 Welcome to Sheboygan County government working for you. My name is Adam Payne, County Administrator and co-host of this program. We've been doing this program now for 13-14 years and normally next to me you would see our fearless leader the County Board Chair but instead of next to me today he's across from me. We're doing something a little unique this month rather than a department head or a key employee that we're looking for information about roles and responsibilities. We thought you know it's time this community better knows who's at the helm who our chief elected official is and German Distruty it's good to have you across from me today. Welcome. Thank you. Good to be here. Roger's been on the County Board for nearly 30 years, 29 years to be more specific, has served in a lot of capacities with the County Board, has seen a lot, has been part of a lot of incredible improvements and has a track record here that's that's you're gonna find very interesting. So let's get right into it. Roger please share a little bit about your family, your family roots. I'm sure I grew up on a family farm three miles west of Cedar Grove and my nephew still lives on the farm and he's the seventh generation that's lived there and I grew up on the farm with the farming operation and always good to look back to the the roots in the community we've lived there all all our lives and on and on and got a little bit interested in politics because my my father and my grandfather would talk about local things and always had an interest and my great-grandfather actually served on the town board and the county board in the same district that I I do right now and he served in the late 1800s and the early 1900s and I've been fortunate enough to serve in the late 1900s and into the 2000s so between the two of us we've got four centuries covered with in that as County Board supervisor so some incredible track record of public service in your family so grew up on the farm and whereabouts is the farm just three miles west of Cedar Grove on the intersection of G and six mile road there so as you look at your career you didn't move far from home no I'm maybe about five miles away but still live in the town of Holland and I represent the village of Cedar Grove and the town of Holland make up the population for my district so and unlike a number of our County Board supervisors who are retired right now of course we have a diverse County Board but I think most of them are retired you're not you're fully employed where were you working what are you doing I'm the DPW director for the town of Holland Highway Department we have 56 miles of road we take care of and we contract some of the services we we get the county to plow our snow and do some of our black topping but we look for the best best bargain wherever we can and often we get the county as they are a little bitter for some of our jobs so and we both are married to nurses of course we have fond and fond memories and a lot of respect for for certainly being married to nurses you're a family man yes I have have two daughters their Anne and Linda Anne has two kids she's married and lives out in Hilbert on the family farm from her husband lives there I have two grandson grandchildren a grandson that's eight and a granddaughter that's three and lots of fun and we get together as often as we can yeah my wife is also or both of them are nurses my my daughter and my and my wife both RNs both work in the intensive care area and their hospitals Shibuya Memorial my wife and Appleton Memorial my daughter works out there my youngest daughter Linda is attending Lakeland College right now and she's nearing her second degree so we support her as much as we can very good well very good so deep roots in this community and and obviously a long track record of public service in your community what was it that made you decide to run for County Board and what back in 1984 yes I actually a fellow that I worked with at the time was the current County Supervisor then current County Supervisor of the area and he knew that I was serving on the Town Board at that time and he asked if I might be interested and I asked him what some of the duties were in the time frame and things like that and then actually there were two other candidates so I ended up having a primary and I came in second in the primary but then in the general election I was fortunate enough to come in first by a pretty good margin so made me feel pretty good and one of the reasons that I aside from I was encouraged to do it there at that time there was a concern that some were suggesting that we should have county-wide zoning and that was not of any interest to the local municipalities because Elkhart Lake is different than the town of Holland or the or the town of Scott is different than the town of Mitchell everything's just a little different certain things local communities know what they what they're interested in and what their citizens want and the always local control is is always important to me as it was back then so and that's some those are some of the reasons that I originally ran for it so local control obviously continues to be important a lot of people including the county so 1984 29 years on the board and I I know we have some viewers out there who obviously don't have your knowledge and appreciation for the roles and responsibilities of board members please give us just a high-end snapshot what is the role of a county board supervisor well first and foremost to try to represent the best you can the the people that you represent some have different interests than others but still the overall common good for the county is is in everyone's interest but you still have a feel for what your people are interested in so that's what you should you should try to represent the best and each of us is serving right now pretty well all of us are serving on two committees a couple