The Appleton Common Council met 06/15/2022. During that meeting, they received a presentation from Jerry Duschane, the Executive Director of the League of Wisconsin Municipalities. Though not explicitly stated, my impression was that this presentation was prompted by the actions taken regarding the Water Main Resolution and the interest Council members had shown in lobbying the state for more shared tax dollars. Jerry provided the Council with some information about the League of Municipalities, the services the league offered, and the continuing education opportunities the league made available to elected officials.
The League of Wisconsin Municipalities was one of the five oldest municipal leagues in the country. There were 49 leagues total with Hawaii being the one state without a league because it only had one city. The Wisconsin league along with four of the other older leagues created the National League of Cities.
The Wisconsin League of Municipalities was created because the mayors of Madison, Appleton, and Lancaster realized they needed (a) a voice in Appleton and (b) a place where they could connect with each other, share ideas, and exchange questions regarding city problems and experiences.
Jerry said their mission had not changed in 124, and that their job was still to help city officials do their jobs. They offered an array of educations resources. For example, they had put together multiple manuals including on municipal government operation, alcohol licensing, and the powers and duties of the mayor.
One of the league’s jobs was to put their ear to the ground and listen to what was going on in municipalities. For example, he was aware of the Water Main Resolution Appleton had recently passed in which they requested $35.1 million from the state to deal with Appleton’s infrastructure issues. The league was also working on things relating to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion because municipalities were interested in that.
He noted that they had a wide range of member municipalities all the way from Stockholm with a population of approximately 60 [that is not a typo] all the way up to Milwaukee with a population slightly under 600,000. So, their membership was diverse and they tried to serve them all. They had some offerings that were geared toward large cities and some for small cities, and Jerry mentioned that Mayor Woodford was active in the Urban Alliance which was a group of mayors, city managers, and chief executives from the larger cities in Wisconsin who gathered together and exchanged ideas.
A few years ago, the league realized they didn’t have good information resources for local legislators (i.e., city council members and county supervisors) so they put together a pair of companion booklets. The first one was titled “So You Want To Be An Elected Official” which the League offers to local clerks at only the cost of printing.
The second one was titled “So You’ve Been Elected” which was a digestible summary of some of the best advice the league could come up with for local legislators. It covered topics like group decision-making and long-term planning. He provided copies of that booklet to the Council members.
They also provided a training called Local Gov 101. The next session was coming up this September in Milwaukee. He said it was a good primer on the basics of local governing and included everything from open meetings, open records, law conflicts, public works, and capital improvement planning.
Jerry told the Council that since the league had been created, one of their primary duties had been working with the governor and the state legislator on things like shared revenue, levy limits, police and fire commission laws, etc. The league essentially worked on anything that affected municipalities’ ability to make decisions. During the last legislative session, they engaged in advocacy on almost 200 bills, and not one bill that they actively opposed was signed into law by the governor.
They were, however, frustrated because they were not able to convince the legislature to make any changes on shared revenue and levy limits. He said that Mayor Woodford was helping them with some messaging on that and went on to state, “We have got to get to our citizens and explain to them that all of that deferred maintenance that frustrates them—the services that get held up or slowed down—there is a reason for it, and frankly it’s out of your control, but it’s in their control. It’s in the control of the state legislature.”
He stated that the league was a non-partisan organization that did not back candidates for office. They were as non-partisan as the cities were. Some city officials were active Democrats and some were active Republicans. The league itself just paid attention to municipal business and was not a partisan organization. “The downside to that is we’re easier to ignore sometimes because we’re not involved politically in re-elections.”
Despite being easier to ignore, Jerry thought that there was not a state legislator out there that wanted the mayor or council member of a city in their district complaining about them in the newspaper or on social media. He believed that if five citizens were upset at a local legislator, that legislator was going to find a solution for them, and if he could get all of the Council members talking to legislators about the need to reform out local government was funded, they could produce change. The league wanted to get city legislators active and engaged and contacting their state representatives on important issues. He said that he had yet to see a state legislator who didn’t really care about what was going on in the biggest city in their district, and regardless of their political leanings they wanted to hear from city representatives. Engagement was really important.
He opened things up for questions from the Council members, but question and answer time was truncated because of the need to stay on schedule and handle Council business.
Alderperson Vaya Jones (District 12) said she had attended the Local Government 101 and had been very impressed with how well the conference had been organized. She thought they had really taken care of the attendees and knew wat they needed. They provided enough opportunities for networking and the topics were all very engaging.
Jerry appreciated that feedback but said that they also liked to hear from people even if they didn’t have a glowing endorsement to offer. The league wanted to adapt and change to the shifting needs of their member communities.
Alderperson Kristin Alfheim (District 13) said that Appleton had been having some conversations recently about the challenges with keeping up with infrastructure maintenance. They seemed to be struggling to find the dollars to maintain water mains, fill pot holes, and pickup garbage. She asked if Appleton was the only city that was dealing with that cashflow shortage.
Jerry answered that Appleton absolutely was not the only city experiencing that. Cities as different as Milwaukee and Stockholm were dealing with that; it was just a question of degree. “You’re all subject to the same levy limits and the same shared revenue from the state, which has gone nowhere but down for thirty years. That’s really—honestly that’s the source of it. I’m not gonna speak to individual bits of your budget or financial situation, but I can tell you I’ve been doing this for eight years. I get around the state. It’s—there’s a very small handful of cities and villages out there that don’t have financial challenges. There aren’t very many of them.”
Alderperson Alfheim asked if the League of Wisconsin Municipalities was the only organization asking for additional revenue. She felt like there were a lot of lobbying organizations and PACs asking to raise levy limits in order to accomplish various things. It seemed to her that the core issue for all of these cities and organizations was the limits on shared revenue. She wondered if that could be made the focus of conversation right now that that the problem could finally be fixed after 30 years.
Jerry agreed with her wholeheartedly. He had a meeting scheduled with the Association of the Chiefs of Police and the Association of Fire Chiefs and was also meeting with realtors and a number of other business groups, town and county associations, etc. to discuss this because they all had the same interest. The police and firefighters were tied to shared revenue, as were counties and towns. What the league had found when they had lobbied for transportation funding was, “Until we got the towns counties and the cities all speaking as one, nothing would happen. We are going to be speaking as one voice now on this issue.” In fact, they had a meeting the next day to figure out what a financial deal would look like and get everyone on the same page.
Mayor Woodford ended the question-and-answer period because they were short on time, but he encouraged the alderpersons to take advantage of the training and conferences available from the league. He thanked Jerry for coming to Appleton.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=964879&GUID=77BEF753-12DA-40B6-8050-6FEA620D0B18
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