The Way I See It!

My Review of the Debate - McCue Part 2

Posted by Randy Hollenbeck on March 28, 2010

2010 Election, Cudahy, Debates, Mayor, McCue, Tony Day

I just wonder how many plants were in the audience to feed Mayor McCue questions?  Did you notice Mayor McCue reading off of his full size sheets of notes?

Let me draw your attention to this user written story from Ruth Broderick titled “A Forum with Mayor McCue”

Earlier this week, I spent an evening with Mayor McCue.  I had been invited to a neighbor’s home to meet him and hear what he envisions for Cudahy.  This was the first time I had met the Mayor and I was impressed.  He is young, energetic and filled with ideas to make our city a great place to live.  His enthusiasm is contagious.  All we hear at CudahyNow is the negative rhetoric of Randy Hollenbeck.  We never hear the positive things that have been done.  Even Tony Day, who I would have thought better of, has fallen into the negative campaign strategy.  Mayor McCue never pointed a finger at his predecessor or his challenger.  He is an open book and will meet with anyone to discuss what he has done and plans to do for Cudahy.  I would like to relate just of few of the things that were spoken about that evening.

1. The city’s bond rating has upgraded to AA-.  We have one of the highest bond ratings in the state of Wisconsin.  This is fairly unheard of in this economic climate so we can be proud of this.

2. The city pension fund had not been adequately funded in the past several administrations.  We owed the state approximately $3.7 million.  Mayor McCue found $2.2 million in the treasury and took the rest out in bonds, at a low rate, to make the pension now fully funded.  This saved the taxpayers $11.3 million.

3. The Ice Port fiasco was finally put to rest.  Before the last election, the city was facing a $5.3 million law suit by the developer over legal complications.  In 2 ½ years Mayor McCue has taken possession of the land without any cost to the city and without facing a suit from the developer.  The land is now of interest to other developers.

4. The Library Condos are now being sold.  At the time he took office there was only one tenant.  The Mayor was not willing to turn them into apartments or low income housing.  The complex was sold to a new developer who made them more affordable and has since sold 27 of the 30 units.

The citizens need to realize that the problems that Mayor McCue was faced with upon taking office were not of his doing.  The previous administrations, the previous Cudahy Redevelopment Authority and the so-called Cudahy Downtown Implementation Team, which McCue disbanded, did not do their best when deciding on projects that would increase our appeal to newcomers.  We all know that the Ice Port was a big mistake as well as high priced condos in an unappealing downtown area.  He has dealt with these negative issues and has made them positive now.

Sound familiar?  And now you know why Mayor McCue wouldn’t come to the debate I organized.  He couldn’t stack the deck in his favor.  Now you know why it was held at a time when most of Cudahy couldn’t be there!  The debate I organized was fair.

Re-watch it as he hears the question and turns the pages to find it on his typed up stapled notes.

FYI, Ruth, give me something that McCue did himself that was positive.  Not from the McCue brochure, but something from your words.

 K9, nope, try again.  Most of the things he single-handedly takes credit for are join efforts with the Common Council or personnel committee or CDA.  But McCue takes the credit, McCue gets the failures.

One other thing Ruth, I don’t sugar coat it or paint the rosy picture of Cudahy because that isn’t being real.  That is what McCue does.  Cudahy is in need of a lot of help.  I keep it real and give my opinions.  If you dislike something so much, don’t continue to read and complain.  If my blog makes you that miserable, don't come.  It’s that's easy.  I do hope someone wakes you from the hypnotic trance that is McCue and the fantasyland he has you living in.

There are positive things going on in Cudahy, just not with McCue.  McCue doesn’t have the Midis touch, it is much more like the anti-Midis touch.  He is doing a bang up job with the Iceport cleanup right?  Did you know taxpayer’s money is cleaning it up or did McCue give you a line and you took the bait, hook line, and sinker?  Did he tell you it is TIF money (McCue thinks TIF stands for Taxes Is Free).  TIF money isn’t Monopoly or play money, it is taxpayer’s money!

If he does something, he doesn’t follow rules and the rest of the time he just doesn’t do anything. McCue tells us you want a Mayor that reads the fine print, how about one that reads the print like the size for election signs.

And McCue is worried about what salary Tony Day was think of a Part Time Mayor would get in Cudahy, we already have a part time Mayor with McCue and we are paying him as if he was a full time employee.  Notice how he uses the 9-5 job to explain things when it really is 8-5.  He is already shorting it by an hour.

Didn’t you hear McCue go negative in the debate?  Acts of desperation.  Sounds like rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic to me.

I think McCue now sees the checks will end.  I did post a job opportunity that would be just inline with his qualifications.

Here is an email from someone on McCue campaigning.

Subject: Campaign notes

Randy,

I was wondering if Ryan and his family (kids in a stroller as well) made their way to your house this last Sunday?

Surprisingly enough, he went through our neighborhood again, this time with the wife and kids in tow, on foot.  Perhaps he is looking for the sympathy vote, (If you elect Day and what will happen to all of us).

I would also like to bring your attention that you can hire the best and brightest from outside Cudahy and I am a firm believer that someone who lives in Cudahy and works for Cudahy does have a more vested interest and will go the extra mile.  People should want to move here, but Cudahy hasn’t been able to do that.

Here is a snippet from the story below on the hiring of a Former Beloit superintendent hired for the Whitnall school district.  Notice something?

"When we talked to his former colleagues, they all told us that Dr. Holtz had made a profound impact on his previous school district," School Board President Bill Osterndorf said in a news release.  "We were also very impressed with the fact that Dr. Holtz wants to reach out and be part of the community where he works."

Tony Day’s review next!

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Former Beloit superintendent hired at Whitnall

By MARK SCHAAF

Posted: March 23, 2010 10:58 a.m.

The Whitnall School District now knows whom its next superintendent will be.

The School Board last night appointed former Beloit superintendent Lowell Holtz to begin serving as the district's highest-ranking administrator on July 1. He will replace Karen Petric, who is retiring.

Holtz's appointment was unanimous.  The other finalist was Grafton High School Principal Ken McCormick.

"When we talked to his former colleagues, they all told us that Dr. Holtz had made a profound impact on his previous school district," School Board President Bill Osterndorf said in a news release.  "We were also very impressed with the fact that Dr. Holtz wants to reach out and be part of the community where he works."

I did a blog post on March 11, 2008 called Gutterball.  The ABC was never going to seriously consider coming to Cudahy.

USBC Board votes its intention to move headquarters to Texas

USBC was all talk about listening to staying in Milwaukee or move to Cudahy.  They are trying to hide behind this “Destination spot” that is now the buzzword. 

The truth is the person in charge at USBC has contacts and worked for BPAA who is already located there and in a few years they will merge.  So it would make sense and cents to be located in the same building complex.

We could have offered them a building made of gold and it would not have mattered.