of them one but that was by choice and that's how it the it shook out for everyone can't get on two committees but very close to to that so and each of us has that committee assignment and one or two and then at least once a month we have a full county board that the committee's report to their resolutions and and ordinances that that we all vote on now when you hired me 14 years ago you and the executive committee there were 34 county board supervisors we now have 25 county board supervisors because the board took it upon themselves to reorganize and right size but when you were first elected were there still town chairs on the county board as well I know at one point we had like 60 some county board supervisors as I remember being told that in the 60s then there were each for instance each village and township had the chairman of say the town of Sheboygan Falls would automatically be the county board chairman from that municipality and that seemed good enough over the years but it did not give you equal representation because for instance a village of Waldo would have one representative and the village of Howard's Grove would have one but maybe two to three times as much population so in in the 60s they the ruling came down that there had to be one man one vote so that's why each district has to be close to the same amount of people in it as as possible so that there's equal representation so that was changed already back in the 60s yes okay well before you were elected then I'm probably thinking of Jim Gilligan bless his heart who was on the county board I think for 42 years and he's since has retired and is no longer on the board but I can recall him speaking about those days when there were 60 some in those county board chambers and spittoons on the floor and it was a very different time so we've gone from in the 60s to 34 to now 25 county board supervisors and I think the state average is about 23 right now so we're right in the ballpark so as you mentioned two year terms you know reelected every two years you have a monthly county board meeting you have generally two committees that you participate on and they'll meet two or three times a month and as county board supervisors as policymakers what are their primary responsibilities you mentioned obviously representing your constituents but what are what are some examples of the work that you would do action you would take well the law committee I'll pick one would works with the different departments that directly are involved with law enforcement the clerk of courts the the DA child support the coroner I think I mentioned the sheriff and those are the ones that directly report to them and they react to that and I think the one of the most important things of our our committee system is the details are worked out in each committee and rather than have 25 people try to discuss the details in a large meeting first you get each committee brings in a resolution to take some action that they've thoroughly discussed and worked out some of those details and maybe ask their department head to check on something and bring back some information and react to it at the next meeting so that they get a very thoroughly discussed product to work with and then once they come out with a resolution or recommendation then it gets referred to another committee if it has some financial implications then it'll get referred to finance or there may be some serious policy changes it might get referred to the executive committee and that's pretty well how it rolls out so if you're you know wondering well how does the county government operate who are the top policymakers or decision-makers chairman distruty is the top elected officials he's elected by his peers so it shows the respect that his peers have for him when they elect chair and they have two year terms monthly county board meeting they may be a one or more standing committees and as Roger said the standing committees really have a strong role in our organization of developing policy meeting with different departments and they'll take action by passing generally a resolution ordinance or committee report and I guess you shared very effectively it'll go from one committee to the county board be referred to another committee and back and it can be a two-month process to make that decision but the good news is it's a very deliberative thoughtful process and more often than not good decisions are made as a result of it as you think about your tenure on the county board what are some of the biggest challenge bigger challenges you've been faced with well certainly over the years that try to keep the the budget and the levy in place as I look back there were a number of things that have the committees that I've served on maybe I'll do it that way that have impacted the county one of the committees I first served on was the resources committee now it's the prey committee as we combine some committees but the resource committee first was charged with the airport and then we as decision-makers felt that it was important to make it a stand alone department and then we have that it wasn't important enough for the economic development and things going on in the county that we have put more emphasis on the airport and then we hired Chuck mayor as our our our airport manager and he did great things there over the year that was one thing another committee I served on was the law committee one of the things that I recall that was kind of a change was the rural numbering system each township had their own numbering system and it didn't have to make numerical sense that just this subdivision had eight houses in and they had eight numbers and there was no pattern to them to have an enhanced 9-1-1 we needed to to have all of those locations documented on a map and segmented so they made sense so that was a challenge to get that through because that was changed but I think