Press releases about public hearings two days after they occur, economic development plans that are currently meaningless (the hard work is yet to be done!) and godfather invitations. Oh my!
NO BUDGET HEARINGS HERE!
So, I told you that the Mayor didn’t quite know how people were supposed to know about his hearing on the budget. But it gets stranger. Check out this press release. Notice something strange?
He issues a press release, two days later, inviting people to a budget hearing “tonight”? I thought scheduling these hearings in August when no one was paying attention was as obnoxious as he would get in issuing a non-vite to his budget hearings, but he took it a step further this year!
USELESS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLAN
What is even more interesting is when you compare that to the Economic Development Plan news release that went out minutes after the Council passed the Economic Development Plan, with no priorities or reality check on what it meant. Quick spin to take credit for the Economic Development Plan that I pushed to get in the budget a few years ago (it failed the first year with Brandon opposed, passed the second year) and that the main sponsor, Brandon, never wanted. And we failed miserably to have a decent discussion on what our goals are. Additionally, the plan is meaningless in its current state until there are realistic priorities set, based on what money will be available in the budget. Since we are talking “no new programs” in this budget, which the Mayor really doesn’t want your input on, nearly half of the recommendations are meaningless. And many, many more need more thought. Here’s how I separated them out for the last council meeting, but we didn’t vote on it:
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the DPCED should continue with plans to:
a. Complete the Zoning Code modernization (1. 2.a.)
b. Reestablish the Tax Increment District in the Southeast Industrial Area. (3. 4.a.)
c. Retain an experienced, highly skilled ED Director. (6. 1.a.)
d. Monitor progress against plan metrics. (6. 4.a.)
e. Report annually to EDC, Mayor and Council (6. 4.b.)
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the following items appear to be able to be done with minimal efforts by staff and minimal cost to the City and DPCED should work on if it is prioritized:
a. Revise DPCED mission statement (1. 1.a.)
a. Capitalize on systematic retention and expansion contacts. (2. 2.a.)
b. Establish a Small Business Solutions OBR team. (2. 3.a.)
c. Continue to support and work with small business contacts. (2. 3.c.)
d. Monitor Kaufman impacts (2. 3.d.)
e. Continue to work with existing business/business owners in employment centers. (3. 1.a.)
f. Encourage the formation of Neighborhood BIDs. (4. 6.a.)
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the DPCED should further explore the following recommendations and report back to the Common Council with potential plans for implementation, including costs, timelines, staffing necessary and other details as appropriate, prior to moving forward with these plans:
a. Implement the Development Services Center (1. 3.a.)
b. Identify best practices for monitoring and communicating customer service and regularly report outcome (1. 4.a. & 4.c.)
c. Upgrade citizen/customer service across City departments and evaluate taking the City through a Baldridge quality management process. (1. 6.a.)
d. Create a Retention and Expansion Task Force and develop target list. (2. 1.a. & 1.b.)
e. Support “Economic Gardening” (2. 3.e.)
f. Make development of UW-Madison Research Park II an utmost priority. Continue City Engineer/Planning Director liaison. Research and Development Center District status. Support the Research Park in efforts to recruit outside companies. (3. 2.a. b. & c.)
g. Restore the East Capitol Gateway as a major employment district. Develop public/private/foundation advisory committee. Exert strong City leadership including concept planning, land and property assembly and development competitions. Establish BID. (3. 3.a. b. & c.)
h. Utility City land assembly capabilities in the Southeast Industrial Area. (3. 4.b.)
i. Revise TIF policies to favor basic sector development and compete more effectively with neighbor and other Midwestern communities. (4. 2.a.)
j. Utilize the Community Development Authority and/or investigate creating a new public/private venture to catalyze basic sector employment creation opportunities within key physical priority areas, including along the East Washington Corridor. (4. 3.a.)
k. Develop staff capabilities and expertise to seek state and foundation grants more effectively and to partner with state and local foundations, assess upside potential. Assign present or hire new staff or outside contract to develop matrix of programs and timelines. (4. 5.a.)
l. Convene the team of local private and public economic development practitioners. (5. 1.a.)
m. Convene an informal public/private economic development leadership group. (5. 2.a.)
n. Convene private and non-profit leadership support to implement key tasks within this plan, starting with business retention and expansion and the East Washington Capital Gateway. (5. 3.a.)
o. Encourage eventual formation of a countrywide public/private economic development partnership. (5. 6.a.)
p. Project management designation of staff and training. (6. 3.a.)
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the following items, while important, given budget constraints for 2008 are not feasible to move forward with at this time. The DPCED should prioritize the following list and submit a realistic work plan and current cost estimates for the following items by June 2009.
a. Develop and implement internal process metrics and customer comment techniques ($50,000) (1. 4.b.)
b. Upgrade DPCED website ($7,000) (1. 5.a.)
c. Communicate DPCED plans through a quarterly DPCED electronic newsletter and annual report ($5,000) (1. 5.b.)
d. Purchase or create account management plan and contact management support software. ($35,000) (2. 1.c.)
e. Refine OBR website ($5,000) (2. 3.b.)
f. Conduct an incubation feasibility study. ($30,000) (2. 4.)
g. Develop and implement Bio-Ag marketing plan, focusing on the Southeast Area by including the whole city. ($235,000) (3. 4.c.)
h. Develop and utilize a fiscal impact benefit/cost model to allocate tools for major development projects. ($50,000) (4. 1.a.)
i. Capitalize Project Facilitation Fund ($1,000,000) (4. 4.a.)
j. Utilize the Capital Budget to develop enhanced proactive funding strategies. (4. 7.a.)
k. Develop more aggressive strategy and convene partners/commit to marketing plan. ($50,000 – $100,000) (5. 4.a.)
l. Build public/private/non-profit support for UW-Madison basic sector growth and employment development. ($5,000) (5. 5.a.)
m. Hire experienced economic developer to lead R & E. ($80,000) (6. 1.b.)
n. Retain project development manager/specialist to lead key physical projects/priorities. ($90,000) (6. 1.c.)
o. Expand support of small business solutions. ($10,000) (6. 1.d.)
p. Add capabilities to DPCED to do: Communications, GIS and website development, external newsletter and to pursue grants. ($50,000) (6. 2.a.)
q. Expand funding for DPCED staff training. ($10,000) (6. 5.a.)
r. Annually monitor implementation progress. ($10,000) (6. 6.a.)
s. Fully upgrade Plan every two years. ($60,000) (6. 6.b.)
Instead of setting the priorities above, we wussed out and passed this amendment that I recommended:
These work plans shall be approved by the Common Council annually prior to the department budget recommendations being made each year.
GODFATHER INVITATION
This one, had me laughing out loud in my office yesterday. Kudos to Kristin Czubkowski from the Cap Times for calling this out! (Scroll down to the last section if you click on the link.)
In what is perhaps the best sentence I have yet to read in an agenda, the EOC “invites” mayoral assistants Ray Harmon and Joel Plant and city attorney Michael May to talk about the city’s chronic nuisance law and “to explain why the amendments requested by the Equal Opportunities Commission have not been drafted/introduced.” The city’s chronic nuisance law allows the city to charge landlords of problem buildings for the police services called to the building.
Something tells me this type of invitation is a little less birthday party and a little more Godfather in its tone.
This just points out once again, how nutty local government can be when no one is paying attention (August break!). Which, again, points out how important the local press is to keeping local government on its toes!
