This is a transcript of two speeches made at the Annual Gathering of Jefferson Development Corporation and the Jefferson City Council. This dinner was held June 22, 1999 at Meadow Springs Country Club.

In attendance were City Council members Bob Coffman, John Wagner, Peg Beyer and Dale Opperman, and the Mayor Arnold Brawders. From the JDC were Gaylin Morgan, Pat Gutenberg, Steve Lewis, Pete Thomsen, Jim van Leishout, Executive Director Dave Olsen, Bob Martin and Dr. Jeff Hamann.

Credit for the tape recording goes to Jim Schroeder of WFAW. Transcription by John Foust.

Mayor: [After a short introduction.] I'll turn it over to Gaylin Morgan of the Jefferson Development Corporation.

Morgan: I thought we'd have a larger group, adding the utility board, Steve, I think, because Sue would've been here already at the Council meeting.

It's kind of fitting that I make a few comments tonight, I think, because this is the fifteenth year of the existence of the Development Corporation. And I don't know how many of you remember 1982, but I remember it very well, that was the year Gary Myers came out from Milwaukee and joined me in the public relations business. And economically it wasn't a great climate, in 1982, the country was in a recession. It was a major agricultural recession, which being a rural community, hit Jefferson harder than a lot of other towns.

That was the year, in my mind, that was the year that Jefferson got its act together, and we were forced to out of adversity. Businesses were hurting. We had an unemployment rate in excess of twelve percent. We were a three company town and two of the companies were in dire straits. That was the year that the Chamber of Commerce, with the help of Dave Such from the Extension office, took two busloads of citizens to Madison for a day-long retreat to see what Jefferson could do to pull itself up by its bootstraps.

So in my mind, 1982 was the year that started the turn-around in Jefferson. We were losing population big-time, we were losing economic base. There were people were leaving and not looking back. Jefferson decided as a result of that retreat to get pro-active about economic development. There were six committees formed as the result of that retreat, and all six did great work for the community. But the economic development one is the one that... I think Henry Fischer and I are the only two remaining people on that original committee… nevertheless, in June of ‘84, is when we were officially formed, incorporated, that's fifteen years ago this month.

So after fifteen years of all these secret closed meetings held at 6:45 in the morning so that nobody can attend and know what we're doing, and after fifteen years of this high living at taxpayer's expense, what have we really accomplished? Some people would have us fold our tents and disappear. But I can't really believe that anybody with a shred of memory or half a brain would be that shortsighted.

If you look at the last fifteen years of continued economic growth, I think you can find a place where the JDC played a role. It's fifteen years that you can't… it's not because of Bill Clinton. It's not because of Tommy Thompson. It's certainly not because of Jefferson Development Corporation. But I'll guarantee you that if it hadn't been for the Jefferson Development Corporation, the share of that pie that Jefferson got would not be what it is today. Maybe we could've had more, but if we hadn't been here, we wouldn't have what we have today.

Fifteen years ago when we were formed, our charge was to go find jobs; I mean any kind of jobs. Any job to put food on the table, or save the mortgage from foreclosure, or keep the family together. If you don't remember the early ‘80s here, it was a different climate. So, now, does this mean our job is done? Well, I'm ready to retire if it is.

I think one thing you learn in fifteen years of economic development is that the keystone is preparedness. Something doesn't happen every day, but you have to be prepared to take advantage of those opportunities when they arise. You need the land. We have the north industrial park. You need the infrastructure in the roads, the roads streets, the buildings, the sewers. You need the ambassadors - to talk to and tour the prospects from the town and sell the city. You need the negotiating skills to sell yourself versus your neighbors in Wisconsin and the other states. And you need the enthusiasm to sell Jefferson. And you need the cooperation of the whole community. You need the desire to do the job and make Jefferson grow.

What you don't need is the political discord, the negativity, and the personality battles of the past few months. That I guarantee you, will put us right back to 1982 faster than you can blink an eye. And that's the message I want to leave with you tonight. If there's one objective, one purpose of this annual get-together, it's been to keep us all working together toward a common goal of selling Jefferson for the good of the whole community. There's no room in this meeting, or in any of these groups that are meeting here tonight, for personal or political agendas, if Jefferson is going to continue to grow and prosper, so let's take it from there. Thank you.