over the years people realize that was a positive change once we did that we could have the enhanced 9-1-1 system that if anyone picks up the phone and they know the location and who responds to that location what ambulance what fire what rescue and all of those things another thing when I served on the HR committee we made some changes and did some pretty good things with the with our insurance self-insured and I think we did some good things to save the county some money for the most part the employees were happy with those changes too but I think one of the most important things I ever did was I was on the executive committee we made the decision to get an executive coordinator and that's when we hired Adam and I think that was probably one of the best decisions I've made is as a car County board member ever because we felt that's important to have one CEO managing all of those departments we as supervisors are part-time people and we can devote as much time as we can but we're not there all the time and that's why we needed a hands-on manager to oversee all of the things the many departments in the county still set the policy but ask one person to try to coordinate all of that for us and later on we've upgraded that to administrator position that gave you more some more authority but we weren't real sure of giving that authority to anyone going at the beginning but we grew to appreciate your efforts and we we changed that to an administrator position those are some of the changes on the different committees I've served on I guess that's sort of answers your question there well I'm very flattered by your last example so thank you for that Roger and and you know to piece it together you know again Chairman Distruty Roger is chief elected officer he's chief elected official in the county and responsible for budget development and the the chief policy maker so when you're working with 25 County board supervisors I mean that's that's a very challenging role overseeing an organization and I should have set the stage a little bit better county government is comprised of 130 million dollar budget we have 19 departments about 850 employees providing programs and 200 programs and services I mean there is a lot going on here so when Roger talks about improvements he made at the county airport and for those of you who have been in this community a long time if you see what that airport looks like today compared to 29 years ago when Roger first started tremendous improvements at the airport whether it's law enforcement planning and resources working with clerk of courts or finance or human resources the breadth of responsibility when you're a county board supervisor and working in this organization one of the things I love about it and I think it's perhaps one of the reasons Roger is here after 29 years is there's always new things to learn and always opportunities to make improvements and good people to work with so it's been a pleasure it's been a good team as you've you know as you reflect on your history and the number of changes that you've been a part of and the improvements that we've made what do you what do you see as you know he challenges as we go for what are you thinking are on the horizon that you know we need to plan and prepare for and like I'm sure the most important thing and the hardest to achieve is to maintain our levy under our levy limits that we the state has given us which we've exceeded those requirements but still it's it's gets harder and harder each year to to maintain that the services that the people want and we've made some hard decisions over the years we have to make priorities just as anyone in their their household budget there's a lot of important things that need to be done but some things really should have more attention than others and and then something has to be cut we have to make decisions on that and we've for the most part done that well a lot of discussion sometimes but we've always come to the the decision that the majority wants and I think the majority of the people wanted us to make so I think that's one of the harder things maintaining our budget and keeping the services up that the people are used to having and I would wholeheartedly agree the county boards reduced property taxes four of the last six years we probably have one of the best of the if not the best fiscal track records in the state if you compare us to the other 72 counties and it's in part because of thoughtful leadership from Roger and other county board supervisors and department heads and a team of employees that are just working so hard and striving to be the best they can be and we're we've made a lot of tough decisions with streamlining and consolidating and and in some cases privatizing you know Sonny Ridge was a monumental decision made a number of years ago and a difficult one for the county board but help position us for success and of course Sonny Ridges has been fine ever since the county board has gotten more diverse of late Roger as you as you think about your tenure on the county board and look at the faces on the county board what do we normally see for competition do many people run for county board and if not why there there haven't been a lot in the last maybe five six ten years but I think that's probably because for the most part things are going pretty well and there were times over the years that there were more competition sometimes controversial issues drew out that competition and some different views on that and some people ran against specific issues and that's maybe where there was more competition at the time but for the most part there isn't a lot of competition but but I again I think that's because for the most part people are satisfied with with our best efforts not that everything is is just the way they want it but they realize that that we have to make some decisions and not always appreciated by