Referendum on Council Size Passes After New Mayor's Tie-Breaking Vote

Citizens will get an opportunity to tell their government what they think about reducing its number of representatives, thanks to a single, somewhat surprising, somewhat reluctant vote.

It came from Mayor Eric Meaux, appointed to the office Tuesday night to and almost immediately put to the test.

A vote not to call an advisory referendum on the contentious issue of ended in a 7-all tie. The mayor does not vote along with the council except to break a tie, and for Meaux, it came down putting the matter to rest.

"This issue keeps raising its head," he said before casting the deciding vote against a motion by Ald. Michael Walsh to put the question on file — which amounts to making it disappear.

After Walsh's motion failed, the council voted again, this time on a motion to approve the referendum question, and this time it carried 9-5 with a couple of council members switching their votes.

For the most part, the debate hit on the same points that have already been heard in committee hearings – leaner, more efficient government vs. a less representative government.

Debating city matters, or themselves?

But Walsh did raise a new point in making his motion to place the question on file. With an advisory referendum that answered nothing about what shape a smaller governing body would take, the council would spend most of its time in the coming year talking about itself instead of more important issues.

"We talk and talk about this," he said, "but we spend precious little time pressing Kohl's to come to the Burleigh Triangle.

"We've just had one of the most tumultuous years in our history, but we'll debate and debate and debate about this — and I think that's what's frustrating to people."

But Ald. Dennis McBride, who originally introduced the resolution as one for a binding referendum before softening it to a non-binding one, said that what was really frustrating was that the matter had already been debated at length five times by the council over 20 years with no outcome.

"Let the people decide," he said. "Why are we afraid of that?"

No vote on specific number

The question on the April 3 ballot will only address whether or not to reduce the number of representatives on the council; it will not state a specific number.

McBride has favored cutting the number of aldermen in half, from 16 to eight, with only one representing each of Wauwatosa's current eight districts.

Ald. Don Birschel repeated his preference for keeping two representatives per district by recombining the 24 voting wards, three to a district, into six districts of four wards each – ending up with 12 aldermen.

All that will have to be decided by the council members themselves if the voters approve an unspecified reduction by any meaningful margin. No alderman said so in so many words, but an advisory referendum does not commit the council to any particular action or to any action at all.

To Walsh's point: That will all have to be debated.