Hey! Hi! Uhm! What's Up Dunn County?

January is Not Only Goalsetting Month For Individuals But Also For The County Too!! - Time To Gear Up For The 2023 Primary and Spring Election - Let's Do a Poll Shall We?

Jan 29, 2023

January, that first month to kick off the New Year in style with positive optimism by setting some good worthy goals to push you toward achieving your dreams or at least a stepping stone closer to your dream or vision. Goalsetting can be accomplished by anyone or any organization with a purpose in mind. Yes! Even in our local government which includes Dunn County. I had the privilege to meet Kristin Korpela, our Dunn County Manager after the Executive Committee adjourned from their meeting earlier this month. She is very knowledgeable, organized when it come to county government processes and a county manager on a mission with a vision because she took the time to implement worthy goals in three key areas for the county to focus on. The following three areas she will be focused on in 2023 are Economic Development, Employee Recruitment, Retention and Wellbeing along with Communication. That looks like some pretty good areas to tackle for the year. Now let’s break it down further in each area of the specific tasks at hand to achieve a desired outcome. Below is Kristin’s goalsetting outline geared toward helping Dunn County reach a higher plane when it comes to managing a county.

Economic Development:
a.) Collaborate with Dunn County Economic Development Corporation to host a planning summit of regional economic development partners including Momentum West, Greater Menomonie Development Corporation, CVTC, UW Stout, Menomonie Area Chamber of Commerce, Main Street of Menomonie, Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and other local municipalities/industry and business.
b.) Collaborate closely with West Central Wisconsin Regional Planning and Dunn County DHS to determine next steps in implementation of recommendations from the Dunn County Housing Study.
c.) Partner with Dunn County Economic Development to complete a 2023 goalsetting session in January 2023.
Employee Recruitment, Retention and Wellbeing:
a.) Continue strategic planning process begun in late 2022 with employee relations workgroup comprised of management and staff form across county operations.
b.) Take advantage of opportunities to highlight positive staff contribution and reinforce the importance of mission.
c.) Forecast budget salary and benefit costs for 5 years and propose funding strategy.
d.) Continue to strive to make Dunn County an employer of choice defined as a company that candidates want to work for based on strong leadership, competitive pay, engaged workers, meaningful work and an attractive company culture.
e.) Develop a management training plan for all senior level leadership.
f.) Reinforce performance management as well as performance evaluation.
Communication:
a.) Solicit content and coordinate with Doug Mell, Krista Vind and Dan Dunbar on regular communication regarding county priorities.
b.) Put together monthly county manger video for social media promotion of upcoming county board meetings.
c.) Create a county board information outline for 2023 with a short area of focus for each month’s county board meeting: budget process, capital improvement planning, debt, investments, etc.
d.) Continue to encourage department heads to promote positive contribution by staff and great service delivery via social media, etc.

I would say this is very well laid out, strategic plan of action steps to move each area into a higher plane. I wish Kristin Korpela all the very best to accomplish those goals she put in place to help Dunn County strive to become strong with economic growth as well as a county employer of choice and implementing great communication to address the citizens of Dunn County of what’s happening each month of upcoming county board meetings via video and social media as well as communicating with others within the department regarding county priorities. I love how she want us, Dunn County neighbors to engage in our local county government by attending a County Board meeting to observe or comment on a topic or issue dear to your heart and watch our county board of supervisors in action. Check out the Dunn County website at www.co.dunn.wi.us to listen to Kristin’s monthly County Manager video to promote the next County Board meeting or checkout the calendar to see all the dates and times of the standing committees taking place as well as the County Board meeting. Transparency is the key to gain trust with those that reside in the county. And Kristin Korpela is doing just that.

Yep, it’s that time of the year to start focusing on the candidates running for school board in SDMA (School District of Menomonie Area), Colfax School District and in Boyceville School District for the upcoming 2023 Primary and/or Spring Election. The Primary Election Day is February 21st, 2023 and the Spring Election Day is April 4th, 2023. We also have a Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice race to fill the seat of Justice Patience Drake Roggensack. And yes, there are also township clerks, city council aldermen (odd wards) and town board positions up for grabs as well. Today though, we will be focused on the school board races and the four Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates vying for Justice Roggensack’s seat.

Let’s start with the School District of Menomonie Area School Board race. Three seats need to be filled and we have 7 candidates running for those spots meaning a Primary election will be taking place on February 21st. Three of the candidates are incumbents while the other four candidates will be campaigning for those three seats. Here are the seven candidates that will be on the February 21st Primary ballot as follows:

Amber Kersting
Amy Riddle-Swanson - incumbent
Brittany Weiker
Charlie Schneider - incumbent
Dale Dahlke - incumbent
Scott Parker
Stephen Machesky

And a great way to learn more about the above mentioned school board candidates running for SDMA is to show up at the Dunn County Judicial Center at 815 Stokke Parkway, Menomonie, Wisconsin on February 6th which is a Monday at 7 pm for a SDMA School Board Forum. This Forum is being presented by the League of Women Voters of Greater Chippewa Valley and also by the Menomonie Area Chamber of Commerce. This forum will be a great time to get your most pressing questions answered and to meet the candidates in person! The Primary Election will narrow it to six and the Spring Election will be for the three school board seats.

