 Good evening and welcome to the forum for the City Aldermanic Districts 2 and 8. This event is sponsored by the Sheboygan Branch of the American Association of University Women. AAUW is a nonpartisan organization. Our mission is to empower girls and women and promote equity through advocacy, education, and research. We do not endorse candidates, but we do take positions on issues and have been instrumental in legislation for improved opportunities for women and girls. The timekeeper for tonight's event is Alan R. Young. The moderator for the forum is Julie Koenig. Julie earned her PhD in psychology and women's studies from the University of Michigan. For over 20 years, she has taught psychology at the college level, including her current position at Lakeshore Technical College. She is the faculty co-chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee at LTC. She also serves as public policy DEI co-chair for the Sheboygan Branch of the American Association of University Women. Julie strives to promote well-being and equality for everyone through her teaching, research, and activism. Our candidates tonight are Roberta Filicki-Poneski, who is running for the seat in District Number 2. Her opponent declined to participate. Running for the open seat in District Number 8 is Zachary Rust. His opponent also declined to participate. I'll turn it over to Julie. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. We'll begin with introductions from our candidates. You'll have three minutes to introduce yourself and explain overall why you feel you're a good fit for this position. So let's start with Zachary. I'm Zach Rust. I'm running for city council for district 8. I am a union electrician with the IBEW 494, and I have lived in Sheboygan for the last five years with my wife and my two rescue dogs and rescue cat. Members in my district come from a very diverse cultural background, and we also have a diversity of homeowners and apartments. I am lucky enough that I am a homeowner. I do recognize, though, that affordable and safe housing is not given for all of us. I want residents in my district to have safe and affordable homes for their families. I want workers to have the right to organize and gain and find gainful employment and well-paying careers so they can create a life for themselves and their family that they can be proud of. I also know residents in my district and across the city care about the quality of our roads. As older person, I would work to secure for more funding to repair and maintain our city streets. In Sheboygan, we are incredibly lucky to have such beautiful parks and a lakefront. I want to protect these natural spaces for future generations, and as older person, I will continue to fight for more green space for all of us to enjoy. I will work hard for everyone in my district, and my door will always be open for those who want to talk. I would appreciate your support in this upcoming election. Thank you. Navra Berder. Thank you. I would like to thank the Sheboygan chapter of AAUW for hosting this event. I am, however, disappointed that my opponent is not here to share his views. I am a retired financial advisor from Robert W. Baird here in Sheboygan. I am currently the older person for District 2, having served in that position since July of 2020. I am the Vice President of the Common Council and the Vice Chairperson of the Finance and Personnel Committee, elected by my peers. I sit on the Joint Review Board, which is tax incremental financing with representatives from the county, Lakeshore Technical College, and the Sheboygan Area School District. I also sit on the Capital Improvements Commission. Appointed by five mayors, I also serve on the Sheboygan Redevelopment Authority. I enjoy working with my council colleagues and our dedicated city department heads. I have the desire and the skills to be the representative for the district. I moved to Sheboygan with my husband and infant son when my husband was offered a teaching position at UW Sheboygan. We raised our two children here and have been heavily involved in the community in various ways ever since. As the city grows more urban and diverse and the area adapts to changing needs, changing times, the city holds values that make this community unique. Whether it's taking pride in our lakefront and riverfront, supporting unique resources like the Mead Library and Uptown Social, there are many groups and organizations that contribute to the fabric of our community and to our quality of life. I have an interest in being part of that continuation of the supportive community that we experienced. Thank you. Now we'll go into the questions and we'll be rotating the order so you're not always the first person speaking. But it does mean you have to go two in a row sometimes. So, Roberta, you get our first question first, then Zachary. And you may have mentioned some of this in your introduction, but if you don't mind indulging us, why are you running for the council and what is the one best contribution that you will bring to the council? Well, I'm running because one, I'm already there and I like the job. And two, I have a unique perspective because I have come out of the financial industry and my ability to, for example, understand bonding, understand why we need tax and criminal financing districts, helps me to understand how we can move this city forward in a fiscally responsible