City, county and state officials are locked in a battle over whether more should have been done to prevent the closing of Madison’s Oscar Mayer plant last year.
Legislative Democrats and city officials have pointed the finger at the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and the state’s chamber of commerce, saying both entities knew Kraft-Heinz was considering shuttering the east Madison facility but didn’t do enough to keep the company in the Badger State.
But Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, countered Tuesday by announcing that he was submitting open records requests to determine if Madison Mayor Paul Soglin and Dane County Executive Joe Parisi could have prevented Oscar Mayer’s departure.
"If the Mayor did have advance knowledge of changes at the Madison location as he has suggested, the city’s residents deserve an explanation as to why no action was taken,” Fitzgerald said in the statement. “His misguided attempts to shift blame onto WEDC or other state business groups are no more than a smokescreen to disguise his office’s culpability.”
Fitzgerald added that since the Oscar Mayer facility was located in Madison, the closure happened “under Mayor Soglin’s watch.”
Soglin held a press conference Thursday in which he claimed the Walker administration has caused Wisconsin’s economic performance to lag. He cited multiple measures of poor economic performance aside from the Oscar Mayer facility situation, and asserted he made efforts to assist the company.
“I spoke to the folks from Oscar Meyer. I offered our help and assistance in anything they needed and they didn’t take us up,” Soglin said during the press conference. “Now what happened is WMC and WEDC had information about other states trying to lure Kraft companies.”
Soglin said the Freedom of Information Acts filed for information from his office were to cover up other problems.
“This is all to obfuscate the real issue,” Soglin said. “The real issue is Wisconsin’s economic calamity. Five years of Walker. Five years of Fitzgerald and everything has gone down hill.”
The city attorney’s office should have the records out in a couple of days because of how extensive the request was, according to Soglin.
