Don't watch government, become the government!

I'm a lazy blogger today, so I just stole this off Alder Satya Rhodes-Conway's post to EINPC and I'm grateful to her for putting this together.

One of the things that makes our city government go is the dedicated citizens that serve on city committees and commissions. More information is here: http://www.cityofmadison.com/mayor/mycommit.html. If you're interested, you can fill out an application here: http://www.cityofmadison.com/mayor/pdfs/commappt.pdf . A list of vacancies is here: http://www.cityofmadison.com/mayor/vacancy.html. Right now, there are vacancies on the following committees:

Affirmative Action Commission
Commission on People with Disabilities
Downtown Coordinating Committee
Economic Development Commission
Equal Opportunities Commission
Housing Committee
Humanitarian Award Committee
Parking Council for People with Disabilities
Board of Public Works
Senior Center Board of Directors
Vending Oversight Committee

And speaking of "watching" the government. I have a post I've written about PEG funding for local access channels like Channel 12, but I have a few facts to check before I post it, so check back later today to see how you can help make sure that the community has access to this service. Read more!

Board of Estimates Budget meeting! Part II: Operating Budget

To read in chronological order, you'll want to read the post below about the Board of Estimates Capital Budget amendments first. After taking a pizza break, a few minutes after 9:00, four and a half hours into the meeting, they started the Operating Budget Amendments.

A few notes before I start. I didn't cut and paste the language, so you'll need to look at the link above to see the exact language. Also "place on file" is our way of saying that we withdraw the amendment from consideration. Additionally, these were voice votes and some of them were hard to tell who voted which way, if there are numbers listed, that means that the mayor announced the vote and there was no dispute about the vote tally. And I should apologize in advance if there are any mistakes, please let me know.

Amendment #1 - State Budget Amendments
Sponsor: Mayor
Total and Levy Impact: ($488,264)
These are the adjustments from the state budget estimates. We ended up with an additional $488,264 for our bottom line. This passed unanimously.

Amendment #2 - Fund Balance/Reduction in Taxes Raised
Sponsor: Mayor
Total and Levy Impact: $200,000
This was an amendment that took the savings from amendment 1 and reduced the amount of taxes we'd have to raise. Zach made an amendment to apply the entire $488,264 to the amount of taxes that would be reduced instead of the Mayor's proposed $200,000. The motion tied 3 -3 with the Mayor voting with Bruer, Rhodes-Conway and Verveer to defeat the motion. The original motion with the $200,000 then passed unanimously.

Amendment #3 - Sister Cities
Sponsor: Brandon
Total and Levy Impact: ($10,000)
This annual amendment to cut $10,000 from the Sister Cities failed 4 - 2, yet again. Alders Brandon and Sanborn voting in favor.

Amendment #4 - Collaboration Council Reporting
Sponsors: Rhodes-Conway, Konkel, Verveer
Total and Levy Impact: $0
This amendment required reporting from the REDE (Regional Economic Development Group) on their goals and objectives by March 1, 2008 and an annual report by September 1, 2008. The amendment passed unaimously, tho I wonder if it would have if some of the Alders knew I wrote the amendment. The Mayor didn't sponsor for that reason, even tho he offered to "work with anyone" on the amendment.

Amendment #5 - Cutting the Emerging Neighborhood Funding
Sponsor: Brandon
Total and Levy Impact: $200,000
This amendment would have cut all of the funding for the Emerging Neighborhood Funding. Brandon made a substitute motion to only cut $100,000 and then add amendment #6. That motion was separated and they voted on the language in amendment #6 which passed. Then they voted on the $100,000 cut and that failed 4 - 2 with Brandon and Sanborn being the two. Then they finally voted on the $200,000 cut and that cut failed 4 - 2 (Brandon, Sanborn).

Amendment #6 - Process for Emerging Neighborhood Funding
Sponsor: Rhodes-Conway, Konkel, Verveer
Total and Levy Impact: $0
This language was passed with Amendment 5 above. Again, I wrote it and there was no discussion and passed unanimously. The language was as follows:
The Emerging Neighborhoods funding shall be determined by a bi-monthly process where applications are due the 15th of the month prior to decisions being made by a committee of up to four City Staff members, a member of the Community Services Commission, a member of the Early Education and Child Care Board, a member of the Community Development Block Grant Commission, a Mayoral representative and the Common Council president or their designee. Meetings shall be held in January, March, May, July, September and November or until funds are spent for the year. The Mayor shall make appointments by November 20th for approval by the Common Council on December 4th 2007. Staff shall prepare the application for approval by the Common Council at their December 4th, 2007 meeting and the first application date shall be December 15th, 2007.

Amendment #7 - Dissolving the Capital Revolving Fund
Sponsor: Sanborn
Placed on file because Capital Budget amendment #14 failed.

Amendment #8 - Funding Inclusionary Zoning
Sponsor: Mayor
Total and Levy Impact: $0
This amendment authorizes the funding from the Inclusionary Zoning program as provided for in the resolution we passed about the fund. The Mayor "forgot" to fund the program and now we need this "technical amendment" to fix the failure to authorize the funding for incentives to developers and money to have offers to purchase and to buy homes if they are sold.

Amendment #9 - Fire Radios
Sponsor: Verveer, Konkel
Total and Levy Impact: ($70,000)
This was placed on file since Capital Budget Amendment #2 was placed on file.

Amendments #10, 11 & 12 - Police
Sponsor: Clear
Total and Levy Impact ($148,500) + $47,800 + $35,000
These were all placed on file at the request of the sponsor.

Amendment 13 - Adding a Crime Analyst if grant funding provided.
Sponsor: Verveer, Mayor
Total and Levy Impact: $0
Passed unanimously.

Amendment #14 - Delete funding for Downtown Safety Initiative
Sponsor: Brandon
Total and Levy Impact: ($100,000)
This would have cut the entire budget for police for "Downtown Safety" which includes money for cell phones (2.400), a computer server for downtown cameras ($25,500), leasing horses ($5,000) and overtime ($52,630) and benefits ($14,470). Ald. Brandon made a motion to only fund the phone, server, horses and $9325 in overtime and $2565 in benefits. That motion failed 4 - 2 (Brandon, Sanborn.). Then the motion to place the cut on file passed unanimously.

Amendment #15 - Changes to the reporting the police have to do.
Sponsor: Rhodes-Conway
Total and Levy Impact: $0
You'll have to look at the formatted language to see the changes. This was referred to the Common Council meeting so that the police chief could talk with the sponsor to make sure he understood the changes.

Amendment #16 - Requires reporting in #15 to be done by police sector.
Sponsor: Clear, Kerr, Bruer, Verveer
Total and Levy Impact: $0
This was placed on file since #15 was referred.

Amendment #17 - Adding .5 FTR Management Information Specialist to support the Regional Management System project in the police department.
Sponsor: Verveer, Mayor
Total and Levy Impact: $0
This position would be funded by other local government sources and it passed unanimously.

Amendment #18 - Upgrading a police officer to lietenant and two police officers to sergeants.
Sponsor: Verveer, Mayor
Total and Levy Impact: $33,300
It passed with Brandon voting no.

Amendment #19 - Cut the Fit City Coordinator and add the WIC Program Nutritionist
Sponsor: Rhodes-Conway, Konkel
Total and Levy Impact: $368
Passed unanimously. However, there was a question about if we could do it because the intergovernmental agreement for the health department says that there will be no lay-offs.

Amendment #20 - Cutting the Fit City Coordinator
Sponsor: Sanborn
Total and Levy Impact: ($13,086)
This amendment was placed on file cuz #19 passed.

At this point it was around 10:00.

Amendment #21 - Reducing Alder accounts
Sponsor: Brandon
Total and Levy Impact: ($7,714)
Brandon asked that it be placed on file.

Amendment #22 - Eliminating the Alcohol Policy Coordinator
Sponsor: Sanborn
Total and Levy Impact: ($34,648)
This amendment failed 4 - 2 (Brandon, Sanborn)

Amendment #23 - Language about why the Mayor cut $30,000 for the Fair Housing Center
Sponsor: Mayor
Total and Levy Impact: $0
This was tabled until the other amendment about fair housing testing was taken up.

Amendment #24 - Changes to structure and positions in the Assessors Office
Sponsor: Mayor, Verveer
Total and Levy Impact: $50,043
Passed 4 - 1 (Sanborn), Brandon out of the room.

At this point, the room is hot and sticky and smells like a locker room.

Amendment #25 - Cutting money to print the Common Council packets.
Sponsor: Rhodes-Conway
Total and Levy Impact: ($9,026)
This generated alot of discussion about how people do their work. We all have laptops and could stop killing the trees. Also, it was noted that about half this cost is copies for the Mayor's office, not the Council office. This one was eventually placed on file in favor of #26.

Amendment #26 - Cutting money to print the Common Council packets.
Sponsor: Brandon
Total and Levy Impact: ($5,000)
Apparently, we're easing into this one. This passed unimously.

Amendment #27 - Funding for Gypsy Moth Spraying
Sponsor: Verveer, Webber, Mayor
Total and Levy Impact: ($25,000)
This passed unanimously. It was abundantly clear after Marla Eddy's excellent testimony at the last meeting why this was needed.

Amendment #28 – Cutting the hiring two additional park rangers.
Sponsor: Rhodes-Conway
Total and Levy Impact: (15,000)
This was amended to leave the park rangers in the budget and then requiring them to go to training on AODA and homelessness issues and what resources are available. This amendment passed and I believe it was unanimous. However, I have to say that it is pretty appalling that Jim Morgan seemed to indicate that an afternoon of training would be enough for them to run across someone in the park a few times a week and then say to them "You gotta be better than this and here's where you go." There's so much wrong there I need to write a separate blog on it. The biggest issue being that he assumes there are resources to send someone to.

