Looks like the election letters that didn't get published in the paper edition, got pushed to the "Voter Guide" where .. few will read.

Here's the one you might have missed:

TOM FEHRING:  Public Forum

Whitefish Bay is a great place to live. But it can be better. I've been listening to Village residents and their concerns. Based on this, and my own thoughts, here is a list of 10 measures that I believe would enhance our village:

1. We need to properly maintain the village infrastructure. Properly maintaining our streets, water mains, sewers, street lights and other areas of the village's infrastructure doesn't mean we need to spend more - it means that we need to efficiently maintain what we have, to anticipate needs before they develop, and to establish effective plans for improving the infrastructure we rely upon.

2. We need to do a better job overseeing village construction projects. To illustrate the point, consider last summer's construction project to replace the sanitary and storm sewers and water mains along East Courtland Place. Fugitive dust was not controlled, safety barricades were not uniformly employed, and the project didn't get completed on schedule.

3. We need to improve the decision-making process. We have been talking about renovating East Silver Spring since Bayshore Town Center was first proposed. Meanwhile, Bayshore Town Center is now complete while we are still talking to consultants about what to do about our shopping district.

4. We need fiscal restraint. The Whitefish Bay board has done a fairly good job of controlling the increase in property taxes devoted to village services. But by benchmarking our services to that of the best communities in the Midwest, we can increase the efficiency of operations and help hold down costs.

5. We must build a better sense of community. Active neighborhood associations can become a critical part of the social foundation of the village and can make neighborhoods more enjoyable places to live. They can also provide the eyes and ears of the community for the Village Board.

6. We should improve pedestrian safety. Crossing Silver Spring continues to be a hazardous experience for pedestrians, and crossing Marlborough at the library isn't much better. We need both better enforcement and effective crossing designs.

7. We must build a sense of history. I have been working with the Whitefish Bay Historic Preservation Commission to identify the historic and architecturally significant homes and other sites within the village. We are working on signage to identify these historic sites, and walking tours that will build on our sense of history.

8. We should improve village governance. Having served as corporate secretary for a major corporation for years, I have the skills to improve village governance. I will work to make our board meetings more responsive to the needs of citizens and improve communication regarding the board's actions.

9. We should improve communications. The village should do a better job of providing information to its residents. An overhaul of its Web site has been promised for many months - if done properly, it can provide a source of up-to-date information.

10. We need a village skating rink. In a year in which you could almost skate on any village street, we again have been unable to create a skating rink for residents. We need to find a way to make this happen.

Tom Fehring - Website: http://www.FehringForWFB.com/

Great letter. 

*** Make sure you read all the candidate profiles and endorsements HERE. ***

Summary: 

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

With news last week that a third candidate was running for Village Trustee, Whitefish Bay now has a race, three people for two spots on the Village Board.  Since incumbents have a great probability of re-election, David Fee will probably retain his job, which means this race is mostly between Julie Siegel and Thomas Fehring, who submitted campaign paperwork last week. 

Again, please note, I am not a journalist, I'll endeavor to be fair, however, I suppose I will write an endorsement later in the election process.  In general, I will ask each candidate the same questions.

THOMAS FEHRING:

I contacted Thomas Fehring, and spoke to him at length, asking a range of questions, from his educational background to specific issues that will be discussed in this election.

Thomas is a long time resident, living in Whitefish Bay for the last 34 years, which is probably why this interview took two hours.  He has a rich feeling for the Village and its direction. 

He has a Bachelors and Masters from Marquette in Mechanical Engineering, and was formerly a vice president and general manager at We Power (Wisconsin Energy Corp.) and is now consulting on energy matters out of his home office.  Tom is currently the secretary on the WFB Historic Preservation Commission, and was named "distinguished volunteer" by the board in 2007.  He's also served as a director for Dominican High School.

His engineering background may account for one of his platforms for running.  He explained that he has a great concern for the deterioration of Village infrastructure, from roads, to water mains, sewers and street lighting systems.  "At a time when residents are making an unprecedented investment in improving their own homes, through remodeling and additions, the municipal infrastructure is deteriorating, and our efforts to improve it aren't keeping up," he said.

His other reasons for running were due to his concern with the lack of action on the renovation of Silver Spring.  "There doesn't seem to be a sense of urgency.  The streetscape has deteriorated, businesses have left, and this reflects badly on the community. We can and should have a vibrant, pedestrian friendly, shopping district."  Fehring believes his background in engineering and project management and long history of service to the village will be an asset on the board.  He has worked with and has great respect for outgoing Trustee Ken Berg, and felt his leaving is a great loss.

And, his wife encouraged him to run to get him out of the house. Whose wouldn't?

We spoke at great length about the re-development of Silver Spring.  Fehring is frustrated by the lack of urgency that has surrounded the process, noting that the Village has been talking about the issue for years and yet very little has been accomplished, while during the same time, Bayshore has been planned and constructed.    He believes that Silver Spring desperately needs new businesses, especially restaurants. 

We had a long discussion about how that could be accomplished, and Fehring tended away from monetary partnerships between the village, landlords and entrepreneurs, and instead wants to create regulatory environment through which businesses can prosper. 

