MARSHFIELD, WI (WSAU) — Marshfield Administrator Steve Barg says some residents are doing double-takes when they look at the list of names of those running for Mayor.
Bob McManus, the man who was removed from office less than a year ago, was one of the first candidates to take out and return the nominating paperwork to run for the office this Spring. Barg says he can understand if residents have concerns about that given the fact that McManus was removed by a vote of the city council for deleting text messages that were part of public record from his city-issued cellphone, but running again is well within McManus’ rights.
“Chapter 17, which is what he was removed under, that doesn’t bar you for life,” said Barg. “What it basically says is you can’t run if there is a special election to replace you. You can’t run in that. It says nothing at all about running again. So here we are, ten months later, and he is very eligible to be running for Mayor.”
The City Council chose not to hold a special election after McManus’ removal. Instead, City Council President Nick Poschel has been running meetings and signing documents in the Mayor’s place.
Barg says he knows people on both sides of the issue, as several “McManus for Mayor” signs have already started to pop up in the city. But that doesn’t mean everyone is behind the former Mayor.
“Bob has a fair amount of support. There are probably people that believe he was removed from office wrongfully, and there are probably people who believe he was removed from office appropriately. But there is no doubt there are people in this community backing his candidacy,” said Barg.
Joining McManus in the race are former City Alder Ken Bargender and Lois TeStrake, a former President of Main Street Marshfield. The three will square off in a city-wide primary on February 15th with the top two candidates going to the general election on April 5th.
In addition to the Mayor’s seat, all odd-numbered Aldermanic districts are up for election. Three of those races are unopposed in Districts 1, 5, and 7. In District 9 Michael O’Reilly is running unopposed after Tom Buttke decided it was time to end his run on the council after 22 years. District 3 has a contested election with incumbent Quinten Rosandich running against challenger Natasha Tomkins.
Since none of those races feature more than three candidates there will not be any primaries on February 15th besides the Mayor’s race.
Other topics Barg discussed with WSAU’s Mike Leischner include:
Start of video- Mayor and City Council races
10:00- Interviews Monday for Police Chief and looking ahead to the hiring of a new Fire Chief
15:30- New retail businesses coming to town this year