Amendment #29 - Changing language about moving Forestry to streets division and privatizing forestry services.
Sponsor: Mayor
Total and Levy Impact: $0
You'll have to look at the language on the other page, but it passed unanimously.

Amendment #30 - Moving the expense of the barge to help clean the lakes from our budget to the Stormwater Utility.
Sponsor: Rhodes-Conway, Verveer
Total and Levy Impact: ($20,000)
Passed unanimously.

Amendment #31 - Added a Mall Concourse Maintenane Worker for State St.
Sponsor: Verveer
Total and Levy Impact: $0
This will be paid for by the businesses in the area. Passed unanimously.

Amendment #32 - Removing language that would privatize the pool concession stands as the Mayor put in his budget.
Sponsor: Clear, Kerr, Bruer, Verveer, Rhodes-Conway
Total and Levy Impact: $0
This was a silly idea promoted by the Wisconsin State Journal because they didn't like it that we paid a living wage to the workers. Ironically, the concession stands made $12,199 this year, so we're making money on them and privatizing them still doesn't exempt them from the Living Wage. The vote was 5 - 1 (Sanborn) and the language to privatize the concession stands was removed.

Amendment #33 - Privatizing all of the Municipal Pool operations.
Sponsor: Sanborn
Total and Levy Impact: $0
Jed requested that this be placed on file.

Amendment #34 - Moving recycling carts to the capital budget.
Sponsor: Verveer, Konkel
Total and Levy Impact: ($60,000)
No longer needed since we have more room in the levy so it was placed on file.

Amendment #35 - Moving costs to the Stormwater Utility from Streets
Sponsor: Verveer, Rhodes-Conway, Konkel, Webber
Total and Levy Impact: (223,981)
There was a substitute to put 50% of the leaf pick up costs on the Stormwater Utility. Verveer then asked to table it while they discussed phasing it in over a few more years. Currently 35% of the costs are paid for by the Stormwater Utility. This was tabled.

Amendment #36 - Paying for advertising costs of Madison Metro for the Bus Pass Pool with Parking Utility money
Sponsor: Rhodes-Conway
Total and Levy Impact: $0
This was placed on file because it wasn't legal.

Amendment #37 - Cutting adding more full-wrapped busses.
Sponsor: Verveer
Total and Levy Impact: $50,000
There was discussion about how we were in the middle of a pilot and the middle of a contract and we shouldn't change it now in the budget, but we did anyways. Also, there were safety concerns raised about being able to see into and out of the busses with an ironic note that at the same time we are adding cameras for safety, there are several busses that you wouldn't be able to see into if there were any safety issues. Failed 2 (Verveer, Rhodes-Conway) - 4

Amendment #38 - Increasing pavement markings in school safety crosswalks.
Sponsor: Clear, Kerr, Verveer
Total and Levy Impact: $25,000
Apparently we're getting crosswalk paintings like the Beatles album. Zach voted no. I'm quite certain Jed did as well. Passed 4 - 2.

Amendment #39 - Bike racks as recommended by the Platimum Bicycle City Planning Committee
Sponsor: Clear, Compton
Total and Levy Impact: $10,000
Passed with the Mayor breaking the tie and voting with Clear, Rhodes-Conway and Verveer.

Amendment #40 - Buying media time ofr bike safety ads.
Sponsor: Clear, Compton
Total and Levy Impact: $2,500
Passed with the Mayor breaking the tie and voting with Clear, Rhodes-Conway and Verveer.

Amendment #41 - Removing funding for Transportation Demand Management Program
Sponsor: Sanborn
Total and Levy Impact: 31,000
Sanborn requested it be placed on file.

Amendment #42 - Funding for $40,000 for the UW Applied Population Lab to provide us with "Neighborhood Indicators" to measure if a neighborhood is well.
Sponsor: Mayor
Total and Levy Impact: $0
This passed unanimously.

Amendment #43 - $50,000 slush fund for Economic Development
Sponsor: Mayor
Total and Levy Impact: $50,000
Mayor asked that it be placed on file.

It was now about 11:20.

Amendment #44 - $15,000 for a market study for the Northside
Sponsor: Rhodes-Conway, Schumacher, Mayor
Total and Levy Impact: $15,000
Passed with a 3-3 tie and the Mayor voting with Bruer, Rhodes-Conway and Verveer.

Amendment #45 - Cutting "Jobs with a Future" funding
Sponsor: Brandon
Total and Levy Impact: ($5,000)
This passed unanimously since we haven't been funding it for a year and "no one missed it."

Amendment #46 - Re-organizing the re-organization of the Department of Planning and Community and Economic Development (Splitting the Bill Clingan job into an Economic Development position and a Community Development position)
Sponsor: Mayor, Bruer, Brandon, Clear, Sanborn
Total and Levy Impact: $26,742
This one was confusing. Apparently the Mayor, Bruer, Brandon and Clear had a meeting and if they voted on this at Board of Estimates, then the meeting would be illegal. So, Verveer, Rhodes-Conway and Sanborn were the only ones who could do anything at the meeting. Verveer moved to refer it to a special meeting of the Board of Estimates (where presumable, 2 of the 4 who had the potentially illegal meeting couldn't show up). Rhodes-Conway seconded it, and then they voted, but since Brandon, Clear and Bruer abstained, then they didn't have enough votes to do anything and the vote was 3 - 0 with 7 people on the committee. The Mayor originally ruled that the motion passed. Then at the end of the meeting the Mayor asked for reconsideration because the Mayor checked with two city attorney's who gave different information to the Mayor's staff. Michael May's ruling that they didn't have the votes to pass made the Mayor overturn his ruling and then there was no action on the table and nothing happened and we will discuss this at the Council meeting. Anyways . . . after all that, the Mayor seemed unabashedly determined to find a way to make his illegal meeting ok. Alder Brandon pulled him back a bit and he prevailed in convincing them to just do this at the council to avoid the illegal meeting issue. Once again, Brandon and I agree!

Amendment #47 - Adding back the Admin Clerk 2 and cutting the Tenant Services Aide in Housing Operations
Sponsor: Verveer
Total and Levy Impact: $0
This was a technical amendment to reverse something we apparently couldn't do. I think. Passed unanimously.

Amendment #48 - Using money designated for the Section 8 program in the Public Housing Program.
Sponsor: Verveer
Total and Levy Impact: $0
This passed unimously.

Amendment #49 - Restoring money for fair housing testing and moving it to CDBG
Sponsor: Verveer
Total and Levy Impact: $30,000
This says there will be an competitive process for organizations to apply for this funding. It passed 4 - 2 (Brandon, Sanborn)

At this point they went back to the obnoxious amendment #23 about the Fair Housing Center and removed that language and the previous language from the budget in its entirety.

Amendment #50 - Cutting the 2.4% COLA increase for Community Development Block Grant
Sponsor: Brandon
Total and Levy Impact: (17,846)
This motion generated some of the same old discussion. Again. The motion failed 4 - 2 (Brandon, Sanborn)

Amendment #51 - Cutting funding for the Building Trades program in Allied Drive for the START program.
Sponsor: Brandon
Total and Levy Impact: (21,299)
This passed 6 - 0, but not until after the Mayor asked the question we all wanted to know, what's going on here, an agency comes and thanks us for cutting their funding AND says that they're still going to do the program. If they can do all that, then why did they get funding in the first place? There were no real answers.

Amendment #52 - Cutting the 2.4 COLA increase for the Office of Community Services
Sponsor: Brandon
Total and Levy Impact: (85,547)
This was voted on with #50 with the same discussion and same result. Failed 4 - 2 (Brandon, Sanborn)

Amendment #53 - $20,000 for stabilization funds for childcare.
Sponsor: Verveer, Konkel
Total and Levy Impact: $20,000
Passed. The voice vote was confusing but I believe Brandon and Sanborn voted against.

At this point is was about 12:10 and things started to get a littly wacky, if it wasn't already wacky enough. We got the first in a series of rants from Alder Brandon about how this is the time of the night where people "hit their stride" and we "just start approving things" and we don't cut anything. There were several more speeches interspersed throughout the next amendments where Alder Brandon harangued the committee about not having enough cuts and they did was add, etc. etc. He was correct about the "structural deficit" or as I say "not sustainable" budget, but he didn't offer many real solutions except to not approve any more expenditures, which were a drop in the bucket compared to the rest of the budget. However, he pleaded with the Board of Estimates to stop using the phrase "but it's only $xxx" since it all adds up.

Amendment #54 - Adding a half-time Child Care Specialist position formerly funded by a Federal Grant.
Sponsor: Verveer, Konkel
Total and Levy Impact: $37,992
This passed 4 - 2 (Brandon, Sanborn)

Amendment #55 - Funding the 4th Quarter Weed and Seed Coordinator position as well as the programs that position supports.
Sponsor: Clear, Rhodes-Conway, Verveer, Cnare
Total and Levy Impact: $28,464
This failed 3 - 3 with the Mayor breaking the tie. I couldn't tell who the 3 - 3 was, but I think it was Clear, Rhodes-Conway and Verveer voting in favor. And the Mayor voting with Brandon, Bruer and Sanborn. I'd love to hear the Mayor's reasoning on this one. It's such a small amount of money with a huge impact.

Amendment #56 - Cut one police officer, add Weed and Seed programs that failed in #55 and the Childcare Specialist in #54
Sponsor: Rhodes-Conway, Clear
Total and Levy Impact: (589)
This amendment was amended since #54 passed and so it was cut an officer, keep the savings and fund the Weed and Seed Coordinator and the programs. This motion started the "cops vs. human services" debate that many of the speakers talked about. The motion failed with 4 votes, but I wasn't clear if it was 4 - 2 (Rhodes-Conway, Verveer) or if the Mayor broke a 3 - 3 tie by voting with Bruer, Sanborn and Brandon.

