Saukville chickens won’t be on the ballot after all

Saukville officials who last month voted to put an advisory referendum on the April ballot that they believed would help settle once and for all the controversy over keeping chickens in the village reversed course on Tuesday — not because they don’t care what residents think but because such a referendum is not allowed by law.

Following a Finance Committee recommendation, the Village Board voted unanimously to rescind the resolution it passed on Jan. 6  that would have put a question on the ballot asking if the village should allow residents to keep “a limited number of chickens on single-family residential properties subject to a permit with regulations.”

“We basically have no choice because of the state statute but to repeal the resolution that was passed last month,” Village Attorney Brad Hoeft told the Finance Committee. “From a legal standpoint, we can’t proceed with the planned advisory referendum.”

State law also prohibits the village from holding a binding referendum on the chicken issue, he said.

In what Hoeft described as an obscure move, the Legislature changed the law regulating advisory referendums in 2023 to restrict the subject of such ballot questions to a handful of issues such as tax incremental financing and capital expenditures funded by property tax levy, he said.

Although the village was in the process of finalizing the paperwork needed to put the question on the ballot, it did not file it.

“I’m glad it didn’t go to the printer, so to speak,” Hoeft said.

What comes next in the chicken saga remains to be seen and is expected to be the topic of ongoing discussions at the March 3 Finance Committee meeting.

On Monday, officials said a community survey is one alternative to a referendum.

Village Administrator Dawn Wagner said she contacted the public relations firm Mueller Communications and was told the company could help the village with a survey by working with Community Perceptions, a sister company of School Perceptions, the Slinger firm that has conducted surveys for several area school districts, including the Port Washington-Saukville School District ahead of its April 2025 referendum.

The estimated cost of the survey is $12,650, Wagner said.

“I think that’s insane,” Trustee Pamela Duckart said.

Trustee Jesse Duckart, Pamela’s husband, said, “We have the free option of just voting on it as a board. I think we could base our decision on the people who have shown up and given their opinions.”

The Duckarts previously voted against putting a chicken referendum on the ballot because, Mrs. Duckart said, they favor an ordinance allowing chickens and believe it is a decision the board should make.

But Village President Andy Hebein on Tuesday said the board has committed to soliciting feedback from as many residents as possible before deciding the issue.

“We told the public we were doing an advisory referendum to solicit input,” he said. “I agree we could just take a vote on it, but we’ve been very public in telling the village we’re interested in hearing from them. This is a very controversial matter.

“I know there is a fee associated with it (a survey), but how badly do we want to make a very educated and informed decision on something that people have been passionate about?”

Another option is for the village to draft an ordinance that would allow a limited number of chickens on single-family lots for consideration by the Plan Commission and ultimately the Village Board and rely on a public hearing that would be necessary to gauge public opinion.

That is essentially what the village did in 2021 when the Plan Commission recommended chickens not be allowed in the village and the board followed suit.

The request that prompted the village’s ill-fated referendum decision and now a debate over a survey was made last year by Tim Schwister and his mother Barbara Schwister, who also asked the village to allow chickens in 2021.

The latest debate over chickens in Saukville has unfolded as the Village of Belgium considered allowing chickens, then decided against it last year. The City of Port Washington has received a request to allow chickens but has yet to consider it. All municipalities in Ozaukee County except those two and Saukville allow chickens, and in some cases other fowl.