate. 

Public comment

All but one public speaker at the meeting supported Dailey. The dissenting point of view came from Brian Thomas, the Vilas CVSO.

“Professionally speaking, it’s been extremely difficult to work with your veteran service office since pretty much day one,” Thomas said. “Despite numerous efforts on collaboration to better serve our Northwoods veterans, it’s been very unfriendly. Mr. Dailey has been especially difficult to work with and has generally avoided us altogether. I can’t think of a single time he supported any of the numerous outreach events and fundraisers that we’ve done to assist any veterans in both counties with funds being shared equally.”

Thomas said he looked forward to the change.

But he was the only veteran speaking during the comments who supported Young. Michelle Bennett of Rhinelander said the board would be ignoring qualifications and violating county code by not giving the position to Dailey.

“In addition to being the wife of a veteran, my family has a long history of military service, including a brother in Vietnam, a father in World War II, an uncle who was a Tuskegee airman, and many more,” Bennett said. “The job of county veteran service officer CVSO for sure matters to both veterans and their families.”

Bennett pointed to the county ordinance requiring the hiring of only qualified applicants.

“This board is nominating Matthew Young, who may be a very nice man, but he has never worked in a veteran services office,” she said, while taking note of Dailey’s decade of experience.

“The experience and expertise of accredited individuals is vital in helping veterans, active military personnel, their wives and children, and the surviving spouses, children and parents of deceased service members avoid delays for missing or improperly completed paperwork,” she said. “The difference between an untrained and unaccredited veteran service officer can make an enormous difference in the lives of many individuals and their families.”

We need a qualified individual now, not someone who will take months to train and years to gain the experience Jason Dailey already has, Bennett said.

For her part, Javenkoski said she would not dignify what she called Thomas’s lies with a response. 

“I’ve been the veteran service officer for 10 days shy of 20 years, and I’m here speaking to express my extreme disappointment Jason Dailey wasn’t chosen to succeed me when I retire next week,” Javenkoski said. “Jason has been the assistant veterans service officer in this county for more than 10 years. To be honest, I didn’t expect miracles from him when he started, but because I worked alone in the office for several months, I was desperate for help.”

But it didn’t take long to see what a valuable partner he was going to be, Javenkoski said. 

“I trained him,” she said. “I worked with him, and I saw him flourish. He has so much experience and knowledge now that even he teaches me things. When Jason was hired, he finally found his niche in life. The job changed his life. In turn, he has changed lives and even saved some.”

Veterans feel comfortable with Dailey, Javenkoski said. Even female veterans who experienced military sexual trauma have had no problem talking to him because it was obvious that he truly cared about them and would do anything to help them, Javenkoski said.

“There’s literally no one in this world who knows better than I who would be best to be my successor,” she said. “Yet I was not allowed to sit on the interview board, nor was I asked my opinion by some of the interview board members. I’m his department head. I worked with him closely every single day. I gave him excellent evals because he earned them. He has absolutely nothing negative in his personnel file.”

Sadly, if he isn’t chosen, Javenkoski said, Dailey may be walking out the door with her on February 27. 

“That will be a hard hit to Oneida County veterans and their families,” she said. “It will be years before that office is up to current standards. It literally takes years before you feel you have a pretty good working knowledge of everything we do. I implore you to follow the county code and hire the most qualified person, and Jason is that person.”

Ballot dispute

Before voting, supervisors argued over whether to use paper ballots or a roll call. County board chairman Scott Holewinski had scheduled a paper ballot. That tally would not have been a secret ballot, though to find out how supervisors voted would have taken a trip later to the county clerk’s office because there were no plans to announce at the meeting how each supervisor voted.

Several supervisors questioned the paper ballot immediately, especially supervisor Steven Schreier.

Holewinski said the county was simply following its normal procedures for elections, such as for the highway commission, but Schreier questioned whether the law required it. 

Holewinski also said a paper ballot would leave a record but Schreier retorted that a roll-call vote would, in fact, leave a record, too. After hearing the opinion from corporation counsel that a roll call vote would be allowable, Schreier pushed the matter.

“My understanding is, unless it’s statutorily defined, this body may create the rules by which it wants to govern itself as well as to do the business of the board,” he said. “So, unless there’s something that you could show me somewhere that says casting a paper ballot is required by this body, I believe if we make a motion to do it a different way, or that’s the way we wish to do it, then that’s the way we will do it because that is the will of the body.”

Schreier said he didn’t believe there was anything requiring the board to conduct the vote by paper ballot in a contested election, another reason Holewinski had raised as a reason not to conduct a roll call.

“To me, it doesn’t make any difference,” he said. “I go to the polls all the time. There’s only one nominee. You still have to check the box; otherwise they don’t get your vote. So I don’t see how it’s any different, whether it would’ve been one or two nominees. It doesn’t change anything. We will simply go around and name who we support.”

The board voted 17-4 to switch to a roll-call vote, then elected Young 12-9.

Voting for Young were Scott Holewinski, Robb Jensen, Billy Fried, Michael Tautges, Greg Oettinger, Debbie Condado, Robert Briggs, Dan Hess, Mitch Ives, Bob Almekinder, Ted Cushing and Collette Sorgel.

Voting for Dailey were Lenore Lopez, Russ Fisher, Kristopher Hanus, Linnaea Newman, Connor Showalter, Steven Schreier, Kyle Timmons, Chris Schultz and Wayne Kulhanek.

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