Eau Claire Co. administrator stays, marking end of special meetings on DHS 2019 budget

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) - The Eau Claire County Board’s special meeting on the investigation in the Department of Human Services is over.

In closed session that lasted more than 2 hours, supervisors voted on a motion made by Nathan Otto and second by Jim Dunning to take no further action on county leadership at this time.

Kathryn Schauf remains as county administrator, and it marks the end of the months long saga of special meetings on the 2019 DHS budget.

Back in 2020, the officials with the Eau Claire Sheriff’s Office launched an investigation into a $1.1 million discrepancy that resulted in the budget being over by $3.3 million.

The special meetings looking into the handlings of the investigation started back in June. The board reviewed the findings from a private law firm they hired, who concluded there was no malicious intent behind the discrepancy.

At the last meeting on July 12th, the board had voted to remove Nick Smiar from his post as county chair.

Board officials said a there should be a press release as early as Wednesday regarding Tuesday night’s proceedings.

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