The Way I See It!

Guest Blog - Recap of State of City Address

Posted by Randy Hollenbeck on April 13, 2009

Cudahy, Development, Economy, Guest Blog, Info, Leadership, Mayor, Meeting

By an Energized Cudahy College Student

I will tell you this, it was basic stuff.  McCue being full of hot air and taking credit for everything plus from what I believe, putting the city more in debt.

McCue did however have interesting things to state about Cudahy.

He wants jobs, but at a prevailing wage, whatever Doyle signed the state mandate for a prevailing, McCue's words: “I BELIEVE IN UNIONS”!

The care for Cudahy program: Junk vehicles "drive me up the wall, if you want to see a city go down hill, junk vehicles in alleys will do that."

The police now take over the care for Cudahy program.

People need to take care of their properties because "a broken window will lead to another broken window & graffiti breeds graffiti"

Says we need to get the master plan for 2020 done by the end of this year.

He's accepting bids for the Kinnickinnic curve in mid summer states that it's a "dangerous curve"

Redo Whitnall Avenue says it’s "The worst street ever!"

"We can't go out for all the bids right now otherwise we won't be eligible for stimulus funding" From he said Cudahy is getting under $11,000,000.

Wants to extend Edgerton from Nicholson to Whitnall, the city has already applied for a grant.

Made the point that the construction on I-94 will be a big benefit for Cudahy, says it will take about seven years to fix up and people will come to Cudahy because it is easy and accessible to Milwaukee's Downtown.

He decided to put a hold on the streetscaping!

Wants to go out for a bid to clean up a parking lot on Packard/Layton using the TIF's

He was on the library board and put $100,000 left over from the library referendum and put in some endowment fund

He says, "The library attracts people to Cudahy"

He talked about the condo being foreclosed, says that the city doesn't allow the deprecate of condos (which seems odd) adds that the reason why the condo didn't sell was that they were built after the housing market tanked.  (That can't be true because that was build during Hohenfeldt's term, and the bubble popped around the summer of 2007!)

Add in that the condos will become rentals and "we have to deal with this problem"

Before he ended his speech, it was about 1 hour and 4 minutes.  He states that he's "an honest person", "works hard on your behalf,” "appreciates a good debate," and "you can sway my opinion!"

Lets just say during the Q&A period, he got chewed out, but didn't back down.

He made a comment that since he came in off the tax levy decreased 2.5% when people were asking about their properties.

Made another comment saying we are the most powerful TIF district in the state of Wisconsin and that we have a few more years left on the TIF district, lets use for economic development. 

When people starting voicing to put the Wal-Mart in, he had the blank look on his face.  Said he didn't know about any new info on Wal-Mart. McCue actually want it on Pennsylvania & Layton and says the area where the Iceport is, is the worst place for a Wal-Mart. Otherwise, he said he knows nothing else about Continental, Wal-Mart or anything about the TIF money being dropped, when we asked are you going to vote for it, he dodge the question and didn't answer it.  Even said he hasn't seen any new Wal-Mart details.

About city hall: the county owns city hall because of "deed restrictions"

When people were asking about their assessments going through the roof.  His response, state law dictates when you do reassessments.

People are asking where the money is going and why all these cuts.  His response, it cost the same to run the Police and Fire Department and DPW and other municipalities, where much cheaper compared to other cities.  The house average cost for Cudahy is $160,000 other places, houses cost more.  The tax rate is lower, but the cost is the same.

Admitted that he voted YES for the school 3.3 million dollar referendum.

When it comes to money, "the State of Wisconsin is the most screwed up state in America and the state should mind their own business" And that "the city of Cudahy runs a good government."

Someone made a comment about that without the Wal-Mart there is no downtown Cudahy.  McCue's response "with pessimistic attitude like that, I agree!"

Lara Fritts is getting a $349,000 budget, which includes the hiring of two interns and her salary.

There was an elderly lady who owns an apartment around Cudahy, she was on the verge of tears saying with her SS and her husband retirement, they can't afford the new rental increase that McCue has slated.  She even said, that's wrong and you have no right to do that to us.  McCue didn’t even flinch.  He basically said when asked, yes, I'm for high rent.  He even told her and the crowd that the extra $3 a month "isn't worth breaking anybody’s back over"

Said that the apartment or house on Cudahy & Swift the 3800 block was a big thorn on Cudahy's side and is now no longer an eyesore.  Count that as one (1) thing McCue has done in two years!

With the low funding for police and firefighters, McCue blames Wisconsin because we are constantly being cut by the state.

But did say Cudahy is heading in the right direction (more like left.)

So, that is basically what I wrote down and tried to remember, ask, Miklojczak, Otto, and Pavlic who were at the meeting as well, they might fill in more.

41 people were in attendance and 10 of them were city employees.