My visit to the clerks office yesterday was . . . depressing. I wish the city attorney would do his job, so the clerk’s office could do theirs. At least with the obvious scofflaws!
First of all, I need to qualify what I write here. The reports are not all in one place, making it difficult to be extremely thorough and careful. Some are on-line, some are sitting in a basket and some are still in the clerk’s email in-box. I took a look at all of them and believe what I write below to be true, but there is a possibility that the email search wasn’t complete or someone is working under some LLC name that isn’t obvious.
NOT REGISTERED BUT LOBBYING/LOBBIED
Speaking of obvious, here’s a few of the most obvious people/companies who aren’t even registered as lobbyists/principals, so they didn’t fill out any expense reports:
– Oscar Mayer (seeking TIF money, application filled out, fees paid)
– Danisco (seeking TIF money, application filled out, fees paid?)
– Pelliteri (seeking TIF money)
– BioAg Gateway (got TIF money)
– Marcus Corporation (hotel proposal and TIF)
– Terrence Wall (library proposal)
– Michael Matty (600 block E. Johnson Project)
– Madison Area Builders Association [ERROR: SEE COMMENT BELOW ON ALPHABETIZING]
– Greyhound plus one of the other bus companies (Badger Bus Depot)
NO EXPENSE REPORTS?
Some people/companies registered but I didn’t see expense reports for some obvious projects:
– Fiore – No expense reports for all their work on their library/hotel proposal
– Apex – They just registered at the end of July, but I suspect they’ve been lobbying on their hotel project longer than that
DIDN’T SPEND OVER $1,000 IN 6 MONTHS?
Others, claimed to not spend more than $1,000 in the last year, some of them were a bit obnoxious:
– Edgewater (Landmark X had over 30 meetings with various elected officials and 159 contacts by 3 lobbyists, but apparently, they work cheap!)
– Meriter Health
– Marcus Theatres
– Chamber of Commerce
– Stonehouse Development who worked on the 600 E Johnson project
– Wisconsin Grocers (worked on the alcohol in small packages issue)
– Apartment Association of South Central Wisconsin
– Frank Liquor (alcohol issue)
– Alexander Company (Acacia and TIF)
– Wine Institute (alcohol issue)
CHEAP LAWYERS/LOBBYISTS FOR HIRE!
Lawyers/Groups who claimed to charge less than $1,000 (at $200 an hour, that’s about one council meeting plus a plan commission or ALRC meeting)
– Michael Christopher charged less than $1,000 to represent
— Park and Regent LLC
— Madison Chinese Church
— Newcomb Construction
– Ron Trachtenburg
— Adams Outdoor Advertising
— Converse Blanchard/June Weisberger
— Gallina Investments
— Madison Labor Temple
— Mineral Point Rd Holdings
— Pallisades
– Paul Soglin
— Durrant Group
— Pallisades
COMPLIED, OR AT LEAST DIDN’T COMPLETELY BLOW IT OFF . . .
Some of the better actors, who at least put down a number, even if some of them aren’t quite believable (I’ll try to point them out). In no particular order . .
– Realtors – $3,485.30
– Smart Growth Madison – $5,750
– Westgate Mall 199, LLC – $15,100
– Madison Turners – $24,081
– Badger Coaches – $1,248 (that seems low)
– McGoff LLC – $2,718.75
– DMI – $1,000 (exactly? Only Mary Carbine’s report, not Susan Schmidt’s)
– Wisconsin Wine and Spirit Institute – $37,472.74
– Wisconsin Grocers – $3,487.50
– Hawks Creek LLC – $8,500
– Kelley Williamson $4,250
– HyVee – combined 10,500 – 18,000 (Maybe, I’m sure I didn’t add that right, they had several reports and some I say yesterday on email and some are on-line this morning.)
– Benchmark Holdings – $5,390
– Pallisades – $1,960 (Funny, some of the other lobbyists said it was under $1,000)
– Veridian – $2,450 (Funny, same problem as above)
More to come, when the info is all up and I can be more thorough – I hear that might be Friday or so . . .
