Greeley Council Thumbs Nose at Existing Mom and Pop's

Ma and Pa businesses in Greeley Colorado need to get hollerin' at the Greeley City Council. Greeley Council passed a resolution to lower development fees last Tuesday night. I really try to stay out of these battles as the public rarely gets a real transparent look at the goodies being traded across the table in these type of negotiations. But I can't help but notice Greeley's undies keep being exposed when it comes to long term strategic direction for this city. Time to get serious when electing these officials folks. Greeley isn't just a podunk town any longer.

The new fee break being handed around comes with a stench. Why are businesses coming in now getting sweet kissy-face deals at older businesses' expense. Why give one business a competitive advantage over existing businesses. The City's job is to court specific industry targets and development--not to wade into competitive positioning. It's like the honeymoon for all the Ma and Pa's struggling to stay afloat is over and now the best bedroom suite is being whipped out for new and expanding businesses.

The big problem is the sheets on that honeymoon bed aren't clean.

This strategy may appear fine and dandy on the surface for those businesses like Sooper's being romanced. After all it is an unfortunate common practice deployed by corporate interests and developers to sweet-talk councils into lowering their operational expenses. But, I'll argue, Greeley isn't every city and it has carved out special problems for itself that need a special strategy. Time to look those sweet-talkers in the face and get some real political backbone (and better advisors). Not to mention that the ugly smaller ducklings hanging back against the wall need to be asked to dance too.

What about infrastructure for the aging, decaying, poorer parts of town? What about redevelopment funds to draw people back into the sectors that have those empty store fronts? Who is going to get stuck with the bill to support all this infrastructure ten years from now? What about finding new ways to perk up those saggy bags under Greeley's eye and put facades in all those closed store fronts down 8th avenue? What about fluffing up the education sectors? The culture art activities are where again? Getting serious about getting monies and marketing together for a "real" Farmer's market? A generic, "sounds-good-to-me", tax base strategy will not get the job done except for those trying to keep Greeley a low-wage industry dumping ground for snail-snot companies with bad business practices.

JBS Swift Sinks Good-Ship-Lollipop

I get what the Council thinks it will achieve. By lowering these rates they will get more business in and might draw a few opportunities away from other, family-friendly, neighboring towns. That's not what the bigger forces in power have planned for Greeley.

Greeley's Barrio
Have You Seen Ma an Pa Lately

First of all, in the case of Sooper's, it is going to go where the studies show there is enough market to survive. It is trying to stay competitive with the well capitalized Safeway expansions and that's all good, in the long run, for the consumer. But helping them out? Back door subsidies for special interests are not any prettier viewed locally than they are nationally. Are we going to do this every time a food store wants a little more elbow room? Whisper a few sweet corporate words in a Councilperson's ear about ...."just can't quite make it happen with those fees and taxes..." and off flies the dress and the romance begins.

We need savvy deal makers instead of social engineers at the city helm. Someone who can see past the first dance and date. One of the bolder early strategies of Walmart in rural areas was to open up stores close to their smaller competitors, wait until the competition's ship sunk, then close the store and allow the regional store to service everybody. Is Greeley going to subsidize this type of activity too. Do the existing Mom and Pop's really not in market position to expand or move going to have to float the bigger corporate machines with minimum wage jobs as they, supposedly, roll into town to bring all these new job opportunities?

Who has the Greeley Town Council's ear?

Oh that's right, the Northern Colorado Economic dudes and dudettes have it. Well Greeley City Council just danced really pretty for their "economically 1970 minded" counterparts. As I have said in earlier postings--it is pretty clear Greeley has lined itself up to be the economic armpit of Northern Colorado by making poor decisions on what type of companies (JBS Swift is one that comes to mind) to groom for life in Greeley. Now, by showing its undies and willingness to cut rates for low returns, Greeley has just thrown open the doors to continue this type of snail-snotter corporate development. And Ma and Pa will be helping taxpayers float these boats.

Thank you Greeley City Council.

