Donald Dantzler Elected Dane County Supervisor: Growing into Leadership (Part 2 of 2)
Donald Dantzler was elected as the Fitchburg District 3 alder in April 2024 and was recently elect ed Dane County supervisor for District 33 on April 7, 2026
by Jonathan Gramling
While basketball got Donald Dantzler Jr. into the game of education, it is education that has allowed Dantzler to successfully compete in the world of politics. Dantzler grew up in Joliet, Illinois and attended college on a basketball scholarship at UW-Parkside and transferred to UW-Whitewater to where he he earned his undergraduate degree. And then his basketball prowess took him to Europe where he played for a team in Amsterdam. But education was his real game.
Eventually, Dantzler began working on his Ph.D. at UW-Madison, was elected alder to the Fitchburg Common Council, was appointed to the Madison College board and now works as the vice-president of strategic partnerships for One City Schools. And on April m7th, Dantzler was elected to the Dane County Board.
While the Dane County board and the Fitchburg Common Council confront similar issues, they both play different roles in the lives of their residents. And while both have law enforcement in their purview, again the Dane County Sheriff’s Department and Fitchburg Police Department play different roles in the community. Dantzler’s dual roles as alder and supervisor, with a great degree of overlap in the areas the districts he represents, may allow residents to weigh in on more issues with the same person.
“In my situation, it works being the alder and supervisor because of the overlay of the land and the space that I cover,” Dantzler said. “I think a lot of things on the county level impact what we do on the municipal level, given that there are specific budget constraints on the county level. Of course, we are going to have those constraints on the city level as well. Also, it’s having access to your alder and supervisor that could work for a lot of different residents because now we can attack more issues. You have someone representing you at both levels. It’s a unique experience that I don’t think a lot of folks have had.”
And as Dantzler sits on two distinct governmental bodies, he could bring the perspective of one to the other as it is deemed appropriate.
“I think I will be a voice for municipalities and a voice for the county board,” Dantzler said. “I don’t want to muddy the waters in both of those bodies and advocate for things that don’t fit. But if there are things that cross over and they are applicable, then definitely I would have a voice and speak on those things given I would have the perspective from serving in both places.”
The 2027 budget is uppermost in Dantzler’s mind.
“The biggest issue is going to be the Dane County budget and looking at that and trying to figure out how to create the best budget possible given some of the constraints that currently exist and being cognizant of some of the constraints that they had in the last budget cycle as well,” Dantzler said. “If there are cuts and things that need to happen, I will just have to make thoughtful and informed decisions around what those things look like and incorporate necessary stakeholders when applicable in making these things happen.”
What’s most important to Dantzler is transparency so that the electorate understands what is being done and why it is getting done even if they don’t agree with the outcome.
“I think a lot of times folks, especially today, think politicians and everyone is crooked and we just do a whole lot of things behind closed doors,” Dantzler said. “But I really value transparency and having conversations with people, especially the people who voted for me to give me any understanding of why we are doing something. And the other issue is working with the criminal justice system and things like having enough sheriff’s deputies.”
Transparency is going to be most important in the 2027 county budget deliberations because not everyone is going to be happy with the outcome.
“I’ve had a few conversations with the chair,” Dantzler said. “It sounds like the biggest thing is going to be that budget. There has also been a lot of talk around health insurance and premiums. Right now, Dane County employees don’t pay into their premiums. There are discussions around whether or not that is going to continue because of how tight things have been. We have to find new ways of being able to fund things at the level that is needed at the county level. When I was doing some of the endorsement interviews with some of the labor unions, they were really concerned about those premiums as they should be given the positions that they are in.”
Dantzler is prepared for the budget battles. Fitchburg had to make some hard decisions in coming up with its 2026 budget.
“I was prepared for it last year when Fitchburg went to referendum,” Dantzler said. “Even though it didn’t pass, there were a lot of conversations about that. There were residents who were unhappy that we even went to referendum. And then when the referendum didn’t pass, we had to do the wheel tax to make up the million dollars that we didn’t get when we went to referendum. We’ve had a lot of conversations. We did listening sessions after the referendum failed in each district. And we heard everyone’s concerns. I know folks were concerned that it was a regressive tax and affected people differently. I completely hear those concerns. However, I’m not a person who comes with the first thing that we do to balance the budget is try to eliminate people’s jobs and positions or we take away certain services that people were used to and was one of the reasons why they wanted to live in the city to begin with. It was either the wheel tax or things started getting cut. I don’t think residents would have been that thrilled about having some of the services cut in Fitchburg when we could implement this. But I get it. It’s not the most favorable option. But I just felt it was the lesser of two evils that we needed to do to continue to have the city run because it has grown quickly.”
And with Fitchburg growing rapidly, there are additional pressures on the city budget. And the cost of housing doesn’t help even when a boom of new construction is underway.
“Everyone is experiencing it across the country, where the prices are through the roof,” Dantzler said. “We have to continue to up the supply through a diversification of housing. Hopefully when we do that, it will drive some of the prices down for folks to be able to live and work here. But higher housing costs come with higher construction costs. And most cities make their money from net new construction. But the problem is construction costs are so high. Inflation is outpacing net new construction. And that is one of the balancing acts that many municipalities are dealing with. I heard that Sun Prairie might be going to referendum soon. And a lot of folks think that it is a budgeting issue. And it’s really not. It’s really just the nature of the circumstances we are living in. We did get a Moody’s Gold Bar rating for our budgeting. Our mayor is an accountant. So it wasn’t anything where we were recklessly spending or getting out of control.”
It’s been a hard environment given that it seems the price of everything is going up.
“It’s been very difficult with these things coming together all at once,” Dantzler observed. “That was tough, especially for Fitchburg residents who live in the MMSD school district because they got hit with the MMSD referendum as well for their operating costs and the capital expenses. The $40 was there, but I think the referendum was a lot more depending on the value of your home. That was tough for folks to deal with.”
With sitting on the county board and the city council, Dantzler has had to make some tough decisions and adher to time management. Fortunately, he is single and has no children.
“I am finishing up my Ph.D. at UW-Madison in educational leadership and policy analysis,” Dantzler said. “And I feel that once that is done, it will be a weight lifted off my shoulders. I’m not taking classes. I’m in the dissertation phase. You just have to sit down and write. There’s no one there. There isn’t any class time. I have to get that done with all of the other competing demands on my time. Once I decided to run for these two seats, I let a lot of other things that I was doing go. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to do them anymore. It’s just that I had to focus on some things and create priorities. That’s what I’ve been doing with my education. I can’t put mine on the back burner while I am urging everyone else to continue. That’s something I had to focus on.”
While Dantzler has a full plate in the present, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t have an eye on the future.
“I’m not a licensed educator,” Dantzler said. “So all of my years, even when I was with MMSD, I’ve always been in research, evaluative social-scientist based. No I don’t want to be a principal or anything like that. Bit I’ve always been education adjacent in terms of helping people if they have a grant and they are trying to test some kind of phenomenon or test the intervention that they are doing, working with them to help them analyze their data and make decisions about it. I would like to run for higher office at some point. I don’t know when. I definitely want to continue to be able to serve the state of Wisconsin and the residents and make an impact.”
For a relatively young man, Donald Dantzler Jr. has racked up a wealth of experience while serving the public good in education, municipal and county government. Who knows where commitment to community, experience and education will take him. The sky’s the limit.