By TIM HUNDT – May 19, 2026
VIROQUA, Wis. – Vernon County supervisors spent much of a wide–ranging finance committee meeting Tuesday wrestling with how to manage new borrowing, nagging old tax debts and rising payroll costs, while also approving a replacement for a storm–damaged accessible van and reviewing early signs of a financial turnaround at the county nursing home.
Committee chair Kay Stanek opened the meeting by welcoming new members and walking through routine approvals, then quickly moved into a series of detailed financial discussions that laid out the county’s pressures and options heading into the summer.
The finance committee’s work is unfolding as Vernon County prepares for two major leadership transitions. The county is in the process of replacing its corporation counsel and that change could have an impact on how aggressively the county can pursue long running delinquent property tax cases. At the same time, day–to–day finance operations and much of the county’s budget development work are being shifted toward a new county administrator model, a move that is likely to reshape how budget direction and fiscal policy are set as current leadership hands off duties and new leadership steps in.
Treasurer outlines strong cash position and stubborn tax delinquency
County treasurer Karen Delap reported that as of the end of April, the county held just under $29 million in its bank and investment accounts and was earning about 3.69 percent in the Local Government Investment Pool, with some certificates of deposit locked at about 4 percent.
Supervisor Pedretti asked how stable those interest rates would be. Delap explained that pool rates reset monthly while the CDs are fixed for their terms.
“The pool account just varies every month. I just update that based on whatever the pools give me,” Delap said. “The CDs are locked in for basically the year. It is kind of good to have some money in CDs just because when at least it is locked in for a year”.
The discussion then turned to delinquent property taxes, where Delap said the county is carrying about $908,000 in unpaid taxes, with a large share tied up in a single in rem case that has dragged on for well over a decade.
She told the committee the oldest piece of that case dates back to 2007 and has been repeatedly delayed by bankruptcies and litigation.
“The bulk of it is in the in-REM process (collections). I am trying to work with Nikki (County Corporation Counsel Nikki Swayne) on that right now,” Delap said, referring to corporation counsel. “One of them dates back to 2007 which normally should not happen, but there was open lawsuits and bankruptcies and all sorts of things that has made this one just delayed, delayed, delayed, delayed”.
Delap said bankruptcy protections limited the county’s ability to take the property for years.
“Once you are in bankruptcy, you are protected. So if you file bankruptcy, we cannot take your property. I cannot take it as long as it is in bankruptcy,” she said.
Supervisors warned that if the case is not resolved soon, the county could be forced to write off part of the debt.
“If you do not resolve this year, you are going to be writing off some of it,” Delap said of the long–running account. “We need to get it resolved. It needs to get wrapped up soon, like the sooner the better”.
The timing of that push comes as Vernon County searches for a new county attorney. The current corporation counsel has been closely involved in complex tax and in rem cases, and her departure raises questions about whether the county can keep moving older files to resolution or whether some enforcement work could slow while a successor is hired and brought up to speed. Finance and board leaders have repeatedly said they want a more consistent system for handling delinquencies, but the transition in legal leadership may shape how quickly that system can be put in place.
Debate over investing bond proceeds with outside manager
The most detailed discussion of the morning came when investment advisor Jim Meiler of Ehlers & Associates appeared before the committee to pitch a managed investment program for the county’s recent $4.9 million bond issue for roads and vehicles.
Meiler told supervisors that Vernon County locked in a favorable borrowing rate of about 3.47 percent before recent rate hikes and now has an opportunity to earn more on its unspent bond proceeds than it pays in interest.
He said his firm acts as a fiduciary investment advisor that only serves public entities and does not sell proprietary products.
“We have a little bit over three and a half billion in assets under management, all of it city and county general funds or bond proceeds,” Meiler said. “The only thing we sell is advice and the fiduciary standard is the highest one. We have a legal obligation to do what is in our client’s best interests”.
Meiler explained that Ehlers would build a portfolio of U.S. Treasuries and insured certificates of deposit timed to the county’s construction spending schedule. He said the fee is one–quarter of one percent per year and drops as the balance is spent, and that the contract is at will with no minimum term.
“The funds are at a third party custodian and there is no cost for that,” Meiler said. “Generally what we use are U.S. Treasuries. These are the securities that would be used to collateralize deposits. We are just buying the treasuries and other very safe, secure investments on your behalf within the account and you own them directly”.
Several supervisors pushed back with pointed questions, reflecting both skepticism of fees and concern about risk.
Pedretti repeatedly asked whether the potential gain over the current state pool rate would justify the advisory fee on money that may be spent within a year.
“For $5 million you are going to give us something that we can tangibly see,” he said. “For ten thousand dollars you are going to give us something that we can tangibly get. I know you cannot tell us exactly, but what makes us want to do this with you if we do not have anything guaranteed of being ahead. Well we got two percent. Well, Karen got better than that”.
He followed that by questioning whether the county could end up paying to lose money if rates move the wrong way.
“In this instance we can lose money. We have to pay to lose money,” Pedretti said.
Meiler responded that the portfolios would be built around the county’s draw schedule with highly rated government securities and that the main risk of doing nothing is seeing interest income dry up if short–term rates fall sharply.