Greeley needs a better plan, better advisers, and full-time dedicated politicians to pull it out of the position it has allowed itself to be pushed into. Redevelop the side of town where people only make $20k a year. Get that plan working for pumping the Farmer's Market and snag those funds you flipped your nose at. Make a strategic plan to lower the rates for the types of businesses that bring in stable families and living wage jobs. Attract new types of industry--not just ANY type of industry. Make a target and aim for it. City Council may not have advanced economic degress but haven't you guys ever played Sim City? Promote education and weave it throughout all age groups in the city. Make a thriving viable city-square out of the old barrio areas and bring in small businesses, artist studios, and revive some of those cool old buildings like the Kress. Get people walking around town and talking to each other instead of doing the Stepford family thing on the West end of town. Bring the Munsters and the Stepfords together and mix them all up--a healthy economy is a diverse economy with a strong Ma and Pa sector.

Otherwise we are all going to end up being the hairy old arm pit of Northern Colorado and a low-wage service community to Fort Collins. The professionals will live in Fort Collins, spend money in Fort Collins, develop Fort Collins quality of life, and drive into Greeley everyday for work and drive home at night to live and kick up their heels. Meanwhile Greeley will have low rent, low wage, decaying infrastructure left to service the retirees who have stuck it out, the toxic factory jobs, and a bunch of abandoned buildings. The only green in town will be the castle on the hill called UNC.

Voters in Greeley should look carefully at who they elect this fall. Out with the old and in with the new. Time to look outside the box for answers and quit shooting down ideas simply because they come from "outsiders". And ask your handy-dandy economic development industry pushers--just what that candy-coated advice they are giving you is going to lead to in the long run. Besides the shiny-badge editorials from their buddies in the local newspaper of course.

Time to build your own spine Greeley and quit laying down in the middle of the road so the rest of Northern Colorado can dump on you.

Just my opinion... of course.

Greeley Colorado Tribune "Sells" Citizens Short with Editorial

In my personal view this editorial on JBS Swift removes any doubt the lack of visionary leadership and responsibility of some of Greeley's government and business community. Having a positive opinion of JBS Swift is fine. But for a paper to put out a commentary without acknowledging the obvious historical problems and long term downsides to this company is irresponsible. Greeley may as well hire the Dallas Cheerleaders to serve as journalists in this community.

Truly I am sorry to come to this conclusion. I kept hearing the negatives but was trying to be understanding of the political pressures faced and the overwork local papers and their staffers face in modern times. But I simply shake my head after reading this piece and wonder how these people look in the mirror every morning and face their neighbors.

Time for a new vision in city government, (although the city manager is just doing his job to pump positive), a new strategic vision for the economic development groups, and a new news venue.

I have said I would not post a comment on the Greeley Tribune again and I will stand by that statement. This is just garbage politics. Plain and simple garbage politics.

Some of my other articles on the topic. Additional articles can be found in the archives on this page:
Is Walter Cronkite's Ghost Living in Greeley Colorado?
Greeley Tribune's Letter to Jane Paudaux
JBS Swift Sinks Greeley's Goodship Lollipop

The creepy editorial...
JBS gives Greeley economy a boost | Greeley Tribune

Several years ago, Greeley's leaders fought hard to keep the headquarters of the former Swift & Co. meatpacking company in town. The company was rumored to be considering a move to another community for its corporate headquarters, now at Promontory.

The efforts of Greeley's elected officials to keep the company headquarters in town paid off then, and they appear to have paid off again last week.

The new owners of the company, JBS USA, announced on consecutive days last week two moves that could benefit Greeley:

»The Brazilian owners of JBS are planning a $2 billion public offering, which they hope will allow the company to expand into the “case-ready” beef market.

» JBS announced that up to 30 corporate jobs are moving from Green Bay, Wis., to Greeley. The employees are executives in the former Smithfield Beef Group, which was purchased by JBS last year.

If there was any doubt about JBS USA's commitment to grow and expand, or any doubt about the company's commitment to its corporate headquarters in Greeley, those doubts seemingly were eliminated with the announcements last week.

“This is very good news,” Greeley city manager Roy Otto said, adding that it “demonstrates the emphasis JBS has for Greeley.”

