WHITEHALL — Trempealeau County’s code says the office of undersheriff was abolished. Chapter 2, section 2.08 of the code declares the position “hereby abolished” and hands its duties and authority to the chief deputy sheriff. State law points the other direction: it directs sheriffs in every county but Milwaukee to appoint an undersheriff within 10 days of entering the office, and directs that the appointment be filed with the clerk of circuit court.
Whether the ordinance can stand against the statute is a legal question the county has never publicly answered. What the records show is that its two most recent sheriffs each appointed an undersheriff — but one filed the appointment with the clerk of circuit court and one did not, and each named a different officer.
In January 2023, then-Sheriff Brett Semingson signed a written instrument appointing Wayne Dahl — his chief deputy — as undersheriff. Dahl signed an oath that was notarized. The instrument bears no file stamp from the Clerk of Circuit Court, and the clerk’s records contain no filing of it.
In December 2025, Semingson’s successor made an appointment of her own — and this one was filed. Sheriff Erica Koxlien signed an instrument naming Sgt. Andrew Bilski undersheriff “for the purposes of statutory conformity,” which was filed with the Clerk of Circuit Court on Dec. 22, and the filing states that the undersheriff has “specific statutory responsibilities that are not fulfilled by the Chief Deputy position alone.”
The county’s own ordinance says the opposite.
What the county code says
Section 2.08 of the county code, titled “Chief Deputy Position,” reads in part that “the statutory position of Undersheriff as called for in Section 59.26, Wisconsin Statutes is hereby abolished,” and that “the position of Chief Deputy Sheriff is hereby created,” with that person “empowered with the duties and authority of Undersheriffs as set forth in Wisconsin Statutes.”
For a vacancy in the top job, the ordinance provides that “in the event of the Sheriff’s absence, death, disability, resignation, removal or other vacancy in the office of Sheriff,” the chief deputy “shall execute the powers and duties of the office of Sheriff until a successor is appointed or elected.”
Both passages are quoted from § 2.08 of the county code, which the county board adopted by resolution in 2007 (Res. 2007-12-18) and has amended twice since (Res. 2016-06-04 and Res. 11-02-25); the section appears at page 2-31 of the code.
The county’s practice has tracked the ordinance’s merged conception of the job. County materials have listed Dahl as “chief deputy/undersheriff,” and his campaign’s April announcement said he has served as chief deputy since 2022.
What state law says
Wis. Stat. § 59.26 structures the office differently. In every county but Milwaukee, it makes the appointment a duty, not an option: “within 10 days after entering upon the duties of the office of sheriff, the sheriff shall appoint some proper person, who is a resident of the county, undersheriff.”
The office runs with the sheriff who fills it — an undersheriff “shall hold office during the pleasure of the sheriff,” the statute says — and the appointment is meant to go on the public record: every appointment or revocation, it directs, “shall be in writing and be filed and recorded in the office of the clerk of the circuit court.”
The statute also makes the undersheriff the successor when the top office falls vacant: “in case of a vacancy in the office of sheriff, the undersheriff shall in all things and with like liabilities and penalties execute the duties of the office of sheriff until the vacancy is filled as provided by law.”
A separate statute, § 63.03, lists “Undersheriff” among the county offices in the “unclassified service” in counties that have a civil service commission, and permits such a commission to “[t]ransfer nonelective offices or positions from the unclassified service … to the classified service.” The records reviewed for this story do not establish whether Trempealeau County has established such a commission.
What the legislature just changed
2025 Wisconsin Act 196 repeals and recreates § 59.26 in its entirety, effective Jan. 4, 2027. The new statute addresses, prospectively, nearly every point on which the county’s ordinance and current state law diverge.
On whether a county may eliminate the office, the rewritten § 59.26(3) is direct: a county board “may not eliminate the office of undersheriff and may not assign the appointment of undersheriff to an authority other than the sheriff.”
