Headline: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 7/28/2022
Project manager has ties to Vos, Walker
It's unclear what — if anything — Foxconn is doing at the site and the company has consistently refused access and tour requests by the Journal Sentinel and other media organizations.
Neither village elected officials nor Foxconn executives would comment for this story.
[snip]
Despite the international attention the Foxconn project was getting, the village hired Claude Lois to manage the project in 2017 without doing a national search. Lois is an employee of Milwaukee-based engineering firm Kapur & Associates, which the village pays for his time. He's the only Kapur employee to work on the project and is assigned to it full time.
Last year, the village board extended the contract with Kapur for Lois's work by two years and his pay was upped to $175 per hour. That amount is set to increase Aug. 21 to $200 per hour. [emphasis added]
4/1/2022 update starts here
Definition supplied by Merriam-Webster
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 4/1/2022
Q. Foxconn Project Director Claude Lois is paid roughly twice the salary of our governor and four times the salary of Racine’s mayor. His Project Director Agreement with the Village requires no benchmarks for success and evaluation, no chain-of-command for daily and hourly supervision. Lois is not required to submit call reports or meeting summaries which describe how he spends his days at village hall. His calendar of daily activities and meetings do not reflect the hours he bills the village. Lois’ hourly rate is due to increase to $200 per hour this spring. Can you explain this?
A. Lois is a contracted consultant with Kapur and Associates and he works in Mount Pleasant’s Village Hall. He has been paid nearly $1 million in taxpayer money since he was hired in 2017, according to public records.
His salary was first reported by Wisconsin Public Radio.
In April 2021, the Mount Pleasant Village Board extended Lois’ contract by two years. He's paid $175 per hour. His salary will increase to $200 per hour on Aug. 21, 2022, according to the contract.
The village has praised Lois for the thousands of acres of land that was acquired for the Foxconn project and the private investment that has occurred.
"Mr. Lois also continues to play a key role in efforts to attract other new business to the TID (special financing district), including the effort to recruit Intel to the TID, becoming a finalist for one of the biggest investments in American history," according to the email from Racine County and village board officials. In March, the village decided to use a team that will include Lois to support the TID.
Lois will no longer have an office at the Mount Pleasant Village Hall.
The first-known use of 'gravy train' occurred in 1914. Other coinages from the same year include:
- basic training
- case study
- diploma mill
- master plan
- pitchman
3/23/2022 update, "Hope springs eternal for this gullible guy from Racine County" starts here.
"We've put in a lot of infrastructure folks," said Claude Lois, Foxconn's project manager hired by Mount Pleasant. "We've sized this at the time for Foxconn Generation 10, but today, actually because of all the work we did we are sitting pretty good for all the work we did for the future."
Lois spoke during a special meeting of the Racine County Board and the Mount Pleasant Village Board Tuesday — the first time a public update on Foxconn has been given since 2019. Foxconn representatives were invited to participate but declined.
Residents were not allowed to speak during the meeting but were given a chance to submit questions in advance. Those questions were not answered during the meeting. [emphasis added]
10/20/2020 update, "Two gullible guys from Racine County still believe anything Foxconn tells them", starts here.
Photo credits: Racine County, Mount Pleasant WI
Wisconsin Public Radio, 10/23/2020
Despite the company’s other broken promises, Racine County and village officials say they believe Foxconn will follow through on money owed to taxpayers.
Racine County Executive Jonathan Delagrave praised Foxconn for being the county’s largest taxpayer. The money Foxconn pays in taxes goes toward the special taxing district, though, not in the general fund.
"The Village of Mount Pleasant and Racine County have already experienced significant benefits from Foxconn Technology Group’s development in our community," Claude Lois, Foxconn project director for Mount Pleasant, said in a written statement.
The reality that Delagrave and Lois can't face.
Reported in Foxconn founder Gou: Mount Pleasant facility to start producing in 2020. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 1/22/2020)
With imported workers, as Terry Gou sees it.
Related reading:
Foxconn’s history of broken promises casts a shadow on Wisconsin news. (MarketWatch, 7/31/2017)
As Foxconn changes Wisconsin plans, job promises fall short. (Chicago Tribune, 2/8/2019)
Foxconn's failed 'innovation centers' are its latest broken promise to Wisconsin workers. (The American Independent, 10/25/2019)
11/5/2019 update, "It's time for Racine County Executive Jonathan Delagrave to face facts", starts here.
Reported in Most business incentives don't work. Here's how to fix them. (Brookings, 11/4/21019)
Original 10/1/2019 post, "GET ME REWRITE: Racine County Executive Jonathan Delagrave holds onto the flimsiest of threads spun by Foxconn", starts here.
Delagrave reiterates support for Foxconn during contentious debate. (Racine Journal Times, 9/21/2019)
Jonathan's favorite song?
Wet Willie's "Keep on Smilin'" debuted at # on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week ending May 25, 1974. It spent 19 weeks on the chart, peaking at #10, by far the group's best chart performance.
Related post:
Keeping tabs on Foxconn Place in Racine. (7/31/2019)
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