A little about me.

I’m a 6th generation Wisconsin resident. I’ve lived nearly my entire life in this state.

I and my wife (Diane Odeen, currently on the River Falls City Council) moved here in 1992 and have made it our home. We really love the city, and the county. We’ve raised our children here.

This county district includes the eastern 2/3 of the UWRF campus along with surrounding neighborhoods. I’m a retired UWRF chemistry professor, working there for 30 years. I’ve taught literally thousands of students. I’ve spent most of my career working to improve science instruction for UWRF students, receiving over $2 million in awards from the state and federal governments for facilities and supporting instruction. I did the first needs assessment for the new science building about 15 years ago. I’m a strong supporter of the university and its students.

Why am I running for county board?

As a lifelong Wisconsin resident, I’ve always been inspired by the reputation for good government that Wisconsin used to have. I’m a social liberal and fiscal conservative.

Diane and I decided to run for office because we were tired of the partisan nature of politics in this state and nation. I was raised that you can’t complain about something if you’re not going to try to fix the problem. I’m running is because I want good, effective, transparent government that doesn’t care about political parties.

My uncle, Bob Goetsch, is my inspiration. A former county board chair (Dodge County), he served in the Wisconsin Assembly for two decades. Although he was a staunch Republican, he was always open to working across the aisle. When I first ran for the county board, he told me that my election meant I represented everyone, regardless of party, regardless of whether they voted for me or not. I’ve taken his advice to heart.

My main priority is good, nonpartisan government delivers the best possible services for the lowest amount of tax levy. Everything else follows from that.

My experience.

I’ve served several terms on the Pierce County Board, and am currently the first vice chair. I chair the Human Services Board and Information Systems committee, as well as the ad hoc Groundwater Advisory committee. That committee is tasked with studying groundwater pollution in Pierce County, and recommending steps to improve that important asset.

I’m also a member of the Finance and Personnel, Building, and Industrial Development committees.

What are challenges the county faces?

I think the two major challenges the board faces are 1) meeting the challenges of paying our workforce and 2) the polarization of politics spreading to local government.

Pierce County has fantastic workers, but we’ve had a hard time paying a competitive salary. As an example - a year ago, we lost five of our seven child protection workers. These are our front line workers, rescuing children from neglect or abuse. It’s a tough job. In order to replace those workers, we had to give hiring bonuses to new employees in these fields. But when we raise wages somewhere, we have to balance that somewhere else. And we won’t increase the local tax levy. It’s been a difficult balance with no simple solution.

I think that the polarization of our local politics is the other major threat. Local politics in Wisconsin is supposed to be nonpartisan. But now, we’re seeing incivility and extremism making its way from Washington, to Madison, and now to local government. One of our neighboring counties has four hour meetings where the board members yell at each other, and try to push simplistic partisan “solutions” to complex problems. It’s no surprise that not much gets done. We don’t want that in Pierce County.