I’m a few days late on this, so apologies there.
There were a handful of committee meetings, but the agendas didn’t seem like things that affected our core focus of getting prioritizing families and improving communication between residents and city leaders… So I didn’t attend most of them. What I did do that I’ll recap:
- City Manager Replacement
- Two search firms presented to the Personnel and Finance Committee to help the city find a new City Manager
- Meeting about Communication Rift
- One-on-one meeting about improving communication between city leaders and residents
- City Council Meeting
- An attempt to intimidate me from speaking at the public comment period. Read about it here.
- Jeff Dahlke and I speaking out about the Airbnb petition
- Presentation by the school district about its 3-year plan
- Extension for façade grants approved
- City leaf collection on Blue Heron Condos private streets approved
- Front-yard gardens permanently approved
City Manager Replacement
On Wednesday there were presentation by two potential staffing firms, one of which will likely help the city find a replacement for Mr. Buckley, who retires in August. The presentations, about an hour-long each, were given to the Personnel and Finance Committee and the City Manager Recruitment and Selection Committee. In the room were council members Stechmesser, Bittner, and Brandt, Mr. Buckley, and Curt Andrews (and me in the audience).
Search Firms
- MGT: https://www.mgt.us/
- Larger national firm, with Local Government as a smaller part of what they do
- More polished proposal materials
- May have more mature processes for finding successful candidates
- Almost certainly a larger candidate pool, which is important for specialized roles like a City Manager
- Public Administration Associates (“PAA”): https://public-administration.com/
- Wisconsin-based, with Government consulting and staffing being their focus
- Very deep list of references from staffing Wisconsin clients
My Thoughts
I couldn’t take the proposal materials home, so I’m going a bit from memory.
- Both firms felt that spending time with city department heads was important
- Community surveys and focus groups were downplayed by both firms, and doing those things cost extra
- MGT seemed to be a bit more thorough in helping prep our City Council for a successful interview, with things like suggested interview questions
- I’ve seen far more bad interviewers than good ones… Proper preparation is at least 50% of what it takes to have a useful interview
- PAA felt like they had more experience.
- Pro: If there’s a good candidate pool I think they’d likely do a better job
- Con: Their candidate pool seems more local/regional, and that might be a bad thing
Summary
Both firms seemed good in their own ways. My final thoughts, you can take how you see fit:
- If council members recognize they’ve never done this before, even if a couple of them have some experience interviewing management roles, then I think they’ll be more inclined to take advantage of the benefits that MGT can bring.
- If council members are unwilling to recognize their limitations in this area, then PAA is probably a better fit because of their more personalized experience and stronger knowledge of Wisconsin cities.
Meeting about Communication Rift
Earlier in the week I met for a couple hours with council member Derby. A couple weeks ago Ms. Derby told me that she felt very strongly that the city needs to communicate better with residents, and that with that as a common belief we should meet.
We talked about a lot of topics, mostly just learning about each other, but amongst other ideas the concept of a town hall was interesting to us both. Something where it was more back-and-forth discussion instead of the unpleasant experience of writing to the council or speaking at public comment periods.
More to follow in the future, but seeing that we’re in budget season that seems like an interesting way to start. The other potential would be the town hall requested by the Short-term Rental Petition signers.
City Council Meeting
Intimidation by Council
Had a brief interaction with council member Bittner where he tried to intimidate me from speaking during the public comment period. You can read about that here.
Public Comment Period
- Jeff Dahlke
- Said requested that the city explain to the residents what happened during early voting that caused voters to have to re-vote
- Spoke out strongly against the actions by Mr. Bittner over the past week
- Going to petitioners homes and telling them they were misled
- “They didn’t want to come to a meeting and talk, that’s why this petition was signed.”
- Creating his own pro-Airbnb petition
- Believes it’s an ethics violation and needs to be looked into
- Brought potential “walking quorum” issues where members of the Council would be in violation of Wisconsin state law
- No one knew what a walking quorum was, and it seems like the city attorney may not have known either
- Residents have brough arboretum issues like pet issues, more snakes and coyotes, and the lack of the a fire break
- Council Member Bittner
- Mr. Bittner began defending himself after Mr. Dahlke was finished speaking and sat down
- After he spoke for a full minute, I interrupted the meeting and said that Council is in violation of state law by allowing him to debate the petition without it being on the agenda
- Jimbob Scoot
- Brought up some sidewalk replacements that need to be completed before winter
- Pointed out that the corner of 23rd and E River sidewalk does not connect
- Andre Robitaille (me)
- Pointed out that during the Front-yard Garden discussion, which the Plan Commission did not recommend, they recreated the discussion without the citizen members of the Plan Commission
- Explained what a walking quorum is
- Said that I felt the façade extension to August seems longer than it needs to be, and that the city should stop letting businesses extend indefinitely, which happens often
- Clarified the purpose of the Airbnb petition, mostly mimicking what Mr. Dahlke said
- Reiterated that we want a town hall discussion about this
- Richard Casey
- Supports front-yard gardens
- Asked for sidewalks to be widened on one side of streets so that bicycles and pedestrians could share the sidewalk
- John Gomez
- Wants Neshotah Park to be more greenspace and not be overdeveloped
- Likes the traditions of the city and park to remain, and not excessive change and development in a single park versus the many other neglected parks in town
- Dan Tegen
- He’s the president of the Blue Heron Condo Association
- Feels leaf pickup on their private streets should be done because they pay property taxes
Two Rivers Public Schools 3-year Plan
Update in the video starts at 1:34. Good update. Community Summit video starts at 1:45:48.
Façade Grant Extensions Approved
Nothing interesting here. Council approved the extensions, though Mr. Bittner did push on Hook Lanes said a lot of people mentioned that it’s an eyesore and that the siding should be installed prior to the winter. Mr. Buckley said the owners intent is to do so and then complete the exterior in spring.
Front-yard Gardens Approved
The gardens were permanently approved 7-2. I’ve talked about it was being pushed through before, and that’s what happened.
Packet and Video
Agenda Packet:
https://mccmeetings.blob.core.usgovcloudapi.net/tworivrswi-pubu/MEET-Packet-803b06721628429fa278be297e7fe2b8.pdf
Video of the meeting can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pnYlxVpsDQ
