Candidates for La Crosse mayor debate ahead of historic election

In-person absentee voting is now open in the race to decide who will become the next mayor of La Crosse. Voters can turn in absentee ballots in advance, or vote in person on Election Day, Tuesday, April 1. Regardless of the outcome, the results of the election will make history.

Chris Kahlow is the current president of the La Crosse Common Council and has been a business owner and real estate investor. If elected, she would become the first woman to be the city’s chief executive.

Shaundel Washington-Spivey is the co-founder and executive director of the nonprofit Black Leaders Acquiring Collective Knowledge (BLACK). He previously served on the La Crosse School Board. Should he ascend to the mayor’s office, he would be the first Black mayor and the first openly LGBTQ+ mayor in La Crosse.

The winner of the election will take office on April 15, succeeding Mayor Mitch Reynolds, who opted not to seek reelection.

Spivey and Kahlow joined each other recently for a debate at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. It was hosted by WIZM News and the UW-La Crosse Department of Political Science and Public Administration, and featured questions from a panel of local media, including WPR.

The following transcription has been edited for brevity and clarity.

Cost and availability of child care

Allyson Fergot, WKBT TV: Access to affordable child care is a growing concern in the area. For the past few years, the city has worked with organizations to find solutions using ARPA money. Those funds had to be allocated by the end of 2024 and will have to be spent by the end of 2026. Additionally, the state’s Child Care Counts initiative is set to end this summer. How will you continue to address the issue of child care while potentially working with less funding?

Chris Kahlow: I was on the Economic Development Committee that allocated that funding for child care.

It is not a typical budget item that the City of La Crosse has in its budget, but what I would do would be to work with the Planning Department to find out if there are additional ways that the city could help with child care.

I also will state that early on, two years ago or three years ago, I did try to work with some of the younger council members to find a way to get child care access in City Hall.

We thought that there needed to be a way to be more equitable and allow women and dads who had small children to attend meetings or serve on committees. We were not successful with that, but possibly in the future we could do that.

I also work with our state legislators, and I can work with them as mayor to make sure that we are getting funding for child care.

Shaundel Washington-Spivey: Black Leaders Acquiring Collective Knowledge, under my leadership, worked collaboratively with the county to actually gather stories of a lot of individuals who are child care center owners or providers.

We used those stories to then be able to advocate for funding in this city, i.e., some connection to the ARPA funding but also other funding as well.

I’ve been able to sit in on meetings with the governor who talks about this issue as well, and making sure that his budget allows for funding specifically for child care providers.

As mayor, I would advocate with our state and local legislators to ensure that we bring that funding here in La Crosse.

Access to City Hall and government offices

Chandler Brindley, WXOW TV: La Crosse’s City Hall is open Monday through Thursday. I’ve been told by community members they used to have access to quite a bit of it. Nowadays, the first floor is where most have access. Unless they’re with a city employee, you’re not able to get on the elevators and access other floors. Should City Hall be open on Friday, and should community members have more access to that building?

CK: As mayor, I would like to have City Hall open on Fridays. I realize that our community wants to be able to access City Hall. I think they should have the availability on Fridays to go in and do the work that they need to do: pay their bills, ask questions, meet with staff.

I realize also the restrictions that were put on accessing upper floors was due to a safety kind of inspection, and there were recommendations made because of what has happened in the [social] climate lately, and there were concerns about safety.

So I would prefer to, as mayor, take a look at that again and see if there would be some more access to individuals because I think it is really important for citizens to feel like they can access their government.

SWS: I too will admit I was a little upset, you know, going on a Friday and realizing that the building was closed. I’m like, “Man, what happened here?”

But also, I was upset because I remember a time where I would be able to go up to [former] Mayor [Tim] Kabat’s office and have a conversation with him.

So I hear the community’s frustration with the way things are going right now in terms of what people are considering the lockdown of City Hall.

As mayor, I think it’s our responsibility to ensure that we also maintain a safe place for our individuals to work, but then also still make sure our public has access to the folks that they are paying to represent and work on their behalf.

I think working with the directors as well as city staff and the community, I think we can come up with a solution that works best for all of us.

Housing cost and availability

Ezra Wall, WPR: Housing is prohibitively expensive in La Crosse for both renters and prospective homeowners. Generically, it’s easy to say that we need to increase inventory or that we need to give people the opportunity to make more money. What’s an example of one specific, tangible action the city can take to make housing more available and more affordable?

SWS: I was a renter in this community for many years up until myself and my husband bought our current house that we live in on the north side. So I definitely understand the need for rental properties in this community.

As far as housing, I think we do what is best practice, which is the city planning department has housing studies and various things: Climate Action Plan or the 2040 Comprehensive Plan and things of that nature that are helping to guide us to ensure that we’re building the right housing.