way as well as innovatively. My husband and I have also lived here for many years and I have always said this community is human scale and it is a welcoming community. And I would like to see it remain that way. Thank you, Zachary. I think I'm a great represent for the city because I'm, as a union electrician, I'm working class. I work eight hours a day. I get paid an hourly wage and I feel like a lot of people who run for these kinds of positions are, you know, upper management style. And they may not have the voice that I could bring to council that's unique and different. And I also think that that it's just a very important thing that we can always grow upon is listening to more of our working class residents in our city. And I'm right because I want to help improve and create more affordable housing in our city. And I want to be proactive on road repair and replacement. And I want to keep protecting expanding our park systems. I find that very important. My wife and I love to walk through parks with our dogs. And I think everybody in the state of Chicago again enjoys utilizing all the green space that we have. I also want to continue to help our small businesses during this time. And I would love to be more of a voice for organizing efforts throughout the city. And I feel like that is a very important voice that we need. Thank you. And Zachary, you'll begin with this one as well. What are the three most important challenges facing the city council? I was saying before, we have a labor shortage. And I think that the best way we can combat that is to allowing workers to have more of a voice in their workplace. And I also think that public transport to our workplaces needs to be expanded upon. Like Kohler and Johnsonville, our public transportation doesn't go out to those places. And some people may feel like if they don't have a car, they can't work in these areas in these jobs. And affordable housing is an obvious must in this day and age. We have so many nice apartments and, you know, all these great things, but you can't work $16 or $17 an hour and pay $1700 for a one-bedroom apartment. And I want to help create a safe community for all of our residents. I think that the Save She Boy Again has a great program going with the neighborhood associations. And I would love to see that expand. And I would love to help build upon that. I know there's one by my house, and I think that's an important to create a dialogue between all of our neighbors and ourselves. Thank you, Roberta. Actually, I agree. One of the biggest challenges is employment. And there aren't enough people for the number of jobs that we have available to us in the city. The second is a little bit more fiscal. And it relies upon the state infrastructure that puts funding caps and levy caps. It's very complicated. And we don't want to go into it now, and I don't even want to go into it sometimes either. But it puts a cap on what we might want to strive for. And the city does work every month they meet with their representatives at the state level to say, look, how can we work together to make this work better for both of us? So the funding and the levy limits are a significant thing. And the other thing is the third is we're an older city, and we have aging infrastructure. Think roads, think bridges, think community buildings, and some of them are 40, 50, 60, 70 years old. So we have to have a consistent plan to just like you would at home. You know your roof is going to last for so many years. You have to have a plan to be able to replace the roof on your house. So the city likewise needs to look toward a legitimate and cohesive capital improvements plan. Thank you. And Roberta, you'll also do this next question first. What do you envision as the most appropriate development of the former Armory site? The Armory site has been much talked about over the years. One of the things that folks might not know is where the Armory sits used to be the Sheboygan River. Many, many years ago before you and I, the river was we, they moved the river. They moved the river further south. So right now that property is tied up in federal and state issues because it's quasi-waterway, even though there's no water there now. However, if we can work through all of that, I would think that some mix of there are town homes, apartments to the north of the Armory property. So putting perhaps some town homes on the north side or the west side of that property. And initially several years ago we had a proposal to do a boutique hotel so that the bottom of the hotel would be retail restaurant bar. And that particular property is very well positioned to bring people from the lakefront up Pennsylvania Avenue to 8th Street for all of the amenities on 8th Street. So whatever is developed there should be consciously developed to be a walking way toward more amenities that our city has to offer. And it's a combination of many things and hopefully there is a developer out there who would love to do that. Thank you, Zachary. I would agree with the alder. I would like to see townhouses or housing of some kind there. And I would also like to see something similar to the city green that we have currently where they have the town homes or apartments right behind it. And people can go out and enjoy that space for the community. I think a lot of people utilize that especially in the summer when they have the summer