Good morning. Tuesday brings a high of twenty-nine, and light show (with limited accumulation) to Whitewater. It also brings Gov. Walker to town, at 10:15 AM, for a Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation Announcement: TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: The Whitewater University Technology Park Board members have been invited to attend an announcement ceremony on Tuesday, February…
188 search results for ""Innovation Center""
City, Local Government
About those performance evaluations…
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
In Whitewater and communities far beyond, cities and public bodies are evaluating their administrators’ annual performance. That’s true for Whitewater’s municipal manager, and for the Innovation Center director, among others. These evaluations are closed-session reviews, but (as I write) I have no particular interest in how they’re conducted or the substance of the evaluations, in…
City, Politics
Predictions for 2013
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Here’s my amateur version of the late William Safire’s long-standing tradition of offering annual predictions. The list for 2013: 1. In 2013, UW-Whitewater will win the following number of national sports championships: A. None B. One C. Two D. More than two 2. The Innovation Express Generac Bus will prove to be A. A great…
Business, City, Corporate Welfare, Development, Planning
Whitewater’s Common Council Session of 11.20.12: 25 Questions about the Generac Bus
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
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…
CDA, City, Corporate Welfare, Government Spending
The City of Whitewater’s 2013 Budget: CDA & Bus
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
Whitewater’s Common Council considered four budget items at length during her 11.13.12 session. I’ll address now the first two of those four, immediately below. The Community Development Authority Budget. Someday, one hopes, Whitewater’s Community Development Authority won’t require tens of thousands from the City of Whitewater’s general fund, as it does now, since the CDA…
City, Corporate Welfare, Green Energy Holdings, Waste Digesters
The End of the Waste Digester Proposal in Whitewater
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Earlier this week, I posted about a closed-session agenda item of the Tech Park Board about ‘negotiations’ with Green Energy Holdings concerning a waste digester in the city. Of the scope of those negotiations I had no idea. As readers surely know, I think there are sound objections of municipal finance, community development, economic policy,…
City, Corporate Welfare, Green Energy Holdings, Waste Digesters
The Tech Park Board and a Waste Digester
by JOHN ADAMS • • 1 Comment
Bad leaders and ideas often go in only one direction: from bad to worse. One sees the truth of that in the agenda for today’s Tech Park Board meeting: 13. ADJOURNMENT to Closed Session, TO RECONVENE APPROXIMATELY 45 MINUTES AFTER ADJOURNMENT TO CLOSED SESSION, per Wisconsin Statutes 19.85(1)(e) “Deliberating or negotiating the purchasing of public…
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 9.21.12
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning. The week ends for Whitewater with a likelihood of showers and a high of fifty-nine. There is a reception for city manager candidates today at 4 PM, and a community forum at 6:30 PM today: 4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m. COMMUNITY RECEPTION – MEET AND GREET Innovation Center Atrium, 1221 Innovation Drive in…
City
Whitewater’s City Manager Finalists
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Please see the text of a press release from the City of Whitewater, with the names of, and information about, the five finalists to be her next city manager. I have also embedded a copy of the press release that includes the résumés of each candidate, and a schedule of upcoming steps in the selection…
City, Development, Government Spending, Green Energy Holdings, Local Government, Open Government, Press
Questions for the Press about a Proposal with Green Energy Holdings
by JOHN ADAMS • • 2 Comments
This week, I’ve posted a series of general questions about a proposed deal with Green Energy Holdings for a waste digester. See, Preliminary & General Questions about a Proposal with Green Energy Holdings and Questions for the CDA about a Proposal with Green Energy Holdings. (For a comprehensive list of all posts about this proposal,…
CDA, City, Green Energy Holdings, Open Government
The CDA and GEH
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
There’s a meeting of the Community Development Authority today, and of the topics on the agenda, there’s an item (number 7) to “Discuss Development Agreement with Green Energy Holdings LLC.” (The agenda and packet appear below.) This item is a reference to approval, from last Thursday’s Common Council meeting, of an agreement with Green Energy…
City
The Common Council Session for June 19th as End and Beginning
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Whitewater’s Common Council meeting of June 19th had more than one agenda item, but which item one emphasizes says something about one’s seriousness. For those most interested in awards and honors, the end of the current municipal administration did not disappoint. Whitewater’s outgoing city manager announced an award from a municipal bureaucrats’ association for the…
Daily Bread
Daily Bread for 5.16.12
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Good morning. Yesterday, I initially typed, but later corrected, the daily temperature forecast as forty-six (rather than eighty-six). An example of wishful thinking: I like colder weather. Today, a bit colder, but still warm: a forecast of seventy with sunny skies. There’s a date change for a Community Development Authority meeting originally scheduled for today,…
City
A Generac bus by any other name
by JOHN ADAMS • • Comments
Let’s assume that a city decides to give thousands (and that the state and federal government give tens of thousands more) in taxpayer funds to subsidize a multi-billion-dollar corporation’s bus line. It’s a strong drink of crony capitalism, of course, and someone might even say as much. (See, for example, A Local Flavor of Crony…