Some of Milwaukee’s top CEOs are coming under fire from a local business journalist who suggests that their pointed criticism of Milwaukee’s business climate is undermining the area’s marketing efforts.

“Is Milwaukee's biggest enemy its own CEOs?” asked Steve Jagler, the editor of the Small Business Times, who suggested that the business leaders were providing aid and comfort to Denver, in its effort to woo Miller to Colorado.

The five CEOs had participated in a panel discussion titled, “Global Wooing,” sponsored by the Public Policy Forum. Their criticism were blunt, specific, and echoed similar comments made by business executives (and brushed off by political leaders) for years.

“The five CEOs took turns ripping Milwaukee as a terrible place to do business” Jagler wrote in a blog published by OnMilwaukee.com.

Reported Jagler:

“The CEOs jointly described Milwaukee as a region with a broken public education system, runaway health care costs and an anti-capitalistic mindset. They said Milwaukee's taxes are too high, and the region doesn't know how to market itself, suffers from a lack of leadership, has wasteful government spending and doesn't provide enough tax incentives to attract and keep businesses and create jobs.

“And when they were done criticizing the region as a terrible place to do business, they piled on and did it again. And again.”

Nowhere , however, did Jagler point out exactly where the CEOs were wrong. The education system isn’t broken? Health costs are not rising? Taxes aren’t too high? Local government’s don’t waste money?

During the forum, John Shiely, CEO of Briggs & Stratton Inc., was asked if he would consider building a new manufacturing plant here.

"We probably wouldn't, to tell you the truth,” Shiely said.

Wrote Jagler:

“Shiely criticized the collective mindset of Milwaukee, saying the region is more likely to have a great-grandson of ‘one of Milwaukee's socialist mayors’ denounce the gap in salaries between CEOs and front-line workers than it is to encourage the creation of wealth.

"’That shouldn't be ... You just don't hear the 'two Americas' rhetoric (down South),’ Shiely said.”

Another “enemy” of Milwaukee cited by the Small Business Times editor was Paul  Purcell, CEO of Robert W. Baird & Co., who “criticized Milwaukee Public Schools and called for more charter schools and choice schools. ‘We need to fix MPS,’ he said. Purcell also denounced Wisconsin's ‘bureaucracy and tax structure.’”

Jagler also cited Tim Sullivan, CEO of Bucyrus International Inc., who contrasted the warm reception he got from local governmental officials in Idaho and Texas with the cold shoulder from Milwaukee’s officialdom. "It was like bouncing off the walls trying to get someone to talk to ...,” Sullivan told the forum. “We don't do anything other states do. We have to emulate these other states to try to attract and keep companies."

And then there were taxes. Jagler wrote: “When asked about the need for taxes to support quality-of-life initiatives, such as public parks, Sullivan said local governments were inefficient and duplicative.” Jeff Joerres, CEO of Manpower Inc., said the region “needs to do a more effective job of promoting its image to the ‘25-year-olds’ in other markets.” The fifth CEO was Rick Armbrust, of Oilgear Co., who commented on the eagerness of the Chinese government to recruit businesses.

All of this led Jagler to label the business leaders the city’s “worst enemy.”

“Meanwhile,” he wrote, “the folks at the Milwaukee 7, the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce and the Spirit of Milwaukee are doing all they can to try convince companies such as Miller/Molson Coors to put their headquarters in Milwaukee.

“Good luck with that, now.”

His reaction was revealing. Unlike the early 1980s when the complaints about the business climate helped reshape the state’s political landscape, the state’s business journalists seem reluctant to consider the possibility that the executives are making valid criticisms, raising issues that cannot be glossed over by even the best-intentioned PR campaigns.

Rather than exploring the impact of “broken public education system, runaway health care costs and an anti-capitalistic mindset” on the future of the local economy, Jagler chose to question whether the mere expression of such criticism was destructive of economic development efforts.

The ensuing kerfuffle was also revealing. My fellow talk show host Mark Belling defended the CEOs and took issue with Jagler’s characterization of them as “enemies.” Jagler responded.  

Apparently Jagler dislikes criticism of himself almost as much as he dislikes criticism of the business climate. The somewhat thin-skinned business editor insisted that “I have thick skin,” and said that he would simply let Belling’s criticism “slide off my back.”

He then went on to call Belling “a loud-mouth buffoon” and “a bully,” and accused him of “outright lying.”

“His venom spews forth, whether he's denigrating Hispanics, African-Americans, women or anyone who dares to disagree with him,” wrote Jagler.

In other words we got a good deal of name-calling, but no real discussion about the issues that the executives were trying to raise.

“For the record,” Jagler wrote in his defense, “I did not say we ought to run around like the bluebird of happiness. For the record, I did not say Milwaukee is the most business-friendly region in the nation.”

But based on the reaction here, it may be the most hyper-sensitive town in the nation.

The liberal blogosphere is celebrating Jagler’s critique of both the business leaders and Belling. But the question nags: could the CEOs be right? Should we continue to deny or minimize their concerns? And what is worse, the underlying problems facing job creation or the people who point out those problems?

Who is the real enemy here?