"WFB probably took a step backward when Silver Spring properties were valued so highly.  This increases taxes and, of course, rents."  "Heinemann's was a great asset because it served as a community meeting place for decades.  Whitefish Bay needs to partner with businesses like that to accommodate their needs, make it work for them, for example, with outdoor seating space, alcoholic beverage sales, or increased hours of operation."

Fehring also said that it is important for existing Silver Spring merchants to be proactive in developing and enhancing their own businesses, and the Village officials should be willing to work with them to facilitate the improvements. 

He believes the Village should, on an informal basis, bring together strong community voices who can assist developers with their projects, and help communicate their ideas to the public. 

We spoke about eminent domain for a while, and generally speaking, Fehring is against the use of eminent domain except as a last resort, if a land owner was allowing a property to go unused for a protracted period of time, or when a single hold-out is preventing a desirable project from moving forward.  

As for the demolition of residences, or tear-downs, Fehring believes the historic preservation committee and architectural review boards have gotten the regulations "about right" although he noted that there remains opportunities to strengthen them.  While around 150 homes would qualify to be on the Village historic register, he believes that property owners should have rights to improve their buildings as they see fit, as long as it is not disproportionate to the neighborhood and has proper mass and scale and is sensitive to historic and architectural features.

As for my pet issue, night-time Trick or Treating, Fehring believes WFB should encourage the use of Neighborhood Associations, like Wauwatosa does.  Neighborhood Associations can do many communal events that bring the smaller areas together, including night-time Halloween celebrations.

Tom had a ton of things to say and I've tried my best to summarize our conversation.  I appreciate the time he took with me.  I will try to follow up with all the candidates later in the election cycle.

You might have missed this blurb on the WhitefishBayNOW website:

As of today, Julie Siegel, 42, of 5267 N. Diversey Blvd., is the first to file for one of the two seats available in April on the Whitefish Bay Village Board.  Incumbent Kenneth Berg announced he will step down. The other incumbent is Trustee David Fee.

With the dearth of village coverage from the print media, I'll step up to write about the April election in Whitefish Bay.  It's an odd position, and I remind all that I am not a journalist.  I will be as fair as possible in these beginning months.  I'll try to talk to each candidate and get their views on Whitefish Bay and its direction.  I will, on occasion, interject opinion, and will probably write endorsements at the end of the process. 

JULIE SIEGEL

I contacted Julie Siegel, our first candidate for the two spots on the Whitefish Bay Village Board of Trustees.  I spoke to her for about 45 minutes, and asked her a range of questions, from her educational background to specific issues that will be discussed in this election. 

Julie grew up in Shorewood, and moved to Whitefish Bay 16 years ago.  She has a Finance degree, as well as a Masters degree in Social Work from UW-Milwaukee.  She has previously worked in Real Estate, and had been working at St. Michael's as a social worker, but left her job two years back to attend to her family.

Her husband, Roger, works in real estate and has been recently been appointed to WFB's Community Development Authority (CDA).  Her father, Samuel Dickman, is the Village Board President in Bayside.  She said she'd considered running for Trustee before, and explained her father had encouraged her to investigate recently.

I asked about how her nomination process went .. she said her kids laughed at (with) her as she went into Sendik's and bumped into people she knew, to get the 20 signatures required for nomination.

Why is she running?  "I love Whitefish Bay," she said, "I love living here, it's a great place with good schools and a quality community."  She mentioned the 4th of July Parade and Great Pumpkin displays as some of her favorite civic moments. 

I asked for her thoughts on the re-development of Silver Spring.  She had attended the Panel Meeting in November, and found Joe Bartolotta's ideas on Silver Spring to be helpful.  She wasn't sure what she would like to see on Silver Spring, noting that, as Bartolotta had, rents are prohibitively high for restaurants to be successful.  She was generally accepting of creating a Business Improvement District (BID) Board, but wasn't sure if it was for the Trustees to form.  As an alternative, she suggested having one realtor in charge of marketing the district.

Generally, she said, it was important to keep the scale appropriate for any new buildings on Silver Spring, and that anything new be considerate of the immediate neighbors.  I did ask if she believed the "pace" of action on Silver Spring was too slow, too fast, or just right .. she had no comment because she was "new to the process". 

We also spoke about another issue that has concerned Whitefish Bay over the last few years, namely, the handful of homes that have been torn down to make way for new, bigger homes.  She didn't have a specific answer, but suggested that as long as the new homes fit the scale of the neighborhood, and that the developer is following the zoning regulations, it was acceptable.

Finally, she said she was going to research the issues of Whitefish Bay by talking to the Village Manager, and by going door to door to get a feel for what residents think is important.  She ended with the idea that she would work hard for the village, that she was open minded and willing to listen to concerns and find out answers to questions she didn't know.

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Admittedly, this is a very premature interview with of a candidate who had just filed nomination papers, and hadn't formed positions on the issues that face our Village.  I appreciate the time she gave to me, and will try to follow up with Siegel later to hear more specific answers on her vision for the village.

I would also like to add that Whitefish Bay needs candidates for these positions.  Government doesn't work well with politicians who run unopposed, when voters have no choices, and no ability to pick the better woman or man.    As Ken Berg leaves the board, he takes with him some 15 years of experience, and leaves a big hole to fill.  Whitefish Bay faces serious issues each year, and we need some of the best and brightest to step forward and lead.

I will find out the specifics, but I believe the deadline to file nomination papers is the first week in January, 2008, so the clock is ticking!