 Welcome to Sheboygan County Government working for you. My name's Adam Payne, County Administrator and co-host of this program with Chairman Mike Vanderstien, who as you can see, still is not with me. He's recovering from some surgery, although doing well and has attended the last couple of County Board Member meetings. So I'm hopeful he's gonna be back with me here soon. But today we're very pleased to have Julie Glancy as our guest. Welcome Julie. Thank you. Julie's our County Clerk, one of our very important 22 departments, heads in this County. And Julie has been on this program before, but I think it's been maybe a year or two? It's been, yeah, a couple of years, I think three or four. A lot going on in the County Clerk's office and I'm just tickled to have Julie with us today. And please start Julie by sharing a little bit about yourself and when you first became County Clerk. Okay, I was first elected as County Clerk in 1994. So I've been, this is my 17th year as County Clerk. I was the Deputy County Clerk for 10 years before that. So I've been 27 years in the County Clerk's office. Before that I worked for the Division on Aging for a number of years and before that I worked for the Clerk of Courts. So I have about 40 years with County Government right now. And in the Division of Aging, is that where they have the Fountain of Youth, as I said? Yeah, yeah, that's the, yeah, Fountain of Youth. They distribute that there, don't they? They distribute it there. Wonderful. So nearly 40 years. Nearly 40 years. We should avoid in County. And as County Clerk, what are your primary roles and responsibilities? Probably what most people think of when they think of the County Clerk's Office as marriage licenses. So we issue marriage licenses. We're also the Secretary for the County Board. So we, you know, go to their meetings, take their minutes, make sure their meetings are posted in compliance with the open meeting law, things like that. As part of that, we also keep the website updated. So if you've ever been to the County website, you can find County meetings there and links to the different documents the County Board has. And of course we keep all their records and things. So if somebody needs information from the County Board, we have that. Our office is in charge of elections for Sheboygan County. We are also in charge of the property and liability insurance. So we handle the claims for that. And we are in charge of the telephone and voicemail system for Sheboygan County. We're kind of the department, when they didn't know what to do with it, they gave it to the County Clerk's Office, you know? Because we also have kind of a strange variety of records that we keep as well. We have highway relocation maps, you know? That doesn't really make a lot of sense, but we do. When Lightfoot School, which used to be a teacher's college before it was Lightfoot School many years ago, when that teacher's college disbanded, we have the transcripts for the students that attended that teacher's college. We have the coroner records because our coroner currently doesn't have an office. So if you need information for the coroner records, they're in our office as well. So kind of the catch-all. Yeah, we are. You know, you don't know where to go with it. Give it to the County Clerk. She'll keep it. Well, as I've always said, if you have a question and you don't know where to go, start with the County Clerk's Office. Start with us. We try to help. In addition to some of these mandated responsibilities supporting the County Board and maintaining records and minutes, things of that nature, you also have some discretionary programs to help people. Yeah, absolutely. We sell hunting and fishing licenses, and that's kind of a throwback to many years ago before the DNR had those terminals, you know, where your license is printed automatically. County Clerk's was a distribution point for anybody who sold conservation licenses when they were the old paper licenses you had to write out. And once that went away with the automation, we maintained the ability to sell licenses just like anyone else. We don't make much money at it. You know, I think we made like $200 last year because we get 50 cents a license and it's huge. But it is a service, and we have people that have been coming to us for years and years, so it's just something we like to keep up. Last year, we also started issuing the stickers you need for boats, registering boats and snowmobiles and things like that. We haven't had much of a track record with that yet, but because the DNR offices are kind of shutting down and the one in Plymouth is only open limited days now, the DNR actually approached County Clerk's to see if we would be willing to kind of fill that gap for people that needed to get their license because they want to go snowmobiling today or they want to get their boat out today and they don't have a sticker. So we do that. And a number of years ago, we started issuing passports. Passports for us is a lucrative business. Not quite as much now as it was for a while, but we do make a significant revenue on passports. So that really helps our budget out a lot. And how long have we been issuing passports? About six years now. Very good. I personally appreciate that I can go to your office and get my hunting license or fishing license. I wasn't even aware of the boat registration, so that's great. I know that as you said, DNR offices across the state have been downsized and as you said, the one in Plymouth, their hours aren't the same. And if you go to a fleet farm or a Walmart, you can get some of these licenses, but it's nice to see the same people and who become knowledgeable about basic questions you have. That's not all of the case. Most of the people that come in for a DNR license know us by name. It's all, hi Dave, I'm here again for my hunting license or my fishing license, and that's kind of nice. And speaking