Press "Enter" to skip to content

LAIC Embarrasses Madison with Baseless Claims of Success

The Lake Area Improvement Corporation commissions former Madison resident, now Prairie Business editor Alan Van Ormer to write more propaganda for Madison's business "leaders." The result so doggedly rejects logic, so blatantly denies reality, so unashamedly whimpers and lies about what's actually happening in Madison that no honest businessperson in the tri-state area can take seriously the article, the magazine, or the business acumen of Madison's economic developers.

If you're short on time, here's the main takeaway from Van Ormer's article:

Instead of soberly acknowledging and analyzing the failure of the LAIC's five-year Forward Madison program to meet its original goals, Madison's leaders are pretending their $2.3 million economic development investment boosted morale, understanding, and community participation. They offer no hard economic data in defense of the performance of Forward Madison and the LAIC, only happy talk that leaves Madison paralyzed in the pursuit of hard answers to hard economic development questions.

Van Ormer's article misrepresents the failure of the Forward Madison economic development initiative with such embarrassing depth and vigor that I feel compelled to offer a line-by-line translation from Dwaine Chapel Horsepuckey to Standard English. From the top:

The first Forward Madison initiative five years ago was not only a program that was designed to move Madison, SD forward, but leaders found out that it was also an initiative that kept the community growing when a recession hit others around the country [Alan Van Ormer, "Community Spotlight: Madison, SD," Prairie Business, November 2011].

Van Ormer here leaves out one word: that last part should read "kept the community from growing."

"Forward Madison was a new venture for this community. It moved our economic development outreach to a new plateau setting broad goals clearly resembling a different type of resource base," states Jeff Nelson, General Manager, East River Electric Power Cooperative... [Van Ormer, Nov 2011].

New plateau? Growth certainly did plateau during the last five years. But maybe Jeff meant valley. Forward Madison "aspired" to a job-creation rate that was a little lower than the immediately preceding ten-year average.

[Nelson continues] "Then came sharp changes in the economy. Without Forward Madison this community really would have much more difficulty in dealing with those external forces outside of its control" [Van Ormer, Nov 2011].

Here come the excuses. Madison farts rainbows! Everything bad is beyond our control!

Read the entire article closely: not one of the subsequent quotes or observations demonstrates how any element of Forward Madison cushioned the community from the impacts of the nationwide recession (a recession, we must remember, that did not happen in South Dakota). If anything, Forward Madison was a rotten cushion: from 2006 to 2010, taxable sales increased faster statewide and in nearby Brookings than they did in Madison. Madison's job creation rate under Forward Madison was worse than job-creation rates in Brookings, Spearfish, and South Dakota as a whole.

Tammy Miller, CEO, Madison Community Hospital and another member of the LAIC board five years ago, says not long after the campaign went into effect, the economy went south. "It is hard to see that we were impacted by that," she explains [Van Ormer, Nov 2011].

Did Van Ormer forget another word here? Or did Tammy actually slip off message and acknowledge a point made by the Madville Times?

[Miller continues] "On the other hand, you never know if it didn't sustain some things. We saw that here people were struggling" [Van Ormer, Nov 2011].

You're right, Tammy: we never know. The LAIC doesn't know. Nobody can tell us what specific results we got from the $2.3 million that 110 investors sunk into this sinkhole.

Forward Madison's purpose was to create and retain jobs, to create and retain new business through workforce initiatives, work with innovative engineers, and market the assets of Madison and Lake County [Van Ormer, Nov 2011].

Let's compare Van Ormer's summary with the noticeably more specific goals the LAIC laid out when it pitched Forward Madison to investors in 2006:

Dwaine Chapel, the LAIC executive director, outlined the program for more than 60 audience members during a presentation at the Madison Technology Center. Chapel described Forward Madison as a private-sector economic development organization that will have a five-year plan for creating hundreds of new jobs.

According to Chapel, the Forward Madison's goals include creating 400 new jobs by 2012 that provide a total payroll of about $17.5 million for the area. The program's supporters also want the population of Madison to grow from 6,200 today to 7,000 at the end of the five-year program.

Chapel said the five-year goals were important for determining the success of the program and making any changes to make it more successful.

"And at the end of that five-year period, we want to come back and say, 'We did it'," Chapel said [Chuck Clement, "Organizers Unveil Forward Program to Create, Retain Jobs," Madison Daily Leader, 2006.10.26].

Those original goals have pretty clear numbers by which to measure success. Why doesn't Van Ormer mention them? Why don't Nelson, Miller, or any of the following "pillars" of the community mention them? Why don't we hear Dwaine Chapel saying, "We did it"? Because we didn't.

"Forward Madison was a tremendous benefit," states DeLon Mork, owner of Dairy Queen. "The initial 100 plus of investors said I like Madison and like to do business here. It was a good morale thing for the community" [Van Ormer, Nov 2011].

