By Kim McDarison
Seated in the conference room on the second floor of the Whitewater Municipal Building Monday, newly installed interim City Manager John Weidl said he has been spending his time meeting with department heads and finding his way around the city.
Installed Tuesday, Aug. 16, as the part-time interim city manager, he took the city’s helm a week ago Wednesday, working some 20-24 hours per week. His terms of employment with the city, contracted through public sector staffing firm GovTemps USA, will expire on Nov. 4, but, Weidl said, he has already made the city council aware that he is interested in the permanent city manager position.
A sister company of the temp agency through which he is hired, GovHR USA, has begun a nationwide search to fill former City Manager Cameron Clapper’s position, and Weidl said, he plans to submit his application to be considered for the job.
Right now, he said, he is focused on issues that immediately affect the city, citing the upcoming budget cycle and the recently approved EMS staffing referendum question, which will come before the city’s voters in November.
“We are in the annual budget process right now and we are currently doing two budgets: one with the referendum passing and one without it passing, and the budget and the referendum have hard deadlines,” he said, adding that the fall general election will be held Tuesday, Nov. 8., which, he noted, is just four days after his contract as the interim city manager expires.
From Illinois, with Walworth County ties
Born in Hoffman Estates, Ill., Weidl said he grew up in Woodstock and Huntley, Ill., graduating from Huntley High School in 2001.
“Then 9/11 happened,” he said. The event weighed on his mind, he added.
He had enrolled in the University of Wisconsin-Parkside and had begun taking classes, but his mind was on the infamous attacks and he felt compelled to serve, he said.
His desire to serve was influenced in part by the actions of his paternal grandparents both of whom had served during World War II in the U.S. Army Air Corps, he said.
By December, he was serving in the U.S. Air Force. He was stationed near London at Royal Air Force (RAF) Mildenhall, where he served as a mechanic and spent a year, between 2002 and 2003, in Iraq traveling on convoys with the U.S. Army.
“Air Force personnel did joint combat missions with the Army,” he said, adding that as a mechanic, he fixed “everything that didn’t fly.”
His full tour lasted three years and six months, he said, earning him eligibility for the Montgomery GI Bill, which provided him with resources he could use to pay for college.
In 2005, Weidl returned to the United States and began classes at Northern Illinois University (NIU).
Not sure where a career path might lead, he said he chose an undergraduate course of study in political science and European history as “passion projects.”
While taking a local government class, his professor identified a proclivity and encouraged him to explore the subject.
Weidl graduated with a bachelor’s degree from NIU in 2009. He next entered into a master’s program at NIU, which came with a mentorship component through which he met Joshua Schoemann, who, Weidl said, formerly served as the city administrator in Princeton and is today the administrator in Washington County.
After completing an internship in Lake Zurich, Ill., and graduating with a master’s degree in urban management in 2011, Weidl began working within city administration in Princeton, serving over the course of his nearly three-year tenure there as the city’s director of public works and its administrator/clerk/treasurer.
In 2013, he said, he took a position in Mukwonago as the village administrator/economic development director. He left the position in March of last year.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported in April of 2021 that Weidl had signed a non-disparagement agreement with the village. The full story is here: https://www.jsonline.com/story/communities/waukesha/news/mukwonago/2021/04/13/former-mukwonago-village-administrator-john-weidl-talks-resignation-non-disparagement-agreement/7129440002/.
Weidl told the Journal that he had worked for “12 different permutations of the village board,” and that the terms of the non-disparagement agreement only affected the “current village board and its officials.” He said that working with the village board and staff had been “an absolute pleasure,” noting that, through the election process, over time the board had changed, further noting that “change is inevitable,” and “It’s (the board’s) privilege to choose their own leadership as they pursue their vision.”
Citing his comments made to the Journal, Weidl said Monday that it’s not uncommon for municipal administrators to change positions, noting that, on average, they tend to stay with a single municipality for less than five years.
Weidl said he made a career choice and commitment to serve in local government because “it’s the purest form of government; it’s where the rubber meets the road.”
National and state politics often get more attention, he said, but at the local level, that’s where everyday problems that affect people’s lives are addressed.
“At the local level, the concerns are with making sure there is water coming out of your pipes, and that the community has EMS, and safe streets to go to and from work. That’s what keeps me coming back to local government. I think it’s important.”
While working in Princeton, Weidl met his wife, Kristina. The couple lives in Elkhorn, arriving there in 2016. They married in 2019. Kristina is a fourth-grade teacher within the Mukwonago school system.
The couple enjoys outdoor activities, including hiking, cycling, and Kristina is a triathlete. She swam 100 miles last year, Weidl said.
Weidl said his father died from illness while he was in college. Last summer, he said, his mother was diagnosed with cancer.