concert series come through. I think that anything similar is a great idea. I mean, I'm always open to ideas, but I think that we should utilize that space for housing personally. Okay, and Zachary, you'll begin our next question. The city is increasingly diverse, ethnically, religiously, in gender and in many other ways. We see this reflected in our neighborhoods and school classrooms, but not yet reflected in the government and civic leadership positions. How would you include and encourage citizens from these groups to serve on committees and participate in city government? It's a straight white man running. I would love to build a bridge with these communities. And I think that we need to show them how having a narrative with their council people, say council people and can affect their communities individually. We may not, saying up here, realize what issues certain areas of the city have unless residents come up and talk to us. We aren't out in every part of the city every single day. I would love to create maybe a working group with residents that are culturally diverse in my districts, especially. And, you know, as older person, I would love to meet with them. And even once a month, once every two months, just having that meeting and creating a narrative is so vital. And I think if the more we show that city government can work for not just the people in city government, the more they're going to be willing to and want to participate in local politics. Thank you, Roberta. Currently, and I just, I just looked at the 2020 census. Currently, 2020, that was the last that was published so far. 80% of the city is white. And as of last year, 50% of the Sheboygan area school district think young people under 18. 50% are minority. 18% are English language learners. And 38% are reduced to free lunch, meaning they have significant financial issues in their household. It's a changing scene, and it will change very quickly. And we need to do a much better job of engaging people where they are, not where we want them to be, engage them where they are, and start at City Hall. We can do some simple things with employment. We can do some things with, we already have, we've had diversity, equity and inclusion programs and issues that were required for all city employees. We can focus on the 17 or 18 commissions and boards that ask for representatives from the city. And if you're not sure about them, you can call the mayor's office and he won't like me saying that. But there are 17 or 18 boards that might fit your, your skill set. And you would be a great asset. So if that's at all interest of you, I would encourage you to volunteer for one of those. And by all means, reach out to your elders. The, the emails and the phone numbers are published. Offer your services. Ask, ask to be of help. And we would be delighted to have you. Thank you. And Roberta will begin the next question. Milwaukee, West Bend, Racine and Carcana are offering incentives to city employees if they live in the city. Do you support this plan for Sheboygan? That's an interesting question. I am not sure that I would partly because if I am working next to a person who is doing exactly the same job as I am, and they are earning more than I am, I wonder why. My colleagues who are on the other side of that question would say yes, but they should be in the city. They should have skin in the game and we should reward them for that. I would need to be convinced that two people doing the same job should earn a different amount of money. Thank you. Zachary? I'm going to be a little different. I don't know if maybe a financial package would be the way to go for something like that. I think maybe we'd have to look and see what kind of benefits or unique opportunities we could give these people. But also in the same breath, I wouldn't support it if we didn't have a budget for it. I would have to see the city budget and we'd have to really talk about it as a city council and see if we could make something like that happen. But until we have a budget that we can be like yes, we can offer people who live in the city something a little bit more, whether it be some kind of benefit package, I don't know if I can afford it. I would support it until I could see that. Thank you. And Zachary will begin the next question. How can we maintain safe neighborhoods? Like I said in my opening statements and for the first question, the neighborhood associations that have been popping up all over the place I think are absolutely wonderful. There's one this upcoming Tuesday, if you live in the Farnsworth area, there's going to be a police officer there. I would love to see you. I will be there myself. I think that it is a great opportunity to meet your neighbors and have dialogue so that we can create a better atmosphere for all of us in Sheboygan. I think that is such an important thing and something that we can really grow on. Not just as the safety of Sheboygan, but everybody as people. Thank you, Roberta. Can you repeat the question? Sure. Thank you. How can we maintain safe neighborhoods? My answer is substantively the same. Of the neighborhood associations in the community, there are currently 12 active ones. Three of them are in my district. And I do go to those meetings. And so do representatives from City Hall and so do representatives from the police department. In every one of those meetings, the police ask