Tonight you'll discuss the reorganization of the Commerce and Industry Association and the Executive Director that it hires.

After Water & Electric stopped funding the CIA due to lack of accountability and accomplishment, the JDC told the Council it would form a subcommittee to make a plan to restructure to improve the situation.

Months ago, the plan was quite different: Let's put a trained economic development professional in a chair at a desk in a City Hall office, with daily supervision by the City Administrator. A new community development commission would be formed on an equal footing with Park & Rec or the Senior Center committees, and this commission would help oversee the new community development position.

Instead, the JDC nixed all of these ideas, and the Council members on the JDC subcommittee rolled over and never said "no". Months and months have passed with little accomplishment. They have held meetings illegally, violating the open meetings law. When I pointed out the violation, three of the subcommittee members said to me, "Don't make a stink, just let them meet privately." They've hid meetings under a bushel basket, supposedly "accidentally forgetting" to notify me, and purposefully not inviting Council members who've asked to attend, and hiding meeting notices on the cork board outside City Hall instead of in the glass case where someone might see them. If I hadn't invited reporters to the meetings I heard about, you would have heard nothing about the process.

What's the big new plan? Eliminate the CIA. After all, it was the one area of direct City oversight of the position. Who wants that? They think it would be better if the Executive Director worked directly for the JDC and was paid by the City as a contractor, further disconnecting any direct City accountability. Also, they think the Council must pay the same person to serve as the Chamber's part-time executive director at the same time.

I urge the Council to interrupt this process.

Time and time again, the JDC has demonstrated an unwillingness to discuss its actions with the Council and with the public. They feel the $45,000 war chest they were given by the Council is theirs to spend any way they wish. Never mind that the money was supposed to be used for improving the business parks… the JDC has changed its mind, and now the left hand of the JDC has decided they oversee downtown revitalization, even while the right hand of the Chamber of Commerce thinks downtown revitalization is a sub-committee of the defunct retail committee.

Even I was astounded by what happened next. When the JDC finally admitted that the Executive Director wasn't professionally qualified to do economic development, Olsen volunteered and enrolled in a four-year urban planning and MBA degree program at UW-Whitewater.

No, I'm joking. Instead, the JDC decided it spend its money to send him to the Charles Atlas School of Economic Development. You know their slogan, "In just seven days, I can turn a 98-pound weakling into a he-man".

With twelve whole days of education under his belt, he'll be certified as - well, he'll be certified as having sat through six whole two-day seminars at City expense - at $425 per seminar plus more than that in travel expenses per trip, including four nights of hotel and meals for two days of seminar, and not counting the final seventh trip to Washington to take the test to see if he passed the courses.

Which other City employee has $10,000 a year in professional development expenses for just a few days of seminars? If there is one, weren't they hired because they already had an appropriate professional degree and prior experience?

Meanwhile, the JDC refuses to publicly advertise the opening for this new contracted position. Gaylin Morgan thought it was too extravagant to spend $300 to advertise the position when they already know they want Olsen in the job. Also, the JDC is convinced that no one else will apply for the job, so why bother advertising?

All this money is coming from the JDC accounts, not the CIA. Other non-business-park spending bleeds out of the JDC account without a nod from the Council. For example, the JDC has been paying $5,000 a year to Marilyn Haroldson at the Jefferson County Economic Development Corporation. Why doesn't the Council debate this in public as a direct City expense? At the County level, the JCEDC is now required to submit quarterly reports to the County Board. Ironically, the JCEDC devotes some of its time to services to advertise jobs in the County. Maybe they can help the JDC advertise the new job.

There are plenty of similarities between the Haroldson's and Olsen's jobs. For example, the duties of economic development are light enough that you can work a second job on the side. Olsen continues with daily duties at the funeral home, while Haroldson works as the planner for the Town of Merton, billing 200 daylight hours a year and picking up an extra $10,000 on the side.

Also, this year the CIA decided that it wasn't enough to give Olsen three weeks of paid vacation a year, comparable to a City employee with 13 years of seniority, even though Olsen's only been there less than five. In December 2000, they contributed $3,500 to his retirement account, too. Also in the last two years, Olsen has started to claim JDC expenses for mileage and meals even for JCEDC meetings that take place within Jefferson. Look at our downtown, and it seems that the only thing being economically developed is the Executive Director.

Who will continue to pay for all this? I've never heard a plan to replace the $14,000 once paid by Water & Electric. I'm sure the JDC assumes that the Council will slide it through in a future consent agenda… except this time it will be $21,000 for the JDC and $21,000 for the Chamber.

While the City balks at paying $8,000 for raises at the Library, and carps about $20,000 in overtime at essential services like the Police Department, and spends a half-hour debating the $50 rent for a sweet corn stand in a vacant City lot, I'm sure the $43,000 for the CIA/JDC/Chamber will continue to sail through without much discussion, and the JDC will continue to pay no rent at all for being in the Carnegie Building.

One of you here tonight told me you couldn't say anything negative about this now because of the upcoming election, because it might alienate business people. Do not devalue your opinion in this way. You were elected in order to judge the right path for Jefferson. Might not some voters agree with you? Some might be shocked and impressed by decisiveness from the Council.

Who are you afraid of offending? The JDC bankers who make decisions about your mortgage? Don't insult their professionalism this way. I hope the business people on the JDC have the good sense to separate their daily business decisions from their civic volunteerism and what the Council decides for the good of Jefferson. I also hope these business leaders remember that if they had an employee that produced as little and behaved as unprofessionally as Olsen, they'd fire them.

We need a positive replacement for the future. The JDC has failed in its duty to find a honest, workable and significantly different structure for Jefferson's plans for economic development. Please do something constructive. Just stop the funding the CIA, and ask the JDC to return its money to the City. Find a qualified professional and park them in a desk within City Hall, please.

How many more times will you be pushed into a corner at the Depot after a Council meeting, with the Executive Director stabbing his finger at your nose just because you had the nerve to say something he didn't like?

Sincerely,