What else would you call at $2,388,000 reduction?
Who are you going to believe, the Democratic-endorsed Dane County supervisors claiming they’re not defunding the police or your lying eyes?
Incredibly — as in: you gotta be kidding! — the chairman of the committee overseeing the Sheriff’s Office, Richelle Andrae, denied the county board majority was defunding the sheriff’s department! Why, it’s just a “freeze” of 20 previously funded deputies that you cannot hire next year, she claimed. That “freeze,” sponsored by board chair Patrick Miles, passed 32 to 5 last night 11-05-25. Except it doesn’t save $2,388,000 for a county with a $31 million structural deficit because they’re spending it on the City of Madison’s homeless shelter and other human services.
“Taking money from the sheriff and repurposing it for something else, that is defunding the police. Make no mistake, this is a Defund the Police measure.” — Supv. Jeff Weigand
Support the Police — The key vote was on Sup. Maureen McCarville’s motion to restore the $2,388,000 to the Sheriff’s Office. But it was defeated by a vote of 31 to 6. The lonely six voting in favor of law enforcement were these stalwart supervisors: Patrick Downing, Jerry Bollig, Jeff Weigand, Kerry Marren, David Peterson, and Supv. McCarville — 6.
Defund the Police (Red highlights indicates endorsed by Democratic Party of Dane County; * asterisks indicate Progressive Dane): Andrae, Blazewicz, Boetcher, Brower*, Chawla*, Doolan, Eicher, Engelberger, Erickson, Fries, Glazer, Gray, Huelsemann*, Jackson, Kemp, Kigeya, Kroning, Miles, Peters, Postler, Ritt, Rose, Rylander*, Smith, Udell, Veldran, Wegleitner*, Yang, Welsh, Furman, Barushok — 31.
As a public service, we out the supervisors from rural areas who should know better but who voted to cut the sheriff:
City & Town Verona
These 7 rural supervisors
Voted to cut sheriff’s deputies
(Postler tried to have it both ways, voting against McCarville’s restoration but also against the Miles freeze, which nonetheless was enacted 32 to 5.)
Progressive’s piggy bank
Supv. Weigand wondered why, in a budget of $825 million, supervisors couldn’t find $2.4 million somewhere else. “Why do we immediately look at the sheriff’s budget? This is a pattern.”
Supv. Heidi Wegleitner criticized Sheriff Kalvin Barrett for not promising to take up arms against I.C.E. enforcement.
Watching this mess unfold last night, we thought Sheriff Barrett at times was seething inside but held back admirably. Yes, the cuts will impede law enforcement, he assured the county board.
Government watchdog Bonnie Roe reports that the Sheriff’s Office has 16 additional deputy applicants in the hiring pipeline: 6 women, 3 black men, 3 Latino women, and one Latino man. All of whom — unless they can be put on staff in the next six weeks, will have to wait a year.
Blaska’s Bottom Line: Not that there’s any assurance the 20 positions will be unfrozen. County Exec Melissa Agard should veto even though the final vote portends an easy override.
8 responses to “Yeah, Dane County Board defunded police”
the majority of the Dane County Board members are a worthless bunch of turds.
This just in: Dane County progressives vote to defund the police! Wait, here’s another breaking story: The sky is blue!
Hats off to the six that voted for the right thing! Kerrys last name was mis spelled. Its Marren.
I’m just waiting for Sheriff Barrett to see the writing on the wall like Police Chief Koval did and start looking for other employment. Koval was lucky and old enough to retire. When will Madison/Dane County elect a Democratic Socialist or have we already?
Not gonna shed any tears for Kalvin. He was the one after all who reduced the “inmate” population at the jail to zero. They all transformed into “residents”.
And if you look at it through that lense the board is not defunding the police they are defunding concierge services. Harrumph!
I think we already have democratic socialists (more like commies) as a majority on the county board, the same for Madison city council
Where do these nihilistic “progressive” clowns come from?
Dane County must be Islamophobic since it hasn’t elected a single Jihadist. Yet.