for issues that are important to the folks, whether it's the speeding car or the funny visits at 2 a.m. to the house that's dark. They want to know what's going on in the neighborhood. And the neighbors themselves begin to cohease and understand that they have a vested interest in keeping their neighborhood safe. Now, having said that, our city vis-a-vis our city 10 years ago is much safer. Our ratio of violent crimes, which is crimes against people. We have far more crimes against property, you know, the theft, the car breaking. And it's about four to one. We have more property vandalism kinds of issues than we do crimes against people. And I think the police have been diligent about it. They are also very vested in those community neighborhoods. It makes the policing effort much easier for them when they know people, they can knock on the doors. You can talk to them first name. One of my officers is also the dog person. He has the canine unit. First time I walked past his car and the dog growled, I went, oh, ooh. It's just, it makes a difference when you can greet a policeman by first name and you don't feel intimidated about calling. Thank you. Roberta will begin the next question. What ideas do you have for bringing more people and businesses to the downtown? How would you revitalize downtown Sheboygan? Thanks. I used to have a business in downtown Sheboygan, a PR and marketing firm. The first thing you do about businesses in downtown is don't lose the ones you have. And to that point, the city council just, it was either the last session or the one previous allocated an additional $160,000 under the federal ARPA money so that small businesses could write grants so they can stay afloat until the economy boosts itself back up. Especially hard hit have been restaurants and bars during the shutdown. They literally had to throw out all of their produce, throw out everything that was in the refrigerator and freezer and they don't have the cash flow to put the stuff back. So there have been a lot of poignant grant applications saying help us, we really want to stay here. Secondly, it is often seen that the growth in downtowns are native born. So your friend, your neighbor, the person at your church who is thinking about a business, by all means encourage them. The Sheboygan County Economic Development Corporation has a business person that will help you write a business plan. The redevelopment authority has startup money so that it's gap funding. You go to the bank and the bank says we can loan you this much but not that much and we're going to create two jobs. So there are mechanisms that would help. But again, most downtown businesses are boutiques and most boutiques start homegrown. Thank you, Zachary. I agree, Walter. Like she said, we've got to make sure we protect the ones that are already there and make sure that they're successful, especially during the last two years. It's been hard for a lot of people and I think that's a very important thing. I think we also should find more unique businesses. We have the Axe Bar that opened a few years ago or a year ago on Indiana. I think that's a great business and obviously it's proven to be moderately successful every time I drive by it. It's busy as can be, it looks like. And I also remember in 2021, we had the pop-up storefronts and I remember my wife and I would go and walk into these and some of them were really great ideas. And I think it gives people that opportunity to see if, first of all, if they want to run a business and it gives them a great space to open their business that they want to open. I think that we should keep investing in things like that. I mean, those are, and that's a great opportunity that the city offered businesses that may have just been online only and to make that next leap into a natural storefront. Thank you. And Zachary, we'll begin the next question. How can the city repurpose the big box buildings that have been empty for years, such as the pick and save buildings on Calumet and South Business Drive? From what I understand, the city doesn't own these buildings. I think that's a big point. I think we can maybe work with the owners to try and help them find something to go into those buildings. I think it's hard for city council to go up to an owner of that property and be like, you need to put something in here. Don't care if you lose money on it. Put something in. I think we just need to have a narrative with those owners and create an environment where they can put something in there. Thank you, Roberta. Similarly, the city can encourage development. They can help facilitate in some instances they can provide some kind of financial support. But the city is not a developer. Developers are people who put their own money together. Bring it to a place. Invest it where they can presume they will get a return on their investment. And then they will move forward on the project. We have had some success. The Shopco big box out near the mall is going to have a Hobby Lobby and a Ross's dress for less. The developer gets the people who move into their development. So it's like three times removed to get a retailer into our community. But they developed a position, a building in Fond du Lac. And then realized that Sheboygan also had this vacant building and came here. And interestingly enough, the investment here was a larger investment for them because we were a robust