Proposed New Hire for Economic Development Gets Mixed Reviews

Last year, city government created a whole new department and hired a director to administer it. Since she took the position, Paulette Enders has had a staff of one. Herself.

Enders would like to hire a helper — the position title would be "business services specialist" — and she has some reason to believe that the staff position came with the territory.

The creation of the new Department of Economic Development traces back to 2008, when the city paid a consulting firm to look at the structure of the development process in Wauwatosa. It recommended forming a dedicated arm of government to help promote and streamline that process, with "ample staff to implement ambitious redevelopment."

Tuesday night, a Common Council committee split evenly on whether there was ample need and resources now to create that new staff position for Enders' department.

Enders had asked for the hire in a memo last August, hoping to have someone in place by April this year. But action was put off, and now the item had come before the Employee Relations Committee on the same night it was also asked to dramatically increase pension and health care payments from many city employees, and while the city is faced with big budget shortfalls under reduced state aid and a property tax freeze.

The proposal for the new position comes with a recommended salary between $50,695 and $71,430, not including benefits.

Enders pointed out that among comparable cities that have also created economic development departments, none has a staff of less than three dedicated employees.

"This would free me up to develop the big picture," Enders told the committee. "This person would focus on developing small businesses."

Committee chairman Peter Donegan said he had supported the plan for building an economic development initiative, but, he said, "Considering how we are pressed, I'm concerned about adding a $50,000 position."

Donegan related that the Wauwatosa Economic Development Corp., a public-private entity that previously filled the role of promoting business growth, had eliminated just such a position because most of the small businesses it fostered had failed.

"Perhaps the people who need these services (from the city) should not be in business," Donegan said. "How will this person help them?"

City Administrator Jim Archambo went out on a bit of a limb, saying, "I feel so strongly about this position that I can say we will eliminate an equal FTE (full-time equivalency) in the budget."

Donegan, seldom one to mince words, shot back, "Can you eliminate that position regardless of this proposal?"

"Potentially, yes," Archambo said.

"Then it's irrelevant," Donegan said. "If you can eliminate a postion, you can eliminate it."

Despite his courtroom-like demeanor, Donegan repeated that he did support the proposal, and Ald. Cheryl Berdan added simply that she suppported it, too.

But when it came to a vote, Ald. Michael Walsh and Brian Ewerdt voted against adding the postition without having said a word.

The resulting 2-2 tie still sends the measure forward to the Common Council but without any advice from the committee other than the record of the minutes.

Ald. Jill Organ, the fifth member of the committee, was absent for the third consecutive meeting, which has resulted in two tie votes on controversial issues. A month ago, she was absent when the question of mayoral pay first came back to the committee, and two weeks ago, she was absent when the committee first tied on a recommendation for a raise to $35,000, then voted 3-1 on proposing a $30,000 raise.