In Brown County Board District 22, incumbent Tom Peters faces challenge from Kenneth Mika in April 5 election

Green Bay Press-Gazette

GREEN BAY - Brown County Board member Tom Peters faces a challenge from Kenneth Mika for the District 22 seat in the April 5 election.

The top vote-getter will win a two-year term representing District 22.

We asked each candidate background information and five questions, with a 100-word limit for the first four and 200 words for the fifth. (i) denotes incumbent.

Kenneth Mika

Address: 1600 Park Haven Road, Lawrence

Age: 37

Occupation and highest education level attained: Senior project manager at Tetra Tech; master of science in engineering.

Relevant experience: I have worked on private and government infrastructure projects as a professional engineer, I advocate at the state and federal levels for infrastructure investment, and I am involved locally with the Young Professionals Advisory Council and cultural trail planning committee.

Why are you running for office?

Mika: I am running for office because District 22 and the surrounding districts have seen substantial growth for both residents and commercial/industrial facilities. Our current infrastructure in District 22 and the surrounding districts was set up when there was mostly farming in our districts. To ensure our residents remain safe with the increased vehicle activity while also ensuring that our business are successful, we need to invest and upgrade our current infrastructure. I have experience advocating at the federal and state level and I would like to be the infrastructure advocate for District 22 and Brown County as a whole.

What makes you the better candidate in this race?

Mika: I believe I am the better candidate in this race because I understand the need first hand of having better infrastructure in our district. With having young children, like many families do in our district and surrounding districts, it is not safe in certain areas of the district for children to ride bikes between neighborhoods when there are limited trails, sidewalks and crosswalks for safe crossing. Since District 22 spans multiple municipalities and school districts, it is not easy to connect the various neighborhoods. I will be the advocate for upgrading the infrastructure for safe connections for our neighborhoods.

What are residents telling you are their most important issues, and how would you address them?

Mika: Residents are telling me their most important issues are safety for their families especially with the increased vehicle traffic and large vehicle sizes in our district. On day one I plan to reach out the appropriate stakeholders at the county to better understand where the county is at with conducting traffic studies as those studies will help provide insight on what type of infrastructure upgrades are needed for the district. Once traffic studies are completed, I will work with the county on getting an implementation plan in place for upgrading the infrastructure.

What are top 2 issues the board should address, and how would you address them?

Mika: One issue that should be addressed is our employers are struggling to fill jobs in the areas of the County where public transportation does not exist. There are people in various other parts of the County looking for these good paying jobs. I plan to work with the board on how we can better connect through transportation the unemployed with those hiring.

The other issue is the County Board is not open in enough with their meetings and of which they need to be recorded or televised. If elected, I will push for this to happen.

How would you rate the county’s response to the coronavirus pandemic? Would you have pushed for anything different? Why or why not?

Mika: I believe the health department did the best they could have possibly done at the start of the pandemic. Based on the little information anyone had on the coronavirus, the county was getting their direction from the CDC, which is appropriate. The health department should be the local arm helping provide information and recommendations from state and federal governments. I applaud the efforts by the individuals who lead the efforts of providing information to the public. The health department tried providing as best as possible to our neighbors.

An area I would like to see different going forward on future pandemics is to limit any sort of requirements set forth by the county to county buildings and properties only. I believe any future requirements decisions for business and homeowners should be left to the business and homeowners. Business owners should have the right to set their requirements for their employees and customers since they carry all of the risks when operating their businesses. Individuals should have the ability to determine their own risks on whether to evaluate the requirements of their employer or the business where they are a customer of.

Tom Peters

Address: 1139 Spring Lake Drive, Lawrence

Age: 73

Occupation and highest education level attained: Bachelor of science in mechanical engineering; master of science in Materials Science and metallurgy; masters business administration from Marquette University; manufacturing management of several metalworking businesses, the largest being $80 million in sales with 325 employees; owned and operated two small metal & plastics manufacturing businesses that I sold upon retirement.

Relevant experience: While serving my first term on the board as a supervisor in District 22, reduced property taxes by 11% and paid down county debt by $20 million.

Why are you running for office?

Peters: I’m running for reelection as county supervisor District 22 for a second term because I’m proud of my accomplishments on the County Board; reducing taxes by 11%, reduced debt by $20 million, and made significant investments in our community for today’s and future residents.

What makes you the better candidate in this race?

Peters: I have the experience of two years in county government, and know what, where and who to go to continue to get results. As a former small business owner, I know what businesses need to be successful and I pledge to continue to make wise decisions taking small business interests in consideration in all board actions.

What are residents telling you are their most important issues, and how would you address them?

Peters: To keep taxes as low as possible while making responsible investments going forward. I have assisted in the County Board’s selection of a permanent county meeting facility by renovating existing space in the lower level of the public library and equipping it with modern technology to increase public transparency of all proceedings via live streaming. Additionally, the board has directed the county to purchase the old Eagles Nest property on the east shore of Green Bay, which will be developed into a badly needed first-rate boat launch facility on the lower bay.

What are top 2 issues the board should address, and how would you address them?

Expanding broadband internet throughout the county. The county is to be entering a southern Brown County fiber optic internet cable installation with U.S. Cellular. Election Integrity – I will be making a presentation to the County Board Executive Committee proposing a resolution banning outside money from being used to influence County election outcomes in order to prevent election fraud from occurring.

How would you rate the county’s response to the coronavirus pandemic? Would you have pushed for anything different? Why or why not?

In order to answer, we have to go back January 2020 when the virus was first emerging and little was known. Coupled with the lack of knowledge about this virus and so much mis-information, Brown County’s health nurse errored on the side of caution. However, small businesses should not have been closed while allowing others to remain open. As a result of this entire situation, your County Board has subsequently passed a resolution which gives the board the power to “override” a single person’s decision on such critical matters.