Introduction 0:07

Welcome to Storm Tested Leadership, where our hosts Dave Miller and James Holscher visit with frontline leaders to learn how they weathered the most difficult hours. And in the process helped make their communities and organizations storm tested.

James Hoelscher 0:31

About a decade ago, back in 2016, Mason City, Iowa stood at the center of one of Iowa's most controversial economic development decisions. A proposed $240 million prestige foods pork plant. It was hailed by some as a once in a generation opportunity for Mason City and feared by others as a threat to the community's identity values, uh, and today, it's impossible to look back at this situation without kind of thinking about could we have handled it differently. Dave, we wanna let everybody know that today's conversation, uh, it includes the discussion of suicide and self harm. Listeners, if that's a difficult top topic for you, please take care of yourselves and consider skipping this episode if you or someone you know is struggling 9 8 8 is the Suicide Crisis Hotline, and please reach out and get some assistance. So, Dave Mason City. The storm involved, organizational management, some community ethics, dilemmas, transparency, public trust. There was civic discourse, kind of the role of economic developers and elected officials. Uh, it wasn't just about deals, uh, but the tone of the health of the community was, it was all, all there. So our storm tested leaders, a good friend of ours, Chad Shrek, Chad is the president and CEO of the North Iowa Corridor Economic Development Corporation in Mason City, Iowa. Welcome, Chad.

David Miller 2:06

Welcome, Chad.

Chad Schreck 2:08

Yeah, thanks guys. Great to be with you.

David Miller 2:11

Chad, you've been with, uh, Mason City for how long now?

Chad Schreck 2:15

Yeah. It'll actually be, uh, this is my 11th year, I think here in November. Will we be at 12 years?

David Miller 2:23

Awesome. What, can you give just a quick history maybe on, what your economic development organization makeup is, uh, area that you, oversee and, just maybe a, basic premise of what economic development means to you?

Chad Schreck 2:36

Yeah, you bet. So North Iowa Corridor serves Mason City, clear Lake and the greater Sara Godo County, uh, area. Know, our focus is really on, obviously existing industry is always everybody's primary focus, I hope. And making sure they're successful and thriving here. Creating a business climate that, Brings success and, and creates a quality of life and quality of business, uh, opportunity that, that supports their, their means and their needs. So obviously workforce is a big part of that. We work closely with our schools and our community college to make sure those things happen and are, and are available for our businesses. Uh, obviously business recruitment a big part of that in trying to recruit industries that'll bring value to our communities. New jobs, new investment, new tax base. And uh, and as part of both of those over the last five, six years, a thing that became more and more critical was housing. As we were, like many communities our size, you know, our county is about 43, 40 4,000. Mason City is around 27,000. Clear Lake, about 7,500. Mason City Acts is a, a regional hub. Uh, for the area it's the largest city really, between aims to Minneapolis or you know, all the way down to Des Moines. So we're right on Interstate 35 and the avenue of the saints. So kinda the intersection of two major four lane interstates as well. Healthcare hub, retail hub, all those things for our region and housing has really been a challenge. We have something like nine to 10,000 people a day driving into our county for work and, and that tells us we have the opportunity to. Get more people to live here if we could build 'em the housing. So that's been a big emphasis the last five years. We've added around 500 units and have a lot in the pipeline for the next years, a few years. So those are really kind of turned into the three pillars of our organization, the existing industry, the business recruitment, and now housing, uh, as part, kind of an offshoot of our workforce development efforts.

David Miller 4:27

So you walk us through, uh. The pitch came to you, from this particular project and what that really meant to you from, we'll just say day one, getting a call, the RFP or re request for proposal, as an economic development professional of past, it was always kind interesting to get those in the inbox. And, uh, you always a little excitement and a little heart twinge and, and you're looking at this like, wow, this is, this is a big damn deal. What, what transpired, just say the first 24, 48 hours.

Chad Schreck 4:59

Yeah, this one was unique and interesting from the start. So typically, like you said, we'd probably get an RFP in the email, uh, ex you know, laying, outlining the project, saying, here's the need. Send us the information within two to three weeks and, and we'll get back to you. Maybe, probably not, but maybe. And, um, this time I got a call from one of our project managers in Des Moines. And, and at with the State Economic Development Office. He said, Chad, we got a company that they are really interested in the Mason City area. We've been working with them for a little while now and they've identified Mason City as a really primary target or location that would be a great fit for what they do. Now it, I'll tell you, it is in, you know, hog slaughter. It's, it's a processing plant. Um, so I know that may or may not be of interest, so, but they're gonna be in, in the area tomorrow, I think is, is what it was. Uh, would you be able to meet with them?

David Miller 5:54

seems to be typical of all those, right?

Chad Schreck 5:56

Yeah, yeah. So I was, so, I was like, well, let me check with my community leaders and, and see if this is something they would want to pursue or not. So at that point, I, I gave my mayor, my, city administrator a call and said, Hey guys, we've got, a lead here. It is in the pork processing industry. Could be a very large project at that point. I don't, I don't know if in that initial call we, we had all the numbers, uh, exactly, but obviously knew it was gonna be a large project, and didn't know the name or, or anything at that point. But they both said, yeah, wow, that sounds like something we should at least. Talk to, right? We gotta hear it out. See, see the story and, and what it could be. So we had that meeting the very next day. The company, several of their executives right off the bat were in town. It was a family owned and operated company. So a couple of the, the brothers that were in the executive team were there, uh, as well as some of their management. Actually had a, a phenomenal visit and, and meeting. You get the call and prior 24 to 48 hours later, you're hosting 'em. It's obviously confidentiality is typically very important, especially when you're just, you know, it's kinda your first date. You're just feeling each other out to see, Hey, is this, uh, somebody we want to form a, a longer term relationship with? So in that setting, really it's determining, all right, who needs to be at the table? Who are the voices that need to be a part of this? And then ideally, if you have a little time to prepare, you're, you're kind of creating your outline, your agenda. Here's the topics we need to cover and walk through and make sure that we, we are doing, and obviously a first part of that's learning from the business. What are your needs? What kind of things are you looking for? What kind of site do you need? What are your utilities and these different things so that we can answer their questions. It's just like if you're meeting with your realtor to go look at a house. I mean, you've got all these things that you have on your list that you want. I'm not gonna go look at a house if it doesn't check off 90% of my boxes. Right. Um, and it's the same thing for any business, so we wanna make sure we know their list and then we can answer the questions and directly address those, those items.

James Hoelscher 8:01

Chad, give us a point in time you were fairly new to this organization, and so just give us kind of when you got an op, when you get a call on a project like this, where's your emotions at? Where's your, in a sense from an economic development, your sense of enthusiasm, excitement, that type of thing.

Chad Schreck 8:20

Yeah. So like you said this, at this point I was probably. Y just over a year, year and a half in here. Um, so honestly, my initial reaction was mixed. I grew up in Carroll, Iowa, uh, and we had towns that had gone through the hog processing, uh, industry changes of the eighties and nineties, and the perceptions of that were, you know, they were within half hour to an hour we had, you know, Denison Storm Lake. So my attitude growing up was kind of like, oh, that, you know, that is kind of dirty industry. I mean, just being honest, right? It's kind of a dirty industry. There's issues that the communities have had to go through. A lot of growing pains, a lot of other concerns. You hear all the, the fears of crime or of just communities changing because of the industry. And so those were some of my initial like, whoa, do we want, is this something we wanna entertain? Because. I had all those preconceived notions like anybody else probably. Um, and so that was a concern. That was, right away some of the things that I told my mayor and, and council members and, and administrator like, Hey, we're gonna have all this baggage. This kind of project has a lot of baggage. There's a lot of perceptions about it, there's a lot of concerns about it. You have a lot of con environmental potential issues. So these are a lot of stuff that, things that we gotta worry about, uh, frankly. And those were my first thoughts, like, uh, is this one of those that we want to want to play with? Um, now on the opposite side, that the exciting part was just the size and scale. I mean, they started walking through what their plan was and. Like I said, I didn't have a whole lot of time to process it. Um, and before they were here, but as you met with the family, what was really cool was just the values they brought to it, uh, the size and scope of what they were trying to do, why they wanted to do it. They had been in the hog industry. They were a large producer for a long, long time. Uh, and they were frankly disturbed by the industry and what they were, you know, the, the folks they had to deal with on the processing side. And their whole mission was to change that and, and do something different than what the industry had a reputation for and, and to be a really good player. And so that was exciting. You know, the more you learned about their motives and what they were trying to accomplish. And then the size of it, I mean, a $240 million project, um, a year or so before that, we had gotten a McKesson, a very Fortune 10 company, doing a large distribution project was like an $80 million. Like, these numbers seem small now, but 10 years ago getting a $10 million project was a big deal. Getting an $80 million project was like, wow, we, we never thought we'd see the day.