He paused his career, taking a job at Evergreen Country Club in Elkhorn as a bartender and manager. The move allowed him time to care for his mother toward the end of her life in her Lake Geneva home, he said.
The position as interim city manager of Whitewater is his reemergence back into public service, Weidl added.
“Public service, it can be an all-consuming job, and taking care of my mother was an all-consuming job, and you can’t have two of them,” he said.
He described taking time to care for his mother as “the single best decision I made. There are certain things in life you only get to do once and they deserve your attention. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
While Weidl grew up in Illinois, he has ties to Walworth County, he said. His paternal grandparents moved to Walworth County after they retired, and he has fond childhood memories of visiting Lake Geneva and playing on the beach. Also, he said, his mother lived in Lake Geneva for seven years before she died.
In Whitewater, Weidl said, he sees an opportunity to utilize his skills and work in the area where he and his family have made the commitment to live.
“I’m not moving,” he said, adding that serving the next several months as interim city manager offers him an opportunity to understand the community and the skills needed to guide it.
As interim, he said, “I get to spend three months looking under the hood.”
In Whitewater, he said, “it’s about the referendum, and we are on the clock. Right now, the city council is engaged in a nationwide search for a city manager.”
Other staffing positions need to be filled he said, citing those of economic development director and chief of information officer.
Interim versus permanent manager
In describing the difference between the job of interim city manager and one who serves full-time, Weidl said that some of the more immediate concerns are, by necessity, on his plate as interim city manager, while other items are best left for implementation by the next full-time manager.
“I would say a lot is the same, except I would forego certain types of decisions. There is a limited set of decisions that I think would be better made by the new city manager. For instance, I have no intention of filling the economic development position, because the full-time administrator should take care of it. That decision is better suited for the city manager. But, there is no choice on the referendum. Education must happen and we are on a deadline.”
Looking at Whitewater with an interest in serving it full-time, he said the budget and EMS staffing remains important.
Additionally, he said, “I have learned that there is a deep desire in this community to see new activities, new growth. A grocery store has been mentioned, and several times, and filling out the Innovation Park, and there is a desire to talk about new residential.”
Looking ahead, he said, “because there is a funding mechanism, that would rise to the top. Then you have new taxpayers and new homes to help fund a grocery store.”
Weidl noted that Whitewater has prepared itself financially to look at creating affordable housing.
“When the TID (Tax Incremental Financing District) that is scheduled to close this year closes, there will be an increment totaling $2.1 million for the sole purpose of affordable housing.”
He stressed that affordable housing was not another term for low-income housing.
Instead, he said, the concept revolves around looking at the demographics of the city with an eye towards determining what those looking to live in the community can afford.
He said the $2.1 million could be used to create market-rate housing that targets an economic subsection that is considered affordable. He described those homes as between 1,400 and 1,600 square feet, with an attached garage, that might sell for $180,000 to $225,000.
Filling an economic gap between building housing that can be sold at affordable prices and the costs incurred by builders to make that housing stock is where the $2.1 million can be applied.
That might include the city putting in the municipal infrastructure to facilitate that outcome, mobilizing the $2.1 million to create housing stock or incentives for developers to create stock, he said.
He described the creation of affordable housing stock in the area as “a glaring need.”
Since his arrival in Whitewater, Weidl said he has spent time touring the city with different department heads.
He cited tours taken with both the city’s police and fire chiefs, and the water and wastewater superintendent.
“I will be doing that repetitively. I was out with the parks and recreation director. I saw the library this morning,” he said, adding that the value of such tours is seeing the city through each department head’s eyes.
He also has plans to visit with the community’s various service clubs and leadership at the university.
Weidl said he plans to begin moving in “small concentric circles,” expanding them each day to meet more people.
He noted that as he tours and learns, he sees opportunities for success in Whitewater, beginning with discussions about economic development and growth opportunities for the community.
“There is a targeted opportunity that the city has through use of the Tax Incremental Financing District that will close. These types of opportunities have led to such developments as the Kwik Trip and the new Dollar General.
During Monday’s interview, Weidl was asked to pause the process by a staff member.
He was needed to sign some documents, he said upon his return.
Those documents were for the Dollar General development, he said. This week, the city is closing on the land.
When he arrived in Whitewater, he said, he noticed attributes of the city right away.
Among them, he said, is the city’s farmers market. He was impressed to learn that the venders works closely with the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, making use of the park and the city’s outdoor amphitheater.
He also noticed, he said, that the city has a large downtown area comprised of buildings with a broad mix of interesting architecture. The size and architectural mix was an asset that he saw as highly marketable, he added.
Additionally, he cited the city’s relationship with and proximity to outdoor recreational opportunities, including the Kettle Moraine, as marketable advantages.
Whitewater interim City Manager John Weidl sits Monday behind his desk on the second floor of the city’s municipal building. Kim McDarison photo.
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