By Kim McDarison

A member of the Whitewater Community Development Authority (CDA), as well as several members of the public, arrived at the podium during the Whitewater Common Council’s Tuesday meeting to enter comments regarding the performance of Whitewater City Manager John Weidl into the record.

Armed with a handout, which was distributed to council members Tuesday evening, CDA member Jeff Knight said he was bringing to council’s attention some concerns and “talking points” regarding “three points,” including a “review” of the “policy on how committee members can request agenda items for future engagements to offer guidance on policy,” along with a communication, which, he said, was distributed to CDA members by Weidl. Knight cited the communication as “maliciously inaccurate.” 

Further, he said, “because of issues that came up at the CDA, I am responding to John’s email, and additionally requesting three items be included at the next CDA agenda.”

Knight said his communications with city staff and other CDA board members “led to a fair amount of back and forth,” which, he noted, was provided in his handout for the council to review.

Knight spoke at length about his frustrations regarding activities taking place at CDA meetings, including, he said, a selection process regarding commercial brokers, and his conversations with area landowners regarding parcels of land that were, he said, being discussed for consideration for subdivision development. He offered ideas about possible sites and a process for engaging with landowners.

The full content from Knight’s 14-page handout, including his comments, letters between various city officials, and emails between himself, Weidl and others, is here: https://whitewaterwise.com/cda-member-knight-offers-comments-14-page-handout-to-council/. 

From the podium, Whitewater resident Geoff Hale, who said he wanted to followup on Knight’s comments, added: “I think if the city’s going to get into developing a subdivision they should first look at the past history.”

He cited development completed on the city’s west side, noting that it “was done at quite an expense and then there were, because of the investment, and the large overhead, eventually deals had to be made, like two for one, just to get the places sold. Anything that you do should have measurable results. It also should be treated like any other business. You’re in it either to break even or make a profit, and not lose money.”

Additionally, Hale talked about the ongoing restoration project at Cravath and Trippe lakes. He asked council members to reconsider spending $111,000 which had earlier been approved to remove cattails, calling the action a “basic bandaid in this area.”

He suggested council look into a service provider whom he said was from Alabama and had recently been hired by a lakeshore property owner to remove cattails.

Hale said that during his conversations with the individual from Alabama he had learned that the machine used by the individual, or perhaps one that was similar, could be employed to remove cattails from the entirety of both lakes, at a cost, the gentleman from Alabama had estimated, Hale said, of between $250,000 and $500,000.

“So my thought is if you could still pull the plug on this guy coming Monday, take that $111,000 and put it towards this guy in Alabama, or another similar machine, and have this major problem that you’re dealing with right now go away for maybe a maximum of half a million.”

Appearing at the podium, Whitewater resident Chuck Mills, referencing what he termed: “the John Weidl thing,” along with the city manager’s former place of employment and comments made by Knight, said: “I don’t care what Mukwonago has to say. I’ve been an employer for quite a long time and I’ve only had one person who ever left my employment that I ever had anything good to say about. So it’s all irrelevant as far as I’m concerned about Mukwonago.

“Secondly, in John Weidl’s defense, we probably wouldn’t have moved this aquatic center without him, and, of course, the rest of council, too, but he was a big, major part in going up against a … school superintendent. So I give him credit for that. I give him credit for moving businesses into this town, and getting things moving. Nothing has moved for a decade until he got here.”

Additionally, citing a recent decision made by Weidl to remove himself from a list of finalists for the position of village administrator in another community, Mills, addressing Weidl, said: “So, although we may have some debates and confusion on what’s going on around here, I’m glad you didn’t make your move to the new city. I hope you’ll be staying on with us for a while.”

Whitewater resident Ryan Oezer, from the podium, said, he, too, wanted to offer his opinion in support of Weidl: “I’ve lived here since 2011, I moved in and it was a small town and it’s stayed a small town — so really the last 13 months we actually had some things that are kind of exciting.”

Like Knight, Oezer, too, said he had provided council with correspondence in the form of an email, which, he said, received, in his opinion, little attention. 

Addressing the council, he said: “I can only assume 37.5% of you actually care about my opinion, or that my comments were heard. That’s kind of disheartening. It doesn’t take much to say, ‘yup, I received your message, duly noted.’ I’m not asking for agreement, I’m asking for recognition that my concerns are valid. There are a lot of things that we could do with additional revenue, like not barely make the bills next year. But it would be nice to see some other developments around here; something for our youth to do other than go to the aquatic center — it’s wonderful — maybe go to the skate park if there are not some unsavory elements down there at times. Maybe some large community gardens. Maybe doing some things like a food truck rally or barbecue cook-off to kind of piggyback on the chili cook-off.”

Further, he suggested the city explore building a splash pad, clearing its streets in the winter, and “making city funds available on a low- or no-cost basis to homeowners, and maybe this is already available, I’ll admit I’m not completely up on it, but we have some blighted properties that could use some cleanup and it might be impossible for those people, but if we could loan them, maybe we could bring the city up. And that’s all I’m looking for.” 

Returning to the topic of his correspondence sent to council members, Oezer said: “I sincerely hope that the remaining council members read my email. I hope the city attorney gets involved because comments were made that were slanderous against other possible businesses. If a lawsuit happens against the city that rests on Mr. Allen’s shoulders.”

The full content of Oezer’s letter, which has been submitted to WhitewaterWise as a letter to the editor, is here: https://whitewaterwise.com/attracting-businesses-and-the-role-of-government/.