July 24, 2026 – Germantown, Wi – The Germantown Village Board has decided to pump the brakes on a proposed Washington County Emergency Medical Services funding plan, voting Monday night to table a resolution supporting the initiative while board members seek additional information.
Village President Bob Soderberg said the board supports finding a long-term solution to EMS funding challenges but is not ready to commit to the county’s proposal without more answers.
“I applaud Washington County for this,” Soderberg said. “They’re thinking outside the box to fix a true problem that we have with EMS, not only in Washington County, but within the state of Wisconsin.”
Washington County Chief Public Safety officer Dave Seager said, “The goal is to improve the overall EMS system countywide while recognizing that each community has different needs and different resources…. EMS agencies throughout Wisconsin continue to experience challenges recruiting and retaining paramedics and EMTs while call volumes continue to increase.”
Soderberg said he has been attending meetings on the proposal for roughly six months and said the resolution the board approved in February was intended only to continue fact-finding.
“The resolution back in February was that, yes, we’re interested in this. We want to support the fact finding, the due diligence,” he said. “The resolution that was on the agenda… was that we’re going to jump feet first in this thing.”
One of Germantown’s biggest concerns surfaced after the village received the financial details tied to the proposal.
Soderberg said board members were surprised to learn communities choosing not to participate would still be subject to the county tax while receiving none of the benefits.
“The real issue is it was either you’re in or you’re not. And if you’re not in, we’re going to tax you anyway,” Soderberg said. “We’re going to tax our people… and we’re not going to get any benefit from that.”
He said this aspect had never been discussed and it was extremely disappointing.
“In the six months I’ve been attending these meetings… that was never discussed. Never discussed,” he said. “It’s like one of those things where, okay, where did this come from?”
According to the county, “The county residents are levied equally. If any municipality opts out, that budget would get reallocated to other municipalities that are participating in the program.”
The county gave the example of a case in Portage County. “A town had sued the county because of this exact type of situation where they did not participate. The majority of others did. The courts favored the county. The town appealed. The appeals court still favored the county and the county was able to continue without providing the service to that municipality that opted out.”
Because of those unanswered questions, Soderberg said the board unanimously agreed more research is necessary.
“There needs to be more fact finding, more due diligence from my board. That’s why it was tabled. And I supported that 100 percent.”
Soderberg also expressed concern that materials included in the Washington County Public Safety Committee agenda could give the impression Germantown had already endorsed the proposal.
“We did not approve it,” he said, explaining the village’s February resolution only supported continued discussion and evaluation of the concept.
While emphasizing that Germantown recognizes the need to address EMS funding, Soderberg said the village recently approved a fire referendum for $1.44 million and invested in additional firefighters.
“Our board is very sensitive to the need to do something,” he said. “We just went through a referendum… We added more firefighters. So we did the right thing for our community.”
Soderberg said Germantown remains undecided on whether it will ultimately support the county plan.
“We agree there is an issue with funding for EMS in the state of Wisconsin and in Washington County,” he said. “We applaud Washington County for thinking outside the box. But as of right now, my board is not 100 percent on board with this.”
Among Soderberg’s strongest objections is what he views as requiring communities to pay without having a voice if they decline to participate.
“Taxation without representation is tyranny,” he said. “I’m not at all signing up for that. It’s a flawed strategy and they need to change the strategy.”
Soderberg also reiterated Germantown’s preference for maintaining control over its own public safety services and finances.
“We’re firm believers in local control,” he said. “We can manage our own business, our own money.”
The Washington County Public Safety Committee is scheduled to continue discussing the EMS proposal at its July 29 meeting at 4 p.m. Soderberg said he plans to attend and clarify that Germantown has not approved the proposal, but instead supports continued discussion while seeking additional information before making a final decision.
During the July 20, 2026 Village Board meeting a resident named Lynn spoke against the EMS project during the public speaking portion of the meeting. Lynn said, “I wanted to talk on this EMS. I hope this board is smart enough to reject this for several reasons.”
“This Josh from the county is going all over trying to get communities to enroll in this. $51 a household. There’s about maybe 10,000 in Germantown. Do you know how much money that is every year and don’t think it’s going to stay that way? And we had a referendum. We hired extra people for the fire department and we are taken care of and we don’t need to run the county to run our government and we should really reject this as long as we can. He’s had all these little meetings with our president, with other superintendent to try to get them to buy this scam. That’s what it is. They want to tax us all this money. And I don’t know if you realize how much that is. If you take 10,000 homes in Germantown, 10,000 in this community that is a lot of money. And we need to stop this control government regulation and control means turning over our and undermining the principle of the right to self-rule.
