Polk County is considering an appeal to the Wisconsin Supreme Court as one option in how it responds to an appeals court decision that stopped the sale of the county-owned Golden Age Manor nursing home in Amery.

The Polk County Board will hold a special meeting at 6 p.m. on Sept. 30, at the Unity Schools auditorium to discuss what options it has to react to the Sept. 16 appeals court decision, which overturned a decision made by a circuit court judge March 26.

“There’s obviously going to be a resolution coming forward which will seek a two-thirds vote,” board chairman Bryan Beseler said at a Finance Committee meeting on Sept. 22, after the Finance Committee met with two attorneys in closed session for about an hour and 20 minutes to discuss legal strategy.

Beseler also indicated he will meet soon with Polk County Corporation Counsel Jeff Fuge to discuss the possibility of the county board pursuing an application for an appeal to the state’s seven-member supreme court, which accepts only a small percentage of appeals for consideration.

Beseler said he and Fuge have different opinions on that issue, with Fuge more optimistic that such an appeal could be successful.

At a special meeting last Jan. 22, the county board voted 12-11 to sell Golden Age Manor to Rice Partnership a company based in Appleton, Wis., for $2.5 million.

The following day Golden Age Manor Board member Gene Sollman, Manor employee Marion Posey and Manor resident Anne Nykreim took legal action in Polk County Circuit Court to try to prevent that sale. They argued Polk County could not sell the 50-year-old facility without a two-thirds vote of the county board because Golden Age Manor is situated on property donated for a special purpose.

Wisconsin’s District III Court of Appeals concluded the land “was, at least in part, donated” in making its ruling.

The Wisconsin statute that stipulates such land may be sold with a two-thirds vote of a governing body also requires that the condition attached to the donated land must subsequently become “impossible or impracticable.”

While some county supervisors want to sell Golden Age Manor because it has had operating losses of more than $2.5 million since 2001, the financial picture for 2008 appears to be much sunnier than it has been in recent years.

According to a financial report distributed at the Sept. 16 county board meeting, Manor revenue has exceeded expenses by $1,090,509 for 2008, through the end of August.

Speaking during the public comment period of the Sept. 22 Finance Committee meeting, supervisor Gerald Newville, a former chairman of that committee, urged the committee members to look at the 2008 numbers carefully before making any recommendation to the full board.

While Golden Age Manor has received $300,000 more in intergovernmental transfer funds in 2008 than had been projected, Newville said, that unexpected income doesn’t account for the full reason for optimism.

“The other things that caused it will still be in place for the balance of this year, and will be in place for next year,” Newville said. “The moves that were made that bring more income, that cost less money, will be there. And if this is true — and I went over it pretty good, and I don’t think that it’s lying — this would make the difference in us meeting our budget this year, and also could help us do the things next year that we need to have done that we haven’t found money for yet.”

Balsam Lake area resident Jim Drabek, who last year uncovered the deed that transferred ownership of the Golden Age Manor land to Polk County, also spoke during the public comment period of the Sept. 22 Finance Committee meeting.

On Sept. 3 Drabek made a public records request to Polk County for the five drafts of the asset purchase agreement between Polk County and Rice Partnership that preceded the sixth and final draft.

Attorneys Mindy Dale and William Thiel, of the Eau Claire-based firm Weld, Riley, Prenn & Ricci, provided Drabek “redacted” copies of those five drafts, contending that since those drafts reveal details of Polk County’s strategies, bargaining and negotiation tactics portions must remain secret because if a sale to Rice Partnership does not go through those strategies and tactics may be used for another potential buyer.

Drabek said he obtained enough of the first five drafts to determine that only the sixth and final draft stated that Golden Age Manor was not on land donated for a special purpose. That sixth draft was formulated at a Finance Committee meeting last Jan. 22, prior to the special county board meeting on that same date.

Drabek said he attended the Jan. 22 Finance Committee meeting and pointed out on a money flow chart why he felt Golden Age Manor was on donated land.

Subsequently, Drabek, whose wife is a nurse at Golden Age Manor, brought legal action against members of the Finance Committee and all members of the county board, on behalf of the State of Wisconsin (State of Wisconsin Ex Rel). Drabek charged that the Finance Committee had violated Wisconsin’s open meetings law by going into closed session regarding the nursing home sale at six meetings between Dec. 26, 2007, and Jan. 23, 2008, and that the county board violated the open meetings law by going into closed session at its Jan. 22 meeting.

Drabek contends the Finance Committee and the county board did not have the need to go into closed session for competitive and bargaining reasons because the Finance Committee reached a sale agreement with Rice Partnership in late November 2007.

Drabek’s case is scheduled for a court hearing in Polk County Circuit Court Sept. 25 at 2 p.m., before Judge Eugene Harrington.

It appears as though Golden Age Manor will be the only issue on the agenda at the special county board meeting Sept. 30.

At last week’s county board meeting, board chairman Bryan Beseler said he also wanted the full board to weigh in on the Polk County Lime Quarry and whether or not the Public Health Department’s home health care program should be eliminated in 2009, as both the Personnel Committee and the Finance Committee have recommended.

Beseler decided to drop the home health care issue from the agenda because the Health Department intends to appeal the recommendation at a joint meeting of the Personnel and Finance Committees Oct. 7.

The lime quarry also is being pulled from the agenda because the deadline for proposals to analyze options for the county is Oct. 3.

The agenda for the special meeting indicates that the board will hear public comments regarding Golden Age Manor before probably going into closed session to consider options regarding the proposed sale and pending litigation.

At the Finance Committee meeting, Beseler said he would like to have members of the public who wish to speak draw numbers for speaking order for the first 30 minutes (each person is limited to three minutes). The board then could vote to extend the public comment period if it wishes to do so.