David Miller 11:01

So in your

Chad Schreck 11:02

now we had,

David Miller 11:03

In your 10 years, how many, how many deals have you had in the, we'll say 50 plus million, or at least 240 million. Right. I, that's a, that's an incredible amount of investment for a rural community of, you know, I mean your 50,000 population or so, give or take in the region. And I mean, that's, that's quite the project coming in on your desk, so.

Chad Schreck 11:22

yeah, exactly. So when you see the scale of that, you're like, wow, that's, again, that's part of why you gotta talk about it and consider it and walk through. Uh, and they were talking a thou basically a thousand or 1100 jobs in initially, or as they ramped it up in their first phase. So it was a, it was a big project. Um, you know, we as a, a community, what we do have an, in a history with, uh, pork processing. So Mason City was really founded on a few things, brick and tile or cement manufacturing and then pork processing. So we had a huge plant that was one of the foundational businesses of the town. Had thousands of employees right up through the sixties or seventies, and then it closed. And you can kind of see the trajectory of our population ever since has been downward. You know, we were over 50,000 as a county, uh, back then, and now we're down around 43,000, like I said. So you could kind of see as the industry, uh, makeup has changed and as you've seen manufacturing and some of these other things kind of taper, uh, over the years, um, it's been hard for us to make that up. So having the opportunity to explore something that could attract that kind of population base, that kind of base load employment, um, that, that part of it is exciting.

James Hoelscher 12:34

Yeah, and Chad, I think we want to get into the story, but you know, I've heard you talk about that when they talked about everything but the oink, you know, you think about a project like this and there's the potential, not just one industry, but you think about the potential spinoffs that could come from this. And so from an economic development perspective, you're almost seeing like a system that may be coming to town that could ha, could spin out other businesses as well. So that's what makes this kind of thing really interesting.

Chad Schreck 13:06

Right. Yeah. The, the, uh, multiplier effects of the industry and investment of that size are, are significant.

David Miller 13:13

For sure. What does, what does the next steps look like after the first meet and greet and, and not probably all those steps and background. We don't have to get too, too in depth, but I just wanna paint a picture for people that don't understand, um, the background collection of information and studies and logistics and all those pieces from sewer and water to traffic. Just maybe give us a, the two minute elevator pitch on, uh, on how that really works, uh, on the background before it even gets to the, the public hearing side of things to approve a project of this

Chad Schreck 13:47

Yeah. So really from that first meeting again, we had a, a just connected really well, we had, again, we had some of our city leaders in there, uh, with the family and just talking through again, the project and getting a really good feel for what they were trying to accomplish. And I think afterwards we all agreed, Hey, it's worth carrying this forward and seeing where it leads. And so we had kind of our list like, well here's, here's our utility needs. You know, how much water, sewer. Uh, things of that nature. We need, we kind of had honed in on a site right off the bat that just made a lot of sense. It was on the very southwest corner of town had been getting developed or, or, you know, had all the infrastructure. It was as far from neighborhoods and, and residential as, as could be in and still be in the city. Um, you know, I think we were almost a mile, uh, from residential and, um, so getting that whole list of, of things that they would need and then starting to fill in the blanks on how could the city, uh, support that or not. Uh, what were any potential roadblocks and just. Again, working through that checklist, making sure we had all the answers, uh, and then on our end, uh, as well, our concerns and making sure those were addressed. And so identifying, you know, what does the hiring, how do, how do you hire a thousand people and, and what kind of processes that can be? What are the wages going to be on these, are these jobs that pay enough, uh, that we would want to bring them? Uh, typically when we're attracting a project, our goal is to at least meet, uh, or exceed our median wage, uh, threshold as a county. So identifying that and looking at how many of the jobs do, do that. Are there some that don't? Um, and you know, what, what's the value there? The value proposition to the benefit, uh, to our citizens and, and what it's going to, going to bring from an, from an opportunity level. So we worked through that whole process and I, and, and trying to address each of those items, making sure that. Yeah. When, if, if this moves forward, wow. It would really provide a lot of value, not just, um, in jobs and, and all of that, but you're looking at property tax base, you're looking at, uh, a lot of things that really come into play with that. And I can get into those numbers. 'cause honestly, they were kinda, kind of blew us away once we got deep into it.

David Miller 16:05

So first initial meeting is probably the, the first date, uh, feeling each other out. Uh, and then it, it's kind of a dating proposal at that point. And, uh, essentially, uh, seeing if the marriage works, right. Uh, all those different counterpoints points, uh, working through, I'm assuming there's some negotiation as well, uh, between community development group and, and business and, and really just feeling each other out to make sure that this is, uh, something that'll work. Maybe point to some of those. What are the red flags concerns? Big ones that maybe stood out if, if you could, um,

Chad Schreck 16:38

Mm-hmm.

David Miller 16:39

or, or, and then maybe kind of walk through, um, the next step in the process.

Chad Schreck 16:45

Yeah, so that was kind of what was interesting really as we went through, um, all of the nuts and bolts of the project, you know, all those utility issues, the jobs, how we would work with them on preparing the community as far as, Hey, if we do create a thousand jobs, we're gonna need to do a ton of housing. We're gonna need to work closely with our school districts. We're gonna need to work closely with all these community partners and get people engaged. And as we went through that process, it was kind of exciting 'cause it's like, all right, we've gotta manage, you know, we've kind of managed stability and, and trying not to decline. This is like, wow, we might have explosive growth that comes with something like this. So. Laying all those things out. I mean, that was the kind of the scariest part. It's like, well shoot if we did this, we've really got a lot of work to do and I could be a lot more comfortable if I didn't, didn't do anything like that. Um, but the, the prospect of doing something big and, and really, uh, moving things with the community, what was exciting, right? Um, and as we work through, you know, the environmental concerns, the water use concerns, um, all of those various factors that are big challenges, you know, 'cause they were gonna be a large water user. Actually one of the things that made Mason City attractive is we actually have pretty significant water capacity. So that was kind of exciting for our city. 'cause they're like, wow, we got this user that can really, uh, we have a guaranteed revenue stream that lets us knock down the cost for the rest of our, our citizens on their water. Uh, because they're really subsidizing a lot of the cost in this one. Concentrated area. Um, so that was something that kind of got addressed quickly and, and was in good shape. Water treatment, all those things, working with the company, Hey, we'll cover the cost of anything we gotta do to pre-treat and, and get that taken care of. So you worked through all those nuts and bolts issues and it was kind of like, I remember very, we had a full day meeting with the, the city staff, our team, uh, various components walking through with the project engineers, evaluating all the different things on that site and addressing all those utility issues and everything else. And it was just funny after probably an eight or nine hour day, just remember one of the guys, the engineers just kind of sitting back in his chair and he said, wow, this side is dang near perfect. I don't know why there isn't something on here already. Like everything we could hope for, right? And you're like, well, I don't know why either. We've been, that's what we've been telling people

David Miller 19:06

Si sign here. Oh wait. go through a public hearing first. So.

Chad Schreck 19:09

Yeah. So that, that was all really exciting. Um, and you know, you work through all that process and it became very clear like this was the best site for them. I mean, we weren't their only option. They were obviously evaluating other things, but it became pretty clear, pretty, pretty fast. Hey, everything we could possibly hope for is here. Just from a pure nuts and bolts project perspective. We're ready to go. This would work.

James Hoelscher 19:33

Love that. So I think you've set the stage perfectly. Chad. Uh, maybe where the blood pressure starts to go a little bit. Walk us through, this is about storm tested leadership. Talk us about, talk to us about when you realized the storm was coming, and walk us through the storm, if you will.

