First, I'd like to welcome the hundreds of new readers to this blog.  Blog traffic has been 10 times normal this week, and I hope I've provided a service to the public with this election series.  Stick around. 

When I first started writing about Whitefish Bay's election, I attempted to be an objective observer for the public.  I admitted I would make endorsements at the end of the race.  After interviewing all the candidates, it was easy to select who I wanted to vote for .. it was excruciating writing about it.  It's tough to pick one person over another and let the world know about it. 

First, the judicial race.  Christensen trounced Peterson by 26 points.  How did that happen?  Christensen ran a great campaign.  He was out shaking hands on the street, in front of schools.  Sent out a couple smartly targeted mailings.  At first, I didn't get it.   It is a municipal judge race.  Why work so hard?  The answer is: to win.  Lots of effort = lots of votes.

I was at Christensen's house for their election party .. I've never been to one before.  I admit, it was pretty exciting hearing the results read off. 

As for the Trustee race, Siegel was the top vote getter, with Fehring 3% behind.  Siegel won the same way the Judicial race was won, with effort.  She bought and planted a large number of lawn signs, brightly colored, with good placement, and that makes a huge difference. 

Fee losing was slightly surprising, as incumbents rarely lose.  But how many voters actually could name their Trustee?  Probably not many.  This was Fee's first contested election, and I think he struggled to find his stride.  I don't recall getting any literature from his campaign.   I had endorsed Fee, as I was impressed with his skills, and believe the board will miss his voice.

I am unabashedly pleased that Tom Fehring won a seat on the Board.  I met Tom through writing this blog, as he had a number of ideas to share about Silver Spring's renewal.  When I realized the Trustee race was going to be uncontested, I thought of Tom and encouraged him to run.  I'd like to believe I goaded him in to running, but I'll bet it was his wife who wanted him out of the house.  Fehring ran a smart campaign, and will be a fantastic addition to the Village Board.

Pritchard won handily by 35+ points over the withdrawn-Weas.  I wouldn't say that all 32% of Weas' votes were "protest" votes against Pritchard .. Maybe half of them.  The other half are people who probably couldn't name the current Village Board President.   Pritchard is a solid leader for our Village, and if you don't think so, you're not paying attention.

The school board race results are not available on-line.  One would guess Marie Greco and Jim Phillips won by large margins over the late write in candidate.

As promised, I am writing a summary of my "candidate profiles" for the Village of Whitefish Bay’s April 1st election, with endorsements and rationale. 

Without decent media coverage, nor any sort of public forum or debate between the candidates, I have tried to use this blog to fill the void by interviewing each candidate, asking the same set of questions, and allowing each to review and suggest edits of their stories in an abundance of fairness.   

I hope this report is used as a tool for voters, instead of turning these important elections into popularity contests, based on who knows who, or the numbers of signs on lawns.

I spoke to most candidates for around an hour, and some for two and three, discussing their vision for Whitefish Bay. -- In short, I did your homework for you.

WHITEFISH BAY VILLAGE BOARD PRESIDENT

For a short time in January, Whitefish Bay had a race for Village Board President. DOUG WEAS had thrown his hat in to challenge two term incumbent KATIE PRITCHARD.

I interviewed Weas in January, and was impressed with one talent he brought to the table, namely, that he was a Real Estate Developer by trade, and had his sights set on helping the Village renew Silver Spring. I've written about the need for aggressive action on Silver Spring, and Weas had necessary skills. However. I had a feeling he hadn't quite realized the many other demands of being the Board President. This proved to be true when he withdrew from the race, 3 days after I published my story on his candidacy.

Prior to that withdrawal, I interviewed Katie Pritchard for over an hour. Pritchard has been a solid leader for Whitefish Bay and a quality steward for the Village. Before Weas' withdrawal from the race, I'd thought that if there were 50 elements you needed for Board President, Pritchard would be better on most of them. 

