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Candidate Q&A series | Warsaw Commissioner
Incumbent Al Searles
Commissioner Al Searles says he’s focused on foundational improvements — from wastewater accountability to infrastructure upgrades. After one year on the job, Searles says the town has made quiet but crucial progress. Now, he’s calling for stronger engineering support, clearer financial reporting, and a renewed focus on how Warsaw grows. As he seeks reelection, he lays out a plan to strengthen infrastructure, enforce industrial compliance, and bring a long-term vision to town growth.
Reflecting on your time in office, what accomplishment are you most proud of and what are the most challenging aspects of serving as Warsaw commissioner?
In the short year since being asked to serve, we have not had a shortage of items to work on. We have had several successes and laid the groundwork for others:
1. We updated and reinstated the industrial pretreatment process and started charging surcharges for Industrial users not meeting their commitments.
- We redirected the state funding granted to us to work on our wastewater processing facility. It had for some reason been directed to fix infiltration issues. While these need to be addressed the pressing need is to make sure we are on top of our game in wastewater treatment.
- We approved, budgeted and hired a code enforcement officer to work on code issues which have been falling behind due to lack of resources.
- We are working on redirecting our Police department to apply more of their resources to town safety and law and order and not only be seen as traffic cops in our community.
Looking ahead, what are your top three priorities if reelected, and how do these priorities directly respond to the most pressing concerns you’ve heard from the community?
- Solving the Industrial pretreatment issues. We need to bring in some new engineering help to help us prepare as Warsaw grows. We need strong leadership that develops answers and is not only interested in the blame game.
- Use our resources to effectively improve the infrastructure of our downtown spaces and well as plan for the growth that is already happening around us.
- See our Transportation master plan updated and make sure we are using it as a road map as we grow.
Warsaw continues to face long-standing violations of wastewater treatment standards, largely due to persistent organic overloading from two major industrial users. What specific changes have you proposed or would you advocate for to prevent future violations?
We need to continue to follow through with monthly surcharges, making sure all our industrial users are following the rules. In addition, we need to take the SOC’s they have produced and place dates on them for compliance and add a penalty/fine structure if they do not meet the commitments. We need to make improvements to our wastewater facility to be able to handle the demands of our current and future needs. We can do this by developing a one, three- and five-year plan.
In August, millions of gallons of “partially treated” wastewater were released into Stewart’s Creek, but the public wasn’t alerted for five days after DEQ was notified. If reelected, what steps would you recommend to improve emergency response protocols and public health risk communication?
My understanding is the reporting protocols required were followed. We have developed a call program for residents who participate, but I am not sure in this case that it would have been the right thing to use.
What steps do you believe the town could take to improve transparency and accountability in its financial oversight processes?
The way the town reporting works by separating Revenue lines and Expense centers can make the information confusing. We could develop net costs by department reporting. Question number 6 is an example of where it would have come in handy. Your analysis only tells half the story.
In the FY 2025–26 budget, the town allocated just $63,000 to drainage, while more than four times that amount was directed to the DreamWorks facility. Would you have prioritized that funding differently? If not, how do you explain that decision to residents who are calling for basic infrastructure needs to come first?
Storm water work has been broken out as a separate category in our financials. Warsaw is one of the few towns in our area that charges a storm water fee to be used specifically to address everything from ditch cleaning to culvert replacement. It has given our Public Works Department funds to make many repairs and improvements that used to go unfunded. On the DreamWorks question, there is a revenue line in the P&L that offsets the payment to DreamWorks for their management of the facility.
Why should residents vote for you?
I care about Warsaw and want to make sure we control the future of how our town grows. Unfortunately, we have politicians that have brought politics into our decision-making process, and they seem to be more interested in their followers and likes on social media than working together to help the town move forward. It makes the process harder but if we let Warsaw grow without a plan and without clear direction we will regret it. I have a lot of professional experience in moving projects forward and making sure that every dollar is used wisely. I want to serve the citizens of Warsaw to move our town forward.
