Photo by Richie Diesterheft, Flickr CC
Not many people can identify what, exactly, the city comptroller does, but the independently elected city comptroller is the city’s chief financial officer, who ensures that the budget is balanced, bills are paid, investments will pay off and there’s no fraud within our system. This often-overlooked position oversees eight departments with 58 employees and takes up the entire fourth floor of City Hall. The comptroller also sits on a number of commissions and boards, including Summerfest and the Wisconsin Center District.
Two candidates are vying for this position on April 5—incumbent Martin Matson and challenger Johnny Thomas. This is a rematch of sorts. Four years ago, the two men were on the ballot to replace longtime comptroller Wally Morics, but Thomas, then a Milwaukee County supervisor and a rising star in local politics, was set up when Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele’s then-administration director, Pat Farley, wore a wire and tried to entrap him into taking a bribe. Thomas was charged and went to trial in August 2012. But the case against him was so thin that the jury found him not guilty in just an hour of deliberations, with one juror saying she would vote for him in the future. This whole effort by Abele’s top administrator was a total disgrace. Despite his complete exoneration, the political damage to Thomas had been done. He’d suspended his campaign for city comptroller and Matson won with 65% of the vote in April 2012.
Both candidates spoke to the Shepherd about their credentials and why they deserve your vote. Here are excerpts of our conversations.
Johnny Thomas: We Need to Get the Best Monetary Return for Our City’s Investment
Milwaukee native Johnny Thomas earned an accounting degree from UW-Milwaukee and an MBA from Cardinal Stritch University, served in the U.S. Army, and worked in accounting, finance and compliance for more than 20 years. As a Milwaukee County supervisor he served as chair of the Finance and Audit Committee. He currently works as a budget analyst for Milwaukee Public Schools and teaches accounting and finance at Cardinal Stritch and Concordia University.
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“I’m running because I think I have the best mix of public and private sector experience,” Thomas said. “And being an instructor keeps me current on the trends within the industry.”
Thomas said the role of the comptroller has changed from balancing accounts to having a more forward-looking approach to city finances. He said comptrollers in other cities help to create an overview of economic development investments to give constituents a better understanding of how their money is being invested and how those investments will pay off in the long term.
“Since [comptrollers] have all the information about how money is being spent, we should demonstrate what the return is to you as a constituent and if we need to make adjustments to get a better return,” Thomas said.
He said the city could do a better job of tracking workforce development investments and the resulting jobs and wages. He said he’d like to know more about the impact of the Bucks arena development on neighborhoods and how to use local businesses and workers to fuel growth.
“While we’re working on the Bucks arena there should be a plan in place for what happens when it’s done and where we can transfer these [workers] and use their skill set and grow the community to keep the momentum going,” Thomas said. “I would definitely like to be part of that conversation.”
He said he’d like to revamp the department so that it can better analyze data, offer more of the city’s financial data online and be more forward-looking.
“We need to look into how we can restructure the office so that we are not just haphazardly moving along and waiting for development to come along, but to determine the actual plan that we are going to put in place to ensure that the community grows,” Thomas said.
Thomas said his previous legal troubles—and resulting exoneration—helped to strengthen and humble him.
“Setbacks aren’t really an issue,” Thomas said. “They’re just an opportunity to say, that won’t work, let’s try this.”
To learn more about Johnny Thomas, go to thomasformke.com.
Martin Matson: I’m Experienced
Lifelong Milwaukeean Martin Matson earned a business administration degree from UWM and worked in banking in his early career, then took positions in the city’s Department of Public Works and the Employees’ Retirement System. He said he thoroughly loves being comptroller and that there’s a steep learning curve in the position that he had to tackle in his first 18 months. Now, Matson said he has mastered the job, and said his second term, if he’s re-elected, would provide security for the city.
“One of the big things I learned in my very first year in office is that changing comptrollers is actually a high-risk proposition for the city,” Matson said. “The rating agencies don’t like change.”
Matson said he’d like to complete projects begun during his term, such as automating procedures that had been done manually and making the department more efficient. He said the office is making progress on these long-term goals.
“I view the city like an ocean liner,” Matson said. “You might want to change direction but there are no sharp turns.”
Matson tackled two major deals in his first term. He brought in a transportation planning expert to provide the analysis for the planned Milwaukee Streetcar and used what he called “very conservative” numbers to determine that the city would need to put in $1.8 million for its operations starting in 2019.
“I wanted to provide a very objective review for the council so that they would go into it with their eyes wide open,” Matson said.
But Matson said the project has morphed a lot and received more outside funding since that initial analysis, so the city may not have to provide that amount when it’s up and running. He said the comptroller’s office will review the project when it’s more complete, likely later this year.
Matson also provided the fiscal analysis for the city’s portion of the Bucks arena deal, which uses tax incremental financing (TIF) for a new parking structure. Matson said that the city’s use of a TIF was a typical method for financing this kind of development and he approved it. He said the Bucks are taking more of a financial risk and predicted that the development around the new arena will be “phenomenal.”
To learn more about Martin Matson, go to votematson.com.
