Hello there. Thank you for joining us today into day series of candidate forums for the city of Sheboygan Common Council. My name is Deidre Martinez. I'm the CEO of the Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce. I also want to say thank you to our governmental affairs and advocacy committee and our annual sponsor of these programs, which is Prevea Health, as well as WSCS for partnering with us today to film these forums. So thank you to all. Our first in the series is our district four candidates. So I want to welcome Bob Lefebvre and Deborah Yochis. And first of all say thank you for your willingness to even run for office because in many ways it is a bankless position. But there's a lot of work that goes into it. So we appreciate that your willingness to even step into a role of this nature and give of your time and talent. So thank you for that. Rules of the road, if you will, I will go through and give, well I'll give each of you an opportunity to do a two-minute introduction. And then from there I have a series of questions that have been sent in from chamber members and our governmental affairs committee members. Each of you will have to you'll have two minutes to answer. And then if there is a response by the other party you're welcome to have a 30-second response. And we'll go, I'll try to make it as fair as possible by going back and forth so that nobody's answering the same question in the same order at the same time. We also have a timekeeper. So Drew's responsibility will be to hit the stopwatch to put in a two-minute timer. He'll give you a 30-second warning if you're approaching that time and then he'll give you a stop warning if you get to that point. So with that in mind, let's go ahead and get started. And Deborah, if you'd like to tell us a little bit about who you are. Hello, I'm Deborah Yoches. I'm born and raised in Sheboygan, lived here in my life. I have six children. I work at Coldwell Banker and I'm also self-employed with property management. I'm rooted here and I love the community and I just want to see what else we can do with the community. Perfect. Thank you. Bob, would you like to introduce yourself? Yes, I would. And I'd like to thank the Chamber for having this. It's important for giving the information out to our boarders. My name is Robert LePave. I'm a candidate for the Fourth District. I'm a lifelong resident of the city of Sheboygan and for over 15 years, I'm a homeowner inside the Fourth District, together with my lovely wife, Evangeline. We raised our four children in that area and we brought into the world, or they brought into the world, five grandkids. Now, I love my hometown and the people in it and especially those that are without power and misunderstood, having an older brother with cognitive disabilities. I felt a need to help those who needed it the most. As a teenager, I joined an organization called the SYERC. From the ages of 13 to 18, I and my dear friends were a service to these individuals. Inside of this organization, I held numerous offices on a local and state-wide level. I personally formed a bowling league for these special individuals and on a state level, I lobbied on behalf of these same people, all of this before the age of 20. After I became a father, I continued my volunteer work. I was a softball coach from my daughter's softball teams from elementary school all the way to middle school. As a father, I always tried to get the best-paying job I could possibly have. I finally started to work at Bullard's Company, which has a strong UAW local, 1472. I, again, held many positions inside this organization and I chaired several different committees. I also became a member of the UAW CAP Council, that's a community action program. Inside of this venue, I was the organized labor representative to the United Rays on their planning and allocations committee. Now, even as a retired person, I am still involved. I'm on the executive board of the United Rays Planning and Allocations Committee and, you know, all of my wife, I've learned to work with others. And when the need arose, I have learned to take a role as a leader. I think these qualities make me an excellent candidate for the office and I can guarantee people of the Fourth District, I will do my job with compassionate common sense. Thank you. Thank you so much, Bob. So, Deb, if you can give us an idea of why you, what made you decide to run for public office and why do you feel that you are the best person to represent the Fourth District of the city of Sheboygan? I'm very involved, excuse me, I'm very involved in the community. I've been a volunteer at the Working Family Bread Basket for I think 15 plus years. I work at the Sheboygan Food Bank a couple days a week while I volunteer there. I also volunteer with Kindred Hart families. I am a big advocate of the Sheboygan area, pay it forward, helping those in need. I've actually been able to help some of them gain housing from there. I also, when I need to know something, I've been to the warming center. Just if there's something that I want to help and figure out with the community, I just feel that I get involved and see what the needs are and I see people each and every day. So, I'm very familiar with many people in the community and I feel just with my role in volunteering in many organizations here, I can see the needs of the community and what the needs are in the community and how to change some things. Perfect, thanks so much, Deborah. Bob, what made you decide to run for office and why are you the best candidate for the Fourth District of the City of Sheboygan? Well, as I said in my opening, I've always been involved inside of the community and been taking leadership roles when I can. One of the things that happened with me is I was, for four different times, I was selected to be a delegate to the International UAW Cap Council conference where I had the opportunity to migrate pride to lobby in the halls of Congress. So, I think I have, I kind of know how the game is played and as I've said, I've worked inside of committees for most of the organizations I've ever been in and I understand that the Common Council breaks off into committees and then comes in to the body as a whole. So, I know how to work inside of committees. I know how to talk and to deal with other people and like I said, I believe that we need compassionate common sense inside of the Common Council. Thank you so much, Bob. So, Bob, I'll start with you this round. In leadership positions, especially in public office, there are times when you are expected to make decisions maybe with limited information. Can you tell us how do you make decisions about topics that you might be less than familiar with? Well, I search out the people who would have the special knowledge inside of that, converse with them, understand, you know, get an understanding of the problem. You don't just make a decision off the top of your head. You have to study the situation and I've done that on several occasions and yeah, that's what you need to communicate and get into a good conversation, especially with the entities that have special knowledge in whatever the situation is. Great. Thanks, Bob. Would you like me to say that question again? I can. It's not a problem. I like to ask so I don't start talking over you by accident. In leadership positions, especially in public office, there will be times when you're expected to make decisions with limited information. Can you tell us how do you make decisions about topics that you might be less than familiar with? I believe with those kind of situations, you would have to research, do your own research, find out what you can before making a decision. It's important to know, you know, as many facts as possible before making a decision on any kind of situation. So I believe just researching it, trying to get to the root of it, wherever that may be in going that route. Thank you, Debra. Debra, we'll start with you. What element of our city do you believe that is currently the most effective and why? The most effective as far as... So which parts of the city of Sheboygan do you feel are working currently or working the best currently? Tourism is up. I like that we are expanding our horizons with just the tourism, the motorboats, the Airbnbs, just expanding to be known the the Malibu of the Midwest. So I think tourism is up and which is good. It's definitely starting to grow. We've always had kind of a population that's kind of stayed about the same, but I think it's actually starting to grow a little bit. Okay, thank you. And Bob, what element of our city do you believe is most effective and why currently? Well, I know that the current administration that we have in the city right now is working to get four more tax incremental districts which will make attracting commerce into the city. But we have a problem and that is we have less than one percent of our available rental units occupied. Now a healthy environment is five to ten percent. And so we need to and we have been working very close with the Sheboygan County Economic Development Corporation and Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation to bring the businesses in and also to try to get more housing and not just affordable low-cost housing where you would think would be the biggest need. We need housing across the board. Now a lot of people say that these new apartment buildings that are going up that look like they're pretty much like luxury apartments, they think that they're not filled. They are. We need to get housing across the board and if you do just simply liken the supply and demand. Right now we have a huge demand for housing and very little. So that makes the cost go up. That's one of the things that I think and I know that they're working on that. Thank you. So Bob what part of the city government would receive more attention if you were elected? I believe that we need as I had said in my other response to work very closely with the Sheboygan County Economic Development Corporation and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation so that we can address these needs. We need to expand our commerce inside of the city of Sheboygan and we need to have the housing for these for this new talent that comes in to our. I believe that we actually should maybe take some of our funds and basically advertise ourselves because Sheboygan such a lovely city as it is it really sells itself but maybe we need to give it a little oops if you know what I mean. Thank you so much Bob. Deborah what what is one part of city government that would receive more attention if you were elected? Well being in real estate I would say the housing here is a big impact both with managing properties and selling real estate. There's definitely a demand in both areas so I believe the housing and just using some of the existing properties we have just into the housing structure is very much needed. Great thank you so much and so Deborah I will point this question to you so we've you know been talking a little bit about this already but cities need to grow and expand their tax space to survive how would you support development and redevelopment in the city of Sheboygan and are you familiar with the South Point Enterprise campus and if so what would you do to encourage development in that space? I'm a little bit I believe that's on the far south side of Sheboygan and I don't think there is too much out there at this moment. I'm not sure 100% so I don't know I know the development is there and the land has been there for quite some time. I think there might be one company going out there or I think somebody was going out there recently I think I've seen but I don't know company wise I mean I guess I guess I don't know so I guess I'm gonna say I don't know and that's okay but I'm aware that the district is out there and there's a lot of housing being built out there but it probably finding a good company that could you know expand here would be good but I don't know who that would be at this time. Bob. Well one of the things that I know is they have a bit of a traffic problem we need to look at how we can develop maybe even purchase some land to bring new ways of having these big heavy trucks get into that area that's probably one of the reasons why it's not so attractive to some of the things if we could improve on that situation we probably get a lot more takers and I believe that you know and again I don't want to keep beating a you know the drum here but we need to work very closely with people that know how to attract this that would be the Sherbrooke County Economic Development Corporation in Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and then we'd have to work with our Department of Public Works and find some maybe state or federal funding to build those roadways that could hold the the heavy semis so that they could get in and out of that area right now it's a little bit thin. Okay thank you so it is no secret as we talk about attracting people to Sheboygan that workforce has been a struggle in our city and our county and our state probably across the country but when managing public agencies do you feel that it is better to have more employees at a modest wage or fewer employees at a higher wage to attract quality applicants and I will ask Bob to answer this one first. Could you repeat that question because I'm not sure what you mean by that. So as we continue to have workforce development struggles in the area when managing public public agencies do you feel it's better to have more employees at a modest wage or fewer employees at a higher wage to attract quality applicants. Well I would think I would like to see everybody get the best wage they possibly could but I would like to see more jobs out there not fewer. The tax base is it is true we need to increase that tax base and by having companies come on in they will bring people and new talent into this city so I would rather have I suppose you know I would like to have everyone get the best wage as possible especially with my labor background but I would rather have more jobs than fewer. Okay Deborah would you like me to repeat the if you could. Sure nope that's okay. When managing public agencies is it better to have more employees at a modest wage or fewer employees at a higher wage to attract quality applicants. That is actually a very good question and I would say the modest wage everybody should have a good wage of living just because inflation is there and you want to have enough to cover your basis with expenses and things like that so I believe that everybody should you know sometimes you see McDonald's you're at fifteen dollars an hour and you know where's the next level I mean then that goes up and everything and inflation just continues to rise so I think a modest wage is the approach that I would use but a good wage. And Deborah I'll direct this one to you first with a series of impending lawsuits relating to HR situations in the city of Sheboygan. What do you believe the city and common council could do or what programs could be installed moving forward to avoid similar future lawsuits? I believe with all that's going on there you know just training and I guess you know more training when they're involved of you know I don't know how to say it but just training as you know to be um how do you say that I'm sorry um I guess just you know I mean people need to be aware of you know situations and the way life is today and I would just I guess just more training in groups of how to respect one another and be kind and caring to one another because we're all humans and we all deserve respect and to be treated kindly. Thank you Deborah. Bob. Well I am aware of the situation that you're talking about and it did give the city of Sheboygan a fairly large black eye. I know that we're addressing that situation. Sensitivity