That being said, I continue to take issue with Pritchard's reluctance to bombard WFB with communication about the Village's business. Pritchard herself has critically written that the Village has citizens who are uniformed about issues. Her stance is that the citizenry is responsible to seek out information on their own. This does not compute, especially with our pitiful media coverage. 

PRITCHARD is a good choice to lead the village. She remains one of the three on the Board who tend to vote for more aggressive measures on Silver Spring, and thoughtfully handles the Village's business.

WHITEFISH BAY VILLAGE TRUSTEE - Top 2 Vote Getters - 3 Candidates

DAVID FEE is running for his second 3-year term, and was unopposed in 2005. I interviewed Fee for two hours. He is a man of substance, precision, and intelligence. He is conscientious and thoughtful.

My one concern with Fee is that he is too "risk-averse" when it comes to Silver Spring redevelopment. Don't get me wrong, Fee has well-thought arguments for his ideas on redevelopment, and one would be hard pressed to find flaw. Generally speaking, he aligns himself with the school of thought that TIF dollars should go for public improvements, like street-scaping, not for assisting individual businesses. He did, however, explain that he is open-minded, that if a great plan came along for a property on Silver Spring that had solid partners, that he could foresee himself supporting Village involvement.

But great plans are hard to come by. Silver Spring is far behind in the game, and, in football terms, needs to give up the running game, and start passing. We're at a point that we need to take on some risk, some gambles, to see improvement.

Fee is a solid friend of home-owners' rights and has a common sense approach to architectural and historical preservation rules.

FEE remains a solid choice.  His thoughtfulness and analyitcal skills are needed.  He has the background and solid talent to remain, and I endorse him for Village Board Trustee.

THOMAS FEHRING is running for his first term on the Board. Tom is a 34 year resident of Whitefish Bay, and has his undergrad and Masters Degree in Engineering from Marquette. Fehring is well spoken, has vision and intelligence, and would lead Whitefish Bay in a positive direction with a unique skill set.

Fehring has a background in engineering and project management. He is passionate about Silver Spring's renewal, and sees it as an urgent issue. When I first met him, we spoke for nearly three hours about the history of the district, and the need for partnership with businesses, to create a vibrant street. His desire to create an environment of flexibility is important to the survival of Silver Spring.

His other pet issue, near and dear to many meat-and-potato voters is infrastructure. Fehring has observed the deteriorated state of our roads, sewers, etc., and wants to see marked improvement.

Fehring has quality experience with the WFB Historic Preservation Commission and was recognized as "distinguished volunteer" by the Board in 2007. He's also served as a director for Dominican High School.

I highly recommend THOMAS FEHRING for Village Board Trustee. (campaign website link)

Julie Siegel is also running for Trustee. When I interviewed Siegel, I was extraordinarily troubled by her lack of specificity for every issue I asked her about, and others picked up on that. I believe candidates should have familiarity and opinions about the most important issues, and a solid vision of where they want to lead, before a campaign begins.

Siegel may still win, as she has a deep network in Whitefish Bay, a politically successful family, and has run a visible campaign. I commend anyone who raises their hand to volunteer, but Fee and Fehring are better choices.

WHITEFISH BAY MUNICIPAL JUDGE

There is also a Municipal Judge race between BOB PETERSON and PAUL CHRISTENSEN. We are lucky to have two high quality candidates for this position. Both are highly educated at great schools, (Peterson at Marquette and SLU Law, Christensen at Notre Dame and MU Law.) Not having had the opportunity to need a lawyer, I can't attest to their skills.

However, one component of the WFB Judge position is dealing with juveniles and their brushes with the law. I can attest to Paul Christensen's ability to relate to youth. Paul previously lived two doors down from me, and if I listen closely any summer night, I can still hear the echoes of him playing with his kids in his back yard. Note, I didn’t say I could hear his kids. It was Paul making most of the noise. Paul was also one of the first to welcome me to Whitefish Bay, nearly a decade ago.

I've seen Christensen hustling around the Village's homes, doing campaign lit drops and putting up signs like crazy.