Amendment #57 - Cut one police officer, add $20,000 for child care assistance (same as amendment #53) and the $26,985 for the 4C's Latino Child Care program.
Sponsor: Rhodes-Conway, Clear
Total and Levy Impact: ($2,515)
This was modified to remove the duplication from amendment #53. It was a 3-3 tie this time with the Mayor voting with Bruer, Rhodes-Conway and Verveer.

The next two amendments were what send Brandon and Sanborn off the deep end. They are the reason Sanborn voted against the budget and I believe the reason Zach left the meeting before it was over.

Amendment #58 - Cut 1 police officer, add $65,000 in youth services for the SW side and transportation for kids that live in Darbo.
Sponsor: Rhodes-Conway, Clear
Total and Levy Impact: ($2,045)
This passed with the Mayor breaking the 3 - 3 tie and voting with Verveer, Bruer and Rhodes-Conway. However, the amendment ended up not cutting the police and adding the programs. Brandon launched into a speech about how we have huge increases in spending for Human Services and that we are under-funding the Police. I couldn't help pointing out that even the police say that for youth gang strategies, you have to have a four pronged approach of suppression, but also prevention, intervention and re-entry back into the community. And I also pointed out that the police have $54M budget, while Human Services is more around $5M. Clear chimed in with some "tough choices" language and he ended up voting against the amendment.

Amendment #59 - Cut 1 police officer for $65,000 of afterschool and summer programming for elementary, middle and high school programs.
Sponsor: Rhodes-Conway, Clear
Total and Levy Impact: (2,045)
Same discussion as above and they were voted on together so had the same results.

Amendment #60 - Additional funding for Vera Court afterschool programs
Sponsor: Clear, Rhodes-Conway, Schumacher
Total and Levy Impact: $7,010
This was actually amended to be $11,272 so 15 more kids could participate in the summer program. There was a huge increase in kids in this neighborhood in this fall due to higher enrollment in kindergarten classes. The motion passed 4 - 2 (Brandon, Sanborn)

Amendment #61 - Additional funding for hotel vouchers for homeless victims of domestic violence.
Sponsor: Clear
Total and Levy Impact: $5,682
Same old, same old 4 - 2 (Brandon, Clear)

Amendment #62 - More money for the highly successful MAP (jobs) program in Allied Drive
Sponsor: Rhodes-Conway, Solomon
Total and Levy Impact: $50,000
This failed, mostly because Solomon wasn't there to help argue for the program and there seemed to be some missing information, but then again it was nearly 1:00 and I think folks were starting to lose it. The only one voting in favor was Rhodes-Conway.

Amendment #63 - Deleting funding for the Westside Planning Council.
Sponsor: Brandon, Clear
Total and Levy Impact: (33,791)
Failed 4 - 2 (Rhodes-Conway, Verveer)

Amendment #64 - Cut Westside Planning Council but add programs to help community organizing on the SW side of Madison
Sponsor: Rhodes-Conway
Total and Levy Impact: (500)
Placed on file at the request of Rhodes-Conway.

Amendment #65 - Reviewing feasibility of another Eastside Library.
Sponsor: Bruer, Clausius
Total and Levy Impact: $0

And that's it. I wonder how much of this we get to "do-over" when the Council introduces their amendments for the meetings on the 13th, 14th and 15th of November and what kind of feedback we will hear from the public on November 6th. The final vote of the Board of Estimates was 4 -1 (Sanborn) with Brandon being absent. Overall, they decreased expenses by $203,428 and revenues by $163,566 so they decreased the levy by $39,862. We have $364,000 that can be added to the budget before we hit the expenditure restraint limit.

More to come on the 2008 budget to be sure. Read more!

Board of Estimates Budget meeting! (Capital Budget Amendments)

At this point - there is only one word for this, and the word is "clusterfuck". Probably not a good word for a politician to use so publicly, but it really is the perfect word. Last night's eight and a half hour Board of Estimates meeting was truly amazing. It included the revelation that the Mayor, Bruer, Brandon and Clear had an illegal meeting, an alder stomping off before the meeting was over and many other entertaining moments. However, it gets the "clusterfuck" title for the following reasons:

1. The amendments were not really available to the public until Monday at some point, unless they knew an "insider" or were able to figure out how to get them out of legistar without the agenda. The agenda for the Board of Estimates was not really

2. I find myself sitting on the floor, again, but at least I'm inside the very packed and warm room. Joining me on the floor this time are city staff, mayor's staff, alders, a lobbyist and citizens.

3. Eli Judge actually got locked out of the meeting. That's right, by 6:00, you couldn't get in the building from the Carroll St. side of the building.

4. The meeting wasn't televised. It was recorded to be played at a later date due to the elevator not working in the Municipal Building (Where is a good facilities manager when you need one?) and the meeting (and alot others) being moved and they can't live broadcast from GR 27.

Ok - done complaining about the government that I play a role in, haven't quite figured out how to get folks making these decisions to make better decisions and usually they are a done deal by the time I see them - but I'll try to figure something else out to try to fix these types of screw ups. Now, on to the meeting!

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I can't say for sure which alders were or were not there since it was crowded for the first few hours and I think I may have missed a few but beyond the Board of Estimates members (Mayor Dave, Ald. Zach Brandon, Ald. Mark Clear, Ald. Jed Sanborn, Ald. Mike Verveer, Ald. Tim Bruer and Ald. Satya Rhodes-Conway.) the alders I saw were Alders Marsha Rummel, Robbie Webber, Eli Judge and Lauren Cnare - my apologies to other alders who may have been present in the room or standing in the hallway and unable to get into the meeting. Others who showed up include Ald. Michael Schumacher and Ald. Julia Kerr. I think Schumacher and I were the only non-Board of Estimate members to make it to the end.

Testimony lasted for about a half hour on the Capital Budget and then the Operating Budget lasted another hour or so. After questions, I think the discussion on the 80 plus amendments started around 6:30. There were still over 40 people jammed into the room with people still standing and sitting on the floor.

CAPITAL BUDGET
Amendment No. 1 - Library / Project #9 - New Northeast Branch Library
Sponsor(s): Alds. Bruer, Clausius

Move $500,000 of funding for site acquisition for a new northeast branch from 2001 CIP to the 2009 CIP.

General Obligation Debt $0, Other Funding $0, Total $0
Levy Impact: $ 0

Passed unanimously.

Amendment No. 2 - Fire / Project #8 - Communications Equipment
Sponsor(s): Alds. Verveer, Konkel

Add funding for radios (Note: This amendment is a companion to Operating Budget Amendment No. 9)

General Obligation Debt $70,000 Other Funding $0 Total $70,000
Levy Impact: $ 9,065

Some of these amendments were made when we only had $109,000 before we hit the levy limit, however now that the state passed their budget we have a little more room, so it was moved that this pass now and we revisit at the end of the meeting. A substitute motion was made to place on file the vote was 3 - 3 so the mayor voted "aye" and the motion was placed on file (failed).

Amendment No. 3 - Police / Project #1 - Taser Deployment Plan
Sponsor(s): Ald. Rhodes-Conway

Remove funding for Tasers.

General Obligation Debt ($35,000), Other Funding $0, Total ($35,000)
Levy Impact: $ (4,533)

This failed 1 - 5. Rhodes-Conway was the only one voting in favor.

Amendment No. 4 - Information Technology / Project #7 - Computer Training Center
Sponsor(s): Alds. Rhodes-Conway, Konkel

Move funding of $160,000 for the Computer Training Center from the 2008 budget to the 2009 CIP. Require Information Technology to work with the Library to establish a joint-use agreement, such that library patrons will be able to access the training center machines when not being used by Information Technology.

General Obligation Debt ($160,000), Other Funding 0, Total ($160,000)
Levy Impact: $ (20,721)

This amendment also ended up 3 - 3. The mayor voting "no" with Rhodes-Conway, Brandon and Sanborn to break the tie.

Amendment No 5 - Facilities Management / Project #3 - Development Services Center
Sponsor(s): Alds. Verveer, Konkel

Move funding of $1,600,000 for the Development Services Center from the 2008 budget to the 2009 CIP.

General Obligation Debt ($1,600,000), Other Funding 0 Total ($1,600,000)
Levy Impact: $ (207,207)

This motion was withdrawn for further work. The "one stop shop" is part of the reorganization that we are re-examining so they don't really know who is moving where or even what unit they might be in. We will revisit this at the Council meeting when we know if the Economic and Community Development Unit is split in two and so that we make sure that the new units are all together in the same place.

Amendment No. 6 - Engineering - Major Streets / Project #14 CTH M (CTH PD Area), Engineering - Major Streets / Project #15 CTH M (Mid Town Road Area), Engineering - Major Streets / Project #16 CTH M (Valley View Road Area), Engineering - Major Streets / Project #17 CTH M, Engineering - Major Streets / Project #18 CTH M (CTH S Intersection)
Sponsor(s): Alds. Rhodes-Conway, Webber

Remove funding for all components of County Trunk Highway M projects for 2008 through 2013. Future years' funding will be contingent upon the development of favorable cost sharing arrangements with Dane County.

General Obligation Debt ($1,050,000), Other Funding 0, Total ($1,050,000)
Levy Impact: $ (135,980)

This rather large cut was defeated. It was a 3 - 3 tie with the Mayor voting with Brandon, Bruer and Verveer to spend the money.

At this point it was around 7:20 and the Mayor asked the room who wanted to order pizza. 30 people raised their hand that they would pitch in $5 for pizza. Obviously, someone was a little off on their math and someone made a profit on that!

Amendment No. 7 - Engineering - Major Streets / Project #46 - Pleasant View Road
Sponsor(s): Alds. Rhodes-Conway, Webber

Delay funding for all components of Pleasant View Road project by one year. (This amendment moves $2,900,000 from 2008 to 2009, and $4,340,000 from 2009 to 2010.)

General Obligation Debt ($2,900,000), Other Funding 0, Total ($2,900,000)
Levy Impact: $ (375,563)

This amendment would have saved us money and allowed us to follow our neighborhood plans and not re-prioritize projects out of order. However, the motion failed with only Rhodes-Conway and Verveer voting in favor.

