Editor’s Note: Ed Monroe is a heavy favorite to become Ashland’s next mayor in the city’s April 4 municipal election. In a Feb. 21 primary election he outpolled his closest challenger David Sorenson by a 3-1 margin. The winner will succeed outgoing Mayor Fred Schnook, who did not seek reelection.

Schnook was executive director of the Northwest Concentrated Employment Program (CEP) and the Northwest Wisconsin Workforce Investment Board for 15 years until his resignation in August 2005. Schnook has an associate degree from Milwaukee Area Technical College, a bachelor’s degree in Community Education from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and a master’s degree in Public Administration from UW-Oshkosh.In addition to his part-time duties as mayor, Schnook is a consultant on business planning, and organizational strategies and alignment.

Before the city’s Feb. 21 mayoral primary, Jay Moynihan interviewed the mayor. Here’s what he said about his four-year term, and the city he leaves to a successor.

BusinessNorth:

Why aren’t you running again?

Schnook: I cannot afford to. The position is part-time, I and my family cannot live on that. In a way, it is a problem shared by many people around here. Wisconsin on a national level, and northern Wisconsin on the state level, lag behind in wage levels.

Why is that so?

Schnook: Market forces and geographical isolation. We are 25 percent below the state average. The market dynamic is the available labor, and what it cost an employer to access it. An employer has certain choices. If the skills needed are in the local pool, the employer can pay enough and hire them, import people willing to work for less, or move the business. Northern Wisconsin has a comparatively low population. If you need skills and want to operate in the north, you pay enough in wages and benefits to attract them.

Harley Davidson (based in Milwaukee) pays very well for the mechanical skills it needs. It also has been able to draw upon a worker pool partially comprised of former employees of companies that moved their operations overseas. Harley stays in country, draws in the best employees with higher wages and benefits, and therefore maintains a high quality product and worker enthusiasm that dovetails with the strong customer brand loyalty.

Microsoft pays very well, and has a pretty loyal workforce. But it cannot find all the skilled engineers and programmers it needs in country. The United States no longer produces enough engineers, science and math graduates to meet demand. So Microsoft has to import more and more of its workforce from overseas, or off-shores certain operations.

If you want higher wages in northern Wisconsin, what do you do from a public policy stand point?

Schnook: By supporting small business development, including educating employers on wage issues.Roughly 80 percent of our businesses are small businesses. Most of those are “mom & pop” operations. They need assistance with labor market and other market research. All business is global now, and they need to compete with that in mind. Small employers need education in basic management concepts: finance, accounting, human resources, accounts receivable. The key is cash flow. Training for their employees. An employee is an investment. Training enhances that investment.

You also keep growing businesses in the area, and attract new ones by integrating economic development, community development, and workforce

development. They have to work in tandem. Most towns have their industrial parks, incubators, and economic development organizations. You want to build both good wages, and a cool, fun place to live.Big ticket employers need a quality workforce with a local ability to constantly upgrade their skills. The employers themselves do not even know anymore what skills they will need in five years. The local infrastructure needs to meet that need. Big ticket employers invest in intellectual capital, what is in their worker’s heads.

What is available to the employee away from work also is important. What is there to do? What amenities are available, what is the local cultural and arts infrastructure? How well funded is the local school system, the health care available?

Can a local community help employers with the growing cost of healthcare coverage?

Schnook: It is a serious problem. It affects employers all over the country. It is really hitting our international competitiveness, since most of the competition has national healthcare. For them, the cost is in the individual income tax, not in the business expense column. Creative solutions may be available on regional levels. Businesses and local governments cooperating on plans to cover people. Hawaii is doing some interesting things in this area.

Sometimes I think we have forgotten Henry Ford’s basic rule: You pay the worker enough to buy the product they make.

Would you still be at Northwest CEP if you had not been elected mayor?

Schnook: Yes, but being mayor was worth it to me. Being a public official, and trying to do something to improve conditions, always carries a price.

What were the three most important issues of your term?

Schnook: Ashland is more democratic, and the government is more accessible. The economic development model has shifted also. A different language is being spoken. There is more scrutiny of business recruitment, more loan funds for local businesses. The city, Ashland Economic Development Corp. and Chamber of Commerce now are cooperating on marketing studies to identify gaps, where dollars leave the area, and how to help local businesses fill them. We no longer think of being a city of 9,000. We are in a local market of 50,000, we are now viewing ourselves as a hub, and planning accordingly.The Comprehensive Plan we developed integrates community, economic, and workforce development. A lot of people from all over the community pulled together and made that plan. People can build on that in implementing the plan.During my administration, we brought in $14 million in state and federal funds in four years. The city brought in $9 million in the previous eight years.

What do you think of the three mayoral candidates that surfaced to succeed you?

Schnook: Well, my hat is off to all three for running. Doing that is tough on each as individuals and their families. Of the three, I think Ed Monroe will do the least damage.That probably sounds like sour grapes, but I am looking at it as a voter now. I say that because I do not feel inspired by any of them. I

feel politics is about moving things forward for people. I want to vote for someone who inspires me, to be more than myself, to strive in and for the community. I think too often now days, the act of voting is like an atheist going to a tent revival meeting. They do not really believe something is actually going to happen. But deep inside, they are hoping.

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