My Career in Town Politics, or, Retirement Lost

After a challenging and rewarding forty-year career in structural engineering—mostly with the large Midwest firm Flad & Associates where I was involved in technology focused projects—I semi-retired. This gave me time to enjoy doing projects on the home and acreage my wife Debbie and I had recently purchased in the town of Dekorra, thirty miles north of Madison, Wisconsin, where I had been working. This idyll did not last long.

It came on innocently enough. Rudy, a retired marine who had done some rock placement on the shoreline of our lake cottage, called me one day. He explained that he had heard me speak at one of the town board meetings where I had appeared asking the town to remedy a runoff-erosion problem. He thought I was just the man to help with a problem. He explained that the town had a caucus system for selecting candidates and there was an individual that had to be kept off the ballot for the good of the town. At a town caucus everything happens live that night. Candidates’ names are brought forth by nomination from the floor and if more than two are brought forth, voting by paper ballot reduces the number to two. If you want to get on the ballot you had best round up some supporters in case of voting. It is a system susceptible to manipulation, as I discovered. Rudy explained that all I had to do was attend the caucus and he would line up enough votes for me to keep the undesirable off the ballot. The plan was for the incumbent to win. I had great respect for Rudy, and after thinking it over for a week I agreed to the request. The caucus proceeded as planned. However, I only received a few less votes than the incumbent.

It was then that my wife Debbie took charge of the situation. She explained that I could win this thing. I retorted that I didn’t want to “win this thing,” that I had spent ten years chairing the plan commission of the town of Mazomanie some years before and I knew how much work these positions entailed. She countered that since I was now on the ballot, I needed to at least do something, or those who had supported me would be offended. Just a few things, she said—yard signs, a mailer, “pressing the flesh” at the waste transfer site. I reluctantly went along with the program.

Late on election night I looked at the returns posed on the county website and I was ahead by a few votes. I went to bed hoping that morning would bring the good news that I had lost. Morning only revealed that I had increased my lead and I was now Town of Dekorra Chairman! Having won, I now committed myself to do the best job I could with the position.

No sooner had I taken office when the town clerk, who had just won her election, resigned. She had been going through a divorce, and some in the town were complaining that her performance was being affected. The complainers continued to harass her and she quit in frustration. We went through a lengthy review process (all in public meetings, of course) and finally got things back to square one. Typically the clerk in a small town is the glue that keeps things running as he or she is the closest thing to a full-time employee and usually spends more time each day on town business than either the town chair or supervisors.

The next major issue was the completion of our comprehensive plan. A few years earlier the state legislature passed legislation that mandated any municipality that wanted to continue to be involved in land-use decisions to prepare and adopt a “smart growth” plan.

The intent of “smart growth” was to better utilize existing resources and infrastructure, to redevelop existing sites, and to expand on existing development rather than always initiating new development in untouched areas. The town had sought and received a grant with two other adjoining municipalities and was several years along in the process. Things had bogged down in the plan commission where the effort was being led. The other supervisors wanted me to take charge and conclude the process before time ran out on the grant deadline. The result was that the plan commission was pressured into concluding their work and handing it over to the town board. This unfortunately resulted in some hurt feelings that took quite some time to soothe.

One of the main goals of the plan was to preserve the rural character and open spaces that the town still had in spite of growing pressure to be a bedroom community for Madison. Two rather new programs were incorporated—clustering and transfer of development rights (TDR). For some years an individual could buy thirty-five acres of agriculturally zoned land and put a home anywhere on it they chose. Way back then it was thought that few would want to buy thirty-five acres, but that changed over time. So rather than have home sites dotting the landscape every thirty-five acres, the town decided that it would rather give the landowner the right to more home sites as long as they were smaller acreages, clustered together, and located in the least visually intrusive and least agriculturally productive portion of the property. TDR was a tool where the town could locate areas where more dense development could logically occur. In return for the right to develop, thirty-five acres for each seven lots would need to be purchased and deed restricted from development in areas designated for agricultural and woodland preservation. The town board took the plan commission draft of the plan and increased the incentives in both the clustering and TDR programs. The problem with our TDR program was that the county, who controlled zoning, would not allow geographically separated development and restricted lands. To top this off, a developer came to the town board late in the plan adoption process and convinced the board that he would make a model TDR development of forty-two home sites on 400 acres that he had recently purchased if we would just include it as a TDR area. This scale of development was not what I had envisioned happening for a town with a population of only 2,500. I argued against the proposal, and lost.

Late in the year one on the town’s longtime residents let me know he was retiring from the county board and had not been able to get anyone to run in his place. After making a number of calls and coming up empty handed, I decided to run rather than have the town unrepresented. Being unopposed I won and was assigned to the County Planning and Zoning and Land Records Committees. It was quite interesting to see development proposals from both the town and county perspectives. The county was in the midst of it own comprehensive plan and I became quite involved in the process.

Another large challenge was the town’s utility district. Interstate Highways I-39, 90, and 94 run through the center of the town, and the state’s two largest rest areas associated with the interstates occur in the town and had been targeted for major expansion for a number of years. Rather than have their own very large septic field, the town had suggested that it be given the money this would cost and the town would build a sewage treatment plant to serve both their needs and to support a more vibrant business district along the county road exit a mile south of the rest areas. This proposition had sat idle for some years, but sprang into life shortly after I was elected. I was skeptical at first, but after doing some research and determining that the state Department of Transportation (DOT) would provide two-thirds of the funding, I decided it was truly a win-win project and went full bore to make it a reality.

Many problems had to be overcome. Many property owners in the district whose property was zoned highway interchange wanted nothing to do with the project. That is, they did not want to contribute any of their money to be hooked up. The board held its ground and the district remained intact. The town needed to take out bonds for its portion of the cost and for that we needed electorate approval. I went on the speaking circuit, talking to such groups as the local Lions chapter to elicit their support. Fortunately, the matter passed. Another sticky problem was the site for the plant, which logically would be near the rest areas. At the time the interstate was built, excess farmland that had been purchased for right of way was given to the State Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The DOT thought it would be a simple matter to pay them for the portion of property needed to site the treatment plant and expand the rest areas. I kept asking how the land deal was going and was assured it would not be a big problem. It turned out to be almost a deal breaker. The DNR was not about to give up any land without a real sweetheart of a deal, partly because they felt the DOT had stiffed them in some past dealing. This set the project bidding back by almost a year, just in time for the large increases in petroleum and all other construction items. By the time we bid we had proposals come in at 50 percent over estimates. We had to ask the electorate for more money, and fortunately the DOT came through with some more funds. This year the plant and collection system became a reality and is now operational.

After a period of hibernation the 400-acre TDR development came to life. After seeing the developers’ initial layout, I became really upset, as the deed-restricted lands were not in blocks of property but were rather in strips and pieces remaining after the lots were laid out. The proposal was still in the plan commission and I could not speak out publicly. After conferring with the town’s attorney as to what I might do to get a better plan, select town consultants, including the town planner, engineer, plan commission chair, and me, met with the developer and negotiated a much more acceptable layout.

A subdivision of this size, in a wooded area with rolling hills that had been used by many for years, met with strong hostility. A faction in the town has--for many years--done everything in its power to thwart any additional residential development in the town. Although the avowed goal of keeping the town rural seemed idealistic, for them the ends justified any means, as I was to learn. They rounded up many folks to speak in opposition at the plan commission meetings. They formed a group that spread half-truths and outright falsehoods by an e-mail network. The wife of one of the plan commission members, who had been a past town chair and was very opposed to the development, was one of the ringleaders of the opposition.