Amendment No. 8 - Parks / Project #11 - Park Paving
Sponsor(s): Mayor Cieslewicz, Alds. Sanborn, Cnare

Replace two tennis courts at Norman Clayton Park ($50,000) and two tennis courts at Heritage Heights Park ($50,000). These projects are part of a major multi-year program to repair and replace deteriorated paved areas throughout the City's park system.

General Obligation Debt $100,000, Other Funding 0, Total $100,000
Levy Impact: $ 12,950

This was the first amendment to pass which impacted the budget. Ald. Brandon voted no and the rest voted in favor. Alder Sanborn was the first one to add money back to the budget.

Amendment No. 9 - Parks / Project #16 - Tenney Park Shelter/Parking/Shoreline
Sponsor(s): Mayor Cieslewicz, Ald. Verveer

Add funding of $500,000 of General Obligation Debt to year 2009 of the Capital Improvement Program. There is no impact upon the 2008 Capital or Operating Budgets. Average debt service in future years is estimated at $64,752 per year.

General Obligation Debt $0, Other Funding 0, Total $0
Levy Impact: $ -

The Mayor had promised to but $695,000 in this year's budget. He forgot. The neighbors reminded him of this promise, so he put $500,000 in for 2009. And somehow, they are happy with that. There was a problem with this amendment that no one added in the "other funding" of $700,000 in private fundraising that would also be put into the project. This passed unanimously.

Amendment No. 10 - Parks / Project (New) - James Madison Park
Sponsor(s): Alds. Verveer, Konkel

Reauthorize 2007 other funding of $200,000 for the James Madison Park Project. Funding is to consist of proceeds from land sales.

General Obligation Debt $0, Other Funding - Land Sales 200,000, Total $200,000
Levy Impact: $ -

This was "unintentionally left out" according to the Mayor. This also needs to be fixed in that there should be additional revenue from land sales in the operating budget. There was a motion to place this on file and it failed 4 - 2 with Brandon and Sanborn voting for it. Then there was a motion to approve, it passed 4 - 2 with Brandon and Sanborn voting against.

Amendment No. 11 - Streets / Project #4 - Replacement Recycling Carts, Streets / Project #5 - Replacement Refuse Carts
Sponsor(s): Alds. Verveer, Konkel

Add $30,000 of funding for replacement recycling carts and $30,000 for replacement refuse carts. (Note: This amendment is a companion to Operating Budget Amendment No. 34.)

General Obligation Debt $60,000, Other Funding 0, Total $60,000
Levy Impact: $ 7,770

Placed on file unanimously since it was no longer needed since we have more room before we hit the levy limit.

Amendment No. 12 - Planning and Community and Economic Development /Project #13 - TID 29-Allied Terrace
Sponsor(s): Alds. Rhodes-Conway, Verveer, Konkel

Change the $3,000,000 in "Other" funding (from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund) to General Obligation borrowing. (Note: If this amendment is adopted, the change will be reflected on the Affordable Housing Trust Fund statement incuded in the Operating Budget.)

General Obligation Debt $3,000,000, Other Funding (3,000,000), Total $0
Levy Impact: $ 388,514

This was the amendment where the they use $3,000,000 from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to fund the Allied Drive demolition and road building. Despite the fact that the Mayor has admitted and there is a memo stating that we need to change the ordinance in order to do this and the Mayor hasn't revealed how that will be done, it failed 2 - 4. Rhodes-Conway and Verveer voting in favor.

Amendment No. 13 - Planning and Community and Economic Development /Project #13 - TID 29-Allied Terrace
Sponsor(s): Ald. Clear

Reduce the $3,000,000 in "other" funding (from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund) to $1,500,00 and add $1,500,000 in General Obligation borrowing. (Note: If this amendment is adopted, the change will be reflected on the Affordable Housing Trust Fund statement included in the Operating Budget.)

General Obligation Debt $1,500,000
Other Funding (1,500,000)
Total $0 Levy Impact: $ 194,257

This amendment was the "Clear Compromise" that got ZERO votes.

Amendment No. 14 - Planning and Community and Economic Development / Project #5 -Capital Revolving Fund, Project #25 -Façade Improvement Grants
Sponsor(s): Ald. Sanborn

Dissolve the Capital Revolving Fund and the Facade Improvements Grnat program and transfer the proceeds to the General Fund (Note: This amendment is a companion to Operating Budget No. 7)

General Obligation Debt $0
Other Funding 1,125,000
Total $1,125,000 Levy Impact: $ -

Alder Brandon noted that moves like this just add to the structural deficit that we are creating and would just be a one-time gain that we could not sustain. Alder Sanborn argued that the City should not be "venture capitalists". This motion failed 1 - 5 with only Ald. Sanborn voting for it.

Amendment No. 15 - Planning and Community and Economic Development / Project #27-TIF 10%
Sponsor(s): Alds. Rhodes-Conway, Konkel, Verveer

Add funding of $200,000 in General Obligation borrowing.

General Obligation Debt $200,000, Other Funding 0, Total $200,000
Levy Impact: $ 25,901

This was the second amendment to pass that impacted the bottom line of the budget. This is the "catch-22" amendment. In the past we had projects that were approved but didn't have authority in the budget to spend the money. Here we are funding a program with no projects. It's a ridiculous amendment we fight about almost every year. It passed 5 - 1. Brandon voting against.

Amendment No. 16 - Water Utility / Project #9 - Operations Center Renovation
Sponsor(s): Alds. Rhodes-Conway, Rummel

Move funding of $2,900,000 for the renovation of the Water Utility field operations center from the 2008 budget to the 2009 CIP to allow the new Water Utility General Manager to have input in the process.

General Obligation Debt $0, Other Funding (2,900,000), Total ($2,900,000)
Levy Impact: $ -

This was the third amendment that passed that had a fiscal impact, even though it did not impact the levy.

These amendments were then added to the amendments that they passed last time. (Sorry, I don't know what they are or exactly where to find them at the moment but will hunt them down.) All in all, the reduced the capital budget by $2.1M and had a levy impact of $2.1 Million if I understood the comptrollers announcement correctly.

Will try to get the operating budget amendments done in the next two hours before my doctor's appointment. Then to work for a 10 hour day. Read more!

Budget - Wouldn't you like to know!

Late Friday, many of us "insiders" got a copy of the 16 Capital and 65 Operating Budget amendments that will be discussed and voted on today at 4:30 at the Board of Estimates (Room GR 27 in the City-County Building - 210 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.). The public had a much harder time getting the information. The Board of Estimates agenda and its attachments were not available on line due to upgrades to the Legistar program that we use. In fact, most people couldn't get the information unless they were on the EINPC list serve, or looked at the Progressive Dane website or otherwise knew someone who had the information. In fact, I was out of town a chunk of the weekend, but did do two informational sessions on Saturday at 10 am and Sunday at 6pm, and many people were very grateful for the information. And my inbox is filling up with requests for the information from people who were unable to make the sessions.

My biggest concern is if people who will be impacted by these amendments were informed by the folks cutting their budgets. There are several annual cuts like Sister Cities and then cutting the 2.4% increases to the Office of Community Services and Community Development Block Grant organizations. In some ways, its not that surprising, but in many ways, one has to ask, was there fair warning to the people who will be affected? Or to any member of the public who is interested in these issues?

If you're looking for the amendments, they are on the Progressive Dane website for both the Capital Budget and Operating Budget. The full budget is here. Enjoy! Read more!

Fun for a Cause. Help the Tenant Resource Center!

Tonight, you have an opportunity to have a little fun, good food and help out the Tenant Resource Center. THe Tenant Resource Center will be having its 12th annual fall fundraiser tonight from 5 - 7 at the Brink Lounge (701 E Washington Ave.) This event usually raises $10,000. This year we need to raise over twice that due to recent funding losses if we want to keep our statewide toll-free phone line and the staff to answer those phone calls. Without it, we will not be able to serve thousands of tenants throughout Wisconsin each year with problems with repairs, evictions, getting security deposits returned and fairly breaking their leases when they need to move for work, school or other reasons plus a whole lot more.

Our funding problems started last year when the UW Finance Committee did not find the Tenant Resource Center eligible for funding for this school year because we were not 100% student controlled. We lost $55,000 in funding with that decision and then just a few weeks ago we found out that HUD would no longer be funding the toll-free line and it would be another $41,000 loss in funding. These two losses have a big impact on our formerly $350,000 budget and strike at our core services for the agency.

While we will not be closing our doors, we will have to substantially change the way we do our services and cut back on various services unless we can raise and additional $60,000 per year through various methods. While we will continue to seek grants for this funding, we know that it is harder and harder to get funding for these types of services as finding gets scarcer and scarcer and we need to get help from the community to keep these services, and we have created a plan to raise that money, but it starts with YOU!

So, one of our first steps is to make sure tonight is a great success. Please join us at the Brink Lounge for good food, a silent auction and good company. While we suggest $20 donation, we understand not everyone can afford that and ask you to donate within your means. And please, thank our sponsors as well as the food and silent auction donors. We appreciate the tremendous response we have gotten from the community and now we'd like you to come help us have some fun and meet our fundraising goals.

