The shakeup of the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. (WEDC) continued today, with Gov. Scott Walker demanding changes in oversight of the agency.
The state’s beleaguered economic development agency has hired QTI Group, a Madison-based private consulting company, to help find a new leader and remove political influence from the hiring process.
Today is Paul Jadin’s last day on the job as the chief executive officer of the WEDC.
QTI will help the WEDC get the best candidates from across the nation and help identify the five whose names will be forwarded to Walker, who is expected to pick a new leader early next year.
Walker has appointed Ryan Murray, a former staff aide, as interim CEO of the WEDC. Murray said he has uncovered 99 taxpayer- funded past-due loans totaling about $8 million to businesses that were not being tracked centrally by the agency. Murray said he brought the problem it Walker’s attention.
“It’s pretty clear that the Department of Commerce had this function — they had staff that handled this — and it’s clear for the last year that WEDC hasn’t,” Murray told the Wisconsin State Journal. “I think the important thing is clearly we dropped the ball — the staff here did — but while the system collecting loans didn’t work, the system for catching this did.”
State Rep. Peter Barca (D-Kenosha), a WEDC board member, said, “It’s just stunning to me. It strikes me as sheer incompetence. It shows the lack of planning and the poor implementation of this program.”
The Walker administration suspended and restarted bidding on a contract last summer after learning that the WEDC had offered one of the bidders, Skyward of Stevens Point, a school administration software company, tax credits if it won the contract.
Giving any company bidding for state work a preference that others do not have is illegal.
In September, the Wisconsin State Journal reported that U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) had sent a letter condemning the handling of nearly $10 million economic development grants by WEDC and the state Department of Administration. Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch later apologized to the WEDC board for not informing them of the federal inquiry.
“You wonder what other shoe can drop at this point,” said state Sen. Julie Lassa (D-Stevens Point). “This just goes to prove that the legislation (creating the agency) should have been given more thought.”
