Who is driving Rock County’s economic recovery bus?
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Mary A. Willmer-Sheedy
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James Otterstein
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Robert Borremans
JANESVILLE — While indications are that 2010 could be just as challenging as 2009, other signs point to the eventual economic recovery for Rock County and its residents.
The Promised Land, however, won’t magically appear on the horizon.
Most agree it will be reached only with a concerted community effort.
If that’s the case, who is driving Rock County’s recovery bus?
The answer is two-fold, and it’s based on whether the bus is headed toward an economic recovery or one that helps the thousands of workers left in the wake of the turbulent economy.
Economic development
For the most part, the individuals leading economic development belong to the Rock County Development Alliance, which is an economic development partnership formed in 2001 between the cities of Janesville and Beloit, Forward Janesville, Rock County and Alliant Energy.
The alliance picked up help late last year with the formation of Rock County 5.0, a public-private initiative designed to foster collaboration, communication and economic development connections for the benefit of all county communities.
“I think we all realized that you can make a lot more impact by combining resources than competing with each other,” said Mary Willmer-Sheedy, market president of M&I Bank in Janesville and co-chair of Rock County 5.0’s advisory council.
“That’s not to say there isn’t a time and place for specific focuses within each community, such as in downtown Janesville or the city’s west side. In this case, we’ve taken a more regional, macro approach.”
Rock County 5.0 is focusing on business retention and expansion, new business attraction, small business and entrepreneurship, real estate positioning and workforce profiling.
The goals and strategies are not new to the alliance. Rock County 5.0, however, brings funding and guidance that haven’t been available to the five specialists who represent each of the alliance partners.
Nearly three months after its formation, Rock County 5.0 is approaching its goal to raise $1 million for a five-year economic development budget.
In contrast, the alliance spent about $10,000 a year the last nine years marketing and promoting Rock County.
Economic development involves a variety of moving pieces, and Rock County 5.0 supplies the financial grease to keep things in motion, said James Otterstein, the county’s economic development manager and alliance member.
One example is a pilot project to position the county for new development and investment opportunities. It involves researching and profiling companies that hold potential.
“Simply stated, it’s matching assets with opportunities based upon specific criteria,” Otterstein said.
It’s a complicated process that takes time and money, both of which were restricted before the formation of Rock County 5.0, he said.
The group hired a company to do the heavy lifting, and the early results are encouraging, Otterstein said.
“We’re currently in contact with nearly a half dozen pre-qualified opportunities that didn’t previously exist,” he said.
The challenge, he said, is to convert possibilities into realities for Rock County.
“We could buy lists, and we could make hundreds of phone calls to find one or two warm leads,” Willmer-Sheedy said. “But we’ve hired this professional, they’ve made the calls, they’ve found the warm leads and now we’re only spending our time talking to the warm leads.
“People have to understand that—especially in this national and global economic environment—these things take time. It’s not something that just happens in one or two months; sometimes it can take two or more years.”
Dealing with the aftermath
While the local auto industry dislocated more than 3,000 workers, the area’s economic downturn affected nearly three times that many, said Bob Borremans, executive director of the Southwest Wisconsin Workforce Development Board.
So far, about one-third of them have sought a variety of social and educational services, many of which emanate from agencies housed at the Rock County Job Center in Janesville.
And as employment benefits continue to expire, more are expected at the center.
“I think we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg,” Borremans said.
Coordinating the socioeconomic service of the area’s dislocated workers is the goal of Collaborative Organizations Responding to Dislocations, an initiative launched in late 2008 as a response to auto industry layoffs.
CORD represents a variety of groups and agencies that traditionally serve dislocated workers and their families.
“CORD was formed to pull all these organizations together so we can avoid unnecessary duplication,” Borremans said. “It’s a broad-based group that recognizes that the economic development folks are doing their own thing, but there are other services that need to be provided.
“With the scale of the problem in Rock County, no one group had the capacity or money to deal with the volume of the needs. So many of these agencies have a niche purpose, and you can’t possibly know what each group does and whether it has the capacity to serve everyone.”
While member agencies focus on a variety of human services issues, CORD has centered on three:
-- Foreclosure and credit issues facing dislocated workers.
-- The merger of the United Way of North Rock County’s First Call referral problem into the job center.
-- Transitional job opportunities in both the not-for-profit and private sectors.
“We’ve been successful with all three,” Borremans said.