Now, my personal opinion is that I feel like we need to ensure that we’re building a variety of housing in every neighborhood so that we make sure that every neighborhood is accessible to everyone.

CK: I think we recognize housing is a human right, and safe, affordable housing really does make and strengthen neighborhoods.

The City of La Crosse has worked on affordable housing projects over the last year. We have new projects coming online. We have worked with developers, and there are incentives that have been provided.

We have affordable and low-income housing coming on 4th and Jackson at the Collective. We have it at Lincoln School in Washburn neighborhood, and it will be coming on 10th and Main at the Haven on Main.

So the city has and will continue — and as mayor, I will continue — to make sure that we are providing affordable housing as well as other housing types: duplexes, missing middle housing, row houses, townhouses, making sure that we have housing for everyone in the city.

And when we do add housing to neighborhoods, we are being sensitive to that neighborhood and making sure that the character and charm of that neighborhood is considered when we infill new housing.

Climate change and the environment

Allyson Fergot, WKBT TV: La Crosse is absolutely beautiful, from our bluffs to the Mississippi River. Some would say our city’s natural beauty is one of our biggest assets, and it’s key that we protect that. What role do you as mayor and the city have in addressing climate change, and what policies would you implement to achieve that?

SWS: Let me start by saying I’m from Milwaukee, and so when I came to La Crosse, one of the things that I was able to really appreciate was what I called the mountains before, but now know as the bluffs. I think that we have to ensure that we maintain the beauty that we have here in this community.

One of the ways we can do that is by following the Climate Action Plan and not just picking pieces as it is convenient for us, but truly looking at that plan and working with the partners that helped us create that, as well as collaborating with businesses and private organizations to ensure that we do what we need to do for our community to keep it vibrant and livable.

CK: Our Climate Action Plan is an important piece to the sustainability of our city.

As a council member who did vote to pass that plan — and it is a large plan with a lot of actions in it — as mayor, I would support in the budget making sure that when we do have budgetary items, that we are looking at those items and really trying to decide: are they in line with the Climate Action Plan?

I would say in the past that hasn’t been done, and I think that we really need to be looking at where we spend our tax dollars and making sure that we support that plan.

We know that we have extreme events that have happened in this region more frequently, and that plan is important.

I would also add that one of the actions in that plan was our urban tree canopy and restoring that, and there was a large amount of money understandably funded by the council to restore some of the urban tree canopy in downtown La Crosse. That is something that I thought was very important, and the council did agree with me, and that is just one piece that I have sponsored that is in the Climate Action Plan.

As mayor, I would make sure that our staff understand the components of it and that they are following it.

SWS: I would just also like to add that in addition to being responsible with tax dollars, we also have to be cognizant of the decisions that we make that go against the plans that we voted for.

City action on homelessness

Ezra Wall, WPR: The city council and police have adopted more restrictions aimed at people who are unhoused in the last year, including a ban on camping on city property and stricter rules around use of city parking garages. Is this the right approach to handling homelessness in La Crosse?

CK: I’m going to start by repeating what I said: housing is a human right, and stable and affordable housing gives kids a better chance to succeed in school. It gives moms and dads a better chance to succeed in the workforce.

Homelessness is a very complex issue. While we have the Pathways Home program, it is a strong foundation, and I’m going to say several critical areas require external support, particularly in expanding access to treatment facilities for addiction and mental health services.

I do not support the idea that giving unhoused people a tent and a place to park it in a park is a viable solution. I think we need to follow the Pathways Home plan, and I would also say that giving someone a tent to go to a park or encampment is not safe nor effective in ending homelessness.

SWS: I’ve talked about Pathways Home because I truly believe Pathways Home was a brilliant strategy of looking at homelessness and unhoused issues in this community by having the city and the county and private organizations come together and say, “Hey, we have this issue. What services can you provide? What can you provide, and how can we do this together?”

However, I think when we use Pathways Home, which is an evidence-based approach that has been used and proven to work, we have to make sure that we’re following Pathways Home with fidelity.

In your question, you talked about encampments, and banning encampments is step three of the process, and we did that in step one. I think we just need to truly look at when we’re bringing out these evidence-based approaches, are we following them with fidelity?

I understand that giving someone a tent and putting them outside is not a viable living experience. Also, the reality is our city has to be able to provide the services that they need while working alongside other community partners.

CK: Part of Pathways Home right now is prevention. I think preventing folks from becoming homeless is just as important a piece as trying to get those three hundred people into housing. My thought—and this has been talked about for the last six or eight years—has been a hub model of community safety, and as mayor, I would attempt to implement that immediately.

SWS: I would just add that that community response already exists, and it exists in buildings like the REACH Center and organizations like Couleecap and some of those places that council tried to put barriers in place for them to be able to do the work that they needed to do. I want us to all remember that.