If you can't make it tonight, here's some other ways you can help:

• Donate on-line or send a check to: Tenant Resource Center, 1202 Williamson Street Suite A, Madison, WI 53703.
• Tell your friends, neighbors, co-workers and acquaintances that they can donate on-line or by writing a check.
• Volunteer to be a housing counselor or office assistant. We'll train you and ask for a year commitment of 2 -4 hours per week.
• Consider becoming a "sustaining member" of the Tenant Resource Center.
• Donate through your workplace giving campaign through Community Shares of Wisconsin.
• Thank our food and silent auction donors and especially our sponsors:
  

FOOD AND SILENT AUCTION DONORS
Bahn Thai
Bandung
Glass Nickel Pizza
Noodles & Co. on University Avenue
Ian's Pizza
Great Dane
Fazoli's
Monty's Blue Plate Diner
Barb Sherkow
Buddy Squirrel
Budget Bicycle
Burrito Drive
Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream
Community Pharmacy
The Exclusive Company
Four Star Video Heaven
The Harmony Bar
MoCo Market
Monkey Bar Gymnasium
Morgan's Shoes
A Room of One's Own
Rufus DuMonde Pet Salon
Trader Joe's
Weary Traveler
Willy Street Co-op

SPONSORS
MG&E
Jesse Kaysen
Amy Westra
Joann Brown
Fair Housing Center of Greater Madison
Sheila Guilfoyle
Stuart Levitan & Terese Berceau
Renaissance Property Group
Bill White & Kathie Nichols
Mike & Pam Barrett
Michael & Sarah Basford
Carousel Bayrd & Tim Sobota
Brian Benford
Carol Carstensen
Yogesh Chawla
Joe Clausius
Bill Clingan
Tom & Kia Conrad
Ilse & Rudy Hecht
Steve Herrick
Herrick & Kasdorf LLP
Elisa Kaplan
Pete Karas
Julia Kerr
Heidi Konkel & Clint Otto
Annette Larie
Norm Littlejohn
Dean Loumos
Madison Area Community
Land Trust
Madison Infoshop
Alice Malacara
Marsha Mansfield &
Steve Schooler
Rita Meuer
Satya Rhodes-Conway
Harry Richardson
Juscha Robinson
Marsha Rummel
Alex Saloutos
Vicky Selkowe
Sheila Spear
Echnaton Vedder
Robbie Webber
Susan Webster
Carol Weidel
Ledell Zellers
Alfonso Zepeda-Capistran
Dace Zeps
Bert Zipperer & Laurie Frank

Plus all the donors who contributed after our deadline, fortunately that list is long and we are still compiling it -- we appreciate EVERYONE'S tremendous generosity and support!

Read more!

The "Boys Club" Grows

Another top position in the City of Madison is given to a man. It's hardly news any more that we seem to only hire men for top level positions in the City of Madison and it has essentially just become routine.

Mayor Dave Cieslewicz today named Gerald Pace as the new City Treasurer.

Currently, the City Treasurer position is "vacant". However, the position has been open for a few years and a woman has been filling that role on an "interim" basis.
Read more!

Lottery for Low-Income Housing

Just as Dane County Housing Authority opened their Section 8 waiting list (now closed since October 12, 2007) for the first time in 5 years, now the CDA is doing the same thing. Here's their announcement.

Community Development Authority for the City of Madison will accept entries to its Housing Choice Voucher Program, (Section8) Application Lottery beginning Monday, October 29, 2007. Lottery entry forms and instructions will be available at any Madison Public Library and many social service agencies. Entries may also be submitted via the Internet at: http://www.cityofmadison.com/housing. You must be 18 or older to enter. You must be a U.S. Citizen or an eligible immigrant. Only one lottery entry per household. Lottery entries will be accepted until Friday, November 30, 2007. Selected entries will receive a regular application form for the Section 8 program. Entries not selected in the drawing will also be notified by mail. Regular applications will be entered to the waiting list and will be ranked by return date. Applications from elderly or disabled households and households with minor children will be ranked ahead of non-disabled, non-elderly adults. Households living or working in the City of Madison will receive priority over non-residents.

Here's a little more info that you might find helpful about this list opening:

• Starting MONDAY 10/29, people can sign up for a LOTTERY by sending in a postcard or filling out a form online.
  
• CDA prefers people do this online.
  
• If people sign up online, when they are finished the form will allow you to print a "receipt" from the browser in case people want a receipt.
  
• People will have to provide name, SSN and address.
• It is a lottery, meaning that everyone who signs up will be entered in to a random drawing to occur in the beginning of December.
  
• The people whose names are drawn in the lottery will then receive the full written application form.
  
• People will be placed on the list in order of when their actual completed applications are received. (However, some people may actually receive a voucher faster than others based on priority/preference. This is no different than if the list were continually open. Some people will get to the front of the line faster than others.)
• As long as you sign up online or postmark your card by 11/30, you will have an equal chance of receiving a full application, so there is no need to camp out or rush to the office or anything like that.
• IF you are drawn in the lottery and receive an application, though, it *is* important to get that application in very quickly at that time, in December.
• The current waiting list is down to about 150 and will not be purged this time around.
  
• NEXT TIME (in about 2 years) the entire list will be dumped and it will be another lottery system, starting from scratch.
  
• Anyone who is not sure whether they are already on the list should find out before signing up again.
  

So, there you have it. We now have a lottery for low-income housing in the City of Madison.

To add to the confusion, the elevator woes in the Municipal Building ("Post Office Building") at 215 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. have made it so that many of our meetings need to move and some of our services are unaccessible. One of the services that has been effected is the CDA services. Here's the information they sent out:

Hello,

I am writing to notify you that CDA Housing Reception is now located in Room 130 at the Madison Municipal Building. We have been experiencing intermittent elevator failures here, so in the interest of safety, and to accomodate our customers, we ask that you please bring your business to Room 130 on the main level at 215 Martin Luther King Jr., Blvd, (same building, different floor and room #) rather than to 3rd floor as you and your customers have done in the past. Please pass this information on to any of your customers who utilize our services.
Thank you.
Sally Jo

Sally Jo Spaeni
Eligibility Coordinator
City of Madison Housing Operations

Read more!

Budget, Budget, Budget

The first round of operating budget and the second round of capital budget amendments are due at noon today. The public and the alders will get to see the total list on Friday around noon.

I'll be doing two budget briefings on Saturday morning at 10am and Sunday night at 6pm at the Social Justice Center (1202 Williamson St, Suite A). Public is welcome. Then, the public can weigh in on the amendments Monday at 4:30 at the Board of Estimates meeting. (This meeting is usually held in room 260 of the Municipal Building (Post Office Building) - 215 Martin Luther King Junior Blvd. - but I believe it will be held in GR 27 of the City County Building (Old Jail/Old Court House) - 210 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. - because the elevator is not working in the other building.)

The Mayor's promise of 30 police officers is making this year's budget difficult. So, these should be some interesting discussions. Read more!

No Room . . . Little Notice . . . Bad Government

Today is a bad example of good/open government.

Right now, I am sitting on the floor in the hallway outside of Room LL-130 in the Municipal Building. [Side note: The elevator is broken and the doors on the lower level were locked when I got here. Luckily, I walked around the building and down the steps to the meeting, however, not everyone is able to do that.] I am joined by two city staff and County Board Supervisor John Hendrick in the hallway and we are listening to presentations about the differences between the East Washington BUILD plan, the Tenney Lapham Plan, the East Rail Corridor Plan and the Yahara River Parkway plan. The room is packed with about 30 people and after about an hour, several people are waiting who haven't even been able to speak yet and I and Ald. Rummel have to leave without hearing what they came to say.

I should be leaving any minute now to go to Allied Drive to hear a presentation to the tenants of several buildings out there that may or may not be losing their housing. The notice for that meeting went out on Friday. It's almost as if the notice was given in a manner so that people wouldn't get enough notice to show up.

Something is wrong with this picture. Can't we do better? We should. Read more!

City Wages: Disturbing Trend

I guess when you ask for a study, you kind of want it to show what you thought it would. However, in this case, I think I wish I had been wrong.

Here's the average wages of men vs. women and non-minorities and minorities in the City of Madison.

2003
Men $65,403
Women $62,344

Non-minority $64,367
Minority $61,282

2004
Men $67,022
Women $62,315

Non-minority $65,231
Minority $60,849

2005
Men $67,806
Women $63,821

Non-minority $66,173
Minority $62,467

2006
Men $71,282
Women $67,104

Non-minority $69,378
Minority $67,159

Additionally, when you just look at the average and median wages of Agency Heads and how men and women compare, here's what you find:

2007 Average
Men - $110,836
Women - $95,073

2007 Median
Men - $120,267
Women - $96,541

When you combine the information about salaries with the fact that in 2003 there were
31% women in these positions and in 2006 there were 21% I find these trends more and more disturbing.
Read more!

Unbelievable: Where have our ethics gone?

Sometimes, I bumble into something that is too good not to share.

On Tuesday I introduced a resolution about the City's objection to a variance on the University Square project for the way it built it's balconies. The issue is if there should be a ramp on the inside of the apartment to get to the balcony because they want to build a lip you need to step over in the doorway to prevent rain and snow from blowing into the apartment. This could have, and likely should have, been solved in another manned, by dropping the balcony down 4 inches at which point a decking could have been placed on top of the balcony to allow the wheelchair to smoothly roll onto the balcony. Oddly enough, this same decking would also be required for the ramped version as well.

The Housing Affordability Committee had this on their agenda at our last meeting and they asked me to write the resolution. In working on writing that resolution, I found a very curious conflict of interest.

Dan Murray, the guy who reviewed the case for the State appears to be the same guy that was hired by Potter Lawson to work on the project and these plans. In the information I have, it certainly appears that he is consulting with Potter Lawson regarding this matter.

Wow. Read more!

Common Council Recap: 10/16/2007

It was short.

We approved closing the two TIDS to give money to the city and school district. We gave the cops $100,000 despite the fact that they didn't follow through on much of anything that they said they were going to do. So, we don't really know what they are going to do with that money. We referred eliminating the ordinance that automatically approved mayoral appointments after 20 days after getting a letter from Bill Clingan that he waived his rights to enforce that ordinance.

There were several other things that we did on the agenda, but no one wanted to talk about much so we passed the agenda in one sweeping motion with the exception of the two things noted above. As a result of our one motion, building inspection can now give tickets for construction noise, if you have more than 4 garbage carts the City will charge you extra, we settled with the Building Trades, approved more money for architects to design improvements for the Municipal and City-County Buildings, approved the BID plan, rejected a plat and several more things that I'm sure were really important to people throughout the City.

