In La Crosse, mayoral hopefuls outline plans for the city

La Crosse residents are already filling out absentee ballots and casting early votes ahead of the primary election on Feb. 18. In addition to the statewide race for the state superintendent and an open seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, La Crosse residents will cast votes for mayor, city council and more.

With four candidates in the nonpartisan mayoral primary, the top two will face each other in the general election on April 1st. 

Running for mayor are City Council President Chris Kahlow, former journalist and longtime business advocate Vicki Markussen, local realtor Ellie McLoone and nonprofit executive and former La Crosse School Board member Shaundel Washington-Spivey. 

The incumbent, Mayor Mitch Reynolds, is not seeking reelection. He previously told WIZM it “was a difficult decision to come to.” Reynolds has been in office since 2021.

The four primary candidates were interviewed separately by WPR’s “Morning Edition,” answering the same five questions. Audio of each interview is available at the bottom of this page.

The following transcripts have been edited for brevity and clarity. 

Housing

WPR: Housing costs have risen dramatically in recent years, and available and affordable housing is a challenge across the country. What do you hope can be done to address those challenges in La Crosse?

Chris Kahlow: On the council, I have already done those things. We have affordable housing projects coming online already. We have three projects. One is started and two others are going to start very close to my district. So the city is already incentivizing and helping. We passed an accessory dwelling unit ordinance to allow that.

Now, I want to prioritize more of a mix of housing types. So I want some of that missing middle so we can get maybe some duplexes and some single family homes, but we need the affordability. We need to balance with our existing neighborhoods to make sure we maintain the charm and character of those  older neighborhoods when we do add that housing.

Vicki Markussen: Because of my work with the Builders Association and the North La Crosse Business Association, housing is right in my wheelhouse. Here’s what I know from talking to families that have relocated here through the Chamber’s First Friend program. They just want the type of home that they’re looking for. And La Crosse doesn’t have that variety that they are searching for. Making sure we have some variety is important. I also know from demographics, we have an aging population. We have young families trying to get in, and we need to support that. But we just have to make sure we have options for our seniors who want to downsize, so that they’re not competing with young families trying for the same smaller homes. Supply and demand is driving up the prices, including rent. The more options are available, the happier people will be and actually be able to choose La Crosse as the place to live.

Ellie McLoone: It is an issue throughout the entire country. And now with the recent fires and the hurricanes, I think that’s going to add some additional difficulties in getting that taken care of. I think some of the projects that we have going on currently in La Crosse are filling a gap. There are 1,700 homes in the floodplain on the north side. FEMA is doing an analysis up and down the Mississippi.

But it will be imperative that the mayor, the state reps and the federal reps push to get that taken care of, because there are some properties where the land is large enough for two or three single family homes. Then we need to look at something else to help with the tax base and trying to reduce those property taxes overall.

Shaundel Washington-Spivey: I believe that in order to solve one issue, you also have to be able to address all the others. So, when we talk about housing cost, we also have to talk about minimum wage and how people are being paid to effectively pay for this expensive housing cost and all the inflation that’s happening.

And so I think as a city, we have to explore what are our best ways of being able to make sure that everybody is making an affordable wage. Then also challenging our builders and developers. Does housing have to be this expensive? What are ways in which we can make affordable housing in this community? And what are ways that we can bring in state and federal dollars? And what about families who need rental assistance? 

Homelessness

WPR: The City’s efforts to address homelessness have been costly and largely ineffective. Now, the county, the city and others are part of a project called “Pathways Home.” Does that initiative correctly address the earlier failures to address homelessness in La Crosse?

Shaundel Washington-Spivey: From the beginning, I’ve stated that I’m very a strong advocate for Pathways Home. I think it is a brilliant strategy of how we should be coming up with solutions in our community. When you think of the collaboration that is going on with the county, the city, nonprofit and private organizations who address this issue, it makes sense.

Everybody’s talking about getting to functional zero homelessness. I’ve heard conversations like, “We’ll get to functional zero by 2026, or 2029,” or whatever the case may be. But the reality is that the idea of housing the individual and then providing the services that they need — based on what they actually need and not what we think they need — and then being able to sustain that process for a period of time so that we can make sure that those individuals are set up for success, I think is extremely important.

Chris Kahlow: I did support the Pathways Home plan on the City Council, and I think that collaboration is incredibly important. I think what we found out as municipality is that we didn’t have the staffing or resources to be able to tackle such a large regional and statewide problem.

This is not just the City of La Crosse. We have a lot of outlying areas that don’t have services for the homeless and folks are being brought to the city because we are the caring, wonderful community that we are. However, that is stressing and straining not only our nonprofits that do great work, but it is challenging for the community.

So I understand the frustrations of the past, but I think the Pathways Home plan, if we’re a little more patient and give it some time, will work. I also advocate for more preventive work, too, and I think that will come. But we really want to make sure people don’t lose their housing and end up going into a homelessness situation.