of good staff, how many staff do you have and what are their roles? I have three staff people full time. My deputy county clerk is in charge of assisting with elections and also the website. My account clerk person is in charge of the telephone system and also any billing or purchasing that we do. And I have a secretary position that is really in charge of the county board and dealing with all their records and things like that. And they're excellent. They are. I have a wonderful staff. You've got a good team. Well, speaking of elections, by the time this program is run, I think it's gonna be just before the April 5th elections. Want very busy time for you and your staff. What's all involved with gearing up for an election like what's gonna happen on April 5th? The April election is probably one of the most difficult elections for us. You know, most people think of the big elections being president or whatever, but because the April elections are the non-partisan elections, those are the ones where all of the local municipalities and school districts have their contests on the ballot. And we have to coordinate all that. You know, you've got 28 municipalities, you have 13 school districts. We have to make sure that every ballot, when you walk into the polling place, the ballot you get has your municipality, your school district on it. And for some of our townships, the town of Herman has five different school districts in it. So, you know, just coordinating that and make sure everybody gets the right combination. We also program the equipment. So when you go into the polling place and put your ballot in the machine or you go to the touch screen, how that machine works is our office, programming it and telling it how to read the ballot and what names it's tabulating when it does. So you're providing training, you're assisting. Yeah, we train municipal clerks. I'm a certified municipal clerk trainer and also a certified chief inspector trainer. So we can provide training to the municipal clerks. In fact, we have a brand new municipal clerk in the village of Adelaide. It's coming in on Monday for training and for also the chief election inspectors. We publish the ads. We've been doing that for a number of years and that probably predates the whole shared services thing but what we do for absentee ads which aren't really the county's responsibility but we publish that ad for everyone in the county so that everyone whose official paper is a Sheboygan Press, we publish one ad. It saves them a lot of money. We also publish in fact for two municipalities in Manitowoc County who have the Sheboygan Press as their paper. Saves everybody, you know, every municipality money from having to do that themselves. The flyer that's always in the paper before the election, our office takes care of publishing that as well. We make sure that municipalities have all the forms and everything they need to operate the election and of course election night, we're who you call to find out who won or what the results are and we also do the SVRS or the statewide voter registration system for 19 of our 28 municipalities. So we're very busy with elections. And just as you listen to this and this is just one small but incredibly important aspect of county government and the county clerk's office dealing with elections and if you think of budget cuts or restraints or having to reduce your staff, I know you mentioned you already are down to just three staff. We've cut programs and departments staffing throughout the county. You can only get down to a certain level where frankly you don't have the resources you need to get these things done. Absolutely. I actually, since I've been in office, have cut my staff by one full-time person so that's 25% of my staff. And the budget implications for elections are huge because the federal government and the state government keeps pushing new regulations and new things onto what needs to be done for elections and that just pushes your cost up tremendously. What is coming down the road after in 2012 is we will more than likely need to publish ballots in multiple languages because the federal law requires that if 5% of your population is of a minority language, you have to publish ballots for them. And the census doesn't discriminate between whether you're a citizen or not a citizen. It just says 5%. And right now city of Sheboygan based on the numbers I've seen is well over. They're almost 10% Hispanic and like 6% or 7% Hmong. So we're probably looking at three languages on our ballots which is going to exponentially increase our cost, which- More complexity, more cost. More cost. How about volunteers? You have a lot of folks who help volunteer. We have one volunteer in my office and that's my husband who comes in on election night and helps out. He has really no choice so I don't know if you can call him a volunteer or not. But no, we really don't have a lot of volunteers. Sometimes I recruit my eldest grandson and his friends to help carry ballots in an election night. The municipalities have, I don't know if you'd say their poll workers are volunteers. They don't get paid very much so they really are almost volunteers. And they are having trouble recruiting those, especially like city of Sheboygan. And now again with this new, with the new requirement, she's gonna be required to have poll workers who speak those languages as well. So finding those people is going to be another challenge for her. And it is difficult. You find most people are working so finding someone who can be there from seven in the morning until eight o'clock at night is very difficult. And it's kind of a thankless job. Voters are upset, it's the poll workers they take it out on and they have to deal with that. Right, right. So April 5th, big election coming up, although as you said, not like a presidential election, but who is all on the ballot? Statewide, there is justice in