I didn't note the time, but we were out of there in less than an hour. Then we went to Paisan's. Well, at least some of us did. (Bruer, Clausius, Schumacher, Clear, Solomon, Kerr, Webber, Verveer, Judge, Rummel and our two friendly, tho sometimes antagonistic, tag alongs.) Read more!

You can't refuse to rent/sell to students!

The Wisconsin State Journal has an article about something that really kind of bothers me. It's an attitude about, and indeed discrimination against, students. It's something that I hear from time to time about buildings being built in the downtown. Often a developer will refer to a project and say something like "we won't be renting to students". It's often an upscale nicer building and they say that to get approval from some of the downtown neighbors.

I continuously remind people to be careful about what they are saying and remind them that students are a protected class both in the Madison General Ordinances and the Dane County Ordinance. It usually doesn't change what they say, and its very frustrating.

Here's the language from the ordinance:

(jj) Student means a person who is enrolled in a public or private high school, college, university, technical college, accredited trade school, or apprenticeship program.

and

(4) Housing . It shall be an unfair discrimination practice and unlawful and hereby prohibited for any person having the right of ownership or possession or the right of transfer, sale, rental or lease of any housing, or the agent of any such person:

(a) To refuse to transfer, sell, rent or lease, to refuse to negotiate for the sale, lease, or rental or otherwise to make unavailable, deny or withhold from any person such housing because of sex, race, religion, color, national origin or ancestry, age, handicap/disability, marital status, source of income, including receipt of rental assistance under 24 Code of Federal Regulations Subtitle B, Chapter VIII [the "Section 8" housing program], arrest record or conviction record, less than honorable discharge, physical appearance, sexual orientation, familial status, political beliefs, or the fact that such person is a student as defined herein, the fact that a person declines to disclose their Social Security Number when such disclosure is not compelled by state or federal law; or the fact that such a person is a member of a domestic partnership as defined herein; or (Am. by Ord. 13,708, 10-12-04; ORD-07-00016, 2-22-07; ORD-07-00029, 3-15-07)

and

(c) To falsely represent that a dwelling is not available for inspection, sale, or rental because of discrimination because of sex, race, religion, color, national origin or ancestry, age, handicap/disability, marital status, source of income, arrest record or conviction record, less than honorable discharge, political beliefs, physical appearance, sexual orientation, familial status, or the fact that a person is a student as defined herein; the fact that such a person is a member of a domestic partnership asdefined herein; or other tenants in such a manner as to diminish their enjoyment of the premises by adversely affecting their health, safety and welfare. A person who has received written notice from the Madison Police Department that a drug nuisance under Sec. 823.113, Wis. Stats., exists on property for which the person is responsible as owner may take action to eliminate the nuisance, including but not limited to, eviction of residents, provided such action is not a subterfuge to evade the provisions ofthis ordinance. (Am. by ORD-07-00029, 3-15-07

Read more!

Tenant Resource Center - As bad as it gets.

The Tenant Resource Center is making some big decisions on November 1st. Should we shut down services and lay off staff? If so, how much and how many?

BACKGROUND AND FACTS
I've been involved with the Tenant Resource Center since 1995. There have been ups and downs and twists and turns and challenges, but this is probably as bad as it gets. Last year we lost $55,000 from UW Student Government and that cut in funding after more than 10 years of support took effect July 1st of this year. Two weeks ago we found out that HUD would no longer be funding us as well, starting October 1st we lost $41,000 in funding. (I just got the official notice in the mail yesterday and found out by reading it on their website even tho the funding stopped two weeks ago.) Our budget at its height was $350,000 and its now around $250,000. This would be funny if it weren't so serious as this year we were also named "Best of Madison" and given the Editor's Choice Award from Madison Magazine and the Isthmus named us one of the 150 Best Things about Madison.

In the past few years, we have suffered from the same fate as many non-profit organizations as public funding stays the same or decreases and costs go up. So far, we have eliminated 4 jobs, 3 part-time and 1 full-time. We no longer have 2 part-time housing counselors, a part-time mediation program coordinator and a full-time Assistant Program Director that helped us with special projects and fundraising/grantwriting. Now, we are looking at laying off one or two more people. So much for the "economic development" and "job creation" that these programs supported.

[Note: Before you jump on that "bloated non-profit feeding-off-the-system bandwagon" just let me say that after working as Executive Director since 1995 I only make about $40,000 and have no retirement. My full-time housing counselors start at the equivalent of about $12.50 per hour or $26,000 per year. Barely enough to pay for their own apartments if they have a family. Our rent actually goes down, not up due to us helping create the Social Justice Center. We run about a lean as it gets and there really is no where left to cut. We were already subsidizing our programs through fundraising and income from seminars ($20,000/year) and sales of books.]

Here's some examples of our funding in the past few years:

CDBG Funding (Community Development Block Grant funding for mediation program.)
2004 - $10,000
2005 - $10,149
2006 - $9,651
2007 - $10,514

ESG Funding (Emergency Shelter Grant money that comes through the CDBG office from state funds and is spent for mediation at small claims court on Tuesday for evictions.)
2004 - 2005 $12,250
2005 - 2006 $12,000
2006 - 2007 $11,000
2007 - 2008 $9,200

Office of Community Services (Funds housing counseling Monday - Friday and outreach and education efforts including community presentations, press contacts and public service announcements, tabling at events and other outreach efforts)
2004 - $40,012
2005 - $40,972
2006 - $42,037
2007 - $43,550

[Note: I should disclose that I am an Alderperson and the three funding sources above come from or through the City of Madison. I do not vote on those budget and other TRC staff deal directly with City staff on these contracts. Our Board of Directors makes all decisions about these funding sources and signs the contracts.]

Dane County (Funds the Housing Help Desk and housing counseling, outreach and education and mediation outside the City of Madison as well as a housing vacancy list.)
2004 - $100,613
2005 - $100,613
2006 - $100,613
2007 - $101,623

[Note: During this time period, in addition to getting basically stagnant funding, they have added $10,400 in direct costs that they previously have paid for to our budget. So this is essentially a cut by that amount in addition to lack of cost of living increases.]

University of Wisconsin - SSFC Funding (Student Fees) (This funded housing counseling and outreach and education on the UW Campus)
2004 - 2005 $59,984
2005 - 2006 $53,202
2006 - 2007 $56,523
2007 - 2008 $0

HUD - (This funded the toll free hotline for housing counseling and follow up for those people outside Dane County. We had a toll-free number 10 years ago so this is the second time we have had to cut this service, which is absurd given the start up costs for programs like these.)
2004 - 2005 - $62,310
2005 - 2006 - $55,727
2006 - 2007 - $41,017
2007 - 2008 - $0

It's truly a death by a thousand cuts. Unfortunately, these funding decisions have nothing to do with outcomes or meeting goals, which we almost always exceed in pretty good numbers. Most of these funding decisions are made based on other budgets that are being stretched as far as they can or changes rules and priorities. And, I have to say, that there are plenty other non-profits out there in the community suffering from the same issues.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?
What this means for the Tenant Resource Center is that we are cutting services and will not be able to help the people that we serve throughout the state and here in Dane County. Our toll-free number that we ran for that last few years that helped thousands of people is shut down. We stopped answering emails and we cut the hours we are open. We used to be open Monday - Friday 9 - 6 but now until the end of the year we will be closing at 4:00 except on Wednesday where we will be open until 6.

The largest numbers of calls that we get are about evictions, repairs, return of security deposit and breaking a lease. 90% of the people we help are tenants and 10% are smaller landlords. All of these folks will be able to look at our website for information, but we won't be able to help them beyond that unless they call from a local number.

In 2006, we served the following people:

• 6,724 people called or stopped by to get assistance with housing counseling, information or referral.
• 1,480 calls came in statewide through our 800 number and received follow up assistance.
• 634 people attended our local workshops or presentations
• 106,940 people visited our website
• 1,084 people received in depth assistance from the Housing Help Desk, with an additional 6,732 people stopping by to get "quick" information
• 205 families were able to avoid eviction through assistance from our Housing Crisis Fund
• 787 people resolved their rental housing disputes through 645 mediations

We're going to try to continue to meet these needs, plus the needs of the many people who are just finding out about our services, but we do need your help!

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

• Donate on-line.
• Tell your friends, neighbors, co-workers, acquaintances to donate on-line.
• Attend our fundraiser on October 26th from 5 - 7 at the Brink Lounge at 701 E Washington Ave. (suggested donation $20 but all encouraged to attend, regardless of size of donation) and participate in the silent auction.
• Volunteer to be a housing counselor or office assistant.
  
• Consider becoming a "sustaining member" of the Tenant Resource Center.
• Donate through workplace giving campaigns through Community Shares of Wisconsin.
  

WHAT WILL WE DO?

• Write grants to replace the lost funding.
• Continue to run as lean as we can without completely exploiting our workers.
• Continue to serve as many people as we can within the limits of our funding issues.
• Set up a "sustaining membership" program.
• Continue to make money through the sales of our books and seminars and other services to fill the gaps to support the programs.
• Do our best to deal with the increase in phone calls from people with housing problems that will likely result from this additional publicity.
  
• Whatever it takes to serve the people who need our help as long as its legal and ethical.
  

Read more!

The Chamber of Commerce thinks human workers are house-elves

This is just too good not to share, the politics of Harry Potter.

This is from a friend of mine, who I think wants to remain anonymous!

I didn't know how political the Harry Potter series could get, and I'm still a little embarrassed to admit I've gotten into them. Here's the gem I just read, from the fourth book:

"There are house-elves here?" [Hermione] said, staring, horror-struck, at Nearly Headless Nick. "Here at Hogwarts?"

"Certainly," said Nearly Headless Nick, looking surprised at her reaction. "The largest number in any dwelling in Britain, I believe. Over a hundred."

