What Summerfest wants, Summerfest gets

The Great Fireworks Debate went on for hours Wednesday at a State Capitol hearing.

It wasn't quite the slam-dunk State Sen. Glenn Grothman, R-West Bend, envisioned when he called a last-minute hearing to ram through a rule allowing Summerfest and ethnic festivals to close a state park 25 days a year to launch fireworks. Some opponents actually managed to scramble and get there to voice their opinions.

But it probably didn't do much to stop the railroad job I warned of yesterday.

The Dept. of Natural Resources (DNR) has already caved on letting Summerfest close the park for its fireworks. The only question now is whether the ethnic festivals, which shoot off fireworks every weekend all summer, will be able to kick the public out of the state park, too.

Summerfest (technically Milwaukee World Festivals) will never be satisfied with anything less than everything it wants. My five years on their board, as a naysayer representing the mayor, taught me that. Appeasement doesn't work. The more you give, the more they take -- and the more they ask.

George Meyer did the best job of describing what's going on. From the Journal Sentinel:

George Meyer, a former Department of Natural Resources secretary, said in hashing out a deal to meet the interests of all park users, Summerfest agreed to keep the island open 365 days a year. In exchange, it won a concession from the city that allows the festival to keep much of its lakefront property closed to the public virtually all summer long.

"Now Summerfest is coming back and reneging on the deal" by asking the Legislature to allow it to close part of the park on days when fireworks are set off, Meyer said.

"This is a land-use debate, not a fireworks debate," he said.

He's right on. Summerfest has long resisted the idea that it should keep the public lakewalk along Lake Michigan open to the public -- thereby complying with a Public Trust Doctrine that predates even the state constitution.

That battle has gone on for years, and Summerfest has always managed to keep the "public" lakewalk fenced off for most of the summer. It has been able to do that because, despite an occasional threat, the DNR or attorney general has never gone to court to protect the public's right to have access to the lakefront.

This is an important point: Summerfest doesn't own its grounds. The public does. But Summerfest has long since forgotten any obligation to the public.

In negotiations, the DNR and Harbor Commission had agreed to let Summerfest close the public lakewalk most of the summer. The tradeoff was that there would be a new state park on the island, open to the public. Now Summerfest wants to close that during the festivals, too.

Don Smiley, Summerfest's CEO, claims that without access to the state park there will be no fireworks at ethnic festivals -- as though there is no other option.

Before anyone panics over Smiley's threat -- and that's what it is -- remember that this is the kind of hardball that is always played by Summerfest. A few years ago, when the city was insisting on a lease that paid more than a pittance, Summerfest was threatening to leave town and move to Kenosha or Sheboygan or Ludington, Michigan or some other unspecified place. Guess what? The city didn't blink. Now there is a new, more reasonable lease.

When Smiley says the festivals "can't" use part of the grounds to launch the fireworks, what he really means is "won't." Except for Summerfest itself, the festivals don't use all of the grounds. There are places that could safely be used. But the festivals won't even consider it.

Summerfest is used to getting its way, and politicians are reluctant to get in the way. Mayor John Norquist was the one exception, and he's the one who got the new lease.

Wednesday, Gov. Jim Doyle's press secretary said the governor is committed to ensuring the fireworks continue. That's well and good. No one's trying to stop the fireworks. Let's hope Doyle is also committed to protecting the public's access to the state park. This is not an either/or situation.

Finally, this gem from the JS article:

Negotiations over fireworks with the DNR have been bogged down for more than a year. Smiley expressed surprise at Hassett's letter, saying that until Wednesday the department had insisted the island could not be used for fireworks after 2008.

"We do not believe the DNR has negotiated in good faith up to this minute," he said.

That from the CEO of the outfit that has reneged on its agreement to trade lakewalk access for state park access -- and which secretly went to the legislature to try to sneak through a special exemption, even while negotiations are ongoing.

Grothman's committee meets again next week, and the odds are that it will give Summerfest everything it wants. What Summerfest wants, Summerfest gets, no matter how unreasonable the demands or how underhanded the tactics.