The CRRC’s Reasons for Opposing the Re-Election of Current Mayor Chris Kostik

1. Failure to Listen to Residents
   • Dismissive of Resident Committee: At the September 2025 council workshop, Kostik dismissed a resident committee’s recommendations to expand/remodel city hall and not purchase land for a new city hall building.
   • Unauthorized Secrecy: Rather than pursue the resident committee’s recommendations to expand and remodel the Credit River City Hall building, Kostik exceeded the scope of his legal authority as mayor and in May 2025 secretly pursued a five-year lease agreement with a local company for city office and road machinery storage space. Kostik’s secret pursuit of this lease occurred while the resident committee was still conducting meetings.
   • Disrespectful: Kostik has been disrespectful to one or more council members and has disregarded citizen requests that all members of the city council, especially Kostik, act respectfully. The disrespect continued even after the city spent $6,000 on a facilitator to educate the council about good governance principles.
   • Ignored Citizen Survey: Kostik did not acknowledge nor value the work of the Credit River Rural Alliance, which conducted an important survey of more than 800 residents in October of 2023.
   • Blocked Resident Posts: Kostik blocked some residents from posting on his re-election political Facebook page.
2. Lack of Transparency
   • Secrecy: Kostik’s secret pursuit of the lease and not disclosing the lease until three days before he pushed for a vote to approve the lease at the August 18, 2025 council meeting is a complete lack of transparency.
   • Stop Workshop Live Stream: At the January 5, 2026 council meeting, Kostik proposed discontinuing the live streaming of council workshops, which provide residents with information about council deliberations. Other council members objected and defeated Kostik’s proposal to stop the live streaming of workshops.
3. Flawed Fiscal Conservativeness
   • $21 Million+: On May 6, 2024, three firms presented a proposal to the city council for a new city hall and public works buildings with estimated construction costs of more than $21 million, not including land costs.
   • $47,979: In 2024, Credit River paid $47,979 to the architect, construction firm, and other companies for services related to the work leading up to the presentation on May 6, 2024 for a new city hall and public works building.
   • $343,974+: The secretly pursued lease for office/storage space would have cost the city $343,974 in rent over five years plus tenant improvement costs and the city’s share of property taxes, insurance, and maintenance costs.
   • More Millions: Kostik still supports buying land and building a new city hall costing millions rather than remodel the current city hall with the city’s $600,000+ in federal COVID relief funds earmarked for city facilities.
   • >15% Proposed Hike in Tax Levy: Kostik advocated for increasing the preliminary 2026 property tax levy by more than 15% over the 2025 tax levy while other council members limited the final 2026 levy increase to 3.9%.
   • Water and Sewer Costs Could Dramatically Increase Property Taxes: Kostik’s position to extend city sewer and water lines from Savage to northern Credit River to resolve a very small number of failing or non-compliant septic systems and wells is extremely costly and could cause property taxes for all residents to rise dramatically.