NEENAH, Wis. (WFRV) – Neenah mayoral candidates had a chance to speak directly to voters at a forum hosted by the League of Women Voters Thursday night at City Hall.
Neenah voters will elect a new mayor on April 7. Current mayor Jane Lang recently announced she won’t run for a second term, saying she wanted to spend more time with her family. The two mayoral candidates are Brian Borchardt and Scott Becher.
Borchardt has served on Neenah’s common council since 2020 and has been council president for the past three years. He said he believes that his experience in city government gives him an advantage should voters elect him mayor in April.
“I’ve learned a lot over the last six years,” he told Local 5 News. “I’ve built some great relationships with people in city hall, and I think that is going to benefit me to be ready day one to be mayor here in Neenah.”
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Borchardt is also a longtime educator with the Neenah Joint School District.
“For the last 30 years, I’ve dedicated myself to the city of Neenah, not only by volunteering, but working here and the public service as well,” he said. “Those qualifications give me an opportunity to be a great mayor.”
Borchardt said taking steps to improve government transparency would be one of his priorities as mayor. He said he’d have an open-door policy, host listening sessions, and improve the city’s social media use and its website.
He also said he would put some controls in place to make sure the city is taxing and borrowing responsibly. He mentioned having a fund management policy to create reserve funds if something pops up as one of those controls.
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Borchardt has been on the council for about six years, and Local 5 asked Borchardt if these goals could have been addressed earlier.
“They have been addressed, and they have continued to be addressed,” he said. “It’s often times during election cycles that we point out, oh my gosh, that this wasn’t happening, or that wasn’t happening, but it was. We have an amazing staff here. These ideas we have (and things we do) people may not really know about. As mayor, I’m going to make sure that I’m more open and show people that these things are occurring behind city walls.”
Borchardt ran for mayor in 2022 but lost to Jane Lang.
Scott Becher has a public relations and public policy background and was chief of staff for former state representative Steve Wieckert. Although he has never served on the city council, Becher said his experience navigating the political landscape in Madison prepared him to lead Neeanh as the city’s mayor.
“I want to build a consensus to involve our neighbors, involve our citizens, involve everyone in Neenah to make a better Neenah because Neenah with pride matters,” he said.
Becher listed several priorities for the city if voters elect him as the mayor.
“Our roads need to be fixed, and our business districts need some attention,” he said. “We’re going to put our city budget on a diet and look at needs, not wants. We’re going to look at everything that we spend.”
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Becher follows the city government closely and frequently shows up at the common council and other city meetings. He’s asked tough questions of the current mayor and common council members and has sometimes been critical of these city officials.
Local 5 News asked Becher if he’d be able to work with the alders and city staff that he’s criticized in the past if voters elected him mayor.
“When I’m critical, it’s because I’m hearing from residents about ‘why aren’t we doing that, why aren’t we investing in roads, why aren’t we improving our business district, why are city services being cut back when our taxes are being raised,” he said.
Becher said that his campaign isn’t about him, but rather about the people in the city of Neenah. He vowed to bring everybody to the table when it comes to city decisions.
“We have a very good crowd tonight, and it shows that people love Neenah,” he said about the crowd at the mayoral forum on Thursday night.
