Leonhard tapped for top county position
The Marathon County Board of Supervisors on Thursday voted to name Lance Leonhard as county administrator. The vote was unanimous.
The new administrator said he is “humbled” by his appointment and looks to serve the needs of the public, the county board and county staff in his new role.
Leonhard said his chief task is to make sure county staff are able to best serve the taxpaying public. “I exist to make sure other staff have the tools and leadership to do their best work,” he said.
Leonhard said he would follow current practice and let supervisors set policy. “My job is to make that policy happen,” he said.
Leonhard said a first task in his new job will be to coordinate a response to the current COVID-19 pandemic. “This is an unprecedented challenge,” he said.
He said a major challenge will be to address the county’s financial challenges. The county’s cost of operation continues to increase, he said, but the county is unable to raise taxes under state levy limits to pay for the increase.
Leonhard said he hopes to employ more innovation through a “process improvement” program to lower costs. He looks forward to consolidating county offices within a new multi-department building to achieve further cost reductions.
He said dealing with an ongoing drug epidemic is another major challenge. “We need a broader strategy than just dealing with this as a criminal justice issue,” he said. “It is a public health issue.”
Leonhard, selected as interim administrator following the retirement of Brad Karger, is a Greenleaf native who graduated from Wrightstown High School and UW-Eau Claire. He earned his law degree from Marquette University and went on to clerk for the late Judge John Coffey at the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
Leonhard served as a Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office intern and was hired in 2006 as a Marathon County assistant district attorney. During his eight years as a prosecutor, he was the county’s primary drug case prosecutor. He transferred to the county’s Corporation Counsel’s office where he worked on child protection cases. Leonhard was named deputy county administrator in July 2016.
The administrator lives with his wife and two children, ages 9 and 6, in Wausau.