Oh, DeLon! Did you really say this? Are you really trying to tell me that 110 local investors spent $2.3 million on a capital campaign with no accountability just to feel good about themselves? Wouldn't you all have gotten a more direct morale boost (not to mention economic boost) by using that $2.3 million to give your workers raises?

Pat Prostrollo, President, Prostrollo Auto Mall, adds it has changed the way Madison looks at economic development because more people are now involved in the process. "They understand what economic development is all about," he says. "That is a good thing" [Van Ormer, Nov 2011].

Excuse me, Pat: who's involved in the "process" now who wasn't involved five years ago? And what do "they" understand now that that they didn't understand before? The article's subhead claims that Forward Madison "changed the way the community looks at economic development," but how? How do you and DeLon and the other investors look at economic differently from how you did five years ago?

And what does any of what you and DeLon are saying have to do with measuring Forward Madison's success in meeting its original stated goals?

Under the business retention and workforce development goal, at least 24 companies or other entities have received assistance in business planning, marketing planning, and financial planning, as well as receiving training dollars through state and local workforce training programs.

The focus on growing local businesses shows the Lake Area Improvement Corporation facilitating loans and training dollars to at least 16 companies or programs. The LAIC also negotiated the purchase and sale of buildings and lands to at least 17 companies or projects [Van Ormer, Nov 2011].

Yeah, and Solyndra received a bunch of assistance from the government, but it's not making solar panels. Forward Madison's goal wasn't to "provide assistance" or move buildings; it was to produce economic results. The above statements don't show results.

Forward Madison II will continue with the earlier process but also ask specific questions on retail, manufacturing, housing, workforce development, business retention, and business recruitment [Van Ormer, Nov 2011].

Really? What questions? Of whom? Toward what end? As usual, Van Ormer and the LAIC don't tell us what their empty rhetoric really means. Such knowledge is apparently only for the insider elites who buy their seats at the card table.

"If we didn't do this, I wouldn't want to know what Madison would look like without the LAIC and Madison's efforts," Mork explains. "We are in the position to have another successful campaign and be able to have positive growth. This can provide nothing but good things for Madison" [Van Ormer, Nov 2011].

DeLon, I hate to argue with you. But I do want to know what Madison would look like without the LAIC. I don't see much positive growth; more importantly, Van Ormer's article does not link any positive growth to specific actions by the LAIC. And as Forward Madison #1 proved, this program is perfectly capable of producing nothing for Madison.

Van Ormer then spends an entire page slapping backs among the "pillars of the community." East River Electric, Madison Community Hospital, Prostrollo Auto Mall, Custom Touch Homes, Dakota State University... yes, yes, wonderful institutions all. But doesn't everyone who chooses to live, work, and shop in Madison support the community? Aren't we all pillars?

Whoever the pillars are, Van Ormer incredibly fails to tie any other their achievements over the last five years to any specific actions the LAIC or Forward Madison has done. In a full page of pillar talk, Van Ormer can tease from his interviewees only one vague assertion of Forward Madison's impact:

He adds that Forward Madison has had a huge impact, not only on his dealership, but also Madison in general. "Forward Madison has given the community the opportunity with the monetary stability to go out and recruit, advertise, and put up signage," Prostrollo states. "Without that monetary ability, we are paralyzed. That has been the main thrust" [Van Ormer, Nov 2011].

The opportunity? Did we take it? Did we recruit? Did we advertise? Did we put up signage? And again, much more importantly, what were the results of those efforts? How many referrals and sales did we get from each ad and sign? I'm sure that when Pat buys an ad, he tracks its performance very carefully to make sure he's getting his money's worth. But when the LAIC wants to advertise, we apparently just throw our money at them and shout, "Whoo-hoo! What an opportunity!"

And was Madison "paralyzed" before Forward Madison? Are you suggesting, Pat, that we couldn't get any economic development done when John Knuths and Russ Olson ran the LAIC before Forward Madison?

Having failed to support the LAIC's case for Forward Madison, Van Ormer obligatorily concludes with verbiage from LAIC exec Dwaine Chapel:

Lake Area Improvement Corporation Executive Director Dwaine Chapel notes that Forward Madison II is underway and the program is expected to be refined shortly. "The community once again is excited about embracing new opportunities while continually addressing existing challenges. The retail component has been discussed in detail; the plan and process is being developed and will act as a solid footprint leading to success," he states [Van Ormer, Nov 2011].

Only Dwaine Chapel can say so much by saying absolutely nothing.

The community once again is excited... hmmm.... The Madison City Commission didn't sound very excited when it rejected Chapel's request for funding for Forward Madison 2.

...continually addressing existing challenges... hmmm.... We always hear this pablum about "challenges," but this article doesn't mention them. If there's anything wrong with Madison, it must a problem like the recession completely beyond our control.

