Last updated on 2015.02.24
Madison blogosphere neighbor John Nelson expresses his hope that the promotion of Julie Gross from Chamber of Commerce director to Lake Area Improvement Corporation director means better things for Madison.
I want to be generous and look for signs that Gross's appointment signals positive change. The press-release language surrounding her appointment at least suggests a repudiation of the Dwaine Chapel regime. The first time I met him, previous LAIC director Chapel told me he was brought here to "fix" Madison. He didn't. He grew up in Spearfish. He lived in Brookings. But he never carried the lessons of those two successful communities to his work in Madison. Contrary to the delightful hyperbole of a 2007 newsletter, Chapel never "immersed" himself in Madison. He never even moved here, maintaining his residence in Brookings, where he finally landed a better job after six years stuck in the Madison depot.
Chapel's depot office mate Gross is talking up and being talked up for her longtime commitment to and residence in Lake County. I can't help getting the feeling that their bad experience with bringing in outsider Chapel solidified our local leader's commitment to rejecting outside perspectives and hiring locally this time. I hope that Gross's proven commitment to the community will bring a more committed quest for economic development that builds on Lake County's strengths.
But is hiring Julie Gross really a change, or is it simply an affirmation of the status quo? (Remember, status quo is Latin for stuck in the mud.) Gross may have more perspective on boosting local retail. But her record doesn't show a great deal of success in promoting retail from the Chamber perspective. The Chamber's signature event, Crazy Days, has steadily declined over the past several years, and Gross has not found the magic formula to reverse that decline or the magic event to replace it.
Gross also shows little more appreciation for public input and participation than Chapel did. When I proposed hosting a "Speaker's Corner" event during Crazy Days, Gross nixed the idea, expressing alarm that in such an uncontrolled setting, people might get up and say anything. And we sure as heck don't want people saying anything in Madison.
Madison needs new ideas. I respect the idea of local wisdom being able to recognize local problems and come up with new ideas. But Julie Gross is a creature of the local establishment. And the local establishment has a poor record of receptivity to new ideas.
Hope for the best. Expect the worst.
Let me amend your closing lines, Cory: Hope for the best. Plan for the worst. Low expectations and high hopes don't go well together, but you can still take action that minimizes the effect of poor performance if it comes to that. In the meantime, it's best if we get behind Gross, who's got her chance to make Madison better.
If you expect the worst then you will probably get it.
Of course that will happen because that is what Cory hopes that happens. Come on people could we at least give Julie a chance and not condemn her before she has a chance to work for Madison! I mean, REALLY!!!
No, Dan, what I hope happens is grand success. What I worry will happen is more of the same. Neither my hopes nor my worries have a lot of power. Only Madison's powers that be can make change happen... if they want change.
Cory, I mean you no disrespect at all. You are a very smart man. The only worry I have is this. Unless we back this new person from the start, we will be setting her up for failure. If we get behind her and give her our support hopefully she will lead Madison in the right direction.
Dan, I back people by pushing them to do the right thing. The rightest thing the LAIC can do is to do things differently from how Dwaine did them. I really do want to take Gross's local commitment as a sign that she will not view this as simply an easy way to make $100K+, that she will feel a heartfelt obligation to her friends and neighbors, the people she lives with and faces in the grocery store every day, to rock out in this job. And I hope that translates into a sincere commitment to revitalization of the retail sector and downtown, not the lip service the LAIC previously gave those needs.
That is fair enough Corey. Did the LAIC do every thing right in the past, no. Does that mean they do not have a chance, certainly not. Let's see what happens, maybe this will be a good thing. HOPEFULLY!!! I can not say for sure but I do not think the new kid on the block will be making 100k+.
The first step to solving a problem is admitting you have one. I'd like to hear the LAIC be as honest in its assessment of its performance during Chapel's directorship as you inkle toward being in that last comment, Dan. An honest assessment of the failure of Forward Madison 1 is essential to making Forward Madison 2 doesn't bring us more of the same mistakes.
Good Cory, This is what I like to here. Let's try to be positive, I certainly admit we have to move forward from Dwaine . We can give our positive in put to Julie and hope she does the best for our good town of Madison. I would like to see a person like you to step forward and possibly serve on the LAIC board, your help would be good for that position. I know Karen would like to possibly to be remain a member of that board. Heck, maybe you an her could become friends???
I'll be working for Spearfish School District again for the 2012-2013 school year, so I'll be unable to serve.
But at peril of trampling my positivity, let me remind you of my experience with the LAIC and its receptiveness to citizen participation. When my wife and I proposed Beetle Days, the LAIC's response was essentially, "Fine, great, do it, but we have no help to offer." (Compare that to their immediate sponsorship of outsier Motongator Joe.) When I asked to review the housing study to see what I could learn about the local market, Dwaine said it would cost me $250. When the LAIC announced its Main Street and More initiative, my wife offered to help. She never received a response. When Ashley Allen raised the issue of the need for retail development last summer, he was invited to a board meeting, but the board seemed to lose interest in speaking with him after his letters and the open meeting he hosted on the topic. And frankly, I've heard some absurdly nasty talk about how certain LAIC board members view me that makes me think they would never let me or any of the people they think of as my allies (I've heard the word "puppets" used) set foot in one of their board meetings.
Now whether Julie, as a long-standing member of that local Establishment, is willing to talk to little old me or not is a minor issue. The much greater question is whether the new exec will be open to the participation of all citizens (stakeholders, to use the term of managerial art), including those who are vocal and properly critical of Madison's economic performance, and whether the board will give her any more room to act on new and different ideas than it gave the previous exec.
Julie needs to bring a new mindset to the LAIC... but that won't matter if the board doesn't adopt a new mindset. Do you (does anyone here) think Julie's hiring represents a change in mindset or policy focus?
So tell me Cory, what is it about you that people seem to reject your input? I don not know you that well. Could it be that you come out too headstrong? I am not saying that being headstrong is a bad thing, but being a bull in a china cabinet will only get you broken glass. Again no disrespect, I just hope you would be on board the train that goes through what I think is a good place to live. MADISON.
I'm definitely headstrong. That definitely turns some people off. But since when is economic development and the future of a community a game for milquetoasts?
I don't know if this is relevant, but headstrong as I am, I'm still able to strike up some pretty lively conversations with folks who don't know me as I circulate petitions on the education bill. Some agree, some don't; some sign, some don't. But I can talk to just about anybody and listen to just about anybody.
But remember, economic development and politics in general should revolve around practical policies, not personalities. If Madison's leaders' only reason for rejecting people's input is personal, then Madison's leaders will miss out on a lot of good ideas. Everybody is a citizen, even the cranky SOBs. Everybody deserves a voice in how the community runs, even the people whose voices grate or bore.
I may shout, "It's raining!" An LAIC board member may say, "Hmm, he said that in a headstrong fashion. Let's ignore him." That doesn't change the fact that it's raining.