Open Honest McCue

I saw on CudahyNow (Plans in works for former Kohl's Food site) that the CDA met in closed session, then came into open session and voted unanimously to approve the financial structure in concept at the Kohl’s Site. 

While that old building is a dump, how much city money is going into the development, and what are the plans?

If Mayor McCue, who ran on an open meetings platform, can't come out and tell the public how potentially taxpayer dollars are going to be used, shouldn't he eat his words?

Why is the CDA always meeting in closed session, and then giving candy away to everyone who walks into the city, except Wal-Mart!

I don’t want to give the store away nor do I think Wal-Mart should get funds, but be fair to the developers and the businesses they bring!  The name on the building should not matter!

I would love to see a comment out of the Mayor, other than, “No Comment”!

A quick check of the new website http://www.cudahy4business.com has the following:

Source Page

Former Kohls Site – The CDA has begun discussions with a business looking at revitalizing the former Kohl's building on KK.  Because real estate negotiations are currently underway, and the CDA does not want to jeopardize these negotiations, the name of the business cannot be disclosed at this time.

From CudahyNow

Plans in works for former Kohl's Food site

The identity of the developer has not been disclosed at this time.

The site at Plankinton and Kinnickinnic avenues is outside the city's tax-incremental finance district, but the project may be eligible for TIF funding because the state now allows TIF funds to be spent within a half-mile of a TIF district.

Tax-incremental financing, or TIF, is a mechanism that allows municipalities to borrow money to fund infrastructure improvements for an area that otherwise would be difficult to develop or redevelop.  The increased property tax revenue from the improved land is then diverted from the tax roll to pay off the loan.

Eberhardy said the allocation of TIF funds are key to getting the proposed project accomplished.

Plans for the vacant site are consistent with the Cudahy 2020 Comprehensive Master Plan, she said.

"Those of us who know about the plans are very excited," she said.

Specifics on the proposal likely will be disclosed next month, she said.

Side Notes Source Page

Cobalt Site - On April 14, 2009 the City of Cudahy Community Development Authority (CDA) voted to stop negotiations with Cobalt Partners and recommended termination of the Memorandum of Understanding.  This matter is expected to appear on an upcoming Common Council agenda.

Downtown Décor – The new banners have been ordered replacing the old tattered ones.  The will be installed for this Summer from Cudahy to Holmes along Packard Avenue.  The flower baskets are expected to be installed at the end of May but no later than the first week of June. 

Here are questions from readers:

Mayor Ryan McCue, you are an Irish Catholic and a church going person why did you pick this Thursday, during the largest religious week, the holy week to hold this important meeting.  As you are aware that you cannot even have a funeral after 5:00pm Friday until Monday after Easter!

What are the plans for the site formerly Thirsty Moose?

What current negotiations are happening with businesses to revive the City of Cudahy?  Please be specific.

Schools, PTAs, Police, Fire have all used the PhoneBlast system to notify important information, has the Mayor and local officials thought about using this to get out information?

How are the Cudahy Schools doing compared to local, state and national?  Please be specific in ranking of each section.  What plans and actions are being promoted to increase quality education in Cudahy?

Have local businesses been approached to help in mentoring and volunteering at local schools for programs such as LegoRobotics, Odyssey of the Mind, or other educational and artistic enrichment programs?

What are the duties and responsibilities of the City of Cudahy?  Are these different from other cities?  If so, why?

Did you run on an anti-Wal-Mart platform?

Why is the city proposing to pay $30 million dollars for the ice port site? 

Why did you move from the old mayor's office, which you said was too closed off and dark, yet was open and easily accessible to the public?  Then you chose to move from that old office to the glassed in office only to spend thousands to wall it off.  Would it not made more sense or better yet, any sense to just remodel the old Mayor’s office?

Why was a referendum not done for Wal-Mart in Cudahy?

Is it true that there was/is another Tannery company interested in moving in the Cudahy Tannery?

Is the city still looking into purchasing the Cudahy Tannery to put a road in on Edgerton?

Did you turn in for any reimbursement of costs or damages due to your house being vandalized to the city?

Since I will not be able to attend Mayor McCue’s State of The City Address, I have made up a list of questions that maybe someone in the crowd could ask and hopeful Mayor McCue will answer them.  There are an awful lot of questions Mayor McCue could just demystify for us!

Mayor McCue it might help you to divulge some of these in your speech instead of making your speech a pre-campaign diatribe. 

How would you grade yourself as Cudahy’s Mayor?

What are your job duties?