some but we feel the best that we can make for the good of the hall of Sheboygan County as you know we're always striving to improve and leadership skills can always be improved whether we have 25 existing county board supervisors or 19 department heads or our new ones coming on board what type of leadership development or opportunities are there for county board supervisors to gain a better appreciation for the breadth of county responsibilities the programs they oversee what types of things have we done over the years I think one of the most important things that we've done and not exactly sure when that started them thinking 12 15 years ago when we started our leadership forum that's always held in June and one of the original reasons we started it was there always is some turnover and at the beginning of the term then some of the newer members can get a very intense explanation of some of their duties and what the overall view of the whole county we're each on specific committees but that's a chance where we get an overview on the entire county operation so we don't just think of the committee that we're serving on it can't all go to that committee there are other needs throughout the county and that's explained well we get different speakers in we get some of our department heads alternate them at different years and explain a little more in detail to our entire group what's happening in the the highway department or the sheriff's department or or the finance or it or some of these things that they get a little better snapshot view of what's going on so that they can appreciate the details of their committee and that's important but they also have to agree what's understand what's going on throughout the entire county and I think it's probably been one of the reasons our budget process has been so effective as we have such a collaborative effort here and as you said we've had those annual leadership forms we actually host them right here at at UW-Shabuigan and we take nearly a full day and the county board comes together and already in March April we're looking at our projections for our next budget and and then in June we have that leadership form where the full board can come together and see our fiscal outlook and see the challenges and and look at the county more as a whole rather than through the silos of a specific committee I think for the most part our board does look at as a whole but as we both know from time to time if you're if you're on a committee and if you've been on the committee for a long time you may be predominantly concerned with health and human services or you might predominantly be concerned with the sheriff's department because the early age on committee oversees that area but they obviously have to keep all 19 departments in mind and pull that overall budget together it's been pretty effective for us and of course you led that discussion last year and you'll be leading again here soon in June what's been most rewarding for you as as county board chair as you as you look at your tenure on the board? Well I don't maybe not just as chair but I think one of the most rewarding things is after you've been on on a while people sort of remember that you're on first couple years they're not sure who their supervisor is or if nothing comes up they don't know but after a while they know they can call you and sometimes it's simply a question I got this issue it's not a big problem but who do I call where do I go in the in the administration building to who do I talk to sometimes it's just a phone number that you can get them to be able to talk to the right person that can give them an answer for that their specific issue sometimes it's for a person that doesn't have to deal with the county government or any government they're not sure where to go but sometimes it's just direct them to a person that gets them right to the heart of the matter they're concerned with is is helpful and and I I believe that if you live in a small community that you grew up in people know you friendships over the years you bump into them at the grocery store at the mini-mart when you're filling up with gas at church they they just ask you what's going on or I read this in the paper can you explain that to me so you get the feedback from the people and when you do it's easier to do your job because you you get that feedback so I think that's been rewarding that I get the feedback that if something isn't quite the way they want it to water if I hear most of the people are saying one thing then I realize we're we're going in the right direction that the feedback from the people I think is the most important part of it yeah and feedback when you've got thoughtful individuals representing you and helping you and helping make your community a better place well that 30 minutes flew by quickly and I learned some new things about my direct supervisor County Board Chairman Roger Distruty and I hope you did as well if you have more questions about the roles and responsibilities of being a County Board supervisor or have suggestions for improvement for our organization don't hesitate to contact Roger Distruty directly or certainly your represented your County Board supervisor that represents you all of that information is online you can go to the Sheboygan County website and see who your representative is but I hope that you enjoyed this overview and got to know your elected leader County Board Chairman Roger Distruty a little bit better thank you for taking the time to share this insight with us today right thank you Adam next month we're gonna switch roles I'm gonna be in the hot seat and Roger's gonna be sitting here and asking me a few questions about my experiences as County Administrator the last 14 years and I'll share a little bit more insight about my family and my perspective but until then thank you for joining us today and we'll see you in a month