Chad Schreck 19:54

So obviously when you're doing all that confidential background work, you're doing your homework, seeing if a project will work. There's not any public hall of blue about these things. Um. Where it's, and it was interesting. So when it first came out, um, you know, we, they, the company said, Hey, this, everything checks out. We want to do this. We would, we're ready to move forward if the city is at that point, you know, again, as EDC, we're not the city. We don't determine what projects they do or don't do. We we're kind of the hunters and, and gatherers, right? We, we try to, we help find 'em, we recruit 'em or they find us and we work through the process kind of like we did with, with prestige and determine, hey, we can or can't do this. And now it's kind of in the city's ballpark, right? To say, yeah, we want to pursue this or proceed with it or not. And the city said, yes, we do, you know, had meetings, you know, went through things, introduced it all to the council members and the mayor, and, and everyone said, Hey, this is great. This is a big deal. We wanna move forward. We feel like we can address the concerns and move forward effectively. So everyone was on board. Uh, very comfortable, ready to go. Our board, you know, folks were supportive, uh, across the board and, um, decided, yep, we're, we're gonna do this, we're gonna move forward. It kinda outlined the terms of agreement. Well, the announcement was made. The governor, Terry Branstad, was the governor at the time. He came up and was part of the big enou, did a big community announcement. I mean, had hundreds of people show up in support and happy, excited about it, um, at our Frank Lloyd Wright hotel in our big ballroom. Um, so it was kind of a big pomp and circumstance kind of event. Uh, introduced the company, walked through the details, uh, that we've discussed. Here's all the, the things that we're going to do and all the benefits it's gonna bring to the community. And here's the different concerns that we tried to address, uh, and make sure that, hey, if this project comes, we're gonna address 'em. Right? So, off the bat, it was all great, uh, all positive and and strong support.

David Miller 21:59

So was this the first time the general public knew or heard any inkling about this project? Was the unveiling

Chad Schreck 22:06

Yep.

David Miller 22:07

okay.

Chad Schreck 22:08

Yep. So we, we did that, we had a big story with the paper, um, you know, and the headline was, I think it was just something like 1100 jobs in all caps or something like that. And, um, just kind of walk through again, the project, the parameters, what was, was being worked on. And so that all kinda came out together. And then we had like our first city council meeting, bunch of like our school district and, and others came and just said how this is huge for us. We're very supportive. Um, and everything went really smoothly. I can't remember if that first meeting was for, um, uh, the development agreement or what, what that was kind of, but just kind of an introduction for the city's role and,

David Miller 22:48

So essentially taking all the partners, putting 'em together, um, steering the ship down the right path to, I wouldn't say control, the narrative is a little strong, but at least, uh, paint, paint the narrative to positive outcomes. 'cause I mean, that's what you're working for. You wanna make everybody's life in the community and, and business, housing, other investors, you know, happy, more money, more opportunities and, and just create, you know, regional wealth. So that's.

Chad Schreck 23:15

exactly.

David Miller 23:16

Really cool to be able to, to kind of launch a project in, in that fashion, especially having the, the governor there. So I'm sure that, you know, put things up. So first meeting was just kind of a, a development agreement, public meeting. Uh.

Chad Schreck 23:29

Yep. Yeah. Setting the, setting the, uh, hearing, you know, we gotta set the date for the public hearing on to discuss the development agreement. So that was all really positive. I don't think anybody came and had an issue. So the next meeting then was two weeks later. And in that timeframe, all of a sudden a big group, uh. Started getting organized essentially. And I just remember getting to that, that meeting and the line was way out the door. Um, just a whole stream of folks that were there geared up and not happy.

James Hoelscher 24:03

Is this people from local? Is this, is this people from everywhere?

Chad Schreck 24:07

Yeah, it was a mix. So, you know, we had some environmentalist groups, uh, that showed up, you know, that would be based outta Des Moines or, or other areas that, that showed up. Um, obviously citizens locally that had concerns. It was across the spectrum. I mean, it really was. And people from both sides of the political aisle, people from. All, all across the board. It was just an interesting mix of, uh, who supported and who was opposed. Right. Um, so that, it was interesting. I, I got there and I, I, uh, I just remember, wow, I, this is, this is a lot and I can't remember, um, honestly it's been 10 years and I'm old now, but they, uh, I can't remember all the things leading up over that two weeks. I know there were probably letter letters to the editor and things of that nature. I'm sure there was some social media stuff, um, but I can't remember all of the noise that was kinda leading up to that. But people got very organized and they, they really filled the room. Um, and it was a boisterous crowd. Uh, and there was, you know, we have a five minute comment, uh, limit for anybody in the public hearing at the time. And so, and just open until the last person spoke. So that first meeting, I think we had almost five hours of public comment.

James Hoelscher 25:27

Wow.

Chad Schreck 25:28

And most of it was not nice

David Miller 25:33

Was there any positive, uh, comments at that meeting that, that maybe outweighed that, that, that maybe stick out in your head?

Chad Schreck 25:38

yeah. There definitely were some, it was the minority. I mean, just, I think part of it was a lot of people that were supportive, just, they kind of saw how it all started and they're like, Hey, the council is all, like, the city's moving things forward. They're, this is great. They've got all these things in the works and it's, it's great. Also, I don't want to paint this like, oh, these people were in the wrong, they had valid concerns, they had things that we needed to address. Um, just 'cause we felt like we had addressed 'em doesn't mean that we had answered their particular questions always. Um, so again, no. Not mad at anybody for, for showing up to voice their concerns. I think it's very important that people do, and, and honestly that helps you to refine and make sure, hey, what are our blind spots? Uh, were there things we missed? Were there things that we weren't considering that get brought up? So that, that's very valuable. Um, as long as it's done in a diplomatic way,

David Miller 26:36

Yep.

James Hoelscher 26:36

Yeah, tell us a little bit about, the other, some of the other players, because we've been talking really from your perspective. But, just one transition question for you, Chad. You mentioned the different groups, give us the, tell us about the passion camps, if you will.

Chad Schreck 26:51

Hmm. Well, I'd say we definitely had the folks that were strong on the environmental stuff. So we had a lot of arguments. Um, obviously just the industrial side of it, you've got a large plant, they're gonna use water, they're gonna have wastewater, the footprint, you know, as a large building, and facilities. And then it really exploded in, I don't know if it exploded, but then there was a big, narrative about just hog production in, in general, right? So hog farms and hog barns. And people were worried that this would mean that we'd have a whole bunch of new hog barns popping up all over. Clear Lake is a resort. Community tourism, it's a lake town. So a lot of concerns that, oh gosh, we're gonna have hog barns all around our lake now. You know, uh, all these things and. It was kind of hard to let tell people that they're not coming here 'cause they expect a bunch of new hogs to show up. They're coming here because we have a lot of hogs in Iowa, um, that are ready to, to go. And actually we one, as part of that refinement process is we worked through all of this. One of the agreements the company agreed to was, Hey, we will not even accept hogs from new hog facilities that come up at, from now forward. We're only going to, so that would go, give no incentive to creating new hog barns. You know, they agreed to a lot of concessions basically, uh, to address a lot of those concerns. So that, but that was a big concern. Environmental hog production, just that industry in general, uh, brought out a lot of passion.

James Hoelscher 28:15

Tell us about that. What that, what that means. 'cause it kind of comes down to the people coming in to take the jobs, all that piece. Walk us through for the listeners what that really means.

Chad Schreck 28:25

Yeah. Well, and that's, it's tough 'cause you don't want to assign negative motives to anybody, but there was a lot of questions about who's gonna take these jobs, where are they gonna find these people? Um, you know, illegal immigration was a hot button issue about it. Um, you know, again, so no matter how many times the company says we will, you know, we do E-Verify. We, we work through all these processes. Here's our, how we intend to staff our facilities and through paying better and, and employee treatment, culture, all these things. Uh, being an extremely modern facility, right. You know, whatever ways they answered it, it didn't really matter. It was, you know, hey, you're gonna bring, it's gonna change the town, you know, it's gonna change the town. We're gonna bring all, all these people in. It worries about crime, worries about all the, all kinds of stuff. Low wage workers and what kind of people will take these jobs? They, they must be, um, you know, more violent or more 'cause. In a hog slaughter facility. So there was a lot of concerns like that. Um, and so that, that's just hard to address. You can't change anybody's mind about that. You just couldn't,

James Hoelscher 29:31

shortage of opinions, no shortage of fears or ideas, whether, uh, real or perceived, that type of thing. Let's.