I endorse PAUL CHRISTENSEN. I'm sure he'll do a great job as Whitefish Bay's judge.

WHITEFISH BAY SCHOOL BOARD

I wasn't going to make an endorsement in this race, because originally, two incumbents were running for two spots. However, this week, a write-in candidate has been circulating her name for the job.

In the newspaper article about this write-in's candidacy, her quotes stood out. "I don't think there is a place (in Whitefish Bay Schools) for people who say they want to go to Waukesha Tech ..  the focus is too much on college ..  There is something wrong when a community focused on children can't get its children to graduate." she said.

While diversity of education is important, Whitefish Bay is a college-prep system that graduates a whopping 99.06% of its students, where 94% go on to college, that also has significant resources dedicated to both ends of academic ability. It is crucial for our district to maintain these high academic expectations.

MARIE GRECO and JAMES PHILLIPS have done a fine job, and deserve re-election.

Summary: 

President:        PRITCHARD
Trustee:           FEE, FEHRING
Judge:             CHRISTENSEN
School Board: GRECO, PHILLIPS

This is the last installment of my candidate interviews for Whitefish Bay’s Village Board.  There are three candidates vying for two trustee positions on the board.  The top two vote-getters in the April election will serve a three year term.

DAVID FEE

I spoke to David Fee for a couple hours last week.   While Fee grew up in Brooklyn, NY, he’s spent the past 17 years in Whitefish Bay, and has served one term on the Village Board.  He ran unopposed three years ago, making this his first election with a challenger.

I asked Fee why he was running again.  He explained that he ran three years ago to represent the northern side of Whitefish Bay during the JCC expansion, but that you “get past that single issue pretty quickly. There are many more issues that starkly define the vision on how to manage our community. ”

Fee is pleased with a number of items he’s helped accomplish.  He represents the Board on the Shorewood/Whitefish Bay Public Health Board, and in this past term, the Board, working with the Northshore Board of Health, hired a sanitarian to execute food inspections and perform training on food safety issues in the North Shore.  Responding to his concerns for the tax-payer subsidy of this service, the communities voted to fund it primarily through the license fees, and to make it subject to efficacy audits to determine the cost effectiveness of annual and complaint based inspections.

Another item Fee was proud of, was the new rules for the Historic Preservation Commission.  The original draft allowed the unelected commission to designate a property as Historic without the approval of the homeowner.  Fee believed that over-stepped bounds and reduced homeowner rights, and obtained an amendment that dictates a homeowner must approve of the designation.

Fee believes the new rules concerning demolitions hit the mark as well, as he believes there is wisdom in the “organic replacement” of housing stock in the village.   “When renovations are managed through the Architectural Review Commission (ARC) to protect size and scale, demolition and renewal can add value to a block, and tax base to the community”, he said. 

We then turned to the issues surrounding Silver Spring.  “Silver Spring is a really disappointing commercial strip.  There are virtually no trees.  The way the area is framed is in a sorry state.”

Fee provided this quote:  “Though a village survey found support for multi-use development up to 4 stories (Johnson Bank building), I am concerned that such extensive development the length of the street would drastically change the image of Whitefish Bay.  I understand the CDA echoes text book planning to utilize a mixed used development with condos as a tool to enliven a commercial strip.  My concern is that with the limited space of Silver Spring, and the existing residential density WFB, such mixed use would have marginal impact on the night life of The Bay.  Given the significant number of un-leased apartments and office space in the new Bayshore Town Centre, and the below expected performance of virtually all the restaurants, I am very cautious on any joint development the Village would invest in through the eminent domain process.”

Fee pointed to fellow Board Member, Rita Cheng as an expert on how TIF monies should be used in redevelopment, and he summarized her repeated advice to the CDA and Board that “TIF money should go into infrastructure, like streetscaping, that benefits the whole community in the long term.”   While skeptical, he is open to using TIF dollars for individual projects that subsidize one developer “if there is a clear business plan that indicates potential merchants that would occupy the space,” Fee added.

