June 7, 2026
By Tim Hundt – VernonReporter.com
VIROQUA, Wis. — The Vernon County General Government Committee has agreed that the Land Information Office should report regularly to a standing County Board committee instead of operating largely through its own advisory council.
After a brief but pointed exchange at the June meeting, the committee voted to make the county Infrastructure Committee the new home committee for the Land Information Office while leaving the separate Land Information Council in place to meet statutory requirements.
The move grew out of a request from Supervisor Sandy Schweiger, who argued that the technical office needed a clearer line into the county’s regular policy and budget process.
Schweiger said the Land Information Office has been operating through the council and meets more often than state law requires, but without a reliable monthly venue to bring issues to supervisors. Monique Hassman leads the department as the county land information office and GIS coordinator.
“We are talking about the Land Information Office being added to the Infrastructure Committee on a monthly basis,” said Supervisor Sandy Schweiger. “By statute she (Hassman) has to meet annually, and the council now meets quarterly, so we are requesting that she be added to the Infrastructure Committee as a home committee — not the person, but the department.”
Background and why it matters
The county’s land records and mapping work is handled through the Land Information Office, which is tied to a statutory Land Information Council. That council is made up of county staff and local officials and is required by state law to meet at least once a year to oversee how land information funds are used.
If you have ever looked up a property boundary online, checked a plat map, or wondered how our 911 dispatchers know exactly where to send an ambulance, you have the Vernon County Land Information Office (LIO) to thank. Serving as the digital mapmakers and geospatial hub of our local government, the LIO manages the county’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and is tasked with modernizing our land records. Their primary role is to integrate physical data, like property lines and land ownership rights, with community resources to provide a detailed, highly accurate representation of the county. This data is not just for looking at maps; it is the essential foundation for calculating real property taxes, guiding economic development, improving emergency response, and providing those interactive web maps that both county staff and the general public rely on every day.
Beyond just building the digital maps, the LIO actively coordinates GIS projects, trains county staff on how to use the software, and administers the county’s Public Land Survey System (PLSS) remonumentation program, which involves recovering and placing physical survey monuments to ensure property boundaries are accurately tracked on the ground. The office was established as part of a statewide effort and operates under the guidance of the Wisconsin Land Information Program (WLIP), which provides the county with grant funding each year to develop and maintain our local land information systems. To ensure they are meeting the needs of our residents and municipalities, the department’s work is overseen by the county’s Land Information Council, which meets quarterly to help guide their long-term strategic plans and keep our county’s geospatial data accurate and accessible.
In recent years, Vernon County’s council has been meeting quarterly instead of annually, in part because of the growing workload around digital mapping, zoning coordination and property records modernization.
But unlike most county departments, the Land Information Office did not have a clear monthly home committee such as Finance or Human Services. That meant its budget, staffing questions and long-range technology needs had to be threaded through occasional council meetings or routed informally through other committees.
Schweiger told colleagues the change is intended to put the office on the same footing as other departments, with a standing slot on a County Board committee agenda.
“It does seem like so often it is common sense, but perhaps that is lacking in some cases,” said Schweiger as the board moved through a broader discussion about which departments report where. “So we are saying the Land Information Office, at the head of the Director of Land Information Office, would be in attendance at the monthly Infrastructure meeting.”
Debate over reporting lines
Once the committee voted to support Schweiger’s motion, County Clerk Jerry Pedretti stepped in to flag an unintended consequence. By naming Infrastructure as the home committee, the board had effectively given the department two separate committees to answer to.
“You now have that Land Information department reporting to two committees,” said County Clerk Jerry Pedretti. “There is a Land Information Council, and that would still continue to exist, and now you just added that department reporting to Infrastructure. Is that what you intended.”
Schweiger indicated she was comfortable with the dual reporting structure and emphasized that the council and the committee play different roles.
“Yes, that council is different and it would still continue,” said Schweiger. “You could discuss whether or not the council could then go to an annual meeting as required by statute rather than quarterly, and that they could discuss that going forward.”
Committee members did not immediately change course after Pedretti’s comment. With no motion to reconsider the earlier vote, the new arrangement will move ahead, with the Land Information Office continuing to work through its council while also taking a regular place on the Infrastructure agenda.
Council’s future still in play
Schweiger signaled that one next step could be to scale back the Land Information Council’s schedule to the minimum required by state law now that a standing committee will see the office every month.
“If nothing else, we can put some language in here that addresses and refers to the ordinance by number, and that seems reasonable,” said Schweiger earlier in the meeting while the committee discussed how to bring local policies into line with county ordinances. “Well, no — we would have to be in compliance with our ordinance now, so it would have to be updated to incorporate what is in the ordinance in the policy, would it not.”
Her comments came during a broader debate over how county policies are updated and who gets a say in those changes, a theme that also underlies the land information discussion. Several supervisors argued that department heads and line staff should have a stronger voice before policies reach the committee level.
That same concern appears likely to surface again when the council weighs whether to keep meeting quarterly or scale back to an annual schedule once Infrastructure begins hearing monthly reports.
Longer arc of an accountability debate
The question of where the Land Information Office should report did not come out of nowhere. For the past year, Vernon County boards and committees have been wrestling with questions about who oversees which operations and how much structure is needed to keep complex departments accountable.
Earlier in the same General Government session, supervisors spent considerable time on building maintenance responsibilities, policy updates and the role of department heads in drafting new rules. Several members, including Schweiger, stressed that committees need clear lines of authority and regular reporting if they are going to make informed decisions on spending and long-range planning.
Adding the Land Information Office to Infrastructure fits that pattern. Infrastructure already handles highway projects, county facilities and capital planning. Bringing land records and mapping into that orbit could tie parcel data more closely to road projects, broadband placement, housing work and other physical development decisions.
While the committee did not delve into those longer-term implications during the brief motion and vote, the structure they approved sets the stage for those conversations to happen in public on a monthly basis.
What happens next
The change approved by General Government will now move to the full County Board for formal action through an amendment to the county’s committee structure document. That amendment is expected to spell out that the Land Information Office will appear each month before the Infrastructure Committee, while the Land Information Council continues as a separate advisory body that meets at least once a year.
If the board signs off, the Land Information Office could have its first regular Infrastructure appearance later this summer, providing a new public window into how the county manages mapping data, coordinates with zoning and spends state land information dollars.
For residents who follow county government, the shift means the technical work of land records will likely surface more often in open committee sessions instead of being tucked mainly inside a specialized council.
“It cannot hurt to have that office reporting monthly,” said Schweiger after Pedretti reminded the panel that the department would now answer to both the council and Infrastructure. “The council can still meet as it needs to, and the home committee will give the department a regular place to report.”
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