Chad Schreck 29:39

and fear is hard to overcome.

James Hoelscher 29:41

Let's get into, 'cause we're kind of right, right into the storm now, where we've been talking from your, from Chad's perspective, but Chad kind of tee up who are the players that we're gonna be talking about? So from the mayor to the city council,, yourself, others, who do we need to kinda keep in mind as we're walking through the rest of the story here?

Chad Schreck 30:04

I, you know, I think the council and the mayor, city staff all very important to think of in this process. So just put yourself in their shoes. If you're somebody that gets paid a hundred bucks a month to go to two meetings a month, uh, and consider the direction and, and where the community should go, you're generally not doing that because you're, you got a lot to gain personally out of it. So, to be sitting up there and, really five hours of people throwing a lot of ac you know, there's accusations made like, you guys are doing this because you're gonna make something off the deal. Or, you know, a lot of those kind of things get thrown at 'em. Um, they're getting. Emails and phone calls and people stopped 'em in the streets. All of those things that just, I mean, they were incredibly stressed through the whole thing. I mean, we all were, anybody involved in it was very stressed through the whole thing. So that just takes a big toll on people. Uh, and, and it's impossible not to, right? I mean, that it's just hard not to take those things to heart and to, and take it personally, because people are making it personal in a lot of cases. And so that's tough. We had, great councilmen people in it because they, they want to truly try to do what's best for the community. Um, we have a unique situation where we have a six member council, so it's kind of a, it's not an odd number, so you put yourself in a, some weird, uh, situations with that. But, um, and then our, our mayor, who, again, the mayor, the administrator, uh, the council members going into it we're all very supportive, all wanting to see this thing happen. After that first meeting, we did have one council member that kind of going into it had said, Hey, you know, I, I, might not be able to vote in favor of this right now. I mean, there's certain things I want to see. There's things I want to do with the community to make sure that we get more people on board and, and all of that. And he was. It, you know, I thought it was great points. Um, you know, our mayor kind of felt like, Hey, we've got everything together, you know, we just need to stay together, stay united, keep the partners involved and, and engaged. And we just need to push forward. We'll show people like, we're gonna do it the right way and this is gonna be a really good thing. You might not realize it now, but just let us get through this and, you know, we got a good partner. We'll make it happen in a, in a positive way. So trying to carry it forward. Um, after that. So we had the one, so it was five to one after that first meeting. Um, and then we had, well it, I guess what was interesting that was just to set the public hearing, I guess, is when he first voted no, it's like, well, we're just gonna set a public hearing to and discuss this. But then he stayed, stayed a no vote. On the, that first big one, all five of the rest stayed in favor. Um, and then when we got, I can't remember if we had two or three ultimately public hearings that were. Really contentious. I think it was three again, go until midnight or one in the morning. Um,

David Miller 32:56

the, uh, council decided not to waive their, uh, right to the three public hearings,

Chad Schreck 33:01

no, they, they were not gonna do anything like that.

David Miller 33:05

which in I Iowa law, you, you can, uh, pending, you know, no, no negative comments generally, but, uh, I, I would with this one, it was large enough. They probably wanted to hold 'em all.

Chad Schreck 33:14

they wanted to make sure that they were not doing anything that put into question their motives or that they were trying to end around people or cut off people's opportunity to be a part of it, you know? And then, so after that meeting, we, I mean, like our newspaper for the next month had a, just like the front page was a dedicated to all things pork plant, um, and just letters to the editor constantly on both sides. Um, lots of stuff getting thrown around over that next couple of weeks. Um. Again, very uncomfortable for everybody. I mean, just to, to cut to kind of the chase a a little bit. 'cause we went through all that process. We went through those meetings that were really loud and, and difficult and, um, you know, I, I just, the weekend before it was getting to that final vote again, we had had the two meetings in a row with five to one votes council. Very strongly supportive. Still, even in the face of all of that, still felt like, hey, we can, we can work through this, these concerns. Obviously, it's a lot of people coming out and speaking against this, there was a big, uh, uh, sign right or support group that kind of put together thousands of signatures in favor of it, in support of it. But the, the people that were in favor really, for the most part, didn't come to those public meetings because it was just so uncomfortable to be in front of all of that. You know, it was hot, it was getting into the summer, the meeting room was. Packed it was, and it was, again, you're there for five, six hours of really uncomfortable stuff,

David Miller 34:49

yeah, gen, general public leery of putting themselves out there in favor too, right? Like, I mean, there's, there's something to go to a public meeting and be negative when the rest of the group is, but it, it's another omen to, you know, walk in and actually say, Hey, I support this and, and kind of plant your flag. You, you may, you may get, uh, more chastised for that than you would to, to come in and, and yell at council.

Chad Schreck 35:13

Yeah, there was some of that. So kind like I mentioned with the council member that had voted no initially, one of the things that he requested, that I wish we would've, would've been able to do again, that wasn't my decision to make at the time. But basically doing that community open house, walking through, here's the project, answering questions. As you guys know, when you go to a public hearing and a council meeting, it's a one-way conversation. You're not talking back and forth,

David Miller 35:40

it's not a negotiation, right? It's a, it's a pub, public comment area, grievance, and, and next. And,

Chad Schreck 35:45

And so it just hangs out there. And for better or worse, the council just looks like a stone wall, blank face to right. And, and it, so it's tough. So that, that whole idea of, Hey, let's do some kind of a public discussion so we can walk through this, we can address these concerns, we can show how they're being, um, 'cause no matter how much information we put out, we learned it just once. The pe once the people have made their mind up that, Hey, it's gonna be an environmental disaster, it's gonna be bad jobs, it's gonna be a net negative to our community and not just a negative, it's gonna destroy our community. I mean, that, that was kind of the, the, opinion that was being projected. So once that, that thing gets away from you, I mean, you just can't change that narrative, um, because people have dug in and what really happens is the, you know, that's usually gonna be 10% of your, of folks that are just like, really strongly in favor and really strongly opposed to in any given issue, you got this large chunk of people in the middle that kind of don't pay attention to these things very much. But if all they're hearing is this massive, outcry of negativity and you just kind of want it to go away, like, really, why are we messing around with this? I don't personally have anything to gain from it, so let's just get rid of the noise. Um, even if it's a good thing, it, it doesn't feel like a good thing. Um, and so on the community side, you know, we would've really, um, loved to have the opportunity, I guess to kinda lead in with a more of a, and I don't know the right way to do this to this day, honestly. Like how do you lead with a project and say, well. We want to come through with the county and kind of develop this project and answer all the questions and, and then, you know, a year down the road we'll be able to go through and it'll all be hunky dory. That's just not the way business works exactly. Hey, we're trying to finish some things and we've got a lot of stuff that we gotta get done. And it's just hard to have that kind of relationship in, in economic development projects for better or worse. I mean, I wish it could be that way a little bit easier, but what you also learn is, um, if people are dead set against something, I mean, no amount of explanation, no amount of, uh, walking through it necessarily turns their, their mind on that. And like I said, it's, it's that if you're just kind of a normal person that doesn't have a vested interest in any of this, I just want this to go away. Like I don't want to deal with it. And so, from the council perspective, you know, we had Alex, uh, who was the, the member that had know on, on each

James Hoelscher 38:18

introduced him. They don't know who Alex is.

