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Monthly Archives: November 2012

Twitter

Recent Tweets, 11.18 to 11.24

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Adams on Twitter.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 11.25.12

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Good morning.

Sunday in the Whippet City will bring partly sunny skies, a high of thirty eight, and west winds at 10 to 15 MPH.

On this day in 1783, the last British soldiers, defeated and unwelcome, left New York:

On this day in 1783, nearly three months after the Treaty of Paris was signed ending the American Revolution, the last British soldiers withdraw from New York City, the last British military position in the United States. After the last Redcoat departed New York, U.S. General George Washington entered the city in triumph to the cheers of New Yorkers. The city had remained in British hands since its capture in September 1776….

New Yorkers shaped the history of two new nations. The British evacuated their New York Loyalists to remaining British territories, mainly in Canada. These families had been dispossessed of their land and belongings by the victorious Patriots because of their continued support of the British king and were able to regain some financial independence through lands granted to them by the British in western Quebec (now Ontario) and Nova Scotia. Their arrival in Canada permanently shifted the demographics of what had been French-speaking New France until 1763 into an English-speaking colony, and later nation, with the exception of a French-speaking and culturally French area in eastern Canada that is now Quebec.

In Wisconsin history on this day, in 1863, Wisconsin soliders helped win a Union victory:

1863 – (Civil War) Battle of Missionary Ridge at Chattanooga, Tennessee
Fourteen Wisconsin units — seven Wisconsin Infantry regiments and seven Wisconsin Light Artillery batteries participated in breaking the siege at Chattanooga. The 15th and 24th Wisconsin Infantry regiments were among the forces that charged up Missionary Ridge, broke through the Confederate ranks, and seized the strategic location on November 25.

Google asks a question about Coleridge: “What appears over the body of each dead sailor and animates the bodies on the mariner’s ship described in Coleridge’s addition to “Lyrical Ballads”?”

Business

Small Business Saturday in Whitewater

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What’s Small Business Saturday?

Small Business Saturday is a day for everyone — from the business owners who create jobs to the customers who buy locally — to support small businesses that invigorate the economy and keep communities thriving.

It began in 2010 when American Express founded Small Business Saturday to help small businesses get more exposure during one of the biggest shopping weekends of the year. Last year, over 100 million people came out to shop at independently-owned small businesses on the day. Now, in its third year, Small Business Saturday will be even bigger. American Express is offering free and easy-to-use tools to help small businesses get the most out of the day and tools for consumers to show their support.

Uncategorized

Daily Bread for 11.24.12

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Good morning.

It’s a partly sunny Saturday for Whitewater, with a high of thirty-one.

On this day in 1849, the John Froelich scarcely known but yet a significant inventor, was born:

John Froelich, the inventor of the first internal-combustion traction motor, or tractor, is born on this day in Girard, Iowa.

At the end of the 19th century, Froelich operated a grain elevator and mobile threshing service: Every year at harvest time, he dragged a crew of hired hands and a heavy steam-powered thresher through Iowa and the Dakotas, threshing farmers’ crops for a fee. His machine was bulky, hard to transport and expensive to use, and it was also dangerous: One spark from the boiler on a windy day could set the whole prairie afire. So, in 1890, Froelich decided to try something new: Instead of that cumbersome, hazardous steam engine, he and his blacksmith mounted a one-cylinder gasoline engine on his steam engine’s running gear and set off for a nearby field to see if it worked.

It did: Froelich’s tractor chugged along safely at three miles per hour. But the real test came when Froelich and his team took their new machine out on their annual threshing tour, and it was a success there, too: Using just 26 gallons of gas, they threshed more than a thousand bushels of grain every day (72,000 bushels in all). What’s more, they did it without starting a single fire.

In 1894, Froelich and eight investors formed the Waterloo Gasoline Traction Engine Company….

In 1918, the John Deere plow-manufacturing company bought Waterloo for $2,350,000.