Mayor: Thank you Gaylin. I think maybe one thing that Gaylin didn't touch on is job retention. I think the Development Corporation and the City of Jefferson have done an excellent job of retaining those jobs that we have in the community for a long period of time, and hopefully these industries will stay around because of our efforts for a long time. Now, David, you're on here next. No, I'm sorry, Mr. John Wagner wanted to say a few words.

John Wagner: I just wanted to say thank you to all the members here that donate their time to the City, before I do the JDC, the Water and Light were invited tonight, a lot of them couldn't come, they're on vacation. But I'm in my thirteenth year on the City Council, and the four people that are appointed on that committee, Ken Nelson is the chairman, Art Brodbeck, Dick Fischer and Steve Adams, they all have more time than I do. What does that say? They love the city of Jefferson, that they work to make it better. Not only are they doing the monthly Water and Light, now we're working on the water and light building and the police department building. That's why I ran again, I want to be here to complete that building because I think that's going to be an asset to the city. I have to thank all these all these people like Steve who donate all their time to make Jefferson better.

Now for the JDC, I just want to say to Gaylin, we've got the Estelle Ganser property. I've been trying for six or seven years to get that, so we got the whole northern quadrant out there. I also want to say thank you to the members like Pete Thomsen, Bob over there, all you people who donate their time, it's amazing all the time they put in. They've been working hard to get jobs. Like Gaylin said, when Jefferson Meats ran into problems with their bankruptcy, the JDC was there to help them to save those jobs. When Schweiger's ran into problem, they were there to help save those 250 jobs. When Generac came in, Bob got Generac. And Dave was working to get more jobs there. As far as the industrial, we're sitting really good. Now we've got to work to help the businesses a little bit, but I just want to thank you people for donating your time to the City, we appreciate it on the Council.

Mayor: I'll call on Mr. Olsen for his review, and give the accomplishments and the disappointments of the JDC.

Olsen: You know, you look back and this is kind of what we do. We get together every year and we sit back and socialize and talk a little bit. We look back… When I came on board, Generac had, Gaylin's talking about the unemployment, the unemployment right now in Jefferson County is less than three percent. When I came on board, Generac had 800 employees. Do you know what Generac has now? Over 1,300 employees, they're the biggest employer in Jefferson County.

Generac in the past year has added in past year added a 72,000 foot warehouse, they're in the process of adding a 100,000 square foot, excuse me a 72,000 square foot, two lines of production, and in the process of a 100,000 square foot warehouse.

I have to thank Arnie and Morgan for making Estelle Ganser's dream become a reality. When I came on board, one of the first things Bob said, we've been working on this a long time, and finally it all happened, and I'm real pleased about that. We look at some of the other companies here in town, that we're trying to get out in the industrial park, we've got a lot of land up there obviously, the Estelle Ganser property and the other property we had. The whole thing is, you keep a relationship with the Realtors, you keep a relationship with the businesses. And I wish that I could say that everyone who comes in my door, we put them in the industrial park, but that's not the case, obviously.

Let's say one of the biggest disappointments I had, and one of the best successes and disappointments we had is with Wisconsin Furniture. As you know last spring they lost the factory. Schweiger stepped in right away and said you can come work with us. I heard through the grapevine was going to build a new plant and they weren't going to be in Ixonia. So I contacted Frank Critchy (?) with Wisconsin Furniture. I know I number of the people involved with that proposal we had, we brought in people from the Department of Commerce, brought in people from the DNR, we put out a nice proposal for Frank together. They didn't come to Jefferson, but you know, out of that came such good PR, reputation from Frank. I will tell you this, here's a guy that just got an award from the state, he said, I will tell you Dave, Jefferson worked harder and did a better job trying to bring me to Jefferson than anyone else did, and the reason I went to Watertown was that it was closer to my old factory, so it was the Realtors know, location, location, location.

As things move out from Milwaukee, things move out from Madison, good things are in store, we've got great potential, continually working with prospects. I was just talking to Sue Johann. I had two prospects from another community in Jefferson County, who will remain nameless, and they were interested in coming to our industrial park. Those are the kind of things that are good for us, and those are the positive things…

I think the other thing we can do is to be a little more selective, when you got an employer like Generac, who basically scarfs up any employee that's out there, and they're always looking for new employees, but when you have that, you can be a little more selective into what goes in the industrial park. I think that more of that is coming along, we're picking and choosing, kind of. We don't have to be, you know, just bend over and take anything that comes along. And I think that's a good situation to be in.