Chad Schreck 38:20

Yeah, so Alex Kuhn was a young council member, uh, you know, at the time I was 31 or 32, I think he was a year or two ahead of me. Just a young popular guy, very involved in the community, very engaged. Um, you know, he was a business development manager for a, a large contractor. Um, so very business oriented guy. Just super, pragmatic, really, phenomenal to work with. We were, you know, we're, we had become friends at that point. Him and the mayor were very close, very good friends. Um, but he just, you know, he was the one that really wanted to do more of that community outreach. Make sure that we were doing some of that. And the kinda, the mayor was on the other side of that with, you know, we've done all the homework, we've done all the stuff, we've got the council member support. Um, we need people to trust us and we need to be unified and let's just, you know, let's push this thing forward and get it done and, and we'll do it right and we'll show everyone like. We're not, you know, this is gonna be a great thing. Um, but Alex wasn't comfortable with that. He, you know, he probably had higher political ambitions at some point. Um, so he, he was working through all of that. He was kind of struggling with that push pull, that I really wanna see this. I wanna support the mayor, you know, Eric, uh, he is, he's a friend. And, and I want to support the community and, and make sure that I'm showing everyone that we're listening and, and doing what they, they're worried about too. Part of it, you know, he felt pretty good that the other council members were staying on board. Like, you know, he wanted to see it happen, but he just wanted to make sure it was done right. And, but he, so he felt like, Hey, the other council members are all strong on this. They're all gonna stay, stay with it. I can kinda balance that out by showing people I'm con, I've empathized with their concerns, and, and, then I'll be polling for whatever I can do to make this better, uh, if it does happen. Um, so by the time we get to that last vote, again, it seemed that all the council members were still strongly supportive. I think I got an email or a call from one of 'em who had been one of the staunchest supporters all the way through, and he just said, I'm sorry, but I, I don't think I can vote. Yes. I mean, I, there's just too much, uh, against it. If we were to do this, we would have to have strong community support to do all the things we're gonna need to do to, to go forward with this. Um, and you know, not wrong, right? Like this is, this is, if it goes forward and you have this much vitriol, it's not a healthy place to be. So then at that point it's like, okay, well it's four to two, um, and, uh, you know, we'll have to see that last meeting, you know, and, and he didn't make that statement publicly, like he was just, he didn't, I don't even know that he told anybody else. Obviously the mayor ended up knowing, and, but I don't know that he told anybody else in the council. Then. Um, we get to the date of that last meeting, we have the company and the family. And here, and I remember sitting in, in our conference room with that family, I think it was around six o'clock, the meeting started at seven. I got a text from, uh, one of the other council members saying, uh, I'm, I have to vote. No, I just don't feel like we have the community support. So at that point you're like, whoa, we've gone through all of this to this point and we know we're geared up for another loud meeting 'cause it's gonna be the last one. So you know that everything is coming at you. And, um, so I have to tell the family, I'm like, guys, you know, we just lost our fourth vote, so it's gonna be three to three. Uh, so I called the mayor, I called the administrator. I said, guys, you know, we are not, we're not gonna, we don't have the vote. You, you should pull this off the, or table it or whatever. Like, it's not gonna be worth going through this whole meeting that when we know it's coming, uh, and you're gonna sit there for five or six hours and then, uh, get the no vote. Um, and I just remember when that no vote came down that, 'cause it came down to actually Alex was the last vote, and you could see him struggling. 'cause he is like, he didn't, he was shocked that two of the other ones voted no before him. He wasn't necessarily expecting that. Um, so when it got to him being the last vote, it's like, oh no, like, gotta kill it. And he did. He stuck with it. Um, and the whole crowd was like, they didn't know at first it was just dead silent. They're like, what? That just ha And then it was an uproar. Like they got what they wanted. They, you know, so there's all the cheering, but it was one of those where you are just like, guys, why, why not just. Hey, we're gonna pull things, we wanna work through whatever. Uh, and if it doesn't come back forward, it doesn't come back forward. But they were, they felt like they had to put it up there and just do it. But it would've been more, more easy in hindsight to just say, Hey, we've, they're gonna kill it. We don't need to go through five hours of public hearing.

James Hoelscher 43:12

And you're sitting next to the family at this point, what's the reaction to them?

Chad Schreck 43:17

Well, and that was kind of the worst part, because by that point, you get pretty close. You know, the people, well, you know that they're good people. You know, the dad of the family who was, you know, retired at that point, but he was probably in his eighties or nineties just as him and the wife were the sweetest people. Um, I think it was four sons. Um, but, you know, they knew that they were gonna be, they didn't, I don't know, they didn't have to sit there through all of that pain and punishment for that long, knowing what was coming at the end. But they did. Um, and you know, they. They took it and they were very respectful through the whole thing. They, again, they'd been, they'd seen this, they knew this could be a possibility. Um, as far as the response and reactions they, that were coming from it. But it was, it was kind of unfortunate. You felt bad for them just on a personal level. 'cause they were getting so much heat and they were getting attacked personally. They were getting, you know, you're ruining this town, you're wrecking us, you know, doing all these things. And, and, you know, that was not what they were there to do. Like, that truly was not their, their intention. They felt horrible that this kind of division had been caused by what they were, were trying to do. Um, so it definitely felt bad for them as part

James Hoelscher 44:28

So talk, walk us through the next couple of days and, and, and how things were going the next couple of days after this huge vote.

Chad Schreck 44:35

Yeah, it was. Um, so it was just kind of a. It's hard to even explain. Right? It's kind of like a traumatic, it was a traumatic experience for the community, frankly. So it was just kind of a quiet, nobody knew what to feel or think or, anything like that. Um, it was kind of a, uh, interesting situation with the company. So they, they kind of packed, backed up. I was getting calls actually from other economic developers and communities, like, Hey, can you get us connected to them? 'cause we'd be interested in this

David Miller 45:11

Vultures The vultures. Man, man.

Chad Schreck 45:15

Um, which is, you know, is it, it's interesting. Um, so did you, I was like, did you see what we just

David Miller 45:22

Yeah. Wow. That's, that's incredible too. It's

Chad Schreck 45:25

project and for the right community, it's a great thing. So. Again. I, I get it. So, um, so we went through that. What was interesting, so Alex came back at, I don't forget how quickly after, but he was just like, you know, he called or he wanted to meet, and he was just like, what? You know, is there any way to salvage it? Like, would they come back? Like if we could do certain things to solve or resolve some of the issues, like, could we get 'em back? And I'm like, well, you know, and, and we, we can talk through it. We kind of started the conversation with the company again and, and just kinda outlined some, some ideas. The truth is they had really, I didn't get into all the things that they had done is essentially concessions. You know, we had, uh, locked in a, a a hundred million dollar minimum assessed valuation on the project. I think at the time our largest. Property tax assessment was like 20 million in the, in the city. So they were gonna be paying four times more than anybody else. Um, you know, they had, they had agreed to do like 250 or 500,000 a year to the school district. I forget what the number was, the, the not doing any hog stuff. So there wasn't a whole lot more we could, could get out of 'em. I don't think we had, we had put all these things in that they were gonna, again, pay into the community, um, and guarantees that they were making. Um, so I forget what, what that was afterwards, but long story short, uh, so we had the conversations they were considering, okay, do we come back and, and consider doing this again? Um, but they just said after considering it with, as the family, I said, we can't put the community or the company through that again, like. We just can't, even if we're guaranteed that the we'll have the votes, like we just can't do that to you guys. We can't do that to, to the family. We can't do that to the, to the community. And I totally res, obviously totally respected that. Um, I wasn't really excited to have to go through more of that kind of process. Um, so they ultimately did end up going to another community 45 minutes away, roughly.

David Miller 47:32

What happens as a community, as you kind of get past that, you get past those negotiations, you've, you've cut ties. What, what next?

Chad Schreck 47:40

Yeah, so I'd say it was probably within two to three weeks after the final vote that it, they, they made it clear like, Hey, we're not coming back to the table. You know, we just we're, we have to move on. Um, and so I let obviously the mayor and, and everybody know that, and the council and, um, I called Alex and I told him, um, and I, you know, I could tell he was disappointed, um, but, you know, it, it kind of was what it was at that point. Um, so, and, and obviously after the vote, it was kind of like from a public standpoint, it was kind of done at that point. It was clear that, hey, that it's, we're all gonna move on, um, I don't remember the exact timeline. I mean, what really, uh, it culminated in, in the worst part of this is I got a call, uh, it was from, we'll never forget it 'cause I was at, at home, uh, and I get got a call from the mayor and he said, Alex killed himself. And, uh, I I mean you, there's no way to respond there, there's no way to even talk about it. Right. Um, just couldn't even comprehend that because he's, again, he's kind of a larger than life guy. He's just, you know, he's just so dynamic. A great, great guy my age. He had a couple of young boys. You're like, man, like what? What? Um, and. Nobody can know why. Um, you know, I, I just know that he had a lot going on in his life and, and it was just the worst, the worst thing possible. Um, don't know, again, don't know all the things that were going on, but, um, but that was the most devastating thing you could have possibly imagine, possibly imagined. And, um, yeah, it, it, it just, to this day, I'll never be able to comprehend it, um, or understand it. And,

James Hoelscher 49:50

Was there any kind of. Did, did folk, did the council, did the mayor, did you all get back together and, and, uh, and, and talk about that outside of a formal setting?

