Oak Creek mayor takes talk radio job
Oak Creek Mayor Steve Scaffidi will move from politics to talk radio.
Scaffidi announced Tuesday he’ll step down as mayor to join WTMJ-AM (620) full-time as a midafternoon host.
Scaffidi’s resignation is effective at 8 a.m. March 3. Ken Gehl, Oak Creek Common Council president, will become acting mayor.
What happens next is up to the council, which meets March 7. Several options for the council include calling for a special election in November or appointing a new mayor to serve until the April 2018 election.
Gehl said he had already planned to run for mayor in 2018. Oak Creek’s mayor serves part time.
“I’ve worked side-by-side with Steve the last eight years,” said Gehl, a supervisory research analyst at Robert W. Baird & Co. “I don’t have the media savvy he does, but we have been in most of the same meetings with the same developers. I think it would be a fairly natural transition.”
Scaffidi succeeded the late Mayor Dick Bolender and was first elected to the post in April 2012, just months before the attack on the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin. In a letter Tuesday to Oak Creek employees and citizens, Scaffidi recalled those “dark days” after the shootings as well as the resilience of the community.
“It made us stronger, and a more diverse and vibrant city,” he said.
In his letter, Scaffidi pointed to successes that include an expanded tax base and creation of Drexel Town Square, the city’s new downtown. He said he’ll continue to live in Oak Creek.
In his new radio role, Scaffidi will join WTMJ Executive Producer-News Erik Bilstad to form “Scaffidi & Bilstad,” which will air from noon to 3 p.m. weekdays.