Carlson explains why he’s running, how he stays informed
Verbatim questions and answers between the Metro Wire and Ron Carlson, candidate for the city’s 6th District. Carlson is running unopposed for the seat after Alderman Jeremy Slowinski announced he would not seek re-election.
Q: Let’s start with something cliche; why are you running?
Carlson: Because I’m a big believer in community service. Since 1978 I’ve served Stevens Point and this community in one form or another. For 32 years I was a Stevens Point police officer. I retired in 2010 as the assistant chief. After that, I went to work at JusticeWorks, where I worked for five-and-a-half years working with individuals who were recently released from prison or jail, trying to mentor them, make them a part of the community again. It was one of the most rewarding jobs I’ve ever had in my life. I also served five years on the Stevens Point Police and Fire Commission. In addition to that, I have served on umpteen boards and committees throughout Portage County. And I really enjoy solving problems and helping people. As a police officer, I got no better satisfaction than solving problems between neighbors and families. As I was out collecting signatures (for nomination paperwork), I had three people tell me about different problems they were having, and when I got home, I said, ‘What am I getting myself into here?’ But it gave me a purpose again. And it made the neighborhood better. It’s good to roll up your selves and help, that’s what I like to say.
Q: Well, that knocks out my next question—What is it about public service that you like so much?
Carlson: I love solving problems. I love to look at things from both sides, whether it’s a domestic disturbance or a neighbor dispute, there are always two sides to every story, and you usually find the truth somewhere in the middle. I enjoy listening to both sides and finding a solution, and it makes the community a better place.
Q: In your view, what is the function of the City Council?
Carlson: The function of the City Council is to represent their constituents, to hear those voices, and educate, as well. Concerning the Bus. 51 project, I think the biggest problem, and I think it was a shared problem on both sides, was communication. We have to talk to each other, we have to have an understanding. I think in today’s society, people are so busy doing other things and relying on Facebook feeds for their information, I think the City Council has to educate, represent, and serve their constituents.
Q: Okay, so how do we improve that communication?
Carlson: I forgot my Facebook login like two years ago and I haven’t been on it since, and life is good. With that said, Facebook is a part of today’s world, and I think that’s a part of the world I’m going to have to look at and get a Facebook page for District 6. But what I would prefer is people picking up a phone and calling me, because my phone number and email will be on the city’s website. I encourage personal contact instead of someone who’s upset typing out two sentences and lighting the world on fire on Facebook. It’s so anonymous in a way. I want to hear directly from the people. Another thing, and it hasn’t been too successful in the past, is having neighborhood meetings with people in District 6. I used to do neighborhood watch, and I loved that because people got to know the police, and the police got to know the people and the problems they were having. I would love to have neighborhood meetings or District meetings. And the key to that would be to publicize them—and actually work with local media. To work with local media and get that word out…I’ll do everything I can to inform the people, but it’s a two-way street. They have to show up. I will attempt to be open and hear from the public, but they’ve got to be open and willing to give their opinion, too.
Q: What local news outlets do you utilize to keep up-to-date on city matters, county business, and other local matters?
Carlson: The number one media outlet, and I’ve said this in public, is the Point/Plover Metro Wire. That is our local news source. I’m not saying that to kiss butt or anything, either. It’s the only local news source we have now. It’s up-to-date, and it has all the information that we need to know. But if something is happening and I can’t find it on the Wire I usually go to Channel 7 or 9, but it’s rare that Point/Plover Metro doesn’t have it. It would be so nice if the people of this county relied on your newspaper—we’d be so far ahead of knowing what’s going on in our communities.
Q: You’ve got a lot of experience in city government; how do you think local government has changed?
Carlson: I just see, if we’re talking about the Council, I want discussion. I want debate. I don’t want to see a 10-to-1 vote every time. That frustrates me. That tells me we aren’t communicating. And I know there are community voices that aren’t being heard. I know there’s frustration in the community but I also feel it in city government, frustration, division. We really gotta work on that. We have to come together. I just see, we’re out of touch. I think we rely too much on computers or phones. People don’t talk anymore. People don’t have reliable news that they’re aware of. Prior to the November elections in 2020, I was talking to neighbors and they were unaware of some really big things. People aren’t getting the daily newspaper anymore and they don’t really know where to go for news. I was astonished at how much information people were missing out on. I’ve told a couple of Alders, where they said they only had positive phone calls about Bus. 51, I told them people are frustrated. I said, ‘Who is going to want to call you knowing that you’re not going to listen or act upon their wishes?’ I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people at meetings say, ‘It’s not going to make any difference.’ I think that’s wrong.
Q: The press is responsible for reporting to the public what happens in local government. In your view, how has the press changed?
Carlson: The press adds its bias. I think reporting should be just that, reporting. A police report is going to be pretty cut and dry; a news report should be just the facts. Jack Webb from Dragnet: Just the facts, ma’am. Not have their own personal twist or agenda tied into it, and both the conservative side and liberal side are pushing an agenda. Can’t we just have the news like it was from Walter Cronkite?
Q: But is it just about bias? I can’t tell you the last time I saw another reporter out and about in this community. Me and Brian Kowalski from the Stevens Point Journal, back in the day, we’d be looking over [former City Clerk] John Moe’s shoulder for election results. And now, you go to any municipal building after the polls close, and there’s nobody there.
Carlson: Ya know, I think of Gene Kemmeter (former editor of the Portage Co. Gazette), how many years he worked on that paper. Now it’s sort of a transient position, the news reporter. I don’t think it’s valued. I don’t know if print is dead, but definitely, the quality has gone down.
