ARTICLES
Wirtz Related Lies
In the fall of 2011 I visited the Economic Development Council on 3 occasions.The first time I visited I posed as someone who was interested in starting a small business and I was curious to know if the EDC could help me. However, I was secretly seeking information about JOHN MOHR's involvement with the EDC. Nevertheless, after explaining my alternate intentions to Amy Denham, she escorted me to Ken Springer's office where he and I shared an hour long conversation. At that time, Ken was the EDC's project and data analyst and manager of the EDC's financial programs. Today, (fall of 2014) Ken is the Vice President of the EDC, but that is beside the point. Point being... when I told Ken I was from Lexington he was proud to admit to me that my mayor (JOHN MOHR) was one of their board members. (Just a few days prior JOHN had lied to me about being a part of the EDC.) So, I was enthralled when Ken gave me a copy of the 2010 EDC annual summary/pamphlet that featured the City of Lexington sewer project and had full page picture of JOHN MOHR (smiling ear to ear) standing in front of the City of Lexington sewage lagoon. In my mind all I could think was, "what a shit-head" but I could see in Ken's eyes that JOHN was lookin' like a real EDC golden-boy, so I kept my disgust to myself. As I mentioned in my previous post, my disgust was prompted by the fact that 100% of the contracts that were awarded to complete the City of Lexington sewer system went to corporations invested in the EDC. Thereby, transferring 1,180,454 million dollars out of the City of Lexington TIF fund into the hands of EDC affiliates. In spite of that, I kept my cool and continued conversation with Ken.
During our discussion Ken had also told me that the EDC was in the middle of a transition phase. He said... "soon, we will no longer be offering our consulting services to small businesses. Starting in 2012, we will be focusing our attention toward attracting large businesses to the area." Interestingly enough, in the winter of 2012 the EDC was working with the BIG BUSINESS men of Wirtz Beverage in preparing a tax abatement document that they would submit to the City of Bloomington in January of 2013, in order to financially assist Wirtz Beverage with their relocation plans to the area. At that time, JOHN was still a member of the board of directors for the EDC and it must have been discussed among them that the City of Lexington had expanded their TIF district in 2011, (which wouldn't expire for another 20 years) and could offer Wirtz Beverage a 15 year longer tax abatement period/contract than the City of Bloomington could offer. However, when it became public that Wirtz Beverage would choose Lexington over Bloomington the Pantagraph newspaper (also an EDC investor) published a misleading article in regard, titled Wirtz Beverage says no to Bloomington, yes to Lexington. In the article it was said that "the EDC was not involved with negotiations with Lexington." How could this be? JOHN was serving the EDC. This seemed like a blatant lie to me. Yet, this wasn't the only lie within the article. JOHN was also quoted saying that, "Wirtz will be responsible for building a road to its building..." to the contrary, JOHN paid Stark Excavating over 200,000 thousand dollars (out of the City of Lexington TIF fund) to "develop" Wirtz Way.
Another lie that was spoken at the Lexington City Council meetings at that time was... "Wirtz will bring jobs to our community." Many Lexingtonians were excited by the idea that there was going to be a new employer in town offering 75 jobs or more. This was a deliberate mislead on Mayor MOHR's part. JOHN knew from the very beginning that the "development" of the Wirtz facility would not bring many if any jobs to Lexington. Still, JOHN needed Lexingtonians to believe that Wirtz was going to bring them new job opportunities in order to get Lexingtonians to accept Wirtz into the community. So far, (Fall 2014) only one Lexingtonian has been hired at the Wirtz Beverage facility. This one and only Lexingtonian/Wirtz employee is a security guard, and it is reported amongst the people of Lexington that the Wirtz workers hate him, because all of the Wirtz workers who were transferred over to Lexington from their Peoria facility, never had to deal with security. Now, they resent the fact that they have Lexingtonian looking over them, who isn't one of them. So, what kind of job opportunity has the Wirtz facility brought to the Lexington community? One stressful, highly resented job in security... not at all the kind of opportunity Lexingtonians thought would be.
During our discussion Ken had also told me that the EDC was in the middle of a transition phase. He said... "soon, we will no longer be offering our consulting services to small businesses. Starting in 2012, we will be focusing our attention toward attracting large businesses to the area." Interestingly enough, in the winter of 2012 the EDC was working with the BIG BUSINESS men of Wirtz Beverage in preparing a tax abatement document that they would submit to the City of Bloomington in January of 2013, in order to financially assist Wirtz Beverage with their relocation plans to the area. At that time, JOHN was still a member of the board of directors for the EDC and it must have been discussed among them that the City of Lexington had expanded their TIF district in 2011, (which wouldn't expire for another 20 years) and could offer Wirtz Beverage a 15 year longer tax abatement period/contract than the City of Bloomington could offer. However, when it became public that Wirtz Beverage would choose Lexington over Bloomington the Pantagraph newspaper (also an EDC investor) published a misleading article in regard, titled Wirtz Beverage says no to Bloomington, yes to Lexington. In the article it was said that "the EDC was not involved with negotiations with Lexington." How could this be? JOHN was serving the EDC. This seemed like a blatant lie to me. Yet, this wasn't the only lie within the article. JOHN was also quoted saying that, "Wirtz will be responsible for building a road to its building..." to the contrary, JOHN paid Stark Excavating over 200,000 thousand dollars (out of the City of Lexington TIF fund) to "develop" Wirtz Way.
Another lie that was spoken at the Lexington City Council meetings at that time was... "Wirtz will bring jobs to our community." Many Lexingtonians were excited by the idea that there was going to be a new employer in town offering 75 jobs or more. This was a deliberate mislead on Mayor MOHR's part. JOHN knew from the very beginning that the "development" of the Wirtz facility would not bring many if any jobs to Lexington. Still, JOHN needed Lexingtonians to believe that Wirtz was going to bring them new job opportunities in order to get Lexingtonians to accept Wirtz into the community. So far, (Fall 2014) only one Lexingtonian has been hired at the Wirtz Beverage facility. This one and only Lexingtonian/Wirtz employee is a security guard, and it is reported amongst the people of Lexington that the Wirtz workers hate him, because all of the Wirtz workers who were transferred over to Lexington from their Peoria facility, never had to deal with security. Now, they resent the fact that they have Lexingtonian looking over them, who isn't one of them. So, what kind of job opportunity has the Wirtz facility brought to the Lexington community? One stressful, highly resented job in security... not at all the kind of opportunity Lexingtonians thought would be.