5 Milwaukee-area cities will have new mayors [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

March 26--When the dust settles after the April 3 election, there will be new faces in the mayor's offices of five suburban municipalities.

It's not that voters will be cleaning house when they head to the polls in the Milwaukee County communities of Oak Creek, St. Francis and Wauwatosa or Ozaukee County'sCedarburg and Port Washington.

The incumbents decided not to seek new terms, took new jobs or hit term limits, opening the doors for the top elected positions.

In Wauwatosa, Ald. Peter Donegan, a retired insurance business owner, and Kathy Ehley, executive director of the Village of Wauwatosa Business Improvement District, are running to replace Jill Didier, who resigned as mayor Dec. 15 to become Milwaukee County's economic development coordinator.

Donegan, 59, said his financial and management background make him better equipped than Ehley to lead the city as it deals with tough budgeting choices.

Although the city is healthy financially, Donegan said he expects revenue to be flat the next four years in part because the city's tax base is smaller than in 2007 because of the economic recession. In addition, state lawmakers have restricted municipalities' ability to raise taxes even as state and federal aid have been cut, he said.

Donegan said he would push to reorganize city government to increase productivity and make it more efficient so it can deliver the same level of services, instead of making cuts. The city needs to adopt what has worked in the private sector, he said, including moving to a compensation system for workers that rewards performance instead having everyone get the same raise.

Ehley, 64, said her experience running the business improvement district and her involvement in economic development make her the perfect choice for mayor. She said she has the ability to bring people together to solve problems and make "the tough decisions that every community has to make on what services they can afford."

She said she would find efficiencies without negatively affecting service levels.

Both Donegan and Ehley said they would push for economic development to broaden the city's tax base. In general, Donegan said he would like to attract condo projects and corporate headquarters to the city. He also would focus attention on redevelopment in the East Town area along North Ave.

"The real challenge of economic development is trying to get development here without giving away 20 years of taxes," Donegan said. "It's very hard to get everything going without a TIF (tax incremental finance district). . . . How are we going to grow our tax base if everybody who comes in doesn't want to pay taxes? And if we don't give them that break they go somewhere else."

Ehley said the city needs to take steps now to spur development. "We need to be building our infrastructure for economic development so that when commercial lending opens up, we're going to be really ready to work with developers and people in commercial real estate to do some real positive things on the properties we have available," she said.

Ehley said she is not opposed to using TIF districts, but the overall community should benefit if incentives are granted.

Oak Creek

Both candidates in the Oak Creek mayor's race know the workings of the city's government.

Ald. Steve Scaffidi, president of the Common Council in his second term as alderman, is competing against Mark Verhalen, a former one-term alderman.

After Mayor Dick Bolender died in office in December, the council appointed former alderman Al Foeckler to fill the remainder of the term. Foeckler did not seek election to a full term.

Scaffidi, 53, is a special projects field manager for The Nielsen Co., analyzing consumer viewing behavior on television and the Internet.

Verhalen, 56, is owner of two local businesses, Verhalen Farms and Verhalen Excavating LLC. He is a member of the Oak Creek-Franklin School Board.

Scaffidi said municipal government has become more efficient and the city's tax rate has been held flat in the last few years while he's been on the council.

Verhalen contends he would be more conservative with city spending than his opponent. He criticizes Scaffidi for not understanding long-term financial impacts of council decisions, such as the land swap between the city and the Oak Creek-Franklin School District.

Scaffidi opposed the plan, however, when it came to a council vote in February.

The exchange approved by the council and the school board enables Oak Creek to build a new city hall and library at the former Delphi Corp. factory site. The school district would get the current city hall and library site on 12 acres next to Oak Creek High School for future expansion.

Verhalen opposed the swap when it came to a school board vote.

The cost of building a civic campus at the former Delphi site is estimated at $16.4 million, or 15% less than the price tag for renovating and expanding the current buildings, according to supporters of the move.

The city would finance construction costs through annual payments Oak Creek receives from Wisconsin Energy Corp. because it is home of the company's newly expanded power plant on Lake Michigan.

St. Francis

In St. Francis, Jeffrey L. Mayer, a former alderman, and CoryAnn St. Marie-Carls, a project manager for a communications company, are battling for the job now held by Mayor Al Richards, who has served since 2004 and is retiring from office after two terms.

Mayer, 55, retired in 2009 as assistant superintendent of the County Correctional Facility-South and said he would devote his full attention to being mayor even though the job is part time.

St. Marie-Carls, 50, said she has an extensive knowledge of the workings of municipal government from previous jobs she has held and is well-poised to step in and lead St. Francis. St. Marie-Carls is the former public information officer for the City of Kenosha and former executive director of the Kenosha Area Chamber of Commerce.