Added Larry Burkhardt, president of Upstate Colorado Economic Development: “I'm encouraged to see that kind of consolidation that puts a focus on their headquarters here.”

Although the number of jobs coming from Green Bay is not huge, high-paying corporate jobs are always welcome in Greeley.

The public offering, meanwhile, is likely to make a big splash in the industry.

JBS hopes to use the money to change the way it distributes some of its beef in the next five years. It would create in-house cutting rooms to create in the industry what is known as case-ready beef. The meat would leave the plant in cuts that are ready to be placed directly on store shelves. Now, the meat leaves packing plants in bigger cuts that must be prepared for the shelf by grocery store meatcutters.

JBS has been an aggressive company and employer since it bought the former Swift & Co. plant two years ago. It added a second shift to the Greeley plant, hiring 1,100 more workers, and it has acquired other beef companies (Smithfield, for example, and another in Australia) along with feedlots to expand its dominance in the U.S. and world beef markets

A Short Review of JBS Swift's Negative Publicity

Well this has been interesting. I didn't find any archived materials on old issues people have told me about involving JBS Swift. The Tribune recently covered the ICE Raid so I left that out. I had been told that JBS Swift was once called in front of Congress on the issue of bribing Sheriffs or authority figures in the Southeast States. I didn't find anything online about it though. I did find the following commentaries associated with the Brazilian probe. Keep in mind the source as you read. Reuters is a good source the others just seem to be going over the same content. If you click on the links you can get the entire articles.

The last link is to the Tribune's, light-weight, piece on the issue published a few days ago. It looks like a press release, pretty much intact, they have published from JBS Swift. I could be wrong. I am not very objective about the Tribune's "reporting" right now. I'll get over it. Eventually.

CORRECTED - UPDATE 2-Brazil beef giant JBS under police probe | Reuters

CORRECTED - UPDATE 2-Brazil beef giant JBS under police probe
Tue Jun 16, 2009 7:38pm EDT

(Corrects to show that Margen, not JBS, filed for bankruptcy protection, paragraph 11)

SAO PAULO, June 16 (Reuters) - The world's biggest beef processor JBS (JBSS3.SA) is under investigation by Brazil's federal prosecutor's office in a widespread corruption case that has targeted several companies in the beef industry.

Brazil is the world's largest producer and exporter of beef, and its cattle industry has come under increasing criticism from environmentalists at home and abroad for its role in the deforestation of the Amazon rainforest.

Other meatpackers and leather companies including Bihl, Margen and Curtume Nossa Senhora Aparecida are also part of the investigation into the bribing of public officials, racketeering, corruption, fraud and collusion, a representative at the federal prosecutor's office told Reuters on Tuesday.

In an statement released earlier on Tuesday, the prosecutor said several people from the beef, dairy and leather industries were being rounded up and held in police custody in a broad-reaching sting operation spanning several states.

Big Meat to seize rancher’s home: Tyson vs. Herman Schumacher « Food Freedom

The Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 (PSA) was established to protect family farmers and ranchers against unfair and deceptive practices by the highly concentrated meatpackers. In 2006, both the Office of Inspector General (OIG) and the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that USDA had failed for nearly a decade to properly enforce the PSA. As a result, anticompetitive practices and anti-trust actions by the concentrated meatpackers have gone unrestrained, causing hundreds of thousands of cattle producers to exit the industry.

During the prolonged non-enforcement of the PSA, USDA implemented a new price reporting requirement, but made a horrendous mistake. Over a six-week period, from April 2, 2001, to May 11, 2001, USDA miscalculated beef values and underreported those values to the public. It was widely believed that Tyson and the other two largest meatpackers – Cargill Meat Solutions, d/b/a Excel Corporation (Excel), and Swift & Co. (Swift), now JBS Swift – knew that beef values were being underreported and were purposely underbidding the actual value of cattle. Prices paid for Schumacher’s and other cattle feeders’ cattle were forced lower during this period, causing producers to lose millions of dollars in income. USDA refused to take any action to correct this injustice.

JBS under investigation in Brazil | Drovers.com - Industry News

JBS S.A., along with a handful of other Brazilian companies, is under investigation by that country’s federal prosecutor in what is described as a widespread corruption case. Officials said Tuesday that 22 people have been arrested, and charges may include bribing public officials, racketeering, corruption, fraud and collusion.

