~From the Desk of Ray Arbet~
You may have recently received a mailer from my opponent, Erin Decker. I wanted to address some things for you because I believe that honesty and integrity are important. I want to earn your trust and vote on April 2- and part of that is standing up for truth:
1. False Claim #1 - “I had oversight of the placement of ATC high-power transmission lines”
a. What is ATC? - ATC is a regulated public utility in the State of Wisconsin that owns much of the electrical infrastructure used to connect other public utility electrical generating infrastructure throughout our state.
b. Who Regulates ATC? - The State of Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC) is the sole agency (per Wisconsin S.S. Chapter 196) responsible for overseeing and regulating the operations of ATC. Kenosha County (and specifically the Public Works Director) has no regulation authority of ATC (or any other public utility). There are several specific statutes within Chapter 196 that detail how these types of projects are managed by the PSC (S.S. 196.491 & 196.494 provide good insight).
c. Who at the County Level Could Impact the PSC’s Review Process? As part of the statutorily defined PSC review/approval process, there are several public hearing opportunities for elected officials, subject matter experts and impacted citizens to register any proposed project concerns. As an elected official of an area impacted by the ATC project, Supervisor Decker could have attended any one of these – but chose not to.
2. False Claim #2 - “I allowed roads and bridges to crumble”
a. Roads – Supervisor Decker mentioned CTH ‘s KR and O on the back of her card and CTH’s KD and O on the front of her card. Since we can’t really be certain which roads she’s talking about – let’s outline how transportation infrastructure priorities were established when I was the Director:
· Traffic Safety – traffic safety was reviewed on nearly a daily basis. Accident statistics/data were tracked, and projects were identified that would address specific issues and improve safety. We always sought funding from State and Federal sources to minimize local tax dollars needed to fund these improvements. Many projects performed on County Trunk Highways (CTH) F, W, E, A, H, K, EM, and S were funded in this manner.
· Economic Development – County infrastructure improvements to support business expansion and economic development were also pursued under my leadership. The aggressive pursuit of State/Federal funding sources, in addition to private stakeholder subsidies - helped minimize local tax funds needed for these projects. Several high-profile economic development projects which brought new business/jobs to our community were handled this way, including: CTH’s C, H, N, Q, S, A, K, E, and others.
· General Maintenance Paving – Local tax dollars are the primary source of funds to perform this type of road maintenance (rarely are alternate funding sources available for maintenance). We consistently resurfaced 12–18 miles of existing CTH’s every year I was Director. Maintenance priorities can be a challenge to establish because we took all the following into consideration: 1. Traffic Volumes, 2. Road Conditions (audited annually), 3. Safety. 4. Topographical Challenges (i.e. rivers, etc.), 5. Economic Impact. On several occasions, we deliberately delayed spending the $100,000-300,000 required to resurface a road section because the road required more extensive renovation and a “reconstruction project” would offer long-term cost benefits. State and Federal funds would also likely be available for a reconstruction project and minimize the use of local tax dollars. A key thing to keep in mind is that if standard resurfacing is performed on a road that requires reconstruction – it’s kind of like wallpapering over a hole in a wall. It will look good at first, but soon show signs of failure and have to be reconstructed. When repaving is the appropriate remedy and done correctly, it should have a 15+ year life.
b. Bridges – All County bridges are surveyed annually for structural integrity and cosmetic features. Preventative maintenance can then be scheduled and performed as prescribed. What happened on the bridge on CTH JB (just east of STH 83) was unique. When the bridge was audited the prior year – it had received a satisfactory condition report. What was not anticipated was the State Department of Transportation (DOT) performed an unscheduled major project on STH 50 which resulted in a significant volume of commercial vehicle (multi-axle trucks, etc.) traffic from STH 50 to CTH JB. Our engineering consultant confirmed that the increase in commercial traffic dramatically accelerated the deterioration of the bridge which required extensive work to reestablish structural integrity.
3. False Claim #3 – “I put our emergency services at risk”
The truth is that prior to me being hired as Public Works Director - no one was paying attention to the condition of any of the County’s public safety communications towers. One of the first things I did upon my hiring, was inspect all of County facilities and began a program to perform comprehensive engineering assessments of all County facility assets – including communications towers. The tower located on 60th Street just east of STH 31 was structurally compromised and no one had any clue! I spearheaded the project to replace the tower before any catastrophic failure occurred. As part of the tower replacement project, we worked with the Sheriff’s Dept and Kenosha Joint Services and learned how challenged their radio communications system had been for many years. I assembled a team of radio communications engineers, law enforcement & fire agency communications specialists to develop and install a new radio communications system that virtually eliminated all “radio dead spots” in our County.
4. False Claim #4 – “I accepted a sweetheart pension deal”
Nearly all State and Local Municipality employees are part of and covered by the State of Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS). The WRS (not the County) manages the system and calculates benefits for folks using the exact same formulas for everyone. I had a total of 17.76 years of WRS eligibility when I retired and my pension benefits were calculated in the exact same manner as any other State/municipal employee.
For the record – the only sweetheart I have is my wife Marla.
Now that we’ve gotten the facts out of the way…
So the question becomes…… is Supervisor Decker just easily confused by complex subjects or simply not telling the truth – or maybe a combination of both?
My dad always said – “Son, never get in a urinating (he used a different word) contest with a skunk, everyone just ends up stinking.” So I’m really trying to resist the urge to list the volumes of factual actions Supervisor Decker has engaged in to the detriment of most folks in District 22 and our entire Kenosha County community. That said, for anyone with an interest in finding out more about Supervisor Decker – need simply engage in a bit of research by talking to family, friends and/or neighbors.
Please remember that your vote on April 2nd can really make a difference. Thanks.
Yours in Service,
Ray Arbet