City staff chose not to tell Common Council about Ganther foreclosure, lawsuit
Despite some past and present Oshkosh Common Council members’ head-in-the-sand belief that Ben Ganther would make good on his property tax debt to the city, he has consistently been late with his tax payments. Yesterday we learned as noted in this article that Ganther and his partners have defaulted on some $6 million in debt to their lender for the development and construction of the 100 N. Main St. project and that foreclosure proceedings have begun. The city has been named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
In this morning’s Oshkosh Northwestern we learned that not only did city manager Richard Wollangk and most likely community development director Jackson Kinney know about the foreclosure proceedings and the city being named in the suit on Monday of this week, a decision was made not to tell the Common Council until yesterday (Friday) when councilors received their weekly packets.
Wollangk admits the decision to not share the information with the council was deliberate but, according to the Oshkosh Northwestern, says it was made not to derail “the council's consideration on Tuesday of a developer's agreement for the Waterfront redevelopment project along Marion Road and Pearl Avenue or the renovation of the Oshkosh Convention Center” but rather because staff was still gathering information to include in the council’s Friday packets. That doesn’t wash in my book. Staff could easily have told the council what was going on, but told them they were still gathering all the information.
When a crime is committed, for example, authorities provide what information they can to the media, but tell them the investigation is ongoing. While not a crime per se, at least not in the literal sense, this situation is really no different. The Common Council, and public, had a right to know as soon as city staff found out – not only because of being named in the suit but also because of the property being in a TIF that, for all intents and purposes, is failing.
At the end of the day it really doesn’t matter what the reasoning was for not telling the council until five days after staff knew; the fact is council members should have been told and weren’t. And this is certainly not the first time something like this has happened.
In recent months alone we’ve seen two other instances where city staff made an arbitrary decision not to inform the Common Council of pertinent information. They did not tell council members that the then-proposed developers of the old Mercy Hospital project had a several year-old history with Ben Ganther, who’d been in default on taxes for that property as well. Nor did city staff tell the council that a lawsuit involving the Hilton Garden Inns had been settled and that, as a result, it had been granted a permanent exemption from the city’s smoking ban.
Keeping the Common Council in the dark is becoming an habitual thing at 215 Church St. it seems. Past councils apparently did not do enough to ensure that city administration understand who the bosses in this city are: the Oshkosh Common Council and, ultimately, the taxpayers. It is time this council sends that message loudly, clearly and once and for all. And if the staff still doesn’t get it after that, perhaps it is time we find some staff members who will.
In this morning’s Oshkosh Northwestern we learned that not only did city manager Richard Wollangk and most likely community development director Jackson Kinney know about the foreclosure proceedings and the city being named in the suit on Monday of this week, a decision was made not to tell the Common Council until yesterday (Friday) when councilors received their weekly packets.
Wollangk admits the decision to not share the information with the council was deliberate but, according to the Oshkosh Northwestern, says it was made not to derail “the council's consideration on Tuesday of a developer's agreement for the Waterfront redevelopment project along Marion Road and Pearl Avenue or the renovation of the Oshkosh Convention Center” but rather because staff was still gathering information to include in the council’s Friday packets. That doesn’t wash in my book. Staff could easily have told the council what was going on, but told them they were still gathering all the information.
When a crime is committed, for example, authorities provide what information they can to the media, but tell them the investigation is ongoing. While not a crime per se, at least not in the literal sense, this situation is really no different. The Common Council, and public, had a right to know as soon as city staff found out – not only because of being named in the suit but also because of the property being in a TIF that, for all intents and purposes, is failing.
At the end of the day it really doesn’t matter what the reasoning was for not telling the council until five days after staff knew; the fact is council members should have been told and weren’t. And this is certainly not the first time something like this has happened.
In recent months alone we’ve seen two other instances where city staff made an arbitrary decision not to inform the Common Council of pertinent information. They did not tell council members that the then-proposed developers of the old Mercy Hospital project had a several year-old history with Ben Ganther, who’d been in default on taxes for that property as well. Nor did city staff tell the council that a lawsuit involving the Hilton Garden Inns had been settled and that, as a result, it had been granted a permanent exemption from the city’s smoking ban.
Keeping the Common Council in the dark is becoming an habitual thing at 215 Church St. it seems. Past councils apparently did not do enough to ensure that city administration understand who the bosses in this city are: the Oshkosh Common Council and, ultimately, the taxpayers. It is time this council sends that message loudly, clearly and once and for all. And if the staff still doesn’t get it after that, perhaps it is time we find some staff members who will.
posted by Cheryl Hentz at 10:10 AM
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