The Janesville City Council needs to hear directly from the public before advancing plans for the Woodmans Sports and Convention Center, but not through an advisory referendum.
A series of town hall-style public forums would better provide the opportunity for needed dialogue between city officials, residents and the projects private backers. Wed like to see those happen in-person, and ideally in one virtual or hybrid session.
Local taxpayers, we expect, would have much to say at a town hall meeting on the citys plan to borrow up to $17.3 million to fund its portion of the construction of the Woodmans Center on the site of a shuttered Sears store at the Uptown Janesville mall on Milton Avenue. The $50.3 million total cost of construction is proposed to be funded through a mix of private and public dollars.
Intentional and honest face-to-face discourse, beyond existing opportunities to speak out during public comment portions of council meetings, would best provide the direction from taxpayers that city officials need to move forward.
The idea of putting the Woodmans Center to an advisory referendum has been floated recently by a group that unfortunately hasnt publicly shared its members identities. Neither has the group shared on the fliers that it has anonymously distributed around the city, the names of those behind the printing.
The groups timeline is also fuzzy. The deadline passed this week to get an advisory referendum on the citys April ballot; its not clear whether the group might push to hold a special election, perhaps later in the spring or summer.
That troublingly veiled recent local effort aside, we believe that referendums have their place.
Theyre a tool that municipalities and school districts in Wisconsin can tap in circumstances such as when a school district feels it cant maintain existing programs without a legally binding public vote to exceed the state revenue cap. Theyre also often used these days when a group of towns and villages that collectively operate a fire and EMS district want a legally binding OK from local taxpayers to exceed state levy limits to expand a station or hire full-time paramedics.
But in the case of the Woodmans Center, the city of Janesville cant per state law hold a binding referendum, the citys attorney recently explained. The citys proposed share of the total cost of the project borrowing up to $17.3 million, or 34% of the total $50.3 million construction cost doesnt rise to a statutory line, only above which a binding referendum may be held.
And so, with no ability to hold a binding referendum, the remaining option is the advisory referendum the group that has put out the fliers appears to want.
In our view, an advisory referendum would be little more than a public straw poll with no legal teeth to force the city to adhere to its results. So, we ask, whats the point? And is there a better way for residents who have legitimate concerns that they want to voice, to be directly heard?
A series of town hall-style forums would offer such a chance. If held, they should have a strong educational component, with officials who have been involved thus far in planning for the Woodmans Center sharing facts and figures that have driven its course.
What city residents particularly need to see is a broader vision for how the Woodmans Center could be a citywide economic driver, fueling other new development and particularly revitalizing the Milton Avenue corridor.
Thats better accomplished by sitting down as a community and talking than by staging a referendum.
And when the discussion is done, lets allow local representative government to play out, entrusting council members whove been elected at large to do whats best for the broader community to move forward with Woodmans Center planning.