Ok – I’ll try this one more time – more Edgewatermania. Sure, a developer can hold private meetings on their project. They just shouldn’t be so obnoxious about it. Sometimes an example can help make that more clear. When you brag about holding 225 meetings in an attempt to show how hard you are working with the neighborhood, maybe you should think about what really happened (and what is easily trackable). Here’s an example of how the process was a little tortuous for the neighborhood, while others were getting much more attention.
FEB 6
Hello Bob and Amy,
The Mansion Hill steering committee members have been holding Tuesday February 10 for another meeting with you to get any further information or updates on your thinking about the Edgewater property. Do you have additional information you are prepared to share with the group? If not, the next date we are tentatively holding for you is Monday February 23. Please let me know as soon as possible.
Thank you.
Ledell
FEB 9
Ledell –
Thank you for your note. As we discussed at our last meeting, we are working on a number of issues that we would like to develop in order to have productive conversations with the Neighborhood Committee. Additionally, we are reviewing the materials you have provided to us to better understand the issues and concerns of the neighborhood. We feel as though we are making some strides toward understanding and addressing some of the overall issues with the project. That said, I think it is most useful at this time if we continue to work through some of these issues before we ask members of the Neighborhood Committee to commit additional time to these discussions. I am sensitive to not wanting to call upon people’s time if we don’t have something more developed and definitive to discuss. I sense from our last conversation that you are in agreement with this approach.
I would suggest that we not hold a meeting on Feb. 10th or Feb. 23rd. I think this will give us enough time to advance some of the work we are doing to the point that we have something substantive for our next discussion. I am pushing on the various members of our project team to move things along but as you know this type of effort takes some time.
Please call me if you’d like to discuss this further or if you are thinking differently about these meetings.
Thanks
Bob
Bob,
You indicated you are thinking somewhat beyond either Feb. 10th or 23rd. Do you have an approximate timeframe in mind? Thanks for getting back to me.
Ledell
Ledell –
I will be in New York this week. Let me visit with our design team and get a sense of timing to complete several of the things they are working on for us. I will circle back with you by the end of the week to discuss timing for our next meeting
Bob
A MONTH GOES BY . . .
MARCH 8
Hello Bob,
I have not yet heard back from you about when you might be ready to meet. We have reserved this Thursday March 12 and Thursday April 9, both at 5:30 to get together with you. Please let me know what your intentions are. Thank you.
Ledell
MARCH 10
Ledell –
Thanks for the note. We are working on firming up our schedule so your email was timely. We are out of the office this entire week in project planning sessions. We have a series of meetings scheduled to address Edgewater issues. We feel we have made significant progress in the development of our plans and will continue to work through important issues.
Given that we are out of Madison the entire week this Thursday will not work on our end. We could make the April 9th date work although I will be traveling that week and not able to attend. I can have our development team available if we want to hold that date. Otherwise, we may want to look at alternate dates the 1st of 3rd weeks of April. What do you think will work on your end?
Bob
Bob,
I spoke to Brenda today. It looks like April 13, 14 and 15 will work for her. Our team will go ahead and meet this Thursday. At that time we will identify what will work best for the most people and get back to you but you may want to hold those three dates since it will most likely be one of those.
Ledell
Ledell –
We’ll wait to hear back from you after your Thursday meeting. I am traveling part of that week but our group will be available those dates whether I’m in Madison or not. I’ll make every effort to be in Madison on the day that works for the group
Thanks
Bob
MARCH 11
Bob,
We were trying to accommodate your schedule. Given your email re availability (i.e. you suggested that rather than the 9th since you would be traveling that week, we should look at the 1st or 3rd weeks of April), it appeared the 13, 14, and 15 would be good for you. As you know it is difficult to schedule times so your help in being more specific as to your availability would be helpful.
Thanks.
Ledell
Ledell –
I will make every effort to be available for meetings. However, my travel schedule has me gone from Madison many days each week and it tends to change frequently. The weeks I gave you I plan to be in Madison a few days each of those weeks. The second week of April I know I am traveling that entire week. Therefore, I suggest we go ahead and schedule meetings that work for the entire group and I will make sure our development team is available to attend. I would only ask that you coordinate these dates with Amy Supple. She travels as well but not with the same frequency as I do. I will make every effort to be available as I stated above. In my absence I have every confidence that our development team can represent our interests.We look forward to getting together with you in the next few weeks. Thanks
Bob
MARCH 15
Bob and Amy,
Since it appears with Bob’s ever-shifting travel schedule that he is unlikely to be able to make meetings this month or next, we may as well go ahead and firm something up so others can get it on their calendars and we can at least meet with other members of the Hammes team. Let’s lock in April 13 since that works for Brenda and a number of others on the neighborhood steering committee.
Thank you for making your development team available on that date Bob. Amy, we look forward to seeing you and other members of the team to hear about progress you may have made on planning/designing and progress you have made on resolving serious neighborhood concerns. We will look to schedule the Lutheran Chapel on Gilman Street again with a start time of 5:15. Once we have been able to talk with the Lutheran Chapel we will confirm location with you…but please do lock in the time.
Ledell
AND THEN . . .
Offense is taken, communication breaks down, 7 or 8 more emails are exchanged that end in this . . .
MARCH 25
Ledell –
I understand from Amy that the meeting is confirmed for April 13th. The purpose of my March 11th email was to confirm that you pick the time and our team will be available. Unfortunately, I am scheduled to be traveling that day and will not be available for the meeting. Amy will lead the discussion on behalf of our firm. While you may feel that these are long gaps between meetings it takes time to work through design concepts.
In order to facilitate your desire for more direct dialogue I would suggest that you work directly with Amy Supple. I can speak firsthand about her ability to maintain clear and consistent communication with broad groups on complex projects. I don’t expect you’ll have any difficulty communicating with her. I am confident this will address any void that you have suggested exists.
We will be prepared to talk through our design efforts on the 13th. We have been working on a number of design concepts that will be presented at the meeting. I’m sure it will prompt an important dialogue on a number of issues.
Look forward to further discussion.
Bob
APRIL . . .
MAY . . .
JUNE . . .
The neighborhood still does not have a copy of the plans to review. And they can’t get them until July 15th when they are submitted to the city. It just seems like they are being blown off. Its one thing to have honest disagreements based on discussions that happened on concrete items. Its another thing to be toyed with.
To make matters worse, at their last neighborhood meeting, members of the public were asked to leave, by the alder, on behalf of the developer. And, lets just be clear, the neighborhood is not just Fred Mohs and two other people. They formed a steering committee of about 10 – 12 people who live in the neigbhorhood who were sincerely interested in being a part of a process to make sure that their neighborhood concerns were met and several other people were turned away when they showed up to learn about the project.
I can’t wait to see the lobbying reports! From both last year and this year.
