With the general election for sheriff, coroner and clerk of courts coming in November, Shawano County officials must now determine the salaries for their next four-year terms.
Julie Hasser, interim administrative coordinator and director of human resources, said 3% increases have been the norm in previous years, but those salaries are far below the statewide averages.
“Even if we increase these 3% moving forward for the first two years, we’re still behind the average of the current year,” she told the county’s executive committee Jan. 21.
In 2026, salaries for the three posts are $71,197.26 for clerk of courts, $95,959.75 for sheriff and $66,072.39 for coroner.
“What some counties are moving toward is actually putting the elected officials and integrating them into their Cottingham and Butler wage scale, because what we’re also seeing in these top two positions (sheriff and clerk of courts) is that we have employees who are underneath them who work with them in their departments that are very close or above them in those departments,” Hasser said.
Three salaried employees at the sheriff’s department make more than the sheriff because of how it plays on the county’s wage scale.
“My chief deputy makes almost $15,000 more than me this year,” Sheriff George Lenzner said. “My jail administrator makes more than me. My captain makes more than me, and those are salaried positions. We are the only county that you will see that.”
“That absolutely needs to change,” Supervisor Tess Serrano said.
Lenzner said many of the comparable counties used do not include a dispatch center run by the sheriff’s department, and all of the jails are smaller than Shawano County’s jail.
“They’re not really comparables,” he said. “You’re looking at just population. We take care of more inmates. We have more employees. We have a dispatch center. Not even half of the sheriff’s offices in the state take care of emergency management; we do that.”
Hasser presented numbers that showed an initial 8% increase, which is comparable to what other Shawano County employees received in the last quarter of 2025 and the start of 2026.
“It still gets us below the starting point,” she said. “I think we’re going to have to take a bigger jump. I think that we’re going to have to do at least a 10% for starting and then make sure that our percentages moving forward are favorable.”
She said Price County elected officials’ salaries follow the increases of employees.
“These are key positions in the county,” she said.
“Remember, these are supposed to be key positions,” Supervisor Tom Kautza said. “In the past, there were some sheriffs that were just bartenders before that.”
“The sheriff duties don’t change, whether you’re a bartender,” Supervisor Randy Young said.
Ethan Schmidt, clerk of courts, said typically statewide, the clerk of courts makes the same or more than the county treasurer, register of deeds and clerk.
“Typically, here in Shawano County, the clerk of court has lagged (behind) the county clerk, the county treasurer and register of deeds,” he said.
Salaries for county clerk, register of deeds and treasurer were set in 2024, prior to that year’s elections. Those offices are also four-year terms.
“Let’s make this right once and for all.” Serrano said. “Get the people where they need to be wage-wise, and just suck it up and go.”
The committee directed Hasser to return in February with 8%, 10% and 12% initial increases for each position in 2027, as well as 3% and 4% increases for each of the following years for each initial year increase.
kpasson@newmedia-wi.com
