County panel reconciles redistricting concerns

The Ozaukee County supervisor district map was approved by the Executive Committee Aug. 30 and will go on to the County Board for final review.

County Administrator Jason Dzwinel said the map will essentially mirror the previous district map with a few minor changes, so long as the County Board decides to maintain 26 supervisor positions in 2022.  

While the map is largely the same, supervisors raised concerns about a section of the redistricting resolution that states the addresses of supervisors were taken into consideration when drawing district lines. 

Committee member and Supr. Marty Wolf said language seemed to suggest that district lines may have been drawn specifically to keep incumbents in their same districts. 

Wolf said he and other supervisors who noticed the wording of the resolution believe the wording to be self-serving. 

Supervisor Thomas Ritchart attended the meeting and said the wording seemed like it was included to keep incumbents in their districts, not to create the fairest districts. 

“We’re here to serve the public,” he said. 

He said if a supervisor happens to land in a new district that’s the way it should be. 

Wolf questioned if any of the district lines had been changed to keep incumbent supervisors in their districts. 

Register of Deeds Ron Voigt said incumbents were a final consideration when putting together the map, and that only two incumbents landed on a border of the map with the new drawings. 

“For the most part, most of them were not problematic,” he said. 

Voigt said the incumbents could be included in their districts with minor adjustments. He said his office tries to keep the district blocks as square as possible and that it is apparent by looking at the new map that there are no district lines reaching out to include specific areas. 

“If we really did it without that consideration, there would be minor changes,” he said. 

Committee members unanimously voted to remove the portion of the resolution, which does not change the map.