the Supreme Court. For Sheboygan County, we have a county judge that will be branch three, will be decided on that. Every municipality and school district has something on the ballot. The cities have Alderman, the townships have town chair, town board members, the villages have village president, village trustees, and all the school districts have school board members up for reelection. They do. And there are four, actually four referenda questions this time around. What kind of turnout are you expecting? Hard to say, we're looking at hopefully maybe 15% but yeah. And that's about the norm for in April. Yeah. So the places that have referendums will probably see a bigger turnout. Usberg area has their kind of perpetual referendum on whether or not they can sell intoxicating liquor at their restaurants and things that might bring people out. Howard's Gross School has a referendum for bonding, which always kind of tends to bring out higher voter turnout. Isn't that fascinating? I mean, all your years as county clerk and all the elections that you've helped coordinate and right now the angst that's going on in Madison with the governor's budget repair bill and cuts to local governments at all levels and just all the angst and anxiety that's going on. Yet, we look at turnouts of 15%. It's sad. Why aren't more people going to the polls? I know. And people come out in droves to vote for president. That's always the highest voter turnout election. And when you think about it, your vote probably counts the least in a presidential election. When you think of the millions of people across the country voting for president, and yet when it comes to school board or county board supervisor or your city alderman, you have such a poor turnout, it's really sad. I always think people shouldn't be allowed to complain if they didn't vote. Yeah, good point. Well, speaking of the county board, another very important topic you're working on is the redistricting. The county board, what, four or six years ago to their credit studied their size as a board and the scope of responsibilities, their committee structure, and decided themselves to reduce their numbers from 34 to 25. So that's the game plan, but of course the redistricting process is very important and may have some impact on that and other municipalities. Let's start with the 101. What is the redistricting that's coming up? Why is it happening and why is it important? Okay, redistricting is, oh, holding it around for about 40 years in Wisconsin. And it's required every time you have a census that following year you redistrict. And the purpose of redistricting is really to ensure that you maintain the one man, one vote principle so that every legislator, be it a county board supervisor or a state legislator, represents the same number of people. So everyone's vote has the same weight, okay? And because as population grows, it doesn't necessarily grow evenly throughout the state or throughout the county. You have to kind of adjust for those shifts in population to maintain that equality. So every 10 years after the census, we go through this redistricting process. And again, you have a very important lead role with pulling that together. What's happening right now? What are the next steps? Actually, the executive committee who's the redistricting committee is going to meet next week and kind of set the direction for the redistricting and some of the principles that they want to see happen in the redistricting. There are just a myriad of rules you have to follow in that, but basically when you start redistricting, all of your ward lines and district lines are really just gone. You're starting with a blank slate of your county. The county has the first chance. We need to divide the county up into equal supervisory districts. So we'll start by taking the county's population, which is about 115,000 based on the census, and divide that by the 25, and that's how many people need to be in each district. So then we have to go across the county and kind of put together pieces that each equal that amount and come up with equal districts. After the county is finished, that plan goes to the municipalities to create wards. And primarily what they do is create wards based on the districts the county has laid out, because the kind of relationship between a ward and a district is wards make up districts. They describe what a district is. If you talk to someone and you say, well, that district is ward one of this and ward two of that, that's really all a ward is, is an identifier. So they have to create those wards. If you're a city, you also have to create wards that allow you to have even Aldermanic districts. So it becomes a little more complex when you're dealing with cities and Alderman. After the municipalities have drawn their lines and they're allowed to change the county lines if they want to. So, you know, it helps to work with them up front so you don't get a lot of surprises. But it comes back to the county and the county then has 60 days to develop their final plan, which is really just to incorporate any changes the municipality made. So the county board has decided previously. I mean, they could change that, but I don't think it'll happen this late in the process. They're gonna reduce from 34 county board supervisors or 34 districts to 25. So there'll be certainly some, there'll be a change in the landscape next April of 2012 when we have elections. By having 25 districts, then that goes on to the city of Sheboygan, for example. What is the likelihood of the council changing in their numbers? I don't think there's really any, I haven't really seen any movement for that. I know they've talked about it a little bit. It really isn't necessary, as long as it may create more wards in the city because they have to create pieces that will add up to, based on the numbers, about 10 and a half county board supervisors and eight