Five Rivers: Problem is Secrecy, not Weak Common Council

Surveying the catastrophe that has become the Five Rivers project, an editorial in today's Oshkosh Northwestern rips the Oshkosh Common Council: "The council has some deep operational issues. This council cannot handle tough projects and has turned its decision-making responsibility over to the hired hands. This council doesn't ask tough questions, doesn't demand accountability." I'm not really sure what they are talking about, as the only members of the present Council who have failed to ask tough questions in public about Five Rivers are Mayor Bill Castle and Shirley Mattox. Paul Esslinger has been asking tough questions from the beginning (in spite of being under the constraint of signing a confidentiality agreement with the developer), and at last Tuesday's meeting Bryan Bain, Burk Tower, and Dennis McHugh all in their questioning tried to cut through the obfuscation coming from the Department of Community Development. Even Meredith Scheuermann, who missed the last meeting and also signed a confidentiality agreement, at least had the decency to forward Cheryl Hentz's questions to Mr. Kinney.

No, the problem with the Five Rivers project from the beginning has not been a weak council that lacks critical thinking skills. The problem has been that THE PROJECT HAS BEEN SHROUDED IN SECRECY. The Council has gone into closed session to negotiate for "competitive and bargaining reasons" even though it has been clear for almost two years now that there was/is no competition. Indeed, Mr. Doig's meltdown letter suggests that competition has been the least of his worries. More openness would have revealed to the public a long time ago the shaky ground on which this project rests, and we would not have wasted all this time that could have been used to determine a strategy for developing the area in a more sensible way that the public could actually buy into.

Madison attorney Christa Westerberg has an outstanding essay in the most recent issue of the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council's newsletter called "Secret Development Deals Flout Open Meetings Law." (in Microsoft word format). The Oshkosh Common Council is facing two open meetings complaints related to the Five Rivers development, and after about three months we have still heard nothing from the Attorney General's office. If the manner in which the Five Rivers negotiations have been conducted are consistent with the Open Meetings Law, then there is something horribly wrong with that law and it needs immediate revision.