“Public Land, Private Friends, and One Mayor with a For-Sale Sign”A Lake Geneva Horror Story

A routine land designation, a closed-door negotiation and a public parking lot that may soon belong to someone else

Mayor Todd Krause has begun carving up public assets the way a leveraged buyout artist strips copper from a dying factory, moving through City Hall in full corporate-raider trance, carving off public land and passing it down the table to the Good Ol’ Boys like a bottle of contraband bourbon. This time the prize is queued up neatly for ex-Mayor Tom Hartz of Simple, right off downtown Lake Geneva, Wisconsin on busy Edwards Blv.

The asset in question: 11 acres across four lots on Sheridan Springs Road, city-owned land, part of which functions as a public parking lot used as a park-and-ride into downtown. Not some dusty back forty, not a forgotten weed patch. This is working infrastructure. The kind cities cling to when summer hits and the tourists descend like locusts with credit cards.

Parking in downtown Lake Geneva during summer is scarcer than a straight answer at City Hall. Roughly 1,400 employees cycle through the downtown area, and the city relies on a shuttle system to keep traffic from turning into a demolition derby. At the January 12, 2026 City Council meeting, Mayor Krause even announced the city might acquire two trolleys for this exact purpose. Elkhorn manages a park-and-ride. Even Richmond, Illinois, population: “don’t blink or you’ll miss it,” has one.

In Lake Geneva, the shuttle currently stops at a city-owned parking lot that Mayor Krause is trying to sell. It also stops down Edwards Boulevard at a private lot owned by Home Depot, which will almost certainly need every inch of its own parking as Lake Geneva keeps swelling like a tick in July.

Aldermen Joel Hoiland and Brian Smith managed to wrangle the council into adopting a policy for selling public land. But as Krause smugly pointed out at the Hillmoor Commission meeting, the policy is not binding on the next council. Translation: guardrails are optional, and brakes are for cowards.

The policy has four tidy steps:

1. The “staff” (read: Krause’s administration) must find the land is “surplus.”
2. The City Council must also declare it “surplus.”
3. The city must get an appraisal.
4. The City Council must bless the sale.

At the City Council meeting on September 22, 2025, after Krause’s administration declared the four Sheridan Springs Road parcels “surplus,” the ball rolled downhill fast.

Resolution 25-R51 declared city property at tax key parcels ZA467900001, ZA467900002, ZA468000001 & ZA468000002 surplus.
Alderman Smith made the motion. Alderperson Frame seconded.

Then Alderperson Fesenmaier threw sand in the gears, proposing an amendment to remove ZA467900001, the lot adjacent to Serv Pro that the city actively uses for park-and-ride. Ames second.

Fesenmaier explained the obvious: the parcel didn’t meet “the criteria for surplus.” She wanted to preserve public access and keep it under city control.

“I know there might be conditions we think we can put in there, but the safest way to keep the access and have it under our control is to pull it out of the list.”

Alderperson Yager countered with the hopeful fantasy that private ownership would somehow behave like public stewardship:

“The business that is purchasing the property would need to allow us to use that section for parking and access, and they’re going to be paying for it.”

Then came the pivot. A slick one. The conversation slid sideways from parking to Hillmoor access, nudged along by Alderperson Frame. Tom Hartz had already done his polished song-and-dance at earlier meetings, yammering about Hillmoor access while quietly ghosting the inconvenient truth that this land is actively used for park-and-ride.

Alderperson Stoodley chimed in with breathtaking disregard for reality:

“But to assume that whole parcel can’t be sold because it’s going to be parking …for all these people who are going to be using it at a set time is silly on our point.”
“…keeping it back because of what we hope we’ll see somewhere in the future is shortsighted on our part”

This neatly ignores the fact that the lot is already being used, and that usage will only grow as Lake Geneva does.

Administrator Dave then stepped in, performing the classic City Hall sleight-of-hand, reframing the issue away from public parking and toward theoretical access points:

“there are other points on the north side of Hilmore to be able to gain access”

He doubled down, explaining that the Krause administration deemed the land “surplus” because:

“that has sat there for 15 years and has not been utilized.”

A bold claim, given the shuttle buses actively rolling through it.

This kind of smoke-and-mirrors routine is standard fare at City Hall, and Lake Geneva’s simpler politicians swallow it whole. Fesenmaier didn’t.

“I think it’s very important that we retain control forever and not depend on a private entity to have control over it.”

Frame closed the discussion with a shrug dressed up as certainty:

“So I think we’ve got ample parking and access to that facility, and I don’t think that’s anything anyone needs to worry about.”

The vote to exclude the public parking lot failed.
Voting to exclude: Council President Mary Jo Fesenmaier, Sherri Ames.
Voting to include: Linda Frame, Joel Hoiland, JaNelle Powers, Brian Smith, Cathy Stoodley.

The Administrator noted that any easement would affect the appraisal and that the property wouldn’t be sold as “fee simple.”

Krause insisted:

“This is not about any particular buyer right now.”

What bullshit.

The Administrator then suggested that if the council wanted guaranteed access to parking and Hillmoor, it should be recorded in the minutes for Lot One. Krause said an appraisal motion would be needed immediately. City Attorney Draper swooped in to help steady the ship:

“Each time you’re doing this you’re affecting the value of the property no matter who you’re selling it to by saying we’re going to we’re going to demand this and this.”

Then Stoodley, apparently determined to miss the point entirely:

“All right, so again, if I just read what is here, we are simply designating this land as surplus land. We are not asking for an appraisal”

The final vote designated all four lots, including the public parking lot, as surplus.

YES: Linda Frame, Joel Hoiland, Brian Smith, Cathy Stoodley,Sherri Ames,
NO: JaNelle Powers, Council President Mary Jo Fesenmaier, Council Vice President Cindy Yager,

It should be noted that Alexandria Binanti Executive Director of the Downtown Business Improvement District is perfectly fine with Simple packing up and leaving downtown, and shows no visible concern whatsoever for the loss of public parking. She’s joined at the hip with the usual Good Ol’ Boy Speedo Condos, all eager to stretch the district’s borders a little wider, shake down a little more cash, and pump it into promoting a downtown that goes stiff and lifeless every winter anyway.

This isn’t planning. It’s maintenance of a comfortable illusion.

At the next council meeting on January 12, 2026, the council retreated into closed session with a “draft appraisal” to negotiate with ex-Mayor and good-ol-boy Tom Hartz of Simple Group. Roughly two hours later, they voted to continue negotiations.

Once again, Council President Mary Jo Fesenmaier dug in her heels and flatly rejected the idea of selling off the city parking lot, swatting it down with the kind of stubborn clarity that made it clear this wasn’t a misunderstanding. It was a hard no.

Your correspondent filed a public records request for the appraisal.

Recent sale of comparable land on Sheridan Springs Road

For context: 10.59 acres just north on Sheridan Springs Road sold for $700,000 on July 30, 2025.

Same road. Same market. Very different story.