aldermanic districts, which isn't really easy math if you think about it. So there will be more wards created, but they can still say it at eight districts with 16 aldermanic. They may or may not change. Board size definitely will. City of Sheboygan may or may not. And then if you're watching this program or reading an article in the press from time to time about this redistricting, what should people keep an eye on? I mean, is this something that I don't really need to worry about this, or what do you think is most important? Well, they need to watch for the 2012 elections to see their polling place. If they live in the city of Sheboygan, their polling place might change based on where the lines are drawn. And for just anybody, your legislators may change. Your supervisor may change. Your state legislators may change because the whole state needs to shift based on population. So if another county is growing much faster than Sheboygan County, Sheboygan County is gonna lose a little bit of that legislative area to somebody else. So those districts are gonna shift around a little. So they're gonna need to kind of keep an eye on who their legislators are, what changes come out. And for more information, if they're interested in tracking this or perhaps somebody watching this is interested in running for county board in 2012. And depending on where those lines are, where their district falls, that may determine who they're running against or perhaps it'll be an open seat. What's the best way for them to get more information? They can always call our office, but we will have the voter public access, which is part of the SVRS, the Stateway Voter Registration System. If you go to vpa.wi.gov, that website, if you put in your address, it will tell you what districts are in. Or I would just contact Julie Glancy at the County Clerks Office. Yeah, and we'll publish maps and things like that for people so they'll be able to look at the map and see where they live. Very good. And if it's, well, you said, it's still hard to believe, almost 40 years with the county, how many years in the County Clerks Office? This would be, well, a total of 27. 27. This is my third redistricting. So this is your third redistricting. And is it something that you dread, or is it not too bad? It's not too bad. This one is going to be a little more challenging because in the past, we've stayed the same with a number of supervisors. So you're just kind of tweaking the districts a little bit. Excuse me. This time you're really going to be making significant changes. And you're going to have nine supervisors that are going to be kind of out of a job. Very good. Julie and I are both suffering from the common cold. I think she's just getting over hers and I'm in the midst of mine, so please bear with us. A lot of that going on right now. Well, that's, I think, a real nice overview on redistricting. And again, if you have questions on that, don't hesitate to contact the County Clerks Office. And also if you haven't before, and I've mentioned this from time to time in this program, we have a pretty nice Sheboygan County website. There's always room for improvement and it needs to be updated. But the County Clerks Office in particular does an excellent job updating the minutes, posting agendas, and there's a number of departments that you can access to get additional information. So please don't hesitate to take advantage of that and don't hesitate to let us know if you have suggestions for improvement. Back to marriage licenses. Let's talk about a fun topic for a while. You have to have all sorts of young people coming to the office or of all ages. Of all ages, actually it's kind of surprising. So anyone who's getting married in Sheboygan County, they need to get their marriage license at the County Clerks Office, is that correct? You have to get your marriage license in the county where at least one of you lives if you're getting married in Wisconsin. If you live here, you've got to come to us. So approximately how many people come through your office for a marriage license? Well, let me tell you, it's been declining a lot. In the past, our average is about 750 a year. Last year, we had less than 650. It's really, I think it's a sign of the economy, and I'm hoping that will change, but it really was a dramatic drop last year in the number of years. You're holding off a little bit longer? Yeah, I think they just, you know. So about 650, 750 a year, and if they come in, what information do they need to be able to? Well, they need a certified birth certificate. They need some sort of identification like a driver's license. We need to know their current address. The fee is $85 for a marriage license. It's a little pricey. That's probably why it's gone down in the economy. We need to know where they're getting married and when they're getting married because you have to apply no more than 30 days before your wedding, and not less than six days before your wedding. So there's a timeframe in there. So you need to know when you're getting married and how that's going to happen. And we also need your social security number. Do you ever have anyone come into your office, get their marriage license, then go across the street to the family court commissioner? We make them go across the street first. And the number of marriages of court commissioners is really on the rise, I think. You know, more and more people are just doing that and getting married there. Very good. So as you reflect a little bit about your tenure in the county, and I've been with the county 11 years, and I will tell you with great sincerity that Julie Glancy is outstanding. She is one of our shining stars as a department head, as an elected official. And I mean it when I say it, if you have a question about county government or you're not sure where to start or where to go, contact Julie Glancy and she will help you. And I always get a little