On the two titles, the new law merges them by name — the undersheriff “shall also be known as the chief deputy sheriff and shall have the same powers and duties as a deputy sheriff” — and it keeps the appointment a duty, requiring a sheriff to appoint one “no later than 10 days after taking office and no later than 10 days after the occurrence of a vacancy,” who must be a county resident and a certified law enforcement or jail officer.
The new law also moves the filing: appointments and removals “shall be filed and recorded with the county clerk” rather than the clerk of circuit court, and the act’s amendment to § 63.03 removes the undersheriff from the offices a civil service commission may transfer.
The act contemplates counties in Trempealeau’s position. Where the chief deputy sheriff is “a defined position under an ordinance or a collective bargaining agreement,” the person serving in it keeps the position’s salary, tenure and seniority — though the act adds that a sheriff in such a county “is not required to appoint the chief deputy sheriff to the appointive position of undersheriff.”
Two documents
The Semingson instrument is a single page. It appoints Dahl “my true and lawful Undersheriff, for me and in my place and stead … during the term of my office, January 3, 2023 – January 3, 2027,” and carries Dahl’s notarized oath. The oath was notarized by Carol L. Gutsch, the office and fiscal manager of the sheriff’s office, according to the county’s 2023 and 2025 directories. The instrument bears no file stamp. No filing date, no case number.
The Koxlien instrument carries all of it: a stamp reading “Filed DEC 22 2025, Clerk of Circuit Court, Trempealeau County,” and file number 2025GF000002. It states that the appointment “does not change Sergeant Bilski’s status as Sergeant, pay, or working title. It is solely for the purpose of a Sheriff vacancy.” It was notarized by Leni Nilsestuen, the office manager and paralegal in the district attorney’s office, according to the county’s 2025 directory.
Notarization by a notary on county staff is routine, and nothing in the records suggests either notarization was improper.
What the record shows
In July, a records request under Wisconsin’s public records law, Wis. Stat. §§ 19.31–19.39, was submitted to Clerk of Circuit Court Mary Lee, the custodian of the filings § 59.26(6) describes. It sought every written instrument appointing or revoking a Trempealeau County undersheriff that was executed, effective, received, filed or recorded from Jan. 1, 2022 through the summer of 2026, together with associated oaths, bonds, file stamps and index entries.
Lee responded on county letterhead that “upon the review of your request, the responsive record(s) were located,” listing one — “Appointment of Undersheriff on 12/22/25.” She added that no record had been denied. Asked directly about the Semingson appointment of Dahl, Lee wrote: “If that was the case, it was not filed with my office.” She also wrote that she believed the request “may have been passed on for this record.”
The clerk’s response identified no instrument naming Dahl within that office and for that period. Whether such an instrument was submitted and not recorded, or exists in another office’s custody, is not something the clerk’s records can answer.
What the texts leave open
The records establish a conflict between the county’s ordinance and the appointment procedure described in § 59.26 — but they do not resolve it, and neither does a side-by-side reading.
If the ordinance is enforceable against the statutory scheme, Dahl’s authority never depended on the unfiled document. As chief deputy since 2022, he held “the duties and authority of Undersheriffs” under the ordinance, with no individual appointment to file. The Semingson instrument would have purported to appoint him to a position the ordinance abolishes. And under the ordinance’s terms, when Semingson retired in early December 2025 — days before Gov. Tony Evers appointed Koxlien on Dec. 12 — the powers of the sheriff’s office rested with the chief deputy.
If the statute controls instead, the clerk’s file for that period contains no undersheriff appointment before Dec. 22, 2025.
The cited provisions do not expressly resolve the conflict. Whether a county could eliminate or functionally replace a position state law directs the sheriff to fill — and what legal effect, if any, the absence of a filed appointment had on Dahl’s status — are legal questions the available records do not answer. The county’s filings do not address them. What the documents show is the disagreement itself: Koxlien’s December instrument says the chief deputy position “alone” does not fulfill the undersheriff’s responsibilities; the ordinance says the chief deputy holds all of them.
