Laura May
Mayor race article,
one that I scrapped together in less than 2 hours
wee-hoo

For the first time in nearly fifty years, Oshkosh residents will be able to decide who they want as major, a position that was previously appointed by members of the City Council.

On April 5, voters will decide if city council members, Paul Esslinger or Bill Castle are the best candidate.

The mayor of Oshkosh is the person that leads the city council meeting. The mayor has essentially no more power than a city council member, but may have a greater presence and influence on the council because of his position. There are currently seven members on the city council.

Esslinger was the driving force for the creation of an elected mayor.

“The mayor is a person that is the front of the city council,” Esslinger said. “This is something that voters should decide and not seven council members.”

Castle said he never supported the voter-elected mayoral position but is still deciding to run because he thinks he is the best candidate. He said that if Esslinger is elected there will be a seat left open on the council and Esslinger will be able to appoint that position.

“I would rather have the council appointing one of seven to run the meetings rather than one of six appointing the seventh member,” Castle said.

UW-Oshkosh sophomore Olivia Powell said that creation of a voter-elected mayor is a bad one.

“I think the city council would have been better at electing who leads their meetings because they would know the candidate better,” Powell said.

UW-Oshkosh senior Matthew Dolan thinks otherwise.

“I think that the city being able to elect the mayor is a good thing,” he said. “Our city should be able to have a choice in who is running the council meetings.”

An issue that has raised much debate between the two candidates is regarding the current pace of development in Oshkosh. Over the past few years the city has gone though an extensive revitalization process which includes the building of a new amphitheatre on Otter Street.

“My thing is that you need to balance development, industry, housing, retail and recreation with what you can afford,” Castle said. “In my opinion the development that is going on is something we can afford.”