Meet the candidates for Marathon County Board of Supervisors in Dist. 16

Conway: I was on the board in 2020 and while I was there, we were able to repair the county jail’s crumbling foundation, plus we added a second 911 line for the Sheriff’s Department to serve the Everest Metro area, renovated the Mount View Care Center, and opened the NCHC Aquatic Therapy Center. And all without borrowing ridiculous amounts of money or raising taxes, which is what being fiscally responsible is all about.

Unfortunately, the person who currently represents us has voted AGAINST a number of essential programs and positions, such as:

VOTED AGAINST Sheriff’s Department Training Center
VOTED AGAINST Mental Health initiatives for our school children
VOTED AGAINST Family Keys to keep kids from entering the foster care system
VOTED AGAINST Energy Efficiency Taskforce
VOTED AGAINST Library Board Appointees
VOTED AGAINST Health Department Appointees
VOTED AGAINST Infrastructure Sustainability Measures
VOTED AGAINST Substance Abuse programs

However, one thing he DID vote for was to give HIMSELF a pay raise. He also voted to adopt a tax levy that’s 5.68% higher than the 2023 level, which is the largest percentage increase in 15 years. Even his fellow supervisors have called him out for voting in a fiscally irresponsible manner!

He is also the one trying to defund our public libraries, claiming they’re chock full of pornography, which is simply and categorically untrue. My wife and I have raised 4 kids here, and we have been taking them to the library their entire lives in order to give them an appreciation for books and reading, and I can assure you that they don’t have a pornography section and to claim otherwise is foolish and harmful. I can’t believe I actually have to say that, but here we are.

And if that’s not bad enough, the current supervisor is also creating a toxic environment that is having profoundly adverse effects throughout the district. He’s been repeatedly warned by both the board chairman and the county attorney about his actions, and the county clerk has called him out for his rudeness on multiple occasions. He’s been so disrespectful and insulting, one staff member told me she threatened to quit because of his behavior and now refuses to attend meetings where he will be in attendance. Combine that with his questionable budgetary behavior and attempts to close down the libraries, and you can see why I’m running again.

I was raised to be polite and respectful and I’ve done my best to instill those qualities in my own children. My father turned 93 this January and he goes to the library every week without fail (he likes spy novels). And when he heard about the current supervisor’s efforts to defund such a valuable institution, he told me I had better get back on that board and talk some sense into them.

Yes, at 55 years old, I’m still listening to my father.

If you have any doubt that what I’m saying isn’t true, please watch any county board meeting where my opponent speaks, like this one: Marathon County Board Regular Meeting – 12/14/23 (youtube.com) and see for yourself.

Sherfinski: Back in 2020 and 2021 the Marathon County Board became very divisive. Instead of focusing on local issues and giving the residents of Marathon County good governance, combined with fiscal responsibility too many board members became focused on divisive social issues. Instead of bringing people together and building a stronger future for all of us in Marathon County, they were tearing the community apart.

It was time someone said ‘Enough’. I felt it was time to bring back common sense to the County Board.

Conway: A lack of transparency and accountability for some of its members. When I was on the board, citizens could come and address the supervisors by giving a public comment at the beginning of the meetings, but they have since changed the rules so a topic must be on the agenda for the day (which they set), so people cannot petition their elected officials if they have a concern. I would reverse that rule change so our constituents could bring any issue they have in mind before the board and not be restricted to items only on the agenda.

You hear people bragging about “common sense” a lot these days, and I hate to say it, but some folks just don’t have it. People should have MORE of a say in decisions that affect them, not LESS.

Sherfinski: Too many people think the County exists to solve every problem. In reality, we are constrained by state law and good fiscal responsibility in what we can do. We need to stop trying to expand county government and focus on our core services including: Law Enforcement, Health Department, Parks Department, Elder Services, and Infrastructure.

