By Thomas J. McKillen
Managing Editor

The Washington County Board got a glimpse as to how county government is organized in other parts of the state July 20.
There have been suggestions of possibly decreasing the size of the Washington County Board from the current 30 supervisors. A schedule calls for potential resolutions to come before the county Executive Committee in August.
The board listened to presentations by UW Extension Community Development Educator Paul Roback, Waukesha County Board Chairman James Dwyer and Walworth County Board Chairperson Nancy Russell.
At the start of his presentation, Roback noted that while Washington County has an administrative coordinator that answers to the County Board, there are two other structures used in county government statewide:
•A county administrator, who submits an annual budget and reports to the County Board. The administrator may be removed by the County Board at any time; and,
•A county executive, who is elected to a four year term directly by the voters. A county executive has his own chief of staff and has veto power over anything approved by the county board.
In smaller counties, Roback noted that the duties of an administrative coordinator are combined with that of the county clerk.
Roback also summarized recent activity as far as the downsizing of county boards. In 2005, the state Legislature approved legislation that allow the size of county boards to be changed once every 10 years. The law allows for a binding referendum approved by voters to change the number of supervisors as well allowing the board to change representation on its own. Since the law was passed, Walworth County voters approved a referendum in 2007 that reduced the number of supervisors from 25 to 11 while the Waukesha County Board approved a motion a year later reducing the number of supervisors from 35 to 25.
Roback said the options come down to a basic question.
“What are you trying to accomplish with this process?” he asked the board. “What are you really looking for and what do you hope to achieve?”
Supervisor Bill Meyers provided an answer a short time later.
“My goal in this is the efficiency of government,” Meyers said.
During her presentation, Nancy Russell said the Walworth County Board “lost all our farmers” on the board due to the additional work load among the remaining members. She said two farmers have joined the board in the recent election cycle.
Russell said the Walworth County Board did not increase the salary of supervisors after the reduction was made. She added that the board is considering increasing the number of supervisors from 11 to 15.
Dwyer noted that the Waukesha County Board originally had 74 members and included representation from all towns and municipalities. However, the “one man, one vote” ruling by the US Supreme Court in 1965 ended that designation and the board downsized to 35 members. While a suggestion was made by then-County Executive Dan Finley to reduce the board size in 2001, the board voted against the idea.
In 2008, a citizens group began to circulate a petition to reduce the size of the Waukesha County Board. At that time, the board voted to downsize to 25 members.
“That wasn’t a number that was picked out of the air,” Dwyer said.
Dwyer explained that the board voted to stay with seven members on each committee and each supervisor serving on two committees. The number of County Board meetings has been reduced from two to one a month. As a result, the total number or meetings a supervisor attends in a month has been reduced from four to three.
Dwyer suggested that Washington County officials take a look at their workload and from that determine the number of supervisors that could perform those tasks. Dwyer indicated that the  Waukesha County Board will likely stay at 25 members.  He further indicated that any change should be based on potential efficiency as opposed to dollar savings.
“In your overall county budget, it’s going to be pretty insignificant,” Dwyer said about savings from any potential reduction of supervisors.
According to information presented by Roback earlier, Washington County would save approximately $47,245 if it went down to 25 supervisors, $94,490 if it went down to 20 supervisors and $141,735 if it went down to 15 supervisors.