We're excited. We have county
executive Rob Malikki in here.
First time you're in the radio station.
When you move close at Mike, I want
you to have to say it is it is.
So this is really good.
So I think this completes
everything that we've had
everybody in here.
You were the last person who's
never in here.
And I was procrastinating because
I'm very nervous about
it.
Oh, we just have a conversation
here.
So I want to introduce you to
people because you came into
office kind of unexpectedly
because of the passing of
Jonathan Delegre, who was our
county executive.
He just, I mean, nobody saw
that coming.
So we had to have another
county executive.
How did you get the job?
Randford.
At the end of the day, I had
initially talked to Jonathan
about it prior to his passing.
And it was because I was
interested maybe in doing
something else.
And he said, well, why don't you
run for a county seat?
Because I wasn't going to move
or relocate or anything like
that.
And I said, you know, that's
interesting.
If it was a county wide seat
where I wouldn't have to
relocate, I might be interested.
He said, well, why don't you
run for a county executive?
And I looked at him and
said, why would I ever run
against you?
So that stuck with me for a
while.
And then obviously we had a
very bad June and July.
I say June and July.
Because four days after his
passing, I lost a real good
friend of mine that was
in the business with me.
So it was a rough couple
months there.
And I just sat back on it for
a while and reflected on it.
And I was looking for ways
to still be relevant and
involved in our community.
I had served on many,
many boards over the years.
More than I can even count.
And I looked at this as a way
of being able to make an impact
on my community in a positive
way.
So that's that's how I got
here.
About a year ago.
Now I decided to run for it
right around Labor Day.
Well, good for you.
Now, did you ever in your life
before you spoke to Jonathan
Delegrave?
Did you ever think of
a public office?
No.
No, it wasn't even on the radar.
You know, I enjoyed serving
on boards.
I always looked at community
involvement at that level.
And that's kind of where the
rubber meets the road.
And to this day, I still serve
on probably three or four
separate boards.
Yeah.
Well, that's good.
Good for you being involved.
I wish I was.
I know.
I can help you.
No.
I told you.
I tell people what I think
and I'd be out there in nine
seconds right?
They kicked me out.
Now, let's talk about some
of your background because
your background is mainly in
business.
Correct.
It's not in the public sector.
You're in the private sector.
You know, you're in the super,
you're in the supermarket.
You still are in the supermarket
business.
Piggly Wiggly.
Yes.
Yes.
The very first supermarket
ever in America.
Piggly Wiggly.
It was not too many people
know that.
It was the one point.
The biggest one.
It was the only one.
It was the very first one ever
in America.
I don't know what you were
probably in the 30s.
I would imagine.
I think so.
Yeah.
1930s.
So you owned three of them.
But you still own a
Piggly Wiggly, right?
We do.
We do.
It's in Lamira, Wisconsin.
My son runs it for us.
My youngest son.
So he keeps a handle on that.
That's got to be a tough
business, always stocking food.
And it's just, it never stops.
It doesn't.
See, if you own at least,
if you own a toy store,
you put the toys on this shelf.
And that's it.
It can be from months.
But food has got to be a daily
thing you cannot let a day go by.
Absolutely.
It's a daily routine.
It's a daily cycle that's never
ending.
It's grown hog day.
Yeah.
Every time I go to the supermarket,
I look at what's on the shelves.
And I say,
the people really buy this?
I mean, who buys that?
And I'm sure people do,
or you wouldn't stock it.
But some of these items on there,
I say, who buy?
I'm going to look at people's
cards.
Who's buying this stuff?
Because to me, it's just like,
what do you want to eat?
You're going to eat that?
What people do?
They do.
And it's, it's typically the
2080 rule, right?
20% of your products do 80% of your
business.
So you keep the others for when folks
like you are looking for something
they need are different.
Now, you had to make a decision
from two of your stores to close them
down.
That had to be a real tough
decision because he putting people
out of work for one thing.
And the community that shop there,
you know, people don't like
change.
I could tell you that.
People don't like change.
And as soon as you closed,
typically, you had changed their
lives.
Because now they had to go shop
somewhere else.
They didn't know where the milk was.
Whereas the, the cereals,
I don't know where they are.
It was a tough decision.
What made you do it?
Well, I will tell you,
it was heart wrenching.
The scene store in particular
because that was what grounded us
here.
That's my roots.
That's our family's roots.
And it was absolutely heart
wrenching.
It was like losing a member of
the family.
What happened was there's,
I talked to you beforehand
told you that I calculate one
time.
There's over a million square feet
of grocery space within a two-mile
store.
And it's an incredibly competitive
business.
We were looking to work out a deal
with the landlords so we could have
it going there and we just couldn't
get to where we needed to be.
So that's we had to make the
decision.
