Pounding the table, Sheriff Randy Wright on Thursday likened the attitudes of two county committees to the dictatorial rule of Syria’s Bashar Assad.
Wright’s outburst at the Shawano County Capital Improvement Projects (CIP) Committee meeting was prompted by a Finance Committee decision earlier this week to drop a new evidence storage facility wanted by Wright from its list of recommended capital improvement projects for 2014.
CIP Committee members also were upset that the Finance Committee had tampered with the list of 16 proposed 2014 capital projects, estimated to cost more than $1.75 million, that they recommended to the County Board.
On Monday, the Finance Committee removed five projects from the CIP list, reducing the cost to $748,900. The board is expected to review the list Sept. 25.
County Board rules state the CIP, not Finance, determine which projects go the board, Supervisor Robert Krause said Thursday.
“If they want to make a comment at County Board and say these projects should not be funded, they can, but they cannot remove them,” Krause said. “We’ve spent countless hours in meetings going over and putting this list together, with the reasoning for it, and we made a suggestion on where the funding can come from. Finance can certainly weigh in on that.”
Corporation Counsel Tony Kordus agreed with Krause, pointing out that any committee can make recommendations on issues, but one committee cannot supersede another’s recommendation.
“Often times, committees disagree, and when that happens, the County Board is the final arbiter,” Kordus said. “I think to thwart the free flow of information to the County Board is inconsistent with the County Board rules and good county government.”
Finance Director Diane Rusch told the CIP Committee that she asked the Finance Committee whether the projects could be moved back to 2015. Instead, she said, the committee took them out entirely.
A new evidence storage facility for the Sheriff’s Department, which had received approval as a capital project for 2013 but has yet to receive funding, was among the projects cut from the list.
“I’m tired of getting the runaround,” Wright said. “I think the people out there should be looking at who their representatives are. … You’re squabbling over pittance.”
After directing his Assad comparisons to two county committees, which he said later were Finance and Administrative, Wright concluded his comments by saying residents should vote the supervisors who were hindering the county’s progress out of office.
Supervisor Marlin Noffke, who sits on both committees, argued the Finance Committee does have the power to cut projects, especially when the committee has to present a budget to the County Board in October that is under the levy limit.
“If the amount of money exceeds the available funds that we have, then OVERSET FOLLOWS:somebody has to make a decision on what can be done,” Noffke said. “As far as I can tell, that is vested in the Finance Department and Finance Committee to come up with a balanced budget.”
Categories
