OUR VIEW: Now is the time to consider running | Hudson Star-Observer | Hudson, Wisconsin

OUR VIEW: Now is the time to consider running | Hudson Star-Observer | Hudson, Wisconsin: "It is too early to tell in most municipalities if incumbents in each of the positions will run again. Some will, some won't. That, of course, should not discourage a citizen who is interested in seeking office. When voters are offered a choice, it brings more people to the polls and gives citizens options to consider."

2013 SPRING ELECTION NOTICE

NOTICE OF SPRING ELECTION

TOWN OF CADY

APRIL 2, 2013

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, that at an election to be held in the Town of Cady, on Tuesday, April 2, 2013, the following offices are to be elected to succeed the present incumbents listed. All terms are for two years beginning on Tuesday, April 16, 2013.

Office                                           Incumbent
Town Board Chairman                  Mike Tully
Town Board Supervisor                Bob Klanderman
Town Board Supervisor                Jim Mikla
Town Clerk                                  Carla Greiber
Town Treasurer                            Teresa Trealoff

NOTICE IS FURTHER GIVEN, that a town caucus for the purpose of nominating candidates to appear on the spring election ballot for the above listed offices will be scheduled during the month of January. The caucus will be held on a date not sooner than January 1, 2013 and not later than January 29, 2013. Notice of the scheduled date of the caucus will be given at least five days before the caucus.

Cady Town Caucus

Coming up this January, the Town of Cady will hold their caucus meeting to nominate candidates for town officers. All of the elected town officers' seats are for two-year terms and will be up for election in April 2013. To be on the ballot in April, candidates are nominated at the caucus held in January. The date of the January caucus will be announced sometime in December.

Information on the nomination process can be found here: PROCEDURES FOR NOMINATION OF CANDIDATES BY CAUCUS

The electors of the town are given the opportunity to nominate candidates for the town officer elections to be held in April.

The town officer positions are as follows:

• Town Chairman
• Town Supervisors (2)
• Town Clerk
• Town Treasurer

Information on the job descriptions can be found here: Town Officer Job Descriptions

Fall 2013 General Election

While voting for national, state, and local representatives today, there is also an issue on the ballot that concerns Cady residents only. So if you vote provisionally at another polling location, you won't have an opportunity to vote on the Cady Town Clerk Referendum. You'll have to vote at the Cady Town Hall to get a ballot with the referendum on it if you haven't already voted absentee.

You can review a sample ballot here: SAMPLE BALLOT

SPECIAL TOWN MEETING OF THE ELECTORS

Today is the day for the SPECIAL TOWN MEETING OF THE ELECTORS beginning at 8:00PM at the Cady Town Hall. The "electors" of the Town of Cady are invited to discuss the proposed 2013 town budget, and to vote on the proposed 2013 town property tax levy of $220,175.

Property Assessment and Tax Process

According to the Local Government Center and UW-Extension office:

Administration of the property tax takes place locally, subject to detailed statutory control established by the Legislature. The elements are simple: identify all property through real property listing and personal property assessing, establish the value of the property through assessment, apply the tax rates (determined by the amount of taxes levied by the taxing jurisdictions in which the property lies) to the assessed value, compute the total taxes due plus special assessments and charges after applying all state credits, send tax bills to the property owners, and collect the payments of taxes. After taxes have been collected, proper amounts are distributed to the taxing jurisdictions (school, sewerage, sanitary, TCDB, and lake management districts; the county; the State of Wisconsin, for its forestry tax; and the municipality where the property is located).

Therefore, the process goes like this:

1. Identify and Assess the value of all property within the taxing jurisdiction.

This is where the government assesses what your property is worth. It is important that you get involved at this step by understanding how your property should be assessed and then ensuring that it is indeed assessed properly. See the "2012 Guide for Property Owners" and the "Agricultural Assessment Guide For Wisconsin Property Owners 2012" for guidance on determining how your property should be assessed. Then, you can review your tax bill at the St. Croix County Land Information Online to see how your property is actually being assessed.

If you notice that your property is not being assessed properly, you can go to the annual Open Book & Board of Review held at the Town Hall, usually in May or June of each year.You can discuss your assessment with the town's assessor and see if you can't get your assessment value adjusted to the proper amount. If you're unsuccessful there, you can try the Property Assessment Appeal Guide and appeal your assessment to a higher authority.

2.  Apply the tax rates

This is used to determine each person's share of the tax burden. Your property lies in several tax jurisdictions.You're part of the Wisconsin State jurisdiction, St. Croix County jurisdiction, Town of Cady jurisdiction, and either Spring Valley or Baldwin/Woodville School District jurisdiction. Each of these tax jurisdictions have levied a tax against your property and this is called the Equalized Value of all taxable real and personal property.

Your involvement at this point is to make sure that you're aware of any referenda that are on ballots at either fall or spring elections. Spring elections are a popular place to put school levy referenda that impact your property taxes. Remember the St. Croix County nursing home referendum?

You must also carefully consider the representatives that we elect to the county board, state senate and state assembly. They will vote on how your property taxes are to be spent at the state and county level.

