Currently, the Grant County Jail has one opening for jail staff - a female jailer - caused when the person who had the job moved over to dispatch within the department.

One opening is pretty good for the department, which has seen fluctuation in its jailer roster over the years. Being down jailers makes it difficult for the county to hold contract inmates from other entities besides the county’s own inmates.

Sheriff Nate Dreckman hopes a new law which went to the signing of last week will help stabilize the jailer position for him, and other sheriffs across the state.

“It should help with our retention and recruitment,” Dreckman said of the bill, Wisconsin Act 4.

Co-authored by State Sen. Howard Marklein, the bill goes partway to reversing an item that fell upon jailers across the state when Act 10 was passed in 2011.

Act 10, championed by then-Gov. Scott Walker, severely curtailed public service unions in the state, requiring employees to contribute more for their retirement funds, while capping the amount they could receive for raises annually.

For most groups, it also required annual votes to maintain a union, with a 51 percent positive vote from all members in order to keep the union.

Act 10 made one exception to those groups that were considered emergency responders - law enforcement, professional EMTs and firefighters. Those groups were designated protected status, and the union parameters, as well as the salary increase caps, did not apply to them.

Jailers had been part of the police union before Act 10 was implemented, but the act stripped them out of the union, and took away any protective status.

Marklein, who was in the Assembly at the time, voted for Act 10, while current Rep. Travis Tranel, was only one of four Republicans who voted against Act 10 in the Assembly, and the only one still in the Assembly.

State Sen. Dale Schultz had also voted against Act 10 - the only Republican to do so.

“Protective status allows our county jailers to decide if they want to receive duty disability insurance and early retirement because of the nature of their jobs. County jailers often face difficult, dangerous situations in a high stress environment. I firmly believe that they should be eligible for these benefits if they so choose,” Marklein said in a release for the law.

Act 4 allows county jailers to elect to pay the additional costs of protective status classification including both the employer’s additional Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) contribution and duty disability costs. There is no increased cost to the county taxpayer when a county jailer chooses these benefits. The act also allows jailers to opt-out of protective status if they do not want to assume these costs.

Dreckman stated the law will help recruiting and retention as jailers will now have the added benefits of protective status, including the ability to retire earlier and duty disability. “We hope by them now having this as part of their retirement in the WRS, it will attract people to work for the Sheriff’s Office and keep them here longer.”

Dreckman did not think the new law will impact movement between the three main areas of his department deputies and detectives, dispatch, and jail staff.

The new law will not fully return the jailers to where they were before Act 10. They are not allowed to rejoin the police union, or get back the bargaining rights the 2011 law stripped away.

The law also requires the individuals who opt into being protective status to pay more in their retirement funds that gives them the chance to retire earlier than those not in protective status.

In other law enforcement news, the county’s committee for law enforcement and emergency management discussed whether or not they would want to take on a barking dog ordinance for the county, with the overriding opinion not too.

“I get real mixed thoughts from my staff,” Dreckman shared about a possible ordinance.

Dreckman contacted other sheriffs about whether or not their counties have such a rule, and while there are a few, a majority of counties do not have it.

Dreckman shared his concern on what would constitute a need for an ordinance, and what would not. He noted the volume that comes from farms that have weening calves, as well as the ubiquitous rooster on many farms.

A number of villages and cities have such ordinances, but it is not something adopted by towns nor counties.

Committee member Adam Day, who was a member of the department previously, noted that there are a couple of places in the county that have issues, but it is not a widespread issue.

“It would be one thing if we had hundreds and hundreds of complaints, but thats not what we have,” Day said.

The county also received the final report from the suicide that took place in the jail in November 2021.

C h i ef Re p. Tr av i s Klaas, who had been the jail administrator before moving into the chief deputy role, noted that the state review found no violations within the department.

Klaas stated that the department policy has been above what is required - the state requires wellness chairs on inmates every 45 minutes, while the county has them planned for every 30 minutes, for example.

On the emergency management side, Director Steve Braun noted they are monitoring the Mississippi River for potential spring flooding.

Feeling confident that they have had mitigation projects over the years to remove most of the structures that have been in frequently flooded areas, Braun stated his main concern was with Cassville, as they need to close this storm drains to prevent the river water from coming in, but that means those canals would fill fast if there was a large rainstorm. There are pumps to help empty those areas, however.