11-19-13 fdl county executive critical of supervisors for changing vote on merc loan

The Fond du Lac County executive is criticizing county board supervisors who changed their mind at a recent county board meeting and voted against a loan for an expansion project at Mercury Marine.   County executive Al Buechel says those board supervisors embarrassed the county and Mercury by indicating they would vote in favor of the loan at a closed door meeting the week before and then changing their vote at the public meeting.  "I told them (supervisors) how critical this was and if they were not going to support it on November 5th they should not indicate they're supporting it that night which was October 22nd,"  Buechel told AM 1170 WFDL's Between the Lines program,.  "Four supervisors changed their mind, and that to me is the issue here because Mercury would not have proceeded had that been 17 votes that night, they would have withdrawn their request and all of this would have gone away.  But because they did not do that...they indicated they were going to support it and then they voted against it, it left the county embarrassed, they left Mercury Marine embarrassed."   Buechel says while a board supervisor who voted against the loan could bring the matter back for reconsideration…he doesn’t believe that will happen.  "It could but I can tell you Mercury Marine was very embarrassed by this vote because they had expected based on what happened in the closed session that it was going to pass, so the issue is no longer out there.  Its done."   The deal would have loaned Merc $10 million dollars for an expansion project,

creating 300 new jobs.   Merc says they will continue with the expansion project but at a much slower pace.