Photo by City of Milwaukee, Flickr CC
As with any change in leadership of a legislative body, after Ald. Ashanti Hamilton became the new president of the Milwaukee Common Council this spring, members began to jockey for position in a variety of ways. The horse-trading continues among the council members. We are concerned that during this repositioning and politicking that good programs and good people could be lost to the city by a vote or two because of personal infighting.
Specifically, Department of City Development (DCD) Commissioner Rocky Marcoux, who has done a very good job for Milwaukee’s citizens and who is poised to continue to do an excellent job in the future, could get caught in the crossfire of competing personalities of the council members. Marcoux is scheduled for a confirmation in about a week and if the vote were held today it would be a very close vote. It shouldn’t be close. It should be a very solid vote for confirmation, considering his accomplishments.
When Marcoux was first selected for the position as head of DCD, the Shepherd had some serious reservations. He had come out of the housing development world, which is very different than economic development. Economic development is far more complicated and difficult. Over the years we did about a 180-degree about-face after seeing Marcoux put together a series of successes for the Milwaukee economy including, for example, the three new companies in the city-owned Menomonee Valley Industrial Center. Then, replicating the successes of the Menomonee Valley, DCD cleared and environmentally cleaned up the land at Century City, where businesses are now beginning to locate.
DCD had also been successful with numerous Downtown and Third Ward development deals using strategic investments to leverage huge private sector investments. This has created tens of thousands of jobs and added billions of dollars of taxable property. DCD has also worked with companies on the outskirts of the Milwaukee area and convinced them to move into the city. When suburban companies start moving into the city, development in the city is being done right.
Now there are those who feel that too much development has been focused on Downtown and not enough in the neighborhoods. There is certainly some validity to that argument, but only some, because it is always difficult to measure what is balanced economic growth. Downtown projects are large and usually involve mature companies and when a mature company moves Downtown, it creates a significant number of jobs and a visible boost to the tax base. That makes the news.
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Neighborhood development, on the other hand, is often the result of new businesses being created or hundreds of existing small businesses adding two or three new jobs. It is a different kind of development and more complicated development. That said, under Marcoux’s watch, often partnering with such excellent economic development organizations as the Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corporation (WWBIC), neighborhoods like South 27th, Lindsay Heights, Layton Boulevard West and Bronzeville, to name just a few, have seen some local economic development. Obviously, we would still like to see much more development in the neighborhoods.
We could go on and on, but economic development is difficult, and it is difficult to find someone for the DCD position who has actually made some real, impressive accomplishments. A lot of people talk about economic development but few really know how to actually do it. Rocky Marcoux understands economic development. We do not want to see our city’s economic development get thrown off track because of politics at the city council level.
Common Council members, we ask you to please do what is right for Milwaukee and confirm Rocky Marcoux for another four-year term.
