Edgewater resident urges notice for ad hoc land-and-water meetings, new complaint channel

During the public-comment portion of the Sawyer County administration committee meeting, Linda Zilmer, an Edgewater property owner, urged the county to publicly notice meetings that relate to county plans and to create an alternative process for citizens to raise service or operations concerns.

Zilmer said a group meeting to update the Sawyer County Land and Water Resource Management Plan had convened in the old assembly room at 9 a.m. but was not noticed as a county meeting. She said the ad hoc group was not appointed by the county board and that members of the Land and Water and Forest Resources Committee — the committees of jurisdiction — could not attend because the meeting had not been noticed under open-meeting requirements.

Zilmer said she "heard somebody mention Monica Isham" and urged committee members to view the recording of a public safety committee meeting in which Judge Isham discussed related matters. She also said an editorial in the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram did not accurately portray events in Sawyer County and that she had reached out to reporters Paul Geier and Matt Milner with concerns about coverage.

Zilmer asked the county to consider adopting a policy that provides the public a channel for concerns about services or operations other than the public-comment period, which she said can be inappropriate for certain matters and has limits compared with formal complaint and ethics processes.