Do police come to your neighborhood meetings?

Last night I was at an Allied Drive meeting Ald Solomon held for tenants in some properties that are being foreclosed on and the police were there. Why?

The receiver for the property, the city attorney's office, the County Board Supervisor Carousel Bayrd and housing counselors from several agencies (CAC, Neighborhood Law Project, Tenant Resource Center) were all there with the tenants of the buildings to find out and share information about if these properties were going to be subject to the chronic nuisance ordinance, when repairs were going to get made, what happens when people have leases but the receivor doesn't want to honor those leases, what's going to be done with the lack of records of past rent payments, when will people get their mailboxes fixed and locks changed/fixed, which tenants are eligible for rent control, who has to move so repairs can be made and when, etc etc etc.

This was the second meeting that Ald. Solomon held for the tenants of those buildings. While there is lots to be said about the situation and the wrong information that the landlord and city attorney told the tenants about their rights at these two meetings, I'll get to that later.

Meanwhile . . . at both of these meetings, two Madison police officers stood in the corner for the entire meeting. They weren't there to contribute to the meeting in any way, they didn't say a word at either meeting, they didn't talk to people after the meeting, they just stood in the corner.

Why? What was their purpose there? And, given all the concern about crime, was this a good use of their time?
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What's in a roll call vote?

One of the Mayor's big complaints about me . . . er, "that alder that had 44 [sic] of the 120 [sic] amendments", during this last budget is that I asked for roll call votes, "even when it was 18 - 2". Just in case it isn't obvious why, let me explain why one might do that:

• Sometimes about half the council votes audibly and its hard to know how/if they voted.
• Sometimes, it sounds like one thing on a voice vote and then when you do the roll call it turns out completely different. (At the budget meeting there was one vote where Jed leaned over and said, "wow, that turned out completely different")
• Sometimes someone votes one way when it is a voice vote and then if it is a roll call they change their vote due to . . . well, for whatever reason.
  
• Many of the votes were close (7-13, 8 - 12, 9 - 11, 10-10, 11-9, 8-12, 13-7) and if there is no roll call, the chair (Mayor) gets to decide what s/he thinks he heard.
• Accountability and having a clear record.

To me, these are good reasons to have a roll call vote.

One might wonder why I bring this up. Two reasons. First, in listening to Sly yesterday, the mayor was still whining about this, so I thought I should respond since he can't see to let it go. Second, a certain alder on the east side refuses to answer questions about why he voted on a particular item in a particular way. Without the role call vote, his flip-flopping would not have been noticed.

Additionally, at some point, it would be really nice to get the council chambers upgraded with the technology you see smaller towns and cities all over Wisconsin using that allow voting from your seat without the clerk calling the roll. That wasn't in this year's budget even though we've been talking about it for 7 (or more) years.

And, for the record, I counted one roll call vote that was 18-2, a few 16/4 and 15/5 votes, but the rest were closer. Take a look for yourself (Cap, Op 1, Op 2).
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TONIGHT: James Madison Park Neighborhood

For one of the smallest neighborhood groups in Madison as far as geography goes, there is alot going on between Blair and the Capitol on the North side of E. Washington Ave. If you live in that area, I'd encourage you to attend the meeting this evening because your input is needed on up to 4 development projects in this little area as well as what improvements people would like to see in James Madison Park. These are the developments that prompted me to write my "Tearing Down the House" post a few months ago. Should the neighborhood just be torn down? Or is there something worth saving? Meeting notice and more info on developments below:

JAMES MADISON PARK DISTRICT—MONTHLY MEETING

The regular monthly meeting of the district on the third Wednesday of each month falls, in November, on the day before Thanksgiving. It has therefore been postponed to Wednesday the 28 at 7 pm. at the First Methodist church, 203 Wisconsin Ave.

Agenda:
· Update of the Fisher development project on North Butler/North Hancock. The Urban Development Committee (UDC) has referred the project back to the neighborhood for reconsideration.
· Update on the McBride project on North Hamilton/East Johnson/North Hancock.
· A much needed Neighborhood and Conservation district Plan.
· Update on James Madison Park: houses, improvements, gardening, etc.
· Other.

Info on two of the developments can be found here:

• “Pinkus McBride" or "Block 258 Project” More information about this project can be found here and detailed plans are here.
• "Fisher" or "N. Butler/N Hamilton Project” plans can be found here.
  

If you live in the area and can't make the meeting I'd encourage you to check out the neighborhood group as well as join the neighborhood listserve: jamesmadisonneighborhood@yahoo.com. If you need help getting on the list, let me know!

Also, if you know anyone at the church, please thank them for letting us use their space, we have been challenged in finding a space to meet and really appreciate their efforts!
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Mountains out of Molehills and the Budget - Keeping Score

Yesterday, the Board of Estimates managed to make a mountain out of a molehill when they considered the resolution I submitted asking for suggestions for improvements to the budget process. And the Mayor and Alder Brandon got snarky.

Ald. Brandon led the charge to . . . I'm not sure what. It was clear Alder Brandon was upset that the Common Council Organizational Committee and not the Board of Estimates was chosen to look at the changes. There's a reason for that. The Common Council Organizational Committee (CCOC) is the committee that makes recommendations about how the Council functions, it is completely made up of alders and it is much more informal which more easily allows for mayoral and comptroller staff input. This is compared to the more formal televised Board of Estimates meetings. Also, 3 of the 7 members of CCOC are members of the Board of Estimates. Additionally, we explained that likely there would be a council president workgroup and that Ald. Verveer promised to appoint any alder who wanted to serve, regardless of who was on CCOC, since he has the ability to do that and the CCOC would likely agree.

That wasn't enough for Alder Brandon, who got all snarky, slightly belligerent and not very helpful. After a few classic indignant Brandon speeches, I had to ask what he actually wanted to have happen, because we were essentially giving him the everything that he seemed to want - the opportunity to be on the committee and changes to the language below. I gotta admit, the language was a moot point and process is one of those issues where about 5 people are probably interested in being on the committee and committing time to working on this issue, so Alder Brandon agreeing to be on the committee was just fine.

The other hilarious thing that Alder Brandon insisted on doing was removing the language in the resolution that made suggestions about the solution. I agreed and the body considered it friendly - no controversy. It was really a moot point, the suggestions were obvious and likely to be considered no matter if they were in the resolution or not, the offending language that was removed is as follows:

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that recommendations to improve the process may include, but are not limited to, the following items:
a) Holding the department briefings on the budget before the full Common Council instead of before the Board of Estimates.
b) Holding the budget amendment process over a few weeks as opposed to a few days, possibly making amendments immediately after the night a department presents its portion of the budget.
c) Moving the amendment deadline up so that the public and alders have more time to consider the amendments.
d) Creating a process for amendments that are presented at the end of the budget process.
e) Limiting budget meetings to no longer than eight hours at a time.
f) Recommendations about the set-up of the room in which the budget meetings are held.
g) Recommendations about rotating the order in which the departments present and then are considered.
h) Recommendations about the public input process and a process for making amendments following the public input process.

Turns out, Alder Brandon believed, based on what the Mayor's office told him, that I only put that language in there to make a point to the media. First of all, if that was the point, the media certainly missed it! That's likely due to the second issue which is that I did ZERO media work on this. No press release, no phone calls, nothing. But someone was obviously promoting it to the press. Channel 27/47 was waiting in the wings for the meeting to get over with so that they could interview me about it even tho the resolution was only hours old and I only mentioned it to a few people. It thought it was strange as I considered this a boring, housekeeping item. Turns out, I think the Mayor's office had called them since Twigg mentioned to me that it was going to be the lead story for 27/47. Talk about desperate for content.

Anyways, now, on to the snarky Mayor who post-trolley has found a new obsession with opposing anything I propose or even support. You might have noticed that the mayor seems to be obsessed with one alder who sponsored 44 amendments. In fact, he has mentioned it again and again and again and again and again, but I can't figure out who that is. He's apparently keeping score and according to him Alder Brandon holds the all-time record for submitting the most amendments. Also, Alder Brandon also holds the all-time record for the most withdrawn amendments. He also is upset with the, what he says was over $1M in proposals in the CDBG and Office of Community Services offices. He also rattled off numbers about how many amendments have been made in the past and several other trivial things. So, I decided to do a little number crunching myself. Now, I don't have several staff that get paid almost $1M per year, but a real quick analysis by myself of the 153 amendments (Mayor said 120?) made at the Board of Estimates and Common Council is as follows:

Total Amendments Sponsored: Operating and Capital Budget, BOE and Common Council
3 - Skidmore, Pham-Remmele
4 - Judge
5 - Gruber, Clausius
9 - Bruer, Schumacher
10 - Kerr
11 - Webber, Palm, Compton
17 - Solomon
18 - Sanborn
19 - Cnare
20 - Clear
25 - Rummel
27 - Mayor
36 - Brandon
41 - Rhodes-Conway
60 - Verveer
67 - Konkel

Lead Sponsors of Amendments: Operating and Capital, Common Council only
0 - Skidmore, Gruber, Palm, Compton, Clausius
1 - Pham-Remmele, Schumacher, Judge
2 - Webber, Rummel, Bruer
3 - Kerr
6 - Solomon
10 - Sanborn
12 - Mayor, Cnare, Clear
15 - Brandon
21 - Verveer
23 - Rhodes-Conway
28 - Konkel

I really don't know where the Mayor got his numbers, but he's had trouble with that ever since his race for Mayor. A few things stand out for me:

• For a Mayor who worked on the budget for 4 to 5 months before it was public, I can't help but noting that he still sponsored 27 amendments to his own budget, 12 of which he is the lead sponsor. That may be a record in itself.
  