Chad Schreck 50:04

um, I don't know that, you know, it's one of those things where nobody knows what to do. There's not a right answer. I'm, I wish, I wish I had it. Um, it, it just, it just made everything, you know, like I said, the, there was that traumatic kind of that, just that trauma of what everyone had gone through and then all of a sudden this, and it was just complete devastation. It was complete, um, just everything. It just brought everything down. I mean, there was just not a person in that community. I mean, the whole community had this Paul over at, um, one of the mo worst experiences of my life after that call was, um, the council had a meeting that next week, maybe I, I can't remember what, you know, just a regular, regularly scheduled meeting. Um, everybody at that DAUs was. As morose as you could be. And, um, you know, it's dark. There's flowers where Alex should be and you're, it's just like, what, what, what's going on? And, um, the worst part, the worst part about that meeting there was at, at somebody from out of town that was scheduled to speak like about something. And so they're doing this presentation and ev I felt bad for them because they, I don't even know that they had a clue what had happened, but they're just like going on this presentation and everybody's sitting there like, why are any of us here right now? Like, what are we, you know? Um, and so it was just, uh, as traumatic of, of an experience as you could have in that kind of thing. And, um, you, you just couldn't believe it.

James Hoelscher 51:58

Can you just talk about at least your perceptions, uh, as far as the, maybe the stress of, of as a public leader going through that and that we don't necessarily, you know, we're all humans and we, when we go through this stuff, it takes a, it does take a personal toll and maybe even talk about yourself, how stressful that was.

Chad Schreck 52:19

yeah. Um, well, and that's just it, you know, you, it's just so hard to, um, comprehend what happened and, um. You know, you, you can't really put it into words. Uh, 'cause there's just not a right way to respond. Um, and that, that's kind of the worst part. You know, you're talking about somebody that you worked with, somebody that was a friend, somebody that was, you know, kind of a peer. Um, and you don't, it, it just kind of goes to show that we never know what is going on with somebody. Uh, you know, and, and to be more aware. 'cause you know, the, the first thing you, you all go to after that is like, what did I miss? Like what, what did I say? You go back to every conversation you had with them and you're like, you know, what, what, should I have said? What could I have done better? Um, how could I have showed him that it, it was gonna be all right? You know, like, um, so it, it's just, you know, those. Those feelings that people must be going through when they're like, you know, I, there's just no way out of this. I can't, you know, I'm not good enough or whatever it is. It's just not true. And, um, you hope that we can all be more empathetic with people, sometimes the people that we think have it all together the most. And I would put him in that category where you just kind of took for granted that, hey, this guy's top of the world, he is, does amazing things in his, in his private life, his, with his job and, and on the council, um, and everything else. And, um, you just, but you just never know. Uh, there's so many things and, and obviously that whole event was super stressful for him. Um, you know, the relationships that you have, like it is a component probably feeling like he let some people down, um, as part of it, but also, you know, just being torn. I mean, you're just so torn. 'cause just the reality is like a project isn't right or wrong, it. Every project, every, everything we do has a trade off. And, um, so it just, these things are, are not black and white. And, and when you've got, you're putting people in these positions where they've got to try to sort that all out and they're in a position to have, to try to make a decision, uh, that affects a lot of people. Um, that weighs on you. So when we yell at our public leaders, it, it's just, it's not an easy position for them.

James Hoelscher 54:51

I wanna go down that path. You both have been in similar positions and have been at those public meetings, and we often just as humans, I guess, just open up and say what's on top of our mind with all the passion that we can have. And yes, our, our elected officials or whom we're, were whomever we're, uh, presenting to, they're there for that purpose. They've been elected, but. Do we really get that? In fact, these are people just like us who have in many cases volunteered for these positions. Uh, I'd love to hear both of your pec perspectives on, on like, do we really understand, uh, 'cause there's a lot of that today out in our, in our overall environment going on.

David Miller 55:39

Yeah, I mean, you know, it's, it's the emotional toll. Definitely been with and served with council and, and elected officials as you, you know, toil and go through that, you know, for me and dealing with, uh, the tragedy, which was the flood and loss of property and, and one life in our disaster of our community led to many, many difficult decisions. And that really weighs on those individuals too. I mean, it's, it's, uh, it's heartfelt at all times. Um, but led with leadership as well. So, you know, when they have to make those decisions, they have to think not about themselves. They have to think about what lays beneath, uh, all those decisions and, uh. When one option presents itself, they've gotta go full circle. And some of those decisions have to make quickly. And some in Chad's case are over the course of weeks and months, and so you do have the public input side, but it's, it's definitely an emotional toll and they don't get paid anymore to make that decision than they did if they were, you know, picking out park equipment for a, a, a children's park, you know, um, those votes and those weights are the, are, are never the same. Um, but in the same respect on paper they are. And so it's always interesting dealing with elected officials in that regard. Um. To help them process that. So, you know, Chad and myself having served for elected officials too, you want, you want to help them through those decisions, but ultimately it's theirs. And, and you may not agree with it at all times. Uh, and, and sometimes you might, but yeah, it's definitely, definitely interesting side being kind of in the middle, you know? Right. So, uh, you're, you're working for a, a project or a potential and, and then ultimately you're not trying to sway the vote as much as give as much information. So those guys or, uh, the gals can, can make those heavy decisions.

Chad Schreck 57:39

Yeah, that's, that's a really good point. We are always trying to provide the best information we can. And here's the, here's the pitfalls, here's the things we'd be concerned about, and the, the issues. Here's how we would address those and mitigate 'em. And then here's, you know, you're, you're always doing kind of a cost benefit analysis and, you know, hopefully the good outweighs the bad. If it doesn't, all right. We don't wanna pursue this. Um, you know, I, I think too, when you're, you're dealing with public officials, uh, especially at the local level, your city council, your mayor, your supervisors, whoever it may be, just understanding that these people like this takes a toll on them. They're, they're really trying to do their best and they're in it because. They didn't run for that to make money again, right? Like, they're, they're like, Hey, I wanna help our community be better. And things aren't black and white. Like we said, they're very, uh, very many different things to consider. There's so many different perspectives. Um, so when they're trying to balance that, they're not trying to, uh, do something that'll harm the community or harm anybody in the community, typically. Uh, they're trying to figure out the best route. And so I, I guess what I always would try to encourage people and, and us as citizens when we are communicating with our leaders, to come at it in a respectful way, to be like, Hey, I'm concerned about this. Here's why did you see this information? Like, this is why we need to, um, take a step back, or whatever it might be. But, you know, I, when you're in those meetings and people are being accusatory or they're, they're questioning people's motives or the council is doing this for money, or they're doing it for, for this or for that. Or they don't care. It's like nothing could be further from the truth. So I, I, I, I just think when you're, when you're in a heated situation, if people on every side of it could just kind of take each person and not try to assign motives, but try to understand, you know, here's my perspective or their pers and here's their perspective and why they might have it. Um, they don't have it 'cause they, for a bad reason. It's, they're coming at it from this angle. Like, for, for them the value of investment and growth is really important for this person. Environmental concerns or, um, you know, you name it, pick a, pick an issue, whatever it is, is very important to them. So, okay. Let's get together and figure out, um. Which one of those concerns, like, can they be addressed? Are they real in this case? You know, like I always try to tell people like, we need to evaluate each project or each situation on its own merits and the actual merit, like the actual facts of the situation. Um, I know that this hog plant in this area that's been there for 50 years has been horrible. It's caused pollution, it's caused this issue or that issue. Okay, well will this project or will this one do that? And what are they saying? What are they putting together, um, to address those concerns and make sure that they're different. Um, if they're giving you a valid answer or a good answer, then take it for what it's worth. If they're not, hopefully you see through that and you make sure that you evaluate accordingly. Um, unfortunately what kinda happened in our case, I, I'd say no matter what you showed people or no matter what the evidence was, it it, they, they would either move the goalposts, they would. Completely ignore, uh, what you had said about how you'd resolve the issue. Um, and they'd keep throwing it back at you. And those kind of, you need to be, you need to come at things. Hopefully from a, a position of, uh, being fair and honest with each other, I, I feel like sometimes you get into these heated situations and you start in both ends of it. You can be disingenuous where you're not arguing on the facts or you're not, uh, placing your, your, um, discussion arou around things that are fair.

