Election to bring turnover to County Board

More than one-quarter of the Ozaukee County Board will be overturned, with seven current supervisors having filed a notice of noncandidacy. The deadline for filing that notice was 5 p.m. Dec. 31.

Those who filed notices of noncandidacy were Barb Jobs, who represents the 3rd District in the Town of Saukville; Don Clark, who represents the 5th District in the Village of Saukville; Marty Wolf, who represents the 11th District in the Town of Cedarburg; Tom Richart, who represents the 12th District in Grafton; Claude Taylor, who represents the 13th District in Grafton; Bruce Ross, who represents the 19th District in Mequon; and Ariba Khan, who represents the 20th  District in the City of Mequon.

Each of those seats have candidates running to fill them, according to the County Clerk’s Office.

The deadline for submitting signatures to be placed on the April 7 ballot was 5 p.m. Tuesday.

There will be seven contested races, including one in the Town of Grafton where Mark Harris is running against Supr. Dan Vogel and one in the Village of Grafton where Melissa Custer and Pat Murray are running against each other to replace Richart.

Another will require a primary as Mike Basso and James Krane are running against 24th District incumbent Jeffrey Hansher in Mequon.

In Wolf’s 11th District, Dionne Holloway and Kevin Kennedy want to fill that seat. Wolf, the County Board’s vice chairman, has endorsed Kennedy.

Incumbent Connie Kincaide is opposed by Amy Elleson-Baster in the 16th District in Cedarburg, Tom Stark is running against incumbent Justin Strom in the 21st District in Mequon and Jennifer Mackinnon and Dan Eastman are running against one another to replace Ross

In other races, Marcia Nosko is running to replace Jobs, former Saukville Village trustee Scott Fischer is seeking to replace Clark and Todd Ambs is running to replace Taylor and Monis Khan is running to replace Ariba Khan.

The longest tenured of the outgoing group of supervisors is Richart, who was first elected to the County Board in April 2000. 

In 2022, Richart filed a notice of noncandidacy, but when no one filed to replace him, he ran as a write-in candidate and won 99-to-74 against another write-in candidate.

In hopes of generating more interest this time around, Richart resigned from the board on Dec. 3 to give County Board Chairman Lee Schlenvogt and the rest of the board the chance to appoint someone to fill his seat. 

As of Tuesday, Jan. 6, Schlenvogt had not announced a replacement. 

County Administrator Jason Dzwinel said the matter isn’t likely to come up until February, if at all.

He was scheduled to present a commendation to Richart at Wednesday’s County Board meeting.

With Richart leaving, that leaves Port Washington Supr. Rick Nelson as the longest-serving member of the County Board. Nelson and Richart were sworn in on the same day in 2000.