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City races in 2020

Waupaca mayor, 5 council members up for re-election

By Angie Landsverk


A mayor and five members of the Waupaca Common Council will be elected next spring.

The terms are for two years.

Nomination papers may be obtained at City Hall.

Maps of the aldermanic district boundaries are available there as well.

Dec. 1 was the first day to circulate nomination papers.

At least 20 signatures are required for council candidates and at least 50 signatures for mayoral candidates.

Nomination papers must be filed at City Hall by 5 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 7.

Incumbents not planning to seek re-election must file a Notification of Non-candidacy by 5 p.m. Friday, Dec. 27.

Pay raise approved

The salary for those elected to the council next spring will be $4,850 per year, and the salary for the person elected mayor will be $12,250 per year.

Those salaries will be effective on the first payroll after the April election.

There are 10 seats on the council.

The five people elected to the council in April 2021 will receive $4,850 per year on the first payroll after that election.

The council voted 8-1 on Dec. 3 to increase the salaries.

Ald. Scott Purchatzke voted no, and Ald. Dmitri Martin was absent.

Voting for it does not mean council members are giving themselves raises, said Kathy Kasza, the city’s finance director and treasurer.

She said the only way current council members get a raise is if the public re-elects them.

The last time there was a raise was 2002.

The current annual salaries are $3,766 for alderpersons and $9,177 for the mayor.

Kasza looked at the salaries of the chairpersons and supervisors in Dayton and Farmington and found them to be higher than what Waupaca’s mayor and alderpersons are paid.

The incumbents

Brian Smith is serving his ninth term as mayor.

Prior to being elected mayor, he served on the council, beginning in December 1996 until he was first elected mayor in April 2002.

The alderpersons up for re-election are David Peterson in the 1st Aldermanic District, Eric Olson in the 2nd Aldermanic District, Paul Mayou in the 3rd Aldermanic District, Lori Chesnut in the 4th Aldermanic District and Alan Kjelland in the 5th Aldermanic District.

Peterson is serving his third term on the council. He ran as a write-in candidate for his first term.

Olson was appointed to the council in November 2007, and has served on it since then.

Mayou was elected to the council in April 2002 and has been re-elected every two years since then. He is the current council president.

Chesnut was appointed to the council in June 2015 and has served since that time.

She was also appointed to serve that district in January 1997. She represented it through March 1999, resigning after she moved outside the city. Chesnut moved back into the city in 2012.

Kjelland was appointed to his seat in January 2013 and elected to his first full term in April 2014. He has been re-elected every two years since then.

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