Vicki Markussen: It’s a start. It’s funny because four years ago [during the last mayoral campaign], I was the one saying we don’t have a health department as a city. We need the county to be helping because they have the health department, they have the case managers, they have the people that can look beyond housing to make sure that these individuals have what we call workforce development and supportive services.

Here’s a quick story. “Frank” is in his early 60s. His adult son has some disabilities. I see “Frank” every day at the Workforce Development Center. I joke with him, saying, “I hope I don’t see you tomorrow,” because that would mean he got a job. This is a veteran, he’s very employable, and he’s homeless because he lost his job. We have to figure out how to lift these individuals out of homelessness. Or it becomes chronic, and that’s the piece that I see missing with Pathways Home. How do we use our nonprofits? Do we use, for example,[Community Development Block Grant] money? How do we use that to move the needle in some of these other areas of homelessness? Because we’ll never hit functional zero, as the county likes to call it, if we continue to have people slipping through the cracks.

Ellie McLoone: We have to get to the root problem of why someone may find themselves homeless. And in my announcement, I made a recommendation and will push to get the state reps and the governor to get a state funded detox and mental health counseling facility on the western side of the state. The closest detox and mental health counseling is either Minneapolis or Madison. So that kind of defeats the purpose when a high percentage of those that find themselves homeless have one of those two options.

I think the combination of all the programs that are being implemented right now will help in the situation, and the communications across all the different departments, as well as charitable organizations, to make sure we’re not duplicating services. 

Property taxes

WPR: Residents often complain about high property taxes in La Crosse. What should the mayor do to ensure residents are getting what they pay for?

Ellie McLoone: I think it comes down to wants and needs. So you have to look at each department. As a business person and working with multi-million dollar budgets in marketing and advertising, when I develop brand awareness and launching new brands for Fortune 500 companies, I would always look at my budget. What do I need to do to get the job accomplished? And if I get done early, are there any incentives for that?

So as mayor, I would have each department head present their business plan to me, look at exactly how they came to that. I’d look to see if there’s any ways that we can reduce some costs. It might be from supplies that they are getting or making sure that when they go out for bids on various items, that they get three bids and we look at all the bids to see which is going to be the best for the citizens.

Right now the city is strapped. We’re cutting things like large item pickup and having residents pay to use the city’s yard waste drop-off site. Do we need to move forward with projects that are on the docket right now? Do we hold off on those until we start to manage the budget? Everyone has to do it at their home — you know, paying their home bills and such. We need to really look at is this a need or a want and kind of go from there.

Shaundel Washington-Spivey: I feel like a lot of it has to do with transparency. Like, how are we as a city government being transparent with our constituents and having conversations about inflation? I mean, yeah, everybody knows that things are costing more. Why? And our budget has been struggling. And like many cities, we got all these federal dollars from [the American Rescue Plan Act] in recent years. The reality is all that money is leaving the city. And so where does that leave us?

We have to really come together with the community to address questions like: What amenities do we want in this city? Then also be realistic about the fact that our taxes are high, and I’m willing to bet that our surrounding communities’ taxes are going to increase as well.

And we just have to make sure that we’re doing what the community wants. Like we can’t have everything unless we figure out ways that we can, right? For example, other communities have hired a city administrator, which allowed them to save dollars, right? And I’m not going to say that’s going to lower taxes, but it also does make the city more financially responsible when using the money. It really goes back to what our goals are and our vision for the city of La Crosse. There’s things that various community members find more important than others, and so figuring out what’s the balance between all these things that we want in need.

Chris Kahlow: So the mayor does present the budget to council. The council does approve the budget. But the mayor works with the department heads to really make sure that there is a budget delivered that is still fulfilling the basic services that people expect and need. You know, our public safety, our police and fire are about 40 percent of our operating budget. When I knock on doors in the community, they tell me they don’t want cuts there. I think what we can do is make sure that we are attracting more business, attracting more housing and growing our tax base. And when we grow our tax base, we have that tax burden spread out over more folks.

Vicki Markussen: It’s tough in the city of La Crosse, because the other thing that makes this very different from other communities is how much nonprofit land that we have here. We have a floodplain that causes us to not be able to have the property values that we would really like for a community our size. I’m pretty adamant that we have to hold the line on property taxes. It’s very interesting talking out in the community, because I find some younger individuals who will say, “I’m OK if my property taxes go up. I understand that property taxes are going to go up.” But what a lot of people don’t understand is, I hear from our seniors —  and remember, we have an aging population on fixed incomes —  that raising property taxes could force them out of their homes. That’s very concerning for them as the property tax increases.

The second piece that people forget, and it happened the last time we saw assessments go up, is the direct connection to our rental rates. So property taxes go up, our rents go up because that is not going to be absorbed by the property owners. It never is. And so we have to be mindful that while some, yes, are willing to pay more in property taxes, there are some that cannot, and there are others that are just going to pass it on. So that’s why I’m pretty adamant that we have to do everything we can to keep our property taxes steady.  

