Last month, I called Laurel Prussing’s office to interview her about the proposed Olympian Drive expansion north of Urbana. She asked who the article was for, I replied Smile Politely. She chortled, then said, “That was a smile, was it polite?”
I replied whether it was polite wasn’t really relevant and that we should just get started with the questions. Given her warm reception, I asked the most difficult question first.
Smile Politely: Do you know what the future ratio of tax revenue to expenditures for city services will be for the Olympian Drive area?
Laurel Prussing: No, but I have assessments for businesses on north Lincoln Avenue.
SP: But, that doesn’t tell me how much revenue may get eaten up by street maintenance, lighting, water, sewers, and so on. Are you aware of studies by the American Farmland Trust that show that developing farmland can result in net revenue losses to cities?
LP: No.
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I was dumbfounded. How is it that a road could be getting built costing the city millions of dollars and yet the mayor is not aware of whether it will actually pay to build it? That’s like McDonalds throwing darts at a map to figure out where to place its next franchise.
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SP: So, do you have ANY numbers for proposed revenues and expenditures? There are some numbers from Champaign that showed that developing the area wouldn’t pay.
LP: We’re not relying on Champaign’s numbers and anyway they showed that industrial and commercial would pay.
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Actually, the Champaign study (large pdf) by TischlerBise showed that only commercial projects would pay, not industrial. And that projection is based on the assumption that the city will keep up with arterial road maintenance, which has not been and may not be able to within the 20-year projection of the study.
However, industrial jobs are just the types of projects that Prussing touts when she points to 900 jobs on North Lincoln and the Apollo development in Champaign — which represents some jobs merely relocated from downtown Champaign.
I mentioned to Prussing that the 900 jobs she cited were much better paying before grocery giant SuperValu purchased the former J.M. Jones and dispensed with its accountants and other middle income salaried personnel. Now there are middle-aged accountants from layoffs at Kraft who work as low-wage warehouse employees for Supervalu.
Nationwide, nearly 70 percent of warehouse jobs are temporary and do not pay benefits. Worse, many companies use temporary agencies — some not even based in the same state — to staff their warehouses. In a case filed last December against Wal-Mart, its contractor, Select Remedy, was paying workers in Elmwood, Illinois, for fewer hours than they worked. Select Remedy was using a practice known as “wage theft”. Employees who were putting in 30 hours in four days would find themselves with checks for as little as 17 hours.
Because of the low wages paid and the lack of benefits, warehouse employees can find themselves in need of services from the county and city, as well as local charitable organizations in order to provide for their families, which results in “hidden” expenses for some development projects. I asked Prussing if she was aware of what warehousing jobs actually paid. She replied that any jobs were better than no jobs.
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LP: “I’m trying to create jobs,” she said. “Don’t you think it is more important to have 2,400 new jobs than four on a boutique farm north of town? I mean who can afford $150 dinners? Is it more important to cater to the farm-to-fork cognoscenti from Chicago — that’s what the goat lady’s website says. Cognoscenti — do you know what that means? That’s not even English!”
SP: “Yes, it’s Italian. I’ve been to Italy. I am assuming you mean Leslie Cooperband of Prairie Fruits farm (Note: Prussing refused to call Cooperband by name during the interview despite referring to other farmers by name). I have never seen the word cognoscenti on the farm’s website. Also, the dinners are not $150 each.”
LP: “Well then they’re $150 a couple. I mean who spends that kind of money on dinner?”
SP: “Sometimes I do.”
LP: “Well no one I know. And I don’t think we should be bending over backwards to accommodate rich people coming down from Chicago to eat dinner on a farm.”
SP: “Actually most of the people at those dinners are from here in town.”
LP: “Well that’s beside the point. The goat lady originally wanted to have a U-pick farm and then her business plan changed to dinners on the farm.”
SP: “But isn’t that actually part of the point? I would guess that there are very few restaurants in town that could claim to have people driving all the way from Chicago. Prairie Fruits is bringing in money from outside of town. Isn’t that economic development?”
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Prussing declared that there were other farmers who needed the road because the bridge would help them get their grain to the elevator. “Currently they have to wait sometimes as long as 45 minutes.”
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SP: “I ride my bike along Ford-Harris, Olympian, and Leverett all the time and I’ve never had a wait like that. Also, I’m kind of at a loss to see how a bridge would help them get their grain to the elevator.”
LP: “Well they have to cross the tracks to get to the Andersons.”
SP: “Why wouldn’t they just take it to the elevator on Leverett? Most farmers don’t haul grain any further than they have to. The elevator at Leverett would be closest for them.”
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Exasperated, Prussing quickly moved on to the topic of light rail, saying that a bridge is needed on Olympian to usher in light rail.
“But we’re not in the first phase for that, Bloomington is,” I said.
To hear Prussing tell it, we need the bridge or we’ll never get light rail, despite the fact that there likely will have to be numerous bridges installed in with federal funds if and when light rail comes to Champaign-Urbana.
Hoping to lead the discussion toward repairing existing roads, I asked, “What about other uses for this money?”
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LP: “People who think that we can spend this money on schools are just wrong.”
SP: “I don’t think most people think that the Motor Fuel Tax money you are diverting as a match for federal funds could be spent on schools. However, there are several people I’ve spoken with who don’t understand why it isn’t being used to fix streets that already exist.”
LP: “You can’t patch potholes with Motor Fuel Tax money.”
SP: “Really? Has there been a change in policy? Because when I covered small town meetings for the News-Gazette years ago, that’s the pot other towns fixed their roads from”
LP: “Well, I need to check with my person on that. I’m late for a meeting. I have to go.”
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And just like that the interview was over. For a day and a half afterwards I wondered whether she was flustered or didn’t prepare. But when Prussing set up a booth outside of Common Ground to tout the road while Leslie Cooperband of Prairie Fruits was inside the store urging people to oppose it, I found my answer. Prussing hadn’t prepared for the interview. She merely read from the talking points sheet she developed for her booth.
Worse, as errors in her talking points sheet have come to light, she has chosen to stand by them as have those she has encouraged to write editorials to the News-Gazette. Prussing glosses over the project’s impact on Urbana schools. The reality is that the most likely area of development for the project is the area west of Lincoln Avenue, but due to historical agreements, the revenue from this area will go to Champaign schools.
Additionally the development plan that the project stems from was created before gas went to over $2.50 a gallon and proposed housing development east of Urbana came to such a crawl that the city’s sewer expansion to the area is on indefinite hold. Officials already have conceded that there isn’t enough money with the $26 million Prussing was hoping to get for the project to straighten Lincoln Avenue for large trucks, which would further delay industrial and commercial development in the area even with the Olympian expansion.
Because of issues like this, members of the Urbana council like Charlie Smyth and Dennis Roberts have publicly questioned the need for the project at this juncture. Even if it were approved, Champaign County Board president Pius Weibel has stated on the record that the county doesn’t have money to pursue the project. Additionally, Congressman Tim Johnson has said that he will not pursue federal funds for the project in the short-term. Given that Johnson’s base is comprised of many Farm Bureau members, one has to wonder whether it would be politically expedient for him to support a project that would require taking farmland away from farmers in the long-term, as well.
Given her reputation for not backing down, Prussing isn’t likely to do it tonight even in the face of mounting evidence that the project could be a boondoggle Urbana’s coffers.