Editor’s note: Wausau Pilot & Review gladly publishes commentary from readers, residents and candidates for local offices. The views of readers and columnists are independent of this newspaper and do not necessarily reflect the views of Wausau Pilot & Review. To submit, email [email protected] or mail to 500 N. Third St., Suite 208-8, Wausau, Wis. 54403.

Dear editor,

My name is Vicki Tierney and I am currently a candidate for District 9 City Council. I am writing this because I was recently misquoted by a weekly city publication. I want to be very clear in why I am a candidate and what I feel should be our focus to make District 9 and the City of Wausau the best it can be.  

Wausau Pilot and Review’s article regarding my reasons for running for City Council and my responses to their questions was exactly as I had stated, but I was misquoted in a different publication.

I am running for City Council because I feel water rates are too high and we can make them more affordable by elimination of the PILOT tax or at least a huge reduction of that tax. Also on this subject, I am not in favor of changing the reclassification of the water utility employee’s pay structure which could cause another rate increase. I feel all unrepresented city employees are equally valuable. I was misquoted by that other publication stating I said entry level water utility workers make too much. That is not what I said. I did talk to James Henderson, the City of Wausau’s HR director a few months ago to see what the wage is for a new unskilled water utility employee along with their benefits. It is in line with other cities comparable to Wausau. This is why I don’t support the pay reclassification. I also feel that Wausau needs to take advantage of apprenticeship programs with the local high schools to get students training and interested in some of the great employment opportunities the city has to offer.                                                        

I feel that the city has not done their do diligence when choosing contractors for large city projects, such as CIP for the LSL replacement project. CIP had been in business less than a year and CIP has not done a project of this magnitude as a new company. Some senior management executives come from a company called Corvias, and Corvias has done these types of projects, but Corvias has had some well publicized legal issues. I was quoted as saying Corvias was the contractor for the Wausau LSL project which I had not said.

T Wall, the contractor hired for redevelopment  of the old Wausau City Mall site, has had numerous delays on starting construction due to a lack of capital. I feel if shovels are not in the ground by June, the newest deadline given by the city for the start of construction, we cut ties with them.                                              

In order to reduce debt and to curb future property tax increases, I feel we need to prioritize where tax dollars are spent. I feel some of these critical needs are infrastructure and making sure our police officers and firefighters have the staff and equipment they need to keep our city safe. Until we can get a grip on our debt, we need to tighten the purse strings and look at putting some non critical projects on hold. Tax payers can not continue to shoulder the load for any more additional debt.

I want our city government to be better stewards of the taxpayer’s money. There is a budget for a reason. We need to stick to that budget.

I want to have open house meetings with District 9 residents at a district 9 business, possibly on a bi-monthly basis, so they can tell me what we need to do better in our district.

I will stand with the residents in District 9 to make sure that we are heard and our concerns are properly addressed.                               

There is so much more that I want to do and I do not want to lose that opportunity because of one reporter who did not accurately report my responses to his questions. 

Vicki Tierney, Wausau

Vicki Tierney is a candidate for Wausau City Council in Dist. 9. She is challenging incumbent Dawn Herbst.

I will stand with the residents in District 9 to make sure that we are heard and our concerns are properly addressed.                               There is so much more that I want to do and I do not want to lose that opportunity because of one reporter who did not accurately report my responses to his questions. Vicki Tierney