Guiding Principles and Values:
• Our local government exists solely to serve the will of residents.
• Limited, small and cost-effective government preserves individual rights and freedoms.
• To respect and uphold property owner rights.
Accomplishments:
• Resident Input – Responsive to resident input and concerns. It is my job to respond to your questions and to help with your concerns.
• Road Funding – Eliminated the use of special assessments which had become financially dangerous to families and small businesses, and which resulted in six major lawsuits involving approximately 70 individuals and small businesses because of legal questions surrounding the applications practices used.
• Roadway Ditches and Swales – Supported policy to utilize roadway ditches and swales where applicable and when they can be easily maintained. They are generally more cost effective to build and maintain, reduce sediment and chemical disbursement into waterways, and do a better job of preventing downstream flooding than storm sewers. Their use is a best practice management tool that is being encouraged by DNR and UW-Wisconsin officials.
• Stormwater Drainage – Working to improve existing stormwater drainage issues and to prevent future problems in environmentally sensitive areas of our Town.
• Municipal Services – Currently working on a new water and sanitary sewer ordinates that eliminates the current inconsistent treatment of property owners and strengthens property owner rights.
• Financial Systems – Working cooperatively with staff and others to implement continuous improvement financial reporting practices.
Experience:
• US Army – (1968 – 1976);
• Employment – worked for a total of four Fortune 500 Companies;
• Part-owner – Berlin Foundry; $40 million annual revenue
• Work in retirement – Registered Financial Planning Advisor; small business planning and operations consultant.
Education:
BS in Economics – Pennsylvania Military College (1966)
MBA in Management – Widener University (1976)
CPA – State of North Carolina (1982)
Skill Sets that I Bring
As a result of my academic, professional, and business background, I have the financial and analytical skills needed to address the issues our Town is now experiencing as it has grown and become more complex.
Dark Store Decision
The issue in this case concerned how the Lowes store was appraised. What was the stores actual market value. The court concluded that the comparisons used by the assessors for Lowes were not adequate for assessing the value of the property. That a wide range of values for the Lowes property were determined by different assessors gets to the heart of the issue; That is, what are the standards for assessing these type of properties? Without a statutory standard to go by, the court correctly used its collective common sense in arriving at their decision. To the extent that Grand Chute would face such an issue, this courts decision effectively establishes a standard. However, the Dark Store theory also has a policy side to it that should be considered.
Lowes maintained that their store was in a declining retail area with several defunct stores nearby. If a municipality is seeing a declining retail area, it may want to keep it from declining further and live with the dark store assessment while they work on rehabilitating that retail area as opposed to having another important store close. When an anchor store is lost, the future cost is significantly greater to rehabilitate that retail area. This is a valid consideration since the property tax rate is uniform. It becomes a matter of which direction is the least cost to the municipality.
Why I am Running
The issues for the Town that exist now and will in the future confront the Town Board, are more complex because the Town is more metropolitan than it its rural past and the level of regulation both state and federal require supervisors to have analytical skill sets that match these new challenges. While in the past it has been adequate to simply rely on staff or a consultant, board decisions on matters now affect a more diverse population of residents and commercial enterprises. It is to these types of issues that I bring my MBA education, CPA, and my 55 years of financial backgroud and the analytical skill sets that these matters require.
The Town is going to face complex issues not only for roads, but also for water and sewer projects. It will require the board to understand the nature of the information that they are presented with by the staff and consultants in evaluating project recommendations.