City Hall  
City of La Crosse, Wisconsin  
400 La Crosse Street  
La Crosse, WI 54601  
Meeting Minutes - Final  
City Administrator Working Group  
Wednesday, August 13, 2025  
12:00 PM  
Grandad Room  
City Hall  
Call to Order  
The meeting was called to order by the Working Group Chair, Larry Sleznikow at  
12:05 p.m.  
Roll Call  
3 - Barb Janssen, Larry Sleznikow,Erin Goggin  
2 - Chris Kahlow,Lisa Weston  
Present:  
Excused:  
Approval of Minutes  
A motion was made by Goggin, seconded by Janssen, to APPROVE the  
minutes of July 23, 2025. The motion carried unanimously.  
Agenda Items:  
Proposed City Administrator position.  
24-1585  
No action taken.  
- Update on two collaborative CAWG/Mayor Shaundel meetings with mayor/city  
administrator panelists and roundtables.  
Two CAWG collaborative meetings are tentatively scheduled with Mayor Shaundel  
Washington-Spivey on September 30, 2025 from 10am to noon and October 1, 2025  
from 5pm – 7pm. Both meetings would be in the La Crosse Center and include a panel  
discussion with mayors and city administrators and community roundtable  
discussions.  
- Mayor Shaundel Washington-Spivey’s thoughts on the city administrator position.  
Mayor Washington-Spivey expressed his desire to have a city administrator, if hired,  
report only to the Mayor rather than the city administrator reporting to the City Council  
and Mayor which is the case in the resolution returning to the City Council in February  
2026.  
- Discussion with John Kovari, Political Science and Public Administration professor at  
UW-La Crosse, about the possibility of his class assisting with public engagement.  
Dr. Kovari discussed possible ways his class and he could assist the City  
Administrator Working Group (CAWG) with the public engagement process. He  
presented a range of services that could be provided. The City would incur a cost for  
most of the services presented. Since CAWG does not have any funding, it did not  
seem possible for our working group to collaborate with Dr. Kovari and his class.  
- Decide public engagement details and location options.  
There is interest in moving the next CAWG meeting up a week. Sleznikow will check  
to see if all CAWG members would be available as well as a meeting space in City  
Hall.  
- Additional working group member updates.  
No updates were provided by CAWG members.  
- Establish agenda items for the next meeting.  
There will be one agenda item, a working meeting to determine the community  
engagement process, community resources provided to the public, and meeting times  
and locations.  
Adjournment  
The meeting was adjourned at 1:15 p.m.