46.18 Trustees of county institutions.

(1) Trustees. Every county home, infirmary, hospital, or similar institution, shall, subject to regulations approved by the county board except in Milwaukee County for county homes, infirmaries, hospitals, or institutions providing mental health treatment, be managed by a board of trustees, electors of the county, chosen by ballot by the county board. In Milwaukee County, every county home, infirmary, hospital, or similar institution that provides mental health treatment shall be managed as specified by the Milwaukee County mental health board. At its annual meeting, the county board shall appoint an uneven number of trustees, from 3 to 9 at the option of the board, for staggered 3-year terms ending the first Monday in January. Any vacancy shall be filled for the unexpired term by the county board, but the chairperson of the county board may appoint a trustee to fill the vacancy until the county board acts.

(2) Eligibility. No trustee is eligible, during the term for which he or she was elected, to the office of superintendent or administrator of the institution in his or her charge.

(3) Removal of trustee. Any trustee may be removed from office for misconduct or neglect, by a two-thirds vote of the county board or of the Milwaukee County mental health board, as applicable, on due notice in writing and hearing of the charges against the trustee.

(4) Oath of office, bond, expenses, pay. Each trustee shall take and file the official oath and execute and file an official bond to the county, in the amount determined by the county board, or the Milwaukee County mental health board, as applicable, and the sufficiency of the sureties shall be approved by the chairperson of the board. Each trustee shall be reimbursed for traveling expenses necessarily incurred in the discharge of the duties, and shall receive the compensation fixed by the county board or the Milwaukee County mental health board, as applicable, unless otherwise provided by law.

(5) Officers. The trustees shall elect a president. The superintendent of the institution shall be the secretary.

(6) Monthly audit; suits. At least once each month the trustees shall audit all claims against the county incurred on behalf of said institutions, when presented to them verified under oath by the claimant or the claimant's agent and, when allowed, the president and secretary shall certify such claims to the county clerk who shall thereupon issue county orders for their payment. The trustees may sue and defend in the name of the county any cause for action involving the interest of said institution and may employ counsel for that purpose. All receipts on account of said institutions shall be paid into the county treasury within one week after receipt.

(7) Fiscal year. The fiscal year of each institution shall commence July 1 and end June 30 of the following year.

(8) Bookkeeping. For the institutions listed in sub. (1), the department of health services shall formulate a system of keeping the books, accounts, and reports, and shall furnish forms for reports, and reports shall be made accordingly.

(9) Reports; accounts. The trustees shall install a system of accounting and reporting, under the supervision of the department of health services, and the trustees shall conduct business in conformity with that system. The department of health services may from time to time audit the books, records, documents, accounts and transactions of each institution.

(10) Annual report. On July 1 of each year the trustees shall prepare a report for the preceding fiscal year and shall transmit a copy to the department of health services and a copy to the county clerk, and keep a copy on file at the institution. The report shall be accompanied by an inventory of all properties on hand on the last day of the fiscal year, an estimate of the receipts and expenditures for the current fiscal year, and the reports of the superintendent and visiting physician, of the institution.

(11) County appropriation. The county board or, in Milwaukee County, the Milwaukee County mental health board, as applicable, shall annually appropriate for operation and maintenance of each such institution not less than the amount of state aid estimated by the trustees to accrue to said institution; or such lesser sum as may be estimated by the trustees to be necessary for operation and maintenance.

(12) Additional duties. The county board or the Milwaukee County mental health board, as applicable, may provide that the trustees and superintendent of any institution shall be the trustees and superintendent of any other institution.

(13) Building reserve fund. Except in Milwaukee County, the county board shall maintain as a segregated cash reserve an annual charge of 2 percent of the original cost of new construction or purchase or of the appraised value of existing infirmary structures and equipment. In Milwaukee County, the Milwaukee County mental health board, for mental health infirmary structures and equipment, shall ensure the maintenance, as a segregated cash reserve, of an annual charge of 2 percent of the original cost of new construction or purchase or of the appraised value of existing mental health infirmary structures and equipment. If the infirmary or any of its equipment is replaced, any net cost of replacement in excess of the original cost is subject to an annual charge of 2 percent. No contributions to the cash reserve in excess of the amount required under this subsection may be included in the calculation under s. 49.726 (1). The county board, except the Milwaukee County board, may from time to time appropriate from such reserve sums to be expended solely for the enlargement, modernization or replacement of such infirmary and its equipment. In Milwaukee County, the Milwaukee County mental health board may require to be appropriated from reserve sums for mental health infirmaries to be expended for the enlargement, modernization, or replacement of a mental health infirmary and its equipment.

(14) Incentive payments to patients in mental hospitals. The county board or, in Milwaukee County, the Milwaukee County mental health board may authorize the board of trustees of any county mental hospital to establish a program of incentive payments so as to provide incentive and encouragement to patients by the disbursement of small weekly payments but not restricted to work allowances. Incentive payments paid to inmates shall not be included as costs in arriving at the per capita rate for state aids or charges to other counties and the state for care of inmates.

(15) Joint operation of health-related service. If the county board of supervisors, or the Milwaukee County mental health board, as applicable, so authorizes, the trustees of the county hospital may, together with a private or public organization or affiliation, organize, establish and participate in the governance and operation of an entity to operate, wholly or in part, any health-related service, may participate in the financing of the entity and may provide administrative and financial services or resources for its operation on terms prescribed by the county board of supervisors or the Milwaukee County mental health board, as applicable.

History: 1971 c. 50; 1971 c. 108 s. 6; 1979 c. 34, 110; 1981 c. 329; 1983 a. 192; 1985 a. 29; 1989 a. 31; 1991 a. 316; 1993 a. 89, 231; 1995 a. 27 ss. 2057, 9126 (19); 1999 a. 9; 2001 a. 107; 2007 a. 20 s. 9121 (6) (a); 2013 a. 203; 2017 a. 205.

The county board in a county having a county executive could require that 4 of 7 trustees be county supervisors. 70 Atty. Gen. 181.

The county board, not the board of trustees, determines the disposition of bequests made to an institution under this section. 73 Atty. Gen. 125.