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Madison, Brookings Launch Second Five-Year Plans for Job Creation

Q: What's the big difference between economic development programs in Brookings and Madison?

A: In Brookings, leaders don't have to make up numbers to justify their program's continued existence.

Here in Madison, Lake Area Improvement Corporation exec Dwaine Chapel surprised us by asking the Madison City Commission to contribute $100,000 toward the Forward Madison ecnoomic development program. The City of Madison has contributed $500,000 to this five-year campaign, which is supposed to end this year. But Chapel says he would like to see the program continue.

What, continue failing?

In the face of documented declines in population and jobs and stagnant sales tax revenues, Chapel looks us in the eye and says Success! He makes the audacious claim that Forward Madison has exceeded it 400-new-job goal. John Hess, who attended Monday's meeting, reports Chapel claimed 500 new jobs.

No public evidence supports this claim. The LAIC announced its Forward Madison goals in October 2006. Let's look at workforce numbers then and now for Lake County (I'll even throw in the May 2006 numbers more accurate month-to-month comparisons):

Jobs Data for Lake County since Forward Madison Launch
Date Labor Force Jobs Unemployed Unemp. Rate
May 2006 6,885 6,695 190 2.8%
Oct 2006 6,865 6,670 195 2.8%
May 2011 6,595 6,285 310 4.7%

Right now in Lake County, there are almost 400 fewer jobs than there were when Forward Madison started. There are almost 300 fewer people in the workforce. Where are your 500 new jobs, Dwaine? Where? At least 310 unemployed Lake County residents would love to know.

Our nifty northeasterly neighbors are also launching a sequel to their five-year economic development plan. Vision Brookings is an economic development collaboration between the Brookings Economic Development Corporation, the Brookings Chamber, and Downtown Brookings. Its organizers say that their efforts have helped Brookings, among other things, increase the workforce by 1000.

Vision Brookings 2010 appears to have launched following a feasibility study in July 2005.

Jobs Data for Brookings County since Vision Brookings Launch
Date Labor Force Jobs Unemployed Unemp. Rate
May 2005 18,145 17,520 625 3.4%
Jul 2005 17,850 17,245 605 3.4%
May 2011 19,185 18,405 780 4.1%

Whether we compare the most recent Brookings jobs data to July 2005 or to the comparable May of that year, we see that, sure enough, there are a thousand more people in the labor force in Brookings County. Actually, more than a thousand. Actual jobs have also increased in Brookings.

Vision Brookings will be sending Jay Bender, David Chicoine, Jim Morgan, and other heavy hitters around the golf course asking the leading lights of Brookings for $2.5 million to support Vision Brookings II. They're already halfway there, likely because they can show their donors real results from their first campaign.

The LAIC will likely hit the local links as well, but it starts its second Forward Madison push by dispatching Dwaine Chapel to beg for another $100,000 from the taxpayers. Worse, instead of acknowledging and analyzing the failure of the first campaign and explaining specifically what we'll do differently the second time, the LAIC simply lies to us.

Dwaine Chapel likely will not give me any information on this topic. But Madison donors, when Mr. Chapel comes to your door with his hand out, show him the Department of Labor statistics, then ask him one simple question: "Where are the 500 jobs?" Ask for a list of employers and jobs added. Then ask for a clear explanation of the LAIC's direct role in creating those jobs.

And if the LAIC can't provide you that information, you shouldn't provide them with your money.

12 Comments

  1. Thank you for the comparison with Dwaine's hometown, Brookings. They once again seem to be surging forward while Madison is stagnant and or on a decline. Maybe Dwaine should talk to some of his neighbors and get the recipe to that secret sauce and whip up a batch for us in Madison, before the voters demand his ouster and or defund the LAIC and Forward Madison.

    I am crafting a new letter that I am hoping to run here as a guest opinion and in the Daily Leader next week. WE MUST continue to put pressure on the leaders of our town to bring jobs to town and hopefully convince them to focus on retail development. I would bet many of those 1,000 jobs came from the explosion of new retail business in Brookings over the last 5 years.

    Time will tell if Dwaine can stand up to the questions and rise to meet the challenge that is before him. The LAIC has done a fine job of keeping the status quo and saving jobs that may have left town, but the goal was to ADD jobs, not merely keep the status quo.

  2. John Hess 2011.07.14

    I remember Dwaine's statement to say the LAIC goal was to create 400 jobs but 500 were created. The downturn affected the outcome, but without these efforts things would be that much farther behind. I don't think he meant this as a net increase but gave no further information about those 500 jobs. Numbers that are not well defined are not meaningful.

  3. He did say they have created 500 jobs on Monday night. I was floored by this statement. I really want to see some hard numbers and explanation on where these numbers are at.

