This is the second in a series of articles about Jewish mayors of southeastern Wisconsin communities.
Phil Schuman, mayor of the city of Delafield (population c. 6,900), likes to tell the joke about how U.S. President Lyndon Johnson and Israeli President Zalman Shazar discussed their respective jobs.
Johnson said his job was the harder because he was president of more than 200 million people, while Shazar was the president of only about two million. Shazar replied, “You may be the president of 200 million people, but I am the president of about two million presidents.”
Schuman, who has held this part-time office since April 2006, said he sometimes feels he is the mayor of numerous mayors in this fairly well-to-do Waukesha County city that almost completely surrounds Lake Nagawicka.
“You have to develop a thick skin,” Schuman said, because he has had to “do things that some people do not like.” One also has to “conduct meetings in a businesslike manner, but with a sense of humor,” he said.
Nevertheless, he has had “a lot of good feedback” in his term so far — not least from his wife, Mary. “Phil has the time and ability and he’s doing a great job,” she said.
And District 7 Alderman Ron Miskelley, a sales manager who has known Schuman for “at least 10 years,” says that Schuman has been “an outstanding mayor.”
“I think he’s a consensus builder,” said Miskelley. “He listens to people who agree and disagree with him, and he tries to bring those in opposition to become part of the decision-making process.”
Miskelley said Schuman’s biggest achievement so far has been “bringing awareness of the critical condition of our space needs” for the city administration and services.
Miskelley and Schuman agree that the city badly needs a new administration building for its city services, a new library, and new police and fire department structures.
However, a referendum to issue more than $20 million in bonds for such projects was defeated this past April by about 200 votes, even though the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel ran an editorial that advocated approval.
But that defeat does not make the problem vanish, Schuman said. So he formed a “Plan B Committee” that includes people who voted no in the referendum.
“This is a community problem, and the citizens have to own the problem,” said Schuman. The upshot may be another referendum on another plan, said Schuman.
“If this passes, it will be a huge success,” said Miskelley. But even if it doesn’t, “just bringing this awareness has been important. The problem has been lingering in the area for four years and nothing has ever been done about it.”
Army background
Schuman, 64, brings to his job a background and skills that may seem unusual for an American Jew. This native of Dayton, Ohio, was almost a career U.S. Army officer.
He attended the Reserve Officer’s Training Corps for four years while earning his undergraduate degree in sociology with a philosophy minor. After receiving his commission in 1964, he obtained training and work in the U.S. Army’s administrative branches.
His duty included a year in Vietnam, where he was nearly killed by friendly fire during the Tet Offensive of 1968, he said. Yet he never had much sympathy for the anti-Vietnam War protests. “I thought it was a noble cause trying to stop communism,” he said.
He ended up at Fort Rucker, Ala., where at a social event he met Mary Julien (nee Kirchhoff), whose parents lived in Milwaukee. She was so startled to learn he was Jewish that “I checked out books on Judaism and started quizzing him,” she said. “It was the funniest thing.”
Their dates often involved attending services at a Reform synagogue in a nearby town; and their first one there was a Purim carnival, which “was an absolute hoot,” she said.
She converted, they married, he resigned his commission, and they moved to Milwaukee, where he entered the insurance business, from which he is now retired.
In 1989, they moved to Delafield, into a house on the lake that had belonged to her parents. They are now members of Congregation Emanu-El of Waukesha, where he chairs the personnel committee and Mary is membership chair.
Schuman entered local politics about 10 years ago, when he was appointed to fill the term of a resigned alderman, and he found that “the stuff gets into your blood.”
He was elected for several terms, lost one attempt to run for mayor about five years ago, then ran unopposed for mayor in 2006.
Schuman said that the city government has one overriding problem — “trying to steer and lead a community that is changing from a vacation and weekend spot to a year-round community with development.”
Many local residents oppose development projects for diverse reasons, but that opposition can run across the rights of local property owners, he said.
Schuman said he seeks to have the Delafield government “follow the rule of law,” and make sure “that the majority rules without trampling the rights of the minority.”
“That’s one of the Jewish features in my soul,” he said.
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