Infrastructure

WPR: What’s the biggest infrastructure challenge facing La Crosse, and how would you address it as mayor? 

Vicki Markussen: What are those services that our property taxes are paying for? In terms of infrastructure, people correlate their property taxes to roads. And thank goodness this time we’re not talking about La Crosse Street, like we were in the last election. But there are some roads that are in dire need of repair, and we have to stay on top of that or we’re just going to create a sinking pit. So making sure that we’re doing 8 miles every year, as former Mayor Kabat used to say. 

Ellie McLoone: This pretty much goes into what I said before about needs and wants. I feel that there are a lot of streets that need repairs. So before we start adding additional items that are going to require maintenance, we should take care of the items that are currently in existence and get those repaired, because we’re looking at safety issues for pedestrians. Also, if you hit a pothole, that could create a traffic incident as well. But we need to take care of the items that we already have in play right now before starting to add additional things.

Shaundel Washington-Spivey: So when it comes to infrastructure, one of the things that we have to talk about is educating our community. So making sure that we understand what belongs to the city, what belongs to the county, what belongs to the state and making sure that we’re advocating that whatever needs to be fixed is being fixed by the right engineer. In addition to that, we have to explore making sure that we’re paying for the deferred maintenance that’s been passed down and ensuring that we’re addressing that in addition to coming together with the community and other stakeholders to realize our vision for La Crosse. And what is it that we need to make sure that we’re renovating? We have vacant buildings that we could possibly repurpose. We have buildable land that we need to explore.

Chris Kahlow: Really, a lot of our aging stormwater underground infrastructure is incredibly costly, but we know that a lot of that has been put in a century ago, or 60 years ago, and we need to have those upgrades, especially with the climate change and the weather events that we’re having. I also think a lot of the impervious surfaces that we’ve put in have caused some of the issues with the flooding in the city. So I know as roads are being redone and streets are being redone, we are really focusing on choosing those streets that have infrastructure work that we can upgrade at the same time, and they have to be a priority. I think that the aging infrastructure, especially stormwater, municipal water and sewer — those are really important. And then to make sure that we’re spending our money wisely, we do the street at the same time — we don’t do the street and three years later we dig it up and do the infrastructure under.

Vacant properties

WPR: What can the mayor and the city do to encourage the timely and appropriate redevelopment of vacant properties large and small, from empty neighborhood lots to the vacant former K-Mart?

Chris Kahlow: The K-mart property, I have met with 360 Development, and that is going to be underway soon. Council gave them a firm deadline, and I think they were well aware that we weren’t going to extend. And the council was realizing the issues that have been happening with interest rates and construction costs, and we’ve given them enough time. They are going to be moving forward. I really believe that some of the single lots that are vacant, the city could really focus on. I have three lots that are a stone’s throw from my house, and they’re just a vacant lot. And I really think we could be more aggressive at working with those owners to try to get them sold or work with Habitat for Humanity, or Couleecap or just local developers. 

Vicki Markussen: It’s hard because it’s privately owned property and of the developers I’ve worked with, quite a few have to make the numbers work. They’re trying to make it work at a time when the cost of construction is very high. The mortgage rates are very high. Thankfully, the developer on that specific property just came — I think it was 10 days ago — to say, “Here’s how we’ve revamped this to make the numbers work.” But I will tell you from canvassing, I’m constantly going, “Why is that an empty lot?” and “Why isn’t there a house on that lot?” There are great opportunities in our community. The floodplain presents a challenge on the north side, but we need to be asking the questions of our developers to say what will it take to develop in La Crosse?

Ellie McLoone: That’s really a tough question because these are investors and they’re looking at their return on their investment. I know that there’s land that was developed or that’s been donated in Holmen for a new YMCA. So when the Onalaska YMCA was built, the cost was $175 a square foot. In Holmen, it’s now $525 per square foot. So just looking at those overall costs — an investor is going to be looking at that and choose not to make a decision to move forward.

So the other way that we can work on it is really stay hard and fast on our deadlines. If you’re not going to move forward on this, then give an opportunity for somebody else to look at doing something with the property. Also, looking at our building codes can make things very expensive. So kind of looking at that as well to see if there’s a way that we can curb those costs and work with these developers. 

Shaundel Washington-Spivey: The role of mayor is to really cast a vision for this city and to ensure also that we’re managing our directors, and the directors are managing their staff and also working with City Council. And so I think when it comes to that particular piece, for me it would be a matter of looking at what ways can we repurpose vacant buildings, giving credits to individuals that are buying the land or properties and looking at more programs like that.

Listen to an extended interview with each candidate on WPR’s “Morning Edition“:

Chris Kahlow

Vicki Markussen

Ellie McLoone

Shaundel Washington-Spivey