WAUPUN — Waupun got its first city administrator seven years ago.
At the time Mayor Bob Reinap felt Waupun had grown to the point that he and the council were being bogged down with busy work, instead of focusing on the future of the city.
Reinap said he wanted time to plan on where Waupun should be 10 or 20 years down the road, but that rules and regulation coming in from Madison kept him busy with day-to-day things.
Reinap proposed having a city administrator position created, and after a search, Gary Rogers Jr. was selected.
That meant instead of each department head answering to a part-time mayor, everyone came together under the guidance and direction of the city administrator, who got his directions from the mayor and city council.
"Being the first city administrator was a challenge," Rogers said. "For instance, people weren't looking across the lines to other departments; everyone worked independently. The fire department was doing a great job setting aside money while the department of public works was doing all they could to meet operational requirements."
One of Rogers' first tasks was to bring the departments together to understand each other's problems and work together as a team.
"If it wasn't for Police Chief Tom Winscher and Deputy Chief Dale Heeringa and Fire Chief Jeff Berry working together we couldn't have got the consolidation of the dispatch happening,"Rogers said.
At the time, police and fire dispatch were operated locally from the safety building.
Mayor Jodi Steger remembers it well.
"Gary worked with Tom, Dale, Jeff and (Fond du Lac County executive) Al Buechel in moving the dispatch service to Fond du Lac County resulting in saving Waupun $550,000 every year," she said.
"Not only that, but he established contract operations for assessor, and building inspector, and engineering services which saves the city $50,000 every year," she said. "And as a collective effort, Gary worked with every department to change the health insurance coverage, saving the city another $200,000 a year. Those three things alone that Gary was involved in are saving the city $800,000 a year."
But Rogers is reluctant to take full credit.
"I was involved, but wasn't alone. I may have been in a leadership position, but the mayor, council, and the people involved were important and gave guidance," he said.
Rogers said he was especially pleased with the creation of the Community Development Authority.
"Brenda Hicks-Sorensen and Jodi Steger were involved and it was a big step for the city. The nice thing is it doesn't compete with the Waupun Industrial Development Complex. Rather, it complements what they do. The WIDC focuses on industry, and the CDA on downtown business," said Rogers.
Rogers said that the CDA was instrumental on tearing down the Ginger Bread Antique Mall, an eyesore downtown, and getting street furniture like flower and tree planters and benches installed on Main Street.
"The CDA did some nice things with downtown beautification," he said.
Emphasizing that he worked at the behest of the council and mayor, Rogers said, "The city council understood my role, they set my objectives. I had the council goals hanging in my office."
Looking back on his seven years, Rogers said he's "met a lot of nice people," adding, "the community sells itself, the properties are nice."
Rogers said when he came here he was surprised at the number of tax exempt properties, such as the prisons and nursing homes.
"The people want clean streets, a reasonable quality of life, at a very low cost," he said. "You don't have to travel far to see a significant increase in property tax. Waupun is repeatedly in the bottom half of the tax rate."
Over the years, Rogers has never made it a secret of his desire to move up in his profession, and last year was one of five finalists to become Oshkosh city manager. Before that he was one of three finalists for the Fond du Lac city manager position.
Rogers resigned from his job in May to take over the city administrator position in Hiawatha, Iowa. He is a native Iowan.
His last day was to be June 26 and before leaving he looked forward in bringing an interim city administrator up to speed on all the negations and projects going on. But in move that surprised many, three of the five councilmen at the June 9 council meeting voted to keep him on the payroll but forbid him to enter his office.
"I'd call it paid administrative leave," said City Attorney Dan Vande Zande.
"It wasn't the way I wanted things to end," Rogers said. "But I work at the pleasure of the council. Still, it was not a nice way to end things."