David Loeb
Joel Skornicka, here at Cows on the Concourse, was a hands-on mayor who got things done, say former colleagues and friends.
One of the more remarkable moments in the memorial service for Joel Skornicka was a moving tribute from Jonathan Barry.
Skornicka, who served as Madison’s mayor from 1979 to 1983, passed away on Nov. 16 at the age of 82. The memorial service on Dec. 5 at Olbrich Gardens was packed.
Barry now serves as executive director of the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands. If that sounds familiar to you it’s probably because that quiet commission was rocked when a conservative Republican commissioner blocked then executive director Tia Nelson from so much as speaking the words “climate change.” He drove Nelson out and Barry, a nominal Republican, replaced her. Now that the board is made up of three Democrats — Attorney General Josh Kaul, Secretary of State Doug La Follette and Treasurer Sarah Godlewski — Barry remains at his post, a testimony to his evenhandedness.
But back when Skornicka was mayor, Barry was serving as Dane County executive. That is a fraught relationship with lots of built-in conflict no matter how reasonable the occupants of those offices might be. The fundamental problem is that those jurisdictions overlap. Each office is faced with budget pressures and so the tendency is for the city to want the county to pick up more of the tab for certain services while the county, without much authority within the city limits, tends to focus its resources outside of Madison. “I’m not paying for that; you should pay for that!” is the unspoken feeling behind every conversation except for when it is actually spoken in so many words.
And yet Barry described Skornicka as “one of just a handful of true friends I’ve ever had in my life,” as he struggled to hold back tears. I know and respect Jonathan Barry, but he’s a shrewd politician and a passionate guy. I’m pretty sure he would agree that about 90 percent of the good personal feeling that came out of a professional relationship teed up for conflict came from the other side. To come through a testing experience like that and remain friends for the rest of their lives says something profound about both men, but especially about Skornicka.
Every speaker in the brief service (it started and ended right on time apparently per Skornicka’s instructions) talked about his lack of ego and his kindness. Many people who get elected to public office claim that they are not politicians, but in Skornicka’s case it was true, though I’m not aware that he ever professed his innocence to the charge. Skornicka was a UW administrator who had to be convinced to run for mayor. He was never a partisan and never aspired to any other office. He just wanted to get stuff done, which he did.
During his four years he and Barry worked out the transfer of the zoo from the city to the county, the first major redevelopment of market rate and affordable housing in the downtown (Capitol Centre) was completed, the University Research Park was launched, the State Street mall was constructed, and the Civic Center (which was later replaced by Overture) was opened. He was even instrumental in bringing baseball back to Madison at Warner Park.
When he left office he returned briefly to the UW before becoming development director at UC Davis. One of the speakers said that Skornicka was so effective in that job that the wine baron Robert Mondovi’s children complained that they were forced to sell the vineyard to make good on the huge endowment that Skornicka was able to persuade Mondovi to give to the university.
After retirement he returned to Madison where he got involved in all kinds of civic good works. For a short while Joel and I even lived in the same condo building on the west side. People around here started referring to it as “the old mayors’ home.”
I would run into Joel from time to time in the elevator or the lobby and we’d chat about whatever was going on in the city. The man never had an unkind word to say about anybody.
Former U.S. ambassador to Norway and Assembly Speaker Tom Loftus was another Skornicka friend to speak at the service. “The world has lost a gentle person,” Loftus said.
It certainly has. There aren’t enough gentle people to go around these days and to have had a gentle person in the rough and tumble world of politics is even more rare. Skornicka’s slogan in his last campaign was, “Working together works.” It did then and his life is testimony to the idea that it can again.