“Okay? We can’t give up this individual right. We’re going to give up our local freedom and prosperity and this is a risky contract and you need to start thinking and don’t look at the personalities of people either. Look at what’s happening here. Look behind this. I’ve seen this happen many times before and we need to vote this down.
“We don’t need to expand the bureaucracy for special interests from tightening their budget and doing this all on our money. We need to stand firm for limited government choice of free-market solutions and protect our future and vote no and stay in control. We are a community. We need to keep the control over what we do.
“We’re not perfect, but this is the main thing right now is to stop this this idea because all it is is a money grab and it isn’t going to stay that way. I guarantee you when the state takes control, we lose it. So, thank you.”
Germantown Trustee Jolene Pieper chimed in with a series of questions during the Monday, July 20 meeting.
“So, per my calculations, Germantown taxpayers would be paying substantially more than what we would be receiving.
“Germantown would be paying $549,466. What would be returned to Germantown, with the grant and other funding, would be $428,363. That means Germantown would be overpaying by about $121,000.
“So we’d only be getting about 78 percent of what we’re actually contributing.
“Not to mention, this is kind of backwards. The county is asking us to vote on this before they’ve even voted on it themselves or provided an actual contract with actual dollar amounts and actual dates.
“The ‘no-penalty back-out’ language is very misleading because it actually is not a no-penalty back-out. We’re going to be taxed regardless of whether we approve this or not.
“If we don’t approve it, we’re going to be taxed. If we do approve it, we’re going to be taxed.
“So Germantown could potentially be paying extra taxes.”
Pieper said she believes too many questions remain unanswered.
“There are so many things that I’m finding wrong with this. This does not keep control locally. Partially, yes, but not completely, because the county is going to have explicit control over the finances of this shared EMS district.
“Am I saying no? No.
“Am I saying things are backwards right now? Yes.”
Pieper questioned Germantown’s representation under the proposal.
“Would Germantown potentially have a seat on this county board and have a say in this? Germantown is the second-largest municipality in the entire county.
“Out of that million-dollar grant, why were we only receiving $177,000 a year?”
Seager, “I don’t know exactly how that grant was distributed. It was based on some metric, but I don’t know what that metric was.”
Pieper responded that Germantown is one of the county’s largest EMS providers.
“There are 13 fire and EMS departments in Washington County, and we’re the second largest.
“Do you see? The numbers just aren’t adding up for me.”
Pieper said she was unwilling to support the proposal in its current form.
“I think there are a lot of discussions that need to happen with the county.
“If I need to call people myself, I will, because there are a lot of things that do not make sense.
“I will not vote for this if we’re going to be taxing our residents for something that we’re possibly not even going to receive.
“I make a motion to continue conversations, but not move forward with this.”
Village Attorney:
“From a procedural standpoint, the board can either vote on the resolution or table it.”
Soderberg added that conversations with Washington County Board chairman Jeff Schleif indicated there was no immediate deadline.
“I spoke with the county chair today. I don’t want to speak for him or take his words out of context, but my understanding is there is no sense of urgency. He said we can work through this.”
Longtime Trustee Terri Kaminski referred to herself as the “board historian” because she’s been on the board 15 years.
“I can tell you what we’ve gone through with the Fire Department.
“Every other year you’ve come to us asking for additional staffing or resources, and we’ve always found a way to help.
“We were one of the first communities facing staffing shortages. We recognized years ago that relying solely on paid-on-call personnel no longer worked.”
Trustee Kaminski said Germantown had repeatedly invested in its Fire Department, including approving a 2024 referendum that funded 10 additional firefighter/paramedic positions.
“Two years ago we approved about $1.44 million to give the department 10 new employees.
“I was told that investment would position us well for five, six, seven or eight years.
“I supported it, and I encouraged my neighbors to support it because I believed it was the right thing to do.”
Kaminski said it would be difficult to ask residents for another tax increase so soon.
“Now, two years later, I’m supposed to go back to my constituents and say, ‘It’s not enough. We need another $60 a year in taxes. I absolutely will not do that.
“If this conversation happened two years from now, I’d have a much more open mind.”
Kaminski argued Germantown had planned ahead while some neighboring communities had not.
“We’re doing this because other communities can’t afford EMS, and I understand that. But we planned ahead. We worked hard year after year to make this work, and I don’t want Germantown to be punished for planning ahead.”
Kaminski said, “I can’t justify this to our taxpayers after everything this board has done over the last 15 years. As a board, we never ask for more than we need… we find a way.”