Do you feel the Cudahy Mayor’s job is part time?

Does the city staff work for the Mayor?

What are the goals for Lara Fritts?

Who keeps track of your sick, personal days, and vacation time?

Why is there no City car use policy and log put in place yet?

Once the city takes possession of the property, when do they propose beginning environmental remediation, and how much will it cost the taxpayers?

Why could we not get a scout or school group to adopt and plant flower baskets rather than paying thousands of dollars to a company which no longer has it's business located in the city of Cudahy?

With residential homes devaluing at a rate of 5 to 10 % per year, how do you to propose to balance the budget yearly with the cities overall value in a declining mode?

In your 2007 campaign platform you claimed, “The past two budgets, Mayor Hohenfeldt has presented deficit budgets” do you have an evidence to back up that claim?

Why doesn’t Cudahy have a defined downtown and since it doesn’t how can the Master Plan call for certain things to happen downtown if one is not defined?

Are you going to hold a referendum so the citizens can vote on the KRM since this is a very big deal that will affect the Cudahy residents vastly?

Was it your idea to put flowerpots on the light polls downtown?

Are you okay with 97 of 250 city jobs being held by non-Cudahy residents including our Police Chief, Superintendent of our schools and now our Fire Chief?

Complaints resonate amid higher tax bills, lower property values

http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/36734324.html

Nice quiet small town type community on Lake Michigan. The main disadvantage is the high cost of property taxes. Wisconsin has some of the highest property taxes in the U.S.

If you have a question for Mayor Ryan McCue just post it in the comments section!

Mayor…

As I look at my numbers of views on the city, Mayor and Wal-Mart blogs – NO!  They are still very high in people looking.

Could some people look at this and say, “What can I do?”  Sure, I think the thought of you cannot fight city hall coupled with people accepting McCue’s non-answer of I have outside council some will and have just move on.  After all the CDA and Common Council has authorized the RAZING of the building.

In less than 60days the city will own the land back, maybe!

There is an auction and some talk about bidding 30 Million Dollars. 

McCue said the city can bid on the property for about $30 million, but Eberhardy said a decision has yet to be made by either the Community Development Authority or the Common Council on such a bid.

I thought the City was getting the land, free and clear?  So we have to buy it?  Taxpayers paying for this land?  Okay Mayor you spoke in public explain the 30 Million Dollars for the land!

There are people out there that say, the fat lady has already sung her swan song of goodbye.  Just accept it that the City will get the land back for $30,000,000 of taxpayer’s money!

That is exactly what McCue wants.  I can hear him agree right now while he reads this.  He wants people to put this behind him and just feel okay.

Wrong answer!  Stand up and fight.

That is the wrong action and message to send!  People, we do not have to accept this.  If you keep demanding, he will have to give a real response.  Why are we paying for this land to have to pay again and clean it up?

Yes, at some point, we can move on, most likely with a new Mayor who sees the picture, the big picture.  One who understands that the job of Mayor means that you must do what is best for the city, not just what you think, but also the direction the people want. 

It means more than putting in x amount of hours, but make those hours count!

It means that full time is full time, not the full time you learn in county government, the kind of full time you have as the Mayor of a city!

It means that when you make a mistake you own up to it and fix it!

Ask yourself this question – What has McCue done as Mayor?  Then minus out the many things that maybe McCue has taken credit for that the previous council started or has been working on.  What do you have left?

All of this time, energy and money invested in McCue as Mayor, is it worth it?

I hear there is interest for the Wal-Mart in nearby cities. 

I hear there is interest in the Wave from Greenfield and Brown Deer.

I hear there is interest for other Cudahy companies from many of our near by cities.  That way McCue can build his condos without problems from businesses.

Cudahy “Land of Condos”

How much of McCue can the city of Cudahy afford to handle?

If this were sports, he would have been traded by now.  Maybe it is three strikes and your out!

Taken from 2008- In the Milwaukee Business Journal from Friday, Cudahy is ready for hotel, convention center Cudahy Mayor Ryan McCue is making the case that the General Mitchell International Airport area needs......

Correct me if I am wrong, didn’t the Cudahy Station have a hotel and convention center?  Did it not just get voted down?  So McCue thinks that is what Cudahy needs.  Well duha?

I think I have figured something out.  If we make McCue think he came up with Cudahy Station all on his own, he just might vote for it!  This Mayor is an egomaniac.

Looks like he needs to see his name behind the word Mayor, needs to be the one coming up with the ideas, and he might just be the type to take credit for others work or ideas.

WOW…

Take a look at this - Moving to Milwaukee from Chicago

A lot of the suburbs on the inner ring are older and more established, so new housing stock is more limited.

I would say FRANKLIN again would be a great bet as there is quite a bit of new housing construction still occurring there (very rapidly growing, nice suburb - big landmass).  Muskego has some new construction, as do the Lake Country suburbs (Pewaukee, Delafield, etc.).

No mention of Cudahy but look - FRANKLIN (Wal-Mart), Pewaukee (Wal-Mart), Delafield (Wal-Mart), and Muskego (Wal-Mart)

Another pointer to how Wal-Mart may not be the killer of cities people make it out to be!

A smart man listens to advice.  A wise man takes the advice.

On a final note, could Wal-Mart and others be playing me?  Have me do the dirty work of others while they stay clean?  Aren’t they all pleased to see citizens do their dirty work?

Sure!  But someone has to do it.  Has anyone thought that Cudahy could play Wal-Mart for many things?  Paying for Police Officers salaries, donation of money for new playgrounds, lights, sidewalks, stoplights, or donation of school supplies to the schools.  Wal-Mart has deep pockets and we should use them or tap that resource.

Here is what someone said about and to me:

“I encourage CudahyNOW blogger Randy Hollenbeck to look a little deeper into his actions, and hopefully see how he and his supporters were being used and played around with by Continental Properties and Wal-Mart on the Cudahy Station proposal.”

I have said that Wal-Mart could be playing both sides – That was with Continental Properties and Cobalt Partners.  Could I get burned by talking to Wal-Mart & Co?  Yes, and the same is true when I talk in public and private with the city personnel.  I just know I will not be the one lighting the match, so to speak.

If you knew me personally, you would know I will not be played like a cheap piano, I am a leader and don’t let people tell me what to do.  I fully understand how to be a TEAM player, but I am not being played.  They cannot be played if you choose to participate.

This is part two of Knowing A Gift When You See it

I will work this over with these dollar figures:

Wal-Mart’s amounts in black $10.91

http://www.jsonline.com/business/36380809.html

According to Lisa Nelson (no relation to Waukesha Mayor Nelson) of Wal-Mart, the $10.91 is just store average total of hourly workers.  These are the same figures she gave Cudahy.

Wisconsin minimum wages in red $6.50

http://www.dwd.state.wi.us/dwd/publications/erd/pdf/erd_9247_p.pdf

The amount in 2005 anti-Wal-Mart establishments used in blue $9.68

http://www.laborresearch.org/print.php?id=391

Most associates are full-time associates (34 - 40 hours per week), but there are part-time jobs available, as well.

Wal-Mart Careers

For the Cudahy Station we will use 300 jobs as that was the number Wal-Mart released.

300 jobs with 60% as full-time

300 x .6 = 180 jobs full-time

300 jobs with 40% as part-time

300 x .4 = 120 jobs part-time

So far so good!

180 jobs x $10.91 per hour = $1,963.80 per hour full-time jobs

120 jobs x $10.91 per hour = $1,309.20 per hour part-time jobs

300 jobs x $10.91 per hour = $3,273.00 per hour total

Now full-time jobs we will take 34 hours a week as a conservative number of hours worked

180 jobs x $10.91 per hour x 34 hours a week $66,769.20

Now we will use 50 weeks average worked $66,769.20 x 50 weeks = $3,338,460.00 and that is just what the full-timers would bring in at the Cudahy Wal-Mart conservatively.

For part-time, we will use 20 hours a week as that was the standard at K-Mart and most large retail.

120 jobs x $10.91 per hour x 20 hours a week $26,184.00

Now we will use 50 weeks on average worked $26,184.00 x 50 weeks = $1,309,200.00 and that is just what the part-timers would bring in at the Cudahy Wal-Mart conservatively.

So let’s bottom line this!

300 jobs in Cudahy (not to mention the management positions) $3,338,460.00 + $1,309,200.00 = $4,647,660.00 that Wal-Mart in Cudahy would put into the workers hands with a lot spent in Cudahy.  (Don’t forget that is $4.6 Million +)

We will average full-time 34 hours with 40 hours

$10.91 x 34 hours = $370.94 per week x 50 weeks = $18,547.00 per year (conservatively)

$10.91 x 40 hours = $436.40 per week x 52 weeks = $22,692.80 per year

Averaged out $18,547.00 + $22,692.80 = $41,239.80 / 2 = $20,619.90

Now what some would like to argue is that Wal-Mart jobs you cannot live off of so let us do some more math and checking in.

Remember what the Poverty rates were?

2008 HHS Poverty Guidelines

Persons in Family or Household 48 Contiguous States

1 Person $10,400

2 Person $14,000

3 Person $17,600

4 Person $21,200

So, as you can see IF the Wal-Mart employee is the only one working with four person household it is below the poverty rate if you use either the average or 34 hour a week numbers.  Now again, most households would have the other person working.

True retail doesn’t pay the greatest, but where does it say that a retail job must provide a living wage for themselves and others?  Why must Wal-Mart be the one that everyone decides should?  Does Starbucks offer a living wage?

It is always nice to show the math work and actually deal with facts!  The truth can lie when you don’t use facts.

Now let’s calculate this with all at minimum wage (again not including management)

Alternatively full-time & part-time pay at different rate of Wisconsin minimum wage rate $6.50

180 jobs x $6.50 per hour = $1,170.00 per hour full-time jobs

120 jobs x $6.50 per hour = $780.00 per hour part-time jobs

300 jobs x $6.50 per hour = $1,950 per hour total

We will use 34 hours a week for full-time hours worked

180 jobs x $6.50 per hour x 34 hours a week $39,780.00

Now we will use 50 weeks average worked $39,780.00 x 50 weeks = $1,989,000

Again, that is just what the full-timers would bring in at the Cudahy Wal-Mart conservatively

Once more for part time, we will use 20 hours a week.

120 jobs x $6.50 per hour x 20 hours a week $15,600.00

Once again, we will use 50 weeks on average worked

$15,600.00 x 50 weeks = $780,000 and that is just what the part-timers would bring in at the Cudahy Wal-Mart.

So let’s bottom line this with just minimum wage figures!

300 jobs in Cudahy (don’t forget the management positions that are not factored into this) $1,989,000 + $780,000 = $2,769,000 that Wal-Mart in Cudahy would put into the workers hands with a lot spent in Cudahy.  (Don’t forget that is $2.7 Million +)

We will average fulltime 34 hours with 40 hours

$6.50 x 34 hours = $221.00 per week x 50 weeks = $11,080.00 per year (conservatively)

$6.50 x 40 hours = $260.00 per week x 52 weeks = $13,520.00 per year

Averaged out $11,080.00 + $13,520.00 = $24,600.00 / 2 = $12,300.00

2008 HHS Poverty Guidelines

Persons in Family or Household 48 Contiguous States

1 Person $10,400

2 Person $14,000

3 Person $17,600

4 Person $21,200

Now the amount in 2005 anti-Wal-Mart establishments used $9.68

180 jobs x $9.68 per hour = $1,742.40 per hour full-time jobs

120 jobs x $9.68 per hour = $1,161.60 per hour part-time jobs

300 jobs x $9.68 per hour = $2,904.00 per hour total

Now full-time jobs we will take 34 hours a week as a conservative number worked

180 jobs x $9.68 per hour x 34 hours a week $59,241.60

Now we will use 50 weeks average worked $59,241.60 x 50 weeks = $2,962,080.00 and that is just what the full-timers would bring in at the Cudahy Wal-Mart conservatively.

For part-time using 20 hours a week

120 jobs x $9.68 per hour x 20 hours a week $23,232.00

Now we will use 50 weeks on average worked $23,232.00 x 50 weeks = $1,161,600.00 and that is just what the part-timers would bring in at the Cudahy Wal-Mart conservatively.

Bottom lining this!

300 jobs in Cudahy (not to mention the management positions) $2,962,080.00 + $1,161,600.00 = $4,123,680.00 that Wal-Mart in Cudahy would put into the workers hands with a lot spent in Cudahy.  (Don’t forget that is $4.1 Million +)

We will average full-time 34 hours with 40 hours

$9.68 x 34 hours = $329.12 per week x 50 weeks = $16,456.00 per year (conservatively)

$9.68 x 40 hours = $387.20 per week x 52 weeks = $20,134.40 per year

Averaged out $16,456.00 + $20,134.40 = $36,590.40 / 2 = $18,295.20

2008 HHS Poverty Guidelines

Persons in Family or Household 48 Contiguous States

1 Person $10,400

2 Person $14,000

3 Person $17,600

4 Person $21,200

Disclaimer –doesn’t factor any overtime in equations

That is a lot of money Cudahy is losing out moving around the city!  And yes, not all jobs would go to just Cudahy residents, than again what company does?  Even the Police department in Cudahy doesn’t require only Cudahy residents!

Nobody forces anyone to work at Wal-Mart, they choose to!