Although many students may be familiar with Madison’s alderpersons or Wisconsin’s representatives and senators, relatively few may be able to name their district supervisor or the individual who serves as the head of the county’s government.
This main legislative body of Dane County, the Board of Supervisors, serves as the major policy-making body within the county. Its various committees and commissions develop ordinances to provide for the safety of county residents and approve the appropriation of funds throughout a range of services.
The board is comprised of 37 supervisors elected to their positions by the constituents within their districts.
“The County Board of Supervisors is the ultimate decision maker regarding resolutions and ordinances that county government oversees and is responsible for, both fiscally and non-fiscally,” Sup. Barbara Vedder, District 2, said in an e-mail to The Badger Herald.
However, the County Board’s status as the main legislative body within the county does not exempt it from external input, Vedder added. Community members, students included, are more than welcome to attend committee meetings or meetings of the board itself to make their voices heard.
Although Dane County deals with a wide range of topics and duties, one of the largest facets of the county’s operation revolves around human services.
Sup. Jeremy Levin, District 10, said nearly half of Dane County’s budget goes toward human services every year.
The county’s Department of Human Services addresses an array of topics ranging from mental health and senior care to substance abuse and treatment. Additionally, the department also handles certain childcare services and access to healthcare.
“The [Women, Infants and Children] program is available for students with children to ensure that their children are eating nutritional foods if the student is financially eligible. The county funds the Rape Crisis Center. Hopefully this isn’t the case, but if any students get arrested and are put in jail, Dane County owns and runs the Dane County jail,” Vedder said.
Law enforcement on the county level is handled by the Dane County Sheriff’s Office, overseen by Sheriff Dave Mahoney. The operations of DCSO, as articulated on the county’s website, are supervised by a number of committees Board of Supervisors members sit on, including the Public Protection and Judiciary Committee.
The Dane County 911 Center is overseen by a variety of committees that determine the technology used by dispatchers to relay emergency calls to specific agencies. This center has been given added importance given an overhaul of protocols and operations following the high profile failure in the Brittany Zimmermann murder case.
The Dane County Airport, Vedder said, is both run and owned by the county, and a committee governs the operations of the facility.
The majority of the University of Wisconsin campus is located within District 5, a position currently being vied for by Madison Area Technical College student Michael Johnson and UW senior Analiese Eicher.
Area students have a considerable history regarding representation of the districts they make up the vast majority of. On the county side, current District 5 supervisor Wyndham Manning, as well as Ashok Kumar before him, were both UW students at the time of their respective elections.
Although county government and the Board of Supervisors may not have the prominence of City Council in the minds of students, Levin said, many of the issues addressed and services provided by the county are vital to the lives of students.
