Towards the end of your
first time here in office,

Act 10 was the largest
piece of legislation.

You were one of only a
handful of Republicans

to vote against it.

Give us a sense of your
appraisal of that bill

more than 10 years on.

- Yeah, I was here.

These were stressful times.

I mean, this was a big deal
back then, if you recall.

There was hundreds of
thousands of people here

breaking windows, coming
into our offices.

It was tense times.

We were ushered out by
police and things like that,

and it was a highly
volatile issue.

And I was one of those more
moderate Republicans coming

from a 19th Senate district
with a senator, Senator Ellis,

and this was kind of
popped out of nowhere

because he didn't give
even, Scott

didn't even give us much
warning on this.

And so while the merits
of the bill I understood,

and I was fully supported,
the concept of this,

I didn't like how
it was rolled out.

I didn't particularly like
the idea of exempting

police and fire, because
as a local government guy

I was worried that having
two classifications of local

employees, police and fire,

my dad was a cop so I loved
cops, I loved firefighters,

but having two, you know,
treating them differently

than the garbage men
and the guys who do the

street sanitation, I thought
it would cause problems in

the end.

So I just didn't like
the concept of that.

And there were some
other things and then

be in a 50/50 district seat,

and so at the time, I struggled
for a long time and at the

end of the day, I voted no.

I told the governor, I said,
"You know, my district just

doesn't want me to support this.

I see a lot of merit
in it, governor.

I think if we take
our time a little bit

and we work out the kinks,
we might get this right.

But clearly with the
volatile environment,

it was important to
get this thing done.

So at the time I
didn't vote for it.

I had mixed emotions, but
at the end of the day,

the governor still supported
me in the next election.

But what was truly
disheartening was that

that the groups like the
unions, they didn't support me.

You know, Act 10 was the
biggest bill that the unions

had ever come up in
the history Wisconsin,

and I was only one
of four Republicans.

But I will also say this, when
I became mayor, then it became

evidently clear to me how
important this bill was

to local government,

because as a chief executive
officer of the city of Neenah

I couldn't have made
it without Act 10

because of the costs were
rising exponentially,

and wages and cost of materials.

And now it's even,
I think, gotten worse.

So as mayor, it showed
me that without Act 10,

the communities that provide
the services at the ground

level would have had a heck of
a time without the passage of

Act 10.

So I'm glad we did it and
we'll see what happens

where we go from here.