• The Mayor is in the top 5 people who made changes to the budget. Followed by Brandon, Verveer, Rhodes-Conway and myself.
• Not one alder proposed 44 amendments.

Additionally, instead of crunching numbers, maybe the Mayor should consider his role in the budget process. A few things that could be done differently:

• Meet with alders before the budget comes out and talk to them about what they are expecting in the budget. This was usually done in groups of 5.
  
• When he did meet with some alders individually, he could have told them that he wanted them to bring their budget suggestions instead of just mentioning it out of the blue without giving the alders time to think about it.
• Worry less about the press and the spin, worry more about the functioning of the government.
• Follow the laws, don't make them up.
  

And, now that I've caved in to the snark as well, let me just say a few more things.

• I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Of course the Mayor is going to say that the alder that proposed 44 amendments should exercise restraint. What he fails to mention is that if he's talking about me, I supported over $7M in cuts to the Capital budget and $1M in cuts to the Operating Budget.
  
• If the budget is the most important thing that we do during the year and is a statement of our values, if people disagree about the values, there will be conflict. And along with conflict, there will be amendments.
  
• The Mayor made this budget about CRIME - also recognized as "quality of life" issues. The Mayor's resolution to these issues was a costly addition of 30 police officers that are questionably sustainable in the future and will lead to additional costs in municipal court time, city attorney time and county costs in court and jail time. Others may have felt that there were less costly preventative measures that could have been taken.
• This is not the state government and stop trying to make the City run like State government. It's hardly a model to be aspired to.
• When you bill the budget as the most important thing we do in the City, you can't expect there not to be discussion, and disagreement, about it.
  

Ok - that's it for today. I've promised a short analysis of what happened at some point and I'll try to get some links thrown in here as well, but I'm having a staffing issue at work.
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Vicki McKenna, Afraid of Debate?

So, I took a week off from blogging and there is so much to catch up on. One of the things that happened recently was a bit of a surprise to me. Everyone knows that AM radio and at least one TV station here in town and one newspaper is pretty much dominated by a more conservative/less liberal point of view. However, I always kind of thought that when you pressed them, they would at least try to appear just a little bit fair. They might disagree with "facts" and they won't provide equal time, but they at least try to put up the appearance of being fair.

That's why I was surprised when Michael Jacob called in to the Vicki McKenna show while Ald. Jed Sanborn was on the air and he was refused access. Flat out refused. At first, I thought there might be more to the story or that there was something that had happened that maybe Vicki was offended by. However, that wasn't the case. In fact, later, when I talked to Alder Sanborn who was on the air with Vicki at the time, he was equally surprised and I think disappointed by this refusal.

Turns out, Ald. Sanborn even asked Vicki why she wouldn't let Michael Jacob on the air and she said something to the effect that "Progressive Dane has their own show" for an hour on Saturday. Ok, what show? I asked around, no one has a clue what she is talking about. And even if it was true, one hour a week to balance out Vicki McKenna and Mitch Henck?

Now, I'm not really complaining at this point. I don't know who has time to listen to these shows. And worse yet, I don't know who has the patience to hear the same blather over and over and over again. I'm just surprised that when given an opportunity to debate or engage in a discussion, that they would pass and not even let someone on the air. What's Vicki afraid of?
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Economic Development Talk - Tripping Over Itself

It's been 24 years since the City of Madison has had an economic development plan for the City. This, despite the splashy announcements and press releases by the Mayor's Office about appointing Mark Bugher (now resigned) and Ald. Zach Brandon to the Economic Development Commission and trying to heighten that committee's profile. So far, I'm not impressed, at all, by what the committee has done. And, in fact, it took two years of efforts during budget time by myself and others to make this happen. The first year it failed, the second year it passed and now in November two years later we're finally getting around to creating an economic development plan. There are several ways to give input into this process:

Session #1 – Targeted toward any business, non-profit, and the general public, Wednesday, November 28, 2007, 6:00-8:00 pm, Alliant Energy Center, Exhibition Hall, Monona Room, 1919 Alliant Energy Center Way

Session #2 – Targeted toward small businesses, Thursday, November 29, 2007, 8:00-10:00 am, Overture Center, 201 State Street

Session #3 – Targeted toward medium and large businesses, Thursday, November 29, 2007, 2:00-4:00 pm, Warner Park Community Recreation Center, 1625 Northport Drive

Session #4 – Targeted toward “high tech” businesses of all sizes, Thursday, December 6, 2007, 1:30-3:30 pm, MGE Innovation Center, Conf. Room 50, 510 Charmany Dr.

You also may email comments (if you cannot testify in person) to:
Peggy Yessa, City of Madison Office of Business Resources
PO Box 2983
Madison, WI 53701-2983
pyessa@cityofmadison.com
www.businessmadison.com

What struck me as odd is after all this time and planning and efforts to make Economic and Business Development the number one issue in the City of Madison, we're still tripping over ourselves. I was going through stacks of mail this weekend and I found the flyer for the County's 2007 Dane County Business Opportunity Forum and I laughed when I noticed that it is scheduled at the same time as session #3 above. I laughed even harder when I googled it the first information I found about it was on the City of Madison website - of course, it was on the Department of Civil Rights webpage, not the Economic Development webpage. You'd think that after 5 years of tripping over ourselves to talk about economic development, we could get some basics right and not schedule our listening sessions during other similar events.
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2007 Emerging Neighborhoods Funds Left

The City of Madison is now taking applications for the remaining 2007 Emerging Neighborhoods grant funds. The purpose of this City program is to enhance the quality of life in our challenged neighborhoods where lower income people live, particularly through innovative and grassroots approaches to neighborhood-based community building. This program provides a unique opportunity for neighborhood groups and organizations to develop and propose a broad array of neighborhood-initiated improvements and organizing projects. A neighborhood group may be established just to undertake a project – the group does not need to be "incorporated."

I've copied the Proposal Guidelines below, but don't have the Application Form. A total of $25,400 is available for this second round of 2007 funding. Proposals must be received in the Mayor's Office by 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 28, 2007, in order to be considered for funding. If you have questions or need further information, please contact the City staff listed in the Proposal Guidelines at the bottom.

*****************
City of Madison Allied And Emerging Neighborhoods Funds
Proposal Guidelines 2007

I. PURPOSE

The City of Madison is seeking proposals from neighborhood groups, non-profit agencies and other community-based organizations to fund programs which will enhance the quality of life in challenged neighborhoods in the City of Madison where lower income people live.

II. PROGRAM GOAL AND OBJECTIVES

Goal: To enhance the quality of life in the challenged and other emerging neighborhoods.

Program Objectives:

• Promote innovative and grassroots approaches to neighborhood based community building.
• Improve neighborhood communication, particularly with non-English speaking residents.
• Promote community organizing and development of advocacy groups and neighborhood associations that are inclusive and incorporate all voices of their community.
• Promote economic development and creation of neighborhood-based jobs and business opportunities.
• Improve the access and delivery of human service programs at the neighborhood level.
  

III. ELIGIBILITY

Non-profit organizations and agencies which have obtained tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the IRS tax code and/or have incorporated under Chapter 181, Wisconsin Statutes, are eligible to apply for this program.

Unincorporated neighborhood resident groups are also encouraged to apply for this program. Prior to receiving funding, these groups (at the City’s discretion) may be required to secure a fiscal agent to disburse the grant monies received.

IV. FUNDS AVAILABILITY

Funds will be administered by the Mayor’s Office under the direction of the Neighborhood/Community Liaison. Funding requests will be reviewed by the Mayor’s Office in conjunction with representatives from Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), Community Services, Planning Unit, a neighborhood representative and the Common Council President or designee. Funding recommendations will be submitted to the Mayor and Common Council for approval.

A total of $25,400 is available for the remaining of 2007. Grant amounts may range from $2500 to $10,000.

Funding proposals may be for one year only or multi-year, if applicable, to correspond to funding timelines of the United Way of Dane County, Madison Community Foundation, City of Madison Community Development Block Grant Program and Community Resources Program, Dane County Human Services or other funding sources.