Mayer said his main focus as mayor would be to increase the tax base in an effort to lower property taxes. One way to do that, Mayer said, is to return land the city has purchased for future development to the tax base.

"I don't think the city should be in the Realtor business," he said. "I know there needs to be some land to further develop our City Hall and the fire and police departments because that's been outdated, but I'd like to see the rest of that land returned to the tax rolls."

Mayer is referring to about 90 acres the city purchased late last year adjacent to the Cousins Center from We Energies and the so-called triangle area at Packard Ave., Howard Ave. and Lake Drive.

St. Marie-Carls said development and redevelopment of those areas are keys to the city's future. "We have some work to do to make people aware that we are a jewel of Milwaukee County. . . . We need to attract new residents, new business to our community," she said. "Economic diversity should always be your No. 1 priority."

Cedarburg

In Cedarburg, residents will have a new mayor for the first time in nine years. Mayor Greg Myers has come to the end of a three-term limit and Ald. Paul Radtke and former Ald. Kip Kinzel are vying to succeed him.

Both Radtke and Kinzel have similar political experience. Radtke has been an alderman for almost eight years and is the Common Council president. Kinzel was an alderman for nine years, serving as council president for two years during that time.

Both say economic development and repairing the fractured relationship with the Town of Cedarburg would be among their priorities.

"I want to spur a lot of economic growth. The biggest thing is protecting what we've got -- Cedarburg's got a lot of nice shops downtown. I want to make sure we're doing everything we can for those small-business owners," Kinzel said.

Other priorities would be redeveloping sites on the south end of Cedarburg, including the former container plant along Pioneer Road and buildings along Cardinal Avenue, and working on a business park along Highway 60 on the city's north side, said Kinzel, 46, a project manager for an industrial construction company.

Radtke said the city needs to push harder for redevelopment of empty buildings and underutilized properties.

"We have an Economic Development Board that doesn't meet very often. We need to get them involved. We've got an economic development coordinator . . . but she's been focused mainly on the downtown, which she's done a very good job at. But we need to expand that to other parts of the city," said Radtke, 45, a senior networking engineer.

Radtke said he wants to end the "relationship problems between the city and town" and has been meeting regularly with town Supervisor Joe Rintelman to discuss the situation.

"It's gotten to the point where we're like the Hatfields and McCoys and I don't even think we know why we're fighting anymore. . . . We need to realize that the entire community wants us to work together," he said.

The town, effective Jan. 1, 2010, ended more than a decade of cost sharing for library, park and recreation and senior programs with the city. At the time of the split, town officials said they felt they were paying more than their fair share to participate in the programs.

Kinzel said reaching out to the town is important because "the people regard Cedarburg as one community."

"They are like almost any other community around us. We're trying to share services with Grafton, Mequon and all the other surrounding communities. We should start over again. I'm done with the bickering," Kinzel said.

Port Washington

In Port Washington, both candidates for mayor want to help revitalize the city's historic downtown business district.

One step was taken toward that goal with Duluth Trading Co.'s announcement earlier this year that it would locate a large clothing retail store in the former Smith Bros. Fish Shanty on the city's Lake Michigan marina, according to the candidates.

Ald. Jim Vollmar, a five-year veteran of the city council, faces Tom Mlada, a newcomer to campaigns though he is an appointed member of the Plan Commission.

Mayor Scott Huebner did not seek re-election.

Mlada, 36, is director of development and stewardship for Saint Monica School in Whitefish Bay. He believes his marketing skills can be put to use by the city.

Developing the former coal storage docks on the lakeshore as a public park will create a recreation destination and increase the number of people walking on downtown streets, Mlada said. His goal as mayor would be to link those park visitors to nearby stores and restaurants.

We Energies has not stored coal at the harbor since 2004. Power-generating units at its lakefront plant now burn natural gas.

Vollmar, 69, is an attorney with a private practice in Port Washington. He is a former assistant district attorney in Waukesha County.

Both candidates trumpeted recent news that the city was awarded a $711,500 grant from the state Stewardship program to help it construct the park. This comes on top of a $210,000 Stewardship grant given to the city in 2011, City Engineer Rob Vanden Noven said.

The grants will enable the city to begin building major pieces of the park this year: main promenade on the north side of the docks; recreation paths; a bridge connecting the north and south docks; and a driveway and parking lot.

Vollmar agrees the city needs to do more marketing of its downtown as a tourist destination and creation of a park on the lakeshore will help do just that.

Downtown businesses are suffering due to retail development along I-43, he said.

Port Washington also could do more to market itself to potential industrial employers, Vollmar said.

"We have Lake Michigan water and we have a workforce," he said.

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