66.0509(4)(4) Any civil service system established under the provisions of this section shall provide for the appointment of a civil service board or commission and for the removal of the members of the board or commission for cause by the mayor with approval of the council, by the city manager and the council in a city organized under ss. 64.01 to 64.15, and by the board in a village or town.

66.0509(5)(5) All examinations given in a civil service system established under this section, including minimum training and experience requirements, for positions in the classified service shall be job-related in compliance with appropriate validation standards and shall be subject to the approval of the board or commission appointed under sub. (4). All relevant experience, whether paid or unpaid, shall satisfy experience requirements.

66.0509 AnnotationA county’s grievance procedure that excluded the plaintiff’s dismissal from being grieved violated sub. (1m)’s mandate that the grievance procedure address terminations. Not all employee separations are “terminations” within the meaning of sub. (1m). Whatever the precise parameters of “terminations,” the term is not commonly used to describe situations in which an employee voluntarily quits or retires. However, the action taken against the plaintiff in this case was a termination within the plain meaning of the statute, and the denial of the opportunity to grieve the termination was impermissible. Dodge County Professional Employees Local 1323-A v. Dodge County, 2014 WI App 8, 352 Wis. 2d 400, 842 N.W.2d 500, 13-0535.

66.0509 AnnotationNeither this section nor the defendant county’s grievance policy provided the substantive restrictions necessary to transform the plaintiff’s employment into one that could be terminated only for cause. Under Wisconsin law, a dichotomy exists between employment at-will and employment that can be terminated only for cause. Only those employees whose employment falls within the “for cause” category receive due process protections. Even if this section requiring a grievance process and the defendant county’s implementation of such a policy moved the plaintiff’s employment out of the “at-will” category, there was no evidence of terms limiting the employer’s discretion to terminate the plaintiff’s employment only for cause. Nesvold v. Roland, 37 F. Supp. 3d 1027 (2014).

66.0509 AnnotationSub. (1m) provides that a local governmental unit must create a grievance procedure that addresses employee terminations, but sub. (1m) alone is insufficient to create a property interest in continued employment. Gilsinger v. Cities & Villages Mutual Insurance Co., 693 F. Supp. 3d 975 (2023).

66.0510(1)(1) Definitions. In this section:

66.0510(2)(2) Benefits. If a local governmental unit provides an employee benefit plan to its officers, agents, and employees, the plan may cover only such officers, agents, and employees and their spouses and dependent children.

66.0511(1)(1) Definitions. In this section:

66.0511(2)(2) Use of force policy. Each person in charge of a law enforcement agency shall prepare in writing a policy or standard regulating the use of force by law enforcement officers in the performance of their duties. The law enforcement agency shall make the policy or standard publicly available on a website maintained by the law enforcement agency or, if the agency does not maintain its own site, on a website maintained by the municipality over which the law enforcement agency has jurisdiction. If the policy or standard is changed, the law enforcement agency shall ensure the website displays the updated policy or standard as soon as practically possible but no later than one year after the change is made. The law enforcement agency shall also prominently display a means of requesting a copy of the policy or standard. If a person requests a copy of the policy or standard, the law enforcement agency shall provide a copy of the current policy or standard free of charge as soon as practically possible but no later than 3 business days after the request is made. A law enforcement agency may not authorize the use of choke holds by law enforcement officers in a policy or standard under this subsection, except in life-threatening situations or in self-defense.

66.0511(3)(3) Citizen complaint procedure. Each person in charge of a law enforcement agency shall prepare in writing and make available for public scrutiny a specific procedure for processing and resolving a complaint by any person regarding the conduct of a law enforcement officer employed by the agency. The writing prepared under this subsection shall include a conspicuous notification of the prohibition and penalty under s. 946.66.

66.0511(4)(4) Human trafficking prevention and enforcement. Each person in charge of a law enforcement agency in a county that has received a recommendation from the human trafficking council under s. 165.29 (1) (d) is encouraged to designate a law enforcement officer of the law enforcement agency to coordinate the law enforcement agency’s human trafficking prevention and enforcement efforts.

66.051266.0512 Whistleblower protection for certain disclosures made by municipal clerks. No municipal clerk, as defined in s. 5.02 (10), county clerk, as defined in s. 5.02 (2), or election official, as defined in s. 5.02 (4e), may be discharged, disciplined, demoted, or otherwise discriminated against in regard to employment, or threatened with any such treatment, as a reprisal because the clerk or election official lawfully reported, or is believed to have reported, witnessing what the clerk or election official reasonably believed to be election fraud or irregularities. For purposes of this section, “lawfully reported” means a report of information the disclosure of which is not expressly prohibited by state or federal law, rule, or regulation.

66.0513(1)(1) Any chief of police, sheriff, deputy sheriff, county traffic officer or other peace officer of any city, county, village or town, who is required by command of the governor, sheriff or other superior authority to maintain the peace, or who responds to the request of the authorities of another municipality, to perform police or peace duties outside territorial limits of the city, county, village or town where the officer is employed, is entitled to the same wage, salary, pension, worker’s compensation, and all other service rights for this service as for service rendered within the limits of the city, county, village or town where regularly employed.

66.0513(2)(2) All wage and disability payments, pension and worker’s compensation claims, damage to equipment and clothing, and medical expense arising under sub. (1), shall be paid by the city, county, village or town regularly employing the officer. Upon making the payment the city, county, village or town shall be reimbursed by the state, county or other political subdivision whose officer or agent commanded the services out of which the payments arose.

66.0513 AnnotationThe use of the phrase “required by command” in sub. (1) plainly does not mean that officers who volunteer to go to another city, county, village, or town are excluded from worker’s compensation and other benefits. A governmental body obligated to reimburse another for worker’s compensation payments under this section is obligated under worker’s compensation law for purposes of worker’s compensation insurance coverage. Milwaukee County v. Juneau County, 2004 WI App 23, 269 Wis. 2d 730, 676 N.W.2d 513, 02-2880.