Funding can be used for childcare, tuition assistance, housing, neighborhood revitilization, early childhood education and other programs to enhance the quality of life in the City’s emerging neighborhoods, which includes:

• Costs for staff hours
• Operating costs such as office supplies, telephone, postage, printing, training, rent, transportation, insurance and bookkeeping/audit fees
• Fees and scholarships
• Program supplies and equipment
• Capital costs necessary to operate a program may be approved if integral to the program and funding is unavailable from other sources
• Other budget requests may be considered but will be at the discretion of the City of Madison review team.
  

V. REVIEW PROCESS AND CRITERIA FOR SELECTION

A review team comprised of representatives from the Mayor’s Office, CDBG, Community Services, a neighborhood representative, and the Common Council President, or designee will evaluate proposals based on the following criteria:

• Extent to which the proposed program will build relationships, networks and alliances across the neighborhood and across issues.
• Extent to which the proposed program demonstrates an innovative approach to address a neighborhood need.
• Extent to which the proposed program documents the grassroots involvement of neighborhood residents, particularly their skills, knowledge and experience, to address a neighborhood issue or concern.
• Extent to which the proposed program strengthens existing services or builds on a neighborhood asset.
• Extent to which the proposed program demonstrates long-term sustainability through matching funds, volunteer support or other resources.
  

VI. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS

All grant recipients will be required to submit periodic service and financial reports for the term of the Agreement. Report deadlines and specific reporting agreements will be established in the agreement with the City.

VII. SUBMITTAL OF APPLICATION

Submit your original proposal and six copies, either through the mail to the City of Madison, Mayor’s Office, 210 Martin Luther King, Jr., Blvd., Room 403, Madison, WI 53703, or hand deliver to the Mayor’s Office, Room, 403, City County Building, 210 Martin Luther King, Jr., Blvd.

Proposals must be received no later than 4:30 p.m. onWednesday, November 28, 2007.

VIII. TIMELINE

Proposals due in Mayor’s Office 4:30 p.m., November 28, 2007
Proposed review November 30, 2007
Common Council December 4, 2007
Contracts prepared and programs initiated Week of December 10, 2007*
(Note, funds may be carried over into 2008 if needed to accomplish the initiative)

*Tentative dates subject to change

IX. TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND CONTACT PEOPLE

Questions and requests for technical assistance or questions concerning the program guidelines or application form may be directed to either of the following people:

Enis Ragland, Office of Community Services at 266-6520 or eragland@cityofmadison.com or
Lorri Wendorf, Office of Community Services at 261-9121, Ext. 260 or lwendorf@cityofmadison.com
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Day Three: Operating Budget Part II (Updated - Final?)

Pure lunacy. 11 hours later, as of 5:30 this morning, we have a budget. No votes were: Cnare, Konkel, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Skidmore, Brandon. Here's what I started to blog last night. . . you'll have to check back later for more details that I'll try to update after my meeting this morning. I stopped blogging at some point out of frustration with the slow connection.

But first . . . . if the budget is supposed to be a statement of our values (beware the snark), this is what I would say our values are based on our votes in the Capital Budget:

• It's ok to possibly kill someone with a taser, but not with a semi-automatic military style "rifle"
• Structural deficits are a big concerns of the council.
• It's ok to move forward with remodeling a building based on a department reorganization that is half-baked.
• We don't have the guts to hold the County responsible for the costs of their county highways.
• Baseball is important.
• CDA should have a budget for their redevelopment activities.
• Slush funds are bad.
• The Mayor has to follow the Affordable Housing Trust Fund rules that the council passed.
• Habitat for Humanity is good.
  

The operating budget votes might lead you to believe our values were as follows (still snarky, too tired to be anything but . . . ):

• Yes, really, our budget should be sustainable.
• Sister cities are of value.
• Yes, when we said to do paid sick leave for City hourly employees we really meant it.
• Yes, really, our budget should be sustainable ($1.5M). Oh, wait, maybe not. (but not $2.4M)
  
• If some independent group wants to advise us on the Room Tax, maybe we should actually get the report.
• Police should get whatever they want.
• While we say the budget is about balance between police and social services, police get whatever they want and social services are iffy. Apparently $54M for police is balanced by $5M of services.
  
• Holding the police accountable or asking for information from them is called micromanagement.
• Did I mention, we should just give the police whatever they want.
• Give the Health Department whatever the County wants to give the Health Department.
• We don't need any additional staff for the City Council, part-time hourly staff for $16,000
  
• The Mayor's office staff deserve 22% raises ($20,000) in 5 years. The Mayor should be able to pay what he thinks is necessary.
• The clerk's office should just work harder cuz we have a tight budget.
• Lakes should be clean only if we can find another way to pay for it.
• Screw the homeless.
• A public pool should be run by the public.
• Pilots projects don't need to be done before you arbitrarily make new decisions without getting the results of the pilot project.
• Bus wraps pose no safety issues.
• We don't need to do neighborhood planning.
• Decisions about the Office of Neighborhood Support need to be made three times before anything hopefully happens.
• "Jobs with a Future" are in our future.
• CDA should have a budget and follow their contract.
• Try, try, try again on the reorganization of the Department of Planning and Community and Economic Development.
• No funding to promote IZ.
  
• Screw the homeless, again.
• The SW side doesn't get a neighborhood center.
• We can spend $7,500 for the year round homeless overflow shelter.
• Worthington Park kids should be given transportation to programs outside of their neighborhood.
• Youth employment programs are not a priority.
• Youth programs on the SW side are good.
• Weed and Seed is good
• Children can wait on a waiting list for assistance for quality child care.
• Child care centers should be helped to serve low income kids.
• Teaching Latino childcare providers is a good thing - despite some racist comments by at least one alder.
• Project HUGS is finally gone from our budget.
• West Senior Coalition can have their COLA.
• Girl Nieghborhood Power is good at Bridge/Lakepoint and Vera Court, but not Atwood.
• Emergency Housing vouchers for victims of domestic violence are good.
• Rape Crisis Center training to the police department is worth $10,000
• Cultural programs for 150 youth are not worthy/worth $20,404 (Canopy Dance, Millenium Soccer, Simpson St. Free Press Museum programs, Tap It, MLK Achievement awards and Vera Court funding.)
• Planning Councils are good.
• Libraries are good.
• MAP is good.
• Screw the homeless, again.
  

Here's my comments from last night:

I'm not sure if this will get live blogged tonight or not, the connection is not very fast and we're having some technical issues, so I'll see how long I can deal with this technology. It's was two minutes before when we are supposed to start and we don't have quorum, a Mayor, a clerk, and about 9 alders. We started around 7:10. There were several announcements. Mics are live all night unless we turn them off so there may be a few treats for those out there in TV land, and there were several other announcements which I have already forgotten as things are all discombobulated . . . the staff doesn't have microphones, Ald. Solomon is over in Siberia, we had some glitches with the internet connections, if we need to go to the restroom we need to go upstairs to use the bathrooms and the list of what is less than ideal goes on.

As we got started, the Mayor announced that former Alder King was in the room, to which some applauded. Then he announced that Alder King had left him a list of issues to work on . . . first he was met with groans, and I believe I was the only one who applauded. The Mayor said that Delora Newton from the Chamber of Commerce turned another shade of white.

Then, when the jokes were over, we got on to the budget around 7:15.

And by now I have gotten several comments from viewers about it not being streamed, the video being bad and not having sound . . . some of which may or may not be getting better depending upon who you hear from . . .

Here's the votes I noted and what I can remember at this point.

Amendment No. 4
Agency/Service: Miscellaneous Appropriations / Sick Leave for Hourly Employees
Page(s): 11
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel, Verveer, Rhodes-Conway, Gruber

Add $63,000 to provide funding for paid sick leave for hourly City employees.

Sick Leave for Hourly Employees $ 63,000
Total $ 63,000 Levy Impact: $ 63,000

The Mayor said he didn't put it in the budget because it was something better bargained. He did not explain why it was not implemented. This passed 19 - 1 with only Compton voting against. The Mayor asked us to refrain from calling roll call when it was obvious what the vote would be. Did you think that outcome was obvious?

Amendment No. 5
Agency/Service: General Fund Revenues / TIF Reimbursements
Workers Compensation Fund
Page(s): 14, 22
Sponsor(s): Alds. Brandon, Sanborn

Reduce TIF Reimbursements in General Fund Revenues by $1,500,000 and apply that amount to the Workers Compensation Fund Balance. This amendment will reduce the projected Workers Compensation Fund Balance deficit.

Workers Comp Fund Revenues (Incr.) $ (1,500,000)
Workers Comp Fund Balance (Incr.) 1 ,500,000
TIF Revenues - Reduction 1 ,500,000
Total $ 1,500,000 Levy Impact: $ 1,500,000

No one expected this motion to pass, but it did. AYE Cnare, Compton, Konkel, Palm, Rummel, Sanborn, Schumacher, Skidmore, Solomon, Brandon, Clausius. NO Clear, Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Pham-Remmele, Rhodes-Conway, Verveer, Webber, Bruer.

With this amendment passing we have $21,000 to spend before we go over the levy limit. For every dollar over the levy limit, we lose a dollar of state aid. Also, with the amendment we are $301,000 away from going over the Expenditure Restraint Program limit and if we go over that limit, we lose about $5M in state aids.