The job program, for example, allows employers to use new employees who are paid with federal monies. The employees gain new skills that might lead to permanent employment, he said.
CORD also serves as a clearinghouse for resources and tools for dislocated workers and their families.
Similar to economic development initiatives, human services cost money, and Borremans worries about continued funding.
The area has a $3 million commitment that will expire in 2011. Most of the money has come from the U.S. Department of Labor, a federal stimulus package and a National Emergency Grant.
Most of the money has been committed, and, contrary to some public opinion, it hasn’t all been spent on displaced General Motors’ employees. In fact, Borremans said, the vast majority has been used to help displaced employees at GM suppliers and other companies with no ties to the automaker.
In part, that’s because GM workers generally have enjoyed better benefits than other employees and haven’t yet asked for help, he said.
“Unless we get additional funding, we estimate that we can only serve half the people who are currently enrolled to get help,” Borremans said.
Up to 200 people are now on waiting lists for services, he said.
Still, Borremans is optimistic the area will get more federal funding. While the end of second-shift production at GM in July 2008 triggered a large portion of the funding, more money should be available because of the ultimate end of production in December 2008.
“The impact of the auto sector collapse triggered this, but what’s going on here is symbolic of what’s gone on in the Midwest.
“We got caught up in it like a lot of other communities, and we’ll get out of it just like other communities.”
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Larry Molnar has traveled to dozens of communities devastated by automotive plant closures, and he’s impressed with the work going on in Janesville and Rock County.
“The Janesville/Rock County group is the most proactive, organized and forward thinking of any community we’ve worked with,” Molnar said.
Molar is lead investigator for the Community Economic Adjustment Program funded in part by the U.S. Department of Commerce Economic Development Administration. It is a partner with the Center for Automotive Research and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.
In Rock County, Molnar has worked with Collaborative Organizations Responding to Dislocations, a group formed in 2008 to pull together agencies and avoid duplication of services for the area’s dislocated workers. CORD also has tried to chart a course for socioeconomic recovery.
“The group is extremely responsive and has come up with ideas that have the potential to really help mitigate the adverse impact of the closure,” he said.
Molnar’s program helps communities recognize their strengths and identify resources to revitalize their economies.
It works to link communities with federal, state and regional resources and to give community leaders management tools.
Now in its fourth year, the Community Economic Adjustment Program has worked with more than 50 such communities in a six-state region of the upper Midwest.
Molnar and CORD are putting together a detailed proposal for federal officials that, if approved and funded, would make Janesville a demonstration model for other communities.
“Foreclosure is a problem for dislocated workers,” he said in describing the project. “The banks and lenders have come up with all sorts of programs to try and help. For example, they’ll cut a mortgage payment in half.
“But if you’ve got no income, you can’t even make that payment.”
The pilot project planned for Janesville would provide mortgage assistance tied a work requirement, he said. Dislocated workers would work on retrofitting and weatherizing houses, which is a priority of the Obama administration.
Molnar and CORD are trying to bring Ed Montgomery, a member of the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry and director of recovery for Auto Communities and Workers, to Janesville to hear the proposal.
“We’ll show him how this will help the area and how it involves the departments of Energy, Housing and Urban Development and Labor,” Molnar said. “It will become a demonstration project for other communities.”
Rock County is a natural for such a project, he said.
“One reason is Janesville has such a proactive group,” he said. “But Janesville is different and unique because it’s so isolated that you can measure the results of what you’re doing.
“In a lot of the areas affected by plant closings, you can’t tell what difference you’re making because everything seems to fold into the much larger metro area.”
Molnar said CORD is a collection of people willing to think outside the box. Good ideas, such as the demonstration project, are coming out of Rock County, he said.
“Of all the communities I’ve worked in, I’ve taken a personal interest in and adopted Janesville,” he said. “There’s a great group of people there.”
Jan 24, 2010 at 8:11 a.m.
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bobb1951
You need to put down that left handed cigarette,get off the couch and literally go out and apply for a job.no way you can do that siting on you a$$
Jan 19, 2010 at 5:41 p.m.
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It became what the union and management let it become. Still, it was, and is, a Japanese idea, offered to the union by GM. Next they`ll want to have one-third of their workers being temporaries, as they are in Japan. Another way to cut costs, they bring in foreigners, have them live in company housing, and throw them out when sales slack off. Let`s grab up all their ideas, maybe even the one where Toyota uses virtual slave labor(allegedly) in their factories in Southeast Asia.
