Meet Foxconn's Wisconsin Watchdog: 'A Better Mount Pleasant'

MOUNT PLEASANT, WI — It's a mild afternoon in June, and Kelly Gallaher is working in the sun-splashed kitchen of her Mount Pleasant home. She senses a storm is coming, and it's not because of the weather.

Gallaher has set up the mobile nerve center for her web page, A Better Mount Pleasant. With two laptops arrayed on her kitchen counter, she monitors online activity as she exchanges text messages on her cell phone with an inside source for the topic that occupies her attention and the attention of so many others in the area and across the U.S.: Foxconn.

Gallaher describes herself as a watchdog over the development of Foxconn in the area. In her role, Gallaher sees herself as something unique: a person outside of government who studies what officials are doing as they pave the way for one of the largest and most transformative developments in U.S. history. Nobody - including area newspapers, independent media or out-of-market TV stations - reaches that level of investigative focus with this project, she said.

Related Reading: A Better Mount Pleasant Facebook Page

The size and scope of the $10 billion Foxconn electronics manufacturing factory are staggering: The roughly 20-million-square-foot plant will be located just north of County Line Road and just east of I-94 in Mount Pleasant in southern Racine County, according to local officials. That expanse is bordered by Braun Road to the north and Highway H to the east.

"This isn't about blocking Foxconn," she said. "There is a longer conversation about doing it right, for everyone to do their due diligence as we move forward. All kinds of things are going to impact our community because of it. We will be that more much more prepared and knowledgeable when the next thing comes."

A Higher Level

Gallaher says A Better Mount Pleasant was set up as a Facebook page in 2015 to support specific candidates who were running for village trustee. Over the years, the page evolved into a hub for addressing local policy issues. "We positioned ourselves as a watchdog for people who wanted to know," she said.

The Facebook page started with a modest reach, with a group of about 20 tight-knit followers. The page has grown in membership to just over 700 followers.

With Foxconn coming to Mount Pleasant, the stakes ratcheted up and what was once a local forum for village issues and local candidates has been taken to a higher level.

Gallaher began posting updates about her research into Foxconn and related issues daily, combining text posts, pulling in media content, issuing commentaries and hosting Facebook Live videos from council meetings. Over the last week alone, she said the page reached more than 15,000 visitors.

Fighting Blighting

In early June, the Mount Pleasant Village Board declared an area of about 2,900 acres in the footprint of the proposed Foxconn plant as “blighted.” That area includes farmland and a variety of homes - some new, some that have existed for generations.

A Better Mount Pleasant has followed the topic of blighting in the village and says the village willfully ignored state law in addition to failing to set up an environment to negotiate in good faith with property owners.

"Most of these homeowners haven't even entered into negotiations with the Village before they decided to play the 'blight' card," Gallaher said just prior to the Village's vote. "The Community Development Authority has been given detailed information on why these properties do not meet the legal definition of blighted.' They have ignored the law and their own neighbors, and appear poised to do it anyway."

Mount Pleasant Village Attorney Alan Marcuvitz had gone on record saying the village is, in fact, properly applying state law that allows an area to be declared blighted even though none of the properties contained within the area are actually blighted. Among the provisions in state law that may aid the village's legal standing is the section that states, that land may be considered blighted within a development zone that "substantially impairs or arrests the sound growth of the community."

However, A Better Mount Pleasant is countering, saying that the state statute that pertains to blighted property (included below) does not apply here.

Wisconsin State Statute 32.03(6) says that condemnation through blighting can only be used if the property is not occupied by the owner of the property, his or her spouse, or an individual related to the owner by blood, marriage, or adoption within the 4th degree of kinship OR the crime rate in, on, or adjacent to the property is at least 3 times the crime rate in the remainder of the municipality in which the property is located.

"None of the homes in the Foxconn zone under threat of condemnation meet these legal criteria." Gallaher says, "There is little doubt that actions to blight these properties will lead to a lawsuit which will not just cause problems for the Foxconn development but could set a very dangerous precedent. If Mount Pleasant is allowed to blight perfectly good family homes and give them to a privately owned corporation, they can do it to anyone, anywhere."The Mount Pleasant Village Code of Ethics ordinances state that any public official who knowingly acts in excess of their legal authority and official capacity has committed misconduct in office.

Blighting Meeting Blues

The Mount Pleasant Community Development Authority canceled a meeting scheduled for June 19 to certify the Foxconn Redevelopment Plan, which encompassed blighting 2,900 acres of farmland and residences, after Gallaher said that the meeting was "illegal" based on open meeting laws.

A Better Mount Pleasant contended that the CDA meeting would take place on June 19, at 3:00 p.m. at Village Hall - while the village calendar and a weekly meeting list posted on the village website indicated the meeting would take place at 3:30 pm.

A Better Mt. Pleasant said in a statement that they contacted the Racine Journal Times (the newspaper of record) Tuesday morning after discovering no published notice of the CDA meeting was printed in the paper. The Journal Times reported they were never notified of a Community Development Authority meeting - which is required by state law.

“By standards clearly defined in the Wisconsin Open Meetings law, this CDA meeting is an illegal convening of a governmental body,” Gallaher said. “Sadly, this is not the first or even the second time [the committee chair] has failed to uphold the basic responsibilities of CDA Chairman.”

The village answered those claims back online in the form of a Facebook Post by Village Administrator Maureen Murphy, who stated, "The Village was made aware that the Newsroom Assistant for the Racine Journal Times was not given notice of some of the scheduled government meetings for June 19, 2018. The Village did give notice to other members of the Journal Times' staff and properly posted notice of these meetings on the Village's website and three public posting places.

The village contended that the meetings could have legally been held, however, that the best governmental practice would be to either reschedule or cancel the meeting. The village said that the newspaper's Newsroom Assistant was not given an opportunity to publish the meeting calendar.

"We will be reviewing our policies and procedures to make sure that this does not happen again. We apologize for any inconvenience," Murphy wrote.

According to Gallaher, “The CDA is deliberating the plans and activities regarding the largest, most expensive development in the U.S. and [the CDA chair] can’t be bothered to even follow state law by correctly posting the minutes and notifications of CDA meetings. How can the public have any faith in his ability to responsibly execute this or future projects?”

"No Minutes For Months"

When Patch interviewed Gallaher at the beginning of June for this project, she noted that the village had not posted any minutes for the Community Development Authority - one of the primary governing committees charged with the task of facilitating the Foxconn development project - over a span of several months.

"The Mount Pleasant CDA is responsible for 3,000 acres of blighting, and there are no meeting minutes posted since January," she said. "That's ridiculous. There is no excuse in a project this big. To the deeper issue, people don't know what's going on in their government. They can't read the minutes. That is wrong."

Over the last seven days prior to the publication of this article, the village updated minutes to both the CDA and council.

Gallaher said that A Better Mount Pleasant has consistently asked for updated minutes, has questioned whether Foxconn-related meetings held over the last year were legally able to go into closed session, and has been reading the fine print on information that has been made available to the public.

"The village board has been very small and friendly because it's been a small town forever," she said. "As the village has grown, that aspect has really not changed. Over the years, they've treated the Village Hall as a clubhouse rather than as a municipality."

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