In a statement issued Wednesday, JBS officials said the company is not involved in crimes associated with the Brazilian government's probe of alleged corruption among meatpackers. The company said it does not yet know the full details of the probe but is cooperating with federal authorities.

The investigation began about a year ago and developed into a broad-reaching sting operation called “operation slaughter” that spanned several Brazilian states. The prosecutor’s office said that officials at the Banco da Amazonia bank, and local and federal officials of several government offices and ministries are also involved. The prosecutor said companies under investigation had paid inspectors and public servants to approve projects and clear products such as meats for consumption.

JBS S.A. became the world’s largest beef processor last year and a major player in the U.S. market when it purchased Swift & Co. and Smithfield Beef Group. It also purchased Five Rivers Cattle Feeding, which owns 10 feedlots with a capacity of 1.5 million head. JBS also made a bid for National Beef, the fourth-largest U.S. beef packer, but that acquisition was terminated last February.

JBS S.A. is currently the world's largest beef producer and exporter, with a daily slaughtering capacity of 65,200 head, and the largest global exporter of processed beef. The company's operations include 22 plants located in nine Brazilian states and six plants located in four Argentine provinces, in addition to 16 plants in the United States, 10 in Australia and 10 in Italy. Additionally, JBS S.A. is the third-largest pork producer in the United States, with a slaughtering capacity of 47,900 head per day.

JBS S.A. denies involvement in government probe | Greeley Tribune

JBS S.A. has said the company is not involved in crimes associated with the Brazilian government's probe of alleged corruption among meatpackers.

JBS S.A. is the parent company of JBS USA which has headquarters in Greeley.

The Sao Paulo-based beef giant said federal police visited a JBS plant in Porto Velho, a city in the state of Rondonia, with a warrant to search and collect certain documents, according to Meatingplace.com.

JBS said it cooperated with the police, which collected documents including audit reports and copies of plant operations licenses. No electronic data storage devices, computer or any other kind of equipment was seized, the company said, "due to a lack of evidences that any crime was committed."

In a statement released Wednesday by the company it "affirms that it does not have any involvement in crimes associated with this Federal Superintendence of Agriculture investigation in the state of Rondonia, or in any other state.”

From the Greeley Tribune With Love To Jane

Got to love their timing. Just goes to show you can't ruffle the big dogs feathers. Thank you Mr. K. I hope JBS' public offering goes well.

From this evening's email. I've asked them to delete my profile.

On Thu, Jul 23, 2009 at 4:20 PM, Amy Nickelson wrote:
Janepaudaux,

Hi, I’d like to thank you for your contributions to the www.greeleytribune.com comment boards. We encourage and appreciate dialogue between our readers. However, your posts have recently been brought to my attention by the online community. Specifically, we do not allow repeated promotion of personal Web sites in comment posts. This falls under the spamming violation in our Terms of Use, available via link at the bottom of each page of our Web site.

We ask all of our users to adhere to our Terms of Use. Therefore, we request that you stop posting a link to your personal blog with your comment posts. Failure to follow Terms of Use on our site will result in further action.

As an alternative, I’d like to suggest that you fill out your user profile on our site. You are welcome to post the link to your personal blog in the biography section of your profile. Other users will still be able to see it and link to your blog from there.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at the e-mail below.

Thank you,

Publish Post

Amy Nickelson
Online Community Manager
Northern Colorado Communication Group
970-352-0211, Ext. 11237
anickelson@northerncoloradocommunications.com

JBS SWIFT DONATES TWENTY GRAND

I went looking on Opensecret.org this afternoon for general information.

I thought it interesting the variance in donations to specific District 06 Candidates for the 2010 election cycle. Note the * means that Mike Coffman is the incumbent.

District 06

Mike Coffman (R) * John Flerlage (D) David Canter (D)

$176,235 $21,733 $16,626

The following are contributions already coming in for the 2010 election cycle. I thought it interesting the high ranking of JBS Swift in this table. These are top donors from Colorado.