“In my view the biggest risk for these dollars is your earning power being reduced by some sort of fast moving change,” he said. “All of the entire financial system is built on U.S. Treasuries which is the basis of what we use for these portfolios”.
County board chair Lorn Goede argued that bringing in professional management for a portion of the county’s cash could mirror the success Vernon County saw when it turned to outside management for the nursing home.
“We were running the Vernon Manor out there and we did not know anything about running a nursing home and look at the big change it made by getting professional management in there,” Goede said. “You put $16 million or whatever our checking account gets into professional management with a fiduciary and it is going to make a difference to have another set of eyes looking at it full-time”.
Lockyer added that Ehlers has already been advising the county as its municipal advisor on bond sales and that investing bond proceeds more actively could roughly double projected interest earnings on this borrowing.
“When we ran the numbers very ballpark what we were going to make in the LGIP was about $30,000 and with professional management probably sixty something,” Lockyer said. “That is not going to be world changing, but it is real money to us”.
The committee took no immediate action and signaled it wants references and more information from other Wisconsin counties and from the City of Viroqua, who currently use their services, before making a decision.
Storm–damaged ADRC van to be replaced with trust funds and insurance
On a separate budget resolution, the committee unanimously backed a plan from Aging and Disability Resource Center director Jill Bender to replace an accessible minivan that was totaled in the April 13 hailstorm in Westby.
Bender said the 2019 handicap–accessible van, with about 130,000 miles on it, was declared a total loss and the county received an insurance payment of $24,500. The estimated cost for a new accessible van is about $71,000.
She told the committee the ADRC will use its trust fund and non–lapsing funds to cover the balance without additional tax levy.
“We are asking to use our trust fund dollars and our non–lapsing fund to offset the cost of a vehicle replacement,” Bender said. “There will be no tax levy implications. We are just looking to replace the vehicle using our current funds available to us”.
Pedretti asked about the age and mileage of the old van before moving approval. The committee voted to recommend the budget amendment to the full county board.
Vernon Manor turnaround and how to treat surpluses
Lockyer reported she is still waiting on final 2025 audit numbers and first–quarter 2026 figures from Vernon Manor and Vernon Acres, but she previewed strong results for the prior year.
She said early figures show Vernon Manor posting about $1.1 million in the black and Vernon Acres roughly $250,000, a sharp reversal from deficits of recent years.
“Twenty five is looking very good,” Lockyer said. “About 1.1 (million) in Vernon Manor, 250 (thousand) in Vernon Acres in the black”.
Pedretti noted that the improvement represents roughly a $2.6 million turnaround from two years ago and questioned how those surpluses will affect the county’s broader budget.
“If it continually happens that way it at some point in time should be considered revenue for the county and then it could be used for the county,” Pedretti said.
Lockyer replied that for now the priority is to repay the general fund for advances made during years of losses.
“From what I understand Vernon Manor and Acres together or separately owe our general fund about $2 million to $3 million,” she said. “We will repay our general fund and then when departments go over we will have to look at reserves. It becomes unassigned reserves in the general fund and then you can do with it what you want”.
Rising payroll costs and a push for tighter budget monitoring
A final major thread in the meeting focused on current year spending. Lockyer presented preliminary numbers showing that many departments are already around 46 percent of budgeted expenditures by the end of April when they should be closer to 33 percent one third of the way through the year.
She cautioned that some of that gap is due to timing issues and prepaid expenses but said payroll in several departments is running higher than expected.
“We do see some expenses getting a little bit, payroll is a little bit high and the sheriff’s office is already at 46 percent where we should be at about 33 percent of expenses for the year,” Lockyer said. “These are not meant to alarm you but we might want to look more closely at those payroll numbers to make sure everybody is within budget at the end of the year”.
Human resources director and interim administrative coordinator Trisha Lepke said overtime and staffing levels are areas where the county may need to take a harder look.
“We could take deeper dives into overtime and resolutions to avoid that,” Lepke said. “Are we really needing to staff the amount that we are staffing. Are we really needing to fill positions necessarily. There are ways that it could be looked at potentially”.
Supervisor Will Beitlich said the committee does not want to keep seeing departments appear late in the year asking for more money simply because they did not plan for higher costs.
“We do not want them coming here and saying it went up in price and I did not think about it so now I need $10,000 to get this,” Beitlich said. “We do not want that anymore. That has happened a couple times here and we’ve got to hammer that home”.
The committee agreed to have staff bring back a more detailed breakdown next month, separating payroll from other expenses and highlighting overtime by department so supervisors can decide whether to impose any midyear spending controls.
“I think we continue to bring it back monthly and look at it,” Lockyer said. “It is going to be like a new thing to say, hey, why are we here and what can we do for the rest of the year to get where we want to be. We have not done that”.
Stanek said the committee will likely need to make some harder choices later this summer if the trends do not improve.
“We have been trying to keep things maintained as is,” she said. “I am not sure that can continue”.
Supervisors have said they want the new administrator to have clear, up–to–date information on which departments are staying within their budgets and which are repeatedly returning for more money, so that future annual budgets and hiring plans can reflect those trends rather than simply repeating prior years’ spending levels.
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