Whitewater, Part 2: CDA receives presentation, begins discussion outlining ‘What is a CDA?’

Editor’s note: The Whitewater Common Council recently hired Redevelopment Resources, an economic and community development consultant, to aid the city, including its manager, the city council, and the Community Development Authority (CDA), in their efforts to create a cooperative guideline under which the three entities will work and facilitate the city’s efforts to hire an economic development director. Last week, Kristin Fish-Peterson, the company’s principal, began an introductory exploration with the city council and CDA. This is the second of a two-part story focusing on introductory meetings held within the two bodies.

By Kim McDarison 

The City of Whitewater Community Development Authority (CDA) Thursday received a presentation given by hired economic and community development consultant Kristin Fish-Peterson, who, after offering some introductory comments about herself, community development authorities in general, and the Whitewater CDA, posed a series of questions developed, she said, to begin a dialogue through which a common economic development vision and policy for Whitewater might be forged and codified. 

The introductory presentation, which was an abridged version as compared with the one presented to members of the city council on Tuesday, presented an array of similar topics and focused on similar questions posed to the common council. 

A link to the story, including the full presentation made during Tuesday’s city council meeting, is here:  https://fortatkinsononline.com/whitewater-part-1-council-receives-presentation-begins-discussion-outlining-what-is-a-cda/. 

Within her comments presented Tuesday to the city council, Fish-Peterson identified several funding sources that have been used by the Whitewater CDA, including U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), which, according to the HUD website, are provided to states, cities and counties to develop viable urban communities by providing decent housing and a suitable living environment; facade grants, which, according to the city’s website, have been made available through a program begun in 1991; Capital Catalyst Fund, which was funded in 2020 with a Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) grant of $250,000; funding identified as a Paquette Center loan fund; an HUD Urban Development Action Grant (UDAG), which provides funding to assist revitalization efforts in distressed cities and urban counties, and holdings within the city’s business park in land and real estate.  

Within comments made during Thursday’s presentation, Fish-Peterson said: “When I was looking through your financials, I recognized these programs, so you have your (federal CDBG) housing fund, and it is a housing rehab program, but, according to the numbers, you only have about $11,000 to lend, and it is for affordable housing, it is for low-income homeowners, and so when a loan gets paid off, whether the owner sells it, if they are required to pay off the loan, then we will have more money to market the fund and spend those funds. But right now, with only a small amount of money, it doesn’t make sense to market a fund that doesn’t have a lot of money in it.” 

Additionally, she noted that the CDA has a facade fund, and a capital catalyst program.

“You also have the general business loan fund, a UDAG fund, you have funds that are for business park development, and those funds are to buy new land for the business park, and then you do own land, and you own the real estate of the Innovation Center.”

She described the list as “the balance sheet buckets that I identified.” 

She asked CDA members if it was “a good summary.”

They agreed that it was. 

After the presentation, CDA members were asked the following questions: What are the CDA’s functions currently? What are the priorities? What is the city’s charge to the CDA? Are they an independent body? Do they operate at the pleasure of the city council? Where is the line between what property the CDA owns and what the city owns? How are they funded? Do they have their own funding sources? What do you want it to be? 

CDA discussion

In advance of the presentation, City Manager John Weidl told those in attendance that the purpose of questions posed by Fish-Peterson was to discuss the “major things” CDA members would hope to find in the next CDA director and determine a process in which CDA members would be interested in engaging to find a successful candidate.

At the conclusion of the presentation, Weidl said: “We are looking for some real back-and-forth now, because these priorities are going to drive the type of talent we try and bring in, they are going to drive the way we write the job ad, as we reflect, and it’s going to affect the way we do the recruiting process.” 

Weidl said candidates for a CDA directorship typically asked: “What do my first three months look like? What does my year look like? Who do I report to? and: What do I do to be successful?’” 

CDA member Joe Kromholz asked: “Who does the CDA director report to?” 