Conway: Our county’s longstanding commitment to prudent fiscal management and professional administration ultimately benefits people in two important respects: (1) we have high quality services and (2) we have relatively low amounts of per capita spending when measured against other counties in Wisconsin, particularly within our North Central Wisconsin region. This is in large part due to the excellent financial and administrative team and we should continue to strive to maintain fiscal responsibility and sustainability.
And that’s something Supervisors must always keep at the forefront of their mind when voting on issues. Time and again, my opponent gets caught up in some strange conspiracy theory of his and either doesn’t listen to the administrative team or doesn’t believe them. He’s been called out numerous times from other supervisors for being “Penny-Wise, but Dollar-Foolish” when voting against measures and programs that will save the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars. His NO votes on the Family Keys project and the Regional Forensic Center are prime examples. By refusing state money for the former, Marathon County ended up paying $250,000 more than we should have, and the Regional Forensic Center will not only ensure community resiliency, but will be a huge revenue driver for our area. As one supervisor put it, “You can’t claim to be fiscally conservative and vote against grants!”

Additionally, we need to prioritize and support the Sheriff’s Department. We spent over a million dollars last year transporting and housing inmates in neighboring counties when OUR JAIL IS NOT FULL! As Chief Billib said, “It’s incredibly expensive when you have the resource here already.” By failing to prioritize our corrections officers, we fail the taxpayers of Marathon County.

Sherfinski: Marathon County is on a solid financial foundation now. To further enhance that we need to reduce the tax levy and limit the number of large building projects going forward until we reduce the county debt load.

Conway: When I was on the county board, I created over 200 announcements and updates over Facebook and Instagram, I created my own interactive website to share information with residents, created an online blog to bring current topics to light, started a monthly newsletter for folks that weren’t online, and held regular “office hours” at a local coffee shop. I also promptly replied to every single person who called or emailed me with concerns or questions they had.

In contrast, my opponent has done NONE of that. While out knocking on doors these last couple of months, several people told me they had contacted Supervisor Sherfinski, asking him to stop trying to defund the library and he never once responded to any of them.

Furthermore, because transparency is such a critical component of being a local official, I feel I must point out that Supervisor Sherfinski’s efforts to defund the library were only made known after an Open Records Request discovered that he had been emailing multiple supervisors behind the scenes, with no regard of Open Meetings Law. If not for that request, his shady backroom dealing would have gone unnoticed by the voters in his district.

And only because of the Open Records Request, we also saw that many, many people wrote him emails asking him to stop trying to defund the library and he never replied to any of them. The voters should be in the driver’s seat and elected officials need to respect their point of view and work FOR them, not IN SPITE OF them.

I will always be immediately responsive to any inquiry, and welcome input from my constituents. I treat serving on the county board as no different than my day job of running a large industrial social enterprise.

One simply can’t ignore emails and phone calls and expect to keep one’s job.

Sherfinski: Everyone is welcome to attend any County Board meeting, and they are also live-streamed. I encourage anyone and everyone to attend meetings whenever there is a topic that sparks your interest.

Every District Supervisor has a county email address and phone # on the county website. Please reach out on topics of interest to you. I welcome your involvement and feedback.

Conway: We need to think strategically when it comes to public/private partnerships and ensure that the “but for” qualification is as solid as it can be. 13 of the county’s 40 TID’s have been extended beyond their original life, some to more than 35 years! We need to have a strong evaluation of those, and we have donor TIFs. They could be going back to tax rolls, but instead they are supporting other TID’s. How much additional tax levy must the county pay to cover tax increment districts?

And when you’re not following a plan or acting strategically with the rest of the board, you aren’t an effective board member. When answering the questionnaire from a different paper, on which part of the county’s Strategic Plan he would like to focus on, my opponent’s reply was: “It’s way too long.”

The other component is that we need to protect renters and put measures in place to guard against rent hikes and evictions. County ordinances should be there to protect renters and work to ensure everyone has a safe and decent place to live. This is especially true of older folks living on fixed income.

