It's Been A Minute
Vote If You Haven't Already
Remember me? Your friendly neighborhood … errr …. County Supervisor. How’ve you been? Holding up?
Hey! Have you heard?! There’s an election around the corner. You should go vote.
Me? Oh. You know. The usual.
2025 Budget - We’re in the thick of budget season. You can find everything you want (or need) to know about the budget on the county’s website. In short, it’s a very tight budget. The federal government isn’t doling out the cash they did post-pandemic, so there’s not as much to go around. Sales Tax collections are down. Employee insurance is up.
The budget headline will be the $20,000,000 the County is committing to set in action the Dane County Regional Housing Strategy. There are three pots of money: $2M will go to the Madison-Area Community Land Trust [ed note: land trusts are awesome!]; $10M will go towards housing that is supported by Low-Income Housing Tax Credits; the remaining $8M will go towards housing that is not supported by Low-Income Housing Tax Credits.
2024 In Review - With the jail passed and under construction-ish it’s been pretty quiet on the Board.
Housing continues to be a real challenge throughout Dane County (as elsewhere), so much of the Board is focused on how to improve housing for the unhoused, for the housing fragile, and for those for whom the purchase of a house (as opposed to an apartment) is simply too expensive.
The Dane County Ombuds program is officially kick-off (finally). The Ombuds provides a safe and trusted space to talk about an issue or concern, explore options to help resolve conflicts, and bring systemic concerns to the attention of the organization for resolution. The Ombuds program was written and driven by me in my first term and is now finally a reality. It was borne out of frustration from employees related to constant friction with management; an independent Ombuds is a great benefit to helping employees navigate workplace conflict.
With a lull in substantive new initiatives and a new Board Chief of Staff, the Board has been looking at process efficiency and improved communication. There have been numerous debates about how to make voting smoother, how to more easily integrate hybrid work, and how to streamline the legislative process. It’s slow-going and a bit of a slog, but it is improving significantly.
Finally, a note on the County Executive.
The County Executive, Jamie Kuhn, has been great. She had the impossible task of coming in for only few months and overseeing the budget cycle for the County. She got her budget put together and basically kept the cost of operations flat across the board. But Jamie’s time as executive will come to a close when a County Executive is elected on November 5. It’s been a pleasure and an honor to work with her.
I endorsed1 Melissa Agard in the race for County Executive.
I have come to know Melissa well and I know Dana Pellebon (the other candidate) from her time on the County Board. Both candidates are amazing and would make excellent County Executives. I endorsed Melissa because she has not just County Board experience (which she does), but State Assembly, and State Senate experience. She knows not just great ideas, but how to implement great ideas. She knows how to find and gather resources, how to align the team to the goal, and how to execute. She has experience with very large and complicated budgets. She cares about the people and the employees of Dane County deeply.