By Keene Winters for Wausau Pilot & Review

In what feels like a variation on a TV program posing ethical dilemmas, we have one to consider in Wausau. Here, the question is: What if you were the mayor and one of your department heads dropped the ball on an important project for the city, blatantly ignored a directive from the City Council, then tried to shift the blame elsewhere?

What would you do?

As you may have guessed, these questions are not hypothetical. A March 5 story in the Wausau Pilot and Review (WP&R) documented that Wausau Economic Development Director Liz Brodek did exactly that.

The Wausau City Council made it a priority to restore single family homes to the beleaguered Thomas Street neighborhood. In other words, they voted to do this. Under this directive, Brodek was tasked with applying for a Wisconsin Assessment Monies (WAM) grant from the Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Then she was supposed to set up projects along Thomas Street to qualify for American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) money before its deadline. According to the article, Brodek did the following:

Made errors is the WAM grant application.
Did not follow-up in a timely manner to correct the errors.
Took the liberty of removing the Thomas Street projects from a list of projects to be put forward for ARPA funds, despite prior council votes on the matter.
When the project omissions were noticed, Brodek attempted to blame delays by the DNR on the WAM grants as making it impossible to meet the ARPA deadlines.
Did not tell the Economic Development Committee that a decision on the grant will be made within just weeks.

The residents of the Thomas Street neighborhood deserve better. For that matter, so does Wausau.

To date, Brodek’s tenure as the city’s chief economic officer has been plagued by false starts and delays. Little progress has been made on the mall or the riverfront. No significant new employers have been brought to town. Wausau lost the headquarters of Footlocker to a community in Florida. It is hard to see anything positive here.

Notable has been the city’s failure to do background checks and asset verification on companies before contracting with them to partner in economic development. It is hard to see this failure fall on the shoulders of anyone except the Director of Economic Development.

Complimenting an employee on work well-done is one of the great treats of being a supervisor. Conversely, delivering the message that work is subpar or that someone’s livelihood is in jeopardy if improvements are not made can be gut-wrenching. It takes competence and maturity. It is all part of the job of being a good supervisor. It is part of the job of being mayor.

In my opinion, Brodek has been treading water ever since she came on board. If Mayor Katie Rosenberg has a defense for Brodek’s record, let’s hear it. Otherwise, we need our mayor to do her job and make sure that Brodek does hers–without further delay.

Editor’s note: Wausau Pilot & Review gladly publishes commentary from readers, residents and candidates for local offices. The views of readers and columnists are independent of this newspaper and do not necessarily reflect the views of Wausau Pilot & Review. To submit, email editor@wausaupilotandreview.com or mail to 500 N. Third St., Suite 208-8, Wausau, Wis. 54403.

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Opinion: Thomas Street residents deserve better from Wausau’s economic development efforts