courses should be done throughout the city government and all the agencies that are connected to it. I would think that would be an absolute must. Deborah is quite correct. Everyone is a human being and human beings of all kinds of everyone deserves respect and we should give that respect to our employees inside of the city government and respect starts with knowing and having the idea of making sure that you are sensitive to other people's needs. Thank you so much. Okay we will switch gears just a little bit and I will start with you Bob. What amenities do you believe the city is missing and how would you work towards bringing them to the city? I like I said I absolutely love uh you know my hometown. I think it's absolutely beautiful. I mean we're a couple of blocks over here and you've got one of the largest inland freshwater seas in the world and a lot of people don't know that. I would really work very hard uh as Deborah had said before on our tourism to expand on that and uh you know bring people in. I mean we we also have like some of the best golf courses in the in the world right in our general vicinity. There's a lot that we can uh brag up on for the city of Sheboygan and we're not doing that enough and I would really like to see us push on that thing. I give everything like I said the city of Sheboygan sells itself but you got to talk about it. Sure. Deborah what amenities do you believe that the city is missing and how would you work towards bringing them to the city? I think the city could use a little bit more activities for the teenage kids in this area. There doesn't seem to be a lot for them to do back in my day which was longer ago. We had things to do. I mean we do have a little you know we still have some skate park at the Kiwanis Park but there's really no kind of hangout or a lot of events for just the teenage population to be at and even some of the kids you know I see just different posts about you know what can we do with the kids this weekend and we do actually offer quite a bit. We have the Meade Public Library which we utilize quite a lot in my family but just more activities for the kids around this area especially the teenagers I think would be good. We don't have a lot of shopping here. We don't have our mall anymore although we have Kohler the deer trace and you know some stuff that's going up on over by the Olive Garden there with the Van Horns. We just don't have a ton of stores here so people have to travel quite often to Milwaukee or the Appleton or Green Bay area just for some of the stores so it'd be nice to get a little bit more of those things. We did get the Olive Garden which looks like it's quite busy and a good addition to this to the city but just a little bit more of things to do. We have a lot of bars in the area but just maybe some kinds some activities or places to do like we have one roller skating place but maybe like another roller rink or just some different activities maybe without alcohol involvement that would be beneficial to you know all ages of our community. Thanks so much and Deborah there have you know talking about amenities in the city there have been some recent changes in the management of the Harbor Center Marina which is owned by the city of Sheboygan which closed the pool area restaurant bar and store in that building. What do you believe is the next best course of action to revitalize that area and how can the city better activate and enhance our waterfront? In that particular space I don't know how to enhance it it was a nice amenity I know several people that utilize the marina there and they were kind of bummed out about all of that but there's still you know we have the beautiful you know lighthouses and stuff I think cleaning up our lake or the beaches and stuff in that those areas would be a perk they seem to be quite I don't know weedy or grassy in the sands I just really think cleaning up the shores quite heavily down there would be a big impact down there we do get a lot of people there for the you know the 4th of July and all summer long and I think keeping that as a very nice space would be really nice. Thank you Tabra. Bob. Oh when it comes to the marina and the harbor center they they had a tavern or a wine bar or something like that that failed miserably that space should be used for maybe a hall or reception area where people could use it for their weddings all in all what we should do is make it that whole area more friendly for the citizens of the city of Sheboygan so it could be utilized by the city instead of trying to hope that the people who park their boats there that come from whoever wherever are going to spend it's good that they come in and spend their money here but wouldn't it be better if we had some more attractions that got used by the citizens of the city of Sheboygan I think that that would be it would be a wonderful place to have an area that we could say see how nice this is you people that are on the boat why don't you come on in here and come back again sometime because the people that live here are using it. Thank you. All right Bob we've talked a lot about housing but I've got a couple of more questions in that regard so we as you've mentioned earlier are facing a housing crisis how do you believe that you as a council member could help facilitate meeting the needs of housing in the city of Sheboygan? There are some areas inside of the city of Sheboygan not many but there are some areas that are either vacant or under utilized we should try to get these properties find some housing opportunities inside of these properties and again like I've said before and I'm going to be beating that drum again work very very closely with the Sheboygan County Economic Development Corporation and the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation to meet the needs that we have for businesses to come into town which will attract more people into the town and hopefully we can as a as a common council find the areas that we can have these developers because the city of Sheboygan itself does not do development we have to get developers from outside to come on in and that's one thing that I would work very hard on as a member of the council is to get those outside developers to come in and do the development that we so desperately need. Great thank you Deborah. How would you as a council member help to facilitate meeting our housing needs here in the city of Sheboygan? That's a very good question so there are I believe you know 62 percent of the county is rentals and I believe working we have a lot of very nice complexes although I think some of those the prices in the complexes are a little high and I think working with the local landlords for one for some of the housing one would be actually for all property owners to pull a permit a job is $400 and then you know the amount of the permit goes up from what you're going to pull a permit for like if you're going to do a rough and it's $10,000 you're going to pay I forget what it goes by but I think increasing that I mean inflation has happened and this was the $400 what was said decades ago so I think doing that even for general everybody who needs to pull a permit to beautify their properties make them more livable but also working maybe with the landlords who have the smaller places where you know maybe someone doesn't want a complex but they want just a single family or they want a two family or a side by side but working with the landlords maybe there's a program that you know the landlords excuse me can there's a program where we can utilize funds and get some of the properties some landlords have vacant properties that still could be up and gone but we just need to work all together with getting things where they need to be and I think landlords have a bulk of properties here that are underutilized at this time and I think there's programs that could help us as landlords and property owners you know fill vacancies great thank you and you know to further talk a little bit more about that you know certainly we've had have a bit of a housing crisis and I will direct this to Debra first so I would certainly be remiss if I did not mention the short-term rentals Airbnb's verbose in the area where do you stand on short-term rentals and are you aware of how this is affecting the local area I am aware of short-term rentals I think there's quite a lot of short-term rentals Airbnb's in the area and I think there's I actually work with some short-term rentals cleaning them and things and I can see that they are sitting vacant quite heavily because there's just the tourism isn't here during these winter months and the properties hence are sitting vacant and when you do the short-term it's harder because you know then it's off the market for people or it's a higher price because you're just doing the short-term so I'm more of a I mean it's good to have some Airbnb's here because we we do have a lot of people and travelers that come and maybe they just don't want to stay at a hotel maybe they want to have their own space so I'm not opposed to Airbnb's I think we have quite a big influx of them at this time though and that does impact the housing market because its houses or apartments that are off the market due to waiting for the short-term people to come and you know pay a little bit of more premium so that's kind of a hard it's it's an issue but I mean there is some needed but I think we have a little bit too many at this time thank you Deborah Bob well I agree that Airbnb's are a nice thing especially in the warmer weather but yes because we live in a four season climate we're going to have some times where people aren't just you know they're not going to come to Shavoyan when we've got three feet of snow you know unless they're maybe doing some cross-country skiing or something which is another thing that we could do but I agree that we have maybe more than what we actually need but I believe the market itself will probably shake that out if you've got too many people aren't going to open up new ones because it just isn't business wise a very good decision okay thank you and Bob we'll start with you on this one they're going to get a little easier I promise what do you believe the city can do or do differently to help grow and enhance engagement with its citizens engagement with the city and to engage the citizens to get them more involved I believe that the city should always reach out in the form of brochures or or questionnaires that are mailed out to the citizens that ask them the precise questions that they need to get the answers to I don't see us doing that we should start doing that because like I've said before communication is the best cure for a lot of ills we should make sure that we have a lot of good events like we had the the mercury marine motorboat I believe that brought in like 4.7 million dollars into the community and we're going to be having that again the the association that runs that said that shabuigan was a premier place and they even presented us with a plaque I believe we should let the citizens of the city of shabuigan know this it's all right to crow like a rooster every once in a while thank you debora what do you believe the city can do or do differently to help grow and enhance engagement with its citizens I believe as bob had said communication is key and I just believe if people got more involved in their community there's so many wonderful organizations here to get engaged with other people to know your neighbors is really important to know your neighbors like we have love Inc wonderful organizations and it helps you learn different aspects of your community different needs of your community I just think really you know even once in a while we have lots of billboards just advertising you know different even by the Kiwanis bridge there's those nice billboards just different events and you know getting people out the city did a great job with the concerts that are done by the john michael kohler art center we've enjoyed those a few times and just you know getting to know people and talking to people and just knowing you know your neighbors is wonderful great thank you so much and I know we're we're close to wrapping up here so debora I'll give you some time to maybe share some final thoughts some things that you would like voters to know as they head to the polls I want to thank everybody for their time and for um having me here and um I love this community I will still be an advocate until I'm old just in the different organizations meeting the people seeing what the needs are of the people and trying to make this community better I plan to live here until God calls me home so um I I think I bring a lot to the table just in that I get out and go into the organizations to find out what the needs are and I meet the people and um I know what the needs are and I thank you for this time thank you thank you so much debora bob final thoughts as I uh said before I've been very involved with a a lot of aspects of the city of shabuagan and uh the reason why I'm running for this office is I was asked to do and I was well I was asked to consider making a run and after consideration I truthfully believed that it was my civic responsibility to do it and the reason why is because I have work so often and I understand how the common council works you break off into committees and then you hash things out inside the committees you bring it to the floor as a committee of a whole and you vote on it but it's mostly the work is done inside of committee and as I've explained I have a lot of experience working in committee I apologize for the interference thank you so much and uh thank you again uh to both of you for your willingness to serve in this capacity and to be a part of the conversation today it's really appreciated um thank you to purveye health for your continued support of chamber programming and of course for wscs for partnering us partnering with us on this endeavor so thank you and we will be back in about 10 minutes with our next set of candidates I'm the CEO of the shabuagan county chamber of commerce and um I want to say thank you to um dean decker as well as joseph regrinovich for joining us today to be a part of this conversation um dean is the incumbent for district six for a common council in the city of shabuagan and joseph is um running in that district as well so thank you both for being a part of the conversation and for your willingness to serve in this capacity um because it's uh not public office isn't for everybody so we appreciate your willingness um we will go ahead and get started with just going over uh the ground rules quickly so I will give each of you two minutes to do an introduction tell us who you are and then we will go back and forth with some questions we will offer two minutes per question for you to respond there is a timekeeper in the house so they'll they'll give you a cue as to when maybe your time is getting close to being up so you can start to wind it down and um if at any point after uh you know answering if the other party would like to respond in any way I'll give you an additional 30 seconds to respond to your opponent any questions before we get started no no I think I'm good okay perfect so dean um if you'd like to introduce yourself tell us who you are sure uh I'm dean decker um the current uh current uh all the person from district six uh I a lifelong resident of the city of shiboyan uh I have a wife uh Debra and uh three children all grown uh two two reside in the city one resides in sock city um the they're all the youngest is 28th and my daughter and my oldest son is 43 um I've uh enjoyed being on the council now for this is my sixth year I've been in the elected as a leader as the president of the council this last year and we've had some very exciting new things coming through