This amendment will be the subject of two motions to reconsider later in the evening. The first one was soon after the police were nearly done, that motion failed. AYE Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Konkel, Bruer, Rummel, Solomon, Verveer, Webber NO Clear, Cnare, Compton, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Rhodes-Conway, Clausius, Brandon, Skidmore, Sanborn, Schumacher

The second motion to reconsider will come at the end of the meeting.

Amendment No. 6
Agency/Service: General Fund Revenues / TIF Reimbursements
Page(s): 14
Sponsor(s): Alds. Brandon, Sanborn

Reduce TIF Reimbursements in General Fund Revenues by $2,400,000. This is a companion amendment to Capital Amendment No. 5.

TIF Revenues - Reduction $ 2,400,000
Total $ 2,400,000 Levy Impact: $ 2,400,000

Place on file.

Amendment No. 7
Agency/Service: Room Tax Fund / Uses / Other; Room Tax Fund / Fund Balance
General Fund Revenues / Other Local Taxes / Room Tax
Page(s): 16, 13
Sponsor(s): Alds. Webber, Konkel

Increase the amount of Room Tax transferred to the General Fund by $100,000 (from $600,000 to $700,000) specifically for the Downtown Public Safety Initiative. (Note: In 2007, the Room Tax transfer was increased from $500,000 to $600,000 to fund the Downtown Public Safety Initiative. In the 2008 Executive Budget, the transfer was maintained at $600,000, but it was not specified for any particular purpose.)

Room Tax Fund Expenditures $ 1 00,000
Room Tax Fund Balance (100,000)
General Fund Revenues (Incr.) (100,000)
Total $ (100,000) Levy Impact: $ (100,000)

Placed on file.

Amendment No. 8
Agency/Service: Room Tax Fund
Page(s): 17
Sponsor(s): Alds. Bruer, Brandon, Schumacher, and Mayor Cieslewicz

Add the following footnote: "During 2008 the Mayor will appoint a Room Tax Oversight Committee to establish policies and priorities for the future use of Room Tax revenues and to assure the future health of the Room Tax Fund balance."

$ -
Total $ - Levy Impact: $ -

There was some confusion and this amendment was placed on the table.

Amendment No. 9
Agency/Service: Police / Field Operations
Page(s): 28
Sponsor(s): Alds. Rummel, Konkel

Delete funding for six new police officers to begin training in May 2008. This would eliminate staffing of one full time beat.

Permanent Salaries $ (149,040)
Overtime Pay (9,000)
Fringe Benefits (73,560)
Purchased Services (5,100)
Supplies (51,390)
Inter-Departmental Charges (8,910)
Total $ (297,000) Levy Impact: $ (297,000)

This was placed on the table til the end of the meeting. We had to vote to table and it passed 16 - 4. NO Compton, Pham-Remmele, Skidmore, Brandon YES Clear, Cnare, Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Konkel, Palm, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Sanborn, Schumacher, Solomon, Verveer, Clausius, Bruer, Webber

Amendment No. 10
Agency/Service: Police / Field Operations
Page(s): 28
Sponsor(s): Alds. Kerr, Solomon, Judge, Rummel, Konkel

Delete funding for 12 new police officers and revise Highlight No. 1 to read: Add a total of 18 new police officers with as many as practical to start in the accelerated training academy as quickly as possible. An additional 12 officers may be considered upon completion of the police staffing study currently underway and a long-term fiscal analysis beginning in budget year 2010 by the Comptroller.

Permanent Salaries $ (298,080)
Overtime Pay (18,000)
Fringe Benefits (147,120)
Purchased Services (10,200)
Supplies (102,780)
Inter-Departmental Charges (17,820)
Total $ (594,000) Levy Impact: $ (594,000)

Chief spoke until 8:00, questions lasted until 8:50 and then the "debate" started. We took a break around 10:05 after voting against the amendment. AYE Judge, Kerr, Konkel, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Solomon, Webber NO Clear, Cnare, Compton, Gruber, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Schumacher, Skidmore, Verveer, Brandon, Bruer, Clausius. I'll have to do more on this later.

At this point, we reconsidered amendment number 8 regarding the committee to study the room tax. The motion to reconsider passed. The amendment was amended to include a report by June 1, 2008 to the Board of Estimates, Economic Development Commission, the Mayor and the Council. That motion passed unanimously.

Next Alder Solomon moved reconsideration of the amendment that put us within $21,000 of the levy limit. That motion failed. AYE Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Konkel, Bruer, Rummel, Solomon, Verveer, Webber. NO Clear, Cnare, Compton, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Rhodes-Conway, Clausius, Brandon, Skidmore, Sanborn, Schumacher.

Amendment No. 11
Agency/Service: Police / Field Operations
Page(s): 28
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel, Rummel

Add to Highlight No. 1: At least five more neighborhood officers shall be added to neighborhoods that need them. The Police shall present to the Common Council by February 1, 2008 a plan for how to evaluate the neighborhoods that have neighborhood officers added to them and a plan for how neighborhood officers are withdrawn from neighborhoods that no longer need the officers.

$ -
Total $ - Levy Impact: $ -

This was amended to remove the first sentence to address the micromanaging issue. That was friendly. The police chief said they had that report that we were asking for and that he could give it to us, but . . . they still voted it down. Those voting for a community discussion about neighborhood officers were AYE Judge, Kerr, Konkel, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Sanborn and Webber. NO Clear, Compton, Gruber, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Schumacher, Skidmore, Solomon, Brandon, Bruer and Clausius.

Amendment No. 12
Agency/Service: Police / Field Operations
Page(s): 28
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel, Rummel

Add to Highlight No. 1: The Police shall present to the Common Council by February 1, 2008 a plan for how Community Policing Teams will seek input from stakeholders and incorporate that feedback into their workplan and activities.

$ -
Total $ - Levy Impact: $ -

This one went a little better, there was a friendly amendment to have the report due April 1 and to have a plan "by police district". AYE Cnare, Gruber, Judge, Konkel, Palm, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Sanborn, Skidmore, Solomon, Verveer, Webber, Bruer NO Clear, Compton, Pham-Remmele, Schumacher, Brandon, Clausius. (I think I missed someone there)

Amendment No. 13
Agency/Service: Police / Field Operations
Page(s): 28; Highlight No. 6
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel, Rummel

Delete funding for four fully-equipped marked squad cars. Revise Highlight No. 6 to add: The Police shall include in their staffing study a recommendation for reduction in the use of police vehicles to reduce mileage including putting two officers in one car, the use of bicycles, horses and foot patrol as well as staffing patterns that can reduce miles driven.

Fleet Service Inter-Dept'l Charges $ (184,000)
Total $ (184,000) Levy Impact: $ (184,000)

We're even arguing about tabling things at this point. On the motion to table AYE Cnare, Gruber, Konkel, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Verveer, Solomon, Webber, Judge NO Clear, Compton, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Schumacher, Skidmore, Brandon, Bruer, Clausius, Kerr.

On the main motion. AYE Konkel, Rummel, Solomon, Webber. NO Clear, Cnare, Compton, Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Sandborn, Schumacher, Skidmore, Verveer, Brandon, Bruer, Clausius, Rhodes-Conway.

Amendment No. 14
Agency/Service: Police / Field Operations
Page(s): 28
Sponsor(s): Ald. Rhodes-Conway, Konkel

Police accountability language.

$ -
Total $ - Levy Impact: $ -

There was a substitute that we didn't have the language so it was placed on the table. When we got back to it, the big debate over making the police report to us seemed to be about if they should have to tell us about the complaints that the police department gets. Chief Wray, of course, doesn't want us to have the information. So Brandon made a motion to remove the language that required them to do this. That passed AYE Clear, Cnare, Compton, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Schumacher, Skidmore, Brandon, Bruer, Clausius, Judge. NO Gruber, Kerr, Konkel, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Solomon, Verveer, Webber, Palm. Then it passed on a voice vote. Sorry I don't have the language on this one at the moment

Amendment No. 15
Agency/Service: Police / Field Operations
Page(s): 28
Sponsor(s): Alds. Kerr, Solomon, Clear

Revise the first sentence of Highlight No. 8 to read: By July 1 of 2008 and every subsequent year, the department shall prepare an annual report for the Mayor and members of the Common Council that includes, but is not limited to, the following summaries reported by police sector:

$ -
Total $ - Levy Impact: $ -

Also placed on the table pending language on 14. Later it passed on a voice vote.

Amendment No. 16
Agency/Service: Public Health / Health Promotion
Page(s): 34
Sponsor(s): Alds. Cnare, Schumacher

Add funding to restore the half-time Fit City Coordinator position. (Note: This position was deleted as part of Board of Estimates amendment #9.)

Permanent Salaries $ 2 1,366
Fringe Benefits 7 ,863
Payments from Dane County (Incr.) (16,143)
Total $ 13,086 Levy Impact: $ 13,086

There was a substitute that ended up with a bottom line of (368). I believe we essentially said that we agreed with the county's funding recommendations. Will get the language later. It passed on a voice vote.

