Three people vie for the District No. 6 Wausau council seat
Keene Winters, Mario Diaz and Kristin Slonski will face off Feb. 17.
Becky McElhaney was one of two council members to choose not to run for another term.
And while both seats will see contested races, the District No. 6 seat will see three contenders, which triggers a primary on Feb. 17.
The three candidates in order in which the took out paperwork and appeared on the clerk’s candidate tracker, are Mario Diaz, Keene Winters and Kristin Slonski.
The three of them bring pretty different backgrounds. Diaz managed a 3M plant in Wausau for years, and brings engineering and management experience; Winters owns a financial planning business, brings financial acumen and served two terms as a council member before a controversial incident during his mayoral run and Slonski brings legal and non-profit experience, as well as time in the military, to the position.
The Wausonian held phone interviews with all three candidates, something that is becoming rare these days. Though this publication will have to rely somewhat on questionnaires, we hope to try to conduct as many as possible by actually talking to the candidates.
Here is what we learned about the candidates, in the order we conducted the interviews.
Kristin Slonski
Slonski worked for seven years at Judicare and more recently at Legal Action of Wisconsin (which Judicare merged with) as a director of advocacy and litigation.
Slonski told The Wausonian she was inspired to run after having served on the city’s Housing Affordability Task Force. Before law school, she was an active duty member of the military and has a lot of experience as a housing stability advocate from her work with Judicare and Legal Action of Wisconsin, where she focused on foreclosure and tenant rights.
Besides affordable housing (she favors a housing first model), Slonski told The Wausonian her priorities are transportation and public spaces. If elected, she would hope to serve on the Affordable Housing Task Force and the Plan Commission.
Slonski has concerns about the future of city and county operations as COVID-era money is drying up. (ARPA and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill are two examples.) She sets herself apart from the other candidates by saying she would focus on building up community and labor, versus focusing on a trickle-down effect from industry.
Keene Winters
Winters brings a passion for local government and believes his experience as a financial planner and business owner would serve him well in the city council role, for which he already has experience serving. Besides serving two terms on council, Winters currently works as the Gubernatorial Appointee to the Wisconsin Historical Society, and received appointments to that board from both former Gov. Scott Walker and current Gov. Tony Evers. He also once worked as a budget analyst for the state.
The Wausonian asked him about the incident during his last of two terms on the city council. Winters had been running for mayor at the time. The city settled with Winters for $95,000 following a city-led investigation into an incident in which he, in a heated argument with former Transit Director Greg Seubert, called him a “lazy sack of s%&$.” Winters said he regretted the vulgarity, but maintains he was in the right because had worked hard to gather grant money to run bus service to Rib Mountain, only to have it not followed through on. He called the investigation lawfare in order to tank his mayoral campaign.
Winters told The Wausonian that his priorities are reducing water rates, getting city-owned properties back on the tax rolls, and streamlining committees. Winters would like to see all city committees reduced down to two: an Administrative committee that would encompass the likes of Finance and HR; and Public Services, which would include committees like Public Safety and Parks. That, he argues, would be far more efficient.
Winters says he’s the only candidate with the necessary experience to hit the ground running, since he’s served in the role before. Winters cites his role in getting the city’s Humane Officer program established (which city leaders just ended last year) as an example of his ability to get things done. (Winters is in favor of bringing the program back.)
Mario Diaz
Mario Diaz is a retired 3M plant manager and engineer. Diaz told The Wausonian he was encouraged to run by several people including McElhaney himself for the position. Diaz says he wants to bring a professional and non-partisan direction to the city council.
Diaz cites his experience managing budgets and complex organizations as plant manager and working closely with city staff in his role as experience that would help him do well as a council member.
Diaz told The Wausonian his priorities are managing the city budget and improving the city’s infrastructure, including roads and parks. He also wants to focus on bringing more cohesiveness to the city council, and more of a teamwork attitude versus the infighting and factions he sees now.
Diaz emphasizes that as an engineer, he is data-focused first, considers himself a moderate and brings no ideology to the race. The city is currently anti-business and high-tax, and that’s something he’d like to address. He aims to build consensus on the council while fostering industry beyond just the residential development the city seems to have mostly been focused on lately.
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