Muskego Elections: Meet the District 5 Candidates

The final aldermanic race we are featuring is in the city's fifth district, which rests in the northwestern corner of Muskego. A small 'wedge' of the district includes lakeshore residents on Little Muskego Lake, and it's bordered by College Avenue and Tans Drive to the north, and Janesville Road to the south.

The two candidates who will be on the ballot on April 3 for the district are incumbent Dan Soltysiak and John Engelhardt, who is challenging the seat. The candidates will answer questions in a.

Dan Soltysiak, incumbent

Number of years on Common Council/committees: 2 (completing his first term) ; Community Development Authority (CDA), Conservation Commission, Library Board, Public Works Committee, Public Safety Committee, Big Muskego Lake Board of Commissioners, and Waukesha County ACT150 Committee.

Presently employed at: HM Graphics as a Senior Account Executive. In this role I work with Fortune 100 companies and some of the best known global brands to produce their marketing communications materials.  Working in an industry such as this and with such prominent demanding corporations, I must approach everything analytically and with a strict attention to detail. At this level of corporate interaction, waste and failure are not options and every expenditure must be justified, scrutinized, and shown with evidence to have a positive return on investment.

This same corporate analytical approach I successfully employ every day I bring to the Muskego Common Council where I consistently work to reduce waste, analyze, scrutinize each and every expenditure, and make sure the people of Muskego receive a positive return on investment for their tax dollars.

As a member of the Common Council and the various city and county boards, commissions and committees I feel it is extremely important to remain independent from special interest groups. I seek to always remain open, fair, objective, impartial, and to remove all personalities from the issues and discussion to just stick with the issue’s specific facts and merits.  I have and will continue to ask the tough questions that need to be asked and do the research on the issues that needs to be done.


How long a resident of Muskego: My wife, Chantelle and I chose Muskego to start and raise our family, so far we have been here for five years with no plans of going anywhere else.  Muskego is an excellent place for families, to raise children and grow old - we both have 35+ years before we can look to retire, so we are here for the long haul.

What do you enjoy most about living in Muskego:
Muskego still has the small quaint town feel but with close access to many amenities, an abundant amount and variety of recreational activities and an excellent school system. These characteristics attracted us and I believe has attracted most everyone else to the city but, it is the people themselves that I most enjoy about living in Muskego. Our city still has that neighborly charm where neighbors help neighbors and we join together to create a vibrant and strong community.

What issues do you hope to focus on in the next 2 years: Economic development – In the current economic times and not having unlimited resources we need to be exceedingly smart with how we go about trying to drive economic development in the city. We need to complete and then implement the city-wide marketing research and promotion plan to bring in new business and make the proper investments in the city to help bring even more additional proper fitting development.

Producing and then following this roadmap will allow the city to drive economic development in the most efficient and effective matter and work to remedy the unbalanced resident to business tax contribution ratio and lower the residential tax burden.

Janesville Road – it's the main artery through Muskego, is home to most of the commercial business in the city and is a prime candidate for future growth. During the construction period we need to continue to assist with the survival of the existing businesses. Again, not having unlimited resources we must watch every dollar spent completing the road, keep it within budget and then work to bring in new and economically sustainable development that will complete the promise of a new Janesville Road.

John Englehardt, challenger

Community involvement/committees served on: Served on various committees with our school district.  I am a member of the Chamber of Commerce, which includes serving on the board and executive board in recent years.  Other involvements and work in the community include Country Christmas, Community Festival, Food Pantry, Jammin’ on Janesville, and Citizens Academy. One particular service I have enjoyed for over a decade is working as a chief election inspector (7 years) with many of our good citizens.  

Presently employed at: Founding Pastor of Muskego Apostolic Tabernacle (1988)

How long a resident of Muskego: 23 years, married for 43 years, three children and five grandchildren

What do you enjoy most about living in Muskego? I have a strong passion for our city and its future following in the footsteps of many fine leaders who have served before me.  My passion as your alderman is serving to work for low taxes while meeting the challenges of the days ahead and providing the good services we all desire.

Leadership is born out of commitment to a cause and a sense of responsibility to one’s community.  I am committed to serving the residents of the 5^th District and acting responsibly in the best interest of Muskego.

What issues do you hope to focus on in the next two years? We need to build bridges where needed to move beyond both corporate and personal discord in local politics.  We can overcome differences with constructive solutions on the city council.

I will work for balanced, sensible and responsible business growth and development of our city.  I promise to work within our common council to bring cooperative balance, and with our citizens for the vision of making Muskego the best of places to live, work and play.