January
2006
CRG: Citizens for Retarding economic Growth in Milwaukee
Just when you thought it was safe to say that good things were happening in the Milwaukee job development market and that, with the move of Manpower, someone is building something downtown that is not a condo, leave it to the Citizens of Responsible Government Network to try and poison the pot — and to once again show how backward, petty and narrow-minded a tiny minority in the Milwaukee area are about city development.
Manpower, the temp services giant, wants to move its headquarters to N. Martin Luther King Drive near Schlitz Park into a new $63 million office building, to be built by Schlitz Park developer Gary Grunau. Grunau’s development proposal will be up for review Tuesday, Jan. 31, before the Milwaukee Common Council’s Zoning and Neighborhood Development committee.
The development will bring 900 Manpower employees from Glendale and Brookfield into the city, and another 300 employees over the next five years. These are good jobs, about 800 of them paying more than $30,000 per year and about 150 of those paying $100,000 per year and up, according to Manpower. That’s what Manpower alone brings. Grunau estimates 317 more jobs during the construction of both the office building and an $18.7 million parking structure, and permanent, prevailing wage building services jobs that offer affordable health benefits when the building opens.
As part of its jobs commitment to the city, Manpower will provide $100,000 toward job training specifically for the near north side residents in the Schlitz Park area, and has stated that hiring city residents in the coming years is a corporate high priority.
The project also entails plans to expand the Milwaukee Riverwalk and complete a public access frontage road along the river. Add to all this the intangibles that will infuse downtown beyond measure of tax base: Once Manpower has relocated, Milwaukee can look forward to all the economic good that having more than 1,000 professionals working, eating, drinking, playing, living and just plain enjoying downtown Milwaukee will create.
What’s not to like? Leave it to CRG Network to come to the aid of public relations exec Craig Peterson in a bizarre and wholly misguided attempt to derail the project. While masquerading as a taxpayer’s watchdog group, CRG will apprently stop at nothing and go well out of its way to undermine any project that will create jobs and improve the Milwaukee economy.
What’s the CRG’s beef?
They don’t like the way the Tax Incremental Financing zones subsidizing the project are drawn [failing to mention that the zones in question are essentially an existing zone and extension to it that are both tied to large scale and long term investments by Grunau];
They don’t like the fact that Manpower’s getting a city parking lot for its employees, who will park there for free [nevermind that the city gets the $18.5 million parking garage back when the 17-year lease expires];
They don’t like the fact that the city is chipping in $1.7 million to Grunau to spark the project [nevemind that, considering the magnitude of the Manpower move and all of the economic good that it creates for the city, and the fact that the city will more than gets it money back over time, $1.7 million is about the least Milwaukee can do to help this project];
And, in a display of cynical ignorance that defies reason, CRG spokesman Chris Kliesmet, in a letter to Council Presidet Willie Hines, calls the development “speculative” and has the gall to question the rates that Grunau will be charging Manpower as part of their lease [nevermind that the city's deal is with Grunau, not Manpower, or that, with the exception of the parking lot trade-off, this is a private development, not a public work].
What kind of conservatism is Kliesmet breeding over there at CRG? The kind that doesn’t understand the private sector of the economy?
The CRG is bankrupt, politically. The group’s mission is to retard any effort to improve the economy in Milwaukee, for no apparent reason except for the fact that they don’t want to see anything good happen in Milwaukee on Tom Barrett‘s watch, or in Ald. Mike D’Amato‘s district. Citizens for Retarding Growth in Milwaukee is a more appropriate moniker for these meddlers.
Where have we gone wrong here in Milwaukee to breed such contemptable humbugs?
For all of this, CRG Network and Kliesmet owes Gary Grunau and Manpower a big apology.
_______________________
[Note: In fairness to Victor Huyke, and the Milwaukee Citizens for Responsible Government group that Kliesmet and his gang left years ago to form their own version of CRG, it should be pointed out that Huyke's more responsible Milwaukee group is thus far staying out of the fray.
It should also be noted that CRG has finally created a political action committee, CRG$, after years of failing to file as a lobby group while doing nothing but lobbying various government entities and, as a group, sabatoging political campaigns in Milwaukee and Waukesha.]
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John-david Morgan
John-David Morgan, Watchdogging CRG
As a Manpower employee (and admitted biased opinion) I wholeheartedly agree with you. The big sticking point to whereever the company was going to move, was the free parking. We have it now at surface lots for our three buildings in Glendale, and the CEO made it a priority when looking at new locations. Like all of my co-workers, I can’t wait until our company moves downtown. Where is the downside? We are moving into an area that could use a bit of economic pepper-up, and this will provide that. I’m just failing to see where CRG and Craig Peterson are coming up with these faux arguments against the move.
