WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAU) — A meeting for Wausau residents to explain the upcoming city government referendum was poorly attended. That meeting was in the city council chambers, and lasted about two hours.
Dr. Stephen Hintz is a consultant with Public Administration Associates LLC in Oshkosh. He took questions from the audience, which was less than a dozen and mostly council members.
Alderman Keene Winters supports changing to a city administrator style of government. He says it’s important for Wausau residents to understand the difference between the mayor system and the administrator system of government. “With an administrator, you go through a hiring process and a selection process, and a screening process, and if you use a mayor, you go through an electoral process, and the question is, ‘Which one is most likely to deliver a highly qualified administrator for your city.”
Wausau usually has about 19% voter turnout in spring elections, meaning just over 80% of eligible voters just don’t vote. Winters says the referendum may be advisory and not binding, but believes his colleagues will give residents what they want. “Advisory, yes, but I think results matter, and so we’re certainly going to take people’s advice on this. Unless it’s really, really close, then it’s almost a conundrum, I would expect the council to follow the advice of the referendum.’
Council President Romey Wagner is hoping for a better voter turnout, to get a better representation of what residents want. “I hope with the school district referendums, and with these three referendums in the city, I hope we double that number for voting.”
Dr. Hintz was retained by the Wausau Area Region Chamber of Commerce, and a “white paper” has been developed showing the pros and cons of each system. Wagner is glad his colleagues asked questions. “Yes, I’m glad there were Council members here to hear the description instead of just reading the white paper. I thought he did an excellent job of spelling.”
Wagner says there are things the city council can do before the election, like education, but says the council’s hard work will be right after the April 7th referendum. “It’s important that we don’t put the cart before the horse. When people talk about what will the cost if. If. If. We have to get the referendum out there. We have to find out what the constituents want, and then we have to start working hard and fast.”
The basic difference is under a city manager, the mayor could be part or full time and would represent the city, but would not have a vote during meetings, not even in a tiebreaker. If an administrator is hired, the mayor would still make policies, preside over meetings, have veto power, and appoint boards. The administrator would appoint department heads, direct operations and the administration, and prepare the budget.
(Listen to our interviews with Keene Winters and Romey Wagner online.)
