Submitted during the October 13, 2009 meeting of the County Board of Supervisors of Chippewa County by Henry C. Boschen
My name is Hank Boschen, and I reside in the Town of Lafayette. I am here tonight to suggest that the present .2 million dollar funding for CCEDC does not represent the best interests of Chippewa County. The credibility and trustworthiness of this quasi governmental organization is damaged in the eyes of many citizens for many reasons, including the hiring of the current CEO.
I met Charlie Walker, a very charismatic man, at the Canadian Sand and Proppants open house. I asked him what if all of the citizens of Chippewa were against the plant, would he still recommend it. He stated that yes he would. "It's the numbers,” meaning, Dollars Rule.
Well, personally I am for representative government. I was astounded at the secrecy surrounding the the CCEDC, so I decided to check up on this man and found an article from the Fairbanks Alaska News Miner, June 18th, 2006:
"Jim Dodson has accepted a permanent position as president and chief executive officer of the Fairbanks Economic Development Corp. Dodson, an FEDC co-founder, has served as interim president and CEO since September. He was hired after the organization endured months of public scrutiny when FEDC's previous board of directors fired its former president, Charlie Walker, following reports of unethical dealings between Walker and former Borough Assembly member Terry Aldridge."
A friend and I then filed requests to CCEDC under the open records law for a copy of Charlie Walker's resume and other records that he submitted to be hired by CCEDC. We wanted to know why a search committee would hire someone with such a background.
We filed a 2nd request asking for the minutes of all CCEDC meetings regarding the sand plant, CCEDC articles of Incorporation, and CCEDC Bylaws.
Both of these requests were refused by Neil Mathwig claiming that the CCEDC was a private company and Chippewa citizens were not to be privy to that information. He did give us a copy of the CCEDC Bylaws. From that we discovered that there had been 4 changes to the Bylaws since Charlie Walker was hired, so a third request was filed asking for the original Bylaws and the subsequent changes.
This third open records request was also refused.
We then submitted a request for a writ of mandamus to our District Attorney which would require CCEDC to give us the requested information. The DA initially thought it had merit, especially since one of the three signatures of Mr. Neil Mathwig appeared to be written by somebody else. However, after receiving a reply from a high priced lawyer representing CCEDC, the DA somehow lost interest and decided not to use taxpayer funds to pursue the case.
I don't know where else to go!
Tonight the Board will consider the draft budget for 2010. This budget continues the County's substantial .2 million Dollar funding of the Chippewa County Economic Development Corporation (CCEDC).
The CCEDC operates in secrecy, a practice frowned upon by the State Attorney General. This Board has the power to require that funding of the CCEDC be contingent upon their compliance with Wisconsin's Sunshine laws.
IF you continue to fund this outfit, I urge you to make this needed change so taxpayers in this County can know how their tax dollars are being spent, can have more say in the economic development activities of the County, and have peace of mind that what happened in Fairbanks is not happening here. This is not an extraordinary request. Many governing bodies demonstrate their commitment to open government and fairness to taxpayers by requiring this of their Economic Development Organizations.
I ask you, why do I as a taxpayer have to fund an organization that operates in secrecy, AND fund their attorney who helps them maintain their secrecy, AND fund a district attorney who refuses to help citizens gain access to records that should be open to them?
The State Attorney general has given clear guidelines showing how economic development organizations can operate with more transparency. I hope that this Board will take seriously its responsibility to it's citizens to ensure open and transparent government.
The details of requests made both to CCEDC and to the District Attorney should be readily available to you in records of the DA's office. I urge you to examine them, and carefully consider their contents.
We have a serious budget problem. Do we really need to continue to fund the CCEDC in the 2010 Budget ?