In Wisconsin history, from 1959,

1959 – I-90 Opens to Traffic
On this date Interstate 90 opened to traffic between Janesville and Beloit. Work was temporarily halted north of Janesville as the exact route was not yet determined and property not yet acquired. [Source: Janesville Gazette November 24, 1959, p.1]

From Google’s daily puzzle, a question about  music: “What was the original name of the first Motown act to win a Grammy?”

City, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending

Whitewater Uses Public Money for Big Corporation While Big Corporation Invests in Whitewater Mexico

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On Tuesday while Whitewater’s City Manager, the Janesville City Manager, and the Janesville Transportation Director were advocating for Whitewater to spend public money for a bus route that primarily benefits $2.3 billion-dollar Generac, Generac was investing forty-six million dollars in Mexico. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has the story:

Generac Holdings Inc. has agreed to acquire a Mexican generator manufacturer for $46.5 million in cash, giving Generac a stronger presence in Mexico, Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America.

The Waukesha firm said Tuesday a subsidiary has agreed to acquire all of the shares of Ottomotores UK Limited and its affiliates, including the operations of Ottomotores Mexico and Ottomotores Brazil.

Founded in 1950 and based in Mexico City, the Ottomotores businesses have more than 500 employees and $81.6 million in revenue in fiscal 2011.

The acquisition will strengthen Generac’s presence in markets outside of North America, the company said. The deal is scheduled to close before the end of January, with Generac keeping the Ottomotores management and brand name….

A company worth billions, and that wants Whitewater to pay for a bus to bring workers to and from other cities, still has plenty of cash — $46.5 million worth of plenty — to invest in jobs in Mexico.

Many thanks to a longtime reader for the story, as I had regrettably missed it.

Although I have argued against this project consistently, I am yet startled by the avarice of this corporation’s requests, and the obvious lack of basic thoroughness it reveals from Whitewater’s municipal manager and his staff.

There’s more research ahead on this subject, to be sure.

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 11.23.12

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Good morning.

Black Friday in Whitewater will be a day of gradual clearing, with a high of thirty-two.

On this day in 1943, the United States took the Tarawa and Makin atolls from the Japanese.

How fast can a sailboat go?  Really fast.  An Anglo-Australian sailboat broke 100 KMH in an amazing nautical-mile run:

Google’s daily puzzle asks a question on children’s literature: “What does Charlotte write as a message to the farmer to encourage him to let the runt Wilbur live?”

Holiday

The 2012 Presidential Thanksgiving Day Proclamation

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From the White House website:

THANKSGIVING DAY, 2012
– – – – – – –

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

On Thanksgiving Day, Americans everywhere gather with family and friends to recount the joys and blessings of the past year. This day is a time to take stock of the fortune we have known and the kindnesses we have shared, grateful for the God-given bounty that enriches our lives. As many pause to lend a hand to those in need, we are also reminded of the indelible spirit of compassion and mutual responsibility that has distinguished our Nation since its earliest days.

Many Thanksgivings have offered opportunities to celebrate community during times of hardship. When the Pilgrims at Plymouth Colony gave thanks for a bountiful harvest nearly four centuries ago, they enjoyed the fruits of their labor with the Wampanoag tribe — a people who had shared vital knowledge of the land in the difficult months before. When President George Washington marked our democracy’s first Thanksgiving, he prayed to our Creator for peace, union, and plenty through the trials that would surely come. And when our Nation was torn by bitterness and civil war, President Abraham Lincoln reminded us that we were, at heart, one Nation, sharing a bond as Americans that could bend but would not break. Those expressions of unity still echo today, whether in the contributions that generations of Native Americans have made to our country, the Union our forebears fought so hard to preserve, or the providence that draws our families together this season.

As we reflect on our proud heritage, let us also give thanks to those who honor it by giving back. This Thanksgiving, thousands of our men and women in uniform will sit down for a meal far from their loved ones and the comforts of home. We honor their service and sacrifice. We also show our appreciation to Americans who are serving in their communities, ensuring their neighbors have a hot meal and a place to stay. Their actions reflect our age-old belief that we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers, and they affirm once more that we are a people who draw our deepest strength not from might or wealth, but from our bonds to each other.

