IVES GROVE - County Board Chairman Mike Miklasevich announced Tuesday evening he will not seek another term as chairman, meaning the new board will select a new leader. By custom, chairmen may serve two two-year terms.

"Well, I just have so many other items to do," Miklasevich told The Journal Times.

The current board held its last meeting on Tuesday. The new board will be sworn in next week for its two-year session, although there is the possibility of only one change of representation, and that depends upon today's vote recount in the Fourth District covering eastern Racine. Jim Kaplan won the election by two votes over incumbent Supervisor Ken Lumpkin.

Miklasevich said he had informed the senior members of the board of his intention and knew of only one candidate. That is Supervisor Peter Hansen, whose 18th District covers the Union Grove area. Miklasevich said he's supporting Hansen's candidacy.

"I've been on the board 20 years now, and I've been in a leadership position for a lot of years - different (committee) chairmanship positions - and I think that it's time I take a step further," Hansen said.

Hansen said he has no particular agenda for his term as chairman other than to make supervisors more visible, perhaps by attending various meetings and talking to school classes, he said, because it's important that people understand what the county does and does for them.

Miklasevich said he had no regrets about tasks left unfinished and was pleased with some accomplishments, such as the county ethics ordinance and some public works projects.

If Hansen is elected by the other supervisors next week, he will be only the third chairman from the western part of the county in the past 30 years, and only the second since then from Union Grove.

Elwood Hoeppner of Union Grove served two terms as chairman beginning in 1978, according to County Clerk Joan Rennert. The other western Racine County chair was Jean Jacobson of the town of Norway, who was subsequently elected county executive.

The chairman is responsible for running the board, assigns supervisors to committees and chooses the committee chairmen who control whether items are considered and which items move to the board floor for a vote.

Supervisor Robert Miller, himself a former board chairman, said he would stand for re-election as vice chairman.

In other matters, the board unanimously passed a revision of the county's ethics ordinance. The revision clarifies some procedures and sets definite dates for others, but its major change is in the composition of the county's ethics board, which will no longer consist of elected officials.

Instead, the county executive will appoint four members and the county board chairman three, and all appointees will have to be approved by the County Board. The new ordinance also forbids a former county official from appearing before the board on behalf of any entity, except for another government, for 12 months after leaving a county position.