One more date bears on her filing. The statute’s 10-day window runs from when a sheriff enters “upon the duties of the office.” Evers appointed Koxlien on Dec. 12; her filing is dated Dec. 22 — 10 calendar days later. The date she was sworn in and entered upon the duties is not stated in the records reviewed for this story, but on the dates the records do state, the appointment appears to fall within the statutory window.
A Facebook comment, and what it does not establish
The December appointment drew no public notice at the time. It surfaced this summer, in a public comment this week on this publication’s Facebook page, where a commenter, Michelle Phillips Dahl, wrote about it.
Wayne found out about this on June 25th and has yet to be informed about it. It is concerning with the lack of communication but there is a county ordinance that overrides this document. Wayne has and will continue a clean campaign.
Michelle Phillips Dahl, in a public comment on the Pioneer’s Facebook page
She did not identify the ordinance. Section 2.08 is the provision of the county code that addresses the position. Her sentence about timing points two ways at once — Dahl “found out about this on June 25th and has yet to be informed about it” — and this story does not resolve it. One reading, that Dahl learned of the December filing on his own and had not been told of it by the sheriff’s office, is the Pioneer’s reading of an ambiguous sentence, not a claim she stated in those words, and this story adopts neither reading. What she wrote is, so far, a single public comment. The records reviewed for this story neither corroborate nor contradict it; they contain no indication of when, or whether, the sheriff’s office informed Dahl of the Bilski appointment.
If the account is accurate, more than communication is at issue. But two facts in the record cut the other way: the appointment was filed as a public record, with a case number, on Dec. 22, 2025, months before Dahl entered the race in April 2026, and nothing in the records suggests it was directed at him or at the primary. The filing itself says the appointment is “solely for the purpose of a Sheriff vacancy” — and a vacancy is where the ordinance and the statute name different successors: the chief deputy under one, the undersheriff under the other. On the statute’s terms, the Dec. 22 filing placed that role with Bilski. Whether the officer the ordinance places there was told is a fact the sheriff’s office holds and the records do not. The invitation to respond published with this story extends to that office and to all three campaigns alike.
Election context
Three Republicans are on the Aug. 11 primary ballot for Trempealeau County sheriff: Dahl, Koxlien and Blair Police Chief Kent Johnson. Koxlien is running as the appointed incumbent. Dahl got in the race in April, and his campaign says three retired Trempealeau County sheriffs are backing him — Randy Niederkorn, Rich Anderson and Semingson.
Nothing in the records suggests Dahl had any role in the handling of either document. He signed only the oath on the 2023 instrument, and if the ordinance is enforceable, his authority as chief deputy never depended on it.
What remains unresolved
Whether the ordinance or the statute controls — and with it, whether Wayne Dahl also held the office of undersheriff between January 2023 and December 2025. That he served as chief deputy is not in dispute. The available records do not resolve those questions, and this story does not attempt to. What can be said is that the legislature has addressed the issue prospectively: on Jan. 4, 2027, Act 196’s rewritten § 59.26 takes effect, and county boards will no longer be able to eliminate the office.
Verify it yourself
- Wis. Stat. § 59.26(1), (4), (6) and (7) — “Sheriff; undersheriff,” the appointment duty at the center of this story
- Wis. Stat. § 63.03(2)(f) and (3)(b) — the civil-service classification provisions
- 2025 Wisconsin Act 196, repealing and recreating § 59.26 effective Jan. 4, 2027
- Trempealeau County Code § 2.08, “Chief Deputy Position” — adopted Res. 2007-12-18, amended Res. 2016-06-04 and Res. 11-02-25, county code page 2-31
- Wis. Stat. §§ 19.31–19.39, the Wisconsin Public Records Law
- The two appointment instruments — Semingson–Dahl, January 2023, unfiled; Koxlien–Bilski, filed Dec. 22, 2025, case 2025GF000002 — published as PDFs with this story
- Trempealeau County staff directories (2023 and 2025), on the county roles of the two notaries who witnessed the instruments