Opinion: Olson's opposition needs to do better
It's very clear over the past few months that there are two sides forming at Franklin City Hall. One has the Mayor and his allies, Alderman Mark Dandrea and Alderwoman Janet Evans. The other is led by Council President Kristen Wilhelm with Alderman Doug Schmidt, Alderwoman Susanne Mayer, and recently joined in by Alderman Dan Mayer. The Council split was a long time coming, and happened for plenty of reasons. Primary one being the huge lack of transparency and meddling with longstanding processes on Mayor Olson's part.
That being said, the opposition, despite growing in numbers and in frustration, are making severely bad maneuvers in attempts to make political statements that could affect how Franklin is viewed for years to come.
It's one thing to take up concerns and positions against the Mayor due to how he handled the situation. You call it out on the Council floor and take votes that ensure the meddling doesn't happen again. This city and its staff have made blunders in the past. Never have such matters gone to these extremes. Instead of addressing errors and moving forward, the opposition is entrenching themselves with the idea of hyping up the issues to the point where the entire city is blocked up, and those caught in the middle come out badly bloodied.
Three projects over several months - the Hickory Grove Apartments, Kayla's Playground (which at one point included Victory of the Lamb Church), and now the proposed CBRF facility on 92nd & St. Martin's Road, have come in the crosshairs of the opposition due to the fact that the issues can make strong political waves against Mayor Olson. In all of these, residents living nearby the proposed projects led or are leading strong oppositions, to which is commonly known as NIMBYs (Not In My BackYards). Therefore, to pander for support in what's likely going to be a recall against Mayor Olson, the opposition is taking drastic positions in order to lock their support in. Unfortunately, these decisions are also putting Franklin in a negative light for those on the outside looking in. It portrays the actions of the opposition as just a group that will become reactionary to any project - negative AND positive alike - in order to keep up appearances.
This almost cost Franklin losing Kayla's Playground to a neighboring suburb. It's already cost us our image to the developing community; the same community we need if we want to revitalize a struggling 76th/Rawson/Loomis commercial district or to build new business parks to bring in workers to our community. No one wants to deal with toxicity. And lastly, it could very well cost the taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in the courts as the CBRF owner could take legal action against Franklin for approving plans then abruptly denying their approval a month later. It could be argued that it's solely because of what the facility is - which is a form of discrimination and illegal under federal law.
New Berlin is a community that tried restricting who and what kinds of people could live in their city several years ago, when a developer proposed housing that would have residences for lower incomes in New Berlin's City Center project. New Berlin shot it down, and resident opposition played a role in that as well. The response to the denial was a lawsuit from the United States Justice Department to which the city settled with the developer before a highly covered and prolonged court case could take place. The project was still built, and New Berlin was cast as a community unwilling to house the poor or those in need. And their City Center development has struggled to truly become what it was originally planned for their community.
The way this opposition is going, from wicked witch fliers to costing taxpayers money to opposing just about anything good or bad that comes from Mayor Olson's office or staff, could cost them the coveted recall race that they're gearing up for so badly. There's so much that can be done to effectively campaign against the Mayor - but instead they're relying solely upon NIMBY groups to get the votes to topple him. That's a rough and unfortunate way to make a statement.