Later in the conversation Kaminski asked where Germantown’s share of the county sale tax is to help cover this rather than raise taxes again on Germantown residents.
Trustee Scott Hefle read from information provided to trustees regarding communities that choose not to participate.
“If the village chooses not to participate, our residents would still be taxed through the countywide levy if the county decides to move forward with the plan,” Hefle read. “However, the generated funds would be redistributed to other participating municipalities and their respective EMS service providers.”
“That is pretty clear language to me. It sounds like an ultimatum from the county. It sounds like a threat from the county.”
Hefle said he was concerned by what he viewed as a lack of choice for municipalities.
“I know I’m new to this board, but I do not appreciate ultimatums and threats,” he said. “This looks to me like the county giveth and the county taketh away.”
Hefle said he researched the issue and spoken with several people, including State Representative Dan Knodl.
“I talked to a ton of people, including Dan Knodl,” Hefle said. “He was unaware this was even happening, which is troubling to me when our state assemblyman doesn’t know this is going on and we’ve gotten to this point.”
Hefle questioned the source of prior funding Germantown received.
“That $177,000 which we got a piece of for three years, correct?” he asked.
A county representative responded that the funding came from leftover ARPA dollars and opioid settlement funds.
“ARPA came from the feds and was channeled through you to us,” Hefle said. “That’s not you putting money out there like sales tax revenue rebating or anything like that.”
Hefle said he believed the issue was connected to state policy.
“When I see that, ‘Hey, vote for this Germantown, or if you say no, we’re going to tax you anyway and you’re going to lose out on the money,’ this sounds like a state of Wisconsin legislative problem, not a county problem,” he said.
Hefle praised Germantown residents for supporting public safety through the referendum.
“Our residents stepped up and said we believe in public safety,” he said. “They have always believed in public safety and gave the firefighters 10 new men and women and four new cops by exceeding our own levy by a million and a half dollars.
“We’re proactive,” he said. “I know a couple other municipalities in this county did the same thing. They’re being proactive.”
Hefle again criticized the language of the proposal.
“When the county says, ‘We’re going to create a new tax, and by the way, either be with us or we’re going to screw you over and give the money to somebody else,’ that’s taxation without representation,” he said.
Hefle said he was uncomfortable voting on the proposal without additional details.
“I see numbers in a summary form. There’s no data points. There’s no agreement. There’s no IGA. There’s nothing here,” he said. “And you want me to vote on something that’s not even in its final form as a legal document as an elected official. I have a horrific problem with that.”
Trustee Jan Miller shared concerns raised by other trustees. “This whole thing is disturbing to me.”
Miller said she agreed with concerns raised by Trustees Hefle, Kaminski, and Pieper.
“The language in this, whatever you want to call it agreement, it is a threat and I read it that way,” Miller said. “I don’t want to feel as an elected official that I’m being threatened by the county.”
Miller said she was also concerned about communication between county officials and municipalities.
“What is even more disturbing is that I had a county supervisor call me this morning and say, ‘What’s going on? I never even heard about this EMS thing,’” Miller said.
She said Representative Dan Knodl also expressed concerns.
“Dan Knodl sent me a text and he said, ‘It shouldn’t be this way. It should not be this way,’” Miller said.
Miller said Germantown residents had previously supported public safety through the referendum process.
“We were judicious about getting the help that our public safety needs and putting things out on a referendum,” she said. “We can’t just say, ‘Yeah, let’s tax them. Who cares?’ That’s ridiculous.”
Miller criticized the process used to discuss the proposal.
“I have a problem when you meet with the village president, the village administrators all throughout Washington County, and unfortunately even the county supervisors don’t know about what’s going on,” she said. “That is not good communication.”
Miller said Germantown was already undergoing organizational changes.
“We just hired a village administrator. We just hired a finance director. We have a hole right now for a village engineer and we just lost our special services manager,” she said. “So we are going through some evolution, and then you throw this on us and we’re supposed to make a knee-jerk reaction to tax our residents.”
Miller said she viewed the proposal as unfair.
“It’s not popular. It’s not right. It’s double taxation,” she said.
She said she expected more financial information.
“I thought you were going to come back this month and give us a report about how much it would cost,” Miller said. “I thought this was going to be a partnership, and the way this is being presented in the business world, this is a lose-lose situation. It is not a win-win, and I can’t support it.”
Calls have been placed to County Board chairman Jeff Schleif. No response was received when the article went to print. This story will be updated when the calls are returned.
Excellent article. It is an accurate representation of current thinking in Germantown. There are too many questions to be able to take the next step. The process feels rushed and like the cart is before the horse. Thank you.