On Thanksgiving Day, individuals from all walks of life come together to celebrate this most American tradition, grateful for the blessings of family, community, and country. Let us spend this day by lifting up those we love, mindful of the grace bestowed upon us by God and by all who have made our lives richer with their presence.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 22, 2012, as a National Day of Thanksgiving. I encourage the people of the United States to join together — whether in our homes, places of worship, community centers, or any place of fellowship for friends and neighbors — and give thanks for all we have received in the past year, express appreciation to those whose lives enrich our own, and share our bounty with others.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twentieth day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand twelve, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-seventh.

BARACK OBAMA

Daily Bread

Daily Bread for 11.22.12

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Good morning.

Thanksgiving in Whitewater will be mild, with a high of sixty-two, and a slight chance of showers in the afternoon. The day will breezy, with south winds at 10 to 20 MPH, and gusts up to 40 MPH.

On this day in 1963, Pres, Kennedy was assassinated while riding in a Dallas motorcade.

The 86th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade airs live on NBC this morning. THey’ve some new floats this year that are the subject of an NBC video report:

Google’s daily puzzle asks a science question: “What is the loudest thing in the ocean, which, at 246dB in water, is capable of whiting out a submarine’s SONAR?”

Business, City, Corporate Welfare, Development, Planning

Whitewater’s Common Council Session of 11.20.12: 25 Questions about the Generac Bus

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Most of Tuesday’s 11.20.12 Common Council session concerned the 2013 municipal budget, and of that, a half hour’s discussion addressed whether to give Generac Power Systems, a thriving corporation, ten-thousand dollars to bus its workers to and from other cities. That’s not all, of course: one heard the company-specific program touted as the hope for ‘regionalization,’ with a new and ‘expanded’ schedule.

There were two questions about the bus last night: how Council would decide on the question of 2013 bus funding, and just as importantly what reasoned, sound basis would proponents of funding offer for their request?

In this matter, the vote went 3-2 in favor of Whitewater’s 2013 taxpayer funding of $10,000 for the bus. A close vote, but in favor: votes may go one way or another, for any number of reasons. That’s hardly surprising. Although I’ve argued against funding, there was another aspect of the meeting even more important than the outcome.

Just as important as advancing a proposal is the offering of sound arguments on its behalf.

It’s an understatement to say that the proponents of this proposal, including City Manager Clapper, and those from Generac, from public positions in Janesville, from the university administration, or from the Innovation Center produced only speculative, wishful arguments on behalf of using public money for the bus proposal.

I’ll review those light arguments, listing questions about them, under the name of the proponent who offered them.

NOTE: I had promised that I’d post remarks from Generac’s CEO, Aaron Jagdfeld, if he spoke in favor. Of course, he didn’t attend, but sent along a mid-level representative. So, we’ve not had the pleasure of his presentation. I do have a question about Jagdfeld and Whitewater, however, that I’ll post below.

Cameron Clapper, Whitewater City Manager

1. What’s the expiration date on a pilot program? By the city manager’s account, this program was a ‘pilot’ effort. Now we have had a request for more time, another year, to expand the program, to give it another chance, etc. 2012 was supposed to be the test year; now it’s 2012 and 2013. Eight months, now twenty months – will be it thirty-two months’ time requested at next year’s budget?

2. Why didn’t the city manager post supporting ridership information on the program within the Common Council packet for this meeting? By his own account, he worked with city staff and Janesville’s transportation director on these figures. If they’ve been thoroughly reviewed at public expense, why should the public not see them?

Whitewater has a Municipal Transparency Ordinance at Chapter 2.62 of her Municipal Code. Consider 2.62.020(c):

All council, committee, commission and board packet materials, that can be reasonably scanned, shall be posted online twenty-four hours in advance of the meeting. The city shall provide an electronic notification feed alert, indicating that new information is available regarding an upcoming council, committee, commission or board meeting, to any party that has subscribed to the feed (requested notice from the city of the updated information).

