Tony’s Trial

Quick history: Last month the West Bend Common Council appointed the 1st District Alderman as Mayor.  This left the 1st Aldermanic District unrepresented, so the council set up a process to appoint a replacement giving applicants three weeks to submit applications.  Tony Turner submitted his application immediately.  I know and support Tony Turner.  On the last possible day, one other candidate threw his hat in the ring.  His name is Roy Justman and he is also the 1st District’s County Board member.

Here’s where we stand… tomorrow evening the West Bend Common Council will meet and interview the two applicants.  After the interview they will appoint the new Alderman for the 1st District.  I plan to be at the meeting and I encourage you West Benders to do so too.  As I understand it, each Alderman will get three questions.  I don’t know if there will be an opportunity for input from the people, but I hope so. 

The Merits:

As I see it, both Tony Turner and Roy Justman are qualified.  Judging by the statements that Justman made while running for County Board, he is more liberal on spending issues than Turner is, but he seems like a decent guy.  There are two things that bother me about Justman.  First, he got in at the last minute and professed to have been pressured to run.  This is in contrast to Turner who threw his name in immediately on his own accord.  As a resident of the 1st district, I want the guy representing me to have his heart in it instead of the guy who is apparently reluctantly stepping forward. 

Second, there is the issue that Justman sits on the County Board.  You see, West Bend’s new mayor is also the elected County Clerk of Courts.  If Justman were to be appointed, we would have a case where his support for the Mayor’s initiatives may be influenced by her actions as a County functionary and vice versa. 

Let me draw you an example… what if Alderman/Supervisor Justman needs the Mayor/Clerk’s support for an initiative to re-zone a parcel of land and the Mayor/Clerk needs the Alderman/Supervisor’s support for a budget increase for her department?  Could there be any back-scratching going on?  Or what about things where the City and the County balance their support for the same institutions like UWWC?  Would his thoughts of the City budget influence how he votes on the County’s budget? 

Ethically, he should recuse himself from these situations, but it would happen enough that it’s not providing the best representation for his constituents - especially when there is a perfectly qualified candidate available who doesn’t have these conflicts. 

The Politics:

Given Justman’s late entry into the race and his apparent closeness with the new Mayor and such, I fear that the fix is in and Tony Turner doesn’t have a chance.  But Turner has already said that he’s going to run for the seat next year either way.  In fact, he’s invited anyone to come chat with him on Tuesday at the library:

Thanks for the support

On Monday, I will have a public interview with members of the West Bend Common Council regarding my interest in serving as the next alderman for District 1.

I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to write letters to the editor, e-mailed and called their alderman or offered personal words of encouragement in support of my selection. I’m humbled by the positive reaction to my interest in this position, and to my message of cooperation and consensus-building that needs to be encouraged on the council.

There’s still time to help support my selection. To find out how, go to http://www.wbtonyturner.com.

Regardless of the outcome on Monday, I want to make myself available to the voters in District 1, and citizens throughout our community for an informal public meeting. As I’ve stated previously, if I’m not selected, I intend to run for the seat in April.

Please join me at the West Bend Community Memorial Library’s Tower Room on Tuesday at 7 p.m. to talk about the issues facing our community. I hope to see you then.

Tony Turner, West Bend

He may or may not be an Alderman at the time, but either way, he’s definitely set on representing the people of the 1st District.

(One side thought… correct me if I’m wrong, but should Justman be appointed, he would be up for Alderman AND County Board next April.  He can’t run for two offices so he’d have to drop one. UPDATE: I’m wrong.  He can run for both offices if he chooses.)

Anyway… if you’re a citizen of West Bend, please come to the Common Council meeting tomorrow and show your support for Tony Turner. 

1. Owen,
   In response to your side thought, you can hold and/or run for both a municipal and county office at the same time.  In Green Bay, 5 of the 12 City Councilmen also serve on the Brown County Board (the districts are identical and are elected on the same date).  The same holds true for town supervisors/chairmen and village trustees on county boards throughout the state, though it is frowned upon in some locales.  Anyhow, I hope Tony gets the seat.

   Posted by on July 15, 2007 at 2321 hrs




2. Thanks, Andre.  So it’s just for state/federal offices that they can’t be on the same ballot for multiple offices?

   Posted by Owen on July 16, 2007 at 0656 hrs




3. Didn’t Joe Leiberman run for two federal offices on the same ballot in 2000? I think you may be imagining a restriction on running for multiple offices....

   Posted by on July 16, 2007 at 0706 hrs




4. I think it’s a Wisconsin thing.  I remember that Grothman had to resign his Assembly seat to run for senate because he couldn’t be on the ballot twice.  I’ll look it up when I have a little time.

   Posted by Owen on July 16, 2007 at 0731 hrs




5. There is a long history in Washington County (and I assume other similar small counties) where muncipal officials also serve on county boards.  In most cases, they are not full-time jobs.  It seems a lot of them start out as town officials, and then develop an interest in becoming county board members. 

   Currently, Town of Barton Chairperson Richard Bertram, Town of Kewaskum Treasurer Dan Stoffel, Town of Polk Supervisor Harold Groth, Town of Trenton Chairperson Joseph Gonnering, Town of Wayne Treasurer Gerald Schultz, Town of West Bend supervisor Donald Bercham, and Village of Germantown trustee Melvin Ewert are all on the county board.

   I think years ago, West Bend councilman Arden Fierek was also on the county board, but that is only my recollection.

   Posted by on July 16, 2007 at 0804 hrs




6. Arden (Windy Fierek) was on the county board after he left the city council.

   Posted by on July 16, 2007 at 0843 hrs




7. I can understand it in small communities and when nobody else steps up, but West Bend has 30,000 people and another perfectly qualified candidate who does NOT have this conflict of interest.  Plus, this situation is a little different because the Mayor is also the County Clerk of Courts.  It’s not like he’d just be serving on two boards - he will be working with someone on one board with someone with whom he has to vote on her budget in on another board.  I guess they might be able to work it all out in an ethical way, but why even mess with it when there’s another qualified candidate available?

   Posted by Owen on July 16, 2007 at 0844 hrs




8. I’ve always suspected that the influence of town officials who also served on the county board brought us stubby county trunk highways in the middle of nowhere, like Hwy X in Farmington and Hwy O in Erin.

   Posted by on July 16, 2007 at 0912 hrs




9. I believe the standard is that a conflict of interest for officeholding exists when you draw a paycheck as an employee at or hold another office at the same level of government (i.e. municipal, county, state, federal), and one of the offices must be resigned, with few exceptions (for example, an alderman can serve as a pollworker for their municipality outside their district, as long as they do not vote on issues involving pollworker duties or compensation, give full disclosure, and receive a waiver from the municipality’s governing board).  Some states do allow a person to run for multiple federal offices (and some don’t), in which case only one position could be accepted after election and the others would be resigned.  You can run for multiple offices at the same time under many circumstances, but for obvious reasons it can look mighty bad to the electorate.

   Posted by on July 16, 2007 at 1037 hrs




10. Here it is.  Wis. Stat. 8.03(1).  Basically, a person can’t stand for election for two partisan races on the same ballot.  Multiple nonpartisan races are fine. 

    http://www.legis.state.wi.us/statutes/Stat0008.pdf

    Posted by Owen on July 16, 2007 at 1618 hrs