Joint services Director Tom Genthner recently announced his pending resignation. Joint Services is a very important and powerful, but relatively unknown agency here in Kenosha. Joint services is funded by the City and County taxpayers as well as 9-1-1 surcharge fees. Their annual budget is about $10 Million. Most of that goes to the 9-1-1 communications center. A whopping 8.3% of the budget goes to administration. The other three branches are police records, fleet maintenance and evidence. It has been ran for many years by the embattled Tom Genthner, former Kenosha Police Officer. His sudden departure comes amid internal issues, including a dispatcher charged with many crimes including a violent felony. There are other internal investigations that Joint Services employees have shared with the Kenosha County Eye on the condition of anonymity. For some reason, Tom doesn’t want to discipline these employees. Employees are scared of some of their colleagues for threats of violence. Genthner isn’t very transparent and has been blocking access to these records from the public and media. A former dispatcher told us that “Genthner is arrogant and not very sharp at his job.”
Joint services is overseen by a board consisting of 7 members. The Chairman is Supervisor Jeff Gentz. He has a very hands-off style and trusts Genthner to run the agency with little to no oversight. Tom’s personnel assistant Bev Sebetic is also leaving. Josh Nielsen, Tom’s right-hand man is likely to replace Tom on an interim basis.
With his incompetence, arrogance, and non-transparency, this is truly an addition by subtraction. Goodbye Tom. Please stay retired.