We spoke at length about the Talbots/Famous Footwear spot, and his vote to deny the village the use of Eminent Domain to purchase the property and try to develop it in accordance with the CDA’s master plan. Fee is joined by Trustees Brennan, Berg, and Cheng, who are against this process.  In broad terms, Fee said he "will not vote for such action unless there is a solid business plan with identified financial partners."  He said prefers “to negotiate for the site on the open market, rather than use eminent domain to force a ‘fair market valuation’ on the property owner.”

He stated a number of times that he would keep an open mind about the Village working with developers for Silver Spring, “but you can’t chase it.  If there was a great business plan put forth, and a reason to believe it was a workable concept, I could see the village ponying up.   No such plan has been presented at this point.”   He also said he “had a philosophical problem with using eminent domain in a selective environment.  If the property was clearly blighted, sure, but in this case it was a heavy handed ploy, and the village doesn’t have a plan for the property.”

Fee believes that if the Village were to ever propose making large investments in Silver Spring, he would support putting them to a referendum, so the citizens could have a vote. 

Fee concluded with explaining how he loves Whitefish Bay.  “It’s a special place.  Development can’t be rushed, and the first rule is to do no harm.   Governmental action can have unintended consequences and do far greater damage beyond the problem that was being solved.” 

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I wish to thank David for taking the time for the interview. This concludes the candidate interview series. 

I’m pleased all the candidates made themselves available for this, and learned a great deal about the political environment of Whitefish Bay in this process.

In mid-March, I will write summary of how I see the issues, the race, and who I will be voting for, and why.

Be sure to read the interviews of the other candidates:

• Interview with Tom Fehring (Running for Trustee)
• Interview with Julie Siegel  (Running for Trustee) 
• Interview with Katie Pritchard  (Running Unopposed for Board President)

Well, the filing period came and went, and we've got a few races. 

While I'd focused on the Whitefish Bay Trustee spots, of which two are open for three candidates, a last minute entry came into the dock for WFB Board President to challenge Katie Pritchard.  Doug Weas, who, if Google is correct, is this guy, and heads Weas Development, which appears to be a real estate developer, or consultant of some sort. 

I'm pleased that Weas has entered the race, as uncontested races are no good.  I will try to get interviews with Pritchard, Weas, and David Fee in the next few weeks.

State-wide, we have a race for State Rep (22), since Sheldon Wasserman is challenging Alberta Darling for State Senate.   Sandra Pasch (of Whitefish Bay) and Rosemary Ponik (Brown Deer), both Democrats, will face off in the September 2nd primary.  Winner coasts to victory in November.

The block that includes the Schmid & Bartelt funeral home, 106 W. Silver Spring Drive.

Interesting list. I've always been confused as to what “expanding” Sendik's means. It's not like they have excess parking.


In order to expand .. they’d need to reclaim that church on Beaumont. Anyone see that happening? I’ve heard people talk about that picnic-blanket sized patch of grass in the corner of Sendik’s parking lot. Even if it’s palatable to remove some green space like that, what does it bring Sendik’s, 10 parking spots? Can’t see how that’s worth it. Someone set me straight, what are they talking about, when someone suggests expanding Sendik’s?

And Zita's? Associated Bank, Fitz's, Schmid & Bartelt? Those are options for reclamation or "expansion"? Fascinating.

Block Party Denied

Residents of Lake View were denied a permit to have a block party on November 24th because "Trustees said Lake View is one of the main avenues leading to the Bayshore Town Center and closing it off would snarl traffic."

While I hate the idea that the existence of Bayshore is denying Lake View their American right to have a block party .. who thought a block party on November 24th was a good idea? We maxed out at 37 degrees fahrenheit that day. Sounds awfully chilly to ride bikes up and down the block!

NOTE:  The NOW website has transitioned to a new platform.  I have made an effort to save all the "texty" comments, however, they are formatted poorly.  Sorry.  In the future, you can use the "add comment" function at the bottom of each post.

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