There’s a nice story in the Washington County Daily News with West Bend Mayor Kraig Sadownikow reflecting on his time in office. A couple of statements really jumped out at me:

“I am super proud that we’ve cut the city’s debt almost in half; we went from about $85 million in debt to just below $50 in debt now and still continuing to decrease, while we increased our savings account by over 300 percent,” Sadownikow said. “The actual cost of doing business in West Bend is lower now than in 2011 when I was elected, so we’ve been able to do some fiscally prudent things that allows us as a community to start investing in fun things, like the riverfront, that can make a quality of life impact because we did some belt tightening over the last five to six years or so.”

[…]

“Right after I was elected, one of our state politicians called to congratulate me and said, ‘Remember, all you have to do is make 50 percent plus one person happy to be successful in politics,’” he said. “I thought, ‘No way, I live here; I grocery shop in West Bend and I need to shoot a heck of a lot higher.’ “So hopefully a significant majority can look back and say, ‘whether I love or hate the guy, at a bare minimum he worked hard and worked honestly.’”

From the Washington County Insider.

October 21, 2019 – West Bend, WI – Following a closed session during Monday’s West Bend Common Council meeting Mayor Kraig Sadownikow shocked administration and elected officials announcing he was resigning his seat effective immediately.

Sadownikow was first elected in April 2011.  He was reelected in 2014 and again in 2017. His seat is up for reelection in April 2020.

Sadownikow said in a statement:

“I will be resigning as Mayor at the end of the Council meeting tonight.  As you may know, I have been working hard to recruit a Marriott TownePlace and Office Building to the former Gehl HQ property.

The developers represent organizations I have worked with for more than 15 years on about a dozen hotels in multiple states along with also owning and operating office buildings together.

“I sought legal advice from the City Attorney as well as personally engaging two local law firms to give me their opinions on how to remain Mayor and have an active and personal role in the development.

None of the legal opinions are crystal clear and none of the advice sits well with me, except the option of resigning as Mayor so I am not involved with the upcoming City approval process.  I am having to choose between my business life and my service life.  In this case, the two scenarios cannot proceed together, and I won’t risk the good reputation of either by operating with any ambiguity.”

 

Sadownikow is president of American Companies in West Bend.

Wow. Sadownikow has been an excellent mayor who has done much for the City of West Bend. His leadership will be missed. I understand the reasoning behind his resignation. While I firmly believe that no corruption took place, Sadownikow’s decision to remove even the possibility of the appearance of corruption protects both himself and the city’s reputation.

Thank you for your service, Mayor Sadownikow.

Now it is time for someone else to step up.

Meanwhile, at the city…

During the April 1 council meeting aldermen unanimously adopted a new debt management policy that recognizes the city’s concerted effort to pay down debt.

“It does not bind and cannot bind future councils to borrow money or make financial decisions,” Sadownikow said. “What it can do is put a policy in place that recognizes the work that’s been done the last eight years to reduce the city’s overall debt.”

“Our goal is not just to be in the middle but to be a minimum of 10 percent better than that,” said Sadownikow. “If we want to develop a new industrial park, we may have to go into debt for a period of time to do that but the policy requires a public two-third vote to make that happen.”

The overriding theme of the policy, according to Sadownikow, is communication with the community.

“The idea is complete transparency,” he said. “Open discussion and community involvement, education, and advanced knowledge will be taking place if we’re going to break the debt policy.”

Sadownikow said the reason they adopted the new debt management policy was because city leaders realized how hamstrung they were with $84 million in debt.

“I get people in the grocery stores and others coming up to me saying ‘you can’t cut taxes forever.’ Well, part of that is true but, just like at home if you pay off your house you suddenly have $500 or an extra $1,000 or $2,000 to spend on other stuff…  that’s what we’ve been able to do in West Bend,” he said.

Reducing the debt, according to Sadownikow, means about $3 million to $4 million in principal and interest payments that the city can now use to invest back into employees, parks, and roads.

“We wanted to gain more financial independence to make other decisions around the community,” he said.  “Zero debt is a good idea but very few of us can own a house or a car if you didn’t utilize your own common sense and fiscal management.”

It’s wonderful to see this kind of leadership and responsibility in our city government!

Nice story.

Sadownikow is one of many unlikely combatants who have lined up against “dark store theory.” That’s the ominous-sounding term that administrators have given to a head-spinning legal argument taking cities across the U.S. by storm. Big-box retailers such as Walmart, Target, Meijer, Menards, and others are trimming their expenses in a forum where few residents are looking: the property tax assessment process. With one property tax appeal after another, they are compelling small-town assessors and high-court judges to accept the novel argument that their bustling big boxes should be valued like vacant “dark” stores—i.e., the near-worthless properties now peppering America’s shopping plazas.

It has been 6 years since this community first trusted then elected me to be its’ Mayor.  Thank you for re-electing me to a 3^rd term this past week.  Even though I ran unopposed, I used the occasion to reflect on our recent accomplishments and to listen to the public regarding their questions about the future.  Through those discussions, several common themes arose:

• City Staff – our leadership team has several new faces and new professionals dedicated to improving West Bend. We recently welcomed Michelle Hoey as our HR Director and Stephanie Justman as City Clerk.  Jay Shambeau, hired last fall, is up-to-speed and well on his way to being the leader of our organization.
• New Development is strong.
  • Soon to be opened Meijer and recently opened Delta Defense corporate headquarters will be joined by a 110,000 square foot home to Extra Space Storage on the City’s south side. Located in our Corporate Center, this state of the art, climate controlled facility continues the trend of high quality new development entering our market.
  • Nationally and locally a strong point of new residential development is in the apartment and rental markets. While the City has not rezoned any new green field property for multi-family since I have been Mayor, we are seeing strong demand for new, urban, non-subsidized rental units.  Generally geared toward both empty nesters and younger aged singles we expect properties already zoned appropriately and in-fill sites to be attractive.  Staff, the Council and Plan Commission are focused on following our strategic plan(s) to ensure a positive mix of single and multi-family options are available.
• Partnerships are a key to ensuring efficiently run operations and help create a strong link between city hall and the public.
  • After several years of planning, construction is underway on the shared Washington County/City of West Bend employee on-site health clinic. Housed at the County this partnership is a fantastic example of your governments breaking down barriers and working together for the benefit of our employees as well as the public.
  • I recently had the honor of addressing the full team of West Bend Mutual employees. This organization was born here and I am proud they choose to continue to call West Bend home.  They exemplify the very fabric of who West Bend is.  Their entrepreneurial spirit and high quality work environment is only matched by their commitment to being the best corporate citizen we could hope for.  Their nature and positive influence is felt in every corner of our community.
• Whenever I am at a community leader conference, without exception, our strong downtown environment is brought up. Other communities are begging to find out our ‘secret’.  I let them know the formula is simple.  A strong dose of gutsy entrepreneurs combined with great cultural attractions such as MOWA and an appropriate amount of public support equals a vibrant and exciting city center campus.
  • After 4 years of planning we have reached the stage where revitalizing the east river bank is becoming a reality. Pending final community fundraising efforts, we expect the two phase project to begin in late 2017 and be completed in the spring of 2018.  This combined with improvements unveiled in 2016 will continue the one-of-a-kind rebirth of downtown West Bend.
  • Strong interest in several remaining properties east of the river have the potential of adding significant tax base, high quality development and an exciting mix of commercial and residential opportunities. Progress such as this ensures a consistent flow of users to our businesses and other amenities.
• Finances are the backbone of what we do and also direct our future.
  • Since 2011, overall City Debt has been reduced by about 20%. Debt levels were uncomfortably high and significant efforts by staff and the Council are getting them to appropriate levels.  We have work to do but we are trending in the right direction.
  • Reserves, once dangerously low, are up about 40% since 2011 and are now within a range our advisors deem acceptable. This was a significant undertaking and will be a focus moving forward.
  • We continue to invest heavily into road maintenance. Once a line item of $750,000 we now allocate almost 40% more annually, or $1,040,000.  This increase combined with recently enacted Prevailing Wage Laws will help us continue to maintain more road miles each year.
  • Overall, the true Cost of Doing Business, our real cost of operating West Bend was 8.8% less in 2016 than it was in 2011. This means we have reduced debt, increased reserves, allocated more toward road maintenance while costing the taxpayers significantly less.  Thank you to all involved.  To me, this is how government should be run.

As we continue through 2017 and already look toward 2018 we will be working hard to ensure we are investing each dollar wisely while also planning ahead guaranteeing a strong future for West Bend.  Please stay tuned, stay involved and thank you once again for allowing me to serve.

Kraig K. Sadownikow

Mayor – City of West Bend

Below is a letter that the Mayor of West Bend, Kraig “Sat-on-a-cow” Sadownikow, sent to the council. Watching the city has been a bit boring in the past few years precisely because they have just been being fiscally responsible and good stewards of the taxpayers’ money. Now we are seeing some of the rewards. West Bend is in infinitely better financial shape than almost every other city and the services provided by the city are still more that sufficient. It can be done. Kudos to the mayor, council members, and city staff for their leadership. I’d like to see some of this kind of leadership over at the school district and county…

Hello Council – I know municipal numbers are boring to most people, but the discussion last night about the City’s Fund Balance was really important. 

In 2011 and ‘12 we had an 11% Fund Balance.  This means 11% of our annual budget was in a reserve account for emergencies.  Moody’s Bond Rating Agency along with Baker Tilley, our Financial Consultants recommend a minimum of 17% otherwise our bond rating was in jeopardy.  These are not small dollars.  Each 1% equates to about $250,000.  Moreover many comparable municipalities are in the 25-30% range…….we really had a long way to go.

The Council took action in 2013/14, to put in place a policy that forced us to grow to the minimum of 17% and then requiring public action to drop below that amount in the future.  We hit 17% in 2015 and have grown to the 22% we are at now……..basically doubled our reserves in 4 years, adding about $2,500,000.  This was accomplished without raising taxes, while also increasing funding for Road Improvements by 40% over the same time,  while reducing City debt by over 20%, while maintaining a competitive salary and benefit package for employees and maintaining high quality services for our constituents.

Congratulations and Thank You to all of you along with our staff.  This work will begin paying financial dividends in the near future.

Additionally, I took a look at unemployment statistics recently and found that  November unemployment was 3.2%…….5th best of the 32 largest communities in the State.  Top 3 are usually Sun Prairie, Madison and Fitchburg due to UW and State gov’t…..we beat communities like Neenah, Appleton, Brookfield, etc.  In March of 2011 we were at 11.1% and 3rd worst in the State, only ahead of Racine and Beloit.

While the pure unemployment rate is better for everyone, the key in West Bend is our skyrocketing up the chart comparing us to other ‘large’ cities in WI.  Really good trend.

I know spending money is more fun than not and saving money is harder than buying new things but the decisions we have made in the recent past are putting West Bend in a better financial position for the future….hopefully the near future.  Because we have made sound financial decisions, the rebounding economy and increased development will compound our positive trends.

Every constituent, staff member, alderman and even Mayor has a ‘pet project’ or two that they feel strongly about.  Let’s stay focused on investing in items that have a long term benefit to the wellbeing of West Bend and are prioritized in order of Public Safety, Infrastructure and Quality of Life.

Thank you again for working hard to leave West Bend in an even better position than we found it.