There are three possibilities: (1) no one in the municipal administration thought to do what our ordinance requires, (2) no one in the municipal administration cared what our ordinance requires, or (3) this was all done at the last minute (and so the city manager’s claim of careful public-officials’ review is unpersuasive).

Keeping this information out of the packet keeps it from public review.

3. Why were all the proponents speaking for this plan from big institutions? There was not a single ordinary resident among them. Could the city manager not find time to talk to ordinary people, and persuade at least one to attend? It’s the Municipal Building, not the Pentagon; there would have been time.

4. When the city manager mentioned that staff is recommending this project, how much time did they spend on a bus that almost exclusively benefits $2.3 billion-dollar Generac? Wouldn’t that time have been better spent on local merchants?

Generac’s Representative

5. Where was Aaron Jagdfeld, CEO of cash-rich Generac Power Systems on Thursday, 11.15.12? Whitewater’s city manager certainly knows that although Jagdfeld wouldn’t attend any of our council meetings, he did speak on Thursday to the Walworth County Economic Development Alliance on – wait for it — the need for the federal government to “just decide what the rules are…”

So Generac’s mid-level representative can’t deliver a certain dollar commitment at the meeting, Janesville’s transit director can’t conclusively offer how many are now riding the bus, can’t say how many might really want the bus, isn’t sure of the schedule for expanded routes, doesn’t know where the bus would stop, but knows just how much Whitewater should ‘donate.’

That company’s CEO’s plea for specificity doesn’t extend to the details of the public program from which his private company disproportionately benefits.

6. If Generac’s expanding, why can’t it hire more in Whitewater?

7. If Generac’s not in the bus business — as its representative says — why should the public be in the generator business? Most people are not in that line of work, but maybe Generac could send some products their way at its expense.

This is a company that wants others to pay its way.

8. What’s Generac’s commitment? For 2012, it was only about a fifth of the total cost of the program. For 2013, we heard that Generac was in the middle of its budget process right now and so not finished with 2013 figures. They expect taxpayers to budget now, but they’re not ready.

Later in the session, a council member said that this was the way all budget processes work, by way of exonerating Generac.

Does anyone think Generac can’t make a commitment now? Each day, of each week, of each month, Generac pays employees, pays vendors, makes deals, signs contracts, and purchases goods and services.

On Tuesday, 11.20.12, though, we were supposed to believe that they can’t yet offer a definite contribution to their own project.

It’s not a persuasive claim.

Janesville’s City Manager, Eric Levitt

9. These are tight times, as Janesville City Manger Levitt notes. Of all the projects that Whitewater might fund, why would he think this one matters more than public safety, libraries, food pantries, small businesses, or repairs to dilapidated structures? He wants this, of course: but why does it matter more than these other needs? He’s not said, and probably can’t say.

10. Does Levitt really think the Generac’s bus is called an ‘Innovation Express’ because this project is an innovation? I doubt he’s the first public official who’s angled for taxpayer money to push bus transit regionally. By his own director of transportation’s admission, public transit doesn’t make money, and this scheme won’t make money. How’s that innovation? Seems more like yesterday’s failed plan.

11. After months and over a hundred-thousand dollars, why should anyone be convinced that more money is needed for something that is – in his own words only “somewhat successful?”

12. What’s it mean when City Manager Levitt said he wanted to leverage Whitewater’s public money, and others’ public money, so that his city can benefit from $245,000 in state money? It says that he thinks that it’s fine for one city to spend public money that benefits a private company so that other taxpayers will spend more money for his city.

This isn’t public money to create private development – it’s really taxpayers’ money to get more taxpayers’ money.

This isn’t giving or getting, but officials taking. They’re so in the habit of taking for their purposes that they don’t think of it as taking anymore – it’s ‘leveraging.’

13. Isn’t most job growth small business growth? It’s a rhetorical question. No matter how important Levitt insists Generac is, most job growth comes from much smaller companies. They’ll struggle on Small Business Saturday (11.24.12) under taxes to pay for a bus that won’t come to their doors.

Janesville’s Transportation Director, Dave Mumma.