concerned when you talk about your tenure and your years of service with the county because I know eventually you're gonna join your husband and smell the roses a little bit more. As you reflect on all your years of service, and I know you still have a lot of fire in ya, what's, you know, what are some of your observations? You know, what do you really enjoy? What's changed? And what do you see coming down the pipe? What are the greatest challenges coming our way? Well, I've always really liked my job. I like, you know, I like the elections, I like dealing with the county board, things like that. I think one of the biggest challenges is the rules and regulations that keep piling on, things that aren't necessarily value added. You know, there's a great deal of concern about security and elections, which there should be, but we spend a great deal of time tracking little serial numbers on machines and locks and tags and I don't really know that that's really a value added service, you know, to the public. And, you know, so it's those kinds of things that I see that are probably the most troubling, but I still, state mandates, federal mandates, you know, and we kind of get it from both directions. And those things are just kind of make your life more complicated than it probably needs to be. And so things have become more complex, more state mandates. I know you enjoy your job because it shows. What about challenges coming our way? Do you think more of the same, the cuts we're absorbing, where are you feeling? I am concerned about where the budget, you know, when I listen to what the county is facing in 2012 in terms of, you know, having a huge financial hole to fill, knowing that my elections are going to double, maybe even triple in costs for 2012 and going, okay, how is the county gonna deal with that? You know, I'm gonna have to go to the county and say, I need more money when other departments are being asked to cut. And I look at that and say, well, where in my office can we cut? You know, especially in an election year, I can't afford to lose staff, especially at that time. And what do you do? You know, we've raised the cost of marriage licenses, I think to the point where we don't want to go any higher than that. You know, we've kind of run out of ways to make money, like passports, for example, or, you know, a way to bring revenue in that without raising our cost. And we're kind of running low on those kinds of ways to go. So I think finances are huge, you know? I mean, it's, you have to deal with the mandates. You can't say, no, we're not going to do an election. You know, and yet what, you know, you can't say, no, we're not going to have multiple languages. No, we're not going to use the touchscreen equipment, which is added significantly to our cost. You know, and we do, like I said, we do the programming of that equipment. Counties that hire someone to do the programming spend upwards of $150,000 a year to program. So, you know, we've really kind of done the things, you know, like our purchasing agent refers to it as low hanging fruit. You know, we've done the things that are obvious. There are things that we can do. Looking for new ways to fill the financial hole is a challenge. And as you know, I would wholeheartedly agree as we've, every year we've gained efficiencies, we've privatized, we've consolidated, we've streamlined every department, including your own, has reduced staff. And of course there's tremendous pressure for that to continue. Folks don't want to pay more in property taxes. Some folks don't want to see any sales tax. Some folks don't want to see user fees. And, you know, raising taxes or revenue is not popular. Yet at the same time, fuel continues to go up. Health insurance continues to go up. There's costs of just doing business that go up. And as you said, if something is important as elections, you can only squeeze that turnip so much and you get a point where we really can't reduce more here. So then you go to the next department. Well, is that going to be law enforcement? Is that going to be health and human services for the neediest of the needy? Our court system? So these are challenging times. And to the credit of our staff, not only do they continue to be innovative and coming up with ideas. Now, as everyone is well aware, if they've been following the press and everything happening in Madison, all employees are being asked to do more, whether it's contributing more to their pension or health insurance, other concessions. Employees are doing that. It's a bitter swill, uphill to swallow, but they are doing that. But that in itself is not going to be the end all. That's one part of the solution. So no question, our jobs just continue to get more challenging. Well, I want to thank you, Julie, for your years of service. And as I've kitted with you off the air, you can't leave until I do so. I'm hoping you're going to handle it. My staff says the same thing, so yeah. And I thank you for joining us. And again, if you have any questions of county government or suggestions or don't know where to start, please contact the county clerk's office. Julie Glancy or her staff, they're just wonderful. And whether it's a marriage license, a hunting or fishing license, a passport, or questions about agendas, minutes, you name it, they're going to be able to assist you. So again, thank you for joining us next month. We're going to have our human resources director here, Mike Collard, to talk about what I just mentioned a few minutes ago. Some of the significant changes that are happening with employee labor contracts, contributing toward pension, contributing more toward health insurance. What does that all mean? How does the labor process work? Will there be negotiations in the future? And if not, or if to a certain extent, how will that work? Mike's going to be here to talk about that. So again, thank you for joining us and take care.