Whitewater: City manager finalists announced

The City of Whitewater Common Council has announced that it has selected  three finalists for the position of city manager.

According to a news release, the finalists are James “Jim” Palenick, David R. Porter and John S. Weidl.

Interviews with the three candidates will be held Friday, Oct. 21. A community reception and “Meet and Greet” for the finalists will be held Friday at the City of Whitewater Municipal Building, 312 W. Whitewater St., from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in the Community Room on the building’s first floor. 

The Meet and Greet is open to the public and citizens are encouraged to attend. The common council will also hold interviews with the candidates and deliberate on Saturday, Oct. 22.

Biographical information, as supplied by city officials, follows:

James ‘Jim’ Palenick

Jim Palenick is the former city manager for Middletown, Ohio. He resides in Middletown. 

Palenick has over 34 years of experience in service to local government as a city manager/chief administrative officer including Middletown, city administrator for the city of Racine; director of economic and business development in the city of Fayetteville, N.C.; interim and town manager, town of Dallas, N.C.; city manager for the city of Gastonia, N.C.; city manager for the city of Rio Rancho, N.M.; city manager for the city of Bay City, Mich.; city manager for the city of Dowagiac, Mich., and village manager for the village of Dexter, Mich. Palenick graduated with honors from Western Michigan University with an MPA degree; summa cum laude with a bachelor’s of science degree in public administration from Western Michigan, and an AAS degree from Kalamazoo Valley Community College.

David R. Porter

David Porter is the village administrator of Winneconne. He resides in Winneconne. Porter has previously been the management analyst and interim HR manager for the town of Wayland in Wayland, Mass.; co-founder and consultant to Trisector Advisors in Brookline, Mass.; senior researcher for the Center for Public Leadership in Cambridge, Mass.; program manager for EDX, Inc., in Cambridge Mass.; advisor and project manager for The Readiness Project in Washington D.C.; legal assistant for Sidley Austin Brown and Wood LLP in Washington D.C., and a consultant for Bancroft Associates, PLLC, in Washington D.C. Porter graduated cum laude from Harvard College with an artium baccalaureus in history with a certificate in Latin American studies and a citation in Spanish language. Porter holds a master of public policy degree from Harvard Kennedy School.

John S. Weidl

John Weidl is the interim city manager of the city of Whitewater and also a supervisor for the town of Lafayette. He lives in Elkhorn. He has previously held the position of village administrator/director of economic development, Mukwonago; city administrator/clerk/treasurer and director of Public Works for the city of Princeton, and office of the administrator for the village of Lake Zurich, Ill. He has been a leadership counselor for the Edward YMCA Camp in East Troy and a team leader, customer service director and database manager for the U.S. Air Force. Weidl is a decorated United States Air Force (USAF) combat veteran with tours of duty in Europe and the Middle East, including joint combat service with the United States Army. Weidl holds a master of public administration degree from Northern Illinois University and a bachelor of arts in political science/European history, also from Northern Illinois University.