we have a new city administrator we hired this past year during that time we also hired a new planning and development director um and uh I look forward to uh hopefully continuing on in that capacity great thank you so much dean joe could you tell us about yourself hi my name is joseph fagrinovich and I'm currently running uh against dean decker for district six alderman um I have no current relations with this particular part that I'm doing but I'm hoping to make sure that I can do the best I can um I'm currently working full-time two jobs and I'm hoping to make the best of it as much as I can thank you so much and joe we'll start with you um in leadership positions especially in public office there will be times when you're expected to make decisions with limited information can you tell us how you go about making decisions on topics that you might be less familiar with well first since I have been uh leader in most cases as um being a supervisor where I used to work but uh and this particular reasons I have not many not much leadership in my case with this heart um with this alderman thing but uh if for instance I would be able to do it I would um just make the best of what I can not exactly sure what I'm supposed to be doing but it would be the best to my knowledge thank you joe dean um well in in the leadership position I am now as being president we've gone through several different things and generally I I lean on city staff to get the answers that I can try to try to check with members of the community where it's where it's applicable and where it's possible sometimes some things you have to be careful about what you say you can't say certain things about certain um projects that are possibly coming up that you have to sometimes you have to be a little bit uh be careful what you say because you don't want to um tip your hat or say what's going on sometimes because of uh negotiations and things like that so but usually it's generally just a educating yourself when you get uh the the problems brought brought to you you you work through it and try to find different research and things like that great thank you so much and so dean we'll start with you all this next one um you know what element of our city government currently do you believe is most effective and why um I guess uh right now I am I'm just going to lean right on in on the the city administrator we've got a really good one right now I think he's moving forward on a lot of great projects I think we're working through um probably meeting the biggest challenge that we have in this community which is housing he's been working on a lot of housing projects things like that um our also I guess to go beyond that then also our DPW is also you know a big big uh we have the best way to put it but um the the street projects that we have coming forward and things like that we have got a lot of uh street projects coming coming through because that that is probably one of the biggest concerns that citizens have um and uh I guess that would be my answer on that thank you dean Joe what's element of our city government do you believe is most effective currently and why I believe that the most effective uh element that we have going on right now is that um is the housing um there's not much of it here especially for middle class um we're looking at affordable housing right now but uh other than that there's not much going on besides that as far as I know new being the new person I think that just the affordable housing part is just going to be our biggest and most effective element that we're going to have in the city of Sheboyin thank you Joe and Joe can you tell us if elected in April what is one part of city government that would receive more attention if you were in that role well if I was in that role and I think that the affordable housing part would be the most effective one um also uh besides that we were I'm looking at maybe getting some amusement stuff going on some entertainment that we need around Sheboyin in order to gather up all the people that are coming through um we are looking forward to having a bigger community and a stronger community than what we've had before great thank you Dean what one part of city government would receive um or will receive or would receive more attention if you were reelected um I guess that that really one particular part of city government that would receive and I think that all aspects are important as I said the housing put him is a very big important thing bringing into housing and things like that but you also don't have to want to uh you have to also look at the services that go along with that the police and fire that need to be you know um kept up to go to match up with the increase in um different more people and things they added housing and things like that you need to more infrastructure DPW because you have to more you're adding more streets and things like that because of the you know that the added areas so I don't think there's really one particular thing I think it's just making sure that we do a good balance of things and take care of from there great thank you so much and so we know that um cities need to grow and expand their tax base to survive so um Dean can you talk a little bit about your experience and how you've supported development and redevelopment in the city and specifically could you speak to southpoint enterprise campus which has largely sat vacant for several years um if reelected what would be what would you do to encourage development in that space since I've been on the council we have encouraged a lot of um construction around the city as you can see there's a lot of you said and it is a lot of it is with housing uh housing does is what we need to bring also businesses into the into southpoint but I I think more a more aggressive campaign and possibly to bring businesses in would be would be helpful I think that the um but I think that the affordable housing is probably going to be the biggest thing that's going to help bring in for because without employees it's it's going to be hard for someone to bring in a company if there's not employees here we we actually did lose it a um an expansion of one of our businesses because of lack of employees so that's one of the things that needs to happen is we need to bring affordable housing so that we can bring employees in so that we can bring employers in to help fill in that campus thank you joe um so as I mentioned cities need to grow and expand their tax base to survive so how would you support development and redevelopment in the city of shabuigan if you were elected into this position well like dean said that the affordable housing part will be the biggest thing to bring in and then um try to get people to come to work but we also need to upgrade our businesses along with it we can't have just a small businesses around we need to start bringing in some bigger business to accommodate for that tax purposes with the small ones we're not really having that much of a tax area to even build up but if we get some bigger businesses with it we we might just have to work around that with the affordable housing part too so great thank you so joe it is um no secret we've been talking about workforce and the lack or the lack thereof in our community um when managing public agencies do you think that it is better to have more employees at a modest wage or fewer employees at a higher wage to attract quality applicants well that's a good question um depending on the circumstances I do believe that getting fewer people to with higher wage because of how the difference is in the past years where everything went up in price that not too many people can afford what we have in shabuigan but if we bring in that part of the business we're going to have to kind of eliminate some of the business or some of the people to um make things work other than that um I don't see too much things that should be any different okay thank you Dean sure um so talking about workforce it's certainly been a struggle in our community yeah when managing public agencies do you feel it's better to have more employees at a modest wage or fewer employees at a higher wage to attract quality applicants I think it's it's really got to be a balance it really does I mean there are certain positions that just have to be more wages or that may have to be lower wages but I think you need to be a fair wage on all counts there has to be a fair wage that's brought through but I think you also need you know higher wages you know help maybe affordability of things around here and as things are increasing in price is your wages have to go along with that with those increases with that um I think that the uh but I think there really does it's it's somewhat of a balance of both I think you need them and it has to be it can't just be one particular you know just high wage jobs I think the higher wages are better but there are some positions that are going to be lower wages also thank you so much and Dean we'll start with you um with a series of impending lawsuits relating to HR situations what can the city and common council do or what programs could be installed moving forward to avoid similar future lawsuits I think um training and things like that I don't think that necessarily the lawsuits that are are in current are what were necessarily a lack of training or like but I think that the um proper training with with our HR I think uh a little bit maybe better betting of our employees before we even have them so that we know what we're getting into I think uh a little more employee review going through things making sure that you know we're we're getting a better communication from employees and things like that I think that's probably about the best way to handle that thank you Dean Joe with a series of impending lawsuits relating to HR situations what do you think the city and common council could do or what programs could be installed moving forward to avoid similar future lawsuits if you were in that role that's kind of a long hard question for me um knowing that I don't know anything about the uh the lawsuits that were going on beforehand but if I would have to say anything it would have to be probably just for safety reasons is is one that we should have come in for HR to possibly work out I'm not sure exactly what else I can say about it okay thank you so uh Joe I'll direct this to you first what amenities do you think that the city is currently missing and what would you do to work towards bringing them to the city oh it's another good question honestly the city's not technically missing anything really um minus the fact that we have like I said before the affordable housing we're missing that um like I said most of these places we have here right now is kind of high but the affordable housing brings in this will make it a little bit better and uh we're also missing more people coming in to adjust their uses of um all the city runs I think we're a good community that I don't think it's really missing too much thank you Dean um I would say the amenities that we maybe are lacking a little bit of some of the things for like younger people um attractions and such like that that you can bring down I think like you know I would like to see something like a indoor like a bounce house type thing like I know we did have that I think something similar to that coming back for families to use things like that to do in the winter time I would like to see us possibly look at an outdoor skating rink for in the winter time also I think a skating rink would be I think it's something from back from my youth I mean you know there were there were skating rinks all over town it would be nice just to have like a central one I think a lot of places you know have had that and I think it's good exercise good to get people out and do things like that I think some nightlife downtown possibly you know like a nightclub type type of thing and that some things that that the would be good for I think any some some the work the work that we're looking at also doing in the marina area to bring people in to we're studying that to see what's what we can do to make that area more amenable so there's some there's some things that we can do great thank you and that was a great lead-in to my next question dean oh great there don't be scared there have been some recent changes in management of the harbour center marina which is owned by the city of shabuigan closing that pool area restaurant slash bar and the store that was in that building what do you believe is the next best course of action to revitalize that area and how can the city better activate and enhance our waterfront um that's a great question actually and it's something that we are working on we we've just actually just hired a firm to work through uh so to study what exactly and give us ideas along with that we're going to be asking the citizens of shabuigan what their feelings are on that because I think this is this is going to it's a community area I think it should be more of a community area than what it is now I think that the the marina itself has been a burden on the taxpayers we'd like to make it not a burden on the taxpayers we'd like to make it something that's like that we can look forward to I mean it's 30 years in and we still owe several million dollars yet on that from the initial build so what I would like to see is something that's going to be less of a burden on the taxpayers but more available to more people so that it's not just like an exclusive area just for a certain group thank you dean joe so there have been some recent changes to the harbor center marina and which is owned by the city closed the pool area restaurant bar and the store inside that building what do you believe is the next best course of action to revitalize that area and how do you think the city can better activate and enhance our waterfront well as much as I know about what's going on with that part of the area I would have to look into it more to find out what's happening and what their plans were but I mean it's a nice attraction other than that it's just something I have to look into before I can even answer most of that question okay so let me ask a different question then maybe if we could have amenities at the waterfront that you or your family your friends would use what would that look like what sorts of amenities to activate that waterfront area do you think would be beneficial well I'm not quite sure I think that in that type of area I would say the most mostly we can be possibly having some like attraction in there for kids to do besides the swimming park but we need something more in there for mostly kids considering there's already a bar in a restaurant we like that area but I think the kids need some amusement for themselves like video games or like a bounce house part or something like that okay thank you Joe I'll start with you on this one so we've talked a lot about facing a housing crisis on all levels so if if elected to the common council what what would you do to help facilitate meeting the needs of housing in our area well for starters I think utilizing buildings we haven't that's been in the bacon for so many years we haven't touched it at all there's a lot of things we can do with utilizing those buildings just like we did with the badger lofts or stuff like that because that was that was a really big asset to what we have here for affordable housing I think besides utilizing the buildings I think we can like maybe expand out a little bit more north side needs a little bit more housing all the way out by where they're building those new apartments right now out by Walmart area I think getting some more out that way would help out a little bit for the community thank you Dean well I would continue on with the path that we've taken so far