Wauwatosa voters, collectively, will find the names of 16 candidates for Common Council on their ballots when they head to the polls on Election Day, April 7, but with only three contested council races, the candidates in the city's 12 districts have not been particularly active this year in fundraising or campaign spending.
State law allows local candidates to claim an exemption from reporting their campaigns' financial activity if the total fundraising and spending is $2,500 or less. For the Common Council races, only four of the 16 candidates filed itemized reports with the city.
The filing deadline was March 30. The candidates who submitted lists of receipts and expenditures are Sean Hurley and Amanda Saso in District 4, Michael Indy Stluka in District 8 and Scott Small in District 12. Small is running unopposed, and Stluka's opponent, Matt Wicker, is listed on the city's spreadsheet as exempt from filing.
Three other candidates who said they did not expect to claim exemption from filing have not yet filed their disclosures and are listed as "delinquent" by the city. They are Derek Collins, who is running unopposed in District 2; Mark Peters, who is on the ballot in District 3 but has said he withdrew from challenging Ernie Franzen; and Melissa Dolan, an incumbent council member who is running against another incumbent, Mike Morgan, in District 11.
[Editor's note: After this story was published, Collins contacted Tosa Forward News to say he had just sent his campaign finance report to the City Clerk's Office. Separately, Dolan responded to an inquiry by acknowledging that she had made "an innocent, terrible mistake" in missing the filing deadline, adding that "I'm going to rectify it" immediately.]