Amendment No. 17
Agency/Service: Public Health / Animal Services
Page(s): 33

Sponsor(s): Alds. Cnare, Palm
Replace two half-time hourly / LTE "Humane Agent - Officer" positions with one full-time "Humane / Animal Control Officer" position.

Permanent Salaries $ 40,460
Fringe Benefits 1 8,363
Hourly Employee Pay (Savings) (24,648)
Payments from Dane County (Incr.) (18,875)
Total $ 15,300 Levy Impact: $ 15,300

Passed on a voice vote.

Amendment No. 18
Agency/Service: Common Council
Page(s): 39
Sponsor(s): Alds. Verveer, Konkel, Webber, Rhodes-Conway, Bruer, Compton, Clausius, Schumacher

Add funding for an Hourly position to assist Alderpersons. Funding cannot be expended until the Common Council approves the creation of a new hourly position in the Council Office. This position will start no earlier than April 1, 2008.

Hourly Wages and Benefits $ 16,000
Total $ 16,000 Levy Impact: $ 16,000

This was placed on file unanimously so we could "share the pain."

Amendment No. 19
Agency/Service: Mayor
Page(s): 41
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel, Rummel

Reduce funding for the proposed reclassification of two Mayoral Assistants such that the positions will remain at the Mayoral Assistant 1 level.

Permanent Salaries $ (18,000)
Fringe Benefits (6,552)
Total $ (24,552) Levy Impact: $ (24,552)

The Mayor's office was not asked to "share the pain" even though in 5 years some positions got a 22% raise, the salaries went from $580,000 to nearly $1M in 5 years. And yet, we couldn't cut the budget. Failed 4 - 16. AYE Konkel, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Sanborn. NO Clear, Cnare, Compton, Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Webber, Verveer, Brandon, Clausius, Bruer, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Schumacher, Skidmore, Solomon

Amendment No. 20
Agency/Service: Clerks' Office / Clerk
Page(s): 62
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel, Verveer

Add funding of $61,556 for restoration of the Clerk's Office Coordinator position, to work on lobbying, special projects with tracking sunset dates and reports, election official training, bus drivers that help with elections, and legistar oversight

Various $ 6 1,556
Total $ 61,556 Levy Impact: $ 61,556

The clerk's office gets to "share the pain". The Mayor broke the tie. Currently the clerks office has 4 fewer staff people than they had 10 years ago. AYE: Clear, Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Konkel, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Solomon, Verveer, Webber NO: Cnare, Compton, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Schumacher, Skidmore, Brandon, Bruer and Clausius.

Amendment No. 21
Agency/Service: Engineering / Storm Water Management
Page(s): 91
Sponsor(s): Alds. Solomon, Rhodes-Conway

Provide funding to initiate a planning process to pull together stakeholders and community members to establish clear and achievable goals and an implementation plan for cleaning the lakes. This effort would work in tandem with County initiatives totaling $135,000 this year.

Purchased Services $ 25,000
Total $ 25,000 Levy Impact: $ 25,000

We voted to pay for this from the Stormwater Utility. That passed on a voice vote with Ald. Sanborn voting no.

Amendment No. 22
Agency/Service: Parks / General Parklands
CDBG - Provider to be Determined
Page(s): 103 (Highlight No. 3), 153
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel, Rummel, Solomon

Remove funding for the hiring of two additional hourly Park Rangers. Provide funding in the CDBG budget to add two homeless outreach workers to deal with homelessness issues, including addressing issues surrounding car campers and issues relating to homelessness in the parks. An RFP process will be used to determine a provider.

CDBG: Purchased Services $ 70,000
Parks: Hourly Wages (13,514)
Benefits (1,486)
Total $ 55,000 Levy Impact: $ 55,000

The homeless get to "share the pain". Failed 7 - 13. AYE Gruber, Judge, Konkel, Rummel, Solomon, Verveer, Webber NO Clear, Cnare, Compton, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Rhodes-Conway, Sanborn, Schumacher, Skidmore, Brandon, Bruer, Clausius.

At this point we took number 9 back off the table, which was cutting the 6 cops. We had to do this to let the cops go home since it was 1:30. Apparently, they are more important than all the rest of the staff that stayed there late into the evening. The vote to take it off the table was as follows: AYE Clear, Compton, Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Schumacher, Skidmore, Solomon, Verveer, Brandon, Bruer, Clausius, Cnare NO Konkel, Palm, Rhodes-Conway, Webber, Rummel

This motion to cut 6 police officers then failed 13 - 7. Those voting for the cuts were Judge, Kerr, Konkel, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Solomon, Webber

Amendment No. 23
Agency/Service: Municipal Pool / Pool Operations
Page(s): 109
Sponsor(s): Alds. Sanborn, Compton

Add narrative requiring a Request for Proposal for complete operation of the pool.

$ -
Total $ - Levy Impact: $ -

Privatizing the public pool failed 3 - 16. AYE Compton, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn NO Clear, Cnare, Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Konkel, Palm, Rhodes-Conway, Schumacher, Skidmore, Solomon, Verveer, Webber, Bruer, Brandon and Clausius. I think Rummel was out of the room.

Amendment No. 24
Agency/Service: Metro Transit / Fixed Route
Page(s): 120
Sponsor(s): Alds. Verveer, Konkel

Eliminate $50,000 in advertising revenues derived from the anticipated addition of more full-wrap advertising and maintain the current bus full-wrap advertising pilot program at 15 buses as authorized by the Council.

Revenues (Decrease) $ 50,000
Total $ 50,000 Levy Impact: $ 50,000

Bus wraps - you'd think it would be a public safety issue to see into the bus and a rider issue to be able to see out. Additionally, we're in the middle of a pilot project that isn't done, but we added more wrapped buses anyways. AYE (to not add more wraps) Gruber, Judge, Konkel, Webber, Verveer, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Skidmore NO Clear, Cnare, Compton, Kerr, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Schumacher, Solomon, Brandon, Bruer, Clausius

Amendment No. 25
Agency/Service: Planning Division / Physical and Special Projects Planning
Page(s): 136
Sponsor(s): Alds. Cnare, Compton, Schumacher

Remove funding for the Neighborhood Wellness Indicators project.

Purchased Services $ (40,000)
Total $ (40,000) Levy Impact: $ (40,000)

We didn't even get to make this "tough choice" as the motion was withdrawn/placed on file.

Amendment No. 26
Agency/Service: Planning Division / Physical and Special Projects Planning
Page(s): 136
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel, Rummel

Provide $30,000 in Neighborhood Planning Grants for a James Madison Park District Neighborhood plan.

Grants $ 3 0,000
Total $ 30,000 Levy Impact: $ 30,000

The staff recommended that I ask for $60,000. Said it was necessary and if it was done it would save staff time and lead to more predictability for the developers. You know, its customer friendly, so it failed. AYE Cnare, Gruber, Judge, Konkel, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Solomon, Verveer, Webber NO Compton, Kerr (very reluctantly), Palm, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Schumacher, Skidmore, Brandon, Bruer, Clausius, Clear

Amendment No. 27
Agency/Service: Planning Division
Page(s): 136
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel, Rummel

Replace Budget Highlight #4 with the following language that mirrored the resolution we passed last March regarding the Office of Neighborhood Support to include a community process.

$ -
Total $ - Levy Impact: $ -

This was tabled while we got copies. Later, it passed on a voice vote with Julia and perhaps . . . Schumacher . . . voting against.

Amendment No. 28
Agency/Service: Economic and Community Development Division / Ofc. Of Business Resources
Page(s): 145
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel, Solomon

Provide funding for the "Jobs with a Future" program.

Purchased Services $ 5 ,000
Total $ 5,000 Levy Impact: $ 5,000

This passed. AYE Clear, Cnare, Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Konkel, Rummel, Solomon, Verveer, Webber, Bruer NO Palm, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Schumacher, Skidmore, Brandon, Clausius Rhodes-Conway had to abstain. And it sounded like Schumacher should have as well . . .

Amendment No. 29
Agency/Service: Economic and Community Development Division
Page(s): 145
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel, Rhodes-Conway

Add a Budget Highlight as follows:
"By February 1, 2008, the CDA will report to the Council on its annual work plan for 2008. Absent such a plan, the Comptroller's Office will initiate billings to the CDA for all City personnel charges to the CDA for 2007 and for the remainder of 2008."

$ -
Total $ - Levy Impact: $ -

Passed unanimously on a voice vote.

Amendment No. 30
Agency/Service: Economic and Community Development Division
Page(s): 145
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel, Rhodes-Conway

Add a Budget Highlight as follows:
"By April 15, 2008, in conjunction with the Comptroller's Office, staff will present to the Council an operating budget template for CDA Redevelopment Activities."

$ -
Total $ - Levy Impact: $ -

Passed unanimously with a voice vote.