and because we are we are on a on a strong path towards a lot of affordable housing what we also need to do is look at the tier of housing some some people's complain about some of the the high-end housing that we do that we that we have brought in some of the like the the thing that that does is it kind of brings the tiers down maybe like I guess a good example of that would be like when the this is going back you know 10 15 years but when the the the senior living housing that's over where the section that burned down I remember the name of when that was built a lot of the people that moved into there that bought those condos and things like that into there were existing homeowners they so they sold their whole homes which opened up more housing in the city which brought in more you know more more things for that I think we need to continue on like we are with like with the areas like the Dartmouth farm area there's going to be you know that's going to be a mix of all different kinds of things it's going to be affordable single-family homes it's going to be apartments it's going to be townhouses and it's going to be a a great mix of things I think we need to continue to look at things like that and also look at all their all their buildings we have done that now in the past the Schwagen Press building is currently being made into things and I guess the next next areas that we can continue on with is I think it's a mix of things all the way around I mean it's going to be a mix of affordable and higher end and I think that brings everything closer thank you and Dean will continue on that a little bit certainly talking about the housing crisis in Schwagen I would be remiss if we didn't talk a little bit about short-term rentals or air bnb's verbos where do you stand on short-term rentals and are you aware of how this is affecting the local area I have been made aware of a lot of this the one thing right now we are currently on all of our all these development agreements on these newer apartments that are being built and things like that that is being built into the development agreement that they cannot be used for air bnb or that they cannot be used for short-term rentals I guess that's not done not to be picking on any company but they cannot be used for short-term rentals that way the new stock that is coming into use right now is being limited so that we're not bringing in this stock as far as the existing there are a lot of state laws that do prohibit some things to do things like that so I would be remiss to say exactly what we can do to help with that at all thank you joe where do you stand on short-term rentals in the city of shabuigan and are you aware of how this is affecting the local area well I stand on that I don't I don't think it's that bad to have a short-term rental honestly being a short-term rental you can bring people in short-term to see how they like it where they stand at if they like the area that they're living in or particularly the apartment but if they like the city itself I think short-term rentals will be great and they can move on to long-term rentals as long as they like the area that they're in all right and so joe well switch gears a little bit what what do you believe the city can do or maybe do differently that would help to grow and enhance engagement well there's numerous things that we can do considering that this community in the city of shabuigan is a very big area we still got more potential to build it as a tourist town maybe we can bring something in for it I think the attractions and the amusement will be the biggest part of it but we have so much of potential for this city to build a stronger area that we can have that type of attractions great thank you Dean sure what do you believe the city can do or maybe do differently to help grow and enhance engagement in the city of shabuigan um I'm really sure exactly where we can go from here we are I think you're right I think the tourism is part of bringing part of that the engagement of it but as far you're looking for like an engagement of like the citizens with the people or yes I would say with the the constituents how do we activate the people of the city of shabuigan well I I think when I think to encourage people to like be on like committees and things like that because it's always great to have new people on like things like this um I uh when we had the the candidates the other night for uh for that they came for older for uh for replacing uh Amanda Salazar's position um we encouraged all them to talk contact the mayor and say hey you know I'd like to maybe be on uh different committees that we were always looking for people that way I think that's a good way for people to uh get themselves into into into government a little bit um I also think that um we can uh communication sometimes sometimes a uh a burden that we have that we don't necessarily have great communication with it um there's not as many people that read the newspaper around and that that's here anymore so I think communication is is a key we can if we can improve improve communication is probably a key of it okay great thank you and so as we're getting close to time um we'd love to hear some final thoughts we'll start with you Dean what what is your vision for the future of the city of Sheboygan what changes would you advocate for and why should people be voting for you well okay um as far as the vision for the city uh I believe that we can continue to grow I think we need to we it's it's one of those things that we do need to do we need to grow uh in in all different ways uh I I envision um you said continuing in in a tourism way but also in a manufacturing way we are still a manufacturing town we still know we still build things and I think that's important that we continue to be the town that builds things uh I think that uh we need to improve our our housing stock which we are working on and I hope that we continue to work I anticipate us working on continuing to do that uh I believe that we uh we could improve our like I said our entertainment options so that's not always necessarily up to us it's it takes businesses that wish to do things like that but it's anything that we can do as a council and as a city itself to encourage those things I think they're important as far as why should vote for me I guess I might my passion is is always there and I have been a leader in this city now for the last six years and I think I've done a good job of doing that and I hope that you will vote for me thank you Dean Joe um so share with us your final thoughts what is your vision for the city of Sheboygan what changes would you advocate for and why should people vote for you well we are on the track for a stronger area a stronger community but I think that we need to get more involved with uh with the residents and the people of the Sheboygan county um we need to get them to be more involved with all the projects that are going on their opinions on it um I think if we do that I think that the the city of Sheboygan might be a little bit stronger than it has been um other than that I think we need to just build up just the way we are just keep it going but add that add the people and the residents involved with everything else if they come together and know what was going on then we we will be a stronger healthier city great thank you so much and so again I want to say thank you for your willingness to participate today thank you for your willingness to serve in this capacity wish you both be the best of luck in this election cycle again thank you to our annual sponsor purveyor health who make sure that we have what we need in order to have this programming and of course for our friends at wscs for their partnership in filming all of these sessions so we will return very shortly for our next round talking with candidates from district two we'll see you soon thank you hello there welcome back um again my name is Deidre Martinez I'm the CEO of the Sheboygan county chamber of commerce and uh in this forum we are talking with candidates from district two in the city of Sheboygan so welcome to John Bellinger and incumbent Roberta Felicky Panesky thank you both for your time today your willingness to run and serve in this capacity um and I just appreciate that you're willing to have a conversation with me so thank you for that um so just a quick a quick quick quick whatever I'm trying to say today a quick recap um we will give each candidate an opportunity to give a two-minute introduction of themselves um we will then go through and answer or ask a series of questions each candidate will have two minutes to respond um and then we will move forward we do have a timekeeper in the space so if anybody gets uh approaches their time we will do our best to give them fair notice so with that thanks again and we'll start with you John um introduce yourself tell us who you are well first of all thank you for the chamber for hosting this event um I really appreciate the opportunity to be able to speak answer the questions and um get my platform out and hopefully engage a lot of the voters so thank you for that so my name is John Bellinger um I'm married I'm married to my wife Trice I've been married going on 36 years now I've got three children that have all been raised adult children that all been raised in the city of Sheboygan I live on the northeast side and I've lived in this I've lived in the same house for over 30 years I've got two dogs Barkley and Hugo I've been a print industry executive for years and currently I'm working for Kohler Company in hospitality um my experience I've got a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire in political science and history I was an alderman previously for the city of Sheboygan for thing 2012 in 2018 I was chairman of the public works committee chairman of the building use committee I was on the law and licensing committee um I was a member of the plan commission and I was a participant in the police academy so I've done this before during my previous tenure the council enjoyed tremendous economic development as well as reducing the city debt from 68 million to 26 million problems can be solved in a fiscally responsible manner and I'm eager to serve you and provide stability to Sheboygan and to lead the city forward thank you thank you John Roberta please tell us about you thank you my name is Roberta Falecki Pineski I'm the current alder person in district two I was appointed in July of 2020 to fill a vacant seat I was elected in April of 2021 and re-elected in April of 2022 I bring my experience in finance as well as communication skills to my position I retired after 20 years of being a financial advisor with Robert W. Bairden company and prior to that I owned community relations consulting a PR and marketing firm here in town I hold a master's degree from UW Green Bay and my husband Tom and I have lived here for 50 years he was a professor at UW Sheboygan and our children Ellen and Mark attended schools here graduating from North High School I'm standing for reelection because I see a bright future for our city and I want to be part of that growth as the city grows and adapts to the fast pace of change it's important to reaffirm the values that make our community unique a robust and supportive business and manufacturing climate a beautiful lakefront and riverfront unique resources like me library and uptown social and citizen support for the many nonprofit and religious resources that contribute to our quality of life for the constituents in district 2 I will continue to work with advocate Aurora to assure that the former Memorial Hospital site is as the contract says developed in a manner consistent with the surrounding neighborhood I've chaired the redevelopment of Florida I've worked hard as the vice chair of finance and I also would because of my background appreciate having a full-time communications person instead of a part-time communications person thank you thank you Roberta and so we'll we'll start with you Roberta okay why you what made you decide to run for office your your first round why are you still still here doing it and what makes you the most qualified person okay I touched on some of my qualifications before my experiences with my professions previous professions both communications and finance give me that background I have been able to partly that in addition to previous previous background doing emergency medical services planning in northeastern wisconsin and I do serve on the EMS council county I have all of those skill sets I currently am on the redevelopment authority and I have served under five mayors on that commission it gives me a unique window to development we we process more than three million dollars a year in revolving loan funds and I'm very interested in seeing that this community develops and develops appropriately and develops so that we don't lose the quality of life that we have so that's why I'm running thank you John thank you the reason I'm running for the second district alderman is because I believe that the current second district alderman is unfit to serve she was named in a federal lawsuit for her vote to fire the previous city administrator without cause which triggered a lawsuit she leaked confidential information from a common council meeting she was recorded using the n word she was censored by her peers and rebuked by the common council she supported the former hr director adam westbrook who is facing charges of child pornography and sexual exploitation of a child and he is in fact in court today I believe and there may be some more even greater disturbing charges that are going to be pending against him and the city employees have experienced significant turnover in uncertainty as the vice chair of the finance and personnel committee she supported the toxic work environment for the city workers we've also seen the unintended consequences of some of those decisions there's numerous other lawsuits chad pelichek for one miss cob for another there's some other pending things I think that are working their way through the legal system it's just has not it's been kind of a dumpster fire at city hall and the common denominator has been revered as she's been in the midst of of of it all and therefore I think she's unfit to serve and we need to change thank you john would you like 30 seconds I would like 30 seconds okay the majority of the lawsuits pending from Todd wolf have been dismissed the one with chad pelichek has been completely dismissed and the recording I aired I apologize publicly the council did what the council needed to do I prefer not to look backwards I prefer to look forward and to talk about the creative good space that we have thank you could I just reply the majority of the charges have not been withdrawn some of the charges have been dropped but the the judge on the case just issued a ruling last week admonishing the city attorney's office for not disclosing information that they should have being misleading not living up to deadlines in chad pelicheks is still going on as well that was just ruled reberta that it could move forward so that is completely untrue so I would just like to state that and again to reiterate there are pending additional lawsuits that are pending as a result of the work environment that existed or exists right now within city hall thank you so we we are going to move on now but I promise you we are going to come back to this a little bit later in the in the forum so with that john will I'll I'll start with you let's start on a positive note what element of our city government do you believe is currently most effective and why I was chairman of the public works committee I think the public works committee you know kind of touches every resident's life in the city of sheboygan they deal with roads they deal