A good example is Don Meske. Arnie Brawders called me, said we're in the process of … This goes back to Water and Electric moving into that building with the police department. Well, we're going to displace two businesses down there. John Didion does cleanup for trucks and Don Meske does the truck repair. I've been working with them to get them in the south industrial park. Those are the kind of things the Development Corporation does, those are the kind of things that we will continue to do.

The only thing that I will say, and this is to my board, I'm up here on the bully pulpit which is kind of nice, but we're talked about this in the past, and that's maybe some strategic planning. We implemented this at the Chamber a couple years ago where we actually sat down for a couple hours, where do we want to go, what do we want to do, and I think we're to the point with the Development Corporation where we can maybe do some of that.

In coordination with that, we talked about the Development Corporation and the industrial park, that's just not all there is, obviously you've got the development of the downtown, the economic revitalization of downtown. Gaylin, and Gary Myers, and myself, and these next two names won't mean anything obviously, but Craig Ellsworth who owns the Landmark and the former People's Meat Market, and Steve Ulik who bought the Ben Franklin, we met last month to talk about where we want Jefferson to go from an economic standpoint from the retail section, too, so we can't forget that economic development for the city isn't just the industrial park, but includes the entire vibrancy of the economic development of the entire community.

So there's going to be a meeting tomorrow night, as I came over I just dropped it off in the mail to the Chamber Board to invite them, and if anybody from the Development Corporation wants to come, it's tomorrow night at the courthouse at seven o'clock.

Those are the kinds of things that the development corporation has done, will continue to do. And I think that if you look back at the past year, you can say we've been very successful, we've done some really good things, we're going to continue good things, and that's it.

One of the things that I think came out of this, Morgan kind of touched on some of this kind of political maneuvering and some of this "What's the need?" and "Does it serve a useful purpose?" and that kind of thing. I think one of the good things that came out of this is increased communication. What I do now is with the Water and Electric Commission, I give them a report, and I told John at the Council meeting that will be coming, but report to the Council to say some of the projects I've been associated with. Wouldn't you agree, Steve, that's a step in the right direction to increase the communication?

So we go through some painful times sometimes, and hopefully there's always a silver lining in it, that was probably the silver lining of all this. I can't begin to emphasize what Morgan says, we put this all that stuff behind us, and try to work for the good of the community, and that the people sitting here by and large try to do that, and we're going to continue to do that.

Mayor: Dave, could you touch a little bit on how the Jefferson County Development Corporation melds into the city communities a little bit?

Olsen: We have a Development Corporation, and Morgan touched a little on how it was formed, in addition to that is the Jefferson County Economic Development Corporation, which is executive director Marilyn Haroldson, and what we try to do is, when I said that there's a couple companies from another community, you never want to steal them from Jefferson County to bring them from one community to another community, but when they come knocking on my door, I'm going to be the last one who says "No, you can't come to Jefferson." You know, I'm not going out there soliciting them to come here, but if they contact, I surely am interested.

We have a really good network of working with the other communities in the County, and Marilyn Haroldson's probably the leader trying to bring people from out of state to our County. I'll tell you two prospects I'm working right now, I got a phone call from Mooney LeSage Group last week, that's a realty company out of Milwaukee, and they're the group that actually brought us Generac, and they've got a company in Milwaukee that's looking for some five to ten acres in the industrial park. So of course I send them all the information, and then I wait for a few days, and those are the kind of things I follow up on.

So that one's coming, the Department of Commerce, a part and parcel of this, based out of Madison obviously, they brought us a prospect last fall that was looking for 200 acres. What I do, like Arnie said, there's a cooperation between my position and the City. Schornack, Ludwig and myself all sat down and figured out where we could put a company to be in 200 acres and only 50 jobs. I'll tell you folks, the hard thing right now is jobs, there's just not the employees out there. So we're trying to be more selective, when we get those kinds of prospects, we can all work together between the Development Corporation, the City, the County and the state. I think that there's a real good record of meshing of working together for that.

The other thing, as an aside, I was, kinda take credit for, the Puerner Block I think is gonna happen, I think that the TIF district has been approved, I think, I'm convinced that things are moving along. I'll tell you, without the Development Corporation, that will not happen. You call and talk to Russ Endres, who's the president of Wisconsin Management, he will say, the Development Corporation was the people who fought, continue to fight, brought the DNR on board, talked to the city council and made that happen. Once again, it's not reality yet, but it's a lot closer now than it was a year ago. So those are the kinds of things that we all work together and kinda intermesh.

