A Lincoln County group alleged members of the Lincoln County Board of Supervisors violated the Open Meetings Law after a broker contracted to facilitate a sale of a Lincoln County-owned nursing home discussed details of the potential sale during a public meeting in another county.
The allegation was described in a story by editor Jalen Maki that appeared in the April 30, 2025 issue of The Tomahawk Leader.
People for Lincoln County UA, a new unincorporated association formed by county residents aiming to promote “responsible and responsive” governance, said it has been following the ongoing Pine Crest saga for the past two years, during which time a sale of the Merrill facility has fallen through and the process to sell the nursing home has been restarted.
A Thursday, April 10 letter to Lincoln County Clerk Christopher J. Marlowe, Lincoln County Board of Super- visors Chair Jesse Boyd and Lincoln County Corporation Counsel Karry Johnson from the group alleged the Lincoln County board “has violated state open meetings statutes, as well as public records laws and ethical codes.”
The organization pointed to several closed sessions conducted by the Lincoln County Administrative and Legislative (A&L) Committee that focused on the sale of Pine Crest. Through “informal and formal avenues,” People for Lincoln County said it has unsuccessfully sought information about what was discussed during the closed sessions.
The group said it believes the public has been “deliberately kept in the dark” on these topics by the A&L Committee. The letter referenced a Thursday, March 27 meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Portage County Board. During the meeting, Ray Giannini of the firm Marcus & Millichap, which coordinated last year’s failed Pine Crest sale and is again working with Lincoln County, discussed details of the ongoing Pine Crest sale – details People for Lincoln County said it has been seeking.
A video recording of the meeting is available on the Portage County website. People for Lincoln County shared the recording with the Tomahawk Leader and the Merrill Foto News, as well as Lincoln County officials.
Giannini attended the meeting to offer the services of Marcus & Millichap as a potential broker to help Portage County sell its county-owned Health Care Center. In answering questions from the committee, Giannini referenced Lincoln County’s potential sale of its facility several times.
Giannini told the committee that Lincoln County had been initially approached by five interested parties. Lin- coln County board members toured facilities operated by three potential buyers, and as of late March, the county was “seriously deliberating between two of the buyers,” according to Giannini.
Giannini said the offers proposed to Lincoln County fell between $9 million and $11 million, and the fee he would charge for a Pine Crest transaction would be 3% of the sale price.
He also told the Portage County committee that a decision regarding the Lincoln County facility would be made on Wednesday, April 2. On that date, the A&L Committee voted to authorize Lincoln County Administrative Coordinator Renee Krueger to “sign a letter of intent with the perspective (sic) purchaser identified as the most favorable,” according to meeting minutes.
County Clerk Marlowe said the visits by county board members to facilities owned by potential buyers were not formal visits ordered by the board. No quorums of county committees were present, and no per diems were requested, according to Marlowe.
“Our supervisors are not taking this lightly, and, in many ways, (are) going above and beyond their normal scope of duty,” Marlowe stated. In reference to Pine Crest sale information being revealed in Portage County last month, Marlowe said what Giannini “does in meetings outside (Lincoln County’s) borders should be taken up with him.”
“Mr. Giannini is the industry leader in Wisconsin in regards to the sale of public nursing homes,” Marlowe stated. “We have the utmost confidence in his proven abilities.” Marlowe said People for Lincoln County has deemed him as “opposition” and is accusing him of withholding information, which, he said, is “very unpleasant, to say the least.”
Renea Frederick said in a press release the organization’s requests for the Lincoln County Board to provide “the most basic information about the sale of Pine Crest” have gone unanswered “time and time again.”
“It’s a slap in the face to learn that the realtor, who’s out there peddling our nursing home, is sharing information two counties away – information that our supervisors won’t even share with the people who have paid taxes to support Pine Crest for decades,” Frederick stated. “That’s not right.”
