Former Whitefish Bay official considered for Waukesha post

Aug. 10, 2012

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By Laurel Walker of the Journal Sentinel

Aug. 10, 2012 0

Waukesha - The selection committee looking for a new Waukesha city administrator is back at work, narrowing the list of semifinalists Monday with plans to interview finalists on a rolling basis, a change from its mid-September target for interviews.

One candidate will get an early interview.

Ed Henschel, executive secretary of the Wisconsin City/County Management Association and the former Whitefish Bay village manager, will be interviewed Monday because he will be out of the state for the rest of the month.

"The recruitment firm feels that Mr. Henschel would be a finalist in any event and that it is advantageous to both the city and Mr. Henschel to conduct his interview before he leaves," Human Resources Manager Donna Hylarides Whalen wrote in an email Friday.

Waukesha's former city administrator, Lori Curtis Luther, left in August 2011 for another job. After a search for her replacement, the preferred candidate - the only one the committee could agree on - withdrew from consideration so the city started from scratch, changing its recruiting firm as well.

Community Development Director Steve Crandell has been interim administrator while the search continues.

About Laurel Walker

Laurel Walker covered local, school and county government for 20 years -- the last half of that at the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -- before she was named Waukesha County columnist in 1997. Today she writes about the people, places and events around metropolitan Milwaukee with a broad suburban focus. She was the youngest of nine children raised on a central Wisconsin farm before leaving the nest for journalism studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and a masters degree at the University of Oregon. She has spent the last half of her life in Waukesha County, where she and her husband raised two sons. Though she has a fondness for life in Waukesha, she eagerly partakes in the culture of the big city to the east and the recreation of the forests to the west. With sons in the arts, she has a special fondness for symphonic music concerts and art museums. She finds peace in a good book at a Northwoods getaway weekend, adventure in family visits to the east and west coasts, and satisfaction in a column well-written that reaches readers.