with the parks they they deal with garbage you know they've got the recycling center there they deal with capital improvement projects I was chairman of the building use committee that revised or refurbished city hall they were in charge of that as well so I think that department specifically has a a very large budget and touches the majority of the citizens every day and in various ways and I think they have been running a very tight ship I'm concerned because David Beable announces retirement and so did Ryan sasma both gentlemen I think highly of and I'm a little surprised I guess I'm not I'm I'm a little bit surprised but during because of this work environment that they're they've been dealing with I'm not surprised that they give are retiring early both men obviously could be working for many more years but they chose to look at something else or you know have a change of direction in their lives but again the public works department is a fantastic organization and I think it you know they do a great job thank you so much John Roberta what element of our city government do you believe is currently most effective and why I'm very pleased with the advent of the current city administrator who has a huge background in development and that's been a passion of mine for a long time we have just recently the council created four business improvement tipped districts tax incremental financing districts and those districts will enable continued growth in the city we also have moved forward dramatically with housing and we've got approximately 175 to 200 units coming online shortly probably by the end of summer and there are more projects in the works a couple of them have been through council already and a couple of them are still closed session closed session items but I think we're doing the right thing I think for years the city did not spend enough development money did not spend enough money on roads and did not spend enough capital improvement money and we have been playing catch up and luckily we are we are moving forward with the catch up and it's getting pretty exciting great thank you Roberta what one part of city government would receive more attention if you are reelected into this space I alluded to it initially it would be communications currently we have a part-time communications director as I stand here and look at one of our communications people running the camera but there was a study done with local communications people from the manufacturing companies and the universities around town and their number one finding after a year was that the city should have a full-time communications director I have a sheet that is very large because it couldn't fit on one there are 52 at the time there were 52 different ways that the community could access information about the city and I think we need to focus we need to have a common voice we need to have a common thread we need to have basically a common logo and and our citizens deserve to be able to have a straightforward path to contact the people in the city so I introduced the legislation in my first term actually and it has not been in the budget it partially it gets there and partially so I am hoping to push that forward in the coming year and see that part-time position move to a full-time position thank you Roberta John if elected into this position what is one part of city government that would receive more attention I think with without a doubt it needs to be city development we've got this book here with all the development sites available within the city it's nice pictures it's a nice brochure but there's no plan I mean there's a you know a little narrative on the front page there's no plan on what to do I have heard good things about the new city administrator I have not met him yet so I do not want to say anything negative about him he's you know getting his feet underneath him at this point in time the number one issue for the second district is going to be the Aurora Memorial site so what are they going to do with that I disagree with Roberta that we should not allow Aurora and the city to decide what's going to go on there that site I strongly strongly believe that it's the memorial neighborhood and the memorial neighborhood association should have the final say on what is going to be put in their neighborhood I feel very strongly about that I've met with the neighborhood association I've made them aware of that and I think there should be a consensus coming from them I don't think it should be dictated from Aurora I've been to lied by to lied to from Aurora in the past with the whole field of dreams fiasco and then you know the city certainly does not have the best interest of the neighborhood in mind they're going to do what isn't the best interest of them so I think that's what needs to be done also the industrial park on the south side is completely empty we're paying on the infrastructure and I bet I hearing that we're only paying interest on that debt because there's no income coming in from that and that has been mismanaged and there hasn't been a laser focused on the development for that either and to conclude I completely disagree with having a communication person full time I think it would be we can use our money and resources in a lot more efficient and better ways for the citizens of shaboy again in the second district thank you and that is a did you want to 30 seconds I would like 30 seconds I believe John that it was your council that built the industrial park on the south side and not only do we have a new city administrator who is very enthusiastic about development but we also have a new development director and I see very good things moving forward as I've been in the development meetings there are plans and they are underway you're right that was the council that I was on that was part of that that initially created that so thank you for saying that but at the same time you were the council that fired Todd Wolf without cause and had that position vacant for months and months and months and did not do anything to recruit development within that business part so this actually leads right into the next question so it's perfect timing John we'll start with you you know talking about south point enterprise campus and just really development and redevelopment to grow our tax base here in the city of shaboy again what would you do if if elected into this role what steps would you take to change the trajectory of that well I would develop a very close relationship with the city administrator I hear that he is the majority of his time is going to be focused on development I hope what I'm hearing is true I hope that you know that that is that we've got the correct person in that position but in the past the city has been lax on development opportunities that have come into the city they've screwed a number of them up number one Viking Masek Rick Leonard wanted to be in the city and the city jacked him around and he ended up moving to Usberg the the city administrator Hovland when he was new in the position met with masters gallery masters gallery wanted to be on that south side in the that industrial park and that discussion got screwed up he high balled them and he basically offended masters gallery masters gallery found out what we had for development for some other like properties within the city that were much lower cost than what he was quoted and he said forget it I'm going to I'm going to Usberg as well so there's been a lack of urgency and you know just not being very developmentally positive for you know with working with developers I know of a developer on Michigan Avenue and she put up a new business there and she said it was the most horrible experience ever that she would she knew what she was getting into when she was dealing with the city she would have moved it and done it somewhere else so we need to be better at that and again there was a 50 home development on coming forth by the Sheboygan Ekmanov development corporation and that sat on the city attorney's desk for over three months and was ignored and not processed the way it should have been and they ended up going to Sheboygan Falls so there just needs to be urgency on the part of the city and I would make sure that that happens thank you so much John Roberta can you repeat the question absolutely so if reelected what will you do to support development and redevelopment to expand our tax base and you know specifically thinking about that south point enterprise campus which has sat vacant for several years what what can what would you do or what will you do to encourage development in that area I think the first thing to remember is the city the government does not develop the government allows other developers to develop developers come in they come in because they see that they can put their money first and then hope to get money back as the development grows so unless it pays for a developer to do a development there's not much the city can do about it however we can do tax incremental financing districts which help ease through the upfront costs and it's pay as you go so that the city's not out money if the development doesn't get done and and yeah that's it great thank you and so we'll revisit another subject that we've we've had a little bit of time to talk about but you know looking at the series of impending lawsuits and I will point this to you first John relating to the HR situations what do you believe the city and common council can do or what programs could be installed moving forward to avoid similar future lawsuits if you were to be elected into this position I think I'm not sure what happened with the Adam Westbrook hire that obviously went completely sideways and from what I've heard the other candidate that was considered was more qualified was an income was working in that department to begin with she was passed over for Adam Westbrook and you know as a result of that horrendous decision you know now we've got you know a bunch of pending lawsuits and issues that are coming up as a result of that so I mean that position is very very important because obviously it touches all the employees of the city and it creates the culture and within the city to help you know maintain a positive workforce and a positive work environment and that has been you know sorely lacking and you know the previous administrator or the previous HR director Vicki Schneider has a lawsuit against the city so I mean it's it's it's it's just been a comedy of errors as far as that position goes so I think you need to get that position right and then you need to have a positive culture and I think that brings you know starts with the department heads all of the department heads working together for the betterment of the city and not for their individual their goals or ideal or ideology that they want to promote within the city so it's it's just it it's it's not hard to do it's just you need to get the right people in place and unfortunately we've had the wrong people in place and it's costing the taxpayers a boatload of money it's unfortunate thank you John Roberta with a series of pending lawsuits relating to HR situations within the city what can the city and comic council do or what programs can be installed moving forward to avoid similar future lawsuits? Primarily the first thing that the city does when they are looking for a higher level position so department heads they look at consulting and placement firms that's where our former HR director came from from a recommendation from one of those I fire that from thank you for your commentary and moving forward I think I'm curious John because you talk about you'd like to do a positive look moving forward and yet all of your commentary has been backward facing and oh ain't it awful now you left city government in 2018 I've been there since 2020 I see a very different kind of city I see a very different kind of vision and and I don't believe that the people in this city want to hear more and more things dragged out dragged through yes we do have some issues yes they are being they are being addressed contrary to some of your commentary they are being addressed and we move through it we move through it as best we can as fast as we can as as as appropriately as we can so that's that's where I'm going with that's where I'm going with my constituency forward moving positive we have growth happening and we don't need to keep revisiting history I'd like to read but please 30 seconds the reason that I'm looking at your record specifically Roberta is that it's been a dumpster fire during your tenure and all the lawsuits when I was on the council we didn't have multiple multiple lawsuits going on with you know from former disgruntled employees that wasn't a any kind of mark on my tenure when I was with with the working for the city as an alderman so you know that didn't happen you know you being censured you using the n-word you know you voting for Todd in in igniting this lawsuit voting against him for for no reason you know he couldn't even it's a cowardly vote to vote with for no reason and you know so I just think that you know I would I wouldn't want to look back either you know based on your tenure and you know I think this is a perfect time for a little bit of a follow-up question in in leadership positions in public office there are oftentimes where we are faced with making decisions that maybe we have limited access to so you know specifically in this situation talking about HR if somebody doesn't have an HR background I'm only using that as an example because that's what we've been discussing but you know Roberta can you walk us through how do you go about making decisions on topics that you might be less familiar with first and foremost we are elected officials bring their skill sets to their job so we rely upon the skill sets of the department heads to know their slice in depth so I've spent countless times on the phone with the department head asking for clarification about something I read I also look to my colleagues who are on subcommittees on the committees and they are the ones who one know the department head well because they're in meetings with them constantly and they are able to give more detailed information so when those votes come to the council floor I look to the recommendation of the committee and the colleagues on the committee because they have been talking to the department heads who have the data who have researched the situation now the global part is do we have enough money that's part of our budgeting do we have enough money is it appropriate timing thank you Roberta John could you restate the question again please sure absolutely in leadership positions especially in public office there are times that we are expected to make decisions with limited information available to us can you tell us how you go about making decisions on topics that you might be a little less familiar with I do not make decisions that I haven't fully researched on so anything that comes up before the council if there was an issue where I had limited visibility on an issue I would go and find out as much as I can and do the research I would I contrary to what Roberta said I would not rely on department heads I would use them as a resource but the number one you know resource that I'm going to use it are my constituents so I would rely on on them to tell me you know what they think you know whether it's winter parking rules or the development of the Aurora Memorial site or whatever I think those are local and I should get input from my constituents and that's where I'm going to draw the most background from when making the making a decision but I will never vote on anything that I have not fully researched and gotten the you know the best information I can from so I I think you're doing your constituents a disservice