Lyn Jerde/Daily Register
Portage High School junior Michael Radloff, right, and Columbia County Supervisor Doug Richmond of Lodi get to know one another during Wednesday's opening session of the county's Future Leaders Active in Government program. The session focused on law enforcement and the work of the County Board's judiciary committee.

Just above the word "government," Antonio Naxi drew a spider and spray can of pesticide.

The drawings, said Antonio, symbolize one vital function of government - protection of people from anything that might harm or threaten them.

For Antonio, a junior at Portage High School, the drawings were just the start of his yearlong journey into the depths of Columbia County government as part of a new program called Future Leaders Active in Government, or FLAG.

FLAG began Wednesday with 12 juniors from three Columbia County high schools - Portage, Cambria-Friesland and Lodi - who spent most of the day discussing what government is and how it affects everyday life.

To get the students thinking about this, UW-Extension Local Government Specialist Phillip Freeburg invited the students to ponder this question: If your neighbor's house catches fire, who would you call?

"Are you going to call President Obama? Are you going to call your congressman? Or maybe the governor will help," he said.

Actually, Freeburg noted, the 911 call that you make to report the fire would probably go to dispatch center at the Columbia County Law Enforcement Center - located in a room just above the one where the FLAG participants were meeting, a room that they toured later in the day, along with the jail and the medical examiner's office.

And, Freeburg noted, the dispatcher would send firefighters that are affiliated with a local department.

Although the state has a role in setting requirements for firefighter training, and the federal government supplies money to help fire departments buy equipment, Freeburg said firefighting is one common function of a local government.

"Wisconsin believes," he said, "that local government is often the best way to deliver services. You get services locally, run by people you know locally."

How the program started

Columbia County Supervisor Douglas Richmond of Lodi spearheaded the inauguration of FLAG, after hearing officials from other counties, at a Wisconsin Counties Association conference, talk about their strategies for getting young people involved in county government.

Kathleen Haas, University of Wisconsin-Extension educator, said some counties invite teens to participate on the County Board, or its committees, as nonvoting members. But in Columbia County, nearly all committee sessions, and most of the monthly Board of Supervisors meetings, are held in the morning, making participation challenging for teens who are in school during those hours.

FLAG was designed to give participants in-depth experience in Columbia County's government over a one-year period, which will end in December, by which time the participants will be high school seniors. Monthly sessions will be held at different county departments, with opportunities to meet with elected officials and department heads.

This fall, all the students participating in FLAG will attend a Columbia County Board of Supervisors meeting together. All students will research the county's handling of an issue of each student's own choosing.

Each FLAG participant received a packet containing the names of 27 county departments and all 30 members of the Columbia County Board of Supervisors. Before they're done with FLAG, the students will be encouraged to have every supervisor and at least one employee of every department sign their passport. They'll be expected to learn the names of every department head.

The first homework assignments for the 12 FLAG participants: Find out the name and district of the county supervisor that represents your area, learn what committees the supervisor is on and find out where a person who lives in your area would go to vote.

Why they are there

Most of the FLAG participants got into the program through recommendations from their principal or civics teacher.

Cambria-Friesland High School junior Kayla Kollaszar applied on her own, because she's looking for a source of information, in addition to her civics class in school, to help her understand how government works.

"I like learning about civics," she said, "but I don't always understand it. There is just so much to learn about government."

Portage High School junior Jessica May said FLAG is another opportunity for learning and involvement, in addition to those that she has already undertaken - including Teen Court, Rotary Club and a leadership group under the auspices of the Portage Area Chamber of Commerce.

"I want to learn more about how to change government policies, and how to get in touch with leaders," she said.

For Portage High School junior Mitchell Bortz, participation in FLAG stemmed from a civics teacher's suggestion.

"I decided to take a look at it," he said, "because I figure that, if I want to live here, I'll want to know more about it."

Meeting the sheriff

The first FLAG session Wednesday combined brainstorming about local government in general with an overview and tour of Columbia County's law enforcement department.

When Sheriff Dennis Richards invited the students to guess "Who's my boss?", several possible answers were suggested.

"The mayor?"

"No."

"Richard Boockmeier?"

Richards acknowledged that Boockmeier, a Columbia County supervisor from Portage who is chairman of the County Board's judiciary committee, works closely with the sheriff's department.

"But the voting public is my boss," Richards said.

However, he noted, cooperation between the sheriff's department and the judiciary committee is vital for success in operating the department.

"It's very important," he said, "to make things run as well as possible, for as cheap as possible."

Speaking of finances, Haas asked students to guess the size of the deficit for the state government.

"Thirty million dollars?" piped up one voice.

"Oh, add a few zeros to that," quipped Richmond.

Because counties depend heavily on the state to help pay for many programs that counties run, Haas said the downturn in the economy hurts the county.

"Government, as well as individuals, are having a tough time right now," she said.

For example, Richards said, the price of gasoline climbed past $4 a gallon last summer, but his department's budget assumed a price of only $2 a gallon.

For a department that has 60 vehicles (not all of them patrol cars) and drives more than 1.1 million miles a year to patrol the county, it was difficult to stay within the budget and still do what needed to be done, Richards said.

Discussing essentials

During a FLAG exercise, Haas asked students to think about which government functions are essential and which are not - a topic that will be discussed in more depth when FLAG meets Feb. 18 at the Columbia County Department of Health and Human Services.

Kayla suggested that it was important for the government to pick up the downed trees after last summer's flooding, and that the government should continue to work toward the goal set by Obama to ensure health care for everyone.

Amanda Estok, a Portage High School junior, said things like shelters for homeless people and financial aid for college are essential.

Choosing what services were not essential was a little more difficult.

"If we give something up," Antonio said, "then government doesn't work so well."

Mitchell echoed that observation: "It was hard to decide what to give up, because things are part of our government, so there must be a reason for them."

Columbia County government, by the numbers

As part of Wednesday's inaugural session of Future Leaders Active in Government, Columbia County officials shared some statistics with the 12 high school juniors participating in the yearlong program:

• The number of pages in the book that outlines Columbia County's 2009 budget: 300.

• The amount that the Columbia County Sheriff's Department spends annually, just to feed inmates: about $500,000.

• Salary Supervisor Richard Boockmeier, chairman of the County Board's judiciary committee, earned in 2008 for his elected post: about $1,500.

• The 2009 budget for the sheriff's department: about $9 million.

• The 2009 budget for the medical examiner's office: about $187,000.

• Number of employees in the sheriff's department: 98.

• Number of miles that the sheriff's department drives each year: 1.1 million.

• Number of vehicles that the sheriff's department owns: 60.

• Number of traffic citations that the sheriff's department issued in 2008: more than 5,000.

• Number of calls that came into the dispatch center in 2008: 53,999.

• Percentage of 911 calls that are made from wireless phones: 70 percent.

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