Today is the final day for a local politician who has served Manitowoc County for decades.
After 20 years as county executive, Bob Ziegelbauer will be stepping down when Tyler Martell is sworn in tomorrow (April 21st), but he explained on WOMT’s Be My Guest program that he still wants to focus on his job until he’s officially done.
He again called serving as the county executive an honor, and he’s proud of what the county provides for its residents.
One thing approved during his time was a .5% county sales tax, which he’d fought against for a while.
“I fought the sales tax, but when we needed it last year, we had to do that,” he explained. “We were one of the last counties to implement the sales tax in Wisconsin. I’m disappointed in that, but we had to do that.”
One thing he said he is proud of is maintaining county facilities, including the renovation of the Manitowoc County Courthouse steps.
Ziegelbauer also added, “We renovated the heritage center a little bit when it was given back to us by the historical society. We’ve got good facilities. (At) the courthouse, we built a new courtroom. We renovated basically all of the offices. We replaced the windows.”
Although he won’t oversee it in the future, he still wants to see the Courthouse dome renovated.
Ziegelbauer also said he feels good about Tyler Martell taking over for him.
“I think he’s ready for that,” he stated. “He’s up to date in county operations because he’s the county board chairman. And I urged him to talk to individual department heads, and he’s done that, and that’s a good start.”
Ziegelbauer reiterated that he feels the county is in a good place and the county board is ready to lead if needed.
In his free time, the soon-to-be former executive says he might play some golf in retirement, but he’s not focused on that quite yet.
The former record store owner has a history of being in politics. He was first elected to the Wisconsin State Assembly in 1993.
He was elected to his first term as county executive in 2006.
State Representative Paul Tittl would eventually be elected to the state assembly seat, but Ziegelbauer would run and win the county executive seat for five more terms.
He was previously a Manitowoc County Board Supervisor and worked in the City of Manitowoc as their finance director and as a member of the common council.
