April 5, 2026
By TIM HUNDT
VIROQUA Wis. – The Vernon County General Government Committee convened on April 1 to handle a packed slate of hot button issues, which is a typical workload for a group tasked with overseeing county legal policy and human resources. The meeting became charged with emotion at times with supervisors and staff openly disagreeing across a number of complex areas including a policy on carrying weapons on county grounds and the process to hire a new county administrative coordinator.
One of the most contentious debate centered on a proposal to transition the county attorney position from a contracted service to a full time internal employee. The issue of attorney services has been a recurring point of friction in Vernon County. The public elected officials and county staff have long been divided on the subject with past debates centering on whether the county should rely on a single firm for all legal matters or split the services to utilize specialized attorneys for different departments. In late 2023 the county board even voted to postpone extending the contract with the current law firm Abt Swayne to allow for more debate on how legal services should be handled.
Administrative Coordinator Cassandra Hanan brought the new full-time proposal to the committee as part of her succession planning before she resigns on May 1. Hanan explained that the current contract with Abt Swayne Law expires in December and the county needed to decide its future path. Hanan noted that she currently handles a lot of legal research herself due to her municipal background but warned that the next coordinator might not have that same capability.
“I do want to note with someone new in my position your corporation council costs are going to go up,” said Hanan. “The estimate there for the wages is putting it on a grade of our wage scale which is one step below the administrative coordinator and then in there you see the fringe benefits.”
The administrative coordinator position is currently advertised with salary range of about $125,000 – $140,00 a year.
County Board Chair Lorn Goede firmly opposed the idea of adding a permanent position with benefits. Goede pointed out that the county is already facing a very tight budget for the upcoming year and is being forced to make cuts to other organizations.
“I do not see how we can increase our budgets for this when we are cutting the Historical Society we are cutting everything,” said Goede. “I do not believe that we have to have a corporate council sitting at every board meeting.”
County Clerk Jerry Pedretti questioned the financial logic of the change after reviewing a survey of neighboring counties. Pedretti pointed out that counties with internal legal departments carry much larger budgets for those services. Pedretti noted generally that the budgets of other counties with in-house counsel were around $300,000 compared to Vernon County’s current $160,000 budget
“Why would you argue that our budget could stay at $160,000 when these others are $300,000,” said Pedretti.
Administrative Coordinator Cassandra Hanan stated that she had reached out to the Counties Association to gather information on which other counties used contracted corporation counsel versus having in-house staff, but noted she had not yet received the complete data. Hanan explained that budgets and salaries are two very different numbers and those budgets vary widely. She noted that the expenses in other counties depend heavily on the size of the county and the number of support staff they employ, such as whether their legal department includes an administrative assistant.
Supervisor Wayde Lawler clarified that the higher corporation counsel budgets seen in other counties actually represent entire department budgets that include multiple staff members, rather than just the cost of a single attorney.
Lawler summarized the county caparison numbers presented by Pedretti:
- Monroe County: Two full-time employees, one part-time employee, and additional support staff.
- Juneau County: Corporation counsel, one assistant, and one additional staff member.
- Green Lake County: Corporation counsel and a legal secretary (Lawler noted this county had the lowest budget of the five).
- Green County: Corporation counsel, one assistant, and one staff member.
- Adams County: A full-time corporation counsel and one assistant.
Lawler strongly supported moving the position in-house arguing that having a dedicated employee builds vital institutional knowledge and improves overall efficiency.
“What you gain from having somebody with tenure is institutional knowledge and agility within the system that you have,” said Lawler. “Of all the things we should skimp on to save money I do not think it should be legal counsel.”
Supervisor Dave Eggen disagreed and argued that contracting the service gives the taxpayers more leverage. Eggen stated that the county benefits from being able to put the contract out for competitive bids every three years.
“I am against the in house full time legal counsel for the following reasons, we lose flexibility,” said Eggen. “It is difficult enough to terminate a low level employee much less an attorney.”
Supervisor Mary Henry agreed with Eggen that contracting allows the county to easily sever ties if an attorney is not meeting expectations. Henry added that the county often faces unpredictable challenges like proposed high voltage transmission lines or dam failures which require highly specialized outside legal expertise that a single in house attorney might not possess.
The debate then waded into sensitive territory as both Eggen and Henry brought up past situations that resulted in significant costs for the county.
“When I started here 10 years ago in the county board we did not have an administrator, but we did have a in house attorney and he eventually ended up getting disbarred,” said Eggen. “It was kind of ugly pushing him out the door.”
Eggen was referring former Vernon County corporation council Greg Lunde who at one point had his law license suspended as the result of disciplinary action by the bar association.
Henry then referenced a much more recent issue regarding a massive contract payout for a former county administrator. Henry suggested that having a contracted attorney who specialized specifically in employment law might have prevented the costly error.
“I strongly feel we still need expertise and this is not an area we want to skimp on because past practices told us with employee contracts it was a very costly error,” said Henry. “If we would have had somebody that was specialized in it I really feel that would not have happened.”
Committee Chair Alycann Taylor quickly intervened to stop the discussion from turning into an impromptu performance evaluation of the current Corporation Counsel Nikki Swayne. Taylor reminded the room that the fallout from the previous administrator contract involved different interpretations regarding the timing of a board vote rather than a failure of legal advice.
“I am gonna like pause a minute because there would be a different interpretation on that specific scenario and I would not say that responsibility fell on corp council,” said Taylor. “I just do not want to get into that specific, I think we would have disagreements on why that happened the way that happened.”
Supervisor Paul Wilson added to the debate by noting that an internal attorney might suffer from tunnel vision.
“Sometimes with the in house they just have single perspective,” said Wilson. “That is where the contract, we are able to have a little more flexibility with control.”
Swayne defended the internal model by clarifying that having a full-time attorney does not prevent a county from seeking outside help when necessary.
“You see counties who have in house, they routinely use expert outside counsel or issues as they arise as warranted,” said Swayne.
Supervisor Charles Jacobson wondered if having a full-time attorney would actually save the county money by reducing the need to farm out routine questions to different legal experts.
“If you have in house there is going to be other line items that can drop off as they do not need to contact a different attorney,” said Jacobson. “Knowledge of how the county runs and how things are going, you’ve got to be careful about losing that.”
Seeking a clear financial picture Taylor made a motion to postpone the decision until the committee could gather exact numbers comparing the current contracted costs including outside consultations against the proposed salary and fringe benefits. Lawler seconded the motion to postpone.
“It is a zero risk potential reward scenario,” said Lawler. “I think it just doing our due diligence to actually consider the full financial ramifications.”
However the majority of the committee was ready to settle the matter immediately. The motion to postpone failed on a roll call vote with Lawler and Taylor voting yes while Henry, Goede and Eggen voted no.
Eggen then moved to definitively reject the proposal.
“Motion to deny the corporate council in house and stay with the contracting,” said Eggen.
The motion to deny the full-time position passed on a 3 to 2 roll call vote. Eggen, Henry and Goede voted in favor of the denial while Taylor and Lawler voted against it. The decision effectively kills the proposal to create a full time county attorney position meaning the county will likely begin the process of requesting competitive bids for a new legal services contract before the current agreement expires in December.
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