14. Where’s the survey study that Mumma gave to City Manager Clapper? As with the ridership numbers (See Question 2, above), it’s not online in the city packet.

It’s a 2009 study of students at the university, but one can’t see it. If proponents believe in the strength of their case, why won’t they show their work and underlying reports?

15. If one has had over a hundred thousand in 2012 funding, and eight months, why no new surveys of needs? Why stick with a 2009 student-only survey?

16. Of those students surveyed in the 2009, how many would actually pay for the service? Didn’t students in a campus referendum actually reject paying for it through their fees? (They did reject that approach.)

17. By Mumma’s own admission, neither the 2009 survey nor others have non-campus respondents. Why is that? Isn’t it just because it’s easier to survey people on a campus, and the survey took the easy way out by assessing needs for only a part of our whole community?

18. When one says that it’s students who are the most “homogeneous group who might use public transit,” why would anyone think this is a job-creating program?

19. Mumma declared that this is an opportunity to ask, “Does this concept work?” Wasn’t that opportunity present during the last eight months?

20. If there’s not a percentage ‘per se’ for matching the state’s strap [Supplemental Transit Rural Assistance Program] grant, why did Mumma say that the state’s taxpayers’ fund 80% of the operating deficit of the program? It patently is a percentage.

Mumma himself admits that a reduction in non-state funding would mean that “so yeah, the amount that we would get from strap would be proportionately less.” Oh, brother.

21. Why doesn’t Janesville Transportation Director Mumma know information on “the difference between Whitewater and Milton people and there’s different fares depending on how far you ride,” etc.? Unprepared, ill-informed shouldn’t be the result of decades on the public payroll.

22. Why does Mumma calculate 2013 ridership projections by a dollar amount of the estimated farebox receipts? It’s an absurdity: to estimate how many riders he’ll have, Mumma takes estimated farebox contributions, and divides it by an estimated fare.

But how much does he think those farebox contributions will be? Presumably he’s had to estimate – ready? – how many people will be riding. So he gets ridership from farebox estimates, but he gets farebox estimates from…well, from what he knows farebox contributions have to be after all other money is received from state, local sources, etc.

He doesn’t have an independent, credible ridership estimate for 2013.

Mumma actually say that, “I’m guessing that in order to generate the $54,000 in revenue we’re going to have somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty to twenty-five thousand passengers.”

It’s as though one said: “I want to make a thousand dollars on cupcakes, at $2.00 each, so I just positively, absolutely know that I will sell 500 of them.” Customers and actual sales be damned: the figures themselves prove you’ll make those sales.

There’s you’re innovative thinking behind the Innovation Express.

23. If Mumma was unprepared last week – and he was – why couldn’t he give more informed answers this week? It’s also a rhetorical question.

24. How many new bus stops might there be? Where might these new stops be situated? No idea.

There were additional remarks from proponents Jeff Arnold, Vice Chancellor for Administrative Affairs at the university and Robert Young, Director of the Innovation Center.

Young praised this as a successful collaborative venture, along the lines of the Innovation Center. This bus project benefits one big company, has no sound estimates for future ridership, absurdly estimates ridership based on fare estimates after a state grant, with no idea where new stops will be, no idea when new times will be, has had no 2012 contributions from the City of Milton despite Milton’s heavier 2012 use of the bus, all without giving the community a change to look at supposedly supporting documents in the 11.20.12 council packet, and is about ‘taking a chance’ despite greater needs elsewhere. more >>

City

Whitewater’s Common Council Session of 11.20.12: Remembrance and Swearing-In

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Last evening, 11.20.12, Whitewater’s Common Council session began with a moment of silence in memory of longtime Council member Marilyn Kienbaum. It was a fitting tribute to someone who represented and cared for this community for so very long.

Not long thereafter, Council saw the swearing in Whitewater City Manager Clapper.

The evening’s specific agenda thus began free of politics. It seemed to me best to acknowledge these actions apart from the routine fiscal policy of the city.

Next: Questions about Generac’s Bus.