James Hoelscher 1:01:35

Can I ask you this question? If, if your public had been, as you described, had been, uh, respectful and thoughtful, do you think you'd have a part plant today?

Chad Schreck 1:01:53

Great question. Well, and, and again, I don't want to paint it like everybody was disrespectful. I mean, again, there's shades of every person and every dis every person discussing things. Um, but what you felt was the loud and and painful stuff, right? I mean, that's the stuff that sticks and that's what stands out. And that's, and you get, as you parade, five hours worth of people, uh, out there, five minutes after, one after the other. They kind of, you know, you build that energy. Right. And so it people kind of keep on accelerating it. Um, especially if you don't have, I mean, it just got so uncomfortable for anybody to say anything opposed to what the crowd is saying, right? Um, because then you just get shouted down. So that, that made it very difficult. Now, I think what, well, what I know is the two council members that changed at the end, it was because they, all they were hearing was the negative and the loud, uh, vociferous objections. And they felt that if they would've heard more people saying, well, hey, we recognize what the folks are saying, but we gotta, we gotta stay the course and get this done because we can do it right and this will be different. But they didn't hear that. I mean, it just was too hard for those people to stick their neck out. Again, if I'm a business owner, if I, you know, I got you. Other interest. I don't have anything to gain from this other than I just think it might be good for the community or, you know, and, and just saying, Hey, this could be good. Well now I might, my business might lose a lot of, uh, people, it might be attacked in whatever way. Um, you know, we had some realtors, we had some different folks that were involved in business that did come out and say things in support and I mean, they got beat up. One of 'em moved away 'cause he just couldn't, he was just,

David Miller 1:03:39

Wow. Wow.

Chad Schreck 1:03:41

So, um, so, you know, it was unfortunate. Uh, so yeah, I think again, if, if there could have been a counter, a better counterbalance, um, to the, to the narrative, it just kind of got outta control at a certain point where it's like literally you couldn't say anything anymore. Um, because it just got shouted down.

David Miller 1:03:59

So we've, we've kind of rolled the rollercoaster through, through this process of beginning, middle, and I wouldn't say try to end it, but, um, you know, this show is about leadership through crisis and, and we've kind of gone through the crisis point and, and led up to on, and then the why you and I, Chad had a conversation on the phone, um, and a quote that stood out to me and I'd, I'd probably like you to reevaluate it just a little bit today, is you need to figure out who you are right after that, uh, there's a gut check personally, right? For you as a professional. Um. Family where you live, uh, all those pieces, but also gut check on the community side. So leadership, um, probably on the economic development organization, other businesses, uh, people that supported or opposed. How did you, for lack of better term, turn the page. Right. So we've, we've gone through the no vote, we've gone through the, the tragedy of losing a, a community leader. How do you continue to keep moving ahead as a community and then bring people together? What does that look like?

Chad Schreck 1:05:09

Yeah, so you kind of need to let it kind of breathe for a little while. You can't come in and force anything in that, in that immediate aftermath, frankly. Um, so I can't remember exactly how far, much later it was, but, um, kind of the quote that you're referring to. You know, I, I said to the council, uh, in, in a public meeting, I, you know, I said, guys, we really need to figure out as a community who we are, who we want to be and where we want to go. It's just essential. Now we went through this traumatic experience together. We're a big family as a community, we're not always gonna agree on everything, but we really need to get together as a community and start to discuss what are our values, what are our priorities, what are the goals that we wanna set together and achieve? And create that community conversation, where we bring people from all angles together. And, uh, because people on all of that, they were trying to protect their community either again, whatever side of it you were on. Uh, if you were concerned that it was gonna be a bad thing for the community, you were fighting for our community. And that's an energy we should try to, to capture And. Turn towards, let's use this, in a positive direction now. And same thing for folks on the other side, like, Hey, swallow your pride. You didn't get what you wanted. That's okay. Just it turned out not to be the right thing. That let's, let's all go forward now and try to find a way to make the most of this So I, I went to my board, uh, and I had been in a bunch of, you know, in economic development, we kinda got our fingers in so many different things and we get involved in a lot of stuff. Maybe we should and maybe we shouldn't. But I, I go to so many meetings and different things at, at the time and, and, um, we've got a lot of great, our, we're fortunate in our region. We have a lot of great nonprofits, a lot of great organizations. But really at that time and leading up to that time, one of our biggest weaknesses, we did not communicate across them all very well. We didn't have a real plan as a community, like where are we trying to go and how do we unify and get people pulling in the same direction, not tripping over each other. So I actually, took it to my board and I said, guys, I really feel like we need to lead because we're countywide. We can bring in Mason City, we can bring in Clear Lake, we can bring in the other partners at our Chambers of Commerce and visitor Bureau and all these different community and, and economic development related organizations or college or schools. I said, guys, I just think we need to make a big investment in this. Because to bring in a, a big consultant that can do and handle a probably a year long plus process will be expensive. And, you know, I, I got buy-in from my board. They were super supportive. We didn't want the cities to have to put any money toward it. We said, we're gonna raise that funding and, and do it. We got some proposals from several, uh, solid organizations that had great experience doing these kinds of things. And we picked one, I think it ended up costing a hundred, 150,000, which 10 years ago was a lot of money. We put together a project we called a Vision North Iowa. And we went out and we did everything we could to invite everybody to public workshops and work sessions, uh, surveys, you know, everything possible. We had people going to the coffee shops and handing out free coffees if you would commit to co to doing a survey or coming to one of these workshops. We would do things where we would intentionally put people at, in the room, at the table, together with people we knew had been on either side of the fight. And I remember one of the first meetings, um, that we were doing like that. And I had one guy and one gal that a, a guy that I knew was really good at this stuff and, and somebody that had been kind of a leader of the, uh, anti prestige group. And so we're working through this process and again, just trying to create what are these values? What are we all trying to achieve for our community? And I remember sitting there, we had done our presentation, kind of walking through our goals, uh, up for the meeting and what we're trying to accomplish. And I am sitting there and it's probably a half an hour in and I looked and I saw the gal and she cracked a smile. And I was like, alright, we're making some progress. We, we've got, 'cause she wasn't known for smiling. Um. um, but it was just like, all right, we're starting to get some unification. We're starting to see things together. Like it's not a confrontation. We are all like, I was very vulnerable, as vulnerable as I could in leading some of these things off and just saying, Hey, we went through this experience. I. Didn't handle it as well as I could have. Like, and I am sorry. I like, I wish I would've known more. Um, you know, I was a year into this place, uh, and I was maybe accepting some things that I shouldn't have. Like I should have pushed harder for some of this stuff to happen then. But here we are. We can, we can learn from it and let's come together. And so outta that, we put, put our plan together again. It was a, a year long process. We really created a structure that brought our organizations together and our c tried to create, that shared value statement. I think we had seven or eight values, for our community, like transparency and building, consensus, you know, agreeing even through that process that, hey, we're gonna accept everybody's ideas, but ultimately we're gonna look at what, what is the consensus? And let's set that as our path forward. And out of that, it just set the stage for so many positive things over the last seven, eight years. That, um, we've seen continued growth. We've seen a lot of new activity, and it's been really, uh, a lot of positives that just creating that culture and that mentality, um, just helps set the stage and change the attitudes a lot.

David Miller 1:10:53

So collaboration and communication are key, especially when you have that many different organizations. Together. What is, what does it look like today? Versus 10 years ago, Pret tragedy and to, I'll call a post life of those different organizations. How is it, how's it working today to.

