Two vie for Weston Village president

One Tuesday voters will decided between incumbent Mark Maloney or challenger Jim Pinsonneault.

Unlike the village of Kronenwetter, the village of Weston in its primary race for village president selected one incumbent and one challenger. That essentially sets up a showdown for voters in the village between choosing an incumbent or a challenger.

The Wausonian spoke on the phone to each candidate to dive a little deeper into some of their answers to questionnaires we set out last time. You can see the initial Weston Village President race answers in this post.

As with all The Wausonian’s election coverage, we believe that it should be available to everyone so this is presented free of charge. On Tuesday we will have our Hold my Beer feature looking at Wausau’s monthly tavern report.

Here is what the candidates had to say, in order of incumbent followed by challenger:

Mark Maloney

Mark Maloney started our conversation by praising the staff in Weston, especially administrator Jami Gebert. He says animosity toward Federal government is one thing, but applying that same idea to local government is a mistake - the staff in Weston do a good job.

Maloney says he’s making the case that Weston has been going in the right direction. He points to Amazon and ALDI as great accomplishments for the village.

Maloney pushes back on the “Taj Mahal” criticism around the new municipal center, which cost roughly $15 million. He said the original price tag was much higher and that he led the moves to pull amenities from the plans such as wash bays and shower systems out of the project. He adds that all the repairs required to maintain the old village hall on Schofield Avenue would have cost around $7-8 million.

Maloney also pushes back at some of the criticism his opponent has made against the village. Though he got a kick out of some of the messages Pinsonneault puts on his business’s sign, some of them he thinks go a little too far.

Maloney points to the formation of the Mountain Bay Metropolitan Police Department as a success that happened under his watch (the merger, which happened very quickly, brought together Everest Metro (Weston and Schofield) together with Rothschild’s department early last year). Maloney says local leaders have had talks about merging fire departments in a similar manner (SAFER with Riverside) but those talks stalled recently.

Maloney originally ran for the board along with former Everest Metro Police Chief Wally Sparks on a campaign against many of the policies that former Administrator Dan Guild had put forward - including developing an expansive retail sector and an expensive baseball/softball complex. Both of those ideas were ultimately scrapped though the Kennedy Park renovations, which are being fundraised for, have a similar element of building fields of the quality that could attract tournaments to the village.

He says the village is about to close TIF No. 1 but he is looking at money the village will get from the closure of the TIF to put into affordable housing. Gebert has identified a builder in Merrill who can build affordable homes and a revolving loan fund is being discussed, Maloney says. (That likely means keeping the district open for an additional year as Wausau did with one of its districts recently.)

Maloney ran on transparency when he was first elected to the board. I asked him if he thinks he has been transparent. Maloney says overall he thinks so, though felt some mistakes were made with the police merger. Some board members felt like they weren’t kept in the loop, in Weston and Rothschild.

Why should voters choose him? Maloney argues that no one is more transparent than him, he will be retiring from his job at the end of the year and will be even more devoted to the president role. He says after working in customer service all his life he will always work to find a solution to any problems.

Jim Pinsonneault

Pinsonneault has a slogan that’s become a big part of his campaign: “Everyone EATS.” The “EATS” in the slogan stands for efficiency, accountability, transparency and sustainability. He says transparency and accountability are key areas for the village president, and he wants to see all four of those areas improve in the village - some need a lot of work, others just need a little nudge.

He says some areas of improvement he’s already helped drive, such as getting meeting videos uploaded in a timely fashion so the public can view them. But he says a lot of Weston’s operations haven’t evolved since the village was incorporated in 1996 and he wants to see things done better. Why not post meetings to NextDoor and Facebook? he asks, for instance.

Pinsonneault also says too many decisions are made in the parking lot at 5:30 pm instead of in the board room at 6 pm like it’s supposed to be done. “It shouldn’t be pre-determined,” Pinsonneault said to The Wausonian.

He also points to the discussions about potentially merging fire departments. Pinsonneault says as a board member he was left in the dark about what was going on there. (He’s referring to what Maloney said were discussions between municipal leaders about the potential for a merger.)

He says some of the committees don’t seem to have minutes in the board packet. He says when he asks for these things because he wants to be informed, he gets made out to be the bad guy. Pinsonneault says if board members don’t know what is going on, how are the village’s residents supposed to?

Pinsonneault said he felt the same during the police department merger - that the board wasn’t really kept up to speed as it should during what became a very fast process.

Pinsonneault also addressed the village’s two TIF districts - he says TIF No. 1 has been successful, TIF No. 2 has not been. He says there are a lot of conversations to be had around closing TIF No. 1, which should come in the next couple of years. It’s complicated because, for instance, some of the finance director’s time is billed toward the TIF. Pinsonneault says he is in favor of paying off the village’s TIF districts sooner rather than later, and closing them both as soon as feasible to maximize value to the taxpayer.

Why chose him? Pinsonneault says if residents are happy that taxes went up, and happy with the $15 million municipal center, then they should vote for Maloney. If not and they would like to see change and the embracing of new technology in Weston, then they should vote for Pinsonneault.

The trustee race

Besides just the village president race, there is also a contested race for village board. Mark Maloney and Jim Pinsonneault are also running for the board, as well as village president. Also running are incumbents Barb Ermeling and Hooshang Zeyghami.

It didn’t seem like it made sense to have Maloney and Pinsonneault also fill out another questionnaire, so I sent them to Ermeling and Zeyghami, and told Zeyghami he could probably crib a lot of his answers from his responses to the president questionnaire during the primary.

The Wausonian did not get a response from Zeyghami but you can read his presidential responses here.

Maloney and Pinsonneault would have to give up their board seat if they managed to win both. Maloney told The Wausonian that if re-elected he plans to appoint whoever doesn’t win to the open board seat. Pinsonneault says he favors a more open process for selecting a board member to fill the seat if he is elected president.

Barb Ermeling

I am retired. Before I retired I was the Clerk/Treasurer for the Village of Weston.

One of the reasons I am running for re-election. The Village Board needs to continue to look for ways to consolidate some of our services with other communities. The Village of Weston and the Village of Rothschild recently merged their police departments. The merger is a great way for the communities to combine their resources to provide efficiency, while continuing to provide excellent services. I would like to see a merger of SAFER and Riverside Fire District. Public Safety is the largest item in our budget. Finding ways to combine services will help control costs.

One of the biggest challenges is the rising costs of providing services to our residents. The Board and staff continue to look for ways to cut costs, while still maintaining services.

One of my top priorities is our Tax Increment Districts Number 1 and 2. They are nearing the end of their terms. We need to review what needs to be done in the districts before they expire. We also need to research if we can take out some areas of the district ahead of the expiration date to help our budget.

The Village of Weston is a great place to live and work. It is an honor and privilege to have served the residents of Weston. If re-elected I will continue to be available to the residents. If you have a question or concern you can contact me and I will talk with you, if I do not have the answer I will find someone who does.

Hooshang Zeyghami

Zeyghami did not respond to The Wausonian’s request to fill out a questionnaire but his presidential responses can be found here, which should give you a sense of the candidate at any rate. Zeyghami was eliminated from the presidential race during the primary but is still on the ballot for village board.

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