community, which was really kind of fun to hear. But they will be remodeling and they will be moving. And as to the big box on the south side, we don't own it. We can encourage. But it appears at this point in time that there's not a great deal of impetus to fill it up. Thank you. And Roberta will begin with the next question. How can Sheboygan attract and retain young talent? And how can we retain and service companies that want to expand? The city is under 25 years old and obviously the 18 years and under are in school here. But first we have to have a place for young people to live. They might not want to live with their parents or their grandparents or their aunts or their uncles or whatever. Which means that we need, we need apartments. We need affordable housing so that the younger people who are just getting their feet wet in the economic cycle of the world can sustain themselves here independently. The city did a housing study and it was indicated that within seven to eight years we're going to need about 3,000 more living spaces. Whether it be individual homes or apartment buildings or condos or multifamily living houses and senior housing. So we need, somebody said to me, why are we building all of these apartment buildings when we have sustained or lost population? And I said, the reason we have sustained or lost is there's nowhere for people to live inside the city limits. So we are working diligently to provide housing, both affordable housing, senior housing, and systematically moving forward to create new niches and spaces with new kinds of designs, pocket neighborhoods, condo developments to keep the city moving forward and as vibrant as it has been in the past. Thank you. Zachary? Just like Alder Roberta said, we have to keep investing in housing. It's a must. Like I said in the opening, I am truly lucky that I am a homeowner in Sheboygan and I got in it when the market was hot but still gang to where it is right now. I also think that we have a lot of entertainment in Sheboygan and I think as long as we keep pushing for more entertainment things that maybe are a little bit more unique to maybe a bigger city, I think we can create an environment where young people want to stay in the city as well and raise a family because they see all these great things that we have as a city. I think that, I mean, I'll say I work to push for better wages but City Council has no control over that and be more of a voice for helping people and trying to help work with companies to understand that but I think affordable housing is the biggest thing and I think finding entertainment for our residents is another big thing. Thank you. And Zachary will begin the next question. How can the city reduce the number of homeless people? What can be done to assist these individuals? I think we have to work with the county to create more services that we can offer to everybody. I think that we also need to invest in addiction help, invest in social workers and I think those are very important things whether it is having a social worker or two on hand with the police department all the time so they can come to these calls and really work with these people and understand where they're coming from. I think that those are such important things. I mean, we have some great programs to help homeless people in Sheboygan but we can always do better. I mean, there are a lot of non-profit organizations and I think the city and county can do more to invest in these as well. Thank you. Roberta? I agree with my colleague here at the table. One of the things that is popping up around the state and indeed around the nation is pairing police workers, police men, police women with social workers so that the first response for a call is not someone with a gun and a holster on their hip and there are some stunning statistics and I don't have them at my fingertips but in the larger communities in the state of Wisconsin where police calls, police proper calls went way down because they had a specific task force of social worker first responders and there are repetitive calls often from the same person, from the same family and pretty much they know what they're going to meet when they get there so investigating that and the other is again working with the county the city county has a joint dispatch for 911 calls and there has been discussion about placing a skilled social worker on the 911 network if you will when the calls come in so that the social worker can screen whether it's indeed a police call, a fire call and obviously there are trained 911 people right now but adding a social worker at the very onset of a phone call and having that particular social worker or a follow-up team of workers move through the system and assist the person who obviously has multiple needs and needs to be handled with multiple organizations and we do have some very fine not-for-profits in this community who are working diligently to handle that issue Thank you and Roberta will begin the next question What are the greatest assets of the city of Sheboygan and how would you build upon them? Well as anybody who's ever worked with a real estate person they say location, location, location and we have a great lake in our side yard and that is our greatest natural asset and that asset needs to be enjoyed it needs to be protected we can lead with that asset we are the fresh water surfing capital of the