Chad Schreck 1:11:12

Yeah. So. I I think what it's really helped us to do is, we have kinda that structure in place now where we have regular communication amongst the partnership, you know, the various players in each of the organizations. One of the things that we did in that process is put a matrix together of all the different organizations and then running across like the different elements or different kind of areas that all kind of touch. And we went and checked the box for all the organizations that touch each one of those. And you might have some where it's like, oh, we got 10 different organizations doing something in the workforce space. We're, and two of 'em talk to each other, then three of 'em, and one of those goes and talks to two other ones. And so you just got, had this disjointed and that, and especially you guys know, 10 years ago all we talked about was workforce. And um, so it was like, oh man, we've got all these different initiatives. We've got 10 different organizations calling businesses and telling 'em they need to do this or do that and we're gonna have this program or that program. And so we were all doing it in some capacity 'cause everyone was telling us we needed to do something about it. So that really helped us to look at, okay, gosh, well on the EDC side, we can do this really well, but we are really doing this thing terribly because we just don't have the resources. There's this group, they're also touching this thing that we're doing well, but not very good. But they're doing really good at this thing. So it just helped us to say, all right, we need to step away from some things and let that go and reinforce what they're doing and, and vice versa. And it really just created this alignment. Where it helped us all to have a better understanding of what lane we should be in. It helped to kind of cut back on mission creep within each organization. Because in economic development you, we might get a phone call from a hundred different people telling us what to do and we always try to do it. And it's like, you know, maybe I need to call Bob and say, Hey, you guys is, you're way better situated to do that than, than we are. And it just kind of created the avenues and the communication channels for us to do a better job of that. And that's continued to carry forward, which has been super,, valuable here about two years ago we did a comprehensive planning effort where we pulled in, we did it countywide. So we pulled in both Mason City, clear Lake as well as the county. And I still haven't heard of anybody else that's done that where you have multiple jurisdictions doing a comprehensive plan where you're literally planning out in Unity like, Hey, here's kind of smart business growth opportunities that, and what that would mean for Mason City and Clear Lake and you know, clear Lake's more of a resort town, so we're not doing heavy manufacturing over there. Here's the areas of Mason City. It makes sense. Here's the kind of in industries that make sense in Clear Lake. And just being clear with each other on expectations and even having some shared language now and how we zone and how we, talk about the corridor between the communities. 'cause we got a four lane that connect, well, two of them, two four lanes essentially, that connect the communities. And that growth, because it's in the county, you know, it's six miles between 'em, kind of got. Muddled, right? So how do we, we look at that common ground area. And so just that whole process going through that, realizing, we're all better together, communities, organizations, citizens, you know, if we're working together and communicating and trying to collaborate. It just makes it better for everybody. And when Mason City wins Clear Lake wins and v and vice versa. And when one organization is doing things right, it makes my job easier. All those different things.

David Miller 1:14:38

How has leadership in some of those different organizations, transpired and changed? Has it gotten better, as you've worked together? Has leadership been easier to find for some of those organizations? You know, I mean, as we, we are continually working with volunteers generally on different boards as economic development professionals, but you're also dealing with, elected officials, nonprofits, et cetera. I think, I guess in my experience, when you go through something like this and, and kind of circle the wagons, uh, terminology, it, it just seems like when you get everyone kind of down the same path, you actually develop new leaders within that. Have you seen that in your area?

Chad Schreck 1:15:17

Yeah, I, well that was what was kind of cool about that process. When you invite the public in and you start getting people engaged, they start to see that, hey, one of the cool things about being in a community is our size. You know, 27,000 is a good size, but you can actually get involved and make a difference. And what's been really cool over the last five, 10 years is seeing how many people that grew up here and now are coming back in their thirties and forties with the young family, and they wanna be involved and engaged. And maybe they came from a bigger city like Des Moines or Chicago or Minneapolis or whatever, and now they're back and they, they're seeing, wow, I can actually. Play a role in my community. And so yeah, we've, we've definitely seen that. I think that it's made it easier to get board members for a lot of organizations as they've seen, you know, I, I always used to when I was younger, kind of tell people, well, I don't expect anything. I don't worry. It's only an hour a month. You just come to the board meeting and we won't ask too much of you. And that's the worst thing you can do. They, people want to know how can they serve and make a difference. Like, if you're gonna use my time, I wanna know that it's doing something of value. And so now I tell 'em, I'm asking you because you have skills, abilities, connections, resources that can help our organization and our community. And we wanna leverage that and your abilities. And I think when people feel like they're working toward a purpose. And making a difference. They really can get excited about things. If you just have, if, if you're in an organization and your meeting is, well, I'm gonna get you in there and I'm gonna talk to you for an hour about all the cool things I'm doing, gets pretty boring, pretty fast for people. And you may have a disengaged board. One of the dangers we can get into is everyone just kind of nodding their head, right? It's like, Hey, we must be doing their, we're, yeah, we'll do it. Whatever, whatever the director

David Miller 1:17:06

is affirmation,

Chad Schreck 1:17:08

Yes, I think one of the big lessons of this was we need to have opposing views at the table, and we need to seek out alternative visions. I have a friend that always quotes, I think it's Mc MacArthur, I believe it's, uh, if everybody in the room's thinking the same thing, somebody isn't thinking, and we all fall into that trap, it's like, oh, I'm thinking about a hundred different things and I just assume that these guys got it. And what happens then is. Somebody don't got it. I, I think it's important, you know, sometimes it can be really annoying to have that person that's always questioning like, why are, what about this? Why didn't you do, why didn't you think of that? It's like, well, and, and sometimes it's like, well, we did think of all that. We appreciate you bringing it up. But when they say, they say that thing, you're like, oh, I didn't think of that. We didn't consider that concern. The value of that is, is so big because we can get in our own little, echo chambers sometimes, or start to believe our own hype and, um, or fool ourselves into thinking something's good and when it maybe isn't, or, whatever the case might be. And so this circumstance was really one of those where it's like, gosh, if, if we could have, you know, kind of early on, like I said with Alex, like he's, he's like, Hey guys, we gotta go and talk to people. We gotta do some of these community planning things. Um. If maybe there hadn't been some of the, being a little too sure of ourselves to say, oh, we got everything together, that people will come along, they'll trust us. You know, why should they, why should they? Right. We really need to, to consider alternative perspectives more, and, and that goes across, I'd say, governments and organizations. We, we just can get too myopic sometimes thinking that we have the answer and, and not consider, uh, that hey, some, some, somebody else might be right and somebody else might have a, a valid thing for us to consider, so we should ask.

James Hoelscher 1:19:03

You know, Chad. Listening to you, I was gonna ask you a question like, okay, based on all this, what is the, the couple things that you, lessons, leadership, lessons that you learned. But in listening to this, it's exactly what storm tested leadership is all about. Your, your narrative and how you talked through, and even how you honored Alex and the whole community really honored him by leaning into that planning process is just a textbook. And stuff that all of us need to, to think about as we're going through our own, uh, in our own positions, in our own jobs. So I, we really appreciate your insight. This has just been so interesting, and really heartfelt. We really appreciate it.

Chad Schreck 1:19:50

Yeah, it's great talking with you guys and, and it's. It's kind of tough stuff. It's been, it's even 10 years later. It's, it's difficult. I, I hope people understand that, when we're dealing with difficult, difficult conversations and difficult situations, we need empathy for each other. Hopefully we can come at it trying to understand each other, not, putting the worst motives on anybody. But just understand that. Almost always, we're all trying to do what's best for our community and trying to protect something that's important to us. So, so hopefully that's a, a takeaway that we can all share. Even if you disagree with something, you know, I, I never want to paint a picture of, uh, I don't have any, um, angst or any, uh, anything towards folks that were, were against this. Again, it's not our position to tell people what's right, for a community. We try to bring opportunities and if it's the right thing as a community, you should work through that together and hopefully make it happen. And if it's not, then you should work through it and say, okay, we have to pass. And my hope, my hope would just be that we can always come at that from a, a positive tone, or at least a respectful one, for each other and, and, communicate, as well as we can. And. Try to share why we think something is right or why it's not. And just treat each other well through that process. And understand that sometimes folks are, are dealing with a lot and, uh, especially leaders, you know, it's easy to think that they got it together and maybe, maybe they do and maybe they don't. And, and just like anybody, uh, we all have our struggles. Um, and it's, it's hard to share those things sometimes. Just be aware of it., Be there for people when you can.

David Miller 1:21:30

Chad, thanks for, for spending some time with us. We really appreciate you sharing our story. Again, you know, leadership through crisis, there is no blueprint, right? There's, there's not a way to, get from beginning to end and, and sometimes through tragedy, we do learn from those things. So it's, it's important to share those stories. And I, I, for one, will say, you know, my phone number's out there, anyone that needs help, uh, we'll we'll help you through those. I, I'm assuming, uh, a project goes sour, you'd be willing to help another community or, cohort through that.

Chad Schreck 1:22:01

You bet. Thank you guys.