Price County Towns Convert Elected Positions to Appointed

Last updated: July 7, 2026

Four towns in Price County are moving independently to convert elected positions into appointed ones, shifting how local government fills key administrative roles. What began as isolated decisions in individual townships has grown into a clear county-wide pattern.

Georgetown held a Special Meeting of the Electorate on March 10, 2026, with a single agenda item: “Convert elected position of Town Treasurer to an appointed position.” The meeting was called at the Kennan-Georgetown Municipal Hall immediately following the regular monthly meeting, with notices posted at Mix-Rite Feed Store, Kennan Lumber, and the Kennan/Georgetown Fire Hall.

The move did not come out of nowhere. Georgetown’s November 11, 2025, budget hearing agenda included two related items: “Authorize Town Board to Hire Town Officers as Employees” and “Approve Wage Paid to Elected Officials Acting as Employees to Equal Wage Paid to Other Employees for Like Work.” The regular meeting agenda that same evening listed “Discuss County fee increases on tax collection and treasurer’s duties” as a discussion item.

In other words, Georgetown spent months laying the groundwork. The November agenda signaled the board wanted flexibility to hire town officers as employees. By March, they called the formal vote to convert the treasurer position from elected to appointed.

The March 10 vote was unanimous, 6-0. Treasurer Rebecca Kempen had resigned effective that same day. The position was advertised in The Review for two weeks, and the board hired Sue Ihlenfeld at $3,600 per year. Ihlenfeld was sworn in on June 9, 2026.

Town of Hill: Already Made the Change

While Georgetown and Catawba have been making headlines, the Town of Hill quietly did the same thing two years ago. Hill passed Ordinance 2024-2 in 2024, converting both the clerk and treasurer positions from elected to appointed.

The transition became visible this spring. Clerk Sandra Behling retired in April 2026, and the board hired Kristin Torgler as her replacement as an appointed clerk. Because the positions were already converted, the board was able to hire directly without calling a special election or waiting for the next cycle.

Hill’s experience demonstrates exactly the flexibility that appointed positions provide. When an elected clerk retires mid-term in a town of a few hundred residents, finding a replacement through an election can be impractical. With an appointed position, the board simply hires a qualified replacement.

Catawba Is Exploring the Same Path

Catawba has not voted on anything yet, but the town is moving in the same direction. According to minutes from the June 16, 2026, regular town meeting, the board “discussed moving town positions from elected to appointed. Questions about how quickly we could change this process if we needed to. Marissa will discuss with Lynn Redfall.”

Marissa Raab serves as Catawba’s clerk. Lynn Redfall is the clerk for the neighboring Town of Kennan. The fact that Catawba’s clerk is reaching out to a counterpart in another town suggests information-sharing between clerks about the conversion process is happening informally across the county.

The minutes show board members Jeff Hoogland, Mark Smugala, Bob Strobl, Darenda Hlasney, and Marissa Raab were present. The discussion happened under “Other issues” near the end of the meeting, which adjourned at 8:13 p.m. after about an hour.

No timeline was set. The board asked about speed, not about whether to do it. Phrasing suggests Catawba is treating the conversion as a matter of when, not if.

Town of Lake: Considering Combined Clerk-Treasurer

The Town of Lake is taking a slightly different but related approach. At its January 22, 2026, meeting, the board discussed Act 71, the Wisconsin statute that governs combining the offices of clerk and treasurer into a single appointed position.

Act 71 allows towns to merge the two roles by resolution, eliminating the need for separate elected officers. For very small towns, maintaining two separate administrative positions can be difficult when the population base is thin and the workload for each role is relatively light. Combining them into one appointed position streamlines operations and reduces the number of people the town needs to recruit.

Lake’s discussion predates Catawba’s June conversation by five months, which means the idea of restructuring town offices has been circulating across Price County throughout 2026.