if you do that so I would never do that thank you John would you like 30 seconds Roberta I will take 15 okay each council each council has between 20 and 50 documents in it and we meet twice so twice a month so that's between 50 and 100 documents you cannot possibly research in depth 100 issues so you have to rely upon people who are skilled and that's what I've been a former alderman I've done it I know what's involved you can be done all right we're going to switch gears just a little bit here let's go back to talking about you know the city the city as a whole rather than city government specifically John what amenities do you believe that the city is currently missing and how would you work towards bringing them to the city I don't know what amenities were missing specifically I think we have some amenities that are underused and specifically that the lakefront dylan park when I was on the council they did the the German beer garden over at Kiwanis Park and I was against that mainly for that location I wanted that location to be in dylan park and to be the draw the lake is the draw I mean that's what everybody enjoys here most especially in the summer months when you're going to have a beer garden so I wanted it I wanted it there I voiced my opposition to that location the mayor at that time said well it's going to be a German beer garden you know our sister sister our sister city Esslinging you know they there's no ocean or big body of water like the great lake in Germany and I thought that was one of the most ridiculous comments I ever heard and I'm like who cares make it a tiki bar it does not need to be a beer garden it use the assets that you have I would keep the the lawn in the grass I would keep that immaculate it would be green it would be it would have kids on it all the time playing it would have events we used to have coho derby there we used to have a lot more events down there you know and and I think it's I think it's underutilized and it's a tremendous asset thank you John Roberta what amenities do you believe the city is missing and how can we work towards bringing them to the city one of them is right downtown and it is a parklet which is a closed off street between two fully growing and going businesses that's one and we can do more for outdoor amenities we've had boat races the boat races brought 40 boats into town they will have 75 boats this summer it will be returning the city has been recognized for doing that the marina most people don't know but the marina is a public building and they have had several bars at the top of that building in the last group I was in I asked who show of hands whoever had a drink in that bar or ate food in that bar and there were not many hands so people don't know that that's the city's building and that's a public space for them and I think just being conscious of bringing in the youth and giving them some place to go in some place to hang out basically will will will move it on it will be self-generating thank you and Roberta a follow-up to something you just mentioned too there have been some recent changes to the management of the harbour center marina which is you stated is owned by the city of shabuagan it closed the pool area restaurant bar and a store in that building so what do you believe is the next best course of action to revitalize that area and how can the city better activate and enhance our waterfront perfect the city has hired a consultant who is skilled with marinas the first question I asked was I hope this person isn't in California or Florida because we have ice and this this consulting firm needs to know about ice they are from Michigan so they know about ice they are going to do a thorough study they will interview stakeholders they will interview the voters they will interview people in the district they will interview people in government and we will have a plan that is developed with that with that room thank you John thank you the marina has been mismanaged for years and years and years when I was on the council we spent $800,000 for new piers due to ice damage then they ended up spending like close to another million dollars for air raiders to prevent the ice when they did a study of the water flow and the current in the marina and then apparently this the current or the former manager of the marina decided not to use them when they probably should have and incurred more damage to the piers we've resided put new windows in that building the marina building because it was originally constructed not as it should have been you know being right on the water like that so that's all been redone it's been a tremendous drain on the taxpayers and not a lot of benefit to the people of shaboy again and now the city I don't know how they're going to manage it or what they're going to be doing in the interim between this time the study gets done and something happens to it whatever that is so shutting down the pool closing the bar closing the gift shop you know the store that's there those are all amenities that draw boaters in and you don't have those amenities you know so you know an entity that was losing money already now is just going to be losing more money so I think urgency is my biggest thing that we need to do is it needs to be addressed you know as soon as we can so I don't know what the time limits are on this study but I would be on them to get it back to us as soon as we can to see what our options are and move forward from there thank you 30 seconds for bird thank you the contract with the manager and you heard one of the reasons why the contract was not renewed they did disconnect the aerators which caused ice buildup and interim there will be a manager and yes the pool will be closed as will the bar and the little shop that's there it will be closed for this season by next season we will likely have a new manager and a new plan for that arena thank you we are running getting short on time so a couple more questions I'd like to get out maybe we could limit it to one minute if possible and then we can give you guys an opportunity to give some closing statements briefly so John I will start with you on this one we are facing a housing crisis we've spent some time talking about that today how would you as a council member help to facilitate meeting our housing needs well again I think it goes back to working with the sheboygan economic development corporation working with developers being more developer friendly being proactive being timely in our responses to developers and development opportunities that hasn't been the past in this that hasn't been the case in the past I mentioned the sheboygan falls development that has 50 homes in it they wanted to be in sheboygan I've talked to the director of the sheboygan economic development corporation and you know they ended up he just begged sheboygan to get back to him the information he needed the developer wanted to be in sheboygan and there was a lack of urgency from the city attorney's office and that opportunity went to another community it's unfortunate but there needs to be urgency and when we get opportunities like that we can't have them just go somewhere else because we're lazy and we don't want to take care of it in a timely manner thank you John Roberta can you repeat it in talking about our housing crisis how can you as a council member help to facilitate meeting our housing needs we currently work with we do work with the scedc I have been in several meetings when the executive of the scedc has been in meetings with me we have a developed an undeveloped piece of property on the south side that the city purchased and there is a proposal for 1900 housing units in that 250 plus acre area we've got 73 new housing projects coming online this summer likely by the end of the summer and we have another 250 that have are are in process development wise I am always puzzled when I hear my opposition say we aren't doing anything with development so that's what's happening talk talk to the chief of the extra bargain economic development corporation he will be able to tell you all the details and so as we continue to talk briefly about the housing crisis in sheboygan and Roberta I'll have you start us off this round I would be remiss if we did not talk a little bit about the short-term rentals or vacation rentals where do you stand on short-term rentals and are you aware of how this is affecting the local area yes I am aware of how it's affecting the local area and at last tally there were over 250 houses that were not occupied we did a we authorized that we did a study of of vacation rentals etc and we came up with 250 and that was a while ago so there may be more for every house that is not occupied by someone who lives and works in this community we are losing out so we need to within the restrictions of state law which does restrict us we need to be able to negotiate a way to curtail or at least put bumpers around what's happening with our housing stock thank you John thank you I attended a landlord meeting about a month and a half two months ago and one of the questions I asked at that meeting was what percentage of the city the homes in sheboygan are rental properties and there's 16,000 homes within the city of sheboygan and the answer I got was 64 percent so to me that's a that's a staggering number your question is specifically for the unoccupied or the air bnb or the vb vrbo's that that type of situation we can't really regulate based on state law you know what people can and can't do with their their own properties what we can do is make neighborhoods more attractive to be owner occupied uh roberta and I are fortunate in the second district most of the homes in the second district are owner occupied and we don't have the short-term rental issue but I realize that it is an issue thank you so as we are at time I will give you guys um a minute apiece to maybe say any last thoughts that you would like voters to to know about you as they are heading to the polls so john we'll start with you thank you again I appreciate the opportunity this has been a fantastic forum the questions were great so thank you for that so again the reason I'm running is because I believe the second district current alderman is unfit for the position I've got the experience I I know what's going on with the city I follow it very very closely I've got excellent contacts within the city and I think that we can turn this thing around and take it from a position of chaos dysfunction and you know literally a dumpster fire and and make it into something that is outstanding and something that the citizens of the second district and the city as a whole would be proud of and I would like to ask for your vote thank you thank you john Roberta thank you um just like to do a correction according to the census 40 percent of the homes in shabuigan are rentals um that's not what that's not what we were told you were at that meeting under thank you john under prior leadership the city was not moving forward there was a false sense of um let's save money our streets did not get paved our capital improvements did not get done this government this council this leadership is moving forward and taking those things that have not been done historically and moving them right straight I am also puzzled by how much john knows about development when I sit on the development redevelopment authority and I am at council I also sit on the tax incremental financing district I know a lot about development and we've got a lot going on so I encourage you to look forward to be enthusiastic about our city to move forward and appreciate all of the quality of life that we enjoy and for those in the second district I ask for your continued support and your vote on April 2nd thank you so much so thank you all I know we've gone over a few minutes thank you john thank you Roberta for the candid conversation and again for your willingness to serve in this capacity we are going to take just a few minutes break and then we will return with our district 10 candidates so stay tuned thank you perfect all right thank you welcome back we are here to have our next discussion with our district 10 candidates in the city of sheboygan so we've got marcia rineth aller as well as incumbent joe heidemann so we I will go through ask you both a series of questions each of you will have about two minutes to answer if if after you've each had an opportunity to answer you'd like an additional 30 seconds to review or have additional comments then just you know wave me down and we'll give you that extra 30 seconds now in all fairness we we have lost our timekeeper and it keeps dwindling down so I will say don't be long winded because then it'll be really hard for us to keep control in the room you both are very uncontrollable I'm teasing it's okay to laugh I promise and so what we'll do is we'll just start with a two-minute introduction from each of you and then I'll go through and begin to ask questions and we'll take it from there so first thank you so much for being here you guys really appreciate it appreciate your willing to serve in this capacity and also to be a part of this candid conversation and with that I will pass it over to marcia to tell us a little bit more about yourself well thank you and thank you to the chamber for sponsoring us and these are your time for asking the questions thank you we look forward to this I'm marcia rineth aller and I'm running for district 10 older person position I am a fourth generation city of shabuigan resident I'm married to my husband Tom for 34 years we have two adult children who also live in the city our son recently got married this past October and we welcomed Katie into our family and they purchased the home in the city of shabuigan so our roots are very strong in the city of shabuigan I have a bachelor's degree from Lakeland University in both business and marketing with a minor in computer science I'm currently employed by the cooler company where I have been employed from the past almost 39 years now I have a background in finance while working at Kohler director of operations for hospitality and then most currently I have been with the Kalista brand of Kohler for just a short 26 years and I'm the director of customer experience for that brand I have also served on the shabuigan area school board for 12 years I took a small hiatus of two years for our son to get married and for my husband and I to build our retirement home which was really important for us to find a lot in the city of shabuigan it's kind of difficult but we found one because I knew someday I wanted to run for local government this year was the year I chose to run for the seat not against the person and I look forward to serving Mr. Ken thank you so much Joe yeah good afternoon and again I also want to thank the chamber for sponsoring this event my name is Joe Heidemann I live at 48 19 cell 12th street it's the first house coming into the city or the last house going out of the city on 12th street I live there with my wife Lynn and our cat Liberty I have three children and five grandchildren and I'm proud to say that I was a member of the United States Air Force and when my beard grows out many people might think that I'm Amish but in fact I'm Catholic and I've been Catholic my whole life and I attend the three Southside parishes I'm currently the alderman of for district 10 I have previously served as a capacity when there were 16 alderman I was an alderman and mayor of shabuigan falls I served under eight different mayors between shabuigan and shabuigan falls these experiences have helped me throughout my service it to the communities I lived in currently I serve on public works licensing hearing a public safety committee I also serve on the senior citizens commission and I'm the county the council representative of the Maywood