Jan 19, 2010 at 3:09 p.m.
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Van Galder Bus Company?
Jan 19, 2010 at 2:39 p.m.
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and I'm sur the idea of the manage ment in 1984 was to have millions of dollars in salary doing literally NOTHING and drawing a salary, Sure! Put it in the right context, what it was created to do and what it became at the very end im guessing are two very different things whatdya think. I'm also pretty sure that the union fought so hard to keep em because they were evil management tools right? Cmon!
Jan 19, 2010 at 12:57 p.m.
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Charles 'Scorpio Killer' Davis
Jan 19, 2010 at 8:40 a.m.
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Wall Street Journal, 3-1-06, "GM Paying People Not To Work, by Jeffrey McCracken, "At about 4pm, on August 8, 1984, GM put forward a one-paragraph memo proposing the creation of an "employee development bank." It was to copy an idea already in use by Japanese auto manufacturers, one they still are using today. SURE!
Jan 19, 2010 at 8:26 a.m.
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By the way " unidentified" ive got your cork you dummy and ill tell you what you can do with it. Speak your opinion, dont tell me not to speak mine no matter how much you may disagree... says a lot about you i suppose"unidentified" What a joke!
Jan 19, 2010 at 8:22 a.m.
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I am sure it was GM that came up with the jobs bank and not the unions that demanded it and negotiated it ,...SURE. By the way to the idiot who thinks I make up stories so put forth some ideological point, you are truely stupid. I work nights take care of infant twins during the day and attend online classes to better my life and that of my family , just because you dont have a similar drive get off it.
Lets get one thing straight I have no anti-union bias , I do think they have their place, however I do believe they also have wrecked industries as well. I think national unions are as corrupt and greedy as multi-national corporations. In my opinion all unions should be local only. anything else just plays itself to greed and corruption. Which I might add has been plaguing the UAW for DECADES. I understand that this is janesville a FORMER GM town, and there will be many bitter former union members here that suckled at the teet for many years, but do not demean anyone who works for ten bucks an hour and pays the rent/mortgage bills and puts food on the table. If you want more than 10 bucks an hour go to COLLEGE. Better yourself and get an education. Stop whining about why you dont have any more 28$ an hour jobs pushing brooms around , boozing at lunch, amking vehicles as intoxicated as you could be. Look Ive been in that little bar and watched the hundreds of now former GM employees booze till they puke and go back to work. It made me understand why my chevy truck was such a piece of crap. Because of all the nonsense that went on in this town at GM that i witnessed , iI will only own Hondas mad ein OHIO. They dont break and Im guessing that the workers were SOBER when they built em.
I think that Unions have their place inour country,ie...teachers, firefighters, police. Watching all these egotistical auto-workers use the union as nothing more than protection to be lazy and intoxicated on the job sorry but I don't feel sorry for a one of those people. I feel that this was more the rule for the Janesville workforce than the exception. So all you union hacks quit your whining suck it up and get an education OK?
One more quickie, as a local vendor I do speak and have spoken to several local employers HR staff..... stop demanding GM wages people your not gonna get em...CHEESH!
Jan 19, 2010 at 12:31 a.m.
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herby101 - I haven't heard the complaining about GM employees. I've heard they are hard workers. What I have heard though, is complainig about the inappropriately greedy GM corporation, the undue influence of the Unions, and the over-priced GM products. Let's not assume that complining about greed and corruption is tied to the workforce.
Jan 18, 2010 at 4:58 p.m.
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Who is driving Rock County’s economic recovery bus? Could it possibly be Ralph Kramden?!
Jan 18, 2010 at 4:51 p.m.
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Blind people?
Jan 18, 2010 at 4:47 p.m.
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Stop complaining about GM its gone!
Jan 18, 2010 at 4:44 p.m.
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Attention: I have listened to years of complaining about GM employees. No one wanted good paying Union Jobs.So bite your tongues.Janesville will never be the same.Ten dollar an hour jobs is what we get. Stop compaining about GM its gone.
Jan 18, 2010 at 12:03 p.m.
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The one thing that usually follows a severe recession in a new, fresh, clean economy. But this time will be a little different - the fed carefuly transplanted the old, sick corporations like AIG and GM into the new economy - so things won't be as new, fresh and clean this time around.
