OPINION: A city manager won't fix Wausau's issues
An op/ed from Wausau City Council President Lisa Rasmussen
Wausau Mayor Doug Diny recently announced he would be pushing a new plan to hire a city manager for Wausau — effectively making him the city’s last mayor. Diny answered questions about the plan Thursday afternoon in front of the Wausau’s Foundry on Third project, which has started to complete apartments and is slated to open potentially as early as November.
The Wausonian reached out to City Council President Lisa Rasmussen for her take on the matter, and she sent back an Op/Ed in response critical of the idea. Below is what she had to say.
No one needs a task force to write a job description for a manager or an administrator. They are common positions in communities everywhere and the city did much of the needed research in its HR committee prior to the advisory referendum last time.
Either system of government can bring good or bad results. If you get the wrong person in either, there are problems. The difference is what needs to happen to correct it. Often, hired managers or administrators serve at the pleasure of a council or board. Whoever that person is, they’re generally good at maintaining the favor of enough members that they are unlikely to be removed, leaving voters out of the process. An elected mayor can be removed by voters.
If an administrator or manager is removed, typically there’s a big payout for the separation, and the community is left with an agreement that prohibits discussion after. That allows a bad manager to just go be some other city’s bad manager. The administrator or manager options are expensive, do not guarantee success and add a layer of management that my residents have told me for years, they don’t support in large numbers.
You don’t change people’s form of government by adding a line item to a budget. At the very least, there needs to be an advisory referendum with a balanced question and good public information provided so voters can understand the pros and cons of a yes or no vote. There also needs to be funding for the ongoing salary and benefits and analysis of the impact of the change on municipal codes and processes. All of it must be adjusted to accommodate a systemic change to remove or transfer authority for dozens of functions.
What was lacking in a survey published by another media outlet that re-ignited this discussion was both a larger survey data sample and a balanced question that asks people whether they truly have the wrong system, or if they have the wrong mayor.
It bears notice that a number of the mayor’s external supporters are people who have pushed for this change before. In June 2024, the mayor and I were summoned to a private meeting with a couple of them, during which they were already pushing him to do this. One expected me to help push it through the city council and its committees. I refused, because it is the people’s government and they deserve a say. There was little interest in an advisory referendum, because the public might say “no”. This group helped the mayor get elected, yet were looking to pull the rug out from under him after mere weeks in office. It was obvious to me that if he carried out their agenda, they would hail their collective success. If he did not, or if he struggled, they would use his defeats as examples to again push for this same change. Here we are.
Wausau deserves better than what we’re seeing now. We’re a city with great potential that is stagnating because one person underestimated the job, and lacks a working knowledge of rules that govern the work. Any new mayor has lots to learn, but we’ve got skilled department heads willing to share knowledge and experience. What helps is a collaborative approach to leadership vs barking orders from the top and accusing staff of insubordination when they don’t blindly obey or if they advise against things that may lead to serious issues. That happens too often this term. Morale is not good and the environment at city hall is one impacted by fear of retaliation. Some say it is the mayor’s goal to be Wausau’s last mayor. If true, it’s a sad goal, since it would seem like an admission of failure.
Lisa Rasmussen is the current Wausau City Council President.
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Thank you Lisa for having the courage to speak openly and honestly. Much respect.
The only reason to write this is to control the optics of the narrative. The only ones falling for it have DDS. The king is dead; long live the queen.