Stanckiewitz Seeking Elevation To Mayoral Slot
San Bernardino County Sentinel
Friday, September 3, 2010
Councilman Walt Stankiewitz, who was first elected to the Grand Terrace City Council in 2008, is upping the political ante, vying for mayor in this year’s election.
Stankiewitz hopes to succeed Maryetta Ferré, the mayor for the last four years who is not seeking reelection and retiring at the end of the year. Stankiewitz is being opposed by planning commission chairman Doug Wilson, Sally McGuire, and Denise Centy-Sternberg.
Stanckiewitz said he believes there have been major errors and shortcomings in the way the city has been run in the past and is particularly critical of the managerial practices of former city manager Tom Schwab and the willingness of past city councils to allow him to run the city without what Stanckiewitz said is proper oversight. Schwab, who retired from the city last year, is now seeking a position on the city council. So, though Stanckiewitz and Schwab are not running against each other, both are carrying out electioneering efforts where they at least appear to be campaigning against one another.
Stanckiewitz listed “maintaining a balanced budget while paying off the $4.6 million debt due to systematic ‘borrowing’ for nearly 20 years from the redevelopment agency with no intention by our past city manager to pay it back” as the major issue facing the city.
The solution to this challenge, Stanckiewitz said, “is open and transparent government that involves public discussion of the issues and solutions along with the ‘hands on’ involvement of the mayor and city council.”
Stanckiewtiz said the city further needs to come to terms with “the lack of viable commercial development for over ten years and a lack of youth activities, programs, and facilities.”
Stanckiewitz says he represents a superior choice to serve as mayor because of his nearly two years of experience on the council gives him a better understanding of how City Hall functions and “My large and small business employment experiences give me a business perspective on operating the city.”
Stanckiewitz said, “My vision for the city differs from my opponents in that I believe we must acknowledge the mistakes of the past in order to move forward. Positive results can be easily destroyed by old habits.”
While Stanckiewitz said he is interested in progress, he said there is no need to aggressively develop the city and disrupt the comfortable tempo of life residents currently enjoy. “Grand Terrace is nearly built out,” he said. “Our population growth will be minimal. However, there will be significant growth around our small town.”
He said the city must endeavor to put the proper infrastructure in place to avoid the onerous impacts from the aggressive development he anticipates will take place just beyond the city limits.
Where develop inside the city will occur, it will generally involve mercantile and business operations, he said. “I am in favor of smart well planned commercial development with the emphasis on maintaining our small town, village environment,” Stanckiewitz said.
The infrastructure improvements that should be prioritized, he said, include, “streets, sidewalks ,and storm drainage. We need to facilitate the traffic flow along Michigan Street due to completion of Grand Terrace High School.”
Recently, the tension between Stanckiewitz and Schwab manifested with a public confrontation
at a recent council meeting where the subject of the city having failed to pay federal payroll taxes on city council members’ and planning commissioners' monthly stipends over the last three decades was raised.
The Internal Revenue Service maintains that elected and appointed officials are city employees and as such are subject to federal payroll taxes. Schwab, who had been the city’s finance director before he was city manager, had contended that council stipends were not wages.
The council stipend, Schwab said, was in reality nothing more than compensation for the expenses council members accrued while working on city business, and the amounts members were paid just barely covered the cost of travel, phone usage, internet access, photocopying and the like.
Grand Terrace council members are currently paid $250 a month for their service on the council, which normally entails two meetings. They also receive $150 a month for attending the city's redevelopment agency board meetings, which are held during the council meetings, They are provided a $200-a-month car allowance. The cost of travel to and accommodations at conferences they attend in the capacity of representatives of the city are also reimbursed.
Schwab said that under his guidance as city manager and in the years prior to that, under former city manager Seth Armstead, “The city just didn’t consider that to be wages and it was never reported as wages. It merely offset their expenses. They could have reported it as income if they chose to do so, but the city did not.”
Stanckiewitz begged to differ, stating that Schwab needed to “look at a dictionary under the word stipend. It is not an expense. It is pay." Accordingly, in a rebuff to Schwab and a repudiation of his policy as city manager, the city council last week voted to make $14,000 in payments to the United States Treasury to cover three years of the unpaid payroll taxes related to payments to the city council and members of the planning commission, who are given a $50 per month stipend.
According to Stanckiewitz, a certified public accountant has told city officials that the city needed to pay payroll taxes related to its elected and appointed officials.
Schwab said Stanckiewitz is grandstanding on the issue and seeking to use it as a political cudgel to vault into the mayor’s post.
Stanckiewitz said there is more to the issue at stake than his own political advancement. He said he believes he can be cooperative and work with the remainder of the council, but that being cooperative does not mean that he will compromise on his principles.
“Building consensus with other members of the council can be achieved by open and honest communications,” Sanckiewitz said. “We all do not need to be in agreement before the issue is discussed. Each member should be committed to determining what is in the best interest of the residents on any issue.”
Stanckiewitz, 60, was born in Munich, Germany of US Military parents. He graduated from Wilmington High School in Wilmington, Illinois and obtained a bachelor of arts degree in sociology from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale Illinois. He served six years in the United States Army, achieving the rank of captain. He has owned and operated the La Pasta Italia restaurant in Grand Terrace for over twenty years and has lived in Grand Terrace for three years.
He and his wife, Monique, have one child, Lindsey, age 22.
