Dozens of local ballots ask if municipal clerks should become appointed, not elected

Of the over 240 referendums posed to Wisconsin voters during this election, about 80 of them are asking the same question: should the position of town clerk and/or treasurer be changed to an appointed position, rather than remain elected?

It’s a question voters in almost 50 towns in Wisconsin said “yes” to in 2022, according to reporting by PBS Wisconsin.

The reason many small municipalities are asking is because it’s getting harder to find qualified people to run for town clerk, said Carol Nawrocki, assistant director at the Wisconsin Towns Association. Her organization supports town officials across the state. In recent years, she’s been getting calls from worried officials.

“I get asked: ‘What will happen if we can’t find anyone to run?’” Nawrocki said. “What we’ve seen is a shift to wanting to appoint because primarily, there is a decreased number of people either willing to serve in these roles or qualified to serve in them, or both.”

Town clerks help administer elections and manage town records. Nawrocki said the job has become more difficult, in part due to election scrutiny and public pressure.

“Definitely (in) the last decade, we have seen much more clerk turnover,” Nawrocki said. “A lot of the hotly contested elections we’ve had, there have been just a lot of stressors, put on clerks.” 

Across Wisconsin, the towns association estimates about 301 of their clerks are appointed, while 724 are elected. The numbers for town treasurer aren’t far off, 799 elected and 226 appointed. Similar to town clerks, the role of treasurer can be difficult to fill, Nawrocki said. She’s noticed a generational shift in willingness to take up these roles. 

“The willingness to volunteer, the willingness to give up your nights, the willingness to just to serve in all these roles,” Nawrocki said. “I often hear that volunteer type culture is dissipating,”

Town clerks and treasurers are often part-time jobs. She added that town clerks are traditionally underpaid, and that switching their role from elected to appointed could open a path for the town board to increase their pay. 

“If one of the reasons they can’t find anyone is because it pays, you know, $10,000 a year, a town board can say: ‘Look, we know in order to get a qualified person, we’re going to have to double that, or whatever it might be,” Nawrocki said.

Dawn Miller is the town clerk in the Rock County town of La Prairie. She hopes their referendum is approved in November.

“Currently, we have about 775 residents,” Miller said. “You have a very small pool to pull from.”

She’s been a town clerk for 7 years. She says the job has gotten more complicated since she started.

“The big thing has been the absentees have exploded from a few to multiple people voting absentee. It’s an enormous amount more paperwork. I mean, it has to be done accurately, fairly securely,” Miller said.

She says she has to “calendarize” herself to keep up with the many timelines and deadlines the job demands. She recently trained a newer clerk to do the same.

“There’s so many time deadlines set by the state that have to be adhered to. And if you don’t adhere to some of them, the town loses funding,” Miller said.

Miller said the job of a town clerk is always changing.

“It’s not the same job it was several years ago,” Miller said. “Everything’s online. And if you’re not computer literate to a degree, it’s not doable.”

Miller said approving the referendum is a good idea because if the town clerk is appointed, the town board can recruit the most qualified people for the job from other towns.

Appointed clerks don’t have to be town residents. This is how Miller can hold another role — she’s also the town clerk for the nearby town of Plymouth, where the clerk position is appointed. By serving in two towns, Miller’s job is closer to full- than part-time. Most town clerks have no benefits package, she added. 

“Every town is really struggling to find somebody to replace all the clerks that are aging out,” Miller said. 

Nawrocki of the Wisconsin Towns Association said the main downside of appointing a town clerk or treasurer is that there’s one less position in the people’s hands.

“It’s one less position that people … have a direct voice in electing,” Nawrocki said. 

Clerks may enjoy the independence of being an elected official, she added. For example, the town board can’t dictate whether an elected clerk works from home or town hall. 

“You may be reluctant to have the town board become your boss, because when you’re elected, they’re not so much your boss as you’re all independent elected officials who don’t really control what the other does,” Nawrocki said.

But she can see why so many towns want to appoint a town clerk. 

“They have sort of an instrumental role in everything that goes on in the town, and you can’t afford to have someone in that office who you know doesn’t really want to be there,” Nawrocki said.