Whitewater: Residents meet city manager finalists

By Kim McDarison

Whitewater residents Friday were offered an opportunity to meet three final candidates for the position of city manager. 

Some 20 people arrived at the informal forum held at the city’s municipal building to shake hands with and learn more about each candidate. They are James “Jim” Palenick, David R. Porter and John S. Weidl. 

Questions asked by participants ranged from those revolving around basic personal and educational information about each candidate to those about management style and impressions of the city. 

The 90-minute evening forum concluded a full day of activities, with the three candidates arriving in Whitewater to begin a planned itinerary around noon. 

The day’s activities focused on meeting with panels, including search committee members, community stakeholders and members of the city’s management staff. Candidates also were given a tour of the city. 

Whitewater Common Council President Lisa Dawsey Smith said that while members of the city’s search team, including herself and council members Jim Allen and Carol McCormick, had previously met the candidates using the Zoom platform, council members, along with members of the public were meeting the candidates in person on Friday for the first time. 

Also on Friday city officials announced that council would hold a closed session meeting Saturday, at 8 a.m., at which time the candidates would be interviewed, with the possible negotiation of contract terms discussed. 

According to the announcement, “final action on a contract would occur in open session at a later date.” 

During Friday’s informational meeting, a break in the activity was taken to allow each candidate an opportunity to deliver a prepared speech, offering information, according to an introduction made by Dawsey Smith, about why they would like to be the next city manager of Whitewater. 

Prepared comments, delivered by candidates in alphabetical order, follow. 

James ‘Jim’ Palenick

“I was born and raised in a small town in southwest Michigan, one of three sons. Early on in my life, I started thinking about what I wanted to do with my life, and my profession, and I wanted to have some kind of an impact. And, to me, that meant being involved in government. And I couldn’t really get my head around maybe working in the federal government or the state, and so local government was something that I really felt would make a big impact on people’s lives. And I thought about this concept of a city manager, and there was a council-manger form of government. So really early on, I actually set out to become a city manager. 

“So I went to Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo and I got bachelor and master degrees in public administration and economics, with sole belief that I was going to be a city manager. And then I sort of followed a rather unusual means in this profession, because typically people start in a larger organization at the bottom and they work their way up. And I started in the opposite — I started at the very top of a very small organization. So as soon as I was done with my graduate school, I actually got the job as the village manager of Dexter, Michigan, 1,400 people, 14 employees, and for the next four and a half years that’s what I did. And there’s two things that happen when you start out in a really small city, small organization like that: Number one, you’re forced and you learn to do almost everything there is about government because you don’t have enough resources, so you learn everything about public safety, engineering, public works, water, wastewater, and police and fire, and all the things that come with it. But — number two — you learn that to advance in your career you have to move on. 

“So hence starts sort of my nomadic journey and then I went on to a city of 6,500 people, then a city of 38,000 people in Michigan, and then I started going across the country, and I served as the city manager in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, and city manager in Gastonia, North Carolina. I was in Racine. I had the opportunity as city administrator for Racine, Wisconsin, for three and a half years, and most recently, I was the city manager in Middletown, Ohio. So, my entire life, I spent basically in my career in local government, as a city manager. I’ve loved every single minute of it. I get great personal fulfillment out of it. I really, genuinely enjoy the work that I do. I love … trying to make things better. I’ve had a chance along the way to get involved in all kinds of economic development and redevelopment; that’s kind of been my passion. 

“And when it comes to Whitewater, I was really very interested in coming back to Wisconsin because I very much enjoyed my time in the state. I love the community, I want to stay, I love the outdoor recreation, the people, the culture, and the chance to actually work on a council-manager form of government like this in a university community was very, very appealing.”  

David Porter

“I currently serve as the village administrator in Winneconne, about an hour and 45 minutes north of here, just right near Oshkosh. 

“And, there are a lot of things that make Whitewater extraordinarily appealing to me. First, it is abundantly clear and was even before I applied, that you have a really strong staff who do great work. And so I would be excited to work with them and to continue building upon the legacy of your prior city manager and continue to forge strong relationships with the university. 

“I grew up in a university town, and public service runs deep. Both of my parents were involved at a university, and so from a young age, I spent a lot of time on campus, even as a sixth- and a seventh-grader I would go to the university library and my parents would bring me to concerts and athletic events. I can’t even count the number of basketball games I went to with my dad because he went to so many that they made him an honorary coach and made him sit on the bench. 

“And I would really — my wife and I have three young children, ages 8, 6, and 4 — and it would be just a tremendous privilege to bring my family into a community like Whitewater. And raise them in an environment similar to the one I experienced. 

“I had a whole series of wonderful meetings today, with staff members, with your public works director who took me on a tour, and showed me some of the impressive facilities that you have and also some of the areas that are ripe for further development, and to grow, that’s exciting to have that space to do those things. And then, one of the most impressive features from my perspective of your community were the third and final panel, the community representatives from the school district, and the historical commission, and the university, and the local business community, the chamber of commerce. The fact that your city and your council could open up their Rolodex and convene a meeting with representatives from every sector of your community, and that they would take interest in who the next city manager might be, really speaks volumes about the strength of your community.” 

John Weidl

“I’m the interim city manager. I’ve been here since August. 

“Some things about me: I’ve been in Walworth County for the last decade, and my wife and I have lived in our home that we own in the township of Lafayette for the last seven years. I’ve spend most of my life associated with Walworth County. I started out as a counselor on a (YMCA) campgrounds called Camp Edwards, which is in East Troy. I left for the military and college, and I subsequently came back to the area through employment in the village of Mukwonago, which is in Walworth County. I spent the last seven and a half years there, working on economic development and also leading that organization, which, in many ways, is as big as Whitewater; it’s about a billion dollars of assessed value, which is roughly equal to the size of Whitewater. We were very successful in generating growth in single-family residential, which is something I know this community is looking to expand on. We were also quite successful in filling out our industrial park and with our downtown redevelopment, which are also areas that I know the city is heavily invested in developing. 

“Prior to that, I was in the United States military. I served almost four years in the Air Force. I was given the opportunity to go straight to college after I was done serving in Iraq — I took about a year serving in Iraq — and then I was allowed to go straight to college with all of the Montgomery GI benefits, so I did that and got my masters degree. 

“My wife is a graduate of UW-Whitewater and she is currently enrolled in classes there. She has also taught in the district previously and now teaches in the Mukwonago school district. 

“So what really attracts me to this community is the fact that we’ve got deep roots within the community. We don’t plan on going anywhere. We have certainly been a part of and taken advantage of the things that Whitewater has to offer, whether that’s educationally or recreationally. And most importantly, I look to continue what has been well over a decade in public and government service in the city of Whitewater to help it achieve its goals.”