Jan 18, 2010 at 11:55 a.m.
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The economy will return to normal soon Unidentified - hang in there a bit longer and jobs will be forthcoming.
Jan 18, 2010 at 10:56 a.m.
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woodyman77: Your story sounds like a load of crap you made up to help bolster your obviously anti union slant. The job market is horrid. Myself, and I know others, have hundreds of resumes out there with no return calls. This including a degree and solid work history both union and non-union. Additionally, no demands for any specific wages. If you actually did re-enter the job market after ten years making more than ten dollars an hour, consider yourself extremely lucky and put a cork in it.
Jan 18, 2010 at 10:19 a.m.
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The jobs bank had been shrinking for years before GM went bankrupt. Besides, Ford and Toyota had similar programs, and they have survived. Stop blaming the union for GM's mismanagement.
Jan 18, 2010 at 9:52 a.m.
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woodyman - they weren't doing crossword puzzles, they were sleeping and watching movies....
Jan 18, 2010 at 9:39 a.m.
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GM first proposed the "jobs bank" in 1984, and yet people continue to blame the UAW. Please get the facts straight.
Jan 18, 2010 at 9:36 a.m.
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I whole heartedly agree with lovethemidwest; however, not only is the bus in the ditch and the driver drunk, but my guess is that the driver was on his way to some meeting in Madison to tell them our economy in Janesville is starting to recovery and vote for lighter drunk driving laws! Monkeys could run WI government better. We need less talk and more action. They need to stop feeding us lines of crap hoping that we are going to believe it. Uhm, hello...we live here. We see the disaster Janesville has become, union or non-union. You can't drive your way out of this...and if you think you can, you are probably drunk!
Jan 18, 2010 at 8:52 a.m.
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Well said Darwin!
Jan 18, 2010 at 8:51 a.m.
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just like a union hack to politicize any statement that doesnt run lockstep with what they want you to believe. dont politicize answer. tell me why a person not taking a job when they dont have one because it doesnt live up to their "standards" of wages and benefits. is that this so-called american dream that you speak of? management is seven layers thick and thats all well and good, my point speaks to the fact that greed reigns supreme at all levels of employment. when people in these so-called "job-banks" making upwards of 60,000 a year for doing crossward puzzles 8-10 hours a day I wouldnt charecterize that as the american dream, would you? lliberal conservative whatever. common sense is of what I speak, you just throw out labels and paint with broad brushes i speak in specifics. believe what you want , but i dont believe that the last 10-15 yrs at gm represented the american dream at all, it represented what can happen for you if you know the right people, and could get in at gm otherwise youre on the outside looking in, trying to make your own way without the benefits of the union. which i might add has become quite a profitable business in itself. the people working for UAW and other powerful unions make a pretty good living, and its all on the backs of the people for which they represent. when janesville closes, they still get paid just the same. do you really think any of them really give a care about you? not me.
Jan 18, 2010 at 8:39 a.m.
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"How can some people be so incredibly ignorant?"
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They believe to much of the propaganda distributed by Fox News.
Jan 18, 2010 at 8:32 a.m.
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Blaming unions is the most dimwitted conservative cliche I have ever heard. Unions don't run the businesses managers do - duh. Management agreed to the jobs bank didn't they? GM management is seven layers thick, not even Bob Lutz could get a car out on time at GM. Bankers got trillions but somehow working class people and their unions are to blame for our problems? Unions are what made the American dream possible in the first place. That isn't greed. How can some people be so incredibly ignorant.
Jan 18, 2010 at 6:49 a.m.
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by the way chicken little the sky is not falling our country will survive. greed is the killer of this counrty , if you think that greed is limited to bankers and multi national corporations. unions are to blame as well. don't paint the rosy piture that unions are soley about helping working families make a decent wage. that wouldn't be the whole story, unions have their place in the usa but they also have created things like "job banks" at gm , which may very well have been the downfall of the plant. also if you want to make points dont use the CAPS LOCK , ill read you post any way, CHEESH!!!!
Jan 18, 2010 at 6:39 a.m.
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I raelly hope all the displaced workers in rock coutny aren't hoping to find UNION JOBS with UNION WAGES or UNION BENEFITS as a part of their future because iI've got some bad news for ya they're gone. Lets be honest here anyways. Almost all the GM workers have recieved some form of buyout , sub-pay , extended unemployment, and government subsidized education. It's not like these people were thrown out in the street and left to starve. What I really can't believe is that these people feel as if though society owes them something. I am not suffering from the so-called GM jealousy that UAW members like to claim, however I do have a story to tell.