Sherfinski: Our best tool is to work with the business community to promote business growth and the expansion of good, well paying jobs. With better paying jobs, people will have more options open to them.

Conway: Marathon County has the benefit of a very low tax rate, when compared to surrounding counties, which is a huge benefit to both businesses and prospective employees. The decision to prioritize keeping the rate low was made a long time ago and it’s still a good idea.

During my time on the board, the county was able to use ARPA funds to boost tourism dollars and I think we should continue the practice of promoting our area to bring in more customers for our small businesses in the area.

We also have wonderful natural resources in our county, in terms of nature and recreation and another big reason I would like to return to the board is to do what I can to stop that foreign company from putting in a giant open-pit metallic mine right on top of a class 1 trout stream. My district has the Eau Claire River coming in from the east and entering Lake Wausau to our west and it would be a crime to pollute such a beautiful route with all the toxins that come from leaching minerals out of ore. With the elimination of the “Prove it First” law, we may not be able to stop it entirely, but I promise to make sure to include iron-clad cleanup language in any contract the county signs.

Sherfinski: Good governance, low tax rates and promoting a positive attitude towards working with businesses. The county is currently looking at working with several projects as a borrowing “Conduit”. This costs the county and taxpayers nothing, not a single dollar. But it provides significant financial incentives for businesses to expand or locate in Marathon County.
We should consider additional use of this financial incentive when appropriate.

Conway: I’m glad you asked, and the correct answer is: none. That’s in the state statutes §43.57(4)(b) and the county’s attorney has been very clear on that point, and he has warned my opponent numerous times for trying to circumvent the law. The book catalog itself is maintained by the library staff and reviewed by the Library Board, both of whom do an excellent job and must be commended for their hard work and due diligence.

My opponent claims he wants to “protect the children” from all the “sexually-explicit material”, “pornography” and “grooming textbooks” that he thinks are in the children’s section. Those are all his words, not mine, and it is complete nonsense. Again, my wife and I have been taking our kids to the library since they could barely walk and there is nothing inappropriate to be found there. This is a fallacy of a conspiracy-theory mindset and is not grounded in reality.

My opponent also refers to the library staff as “Militant Pedophiles” which absolutely sickens me. The librarians and library specialists are truly some of the kindest and most knowledgeable people on the planet and are huge assets to the county staff! When someone refers to his employees like that, he should expect to be let go.

I will always support the library and work to protect it from people who would try and vilify and demonize such a valuable institution. Marathon County libraries had over 250,000 visits last year, and there’s still a lot of residents in the rural areas that depend on them for internet access, and still more who rely on the library for its literacy classes, seniors activities, book clubs, resume workshops, and so much more. I cannot stress enough how much good the library system does for our communities, and how valuable its employees are.

Sherfinski: By State Law, the County Board approves members of the Library Board and also sets and approves the Library Budget as part of the County Budget process. We also have a single County Board member who sits on the Library Board.

Conway: I believe that public participation in the transportation planning process is a critical component, and allows the public the opportunity to voice concerns and offer suggestions about transportation-related issues, while it also helps to educate the public about the technical aspects of transportation planning. Additionally, transportation professionals are afforded the opportunity to see sides of an issue that may be missed when considering a project from a purely technical point of view. Meaningful dialog between technical professionals and local stakeholders is the key to achieving consensus, which is desired before moving any project forward.

When I was on the county board, we were able to expand access to paratransit transportation for elderly residents to make it to appointments through the ADRC-CW, and I would like to continue to do so. Keeping our county’s seniors as independent as they want to be has always been a priority of mine.

Sherfinski: We are a rural or semi-rural county with one larger “metro” area. As such, developing or funding a county-wide transportation system is not feasible. By state law, our main transportation focus should be on developing and maintaining good infrastructure e.g. roads, bridges etc.