How It Works in Wisconsin

Wisconsin townships operate under state statutes that give them flexibility in how they fill administrative positions. Positions like clerk, treasurer, and constable can be either elected or appointed. Converting an elected position to appointed requires a vote at a Special Meeting of the Electorate, which is a formal town meeting open to all registered voters in the township. That is the mechanism Georgetown used. The town board issued written notice, posted it at three public locations, and held the meeting. The electorate approved the conversion, and the board then hired the treasurer rather than waiting for an election.

Act 71, which the Town of Lake is exploring, offers a separate pathway. It allows towns to combine the clerk and treasurer into a single appointed office by resolution, without requiring a Special Meeting of the Electorate.

Once a position is appointed, the town board controls hiring and firing. The treasurer or clerk serves at the board’s discretion rather than holding an independently elected office with a fixed term.

Why small towns are doing this

The push toward appointed positions is not unique to Price County. Rural Wisconsin towns have struggled for years to find residents willing to run for local office. A township with 300 or 350 residents has a small pool of potential candidates to begin with, and not everyone wants their name on a ballot or their neighbors voting on their job performance.

For treasurer specifically, the job requires financial competence and familiarity with tax collection procedures. Georgetown’s November agenda referenced “County fee increases on tax collection and treasurer’s duties,” suggesting the role is getting more complex, not less. Appointing rather than electing lets the board recruit someone with the right qualifications instead of hoping a qualified candidate steps forward to run.

There is also a practical argument about flexibility. An appointed treasurer can be hired mid-cycle if someone resigns or retires, as Georgetown demonstrated when Rebecca Kempen resigned and Sue Ihlenfeld was hired in her place. An elected position that becomes vacant between elections can leave a town scrambling to find someone willing to serve out a partial term.

The Trade-Off

Converting elected positions to appointed ones does shift power. When voters elect a treasurer, that person answers to the electorate. When the board appoints a treasurer, that person answers to the board.

Supporters of the change argue that town boards are already elected and accountable to voters, so having the board hire administrative staff is consistent with democratic governance. They point out that most municipal employees in Wisconsin are already hired, not elected.

Critics of the trend note that appointed positions come with less direct accountability. A treasurer elected by the community cannot be removed by the board for political reasons. An appointed treasurer can. Whether that matters in a town of 350 people depends on local dynamics and how much friction exists between board members and administrative staff.

In Georgetown, Catawba, Lake, and Hill, there is no public record of opposition to the changes. Georgetown’s March agenda was a single-item meeting with no discussion items listed. Catawba’s minutes frame the conversation as procedural, not contentious. Hill’s ordinance passed without recorded dissent.

A Broader Pattern

What stands out is that four Price County towns are making this move, largely independently. Hill converted both clerk and treasurer positions in 2024 and has already used the appointed system to replace a retiring clerk. Georgetown followed in March 2026 with a unanimous vote. Lake began discussing a combined clerk-treasurer role in January 2026. Catawba is asking how fast it can follow.

None of the towns’ records reference each other, which means they arrived at the same conclusion on their own. That suggests the pressure driving this change is structural, not coordinated. Small towns across rural Wisconsin face the same problems: shrinking populations, aging officeholders, increasing complexity in financial administration, and fewer people willing to stand for election.

Georgetown, with an estimated population of 350, and Catawba, with roughly 300 residents, represent the kind of communities where this shift is most likely to accelerate. Hill and Lake are similarly small. When a town has fewer than 400 residents, finding someone willing to run for treasurer or clerk can be a genuine challenge. Converting the position to appointed removes that barrier.

The fact that Hill completed its transition two years ago and has already successfully replaced a retiring clerk through the appointed process shows the model works in practice, not just in theory. Georgetown’s smooth replacement of a resigning treasurer this spring reinforces that.

Whether more Price County towns follow suit remains to be seen. But the pattern is clear enough: the era of electing every town officer in small Wisconsin townships is giving way to a more practical approach where boards hire for specific skills. Four towns have already moved or are moving. The question is how many more will follow.

Georgetown made the change in March. Hill made it in 2024. Lake is weighing a combined position. Catawba is figuring out how soon it can do the same.