The Wauwatosa Common Council's debate over the city's 2026 budget took an unusual turn before the final vote Nov. 18 when Mayor Dennis McBride invoked a bygone era of comedy and quoted the Marx Brothers to berate a council member who planned to vote no.
"Whatever it is, I'm against it," McBride said, after explaining he was borrowing from the Marx Brothers' 1932 movie "Horse Feathers" to mock Andrew Meindl of District 1.
It was no surprise that there was no love lost between McBride and Meindl, who faced each other in the last mayoral election in April 2024. Since losing to McBride, Meindl has regularly questioned city officials at council meetings, criticized their handling of a range of city issues and suggested that his fellow elected officials are merely providing a rubber stamp to policies generated by City Hall. McBride, for his part, has sometimes responded during council meetings with particularly personal jabs back at Meindl.
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This evening, after the council engaged in an extended debate on the city's 2026 budget, Meindl took several minutes to read from prepared remarks explaining why he was opposed. The comments ranged from a lament for the rise in "deaths of despair" among young people who face a dim economic outlook to concerns for senior citizens who struggle to afford rising costs, including property taxes.
"What we do with this budget year after year matters," Meindl said. He argued that poor fiscal management was like a snowball rolling down the hill getting bigger. And he described city officials efforts in this budget to close a $1.4 million gap between expenses and revenues as a "one year tax Band-aid on structural wounds."
Meindl also framed his comments as a summary statement of his budgetary views before what he said would be his last budget vote, possibly indicating he does not plan to run for re-election to the council in April 2026.
After Meindl concluded, McBride took the floor and addressed his remarks directly to his council colleague. "People have asked me, what's wrong with Alder Meindl?" McBride said. The mayor then turned to the lyrics from the Groucho Marx song "I'm Against It," which he appeared to read from a paper.
"I don't know what they have to say. It makes no difference anyway. Whatever it is, I'm against it," McBride said. "No matter what it is or who commenced it, I'm against it."
McBride concluded his comments with an apparent reference to Meindl's upcoming exit from the council: "Don't let the door hit you in the back on the way out," McBride said.
The city's video of the meeting can be found here. The comments from Meindl and McBride start about an hour and 35 minutes into the meeting.
The budget passed by a vote of 12-3, with Joseph Makhlouf of District 3 and Mike Morgan of District 7 joining Meindl in voting no.
After the meeting, while some of his colleagues lingered to chat, Meindl walked straight out of the room.
