READY TO LISTEN AND LEAD. Emily Berge, who was first elected to the Eau Claire City Council five years, began a three-year term as president of the body in April.

“I’m a person who likes to keep on challenging myself,” explains Emily Berge of Eau Claire. Those challenges can be personal, such as running 50-kilometer races. They can be professional, like earning a master’s degree in mental health counseling from UW-Stout and practicing as a licensed professional counselor. They can also be political. Most recently, that has entailed becoming president of the Eau Claire City Council.

Berge was first elected to the City Council in 2018, and represented District 1 on the city’s north side for five years. This spring, she ran unopposed for the office of council president, and on April 18 was sworn in to replace outgoing Council President Terry Weld, who didn’t seek re-election.

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I think a big part of getting things done is building and maintaining relationships.

EMILY BERGE

EAU CLAIRE CITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT

Berge’s leadership extends beyond the City of Eau Claire: Last year, she was elected first vice president of the Wisconsin League of Municipalities, an advocacy group that works on behalf of cities and villages statewide. She’ll become the organization’s president later this year. Through her involvement with the League of Municipalities, Berge has experience advocating for the state government to increase the level of revenue it shares with communities across the state, which has dwindled in recent decades.

Berge – who lives in Eau Claire with her husband, Mike, and two high school-aged children – knows the City Council has substantial issues to address in the coming years. These include housing affordability, mental health, and the quality of the city’s water.  As one of 11 members of the City Council, Berge expects to take a collaborative approach addressing these concerns to continue to improve the quality of life in Eau Claire.

“For a city of 69,421 (residents), I think we have a really good reputation,” she said. “So much of it is just to keep the good work going.”

Volume One chatted recently with Berge about what her three-year term will hold.

Volume One: How do your professional skills as a counselor apply to your job on the City Council?

Emily Berge: I listen to understand; I very easily fall into the listening role in my interactions with people. I can also communicate that I have heard people and I understand where they are coming from. I try very hard to keep an open mind about everything and listen without judgment. I genuinely want to understand someone’s situation and their perspective. I also know that things are rarely black and white; I think when we take an all or nothing approach we tend to cut people off or damage relationships. All of these skills also allow me to build rapport with people which helps with relationship building.

And I know the importance of self care and boundaries! My effectiveness as a professional is dependent on how much I take care of myself.

How would you describe your leadership style, and how do you think this will apply to your role as council president?

I can become overwhelmed by all the challenges in the world but then I think, I just need to “Be the Change.” I think about what I want to see in the world and then I put my energy into doing those things since that is what I can control. I focus on being kind, being prepared and level-headed, and bringing people together. I am very focused on finding solutions and getting things done. I think a big part of getting things done is building and maintaining relationships. I’m not sure what leadership style this is but I can sum it up by: “Listen, Collaborate, Lead.”

What are you most excited about in your new role?

I am excited to serve my community in a slightly different way than before. For the past 5 years, I really focused on the Northside and worked towards bridging the gap between the Northside and City Hall. I now get to do this city wide. I think communication is so important because it fosters understanding of the issue at hand and then empowerment to do something about it.

What are the most critical problems that the City Council will have to address over the next three years?

Our budget constraints will need to be addressed. Cities and villages only have one major way to fund the services that they provide and that is with property taxes. Other local governments can do a sales tax or even an income tax. It is unfortunate because the sales and income taxes that we pay in Eau Claire go to the state. The state is supposed to share this revenue but this has decreased by 76% over the last 30 years. In 1990, 40% of the city’s budget came from shared revenue. In our 2023 budget, 9.4% of our budget was funded by shared revenue. The city has coped with this substantial decrease in funding by not filling positions, cutting services, and holding off on certain expenses over the last 30 years. We also have been forced to be more reliant on property taxes to fill this gap. More recently, we have tried to problem solve by going to referendum last fall and implementing a local vehicle registration fee. These are not easy decisions, and I know this impacts our residents of Eau Claire. I don’t think it’s fair that our residents need to keep paying, and yet this is how the funding of local services is set up. I am doing what I can with the League of Wisconsin Municipalities to fix the way cities are funded at the state level so we don’t need to continually ask our residents to pay more. In the meantime, we will still need to have tough conversations and make difficult decisions while trying to solve this situation.