One of the things I'm real proud
about is that I worked very, very
hard to get the employees placed
at other locations and other
businesses so that they could keep
working.
Oh, that's good.
It is throw them out of the street
because a lot of people depend on
this.
We have a, one of our people at
church, she's, she's part of a group
of adults that, you know, they
have to a little help in finding
jobs and so forth.
And she works at a
Piggly Wiggly.
Okay.
And I think it's the one out in
Union Grove.
Okay.
I think that Piggly Wiggly.
That's the Preston family owns
that one.
And she just loves it.
And that's, that's her job.
She just loves that job.
Yeah.
It's, we had a lot of people
that were passionate about their
job and a lot of passionate
shoppers and to this day I'll,
almost every day I'll have somebody
tell me how much they missed the
store.
And it's, again, it's a heart
wrenching thing.
Now, let's talk about, um, you're
the county executive.
What did you know about the job
when you came in?
Because if, if I was county
executive today, the only thing
I would think about, well, we have
county roads because they're
littered.
That's all I know about the
county.
So what is, what does your job
do as county executive?
Well, there's, there's a lot of
things and, and quite, I know
you're still filling your way
through it now.
Quite, quite frankly, I am still
feeling my way through it being
not a lifetime person in, in that
business, right?
Um, so there's a lot of things
that go on there.
There's the relationship with the
board of supervisors throughout the
county.
There's the relationships with the
municipalities.
There is, uh, our overarching
public works department, our human
services department.
There's, there's just a lot of
things that people don't think
about at the county level that
behind the scenes, their response
were responsible for.
The state mandates a lot of
services that have to be accomplished
the county is responsible for
those human services department
is a lot of that.
Yeah, there are county
buildings where you're right,
county services, state
services, city services and
county services.
Right.
Now, do you have any mayors or
village presidents coming to you
asking you for stuff all the
time?
Does the county provide those
services to cities?
Well, we have a regular
interaction with a lot of the
municipalities and work
together in concert with them.
There's things we work on together
with.
And I can give you one from the
past would be the 911 call
center.
That was a collaboration that
was built over the years.
And I think Jonathan had a
hand in that if not earlier.
My wife worked for the
the Caledonia Police
Department for a number of
years.
And she would get 911 calls
at Caledonia and she
formed them out and then they
centralized it.
Right.
And, um, she did other stuff,
but she, when we got my
phone, she said,
she did other stuff, but she,
when we got married, that was
not going to be her life
working for the police
department.
It's a tough life.
I wouldn't, I wouldn't want to
be a cop.
And it's a tough life.
And to the families, it's
got to be hard on them too.
I have a tremendous amount of
respect.
Oh, yeah.
You know, when we have
police people in here, I say,
never take your job in a
million years.
Right.
And if I was being brave, I
don't know if I could pull
that.
But, um, okay.
So you, how many people you
have working under you?
How many offices do you have?
At the cat?
Well, first of all, where is
the county executive's office?
The county executive's office
is on the 10th floor of the
courthouse downtown.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I get around.
I go out to, I have grove
quite often.
I get to the west end office
quite often.
That's right.
That's what I thought it was.
Yeah.
Okay.
No, it's on the 10th floor.
And I have, I want to say eight
cabinet members, which are like
over each different area.
Public works.
Um, the call center,
the communication center.
Um,
HR,
uh,
IT.
So there's, there's about eight
cabinet members that report
directly to me.
And I think the county last
count was just over a thousand
employees.
So now, I know you kind of
thrust into the position
because a lot of people run for
a year.
They think you didn't think about
it for a year.
So what are your priorities?
What do you want to have done in
the county?
What's on your wish list?
Well, the, the biggest
wish list is that we get to a
physically stable position, which
we're working on hard these days.
And, and being physically
responsible for our community,
that's, that's a big deal.
The, the next thing on my wish list
is working on a housing priority.
How can we get affordably
priced housing in, in the community?
And I'm working with different
leaders throughout the community on
that in particular, Jenny Trick at
RCEDC.
So those are things that behind the
scenes I'm working on.
Um,
I, I want to be a collaborative
collaboration builder, if you will.
I see a lot of things in
the scene area that there's many,
many different people working in
the same direction.
And there's opportunities to
bring them together.
So that's a wish list of mine.
If we can get a lot of the folks
in a lot of different organizations
working in the same direction.
And then, of course,
there's the East West gap.
I'm working to build that.
The relationships between the East
and the West and the,
and example of that is in the
area we run the summer youth
jobs program.
I think we had 125 students come
through that this past summer,
where people are, are employed
throughout different businesses
and machine, in a, in a
recene area.
I was a business that start was
involved in that from the beginning.
I think I had the first year
when they only had 25 kids involved.
I think I had three or four of them
at the store.