"I've never seen one!" said Hermione.

"Well, they hardly ever leave the kitchen by day, do they?" said Nearly Headless Nick. "They come out at night to do a bit of cleaning . . . see to the fires and so on . . . I mean, you're not supposed to see them, are you? That's the mark of a good house-elf, isn't it, that you don't know it's there?"

Hermione stared at him.

"But they get paid?" she said. "They get holidays, don't they? And -- and sick leave, and pensions, and everything?"

Nearly Headless Nick chortled so much that his ruff slipped and his head flopped off, dangling on the inch or so of ghostly skin and muscle that still attached it to his neck.

"Sick leave and pensions?" he said, pushing his head back onto his shoulders and securing it once more with his ruff. "House-elves don't want sick leave and pensions!"

Just thought I'd share this with you. It's from page 182 of the 4th book (paperback version). I really feel like photocopying it and sending it to the Council, and writing a letter to those Muggles at the Chamber telling them off.

If you read it and substitute "low income workers/renters" or "latinos" for "house-elves" its really quite sad. Read more!

Meetings Regarding Neighborhood Developments

James Madison Park District Neighborhood Meeting
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
6:00 – 7:00 pm
First United Methodist Church Chapel
203 Wisconsin Avenue

For review of Neighborhood Advisory Statement regarding Fisher properties proposal to build a 4-story apartment building at 119, 123 & 125 Butler Street involving the demolition of 2 houses and moving of 1 of them and demolishing 3 garages and incorporating advisory comments regarding relocation of the house at 119 North Butler Street to the corner of Johnson and Blair Streets.

This meeting will be immediately followed by a steering committee meeting on the Pinkus McBride project.

No need to be a member to attend these meetings, however, joining the neighborhood association is, of course, encouraged. Read more!

2007 Budget - Sick Leave Not Implemented, And More

Wouldn't you assume that when something gets put into the budget and it gets the votes on the council, that it would get implemented. Not so.

I'm not one for press releases for many reasons, but here it is nonetheless . . . .

Konkel Raises Serious Concerns About Integrity
of City Budget Process
Review Reveals Items Funded as Part of
2007 City Budget Not Implemented

Madison – Madison Alder Brenda Konkel (2nd District), released today a list of items that the Common Council approved as part of last year’s city budget deliberations, but which were never implemented by the City. The review by Konkel came in the wake of a meeting last week by the city’s budget committee (Board of Estimates) where Mayor Cieslewicz and City Comptroller Dean Brasser as well as other City staff, in response to questions by Konkel, acknowledged several failures to implement budget directives from the approved 2007 City Budget.

“What became clear when I started looking into items we had adopted last year is that the Council’s priorities have been overlooked or flat out disregarded in several areas,” said Konkel.

The list of items approved but not implemented includes:

• $63,000 in funding to provide paid sick days to City employees who did not have this benefit, was unanimously approved by the Council on a voice vote but never implemented (2006 Operating Budget Amendment #1);
• Funding of $300,000 for the Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) 10% set-aside that was approved by the Council but never spent;
• $50,000 for neighborhood planning grants, approved on a voice vote by the Council but never distributed to neighborhood associations conducting or updating their neighborhood plans; (Operating Budget Amendment #26);
• Funding to hire a neighborhood planner (Planner 3) was approved by the Council but a planner was never hired; and
• Further study on the role of and priorities for neighborhoods as part of the reorganization of the Department of Planning and Development. The Council required that this study and a report be delivered to the Council by mid-October; no study has been conducted and no report provided. (Operating Budget Amendment #25, modified by Council resolution in March)
  

“Learning that several budget items approved by the Council as our funding priorities have not in fact been implemented raises tremendous concerns as we look ahead to the Council’s deliberations and votes next month on the 2008 budget,” said Konkel.

Konkel added, “The Common Council trusts the Mayor and City departments to fully implement the approved budget, or at least to let us know if there are problems in doing so. This list puts that trust and integrity of our budget process in jeopardy.”

In response to these failures to act and a history of funds not being spent in the capital budget, Konkel will introduce a resolution at the Tuesday, October 16th City Council meeting requiring quarterly budget updates to the Common Council and specifying that each year’s annual executive proposal shall include a report on which areas have been over or under-spent by more than 5%, along with explanations of these spending discrepancies from the approved budget.

Read more!

How much does one police officer cost?

It depends.

The first 18 officers the Mayor added to the budget would start on May 27th and would cost the city $49,500 per officer for the first year they work for the City. That cost includes salaries, benefits, overtime, supplies, uniforms and equipment. These officers would not be on the street until February 2009.

The second 12 officers that the Mayor added to the budget would start on February 25 and could cost the city $67,045 per officer for the first year. These officers would be available June 2008 because we are hiring experienced officers that will be going through an accelerated academy.

However, the costs of these same officers in 2009 will be $71,025 regardless of whether the officer is hired in February or hired in May. This cost is calculated as if the officer was hired at the first of the year, but excludes all one-time equipment purchases.

So, while we can (barely) afford these officers the first year (as long as the rest of the City sacrifices things that are needed in departments across the City), it is not clear that we will be able to sustain this budget over time. This year's budget is tight, next year and the following year will be even worse when there are additional costs for these officers and no TIF windfalls to fill the holes in our budgets. In short, this decision is short-sighted and simply not sustainable. Read more!

City Can Recycle More Plastics

The City of Madison has a new recycling program. Madison residents can now bring many previously unrecycled plastic items to the City’s two full service drop off sites for recycling. These items, called Mixed Rigid Plastics include;

Empty garbage cans
Plastic Toys
Plastic buckets
Plastic milk/soda crates
Plastic laundry baskets
Plastic lawn furniture
Plastic landscape trays
Plastic totes
Plastic drums
Plastic pet carriers
Plastic pallets
Plastic coolers
Plastic shelving
Plastic closet organizers
Plastic dish drainers
Plastic flower pots
Plastic traffic signs
5-gallon water bottles

These plastics cannot go in the green recycling carts.

The drop off locations that will accept the rigid plastic for recycling are;
East 4602 Sycamore Av.
West 1501 W. Badger Rd.

The sites are currently open seven days a week from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. They are also open on Tuesday and Thursday evenings until 8 p.m. These hours will remain in effect through Sunday December 2nd.

You will need to remove all metal axles, handles, and wires from plastic items before bringing them in for recycling. Batteries should also be removed from any plastic toys.

There are some plastic items that cannot be recycled in this program including;

PVC Pipe/Tubing
Vinyl Siding
Plastic Film (Grocery bags & Stretch film)
Styrofoam
Water Hoses
Hazardous Material
Medical Waste
Chemical and Petroleum Barrels
Pesticide and Herbicide Containers

The program is only for City of Madison residents. Complete information on program is on the Streets Division’s web site www.cityofmadison.com/streets. Residents with questions can contact the recycling office at 267-2626. Read more!

CDA & the City: Just ignore the Contract!

The CDA, or Community Development Authority, is in the news for wanting to be the developer for Allied Drive and some hiring and contracting issues. Technically, it is its own legal entity but it is also considered by many to be another arm of the City and has a contract with the City. We have a contract in place with the CDA. Sorting out the role it should play in Allied Drive prompted me to ask some questions, which in turn have raised many other questions:

1. Where is it's budget? Or at least some accounting of its expenses beyond the Housing Operations unit? (See #5 below.)

2. How much staff time is spent on CDA activities, and spent not getting City work done?

3. Why isn't the CDA charged for city staff time? (See #4 below.)

4. Shouldn't they be following City contracting rules? Including paying the living wage? (See contract language #1 and #3 below.)

5. Where is the annual workplan? (See #7 below.)

6. Why aren't we following the terms of the contract that we do have? (See language below.)

BACKGROUND

• The CDA was created by Madison General Ordinances in 1979.
  
• The CDA has independent abilities to make decisions without approval of the Common Council.
  
• The CDA is allowed to call upon any department, board, commission or agency of the City for assistance and cooperation in the performance of its duties and functions.
  
• The Director of the Department of Planning, Community and Economic Development is also the Executive Director/Secretary of the CDA (Mark Olinger).
  
• The CDA is supposed to pay the City for any staff time used to perform CDA services.
  
• The CDA is supposed to do projects for the City at their request.
  

CONTRACT LANGUAGE: Here's some excerpted language.

1. When architectural, engineering or management consultants are to be utilitzed on AUTHORITY projects, they must be recruited and selected in accordance with CITY, state and federal requirements and approved by the AUTHORITY.
   
2. The CITY reserves the right and discretion to determine funding and staffing levels of City employees to be made available to the AUTHORITY pursuant to the terms of the Agreement. Nothing contained herein shall be construed as requireing the CITY to budget funds or retain employees to provide said services.
   
3. In addition, the AUTHORITY may employ technical experts and such other officers, agents and employees, permanent and temporary, as it may require from time to time in the performance of its duties and functions within the limits of the funds available for this purpose.
   
4. The AUTHORITY agrees to reimburse the CITY for performing services and providing the space, material, supplies and equipment to carry out the activities and operations described under this agreement. The CITY shall be reimbursed for all costs of providing said services in accordance with the following:
   
• C. The AUTHORITY agrees to reimburse the City for the cost of support services provided by the CITY departments as they relate to the performance of the services rendered under this Agreement, provided that all inter-agency charges are approved by the AUTHORITY or its designees prior to reimbursement of the CITY.
  
• D. The AUTHORITY agrees to reimburse the CITY for the actual cost of construction and modernization contracts and architectural, engineering and management consultant contracts that are entered into with the approval of the AUTHORITY, provided that disbursements are approved by the AUTHORITY or its designess prior to payment by the CITY.
  
5. The City Comptroller shall prepare a periodic basis, a summary of expenditures made by the CITY on behalf of the AUTHROITY as provided in Article II Section C of this agreement. (Brenda's Note: That's the language in C above.) This reimbursement summary shall be submitted to the AUTHORITY or its designee for approval. The AUTHORITY shall reimburse the CITY on a timely basis.
   
