By Kim McDarison

The Whitewater Common Council Tuesday learned from City Manager John Weidl that Calli Berg has been hired as the city’s new economic development director.

According to her resume, Berg brings 25 years of experience in “all aspects of economic development, including business retention, attraction, and expansion,” along with other skill sets, including financial analysis and packaging, grant writing, administration, fund management, and tax increment and credit programs.

She is currently employed as the director of economic development, Milwaukee County, serving in that position since January of 2022. Prior to that, she worked as the director of economic development in the city of Franklin, between 2018 and 2022, and was the president and owner of BDM Services, a company, according to her resume, which provided consulting services to municipalities regarding economic development activities. The business began its operations in 2008.

Berg has additionally held such positions as business development manager with the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and director of the Coloma-Watervliet Area Economic Development Corporation, in Berrien County, Mich.

She holds an undergraduate degree in business administration-marketing, and is certified by the International Economic Development Council as an economic developer. She is recognized by the National Development Council as an economic development finance professional and has been named by West Michigan Business Direct Weekly as a Business Leader Under 40, and has earned the President’s Award for Outstanding Achievement from the Michigan Economic Developers Association, according to her resume.

Among her affiliations, she listed: the International Economic Development Council, Mid-America Economic Development Council, Wisconsin Economic Development Association, Commercial Association of Real Estate Wisconsin, Urban Economic Development Association and Wisconsin Commercial Real Estate Women.

According to information supplied by city staff, a letter of formal offer was extended to Berg at the beginning of this month.

Berg begins her tenure in Whitewater at an annual salary of $100,000, with pay adjustments, as provided to the city’s professional and technical employees, at the anniversary date of her hire, beginning in 2024. Adjustments are subject to approval by the city council.

As a condition of her employment, Berg will be placed on a six-month probationary period, which the letter notes is “customary” in the city of Whitewater.

Upon completion of the probationary period, “project tracking and performance metrics” will be established, the letter stated.

The position is additionally afforded various benefits, including health insurance plans, and “other benefits” offered to the city’s employees as outlined in the city’s employee manual.

A retirement plan is offered, as administrated by the Wisconsin Retirement System, into which all state and local government employees contribute, the letter noted.

According to the letter, Berg is anticipated to begin her duties in Whitewater on Nov. 27.

The search for an economic development director

The search for an economic development director was initially discussed last December, when a document was shared by Weidl with members of the common council, noting that the position of CDA/economic development director had remained vacant since a former interim director, Nathan Theil, left the post in August of 2022. The city’s last permanent director, Cathy Anderson, left the position in May of 2022.

Anderson resigned from her position as CDA director, according to a resignation letter submitted to then-City Manager Cameron Clapper. A reason for her resignation was not included in the letter. 

City records show that Theil served as a limited term employee in the role of CDA director between June 1 and Aug. 11. He left the position after receiving a permanent position in Beaver Dam. 

In December of 2022, shortly after he was hired as the city’s permanent city manager, Weidl told the council that, after completing his research relative to the position, he believed the oversight and job duties developed to serve both the CDA and the city were “murky at best.”

Weidl arrived in Whitewater as its interim city manager in August of 2022 and was hired as the city’s permanent city manager in October of that year. 

An earlier story, published on WhitewaterWise’s sister site, Fort Atkinson Online, about the initial discussion held to begin a search for a new director is here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/whitewater-city-to-hire-consultant-to-develop-cda-director-job-description-parameters/.

A search to hire a director to work with the city’s Community Development Authority (CDA) began in January, after the city hired Kristin Fish-Peterson, an outside consultant, to help the city and the CDA board, according to a statement made by Weidl in January, “As a matter of the process of the city council working with the CDA, to outline the future expectations and reporting structure for what is soon going to be the new CDA director, I’ve asked Kristin to help do a training for everyone, including people in the audience, people watching, about the basic powers of a CDA and CDA director, and then ask this council some questions that will both inform our decision-making as we then go to the CDA and try to come up with an aligned vision of how this position will report and what they are going to do.” 

The Whitewater Common Council learned in December of last year that city staff would be moving forward with a proposal to hire an outside consultant to help develop a job description, chain of authority and additional parameters associated with the city’s CDA/economic development director position.

Plans called for a consultant to assist the city for 90 days with the development of a job description for a CDA director, identify to whom the position would report, and outline a search process to be used by the city to fill the position. The work was to be performed at a cost of approximately $22,500, Weidl told members of the CDA during a meeting held Dec. 15, 2022, and the council during its meeting held late last December.

Funds earmarked to pay the wages of an economic development director would be used to pay for the consultant, Weidl told both the council and CDA during separate meetings, calling the expense “budget-neutral.”

Earlier stories about presentation made by Fish-Peterson to both the city’s common council and CDA regarding functions of a CDA and its director, as published on WhitewaterWise’s sister site, Fort Atkinson Online, are here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/whitewater-part-1-council-receives-presentation-begins-discussion-outlining-what-is-a-cda/ and here: https://fortatkinsononline.com/whitewater-part-2-cda-receives-presentation-begins-discussion-outlining-what-is-a-cda/.

During discussions held by the CDA board in January, there was much debate over whether a CDA director should answer, within the chain of command, to the board or the city manager.

During the January discussion, CDA President Patrick Singer, addressing Weidl, said that in the past, the CDA’s experience had been that, without a clear delineation of roles, directors would sometimes “flip, like mom and dad.”

They would say, he said: “The manager’s not doing this, so they run to the CDA chair or members, so we just want to make sure that those lines of authority are clear.”

He suggested that the CDA board might serve as the organization charged with setting policy, but, he said, addressing Weidl, “day-to-day, you’re that mix.”

Weidl said he preferred to “focus on the process,” which, he said, meant that he would ensure the director would meet with CDA members to set goals at the beginning of the year, and again in the middle of the year to “refresh” goals.