So I was involved in that from the
beginning.
Now we're looking to expand that
out into the Burlington
Waterford Union Grove areas.
And we're talking to the school
districts out there to expand that
program in that direction.
So we're trying to get a more
cohesive, if you will,
operation going on from the East
to West.
And again, within different
organizations throughout the
county.
Wow.
That's a lot of planning.
It is.
And it's, you asked for my wish list.
That's it.
It's a lot of moving parts.
It is.
And they all have to kind of link
together or it doesn't work right.
Right.
Wow.
So is this, is this like a 24-hour
program?
Do you?
Do you ever go home and say,
okay, I'm turning it off.
I'm off.
Now I'm going to watch, you know,
a date line.
Whatever you watch.
Yeah.
Do you ever turn it off?
I wish I could.
But I don't.
I was never raised that way.
And it doesn't work that way for
me.
I once set a grandparents on the
small, small motel.
And seven mile nine ninety four.
And the other set of grandparents
owned a farm.
Neither business was conducive to
less than 24 seven.
And neither business was conducive
to vacation time and then getting
into the grocery business.
At first, I ran a 24 seven operation,
which you're always on duty then.
And it's just not something that I
could ever get used to.
The eight hour shut it off thing.
The only motel.
Is it a seven mile motel?
No.
It was called high view motel.
It was right on the corner.
Everybody got him confused.
Yeah.
Seven miles just because they're
are in true for the word seven mile nine.
Right.
No, they were right on the corner.
There's a gas station there today.
We are from originally.
Caledonia.
I grew up on seven mile nine
ninety four.
As they were local.
Yoko.
I am.
I am.
Do you ever live anywhere else?
I have not.
I lived in Caledonia for a time when we
first were married.
We lived in Racine.
And then we moved out to North Cape.
A little bit back to your family.
I have two sons, 31 and 33.
And I'm sure if my wife was here she'd
correct me on one of those numbers.
We've been married for since 88.
So what is that?
37 years?
Good for you.
And she spent 36 years working at
Ascension as an occupational therapist.
And now she's with Aurora out in
Burlington doing the same thing.
So.
And most of my family, my mother still
lives on I ninety four and seven
mile.
So we're still firmly rooted.
My sister lives about three miles from
me.
And the both boys are probably within
six miles.
Why do you have the whole family here?
Yep.
They are.
The good part is you have the family
of the bad card is.
Bad part is they'll come over for
Thanksgiving and eat all your food.
Oh, that's not so bad.
It's not so bad.
It's not so bad.
It's not so bad.
I know it's not.
It's great because my family
scattered all over the country.
They were in all four corners.
How did your wife feel about you taking
the job?
It's kind of executive.
You know, she's kind of rolled
with things over the years.
And this is another thing she's
kind of rolled with.
She's been very supportive.
And during the campaign, we did the
holiday parades.
And I think that she found a groove
with those.
So she's been very supportive though.
Oh, did you?
Yeah.
Are you in the fourth of July
Parade?
Did you?
We were three out of four of them.
We did not make the routine
parade because logistics just
didn't work out.
We did Union Grove Waterford and
Raymond.
Yeah.
We were going to go.
Well, I was in the parade here,
but we, what we do is we alternate
union because my wife is from
Union Grove.
So we alternate between the two
parades every year.
But this year, I was in it.
It was raining and this.
Well, it started out raining that day
and it went to hot.
So we had it all.
Yeah.
Luckily it had a car with a roof on.
And people say to the rain
bother you.
No, I rolled up the window.
I didn't get wet.
It was an old car from the
early 50s, so it was not a very
comfortable car.
But it didn't rain inside of the
car.
That's all I cared about.
Let's talk about some of your
initial successes.
You mentioned one of them a few
minutes ago.
Well, yeah.
We've, we've done a few things
already.
We've partnered with the Wisconsin
policy forum.
That was one of the things I
wanted to do right out of the gate,
so to speak.
They're doing a study for me that's
indicated.
It's going to tell me if we're right
sized in our departments.
In other words, do we have the
right amount of people?
Do we have the right service
level for the money that we
spend on it?
So it's kind of a third party
study impartial to identify where
we're at, county wide, with the
size of our operation.
That's one thing I wanted to do
right out of the gate was try to
understand this thing a little
more and make sure that we're in
the right position.
911 system improvements.
We've got coming up where we're
going from a system where I'm told
that we are lucky to get parts off
of the eBay for it.
A really to a modern day system
which will become much, much more
reliable, not that today's is not
reliable, but it's at end of life.
So that's coming up soon.
Recently in May, we opened up the
Jonathan Delegrave Youth
Development and Care Center.
That was a challenge, but that was
a challenge that was started by
Jonathan and the staff previously
to me getting there.