Another issue that the city is facing is housing; we need to ensure there are housing options for all who want to live in Eau Claire. This is a multifaceted problem which requires a variety of solutions. This includes continuing to construct new housing in our redevelopment and tax increment districts and through annexation and utility extensions to meet the needs of our growing community. We will keep existing neighborhoods strong while building new welcoming, safe, and inclusive housing options for new neighbors. While we cannot use proposed rent amounts as a factor in zoning or site plan decisions, there are other tools we can use, such as city development agreements and state affordable housing grants. These have successfully added several hundred new workforce and affordable units to the city in the past few years with more under way or planned to start later this year. We are doing a housing needs study so we will be able to see which types of housing we need to focus on and the trend in housing. We also have a comprehensive review of our zoning code planned that will consider neighborhood development, community growth, accessible housing, walkability, and other factors that keep Eau Claire a great place to live.

Another priority is our water quality. We have very good water here in Eau Claire and it is safe to drink. In 2020 the presence of PFAS was detected in our drinking water but below DNR drinking water standards. In-depth testing in 2021 indicated that the wells on the north end of our well field contained higher concentrations of PFAS and those wells were immediately taken out of production. Through this voluntary testing and working cooperatively with the DNR we are able to confront this problem head on.

The EPA is looking at passing federal regulations to mandate public water systems to have no more than 4 PPT which is essentially non detect levels. (The current state standard is 70 PPT.) The city is looking at long-term solutions, and these long-term solutions will be expensive. When I was in Washington, D.C., last month, I advocated for funds to help the City of Eau Claire reach these proposed new federal regulations.

I would like to state that these might be areas that the City Council will need to focus on over the next few years; city staff have already been working on solutions. They are looking for ways to solve our city budget woes, they have made housing a priority in their day to day operational work, and they are formulating and enacting plans to ensure a continuation of safe and clean water for the residents of Eau Claire. City Council may make policy decisions, but it is the city staff who get the day-to-day job done. These might be big challenges but we have a great team in Eau Claire to get things done.

Eau Claire is growing faster than most cities its size in Wisconsin. What are a few things the council can do to ease the growing pains that come along with this?

Isn’t it wonderful that so many people want to live in Eau Claire and businesses want to set up shop in Eau Claire? We’re even getting a Costco! I hear of people who grew up here and are now returning with their young families in tow to start small businesses. I know of students who attended UWEC or CVTC and decided to stay and start their careers in Eau Claire. I am also a part of this story. After attending UW-Stout, I came to Eau Claire for an internship and then I just never left. Eau Claire has a history of welcoming people from all over the world too which adds a vibrancy to our community.

Yes, Eau Claire being more popular means we need more housing, we will see more buildings go up, it might be harder to find a front door parking space, there might be more traffic and our city will start to look different. These could be the growing pains that the question is referencing.

Something I’ve focused on in my leadership is creating opportunities for people to build
community and connection, like Wintermission or neighborhood associations. Our city will change. But we can still lean into being welcoming, getting to know each other, and working together.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve gotten about leadership in general or leading the City Council in particular?

I really admire Brené Brown’s work in leadership; her background of social work meshes well with my background in counseling. The following two quotes really resonate with me:

“A brave leader is someone who says I see you. I hear you. I don’t have all the answers, but I’m going to keep listening and asking questions.”

“It turns out that trust is in fact earned in the smallest of moments. It is earned not through heroic deeds, or even highly visible actions, but through paying attention, listening, and gestures of genuine care and connection.”

As a runner who likes to challenge herself by running up big hills, I tell myself when I’m digging deep to keep going: “Hard makes you strong.” I think this applies to leadership as well.