I just re-entered the job market for the first time in ten yrs. I needed to find a job in rock county closer to home because my wife and I were expecting twins. With all the horror stories you hear it's amazing to me I got the first job I applied for and at a decent wage too. I talked to the HR person during my orientation and to my amazement she said she had interviewed several UAW workers who demanded no less than 28$ an hr and if their demands weren't met they would not take this job.
I find it so humorous that these people find that they are somehow entitled to money they haven't earned no matter where they go apply. Time to wake up people, if you haven't got some education in your time away you will NEVER again make 28$ an hr for unskilled labor you just won't, and probably never should have to begin with. to me a father of 3 boys in janesville, i will teach my boys that only hard work and perserverance will get you ahead in this world not entitlements! ABSOLUTELY PATHETIC! All you former GM workers with this mind set should be ashamed of yourselves ,L A Z Y is the only word I can think of.When all your benefits run out and the savings start to get thin maybe then you'll realize that taking advantage of a situation is not always the best way to go about life!
Jan 18, 2010 at 6:36 a.m.
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Thank you JUSTASKME for the information. I did not know that M & I divided into two corporations. I will have to research that info. to find out more.
Jan 18, 2010 at 6:05 a.m.
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yada - M&I has broken-up into 2 corporations now - ticker symbols MI and MV, so there is no way to tell how well they are doing now that the waters have been muddied.
Jan 18, 2010 at 5:52 a.m.
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Anyway, Rock County's unemployed residents really need more help and guidance from programs that do not cater to the auto industry - the one industry that seems to have an abundance of assistance.
Jan 18, 2010 at 5:51 a.m.
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I saved and bookmarked(January 15, 2009) an article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that reported a fourth quarter loss by M & I bank of $403.9 Million Dollars and that it would eliminate 830 jobs. I found the numbers to be staggering and wonder if anyone has seen any updated facts about how M & I are doing now.
Jan 18, 2010 at 1:39 a.m.
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I see inconvenienttruth has already contaminated this board - what a shame.
Jan 17, 2010 at 11:56 p.m.
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"Larry Molnar has traveled to dozens of communities devastated by automotive plant closures, and he’s impressed with the work going on in Janesville and Rock County."
So what do you expect Larry Molnar to say? 1) why don't you name some of the dozens of communities devastated by automotive plant closures that Larry Molar has visited?
The Truth? "General Motors like the rest of American manufacturers have filed bankruptcy to shed themselves of their Union Contracts". The former employees of GM can look forward to working minimum wage jobs like "greeters" at Wall Mart.
Who the heck are you trying to fool!
We'll all be impressed with the work going on in ROCK COUNTY when real jobs with real union benefits are replaced with the same number or greater numbers of UNION JOBS making the same or a greater amount of hourly wages and benefits as those that have been lost with the closing of the GM plant.
I think the newmedia including the "GAZETTE" are in denial. Instead of painting a picture of things as a bed of roses lining a yellow brick road why to don't you report it like it is.
You can start by doing some investigative reporting comparing and naming the communities devastated by the automotive downturn as reported by "Larry Molnar" with some real, factual comparisons to Janesville, WI.
Until the Gazette does some real, unbiased, investigative reporting, maybe the Gazette should be more careful about being a clanging gong or a meaningless cymbal.
The worst kind of deception is self deception. Wake up to what's happening to our country, our state, Rock county and Janesville.
Jan 17, 2010 at 9:25 p.m.
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So,let me get this straight. The Rock County Development Alliance spent a little more 1,000 dollars a year for each of the last 9 years and Rock county 5.0 plans to spend a million dollars over the next 5 years?
Jan 17, 2010 at 8:59 p.m.
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If I was James Otterstein, I would be embarassed that there was a separate economic council charged with driving the business climate. If you have Rock County 5.0, this means you are not doing your job. You can call it what you want but, I would say this is not a vote of confidence if you have a separate, private council trying to entice business this region.
Jan 17, 2010 at 5:39 p.m.
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Does it have to be a bus? I mean, sure, at least it's not something like a Dodge kid-taker panel van...but a bus?
Jan 17, 2010 at 5:22 p.m.
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I think the bus is either in the ditch or the driver is drunk.
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