"Based on Federal Election Commission data available electronically on June 29, 2009.

Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics. For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center."

Colorado: Donors | OpenSecrets

Top Contributors ActBlue $200,900
CH2M HILL $167,750
Xcel Energy $68,975
Brownstein, Hyatt et al $30,850
National Cattlemen's Beef Assn $30,204
World Leisure Partners $28,500
JBS Swift & Co $20,000
Hogan & Hartson $19,950
Arcadis G&M $16,000
Time Warner Telecom $13,000
Level 3 Communications $10,500
Bow River Capital $10,200
Anschutz Corp $10,000
Kenney Group $9,850
Intensity Ventures $9,600
American Medical Response $9,500
Stratton & Assoc $8,000
Telstra Corp $7,200
Friends of Jared Polis Cmte $7,000
Denver West Realty $6,900

"Top contributors" shows the biggest contributors giving PAC and individual donations to federal candidates and parties in this state. The contributions came not from the organization itself, but from its PAC, its individual members, owners, or employees, and those individuals' immediate families.

Totals listed under "top contributors" show only those dollars raised by federal candidates and parties within this state. They do not necessarily represent the total for the organization nationwide - nor are the contributors necessarily based inside the state itself.
TOTAL INDIVIDUAL DONATIONS FROM STATE DONORS, 2009-2010
Type of Donation Total Dems Repubs Dem % Repub %
Individual Donations to PACs $590,144 - -
Individual Donations to Candidates $643,517 $578,164 $65,353 89.8% 10.2%
Individual Donations to Political Parties $555,116 $269,936 $284,030 48.6% 51.2%

This chart shows how much PACs and large individual donors have given from the state so far in the 2009-2010 election cycle.

* "Individual Donations to PACs" shows the total given by individual donors to federal political action committees (PACs)

* "Individual Donations to Candidates" shows how much was given by individuals to federal candidates

* "Individual Donations to Political Parties" shows how much individuals gave to national party committees or to state party committees registered with the Federal Election Commission.

Based on Federal Election Commission data available electronically on June 29, 2009.

Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics. For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center.

Not Exactly the Calvary

Generic comfort from our friendly federal press relations corps.  Okay I am being more than a little sarcastic.  It is the agency's job to get people to sit back on their couches and turn on the television and ignore a lot of things while they turn their strategies into law or a part of the regulatory process.  Having had to deal with the mob mentality before I get the benefit.  It is the long term disadvantages and placebo effect on the public and democratic transparency that chills me to the bone.   If the recent regulatory track record were better I might be a little more upbeat.  It will take time to clean house at the FDA and the USDA of the political implants so until then I feel justified in being suspect of their trend in how to resolve things.  Plus one of the six area proposals, if you click on the link and read the entire blurb, is to employ more tracing mechanisms.  I still do not agree with electronic tagging of farmer's assets on their own property.  I have a mental line drawn in my mind for invasive government and have yet to hear a good argument for changing it in regards to this particular industry.  Removing the human from the process may be more cost affordable and create efficiencies in gathering data but it does not necessarily translate into effectiveness of regulatory management. Not to mention the slippery slope of Cow Pucky in general.  I still think fresh local food and smaller system management is the way to go.  But that would mean radical new thinking on a lot of levels.  Brain stretch-marks!

Government tightening food safety standards - washingtonpost.com

New safety standards aimed at reducing salmonella and E. coli outbreaks are part of a government effort to try to make food safer to eat.

A food safety panel established by President Barack Obama developed the new rules for eggs, poultry, beef, leafy greens, melons and tomatoes as well as for better coordination and communication among the agencies overseeing the nation's food supply.

The panel was to announce Tuesday that the Food and Drug Administration and the Agriculture Department would adopt the standards, which follow a string of breakdowns in food safety.

Earlier this year a massive salmonella outbreak in peanut products sickened hundreds, was suspected of causing nine deaths and led to one of the largest product recalls in U.S. history. In the past month, Nestle Toll House cookie dough and 380,000 pounds of beef produced by the JBS Swift Beef Co. of Greeley, Colo., have been recalled due to connections with outbreaks of E. coli.