Sheboygan City Council: My Way or the Highway

Link to August 5 Sheboygan Press article, "Mayor:  'Splintered council' hurting city".

Excerpt: The City of Sheboygan is hemorrhaging department heads and operationally dysfunctional because its Common Council is unnerved by change, sidetracked by individual agendas and addicted to micromanaging, according to the mayor and recently departed department heads.

Mayor Bob Ryan leveled his criticism Wednesday to echo statements by outgoing City Assessor David Lutzke, who said council mismanagement was the key factor in his decision to join the parade of department heads exiting City Hall. Five have now left in the last year and a total of nine over the last four years. [Emphasis added.]

"When you have a splintered council the way we have, where everyone has their own agenda — and … their agenda has nothing to do with allowing the professionals who were hired to run this city run this city — it's very frustrating," Ryan said.

The Sheboygan City Council in happier days.  They now serve as an antidote to the adage, the more the merrier.

Additional excerpt:  A former department head speaking on condition of anonymity said a council distracted by details in recent years has failed to address key changes in the makeup of the city, including a declining tax base, shifting demographics and declining income levels.

"They're not dealing with the big issues, they're dealing with the day-to-day, kind of like wanting to be the management but not wanting to be the policy directors," the former department head said. "My view is they're supposed to kind of paint the picture of, this is what we want the community to be like, and department heads get you there."