Amendment No. 31
Agency/Service: Economic and Community Development Division
Page(s): 145
Sponsor(s): Mayor Cieslewicz; Alds. Bruer, Brandon, Konkel, Clear, Kerr, Clausius, Verveer, Compton, Gruber, Sanborn, Schumacher, Judge, Skidmore, Solomon, Cnare, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Weber, Rummel

Effective April 1, 2008, reorganize the Economic and Community Development (ECD) Division by creating two new agencies entitled the "Community Development Division" (CDD) and the "Economic Development Division" (EDD). Allocated from ECD to CDD will be the Office of Community Services, CDBG and Senior Center. The remaining services from ECD relating to Real Estate, the CDA, the Office of Business Resources and TIF will be allocated to the EDD. Each Division will be led by Directors who will report directly to the Mayor and to the Director of Planning and Community and Economic Development. Pending classification determinations by Human Resources, each Director position will be budgeted at a classification and pay range of 21-17. (This will result in a budget savings for the ECD Director position, which is currently budgeted at a pay range of 21-19.)

Current Director Sal. Svngs $ (109,547)
Current Dir.Fringe Svngs. (40,313)
New ECD Director Salary 6 7,500
New ECD Director Benefits 2 4,840
New CDD Director Salary 6 7,500
New CDD Director Fringe 2 4,840
Total $ 34,820 Levy Impact: $ 34,820

Passed unanimously on a voice vote, but not without comment. Rhodes-Conway appropriately was incensed by the illegal meeting of the Mayor, Brandon, Bruer, Clear, that led to this amendment being created.

Amendment No. 32
Agency/Service: CDBG
Page(s): 153
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel, Rummel, Verveer

Provide $20,000 for an educational and training program targeted to potential buyers of Inclusionary Zoning (IZ) units and others involved in their marketing, such as referral groups, employers, brokers, lenders, attorneys, and developers. The specific activities would be undertaken with the advice of the IZ Subcommittee on Marketing.

Purchased Services $ 20,000
Total $ 20,000 Levy Impact: $ 20,000

Failed on a voice vote.

Amendment No. 33
Agency/Service: CDBG
Page(s): 153 - New Program: Eviction Prevention (Provider to be Determined)
Sponsor(s): Alds. Solomon, Konkel, Kerr, Verveer

Provide $50,000 for eviction prevention or entry funds (provider to be determined via a Request for Proposals).

Purchased Services $ 50,000
Total $ 50,000 Levy Impact: $ 50,000

The homeless got to feel some more pain, hand delivered by the Mayor. This one was a 10-10 tie with the Mayor voting no. AYE Clear, Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Konkel, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Solomon, Verveer, Webber NO Compton, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Schumacher, Skidmore, Brandon, Bruer, Clausius, Cnare

Amendment No. 34
Agency/Service: CDBG
Page(s): 153 - New Program: Southwest Neighborhood Center Plan (Provider to be Determined)
Sponsor(s): Alds. Pham-Remmele, Compton, Gruber, Konkel, Rummel, Skidmore, Verveer; Mayor Cieslewicz

Provide $20,000 for a feasibility study for a neighborhood center to serve the greater Meadow Wood area. Based on indicators of neighborhood change and suggestions arising from the South West Neighborhood Planning process, the CDBG Commission would select an organization to develop this study of possible locations and feasibility.

Purchased Services $ 20,000
Total $ 20,000 Levy Impact: $ 20,000

Amendment No. 35
Agency/Service: CDBG
Page(s): 153 - New Program: Southwest Neighborhood Center Plan (Provider to be Determined)
Sponsor(s): Alds. Pham-Remmele, Compton, Gruber, Konkel, Rummel, Skidmore, Verveer; Mayor Cieslewicz

Provide $25,000 to initiate a neighborhood center in the greater Meadow Wood area to serve children, seniors, and families. It is expected that the center will operate initially on a facility use model, working with other community groups to increase the level of programming in this area. Funds would be directed toward set-up, staffing, and space costs.

Purchased Services $ 2 5,000
Total $ 25,000 Levy Impact: $ 25,000

34 & 35 were voted on together. The Mayor offered to pay for this out of the Emerging Neighborhoods funds. The motion was then to place on file. AYE Brandon, Clausius, Clear, Cnare, Judge, Kerr, Palm, Sanborn, Schumacher, Solomon, Webber. NO Bruer, Compton, Gruber, Konkel, Pham-Remmele, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Skidmore, Verveer

At this point the most obnoxious suggestion of the night was made by the Mayor. He suggested that we place all the rest of the 21 amendments on file. Compton made the motion to do it, I missed who seconded it. The motion failed.

Amendment No. 36
Agency/Service: CDBG
Page(s): 158 - Program #33 - Salvation Army
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel, Solomon, Kerr, Verveer

Provide an additional $7,500 for a year-round overflow homeless shelter.

Purchased Services $ 7,500
Total $ 7,500 Levy Impact: $ 7,500.

This one was the one amendment for the homeless that passed 13-7. AYE Solomon, Verveer, Webber, Bruer, Clear, Cnare, Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Konkel, Palm, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel NO Compton, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Schumacher, Skidmore, Brandon, Clausius.

Amendment No. 37
Agency/Service: Office of Community Services / Community Resources
Page(s): 161
Sponsor(s): Alds. Sanborn, Brandon

Remove funding of $65,000 to the Office of Community Services for the following Youth Programs:
1) $60,000 to Youth Services of Southern Wisconsin for Youth Employment programs; and
2) $5,000 to the Atwood Community Center for transportation of youth of the Worthington Park Neighborhood to attend Atwood Community Center events. (Note: This funding was included in the budget via Board of Estimates amendment #33.)

Purchased Services $ (65,000)
Total $ (65,000) Levy Impact: $ (65,000)

I divided the question. The $5,000 for Worthington Park passed 12 - 8. AYE Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Konkel, Palm, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Schumacher, Solomon, Verveer, Webber, Bruer. NO Clear, Cnare, Compton, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Skidmore, Brandon, Clausius.

The funding for the Youth Services of Southern Wisconsin Youth Employment Programs was cut. AYE Clear, Cnare, Compton, Konkel, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Rummel, Sanborn, Schumacher, Skidmore, Solomon, Brandon, Bruer, Clausius, Rhodes-Conway. NO Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Verveer, Webber

Amendment No. 38
Agency/Service: Office of Community Services / Community Resources
Page(s): 161
Sponsor(s): Alds. Sanborn, Brandon

Remove funding of $65,000 to the Office of Community Services for after-school and summer programs administered by the Wisconsin Youth and Family Center, as follows:
1) $15,000 for elementary after school program;
2) $10,000 for an elementary summer program;
3) $20,000 for middle and high school after school programming; and
4) $20,000 for middle and high school summer programming.
(Note: This funding was included in the budget via Board of Estimates amendment #34.)

Purchased Services $ (65,000)
Total $ (65,000) Levy Impact: $ (65,000)

These cuts failed with the following AYES Clear, Compton, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Schumacher, Skidmore NO Cnare, Gruber, Judge, Palm, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Solomon, Verveer, Webber, Bruer, Kerr, Konkel

Amendment No. 39
Agency/Service: Office of Community Services / Community Resources
Page(s): 161
Sponsor(s): Alds. Cnare, Solomon, Verveer

Provide funding for the 4th quarter of 2008 for the Weed and Seed coordinator and related programs in anticipation of the expiration of grant funds effective September 30, 2008.

Permanent Salaries $ 1 1,450
Fringe Benefits 4 ,214
Telephone 2 00
Room Rental 3 00
Purchased Services (Program Funding) 1 2,300
Total $ 28,464 Levy Impact: $ 28,464

This motion passed, AYE Clear, Cnare, Gruber, Kerr, Konkel, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Schumacher, Solomon, Verveer, Webber, Bruer, Clausius, Judge NO Compton, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Skidmore, Brandon

Amendment No. 40
Agency/Service: Office of Community Services / Child Care
Page(s): 161
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel , Rummel, Verveer

Provide an additional $42,500 for child care assistance to serve an additional 10 children on the waiting list.

Purchased Services $ 4 2,500
Total $ 42,500 Levy Impact: $ 42,500

This failed 6 - 14. AYE Gruber, Judge, Konkel, Rummel, Verveer, Webber NO Clear, Cnare, Compton, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Rhodes-Conway, Sanborn, Schumacher, Skidmore, Solomon, Brandon, Bruer, Clausius, Kerr

Amendment No. 41
Agency/Service: Office of Community Services / Child Care
Office of Community Services / Community Resources
Page(s): 161
Sponsor(s): Alds. Sanborn and Brandon

Remove funding of $20,000 for child care assistance to help accredited child care programs that serve low income children and $26,985 to the Office of Community Services for a contract with Community Coordinated Child Care (4C) for a Latino Child Care program. (Note: This funding was included in the budget via Board of Estimates amendment #s 30 and 32.)