board problem solving and promoting a positive outcome to have been at the forefront of many of my decisions my experience as someone that has seen developments that have had a positive impact on shabuigan makes me more than qualified the lack of leadership over the last two years has not helped shabuigan we may look like we're going in the right direction but the current structure of the council does not we need people to show up to meetings we need to go back to open government thank you thank you Joe sorry Joe we will start with you so you have served as you mentioned in several capacities in local government what made you decide to run for public office and why do you feel that you're the most qualified candidate at this time well first of all I never liked that question if I'm the most qualified that not knowing but not my but my opponents qualifications are makes me seem like presumptuous that I know everything what I can't say is I have experience that I've been on the common council I've worked in two different communities I have the path I in the past I've had the voice of my colleagues when they established I was established I was put in the vice president of the council I was a committee of the whole chairman again I having served in other communities seen a number of things that have happened in the city shabuigan and helped solve problems I think of a quality candidate and again I'm fortunate to have competition the last thing that we need in this community is not to have competition for public offices it makes absolutely no sense in the world for me to think that I'm the only person that needs to be an alderman in the 10th district thank you Marcia thank you I agree with Joe I don't like this question which makes me the most qualified obviously my opponent has great qualifications and has has done a fine job I'm running for the seat not against the person as I said before my background is in both public government local government being on the school board where I helped leadership roles I was the president I was the vice president the clerk the treasurer and chaired just about every committee that there was over my 12-year span in in the school district I've had leadership roles in my career and with my finance background my people skills I believe that we need to have open communication one thing I know we can all agree on is that we're not going to agree on everything but I can help navigate through the waters and at least help the constituents understand why or my fellow peers on the council understand the whys and how I'm thinking and what district 10 is saying about things happening in the city and I think my business sense would be a strong plus as well great thank you so much so Marcia we'll start with you and let's talk about what we love about the city what element of our city government do you believe right now is working is working well it's a great question that's a new question I look at our city government and I am pleased I met with the city leaders as far as our city administrator director of finance as well and HR and I'm really excited about their excitement and what they can do for our city um I love the fact that our our city leaders have gone to all businesses not just within the city limits but within the county to try and see what their needs are going to be over the next three to five ten years and and bring bring that information back to the council so that there can be great decisions made or better decisions made about the needs of our employers we have over three thousand open positions within the county and we don't have enough housing our housing is less than one percent we don't have enough housing to bring people in the community to fill those jobs so um I think gathering information is probably what I'm most proud about is that they're talking they're out there um getting feedback thank you so much Joe um all of our departments within the the city of Sheboygan are very effective our public works does a fine job of picking up garbage taking care of our parks um and keeping our streets clean in their streets plowed our police and fire are probably two of the best departments that I've ever been associated with again we don't have some of the problems other communities have because we basically have in the path prepared the city of Sheboygan to be the place that it is to have a good fire department have a good police department have good public works and recently now with the addition of a new city administrator I think we're going in the right place thank you so much Joe so Joe um you know to to continue what what is one part of city government that would or should receive more attention if you are re-elected into this role what I want to see is basically people that uh that are on the common council do their job okay far too often we go to a committee they're long licensing and finance have went for the last two years practically with only three people on the committee there's five people assigned but only three people show up how does that help those constituents from those those areas that don't get represented in those committee meetings it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever and basically I think it should have been the responsibility of the mayor to correct that when people don't don't get don't show up they should be replaced a year ago uh Alderman Garza uh Grazia said that she could not be on public works she didn't have the time to do that I gladly stepped in I've been almost I think I've been almost every meeting of public works I've been every meeting in law and licensing plus I have other commitments we need people that are going to show up and be effective for the city of the city of Sheboygan and when that issue is not addressed by our current administration I don't understand why they allowed it to to want for as long as they did thank you Joe Marsha what is one part of city government that you feel would receive more attention if you are elected into this role thank you um with all of the development plans that we heard about in the last session and we know that is happening in our community we need to um focus on the infrastructure to make sure we have the support with with our you know DPW with um uh police and fire EMT all of those support systems within our city to make sure we can um support the the development that is going on and so as we can we can continue to talk a little bit about development because well it's a big big discussion we're having today uh cities need to grow and expand their tax base to survive there's no doubt about that so tell me Marsha how would you support development and redevelopment and you know specifically thinking about the self-point enterprise campus on the south side which is largely sat vacant for several years you know what would be what course of action would you take to help get some development moving forward in those spaces yeah I think development overall in our city I'm sure there is a plan it doesn't just pop up overnight I'd like to see that plan and understand what what the next three to five year plan is as far as the south pier development I think we need to it's kind of a catch 22 but we need to understand bringing in the younger families bringing you know keeping our senior people that have grown up here like myself and been here forever what do we need in our community to thrive what's going to bring tourists in I don't want to become a hundred percent tourist community but what is going to bring people attract people to live here play here and just enjoy the beauty of Sheboygan and and not ruin the quaintness of our community so I think I would need different data points to collect from constituents throughout the community as well as our businesses but they would like to see and possibly people who come to vacation and play here thank you Joe um as far as the industrial park I happen to know things that Marsha would know because I think there there is a a current we are we're making positive steps forward as far as putting people into those areas we had you know you can never predict what's going to happen in the future and we're in a lot of competition with communities around us we have to have better amenities we have to have things that that that'll bring those companies to the Sheboygan as opposed to going to Usberg Cedar Grove Plymouth I think though I think currently right now we've kind of made a turn in the corner and some of those companies are looking at Sheboygan as a positive place to come but we what we needed to do was we had a set of standards at one time and then we needed to change our standards because we were losing now Sheboygan is winning and Joe to dig a little bit deeper into the amenities what amenities do you think that the city is missing currently and what kind of work will you do towards bringing them into the city as far as amenities are concerned I don't know what Sheboygan and Sheboygan County don't have I mean we have fine restaurants golf courses we've had there are don't say that we don't have enough taverns but so don't say that but again I think we have a lot of things already in place here what we need to do is make sure that we support the businesses that are here that to draw those amenities and have people that have the ideas that want to bring something to the citizens of Sheboygan to see if it's going to work and they though that we have the space for them to do it in our downtown district or any other area of Sheboygan thank you Marcia thank you I do would like to make a point of clarification with my last answer I was hearing south pier not south point so thank you Joe for jumping in there but so I was talking about the tourists and south pier but what I would like to see us do as far as amenities I agree with Joe we have so much here I just think we need to do a better job of communicating you know what we have to offer like the marina it's a beautiful site I have gone to the bar at the marina to bring guests from out of town because it was so beautiful but it was almost vacant you know there were people in there so I think our marketing of our city and how we get the word out there and draw people in and incentives bring people into the city is is crucial because we have a great city and to talk a little bit more about the harbour center marina since you've brought that up this is owned by the city of Sheboygan as we know and just recently there's been some big changes in management there so the pool area has been closed the restaurant and bar and the store in that building so you know thinking about you know what you'd like to see or when you have guests that come to the area as you've just shared with us what what they would like to see what do you believe is the next best course of action to revitalize that area and how can we use our waterfront more effectively economically I I'm only one person so I would I would want to have feedback and input from several people and find out what they would like but I would see it as an area a family-friendly area with some nightlife possibly where people could I just came back from Florida and you could just walk down the beach and there's gift shops and there's vendors and there's just different things you can rent or do or jet skis or have have a nice lunch overlooking the beautiful Lake Michigan I would not want to clutter our beautiful lakefront but I'd like to add some extra amenities of things to do so that families spend more time down at the front thank you thank you our current marina and the steps we've taken to try to make some improvements down there and having a city run I wholly hope is temporary for years the marina's been a black hole all we did was continue to stick money in it have other people come in and run it they would give us our ideas you know who could have said who could have determined 30 years ago that marina was built in the right place and the geographical area that it sits on isn't good for a marina because of the ice because of the water and and having been on the council before and been on public works we constantly continued to spend more and more money on that marina now having the city own and operate it I'm good with that for a while but I don't I don't believe that that's uh it should be an apartment within the city we should have somebody that might want to come in and we'll see what the uh the current we just uh had we're gonna have a study done as to what we can have in there I want a family friendly marina something that the citizens the shaboy can can use I think that's a beauty and best interests of the city but I don't honestly want to have city employees running it thank you we're going to switch gears just a little bit um you know there have been a series of impending lawsuits related to HR situations within the city of shaboy again Joe what could do you think the city and common council can do or what programs could be installed moving forward to avoid similar future lawsuits you know having had eight years of experience before when I was reelected the common council I've never spent more time in closed sessions and listening to what um people are uh weren't satisfied with this weren't satisfied that we uh have not only HR we have other lawsuits and I'm not going to go in to the way uh previous opponent was it because that that's over with we have to deal with it go on make sure that we settle the lawsuits we're aware we have to settle in the best interests of the city shaboy again but as far as the HR director that we had I think we have to have a better approach as far as who are hiring um the the the company we spent $27,000 to have somebody give us a recommendation for something that basically was not a proper fit for the city shaboy period where do we go wrong do we go wrong because we had a group of individuals from from the city that were on the the hiring committee and they made a recommendation to the council and what the normally what the council would do is basically we look for their guidance we said this is going to be fantastic well the council made a mistake too they made but initially it was a company I think was Baker Tilly I wouldn't give them another penny to research anybody for us and I I know I had a discussion with marcia they had Baker Tilly at the school board and what did you do never used them no yeah so they made they made the right move thanks thank you marcia thank you um I I don't know about the hiring operate process for the city of shaboy again I can only speak for my past experience with school district and it was a pretty slick um process that I'm sure the city did um something similar but you know it went through a process it wasn't one person or one group making a decision we had community members involved we had the employees involved in making the decision we had the board involved um as well as the leadership of the school district and a third party you know doing you know what are the references what are the backgrounds um and and then we put it pulled it all together and sometimes our school board we would get way too deep in the weeds with it but it paid off in the end I mean we were getting down to really minute little pieces um I don't know what happened with the city I can't comment on that but I would just want to have um a group different groups make decisions and then the board can make the final decision okay thank you um marcia we'll start with you on this next round we are facing a housing housing crisis I know that's going to come as a surprise um how how could you as a council member help to facilitate meeting the the needs of housing in the city of shaboy again if you are elected into that role well district 10 that I would represent if I were elected has um the vacant farmland that you've heard mentioned before and that is going to house between 1900 and 2000 I was told um