world I think and we need to appreciate that we also need to spend a bit of thoughtfulness about keeping our environment sustainable keeping it clean this city just entertained a solar farm in one of our industrial parks so we have a responsibility with that with that great lake and then I guess our next greatest asset I don't guess I know our next greatest asset are our people we are a hard-working group we are middle America we are core values we live in a city that is human scale and we like it that way so just that stick tuativeness that we have as a community I think will take us far Thank you Zachary I'm going to lead with our residents we have such a culturally diverse like Alder Roberta said earlier our young people are 50% of them are minorities I think that is such a wonderful thing in our city I think that is really a truly an explanation of what America is like we are I was always told growing up we are the melting pot of the world I think that is such a great thing I think we as Alder Roberta said too we are hard-working people we have core values and we all need to keep going on that and the lake is definitely our greatest natural asset I know the Edgewater plant is closing in the next few years I personally would love to see more beachfront that's just me for that space but I think that we need to keep preserving and protecting the lake that we have and the front that we have because it is so important for all of us I think also we have some really like I said before unique businesses for a city our size three sheets is a pretty big brewery I would say I think it's a great brewery we have Paradigm Coffee which is a nice little coffee that's pretty unique you'd only see in a larger city I think and I think as long as we keep building on unique businesses similar to those I think Sheboygan is heading in the right direction Thank you The next question The city's marina has always been a financial burden on the taxpayers contrary to the rosy predictions when it was being built it is still two to three million dollars in debt many of the docs have never been leased ice damage is a big cost in severe winners what is the future of the marina as it continues to struggle from what I've gathered from talking to people that know that it made more it made money last year from what I was told and I think that it's proven that a lot of people want to utilize it I think maybe people in the beginning were a little apprehensive but now that they've seen that business can see that they can utilize this space and invest in it I think that it's still a worthwhile investment Roberta again the marina is a corollary to our greatest asset which is our waterfront and my colleague is right it did make money this past year and if you recall we have had multiple years of super duper high water levels unseen in decades in the Great Lakes and it is now receded to a more moderate level there has been some damage to docks docksides which is to be expected the marina was built in the early 90s and again like any infrastructure it needs to be maintained it needs to be supported and it needs to be cared for I think we should tread carefully about what we do with the marina again because it fronts one of the unique assets that our community has and I think it's an important asset thank you and I know you'll be sad to hear this but this is our last question of the evening we could stick with the two of you all night but we want to be fair to you so this will be our final question and this begins with Roberta how can the city generate revenue other than increasing property taxes we can generate more revenue by getting more tax base growth which means attracting more businesses maintaining the industries that we have encouraging those industries to grow and the tax base is we all understand tax base because we get our we get our tax bill every year but taxes are spread all around the city so we need to understand what portion comes from where and continue to expand so when a developer comes calling and somebody says why are you giving them $200,000 to create $250,000 to create 10 jobs alone we say because they create jobs they add to the taxes that those people pay buying things here and they expand their own base within this community so I think growth conscious growth and specifically guided growth to a plan growth to a plan is how we can expand our tax base and the other is basically it's revenue sharing which is again goes back to the state in the very complex formulas whereby the state collects state tax and then shifts it back to communities within Wisconsin so we need to keep working on that space also thank you Zachary like Alter Rivera said we need to we need to bring in people and make sure that they stay we don't want Sheboygan to continue to be a place where people start their careers and then leave after 5 to 10 years we want Sheboygan to be a place where people feel comfortable and want to stay here for the rest of their lives we have so many great stories from our senior citizens in the city they're like you know I came for a hot second and now I'm here for 35-40 years you know like I think we need to create an environment for that to happen that's obviously an easy way to expand our tax base having people stay here and more business opportunities obviously the more businesses that we have in the city the more that they're going to pay taxes and also like