Weidl said the process underway was meant to help the group determine the answer to his question. 

Kromholz asked if the CDA director was an employee of the city. 

Weidl said it was. 

Kromholz: asked: “If they are an employee of the city, if they only answer to the CDA, doesn’t that create a tension then with you?” 

CDA member Jim Allen said past CDA directors did not only answer to the CDA. 

Said Weidl: “As long as they’re producing — I’m not a micromanager.”  

CDA President Patrick Singer, addressing Weidl, said that in the past, the CDA’s experience had been that without a clear delineation of roles, directors would sometimes “flip, like mom and dad.” 

They would say, he said: “The manager’s not doing this, so they run to the CDA chair or members, so we just want to make sure that those lines of authority are clear.” 

He suggested that the CDA board might serve as the organization charged with setting policy, but, he said, addressing Weidl, “day-to-day, you’re that mix.” 

Weidl said he preferred to “focus on the process,” which, he said, meant that he would ensure the director would meet with CDA members to set goals at the beginning of the year, and again in the middle of the year to “refresh” goals. 

“I don’t necessarily need to be involved in the creation of those goals,” he said. 

Comparing Weidl to previous city managers, Singer described Weidl as possibly having “a new perspective.” 

“The city managers in the past that I dealt with when I was on council were very much hands-on with economic development,” he said.  

He described former City Manager Cameron Clapper as “very involved,” adding: “You almost need to be because there are other city resources.” 

He described economic development activity as “a team effort,” further suggesting that while the economic development director was “kind of the cheerleader and the ombudsman” to interact with businesses, “the city manager was the quarterback, and making the final call.”

Singer said it was a system that sometimes worked and sometimes did not. 

He asked Weidl for his opinion about how, as the city’s chief executive, he saw his role when working with the CDA. 

“I prefer to manage all my direct reports consistently, which normally involves biweekly meetings, and I would anticipate continuing those. I ask my reports to come up with their own goals for their department, based on the vision set by the governing body, and in this case the governing body is the CDA,” Weidl said noting that he anticipated “a rough planning process that we all engage in together.” 

He described his role as one in which he was less interested in leaving his “imprint” on the CDA director and saw himself as looking more “to help ensure the process is set up and is being followed.” 

Kromholz asked if Weidl viewed the CDA director as a position that reports to the city manager. 

“It has to be by virtue of it being a city position,” Weidl said. 

Kromholz described himself as having limited exposure to activities that took place in advance of the departure of the last CDA director, but, he said, he was aware that there were “communication issues.” 

Addressing Weidl, he said: “From where I come from, we want to make sure that it’s clear that this person has to communicate with you — that’s the direct report.” 

Fish-Peterson, offering her recommendation, said: “I would say this person, as a city employee, should report to John (Weidl) and serve the CDA, because there are other things that this person will be doing other than just CDA work. They’ll serve on the development team with the city, which includes (Public Works Director) Brad (Marquart), John (Weidl), (Director of Finance and Administration) Steve (Hatton), whoever has those development team meetings to make sure developments are actually carried all the way through.” 

Said Singer: “I think that’s were there has been some confusion. Not to say the day-to-day hasn’t gotten a little murky, but on the hire and fire.” He asked: “Who is the appointing authority?” 

“It’s the manager,” Weidl said. 

Singer said that other bodies working with directors “have input,” but, he agreed, ultimately the decision resides with the city manager. 

“If we just have that defined, that will solve a lot of problems,” Singer said. 

Weidl said he had suggested to Fish-Peterson that the city engage is a panel process to hire the next CDA director. He saw the panel as having five members, including himself, Fish-Peterson and three members of the CDA board. 

Addressing Weidl, Kromholz said: “One thing that is important to this group is ensuring that this person understands their role, and that they have to communicate with you, and that there is no decision about what they communicate and what they don’t communicate.” 

Addressing priorities, Singer said he wanted to focus on some of the CDA’s successes and also “what we’ve heard in the community.” 

