Nearly All Central Wisconsin Communities Approve Referendum Questions Regarding the Appointment of Clerks and Treasurers

Thursday, November 7th, 2024 -- 9:01 AM

(Erik Pfantz, USA TODAY NETWORK - Wisconsin) Nearly all central Wisconsin municipalities with referenda questions on their ballots to change their elected clerk or treasurer positions to appointed roles saw the measures approved Tuesday.

According to Erik Pfantz with USA TODAY NETWORK - Wisconsin, the questions were considered by 12 municipalities in Marathon, Wood and Portage counties.

Town of Wood in Wood County was the only one to produce a "no" vote on its single question to change the town’s elected clerk and treasurer to appointed positions.

The municipalities that considered this change are following a common pattern of small local governments in Wisconsin in recent years, according to Carol Nawrocki, assistant director of the Wisconsin Towns Association, who spoke to a USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin reporter last month.

Clerks and treasurers face increasingly complex duties for positions that were traditionally seen as little more than volunteer work, Nawrocki said. Besides administering elections, clerks also are responsible for duties including sending public notices of meetings, organizing and running elections, filing reports with the state that could carry penalties for municipalities if not filed, writing checks for the municipality, processing payroll and more.

The increased difficulty of the work has made it more difficult to recruit people to be candidates for election to the roles, and stick with it for several terms, in smaller communities. One major benefit of approving the change is appointed officials do not need to reside in the municipality they serve, Nawrocki said.

In Wisconsin's 1,249 towns, there are 240 appointed clerks and 800 elected clerks, 165 appointed treasurers and 875 elected treasurers, and 126 appointed clerk-treasurers and 102 elected clerk-treasurers, according to the Wisconsin Towns Association website.

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