(1) SINGLE TOWN DISTRICTS. If a town sanitary district is located entirely within one town, the town board shall determine how commissioners will be selected. The town board may appoint the commissioners, provide for their election or constitute itself as the commission. If the town board constitutes itself as the commission, it shall do so by an affirmative vote of at least two-thirds of the town board supervisors. The town board shall determine the method of selection for the initial commissioners within 60 days after the town sanitary district is established. (2) MULTIPLE TOWN DISTRICTS. (a) If a town sanitary district is located in 2 or more towns, the town board of the town containing the largest portion of the equalized full value of taxable property of the district shall determine, within 60 days after the district is established, how commissioners will be selected. The town board may appoint commissioners or provide for their election. (b) If, as a result of a change in each town’s share of the equalized full value of taxable property in the district, a town’s share exceeds the share of the town first authorized to determine selection under par. (a), the town board of the town with the greater share, within 60 days, may provide for the election or appointment of commissioners to replace the commissioners selected under par. (a). Any commissioner selected under par. (a) shall serve until new commissioners are appointed or elected under this paragraph. (3) ELECTION OF COMMISSIONERS. (a) If the town board provides for the election of commissioners, the town board shall either schedule the election of the first commissioners at the next regular spring election or call a special election. If the town board schedules the election of the first commissioners at the next regular spring election, the town board shall appoint commissioners, within the time limits specified in sub. (1) or (2), to serve until the 3rd Monday of April in the year when the next regular spring election is held. (b) After the first commissioners are elected, all subsequent commissioners shall be elected at a regular spring election. (4) CHANGE FROM APPOINTMENT TO ELECTION. (a) If the commissioners of a district have been appointed, a petition requesting that commissioners be elected may be submitted, subject to sub. (5m) (b), to the town board responsible for the selection of commissioners under sub. (1) or (2). The petition shall state whether the petitioners wish to have the first commissioners elected at a special election or at the spring election. The petition shall conform to the requirements of s. 8.40 and shall be signed by qualified electors of the district equal to at least 20 percent of the vote cast for governor in the district at the last gubernatorial election. (b) Upon receipt of the petition, the town board shall provide for the election of commissioners. If the petition requests the election of the first commissioners at the spring election and the petition is filed on or after the date of the spring election and on or before November 15 in any year, they shall be elected at the succeeding spring election; otherwise they shall be elected at the 2nd succeeding spring election. If the petition requests the election of the first commissioners at a special election, the town board shall order the special election in accordance with s. 8.50 (2) (a). After the first commissioners are elected, all subsequent commissioners shall be elected at the spring election. (c) If the commissioners are elected at a special election, the current appointed commissioners continue to serve until their successors are elected and qualify. If the commissioners are elected at a regular spring election, the current appointed commissioners continue to serve until the 3rd Monday of April following the election of the commissioners. (5) CHANGE FROM ELECTION TO APPOINTMENT. (a) If the commissioners have been elected as the result of a petition under sub. (4), the town board may not change the method of selection from election to appointment except as provided under par. (b). (b) A petition conforming to the requirements of s. 8.40 signed by qualified electors of the district equal to at least 20 percent of the vote cast for governor in the district at the last gubernatorial election, requesting a change to appointment of commissioners, may be submitted to the town board, subject to sub. (5m) (a). The petition shall be filed as provided in s. 8.37. Upon receipt of the petition, the town board shall submit the question to a referendum at the next regular spring election or general election, or shall call a special election for that purpose. The inspectors shall count the votes and submit a statement of the results to the commission. The commission shall canvass the results of the election and certify the results to the town board which has authority to appoint commissioners. (c) If the change in the method of selection of commissioners is approved at the referendum, the town board shall appoint commissioners within 60 days after the referendum is conducted. (5m) FREQUENCY OF CHANGES BETWEEN ELECTION AND APPOINTMENT RESTRICTED. (a) If the commissioners have been elected as a result of a petition and election under sub. (4), no petition may be submitted under sub. (5) (b) to change the method of selection from election to appointment within 5 years after the date on which the election of the commissioners was held. (b) If the commissioners have been appointed as the result of a petition and referendum under sub. (5), no petition may be submitted under sub. (4) (a) to change the method of selection from appointment to election within 5 years after the date on which the results of a referendum held under sub. (5) have been certified under sub. (5) (b). (6) ELECTOR DETERMINATION. Whenever in this section the number of names of electors required on a petition cannot be determined on the basis of reported election statistics, the number shall be determined as follows: (a) The area of the district in square miles shall be divided by the area, in square miles, of the municipality in which it lies. (b) The vote for governor at the last general election in the municipality within which the district lies shall be multiplied by the quotient determined under par. (a). (c) If a district is in more than one municipality, the method of determination under pars. (a) and (b) shall be used for each part of the district which constitutes only a fractional part of any area for which election statistics are available.
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