Last December, Milwaukee County supervisors rejected Northwestern Mutual Life’s $14 million offer to purchase O’Donnell Park.
But the 6.8-acre parcel’s fate is still up in the air as some supervisors want to improve it and others continue to work to sell it.
Last week, board committees debated three O’Donnell Park proposals, but only one of them—to audit the financial outlook of its parking structure, pavilion and public plaza—received support from the Finance, Audit and Personnel Committee. It passed unanimously.
But two opposing O’Donnell Park plans were shot down by the Parks, Energy and Environment Committee on Wednesday.
Reasoning that it’s in the county’s best interests to improve the park and boost revenue, supervisors Patricia Jursik, Jason Haas and Gerry Broderick offered a plan to set up a task force of parks advocates who would develop ideas to reactivate the site and maximize the use of the parking structure. The parking structure alone currently earns $1.3 million a year, which is sent back to the Parks Department.
These supervisors say that the county isn’t getting its true value from the site and have floated the idea of adding a beer garden or a café to draw more visitors to the park. They also argue that the parking structure, which has a 200-spot waiting list, could earn even more revenue for the county and that the public areas need to be spruced up. The pavilion includes Coast restaurant, the Betty Brinn Children’s Museum and other facilities.
But three supervisors who want to sell the park—Tony Staskunas, Steve Taylor and Deanna Alexander—submitted a last-minute amendment that sought to declare the site surplus, send out requests for proposals (RFPs) to develop the site and immediately use all of the parking structure’s revenues to settle its debt. Until the site is sold, their proposal would mandate that the parking structure’s revenues would go toward debt, then finance its repairs and then go to the Parks Department. Diverting that revenue would blow a $1.3 million hole in the parks budget annually.
Teig Whaley-Smith, interim Department of Administrative Services director, said he recommended that the site be declared surplus before an RFP goes out. In NML’s proposed contract, that declaration was part of the deal.
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The RFP would allow for development on the southern portion of the parcel but asks that bidders comply with the parks-only deed restriction on the northern portion. But both portions would be declared surplus under this plan and be put up for sale.
Gerry Broderick, chair of the parks committee, questioned whether the northern portion of the parcel could be sold at all, since the city deed restriction prohibits its sale to a private purchaser.
Assistant Corporation Counsel Paul Kuglitsch said any pending deal resulting from the RFP would be contingent on getting that prohibition removed.
In the end, neither proposal passed. Supporters voted yes on their own proposals, but supervisors Khalif Rainey and Martin Weddle voted against both of them.
Zoo Concessions Contract Made Public
Last week’s debate adds to the county’s indecision over O’Donnell Park’s fate, with some supervisors wanting to keep it and reactivate it and others wanting to sell it to a private developer.
The parking structure got a $5 million upgrade, after the 2010 tragedy in which a teenager was killed when a concrete slab fell on him. During his 2011 campaign, County Executive Chris Abele signaled that he wanted to sell the site and didn’t want to invest in it. The day after taking office, he’d nixed the supervisors’ plan to upgrade the façade with metal and glass panels that cost $1.2 million. Instead, Abele ordered that the façade be covered with stucco, which was cheaper, but is more expensive to maintain in the long run. In the end, Abele’s last-minute shift only saved the county about half of what he promised.
In the fall of 2013, Abele canceled out $1 million of O’Donnell Park’s revenue in his budget, arguing that it would be sold. Supervisors vetoed that item, saying the matter needed public input before it could be put on the chopping block. In 2014, Abele said that NML approached him with an offer to purchase the site; Abele accepted it without putting the site out to bid.
The parks committee also heard testimony on a proposed contract with Denver-based SSA to operate catering, food and retail concessions at the Milwaukee County Zoo. Last summer, the Abele administration very quietly put the contract out to bid. Supervisors were unaware of the RFP until the Shepherd exclusively reported on it last August.
Abele included the 10-year contract with possible five-year extensions in his proposed 2015 budget, but supervisors vetoed it, saying that, like the O’Donnell Park sale, it needed to be debated in public. That finally happened last week.
Unfortunately, thanks to Act 14, the parks committee is no longer allowed to vote on pending contracts. Only the Finance Audit and Personnel Committee and the full board can approve contracts over $300,000, and then only with an up-or-down vote.
