Manitowoc County department heads are asking for funding that was taken out by the current executive in the proposed 2026 county budget.
Manitowoc County Coroner Curt Green had a fiery presentation during last night’s (October 9th) Public Safety Committee, saying that funding going toward fixes at county buildings should go toward health benefits for his staff that he wants to stay after he leaves in 2027.
He spoke about instances where he smelled sewer fumes in his office, and they didn’t have property heating or cooling.
“Some of my deputies would come in after accidents, in the middle of the night, having to deal, go make death notifications, examine the body, call me, we had to do our job,” he explained. “Could you imagine coming in in December, as one of my deputies did on a double fatal, it was 59 degrees in the office, she couldn’t even warm up there. That’s how bad it was, and it was constant over those seven years.”
He also claimed that money from Ziegelbauer’s maintenance plan was not making good improvements to the flooding issue and to roof repairs.
Green also showed the committee several photos of areas of cracks and minor damage that he says were only fixed with caulk.
He claimed that county supervisors and department heads are being lied to about the county’s maintenance plan.
“Does anything that I just showed you on literally two of the sides on one of the smallest buildings that the county owns and a side and half of the sheriff’s department, how many buildings does the county own?” the coroner asked. “They are being maintained like this. Stop screwing the taxpayers and the county coroner.”
Green finished by saying while he can’t get some qualified employees, the county keeps spending money on a “nonexistent maintenance plan.”
“Somebody just asked where the money is going to come from, (for his department budget), every time somebody goes over budget, Bob pulls it out of his maintenance budget, that’s where it comes from,” he stated. “There is no money in there.”
According to Zigelbauer’s 2026 budget proposal, he didn’t want to add permanent positions until the county changed from a coroner to a lay medical examiner in 2027.
The County’s Public Safety Committee approved requesting $15,000 for the two positions Green wanted.
They also approved two other requests from the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office and the District Attorney’s Office.
The committee requested to re-add an AI component that would help deputies log their reports after a crime that was taken out by Ziegelbauer.
The committee also requested the finance committee to add $25,000 to the DA’s budget for an extra position.
Finance Committee Chairman Kevin Benke told the department heads that they will need to explain to the finance committee where the money is coming from in the budget so they can approve the requests from the department.
The finance committee will meet later this month.
We have also reached out to Ziegelbauer to ask his response to the comments made by Green.
