SEWRPC awards $50,000 no-bid contract to officer's former staffers

April 2, 2007 -- The Southeastern Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission awarded a $50,000 no-bid contract to study Milwaukee's 30th Street Industrial Corridor to two former subordinates of influential SEWRPC commission member William R. Drew.

Both contractors, Daniel Boyce and Jon Wellhoefer, served as deputy commissioners in the Milwaukee City Development in the 1980s, when Drew was DCD commissioner. They are now being paid $125 an hour each by SEWRPC.

SEWRPC's 30th Street Corridor study is being run out of an office in the Milwaukee County Research Park. The corridor is in central Milwaukee; the Research Park is on the Milwaukee County Grounds in Wauwatosa, several miles away. SEWRPC is paying the rent.

Drew, who is executive director of the Research Park, has served as SEWRPC vice-chairman and now is its treasurer. He is heavily involved in the study and has met frequently with Boyce and Wellhoefer, according to SEWRPC documents.

When the two were first hired, they were directed by SEWRPC Execuive Director Philip Evenson to coordinate their steps with Drew.

SEWRPC is supported by property taxes, with the largest share coming from Milwaukee County.

While city representatives in January signed an agreement with the county and SEWRPC to work toward the same goals for the corridor, the city had nothing to do with retaining Drew's former colleagues for the study, said DCD spokeswoman Andrea Rowe-Richards.

"We did not," she said, adding: "We welcome any partners who want to work with us creating additional opportunities and attracting additional investment to the corridor."

Boyce and Wellhoefer, in an October letter outlining their proposed study, said planning "will be conducted in close coordination with Milwaukee County and the City of Milwaukee."

Since the January agreement, however, Rowe-Richards said, "we have been working on a number of initiatives. I am not aware of what SEWRPC is working on currently."

SEWRPC undertook the study at the request of County Supervisor Michael Mayo, who is chairman of the County Board's Economic Development Committee and who has served on the Research Park Board.

Evenson

Neither the Milwaukee County Board nor SEWRPC ever voted to conduct the study, according to Evenson and Harold Mester, spokesman for the County Board. Evenson said there was a "strong consensus" among SEWRPC Executive Committee members that the commission should "positively respond."

SEWRPC first hired Wellhoefer and Boyce in April 2006 to conduct a "preliminary process" to "assemble data and plans and suggest additional information requirements," for the study, according to an April 7 letter from Boyce and Wellhoefer.

"We will identify business, neighborhood and organizational stakeholders and suggest for Commission review workable government and community participation in the planning process, " they wrote.

Boyce and Wellhoefer got a much larger no-bid contract in October, according to SEWRPC records. The men would continue to work on the 30th Street Corridor study for $125 an hour each -- but under a new agreement, their scope of duties expanded, and they estimated it would take 400 hours -- which would pay $50,000 -- to complete the work.

Under the agreement, the two are to develop:

• A vision statement describing what the stakeholders believe the corridor can become in the future and a sense of achievable short- and long-term goals.
• A detailing of the federal, state and local entities that have committed resources to the revitalization effort and what they can be reasonably expected to deliver.
• A recommended management structure with which to manage the revitalization effort, monitor the implementation and evaluate its success.
• An implementation design that will identify and categorize sub-areas, preservation areas and 'industrial intensive treatment areas;' recommend new program approaches and new partnerships; identify site specific development opportunities; suggest marketing strategies to maximize probability of successful development.

Evenson, in an e-mail, said it was not necessary to look further than Drew's old compatriots for contractors to complete the study.

"Knowing that this project would have a limited term and taking into account all of our other commitments, we identified individuals who we thought had significant Milwaukee-based experience in redevelopment activities and who might be available on a part time basis for a one-to-two year period," he wrote. "That led us to Wellhoefer and Boyce."

It also was not necessary to look further than western Wauwatosa for office space for the Milwaukee central city study, Evenson said.

"The work effort involves several ad hoc groups," he wrote. "After caucusing with Supervisor Mayo, he agreed that the Research Park location would be convenient for such group meetings. Given modest rental rates, its location, and the fact that it is a Milwaukee County facility, no other sites were explored. As independent contractors, Wellhoefer and Boyce are free to work out of that office or not, as they see fit. They will use the Research Park for most meetings."

No SEWRPC staff members are assigned to the office on a full-time basis, he said.

The rent for the office is $241.50 per month, according to the lease.

The city, which also is heavily involved in 30th St. Corridor redevelopment, is working out of an office on the corridor contributed, by Eaton Corp., according to DCD's Rowe-Richards. It is rent-free, she said.

Printer-friendly version