...The retail component has been discussed... When Dwaine doesn't want to talk about something, he resorts to the passive voice. Discussed by whom, Dwaine? Are you referring to the grassroots discussions that citizens wanted to have this summer, but which the LAIC pretty obviously poo-pooed?

...The plan and process is being developed... Again, passive voice: developed by whom? Are you involving any new members of the community in this development effort, as Pat suggested above Forward Madison has done?

Dwaine Chapel and the LAIC make clear that they have no understanding of who the community really is or what it needs. Or maybe they and this article do make that clear. Their vision of "community" extends no farther than the small circle of "pillars" who float big cash for their fruitless projects and then are willing to put their good names to specious claims of Madison's "positive growth" and Forward Madison's "tremendous benefit." Citizens who want an honest and open discussion of our successes and our failures and accountability for our economic development efforts don't count as members of the LAIC "community."

If I invested $10K or $50K in any capital campaign, I would expect a thorough accounting of how my money was spent and what results accrued from that spending. If I learned that my money produced none of the promised results, I would demand to know who screwed up and how so we would not replicate such mistakes. I'd probably also ask the parties responsible for that failure to step aside and let someone else run the show. Apparently Madison's business leaders aren't so dedicated to the responsible use of their money.

Hmm... maybe that's why Forward Madison didn't succeed.

10 Comments

  1. Michael Black 2011.11.13

    Most of the people mentioned in your blog post and their connected companies have invested a great deal into their businesses in Madison. They are doing their part to provide jobs, products and services in Madison. Pat Prostrollo is in the process of spending millions updating his dealership. East River just spent a huge amount on their new headquarters. I just met two houses on Hwy 34 from Custom Touch. Gehl is actively hiring for all shifts. My friend Rick is always trying to hire more people for Barger Electric. DeLon is always looking to give back to the community. Jon has put in new equipment at the paper and added a second shift. Have you been past James Vally Equipment of Lake County International?

    We've been in business quite a while and I can tell you that sometimes a huge investment in marketing does not give you an immediate return. The small things you do can have the most impact.

    The people you are bitching about the most have done the most. They are not pulling out and moving to the greener pastures of Sioux Falls where they may have been able to make more money.

    Attracting hundreds of new jobs may be an unattainable goal. It's better to have slow steady growth of jobs and higher wages than to have companies pull out because they cannot fill needed positions.

    You and I cannot measure how the local economy would have fallen without the LAIC's efforts. Things may have been much, much worse. Let's see what they can do for us tomorrow.

  2. Michael Black 2011.11.13

    So what could they do better?

    Public relations locally is a serious weak spot. A daily or even weekly blog along with regular articles in the paper and programming on the radio to get the word out to Madison and Lake County would help keep business in town. This is going to take time to build readership. The great thing is that it doesn't take a lot of money.

    I'd love to see some sort of support classes for retail business owners along the line of what Charlie endorses with young farmers.

    It's been a long time since Egan Avenue has had a makeover. Help with facade upgrades on the old buildings would attract more traffic downtown.

    We could market to the students at DSU to spend more money in Madison and make the community their home after college.

  3. caheidelberger Post author | 2011.11.13

    You're right, we can't measure what might have happened. We can only measure what did happen, against the criteria that the LAIC gave us in October 2006. Forward Madison failed to produce those results. The LAIC should be held accountable. Where did the $2.3 million go?

  4. caheidelberger Post author | 2011.11.13

    And let's be clear, Michael: I'm not "bitching" about the business activities of DeLon, Pat, Jeff, or Tammy. What they do at their businesses adds clear value to the community. I'm pointing out that the statements they are making about Forward Madison defy reason. Forward Madison failed. Some of my favorite neighbors are pretending it didn't. They are making transparent excuses for failure. They are saying things that don't reflect the business savvy their real work demonstrates. Why are they saying these things?

  5. Michael Black 2011.11.13

    Cory, that's the way it comes across.

  6. caheidelberger Post author | 2011.11.13

    Hmm... I doubt that, Michael. But I could be wrong. Please show me the words where I criticize the business practices of DeLon, Pat, Jeff, or Tammy. Please be specific.

  7. Michael Black 2011.11.13

    And yes the recession did hit Madison hard even if the figures for South Dakota as a whole tell a different story.

  8. caheidelberger Post author | 2011.11.13

    Really? Where are the numbers that say so? Why wasn't our local economy positioned to ride out the recession as well as the rest of the state did? What did we do wrong, and what can we do better? Let's hear specifics. LAIC is just giving us fluff. For $2.3 million, we deserve specifics.

  9. Michael Black 2011.11.13

    Gehl

  10. caheidelberger Post author | 2011.11.13

    Non-unique, Michael. Lots of other South Dakota towns have manufacturing. Why did Madison get hit harder than the rest of the state, especially when Madison was pouring all that extra effort into economic development? Show me numbers.

Comments are closed.