Q: You’ve been out there knocking on doors and talking to people, what are you hearing about concerns or praises in local government?
Carlson: What I’ve been hearing are concerns. Generally, I think everyone likes living in Stevens Point. We have a diverse community, we have a university here, we have everything you want in our city and we’re centrally located. If you want to go to a Packer’s game, you’re 90 miles away; if you want to go hunting, it’s an eight-minute drive. But the number one concern I heard from people is the same thing I’ve heard when I first started as a police officer in 1978: people are concerned about speeders in their neighborhood, people are concerned about parking issues. People are concerned about safety. But it’s the little things, and that’s why I think government has to concentrate on the basics because they haven’t changed. People are concerned with what’s happening in their neighborhood. The other complaint I hear is about snow-plowing in the middle of the night. It’s stuff like that that I heard, but I’ve heard that for years. It hasn’t changed. I think the people realize and understand this is a great community. What I’d like to do, though, is concentrate on needs instead of wants. I think we’re getting into things that we probably should be waiting on, or maybe not even doing at all.
Q: Such as?
Carlson: Ok, I’m a bicyclist, I like riding my bike. I’ll do the Green Circle in the summertime. But a $2-million project going over the Plover River, and then the striping on Stanley St., I mean…just because you can doesn’t mean you should. I would never, and I wouldn’t want you, to ride a bike on Church St. if there were bike lanes there. That’s crazy. How many reports have you done where somebody hit a telephone pole, or somebody crashed when they blew through a red light, and now you’re going to go where 14,000 cars go a day and have your kids riding bikes there? This isn’t Amsterdam, where they have 300,000 bikes. I would rather concentrate on ‘What do we need?’ That’s the way I’ve always been.
Q: But there seems to be a disconnect in the definition of ‘want’ versus ‘need,’ so how do you compromise with an individual who sees ‘X’ as a need, but you only see it as a ‘want?’
Carlson: I don’t want that 1o-to-1 vote. I want to see discussion, debate, and, if that majority rules, then that’s what we’re going to do. But it should be an equal discussion, not slanted so overwhelmingly that people say, ‘Oh, what’s the use?’ We need that debate but it needs to be a civilized discourse. Abraham Lincoln put on his cabinet people who ran against him in the election. He wanted that debate, and that’s what I want too. I’m not the world’s smartest man, and my opinion isn’t the end-all. But we can’t have it so lopsided that people throw their hands up. I’m so impressed with the people of Stevens Point lately—and I don’t care what side of the fence you’re on, but since the end of last summer, people have woken up. People have gotten involved, and that’s what we need. It’s so nice to see people coming to city meetings, and I don’t care what side they’re on. I’m glad people are speaking their piece.
Q: You’re running for a position that Jeremy Slowinski, the senior Council member, is stepping down from because he’s moving outside of the city. Would you still be running for this seat if there were another candidate for it?
Carlson: Good question. I would be. I just feel it’s at the point where I have to continue to serve this community somehow, some way. It wouldn’t matter if there were another opponent, I’d still want to serve. I believe in community involvement. If I lost, I lost. But I don’t want those regrets.
Q: Why do you think there is so much controversy over some of the Vision Zero elements proposed in the community, like additional bike lanes, road diets in some areas, and some of the pieces of the Bus. 51 project?
Carlson: I think the Bus. 51 issue, the overwhelming number of business owners who said they were unaware of this, and that 57 driveways would be lost…if someone were to say they were coming into your house and they were going to take money from your pocket, would you be happy about it? No. Those business owners rallied, and they answered a challenge. I think we’ve been through a helluva lot in the past two years, and I think we have to come back to the media: I think it’s created a division. We’ll never bring that division together, and we’ll never agree on everything, but since before George Washington there has been division in this country, but that’s how we get better. The biggest thing is compromise; both sides should feel like they gave up something. Otherwise, something’s wrong.
Q: At its December meeting, the Council members all seemed to have the same reaction to the public outcry over Bus. 51, with the now-famous, or infamous, quote from David Shorr (District 2), ‘Go get your signatures.’ Several members of the Council that night all brought up a topic I’ve never, in my 17 years of covering this city, heard anyone on the City Council ever bring up, and that was ‘direct legislation.’ The rarity of direct legislation petitions, and then to go an exceed the number of needed signatures on a petition, only to have the Council turn it down…were you surprised that the Council majority voted it down?
Carlson: I wasn’t surprised but I was disappointed. I thought it was an opportunity for people to say, ‘Let’s step back and take a deep breath and take another look at this.’
Q: You spoke on this that night, too. You said approving the new ordinance on Bus. 51 would help close the division in this community.
Carlson: And that’s what I was disappointed in. It was really an opportunity that I feel the Council missed, to bring the community together, to say ‘We will listen,’ that they were willing to start again. It was clear we needed to re-think, re-talk, and just go over it again. I feel very strongly that this community needs to heal.
Q: What, if anything, needs to change in local government?
Carlson: More citizen involvement, perhaps. And again, I’m going to come back to communication: finding a way to communicate with citizens. I think city government needs to communicate better. We can’t assume because we put something on the city’s website, or the city’s Facebook page, that everyone’s going to be aware of it. Not everybody comes home from a hard day at work and turns on the computer. The community should be working through their Alders, and Alders need to be open and transparent enough to sustain that welcoming communication. People don’t know there’s a problem until you tell them.
Q: Is there anything I did not ask that you want to include?
Carlson: Just that I’m looking forward to serving this community again. Not everyone wants to serve, or sit on a committee, or be a mayor, but I think we all have to pitch in to make the community a better place.