Purchased Services $ (46,985)
Total $ (46,985) Levy Impact: $ (46,985)

We divided the question on this one, voting on the $20,000 for stabilization funds to help daycares rent to low-income kids whose families have trouble paying. AYE Clear, Cnare, Compton, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Skidmore, Brandon, Clausius NO Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Konkel, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Schumacher, Solomon, Verveer, Webber, Bruer

Then we voted on the 4Cs funding. Alder Pham-Remmele was not at her finest on this motion, she was speaking to it out of order and was making what some might call racist remarks. She probably helped it pass. AYE Compton, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Schumacher, Skidmore, Brandon, Clausius NO Clear, Cnare, Compton, Gruber, Kerr, Konkel, Palm, Rummel, Solomon, Verveer, Webber, Bruer.

Amendment No. 42
Agency/Service: Office of Community Services / Community Resources
Page(s): 166, Program #24 - Project HUGS
Sponsor(s): Alds. Cnare, Palm, Brandon

Remove funding for this program.

Purchased Services $ (5,873)
Total $ (5,873) Levy Impact: $ (5,873)

Passed on a voice vote, Alder Compton voting no.

Amendment No. 43
Agency/Service: Office of Community Services / Community Resources
Page(s): 168, Program #40 - West Madison Senior Coalition
Sponsor(s): Alds. Cnare, Palm, Brandon

Reduce funding by $5,239 (from $223,544 to $218,305).

Purchased Services $ (5,239)
Total $ (5,239) Levy Impact: $ (5,239)

Was placed on file.

Amendment No. 44
Agency/Service: Office of Community Services / Community Resources
Page(s): 168, Program #42 - Atwood Community Center
169, Program #46 - Bridge/Lakepoint/Waunona Neighborhood Center
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel, Rummel, Verveer

Provide $4,000 to the Atwood Community Center for a middle school boys program and $18,000 in additional funding for Neighborhood Centers for Girl Neighborhood Power programs, as follows:
$6,000 for Atwood Community Center
$12,000 for Bridge/Lakepoint/Waunona Neighborhood Center
Note that the funding for the Girl Neighborhood programs is a one-time allocation conditioned upon an Office of Community Services staff review of the proposed programming and administration in order to facilitate quality after school activities for middle school girls at these sites. A written report shall be submitted to the Community Services Commission by July 31, 2008.

Purchased Services $ 2 2,000
Total $ 22,000 Levy Impact: $ 22,000

The motion was only made for the $12,000 for Bridge/Lakepoint/Waunona Girl Neighborhood Power. Passed 15 - 5. AYE Clear, Cnare, Compton, Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Konkel, Pham-Remmele, Rhodes-Conway, Schumacher, Solomon, Verveer, Webber, Bruer, Clausius. NO Palm, Rummel, Sanborn, Skidmore, Brandon.

Amendment No. 45
Agency/Service: Office of Community Services / Community Resources
Page(s): 170, Program #58 - Vera Court Neighborhood Center
Sponsor(s): Alds. Schumacher, Cnare, Verveer

On October 31, 2007, due to funding losses, the YWCA notified Vera Court Community Center of their cancellation of the Girls Neighborhood Power contract in the amount of $27,955 as of January 1, 2008.

The City recognizes that programming for girls at the Vera Court Community Center has been and shall continue to be an important resource for girls on the Northside of Madison.

Therefore, the City shall provide a one-time $12,000 additional allocation to Vera Court Community Center for 2008 with the condition that staff from the Office of Community Services reviews the proposed programming and administration to facilitate quality after school activities for middle school girls at this site. A written report shall be submitted to the Community Services Commission by July 31, 2008.

Purchased Services $ 1 2,000
Total $ 12,000 Levy Impact: $ 12,000

Passes 15 - 4. AYE Clear, Cnare, Compton, Gruber, Judge, Konkel, Pham-Remmele, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Schumacher, Solomon, Verveer, Webber, Bruer, Clausius

Amendment No. 46
Agency/Service: Office of Community Services / Community Resources
Page(s): 171, Program #64 - Domestic Abuse Intervention Services
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel, Solomon, Verveer

Provide $29,000 for homeless emergency vouchers for victims of domestic violence.

Purchased Services $ 2 9,000
Total $ 29,000 Levy Impact: $ 29,000

Passed on a voice vote.

Amendment No. 47
Agency/Service: Office of Community Services / Community Resources
Page(s): 171, Program #66 - Rape Crisis Center
Sponsor(s): Alds. Judge, Verveer

Provide additional funding to the Rape Crisis Center for compensation for the training of new police officers in Sexual Assault counseling tactics, along with the continued knowledge provided to the force already in service. Funds would also be used to maintain or improve current levels of education, sexual violence prevention advocacy, and emergency counseling services for college-aged students in the City of Madison.

Purchased Services $ 5 0,000
Total $ 50,000 Levy Impact: $ 50,000

The amount of this request was changed to $10,000. It passed around 4:00. AYE Gruber, Judge, Konkel, Palm, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Schumacher, Solomon, Verveer, Webber, Bruer. Cnare, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Skidmore, Brandon, Clausius ABSTAIN Clear

Amendment No. 48
Agency/Service: Office of Community Services / Community Resources
Page(s): 171, Program #63 - Youth Integration into Recreation and Cultural Activities
Sponsor(s): Alds. Cnare, Palm, Brandon

Remove funding for this program.

Purchased Services $ (20,404)
Total $ (20,404) Levy Impact: $ (20,404)

This was funding for Canopy Dance, Millenium Soccer, Simpson St. Free Press, Tap It, Urban League and Vera Court. Failed 15 - 5. AYE Gruber, Judge, Konkel, Verveer, Webber NO Clear, Cnare, Compton, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Rummel, Rhodes-Conway, Sanborn, Schumacher, Skidmore, Brandon, Bruer, Clausius.

We took the three neighborhood planning councils together.

Amendment No. 49
Agency/Service: Office of Community Services / Community Resources
Page(s): 173, Program #85 - East Isthmus Neighborhood Planning Council
Sponsor(s): Alds. Cnare, Palm, Brandon, Compton

Remove funding for this program

Purchased Services $ (42,807)
Total $ (42,807) Levy Impact: $ (42,807)

Amendment No. 52
Agency/Service: Office of Community Services / Community Resources
Page(s): 174, Program #88 - Northside Planning Council
Sponsor(s): Alds. Cnare, Palm, Brandon, Compton

Remove funding for this program.

Purchased Services $ (61,332)
Total $ (61,332) Levy Impact: $ (61,332)

Amendment No. 53
Agency/Service: Office of Community Services / Community Resources
Page(s): 174, Program #89 - South Metro Planning Council
Sponsor(s): Alds. Cnare, Palm, Brandon, Compton

Remove funding for this program.

Purchased Services $ (55,292)
Total $ (55,292) Levy Impact: $ (55,292)

These made me really nervous, but they passed 11 - 9. Voting to cut AYE Clear, Cnare, Compson, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Skidmore, Brandon, Palm, Webber NO Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Konkel, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Schumacher, Solomon, Verveer, Bruer, Claussius

Amendment No. 50
Agency/Service: Office of Community Services / Community Resources
Page(s): 173, Program #80 - T.J. Support Brokerage Firm (Madison Apprenticeship Program)
Sponsor(s): Alds. Solomon, Konkel, Cnare, Verveer

Provide additional funding to the Madison Apprenticeship Program.

Purchased Services $ 2 5,000
Total $ 25,000 Levy Impact: $ 25,000

After all that powerful testimony and the fact that they actually get drug dealers off the streets, it passed but it only got 11 votes. AYE Cnare, Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Konkel, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Solomon, Verveer, Webber, Bruer NO Clear, Compton, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Skidmore, Schumacher, Brandon, Claussius

Amendment No. 51
Agency/Service: Office of Community Services / Community Resources
Page(s): 173, Program #78 - Porchlight, Inc.
Sponsor(s): Alds. Solomon, Gruber, Konkel, Kerr, Verveer

Provide an additional $40,000 for transportation assistance for low-income, Metro-dependent adults to search for or maintain income security.

Purchased Services $ 4 0,000
Total $ 40,000 Levy Impact: $ 40,000

The Homeless got another dose "sharing the pain". Even thought this got changed from $40,000 to $10,000 it failed 8 - 12. AYE Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Konkel, Rummel, Solomon, Verveer, Webber NO Clear, Cnare, Compton, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Rhodes-Conway, Sanborn, Solomon, Skidmore, Brandon, Bruer, Clausius

Amendment No. 54
Agency/Service: Library / Neighborhood Libraries Services / South Madison Branch
Page(s): 177
Sponsor(s): Alds. Kerr, Konkel, Rummel, Solomon

Increase hours at the South Madison Branch Library from 45.5 to 58 per week to enable more access to high demand Internet PCs and spread out the use at this crowded and busy branch library. The new hours would be 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Saturday.

Permanent Salaries $ 6 2,110
Hourly Employee Pay 1 1,343
Fringe Benefits 2 4,150
Total $ 97,603 Levy Impact: $ 97,603

This was modified to remove the last line to let the library staff determine the hours later. It passed 15 - 5 even though it put us way over our library limit. AYE Clear, Cnare, Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Konkel, Palm, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Schumacher, Solomon, Verveer, WEbber, Bruer, Clausius. NO Compton, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Skidmore, Brandon.