Now in Colfax School Board District there are four candidates running for three school board seats. Three who are incumbents and one who is a Colfax School District resident will be on the April 4th, 2023 ballot. Here are the four candidates that will be running in the upcoming spring election for the Colfax School District School Board race as follows:

Denise Solberg
Jaclyn Ackerland - incumbent
Jodi Kiekhafer - incumbent
Kenneth Bjork - incumbent

We have one more school board race in Dunn County which is the Boyceville Community School District. This particular school board race features Steve Olson who is an incumbent and Sharon Former, a Boyceville Community School District resident to be on the April 4th, 2023 ballot. Good luck to all the school board candidates running in Dunn County!

Now it’s time to talk about an important state race in Wisconsin for the Primary and Spring election which is the Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice race for one seat. Four candidates running for this one seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court which means we will have a Primary Election on this race narrowing it down to two for the Spring Election on April 4th, 2023. The four candidates are as follows:

Judge Jennifer Dorow, Waukesha County Court Judge
Justice Daniel Kelly, Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice
Judge Everett Mitchell, Dane County Court Judge
Judge Janet Protasicwicz, Milwaukee County Court Judge

As you read above, three are judges currently on the bench, and Daniel Kelly is a former Justice for the State Supreme Court bench. They had their first forum on January 9th, 2023 held in Madison and was organized by WisPolitics.com. You can watch the WisPolitics State Supreme Court Election Forum on wiseye.org under Coverage and scroll down to forums, click and scroll down to January 9th, 2023 to find the Forum and educate yourself on the four candidates running for this important race.

Well, I hope I gave you Dunn County neighbors a head start on doing your homework to learn more about the candidates running for school boards and the State Supreme Court races. It would be wise to have a good understanding where each of the candidates stand on what is important to you, your family, your community and the State. By researching candidates you can make an informed decision at the polls.

I know some of you probably are not a big fan of either taking a poll or believing a poll for it’s accuracy. But this poll is not just any poll. What if I said, this poll could turn into an actual referendum to be on the 2023 Spring Election ballot? So what the heck, let’s do a trial run…….This poll is in regards to AJR 134 which is being held hostage right now from getting a second consideration round of approval on the floor of the Assembly and Senate! The first consideration round of this resolution on the floor of the Assembly and Senate happened in 2021-2022 session. The Assembly Joint Resolution 134 which states “To create section 7 of article III of the Wisconsin Constitution relating to prohibiting the use of a donation or grant of private resources for purposes of election administration and specifying who may perform tasks related to election administration”. This means Zuckerberg or any NGO (Non-Government Organizations) would be prohibited from using their money to interfere and influence any election cycle in Wisconsin! This is a big issue in regards to the true integrity of our election process in Wisconsin. And Wisconsinites have a right to be a part of the process through a referendum.

So here is the latest scoop in regards to AJR 134. The next floor period for the Assembly and Senate for the 2023-2024 session to consider the approval of placing a constitutional amendment prohibiting the use of a donation or grant of private resources in any of our Wisconsin election cycles on the April 2023 statewide ballot is February 14-15. As a Call To Action please reach out to Representative August at rep.august@legis.wisconsin.gov and/or at 608-266-9132. Rep. August is the author of AJR 134 and the Chairman of Assembly Rules Committee. Also you can reach out to Senator Wimberger at sen.wimberger@legis.wisconsin.gov and/or 608-266-5670. Rep. Wimberger is the author of SJR 101. We need to ask them to immediately reintroduce AJR 134 and SJR 101 respectively in order to be approved during the February 14-15, 2023 floor period. This will allow plenty of time for clerks across Wisconsin to print the ballots after the February 21st Primary and get absentee ballots mailed out 21 days before the April 4th, 2023 statewide election that will include the constitutional amendment language of AJR 134. If you want to learn more about the legislative process of how a bill becomes law, go to www.legis.wisconsin.gov/about/follow or if you want to learn more about the process to amend the Wisconsin Constitution go to https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2011/related/wiscon/_22.

I guess a lot of things pertaining to the 2023 Spring election is on the forefront of my mind. And I hope I have encouraged you to create some good worthy goals toward your field of dreams and to become more educated and informed about all the candidates running in our Primary and Spring election. And also, to learn how our legislative process works.

From One Dunn County Neighbor to Another-Go for the Goals and Seek After Wisdom

Laurie J Christianson