For a recent interview on Mid-Day Magazine, host James J. Malouf met with Wisconsin Rapids Mayor Matt Zacher to discuss the communications survey and other important updates.

The Interview

Zacher began the interview discussing the election of a new Adlerman and the committee shuffling that they started recently. He made a point to thank everyone who has run for any office, or who volunteer to help represent their communities.

Mayoral Term Limits

Malouf brought up the recent changes to the Mayoral term length. Wisconsin Rapids Mayor Matt Zacher said this felt like a happy medium. The Mayoral Term limit in Wisconsin Rapids will change after the next election from two years to three years. Malouf and Zacher addressed the “but I can vote you out sooner if I don’t like you” position they’ve heard regarding this. Zacher wants to hear everyone’d differing opinions, but at the end of the day “the vote is the vote” and it needs to be upheld.

Clearing Red Tape

Zacher then moved to the concerns people have had about the amount of red tape present in Wisconsin Rapids politics. He and the Alderman in the current administration are going through them and holding votes on each item worth removal. If the vote supports it they remove it, and the plan is to just keep working at it until the government of Wisconsin Rapids is efficient and effective for community members.

Communications Survey

The conversation then turned to the Communications Survey and its results. The goals of the Survey are to help see what residents are looking for from their government, and how government workers saw their job as. There were two big messages found in the results. That the community wants transparency and safe driveable roads. Zacher said that he plans to platform the folks in charge of implementing these plans in future interviews.

Important Links

Listen to the full episode on our website here.

This interview was made in cooperation with Wisconsin Rapids Community Media. Their video of this interview can be viewed on their youtube page here.

The Community Survey can be viewed here.

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