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Mayoral Candidates Face Off: Brookfield Debate Focuses on Fire Service

Posted on: Thursday, 23 March 2006, 03:03 CST

By Lisa Sink, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Mar. 23--Brookfield -- Candidates sparred on fire service, regional cooperation and integrity Wednesday during the last planned Brookfield mayoral debate before the April 4 election.

Mayor Jeff Speaker said the city should not add $2 million a year to its budget -- or about $160 a year to the average tax bill -- to build and operate a fourth city fire station.

If Brookfield could build a joint station with neighbors, that would be more viable, Speaker said at a debate sponsored two citizens groups, Concerned Calhoun Community and Brookfield League of Concerned Citizens.

But he said those neighbors -- the Town of Brookfield and City of Pewaukee -- are unwilling to substantially increase their budgets to staff a joint station with full-time paramedic-level firefighters.

"That's why we haven't seen as much regional cooperation," Speaker told about 140 people at the Public Safety Building.

Speaker said he favors an idea to relocate the two fire stations on the city's east side to the center to improve 911 response times on the west.

Speaker's opponent, Ald. Cindy Kilkenny, disagreed, saying the city should not lengthen the response times for east-side residents.

She urged the city to think "outside of the box" and consider building smaller emergency medical service substations to serve the west side, given that paramedic calls far outnumber fire calls.

She also said it is still possible to join with the Town or Pewaukee, saying she would continue negotiations.

Kilkenny criticized Speaker for not doing enough on regional cooperation. She said she has read that he has lunch at City Hall five days a week. The mayor has said he takes daily noon-hour walks to the senior center. Instead, Speaker should be scheduling lunches with other leaders, Kilkenny said.

She said the city needs to get serious about working out a boundary agreement with the Town of Brookfield.

"They have something that we need from them: fire service," she said. "It's time."

Speaker countered that he has worked with other leaders and said that "shared services are the wave of the future." He said he has good relations with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, with whom Brookfield is discussing possible hookups to bring Lake Michigan water to the city in emergencies via Wauwatosa's utility. Brookfield also has led in shared county dispatching.

Kilkenny accused Speaker of moving into the "inner circle" after being elected. Speaker challenged that, saying aldermen recently overrode one of his vetoes.

Speaker disagreed with Kilkenny on whether development eases or increases taxes. Without about $95 million in new commercial growth last year, the increase to the city's tax rate would have doubled, he said.

Kilkenny said she would try to roll back a tax incremental financing district for the mall, saying residents will subsidize added police, fire and other services for 20 years.

Asked to respond to criticism that she was difficult to work with and not a consensus-builder, Kilkenny said, "Things might be rocky at first."

But she said she hoped new aldermen would be elected who would share her views.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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Source: The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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