Last Updated: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 9:30 AM CDT
County wants more voting members on HSC
By Heather Schaefer
Regional Editor
Oneida County wants more representation on the tri-county Human Services Board.
On Monday, the county’s Human Services Center Work Group voted to forward a resolution to the Oneida County Board requesting Oneida County be allowed two more voting members on the Human Services Board.
Currently Oneida County has six representatives on the board, which oversees operations at the Human Service Center. The Human Service Center provides services to those with mental illnesses, those battling alcohol and other drug addiction, and adults and children with developmental disabilities.
Vilas County and Forest County have four representatives each on the 14-person board.
Oneida County believes it would be more fair if the board is increased to 16 members and Oneida County’s representation increased to eight members. According to the resolution, statistics show Oneida County constitutes over half of the tri-county population and pays 54 percent of the required funding while only having 42 percent of the representation on the board.
A copy of the resolution will be forwarded to each county for approval. A change to the board structure can only be made if all counties agree.
The request comes while the workgroup is studying the HSC and deciding whether to recommend Oneida County discontinue its partnership with its neighboring counties.
In September the county board authorized an 11-person committee to study whether Oneida County should continue in the three-county consortium with Vilas and Forest counties, break away and create its own human services department or join a larger regional consortium.
If the other counties turn down the request “we’ll just have to consider that,” said workgroup chair Ted Cushing.
Erhard Huettl and Steve Favorite, chairmen of the Forest County and Vilas County Boards of Supervisors, were in attendance Monday. Both indicated they are willing to talk to Oneida County about the future of the HSC. Huettl, in particular, expressed a desire to continue to work with Oneida County to provide services.
“I would hope we could work together for the betterment of our three counties,” he said, “Doing things together, folks, is a lot more economical than going it alone.”
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