Compiled by Kim McDarison
A spring general election will be held Tuesday, April 4. Whitewater residents will find four candidates, each running unopposed within their aldermanic districts or at large, on the ballot.
Candidates include David Stone, who is running for an open seat in Aldermanic District 1. Incumbent Carol McCormick has indicated that she will not seek reelection. In Aldermanic District 3, incumbent Brienne Brown is running to retain her seat. Challenger Neil Hicks is running for an open seat in Aldermanic District 5. The district’s incumbent, Greg Majkrzak will not seek another term. Serving at-large, Lisa Dawsey Smith’s name is also on the ballot.
Fort Atkinson Online recently asked each of the candidates to provide some biographical information and fill out a short questionnaire. Candidates were asked to respond to four questions using a combined total of between 700 and 1,000 words.
Candidates were asked to submit a photo for publication.
Three of the four candidates — Brown, Hicks and Dawsey Smith — have responded to our request. Although Fort Atkinson Online made several attempts to reach Stone by email and phone, we did not receive a response from the candidate. Should Fort Atkinson Online receive questionnaire responses from the candidate, they will be published at that time.
Information provided by the three responding candidates follows.
Brienne Brown
Age: 50
Address: 156b N. Fremont St.
Occupation: Grant Writer/UWW Instructor
Number of years resided in city: 11
Education: Bachelors in Journalism at the University of Texas at Austin
Civic and other organizational memberships: Library Board, Plan Board, Equal Opportunities Committee, League of Women Voters, Vice President of the Whitewater Grocery Cooperative
Political experience: I’m running for my 3rd term on Whitewater City Council.
What are your reasons for seeking this position?
I spent many years as a journalist and managing editor of a geopolitics firm called Strafor.com. This work involved analysis of budgets, looking at court documents, and understanding the underlying issues that affect communities and leaders. I like to research, I read fast, and I have the background to make informed decisions on complicated matters with an eye on long-term planning. I also spend a decade working in chronic disease epidemiology, which put me in a unique position of studying communities and coming up with plans for how to solve chronic community problems. I have been involved in Whitewater volunteerism (starting a makerspace, helping create the Tuesday farmers market, becoming a founding board member for the Whitewater Grocery Co.) since the day my family moved here. I love Whitewater with all my heart, and I want to help everyone thrive.
What are the most pressing issues facing the position you seek
We have a number of challenges, but our biggest are a housing crisis and a grocery store. There has been no new homebuilding for decades, which creates a cascade of problems. No new homes means that old homes are being assessed at higher values (higher taxes), even though they haven’t been updated. This creates a lot of old stock that is hard to sell, since the buyer will have to invest a ton to fix the house. Too many of our homes have been turned into rentals, which also increases the assessments of the available single family housing. We need to build, and we need to do it ASAP. We’re on the right path as a city to make this happen.
When a town doesn’t have a grocery store, all of the businesses suffer; people grocery shop outside of town and do the rest of their errands out of town as well. I’m a founding member of the Whitewater Grocery Cooperative. The experts told us that it would take 5-7 years to get organized and built, and we are in year 6. We just found a plot of land and a developer. We need to encourage our city to support a community-owned grocery store, which will add to the tax revenue and erase the designation of being a USDA Food Desert.
What unique perspective do you bring?
Though I call Whitewater my forever home, I was lucky to grow up a military kid and experience living in a number of cities and countries. I have spent a huge chunk of my life studying what cities do well and where they can improve. In fact, I studied city planning in college and utilized that information when working as a geopolitical editor. The geography of an area and how cities are built are some of the most important indicators underneath decision-making. I love being able to bring a well-traveled and educated opinion to Whitewater.
Any additional comments?
Cities don’t work in a vacuum. Shared revenue is an important thing to think about. Over the years, the state government has spent less and less money on public services. That includes sharing tax revenue with school districts and city government. As the amount of money from the state has diminished, our local schools and cities are doing more with less. Budgets tighten every year, and projects (like roads, building repair, and city services) get delayed more and more. I pay very close attention to what our Legislature is doing and whether or not it is meeting the demands of the local governments across Wisconsin. You can count on me to write the letters advocating for a better funded local government so that our citizens do not feel like they are being taxed twice for the same thing.
Neil Hicks
Age: 45
Address: 1254 Tower Hill Pass
Occupation: Telecommunication Technician at Alliant Energy
Number of years resided in city: 23 years
Education: Associates Degree in Electronic Engineering Technology from Herzing College (Wisconsin School of Electronics), 1999
Civic and other organizational memberships: Whitewater Middle School PTO Co-Treasurer
Political experience: Current Whitewater Planning Commission board member, previous Council Aldermanic District 5 candidate in 2021.
What are your reasons for seeking this position?
