John Foust - JCEDC
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Jefferson Banner - Opinion John Foust - JCEDC |
December 8, 2000 Dear County Board Supervisor, No matter where you stand on development, you should be able to see the value of a open process for guiding Jefferson County's economic development, and the value of citizen involvement in planning economic development. Today, the Jefferson County Economic Development Corporation (JCEDC) is a closed-door, secretive club. Even though the JCEDC gets more than $70,000 a year from the County Board and a similar amount from county municipalities, citizens cannot attend JCEDC meetings, read minutes, examine their records, speak their mind before the JCEDC Board, serve on committees, or read an unbiased report of the JCEDC's activities in the newspaper. I commend the County Board for voting to reinstate an oversight committee in Ordinance 2000-29 and requiring the JCEDC to follow Wisconsin's open meetings law. This vote was laid over until the December meeting. I urge you to vote for this new accountability at the next County Board meeting. In the past two years, I have worked to reverse similar flaws in the City of Jefferson's economic development groups, the Jefferson Development Corporation (JDC) and the Commerce and Industry Association (CIA). Because of my investigations and opinions from the District Attorney as a result of my complaints, the JDC and CIA are now subject to open records and open meetings law. The JDC and CIA fought actively and viciously against accountability, openness and public participation. The JDC and JCEDC discussed working together to hire attorneys to fight demands for open meetings and open records in the fall of 1998 even before I ever became involved in this issue. Gaylin Morgan, who in 1999 incredibly was president of the JCEDC, JDC and CIA, directed the opposition. CIA and JDC Executive Director David Olsen led the charge. Pete Thomsen, the County Board's representative on the JDC, also opposed open meetings. Their active opposition was shameful. When public funds are spent, the public has a right to know. I expect more from people regarded as leaders in the community. Open records and open meetings shined a bright light on the JDC and CIA in Jefferson. The results have been dramatic. Reporters attended the meetings for the first time. Openness changed the minds of public officials, too. The Jefferson Water and Electric Commission normally paid one-third of the CIA's $41,000 budget. Because of an overall lack of accomplishment and many disappointing revelations when secrecy was eliminated, they withheld CIA funding in June 2000. CIA funding is not present in their 2001 budget. Instead, the money was redirected to a new community development fund. For the first time ever, JDC and CIA audits were demanded and examined. Because of the subsequent disapproval of the Mayor, the City Council, and an outraged public, a sub-committee is now working on a plan to dissolve the CIA, to change the JDC from a private corporation to a City commission, and replace Olsen's position with a new City Hall employee under greater oversight. Increased accountability brings new hope to Jefferson's economic development efforts. There are no benefits to closed-door economic planning and behind-the-scenes meddling at taxpayer expense. I hope the County Board will follow this example. Each year the JCEDC gathers more than $70,000 from the County Board plus a similar amount from municipalities throughout the County. Even the JCEDC funding is held in secret. In a letter, I requested the JCEDC's Form 990, the IRS tax form for non-profit corporations that would reveal the size of their budget. Under Federal law, any non-profit corporation must supply this on demand. They refused. It's kept secret in Jefferson, for example. The City Council is the source of Jefferson's contribution to the JCEDC, but JCEDC funding is not shown in the City budget and is never discussed by the Council. Instead, the funding is laundered through the JDC, who in the past told the Council and the public that the money was earmarked for improving Jefferson's business parks. City of Jefferson taxpayers contribute more than $5,000 a year to the JCEDC, with no accountability or public discussion. This summer at the JDC's annual meeting with the City Council, the guest speaker was from the Wisconsin Department of Commerce. Again and again the speaker emphasized why economic planning needs the participation of local business owners as well as the community at large. During the question-and-answer session I directed a question to Sheldon Mielke, the 2000 president of the JCEDC. I asked how I could participate in the JCEDC's economic development, as a business owner interested in development. He said I could not because meetings are closed to the public and all their records are secret. I asked to attend a meeting as a guest of Jefferson's representative to the JCEDC, David Olsen. Olsen and Mielke refused, yet admitted that representatives of prospective businesses are regularly invited to JCEDC meetings. Why can't citizens attend? Why is the JCEDC actively ignoring the recommendations of the State's economic development advisors? You must require the JCEDC to adhere to Wisconsin's open records and open meetings laws. Without this oversight, the taxpayers of Jefferson cannot discover or direct any actions of the JCEDC. We need to be able to speak our peace before their monthly meetings. We need to read about their actions in the newspaper and hear them on the radio. We need to examine the raw facts and judge their failures and successes in the full light of day. Without oversight and public records, we have no way to weigh and verify their deeds. One-sided "rah-rah" reports to the Board have no value without an opportunity for Board Supervisors, citizens and the media to independently confirm claims and facts. The public must steer their efforts if they subsist on tax dollars. To this end, require the JCEDC to have a public participation section at the start of every meeting. They must hear the public's opinion directly. In the past five years, the JCEDC has not actively sought the public's opinion to guide its efforts. Whose interests were represented when the JCEDC decided casino gambling was the best use of the County's resources and work force? Who made the decision that it was better to try to attract companies with 200 employees, than to help 100 companies grow to hire two new employees? Where is the simple analysis to show that the more than $400,000 spent by the JCEDC has led to clear improvements in Jefferson County's economic climate? I yearn for a day when active and continuous public debate shapes local economic development, not closed-door sessions. The JCEDC will argue that they need privacy in their dealings with prospective businesses. The open records and open meetings laws have many provisions to insure that sensitive property negotiations can remain private, just as the County Board can enter closed session. Businesses who wish to remain anonymous can hire a Realtor or an attorney to represent their inquiries and the JCEDC need never know their identity until actual negotiations begin. As JCEDC staff admit, most of their prospects already protect their identity this way. The moments where secrecy might be required are few and far between. A need for privacy at a few critical moments is no excuse for every-day, blanket secrecy for all activities. The JCEDC will complain it would be difficult to change their corporate structure to comply with the Board's requirements. It would not. All they would need is a new by-law stating they will comply with Wisconsin's open records and open meetings law. If the JCEDC wants public funds, they must be accountable to the public and they must actively seek the participation of the public. Anything less is taxation without representation. By requiring this, the County Board is simply helping them correct a mistake made five years ago when the JCEDC decided to be private in the first place. They did this to avoid public scrutiny and public participation. In summary, I ask you to require the following of the JCEDC, if they request funds from the Board:
Sincerely, John Foust |