dwellings for people apartments townhouses side by sides and homes um I know that's going to be a big major development on the south side of shaboy in in in district 10 I would want to talk to the constituents and find out is this something they want they don't want what do they think you know I love the fact that the city has that land but I want to have respectful use of that land and make sure it is the right for our community and I know we have a housing shortage and that would be ideal to expand but we just need to make sure it's tasteful and have the voices of our constituents thank you marcia joe affordable housing everybody's talking about it um if you drive down indiana avenue you'll see the housing units going up there in the past I've been uh where the old tripod property is I was uh on the council when we had that as a development okay so there's development happening it's what type of development you want it seems the the emphasis right now is high density in a small area okay well that's great for downtown but that doesn't necessarily mean that that fits in the 10th district I mean I drive through that through the district all the time now because I gotta check on stuff but again I want neighborhoods I don't want high rises uh I want to have uh places that the where the gardens and the pole farms are developed in in a in a proper way and we don't get too far ahead of ourselves when the other development that's already taking place in the city should boigen whether it's on the mainline property or anywhere else downtown if that has not been fully developed and occupied well then why are we basically piling more and more homes in the 10th district we might not need them you know it's it's not a situation where you want to say well build it and they will come well we're going to be in competition with other communities that are going to do the same type of building okay so if they have we're in competition with uh the surrounding area should boigen falls climate everybody else and they all come up with housing developments how do you know ours are going to be filled and theirs aren't going to be filled so you have to take a cautious approach we want to have affordable housing we want people moving to city should boigen but again I'm I'm pro neighborhood that's what I want to see thank you joe and talking a little further about the housing crisis we've had some conversations today about vacation rentals short term rentals where do you stand on short term rentals joe and are you aware of how they are impacting the city of shabuigan okay as far as again when I travel with my wife we use the air b and b the variable all that and we've had considerable success with that uh I know a number of years ago along the lake shore there were people that were renting their their homes out and basically they were party homes okay now that's not necessarily we want so basically it's it's the the community's responsibility and the neighborhood neighborhood's responsibility to make sure make sure that those things don't go unchecked now we can't tell property owners what to do with their property if they want to rent those out short term long term however they want to do it but we should have guidelines available for them to look at and saying this isn't going to happen in your short term rental what you know so I think there again there's a proper way of doing it I I hope that most of the city of shabuigan is doing it again the rent the rental situation in the city of shabuigan they said is 61 percent of the homes 41 40 percent of the homes are rentals in the city of shabuigan okay that amazed me because I'm a more of a family want to own my own property okay so hopefully that that that might change as far as rather than buying people having buying property to have rentals but buying property to have families in them thank you and joe um we'll ask one last question and then we'll give you guys an opportunity for some final comments so we'll start with you joe what do you believe the city can do or do differently to help grow and enhance engagement with its citizens okay open communication one of the things that we need to do as far as the common council and city government for sure we need to open it up we have to get a we have to stray away from the the rigid way that we're doing it where the only time a citizen can come to the common council he can only address things on the agenda what happens if something happened that I wanted to come to the common council I wanted to talk to him about it I can't get uh an opportunity to speak to the common council for five minutes unless it's on an agenda item that's not right they should be able to come to the common council and be able to talk to the common council and not just at the council meeting but also at the committee meetings we have to open up our government so that citizens feel good about coming down to city hall or going to the committee the three standing committee meetings and they say they'll be able to invoice their concerns about the city should avoid it that that's very important thank you marcia thank you I agree with joe that communication is extremely important and being transparent I do think as an older person for the district that it's our job to hear those constituents concerns complaints questions whatever I want to be visible to our our district 10 and build relationships and report and make it easy to contact me so that I can get answers for them thank you thank you so much and so as we are approaching time I'll ask you marcia to kick us off tell us your final thoughts what is your vision for the future of the city of shabuigan and why should people vote for you as they are heading to the polls yeah so our our city is going through a major transformation and to me that is so exciting to be part of that change but I wanted to be careful because I don't want to lose the quaintness and the community culture that we have of the friendliness of shabuigan county but I want to see it grow and I want young families to come in so that continues to grow I want seniors to retire here I want seniors to stay here and not go to florida and for the winters I want them to have fun indoor stuff to do um of course I want to please everybody and I know that's not possible um but I I do want to see our city change and grow become a little more modern attract those families in fill our schools we have a great education system even though people listen to the report cards and don't get the facts but um I just think we have a great community and I want people to be part of it my excitement thank you and why should why should folks vote for you well thank you um in this non-partisan position I believe that with my business background my passport experience my leadership skills I'm not going to be quiet I'm going to try and get answers I love to research I love to go out and talk to people um I I do think that I need to be transparent with people they're not we're not always going to agree but understanding the whys of of decisions that are made at the city level and I want to give easy access to information from the city to the residents of shabuigan so thank you thank you marcia joe what is your vision and tell us why should folks vote for you well I first of all I like to thank marcia for coming you showed up which was nice yeah so don't you think I would no I know well I've been this is the nicest that I've ever experienced I think thank you both I've been to these before where the opponents didn't show up so again so and again I do appreciate the fact that I have competition um I would appreciate everybody's support in the 10th district the last time I ran I had a needless to say a very tight race and uh I would hope to think that what I've done in the last two years and the years previous in my experience that this 10th district would elect me again I've mentioned a lack of leadership within the council and that's not just the council but that's also the all the the mayor's office it should be obvious that anybody that follows local politics we need a balanced approach the future growth within our community especially the 10th district should be something that we should be proud of and fits the 10th district um I'll do my best to try open up city government where citizens can express their concern not just agenda items and since nobody else is done I will take credit for the mild winter that we've had don't speak too soon because I heard there's you know potentially snow tomorrow in fact I don't have a crystal ball I can't tell you but again so far we've been doing thank you thank you for that thank you again to Joe and Marsha for your time and answering the questions and just again your willingness to serve in this capacity this has been a really fun conversation for me so I really appreciate you guys so much and we are going to take another short break and then we will come back and have our last conversation of the day with our candidates for district eight thank you so much hello and welcome back to our final forum of the day we are going to chat with our candidates from district eight city of shabuagan all dermanic district I just want to say thank you to both of you for participating and for your willingness to serve in this capacity we certainly appreciate when folks are willing to step outside of you know their their comfort zone and do something different that is going to represent our community in such a big way so thank you for that so real quick what we will how we will conduct this is I will give each of you two minutes to do an introduction of yourselves we will go through and answer a series of questions I'll do my best to go back and forth as much as possible to keep it fair and if at any time after you've had a chance to give your two-minute response if you'd like an additional 30 seconds to respond to your opponent just let me you know feel free to interject and we can give you an additional 30 seconds in that space our wonderful friends from wscs are also helping with timekeeping so if anybody gets a little too long-winded they are going to give you a little notification to say hey go ahead and start wrapping it up with that I want to say welcome to Zach Rust incumbent in district eight and jesse raffle right I said that right of course now that it's time for me to say it on camera I'm you know have confused myself and jesse raffle who is running for district eight all dermanic district so thank you to you both again and with that jesse I will ask you to give us an introduction tell us who you are thank you thank you to the chamber of commerce and all involved for giving the candidates the opportunity to speak today and let the voters know more about who we are I am jesse raffle and I am running for alderman in the eighth district of shabuigan I am proud to be born and raised in shabuigan I graduated from shabuigan lutheran high school I have a business degree as well as a sport and entertainment management degree and a marketing minor from concordia university of Wisconsin I work as a quality control technician and I have been doing that for over 11 years now I attend crossroads community church I support our troops and police and I want to do my part to help serve others in our community by serving them with transparency and integrity thank you thank you so much jesse back thank you chamber of commerce for having this hosting this event it's another great opportunity for us to inform voters how we feel about certain topics affecting the city I'm the current alder for district eight and have been since 2022 I've sort of done a wide range of committees while on the city council I've been I became an eagle scout in 2012 and I completed my electrical apprenticeship in 2019 I'm a union electrician with the IVW 494 and I'm also an executive board member for my local union I've lived in shabuigan for seven years with my wife Mackenzie and she's from the area and I moved here for her I consider shabuigan my home and I wouldn't move anywhere I wouldn't live anywhere else we bar first home five years ago and now that we and we now share that with two rescue dogs and two rescue cats I'm also a member of first congregational united church of christ and I have a passion for making change in the city and helping those in need I'm dedicated to helping shabuigan move forward and my experience in construction and the trades has given me has given me a different perspective and new ideas to the council this benefits me and my work on the department public works architectural review board and board of license examiners thank you so much Zach so Jesse I'll ask you first why you what made you decide to run for public office and what makes you the most qualified candidate because I'm proud to be a shabuigan resident and I have decided that now is the time that I can do more to help serve the people of our community I want to fight to keep our community a safe place to live I know many people within our district and city and I can relate to the issues that affect all of us and I want every decision I make to be based on integrity and common sense knowing that these decisions will impact our entire community my college degrees as well as my experience at work in quality control and tough decision-making will help me as alderman I want to help my constituents get answers to their questions in any way that I can thank you Zach oh like I said before I have a passion for making change and helping those in the city the city is going through a big change right now with housing and trying to build business is up in our city I think that the best qualified to do that because I have been on council for the last two years and helped start to institute those changes and I have I really enjoy making connections and having phone calls and meeting with people in their places to know what they think about the city and you know things that we're passing or talking about in the council and how to better represent the constituents that are in district 8 and for making choice votes during that time thank you thank you so much so Zach we'll start with you what element currently of our city government do you believe is the most effective and why so for me personally I believe our the most effective element is our for most it's not all the others to be able to get back to their constituents I personally have a 24-hour policy where if I am not able to email or call you back with or with an answer and within 24 hours I'm going to let you know that I don't have an answer but I'm going to get to you as soon as I can we also have a great department leads we have great department our heads we got a new city administrator who's very invested in this community and wants to help develop this city the way that it should be developed moving forward between housing and building businesses I said before thank you Jesse can you ask the question again absolutely what element of our city government do you believe is most effective currently and why I think it's the fact that it's sort of three heads you know you have the mayor the city administrator and then the common council you know serving the people of their districts and I think you know it kind of keeps any one person from taking too much power you know trying to overreach in areas they shouldn't so I you know I just want to be part of that and you know be a voice to the people in our district you know and make sure that I'm addressing the issues that they brought to me or they will bring to me you know answer their questions and just make you know the city in general a better place for all of us to be a part of thank you so much and Jesse to continue what what is one part of city government that you believe would receive more attention if you are elected to this district so one thing that I really want to focus on is just being more trans