Also, being a resident of a town in the state of Wisconsin, you can participate in the annual meeting to adopt the tax levy for your town each year. This meeting is going to be held on November 5, 2012 at 8:00PM at the Cady Town Hall. This is a unique privilege enjoyed by towns in Wisconsin that residents of cities and villages do not have. 

3. Compute total taxes due

Now your "tax rate" and the various "levies" come together to put a dollar value on your share of the overall tax burdens for all of the jurisdictions that you are in. This is the number that shows up on your annual tax bill.

4.  Collect taxes and distribute to taxing jurisdictions

Your town treasurer is responsible for this portion of the process.

Additional information can be found at the Wisconsin Department of Revenue, Property Tax Common Questions web page.

2013 budget

The proposed 2013 budget has levy of $220,175 total revenue/expenses of $430,387. It will be discussed and voted on by the town voters (at least the levy and highway expenditures) on November 5th starting at 8 pm.

Wisconsin Town Levy Pop Quiz

1. What is a "town levy"?
2. Who gets to vote to "adopt" it?

UW Madison Study Comparing Elected and Appointed Town Clerks

Here's a study conducted by UW Madison that compares elected and appointed Town Clerks in Wisconsin and their impact on Policy Preferences and Administrative outcomes.

http://users.polisci.wisc.edu/apw/archives/burden%20et%20al%20032010.pdf

From the study:

"The results indicate that elected officials are more in favor of policies that are thought to promote turnout than appointed officials, that their jurisdictions are associated with higher voter turnout, and that their jurisdictions have lower voter purge rates."

[snip]

"These results are consistent with the notion that elected officials are more responsive to the preferences of the electorate than appointed officials, as the electorate generally favors policies that reduce the cost to voting. Appointed officials, who serve as the pleasure of local municipal officials, are concerned less with voter rights and turnout and more with administrative burdens, costs, and security."

[snip]

"The findings on partisan mismatch provide some evidence that elected officials may administer elections in a less politically motivated fashion. While elected officials also appear to generate higher turnout, and purge fewer voters, we are cautious in inferring that elected officials are simply better election officials."

[snip]

"Appointed clerks are more likely to have greater skills and expertise, according to our descriptive statistics, which show that appointed officials are better educated, have greater experience, and are more often full-time professionals."

[snip]

"These caveats aside, the case of Wisconsin shows elected officials who appear to be more attuned to responding to citizen desires relative to their appointed counterparts. While having insulation from political pressures has benefits, it may also make administrators less concerned with the wishes of the public, and overly concerned with administrative burdens. More troublingly, appointed status may also provide a measure of protection that encourages the use of discretion in ways that reduce turnout."

Wisconsin Town Clerk Job Description

What does a Wisconsin Town Clerk do? Well, here's the job description according to the Wisconsin Towns Association (WTA):


Background: The town clerk is not a member of the town board of supervisors. The clerk's statutory duties are listed under s. 60.33, Wis. Stat. The clerk does not vote on any legislative matters before the town board. The town clerk could be asked to vote on a town highway application if there are fewer than two board members able to act. See s. 82.11, Wis. Stat. Also, the town clerk, whether elected or appointed, does vote to fill any vacancy that occurs on the town board. See s. 17.25, Wis. Stat.

Town clerks have the option of appointing one or more deputies for whom the clerk is responsible. See s. 60.331, Wis. Stat. The deputy serves at the pleasure of the clerk and the deputy has no right to the office if the clerk that appointed him or her leaves office. The town board may agree to pay a deputy, but the board is not obligated to do so.

Elected clerks are not required to put in a certain number of office hours per week. Appointed clerks typically have a job description or other agreement with the town board concerning expected hours of work and other terms of employment.

Legislative: The town clerk is responsible for taking minutes of the town board meetings and ensuring that any ordinances or resolutions adopted by the board are posted or published as required under s. 60.80, Wis. Stat. Since the clerk is not a member of the town board, the clerk may be excluded from any closed session of the town board. If the clerk is absent from a closed session, the town board would need to appoint someone (such as a supervisor) to take minutes of the closed session in place of the clerk.

The clerk is often delegated the responsibility of providing proper notice of town board meetings, public hearings, and other matters such as required public bidding notices.

The town clerk provides notice of the annual town meeting (if required) and other town elector meetings under s. 60.12(3), Wis. Stat. and serves as clerk of those meetings. Within 5 days of a town elector meeting, the clerk must file the minutes of that meeting in his or her office. See s. 60.15, Wis. Stat. All resolutions, motions and other actions taken by the electors at a town elector meeting must be posted or published as required within 30 days of the meeting under s. 60.80(1)(a), Wis. Stat.

Finance: The town clerk is required to keep a finance book which shall contain a complete record of the finances of the town, showing the receipts, with the date, amount and source of each receipt; the disbursements, with the date, amount, and object of each disbursement; and any other information relating to town finances prescribed by the town board.

Disbursements from the town treasury must be made in accordance with s. 66.0607, Wis. Stat. A clerk must not issue an order for any disbursement that would be in excess of funds available or appropriated for the purposes for which the payment is to be made, s. 66.0607(7), Wis. Stat. Before a claim that would put the town budget out of balance could be paid, the town board would need to amend the budget pursuant to s. 60.40(5), Wis. Stat.

