Unsung county service to get its own department

Ozaukee County supervisors are poised to create a new department from perhaps one of the least known but most vital services.

The county Land Information Office is involved in parcel mapping, setting election boundaries, locating 911 emergency telephone calls, permitting for buildings and real estate development and recording land divisions.

The office does work for every municipality in the county as well as an array of county departments, including the Sheriff, Emergency Management, Land and Water, Planning and Parks, Highway, Public Health, Treasurer and Register of Deeds.

The office was created in 1989 and is funded through fees collected by the Register of Deeds Office, which for Ozaukee County made sense since former Register of Deeds Ron Voigt was a trained cartographer.

Voigt retired in 2024 and was succeeded by Jennifer Laurin.

The register of deeds, which is an elected position, maintains the county’s land records, births, deaths and marriage records. Under Voigt’s leadership, the office took on the county’s geographic information system, or GIS, through the Land Information Office.

In many, if not most, counties, however, the Land Information Office is a separate operation.

With Diana Lewis, the land information coordinator and the department’s sole full-time employee for 12 years, retiring in July, it’s time to follow suit, officials say.

“Throughout her time here, Diana has been a steady and knowledgeable presence,” Laurin said.

“You’ve done a lot of the heavy lifting over the years,” Natural Resources Committee member Tony Matera told Lewis.

“The Department of Administration recently met with departments that rely on GIS,” county Human Resources Director Chris McDonell said in a memo to the Natural Resources Committee last week. “The feedback was consistent: GIS is an important function, relied on for day-to-day operations, and the current staffing model is not sustainable.”

Current staffing is not keeping up with demand, he said.

“There was strong interest in improving turnaround times and expanding what GIS can support,” McDonell said. “The overall message was clear that departments are not looking to scale back services, they want more support and better responsiveness.”

McDonell and County Administrator Jason Dzwinel propose creating a new department and adding a GIS technician.

The effect on the current budget would be minor, they said, since the office currently has budgeted for two part-time positions, which are often filled by interns. Those part-time posts would be eliminated.

“The manager would be responsible for overall program oversight, coordination and compliance, while the technician would focus on day-to-day data maintenance, mapping and service delivery,” McDonell said.

Next year, the fully implemented department would increase spending by about $20,000 over 2026, they said.

“It is important to note that the current (budget) includes ongoing overtime and contract work, which we would expect to largely go away under the proposed structure,” McDonell said.

Even though the new department would be separate, it would still be physically located in the Register of Deeds Office in the County Administration Center in downtown Port Washington, he said.

Laurin said she is comfortable with the proposed changes.

“I’m 100% comfortable with it. It’s a very important function of the county,” she said.

“I personally think this is a good thing to do,” committee Chairman Rob Holyoke said.

A replacement for Lewis is expected to be hired by July so that person can be trained by Lewis. That person would take the lead on hiring a technician, McDonell said.

Funds from the Register of Deeds and Land Information offices are used to support other department and county operations.

For instance, the Land Information Office through March had a “profit” above expenses through March of almost $10,000.

The Register of Deeds Office had a near-record financial year in 2025 due to increased real estate activity bolstered by development of the Vantage Data Centers Lighthouse Campus.

It generated a “profit” in 2025 of $583,244, 11% more than its projected budget for the year. It was the best showing since 2021, Laurin said.

Last week’s discussion was informational.

The committee is expected to vote on the matter when it meets on June 4. The committee’s decision will have to be approved by the County Board.