Pushing back against alleged misinformation circulating about City of Pella projects and the Pella Corporation family shareholders’ group GenLink, Pella Mayor Don DeWaard spoke following regular business concluding at Tuesday’s city council meeting about his concerns related to those issues.
DeWaard first allowed GenLink CEO Stan Van Wyk to speak about the organization formed on behalf of Pella Corporation shareholders to make investments in projects throughout the community, and RDP Holdings, which is from the same group and works specifically on development. Negative rumors about the groups have surfaced during the ongoing election cycle, with accusations made from some potential voters about the organizations profiting from the many projects they’ve supported financially and received incentives from in conjunction with the Pella City Council.
“The other thing that is really disheartening to me is as I’ve listened to some of the [city council candidate] forums and discussion is that suddenly that Pella Corporation and the Pella Corporation family through RDP and GenLink, have become evil,” DeWaard said. “Somehow, they are trying to take advantage of this community. I lived here for 42 years, and I can’t think of anybody who has done more for this community than the Pella Corporation and their family.”
Van Wyk took time to counter the negative claims, saying GenLink has come out financially behind on the Liberty Street Kitchen, the South Main and Prairie Ridge Housing Developments, and others.
“The return on all community investments I just mentioned from a financial perspective will be negative,” Van Wyk said. “Thank goodness that is not how the family measures success, rather, that success is measured in terms of making Pella a better place to live and work.”
Following the GenLink presentation, DeWaard expressed frustration with many who have claims about how the city has been incentivizing those projects and others ongoing in the community and that taxpayer money is turning into corporate profit. The mayor outlined development agreements with Lely North America, Vermeer, Smash Park, GenLink and RDP Holdings, among others, totaling $130 million in investments that are either currently under construction or were recently completed, and discussing how tax increment financing or infrastructure bonding worked for each.
DeWaard says all debt or incentives issued are being paid for from new property taxes generated on each of those lots that previously were either vacant or in poor condition. He expressed disappointment that misinformation shared about the efforts was coming from either a lack of knowledge about those specific projects, or being intentionally spread.
“I’ve seen this in print, so I know that the story is out there, that the projects that we’re involved in, that somehow people are making money off of the backs of the taxpayers,” he said. “I’m going to take the time to go through all the projects that are happening right now that the city is involved in, to dispel that myth–if it’s a myth, or a lie, if it’s a lie. From some people’s mouths it’s a lie, and other people, it may just be a misunderstanding.”
Hear audio from both presentations from Mayor DeWaard and Genlink below. No other council members or anyone in attendance responded to the mayor’s comments during the session.