I was only a steward of getting
it open towards the end of the
end of it and then we also
broke ground on the new
residential treatment facility
across from our Taylor Avenue
facility coming up hopefully
open next year, depending on our
construction progress.
So we've had some steps early
on here that I've been parts of
that I'm proud of.
And again, I'm working on
partnerships across the
county again with the RCEDC
partnership for the housing
initiative and trying to bring in
different groups and
conversations into that as well.
So anytime we can get people
talking about things and
collaborating, I look at that as
a victory.
Small, but I'll take them.
Now, you mentioned earlier you've
been on boards before.
Yes.
But never holding a public
office.
And this is a big public
office county executive because
it's big.
Did you ever sit and say,
oh, what did I get myself into?
I do.
I do.
And I think, I think, you know,
people ask me, are you
settled in?
And I think if you answer
yes to that or you don't at
times second guess, you were
talking about how you're a
warrior.
I think I'm a warrior on
steroids as it relates to this
job.
Yeah, I think about it, but I
also know that at this point in
time, it's the right place for
me to be.
Well, that's good.
And is it big?
Is it harder than you thought it
would be because you didn't have
much time to think about it?
It is.
And again, you know, if
somebody says they're
settled in, they're not doing
it right.
They're just not.
It's something different
every day.
I had envisioned it has being
about the management of an
operation, much like a grocery
store.
Because you ran grocery
store, so you knew the big
picture had to work, right?
How to get things all
working.
It's different with the
county.
It is.
And it's a lot of
relationships.
It's relationships with the
county board.
It's relationships with other
municipal leaders.
And I'm learning to navigate
that.
It's a lot of relationships
with the county board.
It's relationships with other
municipal leaders.
And I'm learning to navigate
that and how to build those
relationships because, again,
I'm an outsider coming in.
So there's a lot to learn.
I had a bunch of people to say
hello to you when you came
in today.
Beth Heidorn at the
Racine Zoo said to say hello.
There were some other people
too.
I don't know what their names
on the radio.
So I won't mention them.
But we have Melissa
Caprille and come in here a
lot.
She's a county board
supervisor.
We also had somebody else here.
One of the older ones also
a county board supervisor was
in here.
And I wish my memory was
a lot better.
But they had nothing bad.
Nothing.
Nothing.
I even heard one negative
thing about you.
So that's pretty good.
I wish you just give them time.
We'll give them time.
It's too early.
Give them time.
It's early.
I know a lot of people say
just nice things about you.
And I appreciate that.
You know, I was talking to
somebody else about the job
over the weekend.
And to your point about it's a
big job.
And they were saying, well,
you're the person in the role.
And I said, you know what?
It's a big job.
But I'm not a big person,
so to speak.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But you had to run things.
Right.
You had a run thing.
You know, people,
because you have to,
people who never had a business
before.
I mean, I was a program director
for about 20, some odd years.
And I knew how people thought
and worked.
And I knew how to get them
motivated.
And that's what my job was here
to motivate people.
So what do you see for the future
for you?
Well, that's an interesting question.
This is eight months into
basically a two-year stint at this
point in time.
It's too early to ask the question,
are you going to run again?
Even though I probably will.
I enjoy the position.
I enjoy the people that I work with.
And I'm enjoying growing the relationships.
So we'll see what happens.
All you need is one
and God forbid,
major catastrophe in the county.
And everything changes.
Floods could be a derailed train.
It could be a lot of things.
And all of a sudden, boom.
Life changes.
Indeed.
And it's nice when things are going
nice and smooth.
The way you like them.
But I'm not getting you.
I did hear nothing,
but nice things when I told people
you were coming in.
Oh, you're telling me I said,
hi, I just said it's a nice guy.
And Beth was going
and I can remember off the top.
I appreciate it.
I was board chair for her for some years.
So we had a good,
we have a good relationship.
And I enjoyed that.
One of my favorite boards to serve.
Yeah, people like working with you.
You seem like an easygoing person.
I try to be.
Yeah, very nice.
I'm so glad you came in today.
You are welcome here anytime you want.
You've got something to say.
Say Donna got to get on right away.
Excuse me.
I'm in the middle of a song.
Stop the song.
I got something to say.
I appreciate that.
You are welcome here anytime, sir.
County Executive Ralph Maliki.
And you got to know him now.
We didn't know who you were before.
Well, now we know.
And if you missed this,
you know, I missed the beginning.
It's going to be podcast by late tonight
and tomorrow morning at WRJN.com.
And wherever you get your podcast.
Those are Spotify.
Wherever you get them.
It'll be there.
So you're going to be forever.
Great.
That's why people I always say you got to be careful
with your say because it's going to be out there forever.
It lives on.
Yeah.
Thank you, sir.
Thank you.
I do appreciate you coming in this morning.