City Management: From one extreme to another

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After reading the article about real estate investor Eric Schwartz and his comments about working with the City of Janesville, it was nice to hear that our city leaders are responding quickly to the needs of developers rehabbing existing buildings and infrastructure.

JG excerpt:
“Janesville has been awesome to us,” said Schwartz, president of Middleton-based Sara Investment Real Estate. “The community has really gone well beyond anything we deserve.”

This is beginning to sound a little scary. More than we deserve?? I don’t even think we will get that kind of thanks from the Hendricks Group after handing them $2.7 million. What did the city give up to receive that kind of praise?

The heaping praise struck me rather oddly considering how city management ignored the requests for help from long-time businessman John Westphal. If you recall, Westphal apparently did not have the same luck Schwartz experienced rolling the dice with the city.

JG excerpt:
”Over the last five years, it’s been pretty depressed in southern Wisconsin” said John Westphal, President of Westphal & Co. He continued, “I’ve been talking with the city (about) this for a year, and I still don’t have an answer. They told me it would take a long time to make up their minds.”

It’s one thing ignoring the pleas of a community contributor like Westphal, but as a taxpayer, I’m concerned about how high the city is willing to jump for investors. When people are given things they themselves don’t think they deserve, perhaps this generosity could have been distributed more wisely. Only a few months have passed since the Westphal incident, but now the city is “really on it” when it comes to somebody else.

The Gazette then helps the reader define what Schwartz meant by “community.”

JG excerpt:
By community, Schwartz means local business and government leaders, developers, contractors and tenants.

Fortunately, in the very next paragraph, Schwartz explains it in his own words.

JG excerpt:
“The people of Janesville should be awfully proud of those people working the front lines (of economic development),” he said. “These guys are really on it.”

Who does he possibly mean?

JG excerpt:
Schwartz said he and his investment company have been treated “like big shots.”

Don’t get me wrong here, I’m taking Schwartz’s comments as the friendly banter of an enthusiastic businessman. I for one want to see his rehabilitation ventures as well as the city succeed. Why does the city appear incapable of treating all its citizens and investors equally? If one investor requests help to avoid leaving, while another investor requests help to enter, what’s the difference? Is this too much to ask?