Town clerks are often called upon by the town board to assist with preparation of the town budget under s. 60.40(2), Wis. Stat. and preparation of the annual financial statement pursuant to s. 60.41, Wis. Stat. In addition, clerks typically complete the "Local Government Financial Report Form" as required under ss. 73.10(2) and 86.303(5), Wis. Stats.

Detailed information on the procedures to be used in managing the town finances, using the cash accounting method of accounting, is available in the Financial Administration Handbook for Small Wisconsin Towns and Villages which is provided by the Wisconsin Department of Revenue. A copy can be obtained by calling Carol Doran at 608-266-2569.

Property Assessment:

The town clerk has the responsibility to carefully examine the assessment roll upon receipt from the assessor and prior to the board of review. The clerk is to correct all double assessments, imperfect descriptions and other errors apparent upon the face of the roll, and strike off all parcels of real property not liable to taxation. The clerk is also to add any omitted real or personal property and notify the assessor of such additions. See s. 70.52, Wis. Stat.

The town clerk is responsible for providing notice to the public of the open book under s. 70.45, Wis. Stat. and board of review under s. 70.47(2), Wis. Stat.

An elected town clerk is a voting member of the town board of review, unless the town board has adopted an ordinance to create a citizen's board of review pursuant to s. 70.46(1), Wis. Stat. An appointed town clerk is not a member of the board a review, s. 70.46(1m), Wis.Stat. This is because clerks appointed under either s. 60.10(1)(b)(2m), Wis. Stat. or s.60.30(1e), Wis. Stat. are not required to be town residents. However, an appointed clerk who is a resident of the town may be appointed by the town board to fill the vacancy in the board of review created by the appointed clerk position.

The duties of the town clerk for the board of review are stated in s. 70.47, Wis. Stat. The clerk is to provide the proper notices for the board of review and keep a record of the proceedings. The clerk is to swear in all persons testifying before the board of review. The clerk also provides notice of board of review decisions as required by law. The Wisconsin Department of Revenue Guide for Board of Review Members provides an excellent overview of the process: http://www.revenue.wi.gov/pubs/slf/pb056.pdf

Annually, under 70.65, Wis. Stat., the clerk is to prepare the tax roll and deliver it the town treasurer by December 8th. See s. 74.03, Wis. Stat. If the taxation district has a policy in effect under s. 74.03(2), Wis. Stat. requiring prompt refunds of excess escrow payment amounts, the tax roll may be transferred to the treasurer by the 3rd Monday in December. Contact our office for a sample tax refund overpayment policy.

The clerk prepares the real and personal property tax bills and mails them out to the property owners pursuant to s. 74.09(2) & (5), Wis. Stat.

If a claim for unlawful or excessive taxes is allowed pursuant to s. 74.35 or s.74.37, Wis. Stats., the clerk may seek a charge back through the Wisconsin Department of Revenue. See s. 74.41, Wis. Stat.

The clerk must also provide the notice of proportional property tax revenue and credits to the county treasurer as required under s. 60.33(10), Wis. Stat.

Elections:

The town clerk is responsible for performing the functions in chs. 5-12 of the state statutes relating to elections. Some of these tasks include providing election notices, scheduling election workers, supervising completion of paperwork, maintaining and testing election equipment and swearing in newly elected officials.

Public Records: The town clerk is often made the custodian of town records under s. 19.33, Wis. Stat. As the custodian, the clerk is responsible for complying with requests under the public records law. s. 19.34 Wis. Stat. The clerk also typically maintains, preserves and disposes of town records in accordance with s. 19.21, Wis. Stat. Helpful information concerning the process and applicable timelines for disposal of various old records are available on the Wisconsin State Historical Society's website at the following link: http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/libraryarchives/locrecs/manual/

Licenses: The clerk may issue licenses granted by the town board. See s. 60.33(8), Wis. Stat. The clerk also processes applications for alcohol licenses and provides the required notice. See s. 125.04, Wis. Stat.

Miscellaneous additional duties:

1. Perform the clerk's duties under chs. 115 to 121 relating to public instruction. See s. 60.33(9), Wis. Stat.
2. Perform all other duties required by law, ordinance, or lawful direction of the town meeting or town board, s. 60.33(11), Wis. Stat.

Appointed Town Clerk

There is a referendum on the ballot next month (November 6) to change the town clerk position from an elected position to one appointed by the town board.

Pros:

• The board can appoint someone who has proper training
• The board can remove someone who is doing a poor job

Cons:

• It takes accountability away from the electors and makes the clerk accountable to the board
• Making the clerk an appointed position opens the door for non-residents of the town to fill that seat
• The clerk is also required to vote on filling vacancies that occur in the board of supervisors during a term (which happened twice in 2011). That means that a non resident town clerk would be one of only three votes to appoint a replacement board supervisor. Both Jim Mikla and Bob Klanderman were appointed in 2011.
• On average, appointed clerks make more money than elected clerks.
• The clerk runs the elections so it looks bad when the board appoints the clerk that runs their elections.