6. The approval by the AUTHORITY or its designee of all contract disbursements as provided in Article II, Section D (Brenda's Note: That is the language in D above.) of this agreement shall constitute the necessary approval for the reimbursement of those costs.
7. The AUTHORITY and the Mayor agree to develop an Annual Work Plan prior to the preparation of the City's Executive Budget.

The contract was signed by Mayor Paul Soglin, Andre Blum (City Clerk), Terese Berceau (Chair of the CDA), George Austin (Secretary of the CDA) and Henry Gempler (City Attorney).

This is like the third time in the past two weeks where it has come up that the City/Mayor have ignored our laws and contracts. What's going on here? Read more!

More Budget Tidbits: BOE Amendments due in 2 weeks

So, night two of a the public forum to ask the staff questions. Here's some items of interest we heard last night:

Office of the Director of Planning and Community and Economic Development

• The CDA does not have a budget for the development side of things, they do, however have an extensive budget for the $14M Housing Operations side of things.
• The City does not charge the CDA for City Staff time spent on development project, but they do in Housing Operations.
• The City does not even know how many hours are spent doing CDA development work, but they do in Housing Operations.
• The Department does not have a work plan. The council used to approve the workplan for the department on an annual basis.
• Much of the work done for the CDA is charged against TIF districts.
• The CDA does have about $100,000 in cash reserves.
• Mark Olinger, who is the Director of the PCED and the CDA Executive Director, thinks that the CDA responds to the needs of the City. However, lately, the CDA is bringing proposals to the City (Allied, Villager, Truax).
• Despite the $400,000 budget, they have no "Madison Measures"
  
• More to come on this issue.
  

Planning

• They do have a work plan - an extensive one with 68 large items they are working on.
• Now someone, not necessarily the staff of this unit, are in a hurry to form the Office of Neighborhood Support and they want to short circuit the resolution the Council passed last March and change the process.
• They never hired the Planner 3 that we put in the budget last year to work on the Office of Neighborhood Support and Neighborhood Services
• There will not be the report on the Office of Neighborhood Support that we asked for last year so that we could make good decisions this year at budget time.
  
• The budget does include the 2nd year of the Zoning Code rewrite.
• The way they prioritize what neighborhoods get planning services is a combination of council resolutions, who gets neighborhood planning grants, where the CDBG neighborhood planning money goes, who gets BUILD grants and the areas designated in the comp plan that are likely to be developed on the periphery and the annexations that we do.
  

Neighborhood Preservation and Inspection

• This department "feels like they won the lottery"
• The new inspectors will help them decrease the amount of time that the do systematic inspections and increase the areas where they do systematic inspections, as opposed to complaint based inspections.
• They were not funded $15,000 for mileage reimbursement. This is not an optional payment for them. They will just overspend in that line item, regardless of what we budget.
  

Economic and Community Development

• 7 people in the real estate department have 374 projects they are working on
• The Office of Business Resources has two things they are working on for the next year. Completing the 3-5 year Economic Development Plan and a Marketing Plan for the Southeast area of Madison.
• The housing loan programs are humming along and have goals.

Housing Operations

• Their reserves have slowly decreased over the years. They are down to $170,000 in reserves but a healthy organization would have a reserves of $1M.
• Last year they made $18,000 or essentially broke even.
• While they only get $50,000 from the City, this is a $14M operation.
  

Community Development Block Grant

• For those who watched the grilling of the Office of Community Services, Hickory Hurie made a completely thorough presentation of the extensive process they go through to decide who gets money, to avoid being equally grilled. Zach Brandon had left by that point, however, there wasn't much to say after he got done. Too bad the Office of Community Services hadn't had fair warning and couldn't have had the opportunity to do the same thing.
• The "Framework" or goals for CDBG are approved by the Common Council every year. The same is true for the Office of Community Services and I handed out the resolution we passed in 2006 at the beginning of the meeting.
• All groups funded have two reports, one program and one finance, that need to be turned in before they get checks.
• There is a "B" list of programs that we need in the City that are currently unfunded.
• There was more discussion of the jobs program in Allied that the Building Trades are doing. While the goal is for 32 people to get an apprenticeship, only 1 has. Only 2 people have gotten jobs and I believe the goal is 20.

Department of Civil Rights

• It seems to me that the Department decided that the Fair Housing Council was not a good fit for them, not necessarily that there were performance problems. They were just concerned about the appearance of being neutral if they are funding testing.
  
• The problems that they do have is that reporting is hampered by privacy issues.
• The number of housing complaints has nearly doubled. There were 19 so far this year and 17 last year. In the past the number hovered around 10 or 12.
• While they claim to be able to do the "intake" that the Fair Housing Center, it is a very different service than what the Fair Housing Center does.
• There is one more town hall meeting to hear about issues in the community scheduled for November 5th.
• 200-300 people apply for AASPIRE internships and there are only 8 - 10 slots.

Madison City Channel & Public, Educational and Government (PEG) Access Funding

• They too have dipped into the "trust fund" year after year and are putting less and less money aside for big purchases of equipment in the future.

Public-Health- Madison and Dane County

• No too much comment.
  

Public Works and Transportation

• No comments
  

Fleet Service

• Brief update on the fuel contracts. Our fuel contracts are based on numbers of gallons, not a specific period of time
  

Metro Transit

• They are buying 48 - 55 new cameras in the Capital budget (or perhaps enough to equip 48 - 55 buses which would make more sense than my notes.)
  
• 1/3 of the buses will have cameras
• There was discussion about why we'd be adding more bus wraps to the pilot program before the pilot program was over. Apparently, if we put it in the budget, it would come back to the council for changes to the program.
  

Traffic Engineering

• Sorry - I was busy doing something else and not paying attention, but I don't think they discussed much.
  

Parking Utility

• The ads in the parking ramps were supposed to fund transportation demand management programs and only about half the money is going for that purpose.
• The ads in the parking ramps are not making as much money as we thought they would.
• The advertising company has actually removed some of their signs and so likely our revenues will go down.
• They have alot of credit card transactions and the fees have doubled from $100,000 to $200,000.
  

Parks

• Marla Eddy impressed us all on her knowledge of bugs. Gypsy Moths. Emerald Ash Borers and all kinds of gross stuff. Thank goodness she's on top of all of these issues.
  
• While we are adding two more park rangers, they really don't have the skills to address issues of alcohol in the park. These are college kids that are more of a public service for people who rent shelters and patrol athletic fields, boat ramps and parks with big shelters.
• They have $155,000 in payout for retirements that are not optional that are not funded in this budget.
  

Municipal Pool

• Zach wasn't there, so there were no real questions.
  

Golf Enterprise

• Trends downward in usage continue but are likely to go back up soon with the boomers retiring.
  

Streets

• Depending upon what the State does, we may have more landfill tipping fees.
  

Water Utility

• There was a brief presentation on the new management structure for the water utility. It's a little less hierarchical and more of a sectional structure.
  

Engineering

• I don't have any notes
  

Sewer Utility

• No comments
  

Stormwater Utility

• There are some plans laid out for Monona Bay. This is the largest density of storm sewers going into one area and the area where we are likely to see the most improvement.
  

Landfill, Comptroller, Common Council, Mayor

• No comments
  

Miscellaneous Appropriations

• I asked where all the communication was that we were promised from the Collaboration Council. The Mayor agreed with me that he didn't think we were getting some of what we asked for and said that an amendment to ask for a report from them about how our $18,000 was being spent would be a good idea and he'd work with anyone who wanted to make such an amendment.
• I asked if there was a way to make the Emerging Neighborhood Grants more flexible. The Mayor also said he'd work with anyone who wanted to make an amendment to make the process more flexible while remaining accountable. Two for two.
• I asked why the paid sick leave for hourly employees wasn't funded again. It seems they didn't implement the program in 2007.

Debt Service

• We're around 10 or 11% and our goal is 12%
  

General Fund Revenues

• While we're adding police, we didn't increase revenues for tickets.
  
• Cable franchise fees were likely underestimated
• There were several other questions that were answered by staff
  

Capital Revolving Fund

• Good flexible program to work when not in a TIF district
• Tomo Therapy loan was never given out, after all that.

Affordable Housing Trust Fund

• Bomb shell of the evening. Ooops, it appears we would need to change the ordinance in order to use the money for Allied Drive. Imagine that. How? They didn't have any details.
  
• Also revealed, the CDA would get a loan, not a grant from the Trust Fund. It is unclear if they will pay it back with interest. The source of the pay back of the loans is the TIF district.
• The trust fund wasn't funded by the Mayor because it's "not a priority".
• I asked where, with all the talk of policing and also doing things to help address the core issues of poverty, where was the commitment to the second piece. Mayor said he gave OCS and CDBG 2.4% COLA increases. I explained that is really a cut as 2.4% COLA doesn't cover real expenses. He shrugged it off.
  

Inclusionary Zoning Special Revenue Fund

• Major oooops. The Mayor forgot to budget for incentives for developers and money to buy back homes for the program. He promised to take a look at it.
  

City Insurance Fund & City Workers Compensation Fund

• I was out of the room.
  

While the Mayor has worked on the budget for more than 3 months and gives us very limited information it seems very unfair that for the last two evenings he was so vocally and visibly irritated when we ask questions. We've only had the budget for one week and the amendments for Board of Estimates are due in 2 weeks. Apparently, they think the 20 alders should just ask all these questions off-line on our own time. However, they forget, we have full time jobs and staff aren't really available when we are. We got into it a little bit when he inappropriately cut me off. I'm sorry, but this is the time when all the staff are there to answer our questions.

Next Steps: Board of Estimates amendments are due on the 24th at noon. They will vote on the amendments on October 29th. Public input is allowed at that meeting.
Read more!