There is no downside! And Grunau has also said he will continue his responsible contracting in the building services area, guaranteeing even more family supporting jobs in the city.
It’s next to impossible to see where Peterson and CRG are coming from. Peterson’s likely got a personal axe to grind, it seems. CRG? They’re doing half the math, refusing to recognize the immense longterm benefits to the city, and to call this project “speculative” is truly bizarre.
Three people in the city oppose this: Peterson, Kliesmet and Fred Ballerini, a former employee of Peterson’s. Everyone else in Milwaukee is welcoming Manpower with open arms. The last thing we want to see you do is move to Brookfield.
Perhaps “there is no downside” is a bit unrealistic. I’m not intimately familiar with the details, but i suspect every decision of this magnitude has some downside.
Unrelated to that general observation, I would suggest that you limit your criticisms of CRG (of which I have many) to specific issues, rather than their entire mission (“bankrupt politically”).
Someone needs to pick up and run with this story:
I have been wondering why this saga involving D’Amato,
Kohler, Ferguson, the Overlay District, the RICO suit, etc. has not been
getting any media attention. So, of course, I Googled it.
I thought, this story has the potential to reveal massive influence peddling
and no bid contracts, so to speak, in Milwaukee City government, and who knows what else. Surely, someone in the media is helping publicize this story. There seems to be a trend throughout the levels of government to confront corruption, so maybe here in Milwaukee the media has finally decided to cover the story as it ought to be covered; to use the power as the media to raise public awareness to something that the public would want to know. They might be angry, but they would want to know.
What I found is here, from May 2005:
http://www.bootsandsabers.com/index.php/weblog/comments_w_sidebars/4674/
You may recognize the source. In my eyes, these folks are not the most
objective media source, they are the only ones with the mettle to report the
story thoroughly and without holding back. (They did not, however, mention
the RICO suit naming Kohler, D’Amato, Barrett and others, as it
is a more recent development without any real coverage)
It’s a great little nook on the east side, and I’ve spent time in Wolskis
years ago, and I’m sure it has historical and cultural significance, but the
residents ought not be forced to pay more when they improve their homes
because they happen to fall in the “Overlay District”. This whole thing
stinks.
I’m cynically wondering if some in the media in Milwaukee hestitate to cover
the story because they don’t want to participate in the downfall and
disgrace of some quite influential and respected dems in town.
respectfully,
Thad
Has the CRG yet favored a development? Whatever vision the group has — and that’s a stretch — it is not shared by the overwhelming majority of Milwaukee. At Milwaukee city hall, CRG is bankrupt politically. Kliesmet seemed to realize that, in sending a letter to Common Council Prez Willie Hines and then issueing the CRG press release late in the game, he had overspent whatever political capital remained for CRG after the Pabst City mess. When he spoke last Tuesday at the Zoning and Development hearing, he backpedaled, tempered his previous criticism, and refused to say whether his group opposed the Riverbend development package for Manpower’s new offices. This is a guy who, in his letter to Hines, called the deal “speculative.” That letter seemed to have the opposite affect — Hines seemed galvanized in his support of the project.
Craig Peterson, the public relations flak who voiced earlier opposition about the city giving away some $20 million in projected parking revenue with the Riverbend development, did not testify at ZND, though he was there throughout.
I’ll say it again – at City Hall, CRG is bankrupt.
As for RICO and D’Amato and Kohler, you’re right — some objectivity is needed at Boots and Sabres blogsite.
The complaint against Kohler and D’Amato is simply the result of a neighborhood dispute in the Brady Street area in which a small minority of homeowners are attempting to foist their will on the majority who would like to see the historic character of the neighborhood preserved. Overlays like this are a creative way to preserve a neighborhood’s character and to make sure new development is sympathetic with existing architecture and design. It’s sensible and consistent with the development vision of the Brady Street area, and has been in the works for over a decade.
If you”ve followed the story, you’d realize that it is not being covered because it’s just not much of a news story, and that the complaint against Kohler and D’Amato doesn’t have a lot of merit. Within RICO, the required democratic processes were observed. Majority ruled, the minority is not happy, and is now pressing forward with their rights to pursue a complaint.
It doesn’t mean that the complaint will stick or that the minority should rule on the Lower East Side.
It won’t.