By Heather Graves
Correspondent

BROWN COUNTY – The county board unanimously approved a reorganization of its Department of Technology Services (DOTS) and replacing it with a new IT department at its meeting last month.

Supervisors approved the change following a near-hour closed session discussion.

Brown County Deputy Executive Jeff Flynt said the reorganization and renaming of the department is meant to better reflect the structure and skillsets of the department, as well as address deficiencies.

“An internal controls assessment was conducted after it was discovered that a DOTS department employee engaged in theft,” Flynt said. “Per the resolution, the table of organization changes were made to address identified deficiencies, and as a result of an outside IT consultant, roles and responsibilities were reevaluated within the department.”

With the reorganization, the board also approved the creation of a new Brown County Community Area Network (BCCAN) Department to support the county-wide broadband initiative and to manage the county’s fiber network infrastructure.

It includes the hiring of a BCCAN department head level chief of operations officer, with support staff coming from the new IT department.

Flynt said the reorganization also transferred three full-time DOTS positions to the Department of Administration in order to allow for better oversight and needed separation of duties.

The changes will occur on or before Oct. 20.

Oneida Nation agreement

Supervisors also approved a maintenance agreement with the Oneida Nation.

The agreement authorizes the county’s public works department to provide road maintenance to the Oneida Nation until the end of 2021.

Oneida agrees to pay 100% of the county’s labor, machinery and material costs, including small tools and administration charges spanning anywhere from $10,000 to $75,000 overall.

Services considered maintenance work include:

• General road maintenance (pothole repair, crack filling, road patching/repair, etc.).
• Emergency sign repair/installation (emergency work only).
• Traffic signal maintenance.
• Shoulder grading.
• Guardrail installation/repair.
• Winter tree cutting and brushing.
• Culvert pipe replacement (including engineering and permitting, if needed).
• Bridge maintenance.
• Pavement sweeping.

The tribe will be billed monthly for all work performed.

Budget update

Brown County Executive Troy Streckenbach told supervisors the budget process is going forward, and it will address challenges some departments face.

Streckenbach said the budget is still on track with the county’s plan to continue decreasing the overall deficit.

“Overall, the budget is going in the direction that we were hoping for,” he said. “Ultimately, I think we will once again propose what the plan has been designed to do – we are going to see another $10 million-plus come off overall debt. We’ll see another tax rate reduction… And so from that standpoint the plan – it is working. It continues to work.”