John Jazwiec Resigns

I wondered what would happen next in the John "I've never called 911 in my life" Jazwiec saga.

It's been about a week since Jazwiec withdrew his complaint about the home invasion.

I was waiting for something to come of that. I thought the next chapter related to his bizarre allegations about being held hostage might have to do with charges of giving a false report to police.

That still hasn't happened, but there is another twist in this odd story.

Jazwiec resigned as CEO of RedPrairie, effective October 26, 2007.

“I have enjoyed and appreciated the opportunity to serve as CEO of RedPrairie”, said Jazwiec, who is resigning to re-locate his family back to Chicago. “I would like especially to thank RedPrairie’s employees and customers for the opportunity to work closely together in building value for the past six years.”

RedPrairie announces that Jazwiec is resigning to re-locate his family back to Chicago.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Businessman John Jazwiec resigned Friday as CEO of RedPrairie Corp., saying he will return to the Chicago area.

Jazwiec, who has been in the middle of a controversy over his report of a home invasion that some have questioned, said in an interview he wasn't forced to leave the software development firm.

"This had been in the works for quite some time," he said. "My parents are getting up there in age. Matter of fact, my father broke his hip two weeks ago, and I've been with the company six years, which for me is a long time."

So it's back to Chicago for Jazwiec.

Skipping town?

That issue aside, I think it's best for Jazwiec to return to the Chicago area. He never adapted to Milwaukee.

That was clear when he first talked about the alleged home invasion, when a 300-pound man broke into his home and Jazwiec reacted by giving the guy "2 or 3 beers" and NOT calling 911.

At the time he said, "I'm a suburban kid from Chicago, I have no experience with this at all."

I guess you can take the kid out of suburban Chicago, but you can't take suburban Chicago out of the kid.

The resignation closely follows an unusual series of events that began four weeks ago when, according to Jazwiec's account, he and his family were held hostage and robbed in their million-dollar east side home by a man armed with a sawed-off shotgun.

The story touched off fear in Jazwiec's well-to-do neighborhood near Lake Park, but also raised red flags. Chief among them was that Jazwiec didn't call police.

Instead, the outspoken executive - who previously had generated heat with blunt criticisms of Milwaukee and Wisconsin as places to run a growing technology business - called the office of Mayor Tom Barrett the next day to complain about crime. Jazwiec also had an assistant call a reporter to set up an interview.

Police and - more pointedly - Ald. Michael D'Amato have raised questions about Jazwiec's account. D'Amato called the businessman's story "spurious" and said he had "unnecessarily besmirched the reputation of one of Milwaukee's finest and safest neighborhoods."

It wasn't until a week after the incident at Jazwiec's home that he said he wanted police to investigate, and that happened only when a detective called him as he was leaving town on a business trip.

Then, when he returned from the trip, Jazwiec told police through an attorney that he no longer wanted to pursue the investigation. A police spokeswoman, however, said the department would continue to investigate the matter.

Jazwiec said Friday that controversy over the home invasion report had nothing to do with his resignation.

"No," he said. "I mean, it was a traumatic event for my family, and we dealt with it and we felt that the right thing to do, emotionally, for the family was to drop the case, and from my point of view, the matter's closed."

Jazwiec, 48, doesn't have a new job.

That's a bit strange.

He resigned but doesn't have anything else lined up.

It's very difficult to believe that the home invasion episode has nothing to do with his resignation.

"I want to think about what I want to do when I grow up," he said. "I've been in the venture world. . . and I'm going to take some time to decide whether I want to start a brand new company or do kind of similar work to what I did at RedPrairie."

Jazwiec, who grew up in Elgin, Ill., said he plans to leave Milwaukee before the end of the year.

"We're going down to Chicago to make an offer on a home" today, he said.

Jazwiec wants to think about what he wants to do when he grows up.

Good grief.

He should put some real effort into growing up.

It's time he leaves the world of make-believe and accepts the responsibilities of being a grownup.

At RedPrairie, Jazwiec brought in a buzz-saw style that ripped through the company, a developer of warehouse-management and other software.

"He's got no mute," a former colleague said in an interview last fall. "Basically, he is a brilliant guy with no mute. . . . What he thinks, he tells you."

He's a brilliant guy with no mute and no idea how to call 911.

...Jazwiec's "no mute" style got a public airing last year, when he blasted Milwaukee as a parochial, crime-ridden city in a high-tax "welfare state" - neither of them, Jazwiec said, attractive to the sort of executives and tech workers a company such as RedPrairie needed.

He hinted strongly that the firm and the 200 jobs at its Town of Brookfield headquarters would be leaving Wisconsin.

Jazwiec's critique resonated with some and drew retorts from others, including those who suspected he was trying to extract government aid by threatening to move. He denied that.

Although his "no mute" style may have irked some, Mayor Tom Barrett's office, Jazwiec's version of 911, was very accommodating to Jazwiec.

In an e-mail exchange about the incident, Barrett's office challenged Jazwiec a bit, but sucked up overall.

Tom will be calling you directly. In addition, I think you and your neighbors could earn a lot from other well organized community groups. Washington Heights has an extensive email tree and that includes the 3rd district captain. Issues are responded to very quickly. Given that my wife is on the board, I can offer assistance in hooking you up there.

Let me also say that I am concerned and confused by your reluctance to report the incident at your home and your unwillingness to discuss your concerns about "an inside job". Serious stuff that should be investigated by the proper authorities. How can we address people's concerns about the department without people coming forward?

Again, be assured that we will do everything we can to address the concerns about crime you and your neighbors have - That will require some face to face time with a number of individuals. I hope your conversation with Tom is a start to that process.

How many Milwaukee residents receive that sort of treatment?

How many victims of crime get a call from Tom directly and face to face time?

My gut feeling is Jazwiec made up the story about his family being held hostage, losing their debit cards.

His e-mail assertion, "Because we were not sure it was not an inside job we did not dare go to police headquarters," is absolutely bizarro.

Is this story over, what with Jazwiec going back to his sweet home Chicago?

I hope not.

I'd like to know what really happened or didn't happen.