DeMent picked to fill vacant Grafton seat on County Board

The Ozaukee County Board last week appointed Derek DeMent of Grafton to fill the vacancy created last month by the resignation of Scott Rishel.

DeMent will fill the 14th District seat held by Rishel from 2014 to 2018 and from March 2021 until Sept. 1 this year. Rishel said he stepped down due to business conflicts.

The 14th Supervisory District consists of Wards 5, 6, 7 and 8 in the Village of Grafton. 

   District 14 is roughly bounded by Creekside Lane on the west, West Locust Street on the north, 17th Avenue on the east and West Falls Road on the south.

DeMent said he learned of the board’s vacancy from Rishel, who is his neighbor.

“Scott made me aware he was looking to step down,” DeMent said. “He didn’t urge me to apply (for the vacancy) but we talked about the County Board and it all sounds very interesting.”

DeMent said he has lived in Grafton for eight years and was looking for a way to serve the community.

“It’s important to me to get more involved,” he said. 

He compared public service to serving clients in the private sector.

“As a salesman, it’s all about service to my clients. I can’t think of a better place to do it than in my community,” said DeMent, a salesman for MHolland Co., a plastic resin distributor.

DeMent and his wife, Jamie, are natives of the Rochester, N.Y., area. He said he grew up in a small community on the shores of Lake Ontario.

“Very similar to Port Washington,” he said.

They moved to Grafton when he was transferred to Wisconsin.

“I got to choose anywhere I wanted to live in Wisconsin. And Jamie was smitten with the Strawberry Festival (in Cedarburg),” he said.

In the next few weeks DeMent will be joining Molded Dimensions in Port Washington as the company’s director of business development.

The DeMents have two daughters, Nevelle, a high school freshman, and Mariana, in second grade.

DeMent said he had no particular issues that most interested him and will take Rishel’s place on the Public Safety Committee, which oversees the Sheriff, District Attorney, Medical Examiner and Clerk of Courts offices, as well Emergency Management.

“All that sounds really interesting to me,” he said. “It’s natural to go in and feel out the process. There’s going to be a learning curve and I’m looking forward to it.”

DeMent will fill out the rest of Rishel’s term, which ends next April.