  4. Steve Sibson 2011.07.14

    Cory,

    Did you know these economic development movements are the domestic arm of the Council on Foreign Relations? The actual mission is "control".

  5. caheidelberger Post author | 2011.07.14

    Steve, I'm going to need you to draw me a picture on that one... or an organizational chart.

  6. John Hess 2011.07.14

    If Pamida added a job, is that counted? Gehl lost a couple hundred, now hires some back. Are those counted? What involvement did the LAIC have in securing those jobs? It's unclear. No one raises their hand and says please make me accountable. The city commission needs to do that before writing more checks.

  7. Steve Sibson 2011.07.14

    Cory, google cfr and "committee on economic development". You will find a Beware metro and regional government piece on sweetliberty,org.

  8. Michael Black 2011.07.14

    The 500 count may indeed be accurate. How?

    If the claim is just for new hires then it is completely plausible because it ignores the job losses. We did not replace a full-time employee last year when we had someone leave. We used gains in efficiency (greater productivity) to make everything work. If you assume that technology and education gives your business further gains in productivity each and every year, it takes fewer people to serve the same population base.

  9. Mr. Black,
    That is exactly the question. What numbers are we talking about! Total created? Directly Created? Indirectly Created? Jobs lost vs Jobs created? What are we talking about here? These are the answers we need.

    I see in the news today that we are gaining 20 new manufacturing jobs in town at Integra. Credit is going to LAIC! Good job LAIC, I like hearing this. I hope these new jobs pay a living wage and families can afford groceries at Sunshine and have a little left over to buy a house! If a family of four can live off of these jobs, that would be a potential 80 person growth in population. That is some positive news.

    But do we consider these new jobs? These are additional jobs from an existing employer and some may argue that the growth in jobs in manufacturing is coming from increased demand in this recovering economy. What happens if demand goes down again? Will there be more lay-offs in the manufacturing sector? There has been so much up and down in the manufacturing sector the last 10 years, it just honestly makes me nervous.

    I am thankful for the job growth at Custom Touch, Integra, and Gehl and believe it will help our town recover. Let's hope it continues long term.

    I agree that technology continues to eliminate old jobs and increase productivity in existing jobs. Many economists actually attribute our current unemployment rate to technology replacing people. I don't completely agree with this view on technology killing jobs, but some believe it strongly.

    I believe technology is the key to new job development. I think the problem is the lack of retraining workers and the development of 21st century jobs to replace the old world jobs in our small towns. We have to adapt and change. It is very true that what used to take 10 men to do can be done now with one man controlling machinery and robots through computer technology. But, there is now a job for someone to fix those machines.

    This is why I made the argument on Monday night to the City Commission that Madison needs to focus more on becoming a "Service" economy. Becoming a regional hub for retail and entertainment will help us in times when other sectors have ups and downs. With less manual labor, Americans have more time than ever for leisure and shopping. This is why we have had a surge in entertainment and retail in the last 40 years.

    Gone are the days when you had 8 kids so they could help you walk a row of beans on the farm. Now, one guy does it with his tractor. We need to embrace the new world and this "service" economy.

    Or, maybe it would be better if we all became Luddites and destroyed all the evil computers! Maybe that would be a new jobs plan for the future! ;)

  10. John Hess 2011.07.14

    When talking development, Dwaine said if jobs are created retail will take care of itself. But that's not true for a large retailer. We should be making calls to retailers and be ready to give an incentive if necessary rather than wait for them to come to us. Small town politics often push these larger retailers away even when/if the people have open arms.

    Remember when Pamida was called Gibson and downtown? There was Coast to Coast, Gambles, Ben Franklin, Red Owl, Galloways, Betty's Dress Shop, The Emporium, Jensen Motors. Almost everything we needed was in this town. Going to Sioux Falls was a big deal back then. Now we practically force people to drive to get what they want.

  11. caheidelberger Post author | 2011.07.15

    Ah, but read that article on Integra's expansion carefully: it doesn't say that the LAIC had anything to do with this specific expansion. LAIC exec Chapel, pres Salmonson, and Integra boss Mick Green say nice things about each other. Green expresses appreciation for "the assistance Integra Plastics had received from the LAIC during the past 20 years." But what made these 20 jobs come to Madison? Nothing specific the LAIC did.

    John, you mention how we could be making calls to retailers instead of passively waiting for them. Wasn't Russ Olson in the paper justifying exactly that passive approach, saying retailers already have all the information about potential communities available? But if retailers have that info, don't manufacturers as well? Why do we take a passive approach to an entire economic sector while taking an active approach to another (manufacturing)?

  12. Michael Black 2011.07.15

    My friends and family that work in Brookings are employed by 3M, Larson, Twin City Fan or Daktronics. Brookings has a strong manufacturing base to support its retail development. It was not that long ago that the two Brookings malls had declined that they were almost written off.

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