Amendment No. 55
Agency/Service: Library / Neighborhood Libraries Services / Hawthorne Branch
Page(s): 177
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel, Rummel

Increase hours at the Hawthorne Branch Library from 47 to 58 per week to enable more Internet use, as well as more available time for small group meetings and individual research and study. The new hours would be 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Saturday.

Permanent Salaries $ 6 5,636
Hourly Employee Pay 2 5,675
Fringe Benefits 2 7,081
Total $ 118,392 Levy Impact: $ 118,392
Net Total Levy Impact $ 3,138,737

This was modified to remove the last line to let the library staff determine the hours later. It passed with a little different vote with Schumacher flipping. 14 - 6 even though it put us way over our library limit. AYE Clear, Cnare, Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Konkel, Palm, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Solomon, Verveer, WEbber, Bruer, Clausius. NO Compton, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Skidmore, Brandon, Schumacher.

There were a few other votes that night. We tried twice to recess the meeting instead of pulling an all nighter, but because the Mayor wanted to go deer hunting, we made our decisions in the dark of the night without sunshine and very little sleep. There were many times when alders Compton and Pham-Remmele had to stop in the middle of the vote to find out what we were voting on and sometimes the Mayor and the Attorney couldn't even tell us or agree.

The first motion to recess was around 1 or 1:30 by Rhodes-Conway. We would have adjourned until 9am on Saturday. Compton and Bruer said they couldn't be there. AYE Cnare, Kerr, Konkel, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Solomon, Webber NO Clear, Compton, Gruber, Judge, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Schumacher, SKidmore, Verveer, Brandon, Bruer, Claussius.

The second motion to recess was around 3:30 by Judge (who had a mid-term the next day) and he wanted to recess to our council meeting on Tuesday since we have a light agenda. That failed 17 - 3. Solomon and I believe the Mayor would not have been there. AYE Kerr, Konkel, Palm, Rhodes-Conway, Webber. NO Clear, Cnare, Compton, Gruber, Judge, Pham-Remmele, Rummel, Sanborn, Schumacher, Skidmore, Solomon

The final issue of the evening we had to deal with was the fact that we were over the levy limit. We had to reconsider taking the $1.5M TIF money that we applied to the Worker's Compensation Fund. That tied 10-10 with the mayor breaking the tie. Those who didn't want to do that were as follows: NO Clear, Cnare, Compton, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Solomon, Skidmore, Brandon, Clausius AYE Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Konkel, Rummel, Solomon, Verveer, Webber, Bruer.

Some people wanted to go back through all the amendments and make more cuts to get us under the levy. I asked the Comptroller to fill them in that we can't run this right down to the dollar because there are numbers that we don't get until into the year and they can still change, so we could be off by as much as $200,000 so we needed to cut about a half a million dollars yet. Cnare and Compton wanted to keep going at 5 am. After alot of discussion, they voted to end the debate. Those who wanted to end the debate were: AYE Clear, Cnare, Compton, Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Pham-Remmele, Rhodes-Conway, Skidmore, Verveer, Webber, Brandon, Bruer NO Konkel, Palm, Rummel, Sanborn, Schumacher, Solomon, Clausius. .

Then, we finally got to the vote to change the $1.5M to $1M. There was more discussion, but we voted. I didn't vote and was ready to keep going because Alder Brandon kept saying that he had 1.5M of cuts but he wouldn't tell us what they were. And I knew that I had over $1M of cuts in the amendments that I passed. I passed when I got to the vote to see how people voted, Clausius was out of the room and the Mayor held the vote for him to get back, after waiting quite a while, I voted AYE simply because the outcome of the vote would have been the same either way. The motion would have resulted in a 10-10 tie with Clausius in the room and me voting no and the Mayor would have voted yes, so I voted AYE to end the waiting. The vote was AYE Compton, Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Solomon, Verveer, Webber, Bruer, Konkel NO Clear, Cnare, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Schumacher, Skidmore and Brandon.

The final vote on the budget was only 13 - 7. AYE Clear, Compton, Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Solomon, Schumacher, Verveer, Webber, Bruer, Clausius. NO Cnare, Konkel, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Skidmore, Bruer

My favorite comment of the night . . . when I asked some of the comptroller staff how much money we wasted on staff costs over the last few nights . . . they replied "all of it".

That's all I got. I hope my memory and my notes are ok. If you spot any mistakes, feel free to let me know. brendakonkel@yaho.com or at any of my other email addresses you might have. More comments to follow after a little more sleep.

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Blog-o-mania: Budget and more.

In addition to the budget updates (Capital budget notes and start of the Operating Budget) there are quite a few announcements that are worth noting including:

Large item, leaf and brush pick up.
Input needed on Economic Development.
Winter Parking Rules.
Computer Round Up.

Tonight is our third night of budget deliberations. We have 52 amendments to go through. We only got through a total of 20 amendments before we quit at 1:15 last night. While we finished the capital budget and actually decreased the spending from the Mayor's budget, we only got through 3 amendments to the Operating Budget. We'd need to cover 8 amendments per hour to get done by 1:00 tonight. Which means we will likely be scheduling an additional meeting at some point or pulling and all-nighter.

The Mayor's proposed budgets are here.
The amendments are here (capital and operating).

We'll be at the Monona Terrace tonight.
I'll try live blogging again tonight, but I can't make any promises. The more my colleagues talk, the easier it is, but if we get on a roll, I might not be able to keep up.

Read more!

Large Item and Brush Pick Up

The fall schedule for what is being picked up when can sometimes be a mystery, hopefully this information from the Streets Superintendent helps!

Currently we have 65-70 employees assigned to leaf collection, not counting our sweepers, in an attempt to get all the leaves collected prior to heavy snow. We are working 10 hours per day and may work a Saturday or two as well. Remember that an inch or so of snow will not stop us from collecting leaves.

As a result, other services must suffer.

Brush collection is temporarily suspended or at best, a crew or two only is assigned. Brush is a scheduled collection for 7 months a year, from April through October. These same people then are assigned to leaf collection during this time of the year. We will assign crews back to brush collection as soon as the majority of leaves are collected. Our goal is to complete an additional round of brush before the first of the year.

Large Items is also slowed because of having to assign employees who normally are scheduled for large item collection and place them on leaf collection. We normally collect large items on the same day or the day after the normal collection. This process is now slowed. Our goal during this time is to complete one collection cycle every two weeks. If constituents ask, please ask them to be patient. A couple of things they can do to help is hold their large items until leaf collection is over, which should be by mid December or they can bring them into the drop off sites themselves at either Badger Rd. or Sycamore.

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Your Input Needed! Economic Development

Economic Development Listening Sessions have been scheduled to get your input! We need your help deciding the following:

• What role should the City of Madison play in promoting economic development over the next 3-5 years?
• Based on your experiences, are there programs, policies and projects that should be added, modified, or removed from the City’s economic development toolbox?
• What positive business experiences have you had while working with communities elsewhere that we could/should consider for the City of Madison?
  

There are several sessions planned:

• Session #1 – Targeted toward any business, non-profit, and thegeneral public, Wednesday, November 28, 2007, 6:00-8:00 pm,Alliant Energy Center, Exhibition Hall, Monona Room, 1919 AlliantEnergy Center Way
• Session #2 – Targeted toward small businesses, Thursday,November 29, 2007, 8:00-10:00 am, Overture Center, 201 StateStreet
• Session #3 – Targeted toward medium and large businesses,Thursday, November 29, 2007, 2:00-4:00 pm, Warner Park Community Recreation Center, 1625 Northport Drive
• Session #4 – Targeted toward “high tech” businesses of allsizes, Thursday, December 6, 2007, 1:30-3:30 pm, MGE Innovation Center, Conf. Room 50, 510 Charmany Dr.
  

If you need an interpreter, translator, materials in alternate formats or other accommodations to access this workshop, please call 267-8721 at least three business days prior to the meeting.

Although each session will have a different focus, please do not feel that one or the other is “right or wrong” for your business or non-profit. If you cannot attend the session that is targeted toward your business or non-profit please attend the session that is most convenient for your schedule. All questions concerning the workshops can be forwarded to Ms. Peggy Yessa with the City of Madison at 267-8721.

As an alternative to participating at a session you can email your thoughts regarding the questions noted above to obr@cityofmadison.com
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Winter Parking Rules

Winter Parking Rules went into effect just a few hours ago. Make sure to read this and save yourself some money.

Madison's winter parking rules will go into effect at 1 a.m. on Thursday November 15th.

If you live outside the Downtown/Isthmus Snow Emergency Zone you should park your car on the odd house numbered side of the street tomorrow evening.

When there is no snow emergency in effect so the parking restrictions do not apply in the Downtown/Isthmus Snow Emergency Zone.

For complete details visit our web page www.cityofmadison.