On Tuesday, April 7, Janesville residents will head to the polls to elect new volunteer leadership for the Janesville City Council, the Janesville School Board and the Rock County Board of Supervisors.
Forward Janesville and our Government Relations Council are focused on strong leadership at the local level, because it’s the level of government that impacts our members — and the community — the most. We follow issues with influence on Janesville’s growth and competitiveness and, over the past year and a half, our GRC has been tracking the city’s Zoning & Subdivision Code Update.
We are engaged in the code update because we want to bring more flexibility and affordability to local housing development and positively position Janesville strategically against surrounding communities. If economic and community growth is happening everywhere but Janesville, that is not good for our residents, our schools or our local businesses.
To date, the proposed updates to the zoning and subdivision code look poised to unlock local housing potential, make housing more affordable, ensure a faster and more reliable development process through by-right provisions, and introduce mixed-use concepts that are commonplace in peer communities and responsive to market conditions. These are all positive movements for Janesville.
And these positive movements are the results of an intentional process that is overseen by local, volunteer leadership.
Many of our Government Relations Council members have served in volunteer, public office positions. To the council, productive volunteer leadership at the local level is reliant on two main things. One, leaders who understand the scope of the role, and two, leaders who possess key characteristics of effective candidates.
The scope of the role for the Janesville City Council, the Janesville School Board and the Rock County Board of Supervisors is to:
Provide oversight of leadership
Guide budget development and financial decision making
Steer community development by setting standards for expected outcomes
To be effective in those leadership roles, candidates must be:
Willing to learn and engage
Data-driven and future-focused in decision making
Holistic in approach (i.e. not one-issue candidates)
Clear communicators
Without understanding the scope of the role or being flexible and willing to dialogue, local leadership can flounder and not deliver for the community.
As we enter the spring election cycle, it’s important for voters to think through the pressing issues at each level of local government and what kind of leaders will be best suited to navigate the terrain.
The Janesville City Council will tackle GM/JATCO redevelopment, budget appropriately to avoid a municipal referendum in the next 2-3 years and work through a strained community trust relationship.
The Janesville School Board will face pressure to continuously improve student outcomes, support teachers and deliver on the most recent capital and operational referendums, all against the backdrop of a challenging state-level funding environment that complicates annual budgeting.
The Rock County Board of Supervisors will finalize the Comprehensive and Farmland Preservation Plans, take a serious look at the county’s financial stability and find its balance in supporting resident needs post-COVID. During COVID, the county played an outsized role in issues like housing and child care due to the availability of ARPA funds. Now that funds have been spent or committed, the county is working through what that means for their involvement in these and other community concerns.
Forward Janesville plays an educational role in local elections through our annual Candidate Question & Answer publications (out in early March) and our web resources. Please check out our resources at to help you make informed decisions at the ballot box.
Claire Gray is the director of policy and strategic initiatives for Forward Janesville.