I look at neighboring communities and see tremendous growth and opportunity. When I look at Whitewater, I see many food choices, but no new business growth. We have lost too any jobs in the last few years in our city, and I want to help turn that around. I also want to get Whitewater back to being a welcoming city for all residents, visitors as well and commercial and industrial business. I want to see more fiscally conservative spending, cut out the waste and poor capital planning.
What are the most pressing issues facing the position you seek?
Retaining and attracting business to a city with a history of being anti-business. Hearing comments from local business owners about the red tape and difficulty they have opening or expanding their business in the city of Whitewater. We need to plan more for our future capital needs, to be sure not to overwhelm the residents when it comes to tax bills.
What unique perspective do you bring?
I work in a technical position that requires attention to detail; I feel that is the kind of detail needed to dig into problem and find proper solutions that will benefit all city residents. I have a can-do attitude, and I will not back down. I have no problem speaking out against bad policy and will be that lone ‘no’ vote when needed.
Any additional comments?
Although I do not have a candidate to run against, I do not take this position lightly. Anyone serving the public, should take it seriously and be proud of the work they do. As a council, we have many who report to us, but in the end, I report to my district and city’s constituents. I intend to make my constituents voices heard from my district and ensure our city will have the best run government for years to come.
Lisa Dawsey Smith
Age: 42
Address: 273 N. Fremont St.
Occupation: I’m fortunate to have the opportunity to be a homeschool parent. I retired from my career in management to do so.
Number of years resided in the city: 7.5
Education: I studied Computer Engineering at Clemson University
Civic and other organizational memberships: I am thankful for the opportunity to have volunteered for a number organizations and events in Whitewater since my family moved here including Downtown Whitewater, the Whitewater City Market, the Whitewater Area 4th of July Committee, the Whitewater Area Chamber of Commerce, the Whitewater Area League of Women Voters, the city’s Community Involvement and Cable TV Commission, the city’s Plan and Architectural Review Commission, UW-Whitewater’s Community Engagement Center Advisory Committee, among others.
Political experience: As mentioned above, I have served on city-appointed committees and am currently serving in my first term as a member of the Common Council.
What are your reasons for running for this position?
Running for an elected office is a way to serve the community my family and I have chosen as our home. I believe it is critical the decisions by an elected body be representative of the needs and voices of the community. I also recognize I am in a position where I am fortunate to have both the time and a willingness to do that.
What are the most pressing issues facing the position you seek?
Not unlike many communities in Wisconsin, Whitewater has a number of challenges either already at hand or looming in the near future. I will keep it to three to be respectful of the reader’s time. For any challenge we face as a community, we need to consider solutions for the short and long term. We cannot afford to be reactive (unprepared) for the challenges we face and should instead utilize our leadership opportunities to prepare proactive answers to these challenges.
First, we have housing needs within the city not unique to Whitewater. Unlike many communities, we have a unique opportunity in the ability to use an Affordable Housing extension of a retired Tax Increment Financing District. This will be a catalyst in beginning to address some of our housing issues. We need to make progress on that over the next 6-12 months as we are already falling behind other communities in the availability of our housing stock. We must also be attentive to the complexity of our housing issues outside the scope of what can be impacted by the Affordable Housing Extension fund.
Second, our community is experiencing a period of substantial change. Whitewater has had a rather unique demographic makeup for decades, but we are now experiencing changes unlike what we have seen in recent memory. We need to understand those changes and how they dictate changes to service delivery throughout all city-provided services. Of note, here are a couple of changes we are already navigating. We have an aging population who increasingly desires to age in place. We have an influx of newcomers who have unique challenges and needs. We have a university who has changed and will continue to change to remain competitive in their marketplace. These are important because we have to be committed to and consistently seek ways to maintain meaningful dialogue not only to understand our changing demographic but position ourselves to flourish as we navigate those changes.
Third, is growth. Is our community growing? Not from the perspective of simply our total number of residents, but are we attentive to growth in our tax base, growth for our small and large business community, and growth on other fronts? Growth is an important part of our city and it should be on the forefront of our discussions and planning over the short and long term. We also need to acknowledge that we are in competition with other communities for residents, businesses, students, and more. If we do not foster and maintain a growth mindset, we will find our community stagnant and falling behind our neighboring communities.
What unique perspective do you bring?
Pragmatism. As a community we cannot afford to waste time on anything other than finding practical solutions to the challenges and opportunities already at our doorstep or ahead of us in the future. We need to be honest about our problems, we need to have meaningful dialogue about our challenges, and then we just need to find practical ways to address them. It is the expectation that I have in my personal life, and it is one I believe we need as a community.
Any additional comments?
I look forward to the opportunity to continue to serve my community if reelected in April. Please don’t hesitate to reach out and be an active participant in the decisions the council will consider over the next year and longer, we need to hear from you to make the best decisions for the community. My contact information is available on the city website.
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