As far as funding goes, we pay to the Jefferson County Economic Development Corporation part of the funding that the Jefferson Development Corporation gets, just gets turned around and gets paid to the JCEDC. That formula is based upon your population, and that's part of the funding we have to belong to the County Economic Development Corporation. Morgan is a member of the, you're on the board still, on the executive committee, and he's representing the county at large, and I represent the city on the County Economic Development Corporation. So in answer to Arnie, it's all kinda like we all work together, it's all kinda intermingled.

Of course my position is kinda difficult, and Peg knows this because we talked about this at my performance review, that probably the best thing I can say is that I'm the executive director of the Commerce and Industry Association. That kinda solves everything, because the CIA is the umbrella organization of the Jefferson Development Corporation, of the Chamber of Commerce. That's probably the best way when I say I'm the executive of the CIA, that's the best way, that kinda brings everybody under the umbrella and meshes them all together.

Mayor: I'm glad you added that at the end, Dave, about the CIA.

Olsen: I think that's important, when some people with some real vision looked at the positions, and said, how do we get to the point, how do we continue the point, you know, we're very fortunate that we have a person, a full-time position that can dedicate themselves to economic development, and spend their time doing the Development Corporation, and spend their time doing the Chamber development, and I think that's a good thing for Jefferson.

Steve Lewis: Can you talk a little about the meeting that you mentioned tomorrow night, and who's going to put it on, and is it part of the Chamber of Commerce?

Olsen: It's not a part of the Chamber of Commerce per se. A group of downtown business leaders thought that we needed some downtown revitalization. Nobody can argue that. This group started to work together, and had, I don't know, two or three meetings, they're trying to get together, and kinda figure out where they, Gary Myers said it best, you can't have a marketing plan, when we're talking about the premier marketing company in the country, stationed here in Jefferson, and Gary Myers said, Dave, once you guys get an idea of where you want to go and what you want to do, I'm behind you all the way. What you need to do before you get to that point is figure out your niche. Where do you want to be, what do you want to do, what makes Jefferson special.

Based upon our conversation, I talked to some people on the East Coast and got some feedback from them. This group contacted the Chamber yesterday, and said we'd like to invite the Chamber board of directors, they've been invited, and what we're trying to do is economic development for the downtown.

Lewis: And that's tomorrow at seven?

Olsen: Tomorrow night, seven o'clock at the county courthouse. Chuck Law, the guy who's kind of the guru of downtown revitalization, he's from the Extension at Madison, he's going to come and talk. The Chamber has already allocated $2,000 for, Jim, you know this because you're the Chamber president, the Chamber has already allocated $2,000 for a needs assessment and a survey to find out where do we want to go, what do we want to do, that kind of thing. Like I said, when you talk about the economic development, you talk about the JDC, yeah, it's the industrial parks, but it's more than the industrial parks.

Dale Opperman: You mentioned before getting a prospect from Mooney LeSage, right now do we have any working relationships with any of the commercial or industrial Realtors?

Olsen: Last year, we had a proposal from the Barry Company, and they made a proposal to the Development Corporation last year, and at that point in time the Development Corporation made a decision not to have an exclusive relationship with the Barry Company, so we have relationships with all of them, they all know that when they bring people here, that obviously we have a commission structure, and our commission structure is comparable with others, so I would say we've got a really good relationship with all of them.

I think what you're going to see is, it really is focused right now still real close to Milwaukee and Madison, you‘re going to see Middleton's going to continue to grow, Sun Prairie is going to continue to grow, Waukesha's going to, Pabst Farm's going to continue to grow, and when it gets out here, it's just going to go "boom".

I talked to somebody today, I said that's what kinda nice about having this position or having the Development Corporation, is that we're not going to be able to stop growth, there's no question about that, but what we're going to be able to do is as that growth happens we're going to be able to control it, yeah, selective growth. In a good manner, in a positive manner, and I think that's what the community wants.

I remember the City did a survey a couple years ago, and I think that there were a lot of people said "Leave Jefferson alone. Tell them all to go away and leave us alone." Well, folks, it's not going to happen, right? As Jefferson continues to grow, we need to be players in controlling and selecting that growth.