TINA L. SCOTT
EDITOR
A moderated Mayoral/City Clerk Forum was held on Monday evening, March 14, 2022, at the Merrill Enrichment Center to enable candidates for Merrill Mayor and Merrill City Clerk to share their platform and answer previously submitted questions for interested citizens. Roughly 80-100 people were in attendance in person at the event, a second audience was watching the event at home via a LiveStream broadcast on the City of Merrill’s website, and a third audience was listening via the broadcast on Merrill’s Bluejay Radio.
The LiveStream broadcast was also recorded and is now available to watch or re-watch in its entirety on the website. Click here “Mayoral/City Clerk Forum”. The program begins just after the 27:00 minute mark, so skip ahead over the 27 minutes of silence that precede the actual forum.
Each candidate was given 90 seconds to introduce themselves, then questions developed by the T.B. Scott Free Library and the League of Women Voters were posed to candidates and candidates were each given 60 seconds to respond, in alternating order; then questions from the public were presented; and then the candidates each closed with a 2-minute statement. The first half of the program was dedicated to the City Clerk candidates, and the second half focused on Merrill’s Mayoral candidates.
Elizabeth McCrank and Art Lertsch of the UW Extension moderated the program, read the questions, and held the candidates accountable to the time limits.
Questions posed to City Clerk candidates Lori Anderson-Malm and John Guenther focused on what the candidates saw as the primary role of the City Clerk, how they thought the job had changed over the last two decades, the job qualifications they thought were needed for the position, and how they thought their experiences related to the City Clerk job. Other topics included technology and systems, TIFs and TIDs, election security and integrity, budgeting processes as they address the needs and desires of the citizens, current City government structure and whether changes should be required, recent City government tension, communication with city residents, and why they specifically decided to run for office.
Questions posed to Mayoral candidates Bill Bialecki and Steve Hass focused on their opinions about the top priority of the new Mayor in 2022, strategies for growth in Merrill, priorities for utilizing federal funding available to Merrill, helping local employers find employees, current City government structure and whether changes should be required, retention of City of Merrill employees, whether there is a housing crisis in Merrill and – if so – how the City can address it, growing tension in local government and how the Mayor can restore trust in local government, how to balance the rights of property owners with the interest local residents have in local properties such as parks and historic structures, the effect of COVID and social practices should another wave or situation arise, climate change, a healthy General Fund balance for the City and how to replenish it, TIFs and TIDs, whether the candidates would step down from their current positions if they win the Mayor’s race, why property taxes are so high, whether they would consider eliminating the City Administrator position and rely on Department Heads instead, whether they would support a reduction of administrative personnel across the board, the role tourism plays in Merrill’s economy and how to support that, and what they want Merrill to be “on the map” for.
Interested citizens should definitely watch or listen to the entire recorded forum to help inform their vote. To quote one or even a few questions or responses from the forum might imply an endorsement of one or more candidates or issues the candidates addressed, and the Merrill Foto News does not endorse any candidates for office.
Rather, it is important for citizens to listen to all of the candidates’ comments, responses to questions, and prepared statements in their entirety and for citizens to form their own opinions of the candidates to inform their voting decisions. Many of the candidates spoke of restoring civility to Merrill’s government and appointed and elected officials, transparency in government, and communication with citizens, and this forum was an excellent example of positive communication and civility between all the candidates.
The forum was made possible by the T.B. Scott Free Library, the UW Madison Extension, and to the League of Women Voters. It was also made possible by the MP3 Productions from MAPS.
In the coming weeks, the Merrill Foto News will run brief bios completed by the candidates in our print edition and on our website. Due to the many candidates running for many different offices in the City, County, and School District, in addition to the MAPS referendum, the election will dominate the news; however, those short bios cannot encompass the amount of information gleaned from watching forums such as this.
Candidates for Merrill Alderman on the April 5 ballot are also showcased in videos on the City of Merrill website. Click here to watch: “Alderman Candidate Interviews.”