Board Chair Says Assignments Are a Puzzle; Supervisor Calls It Vindictive
SHAWANO, WI- Tess Serrano spent multiple terms on the Shawano County Board and time on the Public Safety Committee. She did ride-alongs with sheriff’s deputies, studied job titles, compensation structures, and equipment budgets and chaired the Public Safety Committee for two terms.
Then this year after reorganization, she wasn’t put on the committee at all.
Rather than serve on the three committees she was assigned — CIP (Capital Improvement Projects) , Planning, Development & Zoning, and Joint City/County Transportation Advisory Committee, Serrano resigned her seat entirely. She says the decision by Board Chairman Tom Kautza to remove her from Public Safety wasn’t a matter of logistics, in her opinion,
“I thought it was a vindictive move by Chairman Kautza,” Serrano said.
Kautza, now in his fourth term as chairman, says placing 27 supervisors across more than 20 committees every two years is one of the most thankless jobs in county government, and that someone is always going to end up unhappy.
“It’s completely impossible to make everybody fully happy,” he said. “Just by the way the setup works.”
Listen: Kautza and Serrano Both Comment on the Chair’s Decision
Kautza acknowledged he expected Serrano to be upset but said he did not anticipate her resignation. He said he had no issues with her performance on the Public Safety and Executive Committies that she served on for the last two years, and noted she was moved to PD&Z, a committee she had previously served on, as well as CIP and the Joint City/County Transportation Advisory Committee.
Serrano pushed back sharply, saying the committees she was assigned carry little weight compared to Public Safety. “CIP projects are already determined by the budget,” she said. “PD&Z, I was only chosen for that because my area has unzoned territory. Joint City/County Transportation Advisory Committee, I didn’t even sign up for that, I don’t even know what that is, and that had to be number 20 0n my list.”
The committee nobody wants to leave
Kautza and Serrano Both Comment On Public Safety
Every two years, supervisors submit a ranked list of their committee preferences. Public Safety has long been among the most sought-after assignments. It oversees the sheriff’s department, jail, emergency services, and the equipment and staffing decisions that come with all of them.
Serrano listed it as her number one every term she served, including this one. For the last two terms, she ran the committee as its chair.
When the new assignments came out, she was gone from the list. In her place: Jacob Hartwig.
It doesn’t do any good to keep people on the same committees for a long period of time,” Kautza said. “We got to give other people opportunities.”
With the new assignments, there was little change. Russ Gehm was put back on the Public Safety committee by Kautza, along with Steve Natzke and Randy Young, both returning. Matt Pleshek replaces Jeremy Gretzinger as the only other change.
“If they stay on one committee forever, pretty soon they’re not doing the job of a supervisor anymore,” Kautza said. “You just get focused on one thing.”
More than a committee seat
The stakes go beyond Public Safety itself. The only paths onto the county’s Executive Committee, which weighs in on spending, personnel, and major administrative decisions, run through the chairmanship, the vice chairmanship, or membership on one of a handful of major standing committees, Public Safety among them.
In the past, Serrano had reached the Executive Committee through Public Safety, and served on that committee for two terms. Losing her Public Safety seat meant losing that path too.
She believes that was the point.
“Absolutely,” she said when asked whether she thought the reassignment was also designed to push her off Executive.
Kautza confirmed that newer supervisor Steve Schinke, who was added to the Executive Committee this cycle, had earned the opportunity by attending nearly every committee meeting throughout the year.
Kathy Luebke also was selected by Kautza to serve on the Executive Committee as his second selection, which he also chose her last cycle.
Serrano says that is undercutting his argument that he was spreading opportunity around. “He didn’t really make any ‘let’s give somebody else an opportunity’ there,” she said.
Kautza did not directly address those comparisons.
A vote count she hasn’t forgotten
Serrano traces the tension back to last meeting, when Kautza was re-elected board chair. Both she and Supervisor Joe Miller had been nominated against him. Kautza won 14-12, with Serrano drawing seven votes.
She went to congratulate him after the vote. His response, she said, didn’t feel sincere.
“I just feel in my heart of hearts that he did it vindictively.”
Kautza said he had no bad blood with Serrano and actually valued that she was outspoken and willing to challenge things. But their relationship on the Public Safety Committee, by Serrano’s account, was marked by real disagreements, particularly over money.
“From the chairperson himself, if there’s a conflict between spending money and safety, we had that conflict,” she said.
Questions about the process
Serrano also raised questions about whether the committee on committees, the advisory group that reviews assignments before they’re finalized, actually scrutinized the preference sheets supervisors submit.
Supervisors are asked to rank all 21-plus committees in order of preference. Those rankings are supposed to inform the process. Serrano, who served on the committee on committees earlier in her tenure, said she suspects most members deferred to the chair’s pre-arranged recommendations without reviewing individual sheets.
Kautza said the committee on committees did review and sign off on the assignments. He added that he deliberately put newer members on the advisory group this year, rather than filling it with allies, and that once members understand the complexity of the task, most of the pushback fades.
“I can’t do my electors any good”
Comments From Kautza and Serrano on the Resignation
Serrano said the committees she was assigned — CIP, which she described as having a budget already set years in advance; PD&Z, which she said she was placed on largely for technical representation reasons; and Joint City and Transportation, an advisory committee with little relevance to her rural district, left her with no meaningful role.
“I can’t be doing my job as a supervisor effectively for the townspeople that I represent when I’m not on a committee that I am passionate about,” she said.
She had run unopposed since her initial appointment and acknowledged her resignation may leave the seat difficult to fill. Kautza said he will move to appoint a replacement as soon as possible through the standard application process.
He has not reached out to Serrano since the reassignment or her resignation, she said.
“I told him what I wanted to do,” Serrano said. “He chose to go another way.”
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