Citing business retention, he said: “For existing employers, and clearly, being a point of contact for potential new developments as well — that’s always been something that we wanted to see — you know we don’t want to have over-metrics — but we want to see how many were done.” 

As a matter of data collection, he said, questions he thought should be asked included: “What is the kind of feedback you’re getting from the community employer, even the existing ones?” and: “How can we be of help?” 

He said collecting that information “has had fits and starts.” 

Weidl agreed with Singer, saying he saw data collection as “the single most important thing that’s going to make us successful.” 

Citing his experiences with economic development in Mukwonago, he said the “vast majority” of investors in a community are people who are already operating a business within the community. 

“To put that into real world perspective,” he said, “the first anchor tenant of Mukwonago’s business park was an existing Mukwonago business. Our first expansion in the business park was a business that moved over within that park and made their expansion.” 

He offered “kudos” to the CDA board for identifying data as a driver, noting that, in Whitewater, the collection of economic development data was “something we haven’t had.” 

Looking at procedures, Weidl said: “Kristen and I have talked at length about making sure we have a documented process, where you know what the outcome should be — and that’s something we would obviously vet with the CDA — here’s some outcomes that communities typically use to suggest some basic demographics and goals of this community. It needs to be in writing, it needs to be — we need to be able to replicate it annually — doing the same thing over and over, reflecting the same types of data so we can look for trends.”  

CDA member Lisa Dawsey Smith agreed the city had collected a “small” amount of data.  

Singer said he saw the CDA director as “being that ombudsman for community development.” 

He added: “One of the things I’ve heard over the years is that the city is so hard to deal with for new businesses or developers.”

He said he saw an advantage in having a CDA director serve as a “pathfinder” for businesses, and also as someone who could identify obstacles and advocate for change at the CDA and council levels. 

He described an environment in which the CDA would “do our due diligence, but we are also flexible and responsive to developers and the people who want to invest in our community. Having that kind of wholistic view of our organization,” asking, he said: “What resources are available through the city’s departments?” 

Using a team approach, he said, he envision a process through which department heads also might be involved in helping to find answers to questions and developing solutions.  

CDA member Jon Kachel asked: “Are you saying it would be the executive director doing that or the city doing that?”  

Singer responded: “I would say the executive director, but I mean we are all in this together. So, if we hear stuff … we should feed that to John (Weidl) and say, ‘hey, we’ve heard these concerns,’ because sometimes you hear those rumblings and then nobody does anything and it just kind of compounds the problem.” 

He identified the CDA staff person as the one who should be responding to those concerns. 

Kachel said he saw the CDA director as an individual who, through their networks, could enumerate required steps to successful development and then introduce business owners and developers to the right individuals to facilitate an outcome quickly. 

CDA member Jim Allen suggested that Weidl, in the interest of familiarizing himself with active developers and projects, might attend meetings with potential developers. 

Singer questioned whether that was the best use of the city manager’s time. He suggested that the city strive to achieve the “balance of having the right people in the room.” 

Weidl said he had been working on a “focus list” of the city’s largest businesses and manufacturers. He said he planned to add to his list entities that had completed a development or project in the last year, and those currently engaged in the process. As the city developed its process and strategies, he said, “I want to be a part of it; I don’t want to control it. Honestly, it’s too much work. It’s not worth the struggle. I’d rather put the right person in the position, (and) give them the autonomy and the flexibility to be successful.” 

Citing city resources, Singer pointed to the Whitewater University Technology Park. The CDA owns the Innovation Center located in the park, he said. A goal of the building was to serve as a business incubator, continuing from that starting point to develop the rest of the lots in the park, he added.  

“Through no fault of anybody’s, it just maybe hasn’t happened quite at the speed maybe we had hoped,” Singer said, adding that a CDA goal was to maintain occupancy within the building. 

Further describing the Innovation Center, Kachel said it also served as a draw for new businesses coming to Whitewater. 

“You say you have a technology park and you have the university online to help us, and I think that’s a great sales opportunity to bring in any new business from out of town, because most communities don’t have something like that,” he said. 

Turning his attention to housing, Singer asked: “Whitewater’s a little bit tricky because we have such a kind of rental-dominated market, but when TIF (tax incremental financing) (district) No. 4 was closed out, we did leave it open for that extra year to get those excess funds that we could put towards housing development. We already had a housing study that was done prior to John’s hire, but, how do we partner with that to find that right housing? We don’t want to start again with rentals, because that’s a saturated and very busy market, but how can we use that funding, and anything else, to help elevated filling those gaps within the housing continuum?”

Kachel said a solution was to build new single-family housing.  

Fish-Peterson said she had read a study contracted by the city which pointed often to what it termed the “missing middle.” 

“That’s what you are needing constructed, so we will work on a policy towards spending that money,” she said.  

Allen — stating that he was making an announcement — said: “The Greater Whitewater Committee, along with Jeff Knight, Larry Kachel, and Jim Caldwell, have volunteered their time to head up a housing committee to spearhead things and get them rolling. And they have done this in the past, and done one of the housing studies in the past, so they — the Greater Whitewater Committee did — those three gentlemen are set and ready to go to help with that.”  

“We want to make sure you utilize them because the table’s been set. They know what’s at the table, and what we’ve got coming in from out of town,” Jon Kachel said.  

Weidl responded, saying: “I’m not disagreeing with you, but part of also having an independent consultant is to get a point of view that is independent of special interests in the city, and Mr. Knight and Mr. (Larry) Kachel have certain special interests that are part of the housing study. All three of them have to acknowledge that.”  

Said Allen: “Anybody does.”  

Said Singer: “And I know they have acknowledged that. All three of them have served on the CDA in some form or fashion before, but I agree, I mean they are tremendous resources, but everybody has an agenda, everybody has a point of view.”

He pointed to their experience within their industries. 

Said Allen: “I think they are very professional and set their own agendas aside. Jim Caldwell is one of the creators of our CDA.” 

Singer said the CDA also needed to look to the future, noting that the body was created in the 1980s.  

“And some of the stuff that we’ve been told about how it worked back then doesn’t match with the statute,” he said.  

Jon Kachel, who also is Larry Kachel’s brother, suggested that additional members could be added to provide a comfort level for those who disagreed with the makeup of the proposed three-member consulting committee. 

“It’s not a disagreement, it’s about taking an objective look at what’s best for the city,” Weidl said. 

Kromholz said he was an advocate of undergoing the process in place. 

“Let’s listen to what the consultant has to say, and go through that process,” he said.  

Said Kachel: “We’re like a black hole in single-family missing in our community. We’re not asking them to rewrite it, we are asking them to help consult with you.”  

Fish-Peterson said that the $1.9 million the city had achieved through the closing of TID No. 4 came with a requirement from the state that 75% of it needed to be invested in affordable housing. 

“So the policy will address that and allow for that money to be put to the best use for the community,” she said.  

“It’s very clear to the staff that the vast majority of this money should be going to propping up single-family for the missing middle … We should still have components of the program that address other areas in addition to brand new single-family housing. That’s all I’m trying to say. We have to be willing to build a program that hits multiple targets, not just new single-family homes,” Weidl said. 

As a first step towards developing a housing plan for the city, he said, the city council had recently been given a 2020 Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC) housing study and asked to revisit it. He said he would provide copies of the study to CDA members as well. 

He assured CDA board members that no new policy would be drafted without further input and dialog from the group. 

He said he and Fish-Peterson would look at examples of ideas used in other communities and return to the board “to work it again.” 

A story about findings within the 2020 Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission (SEWRPC) housing study, which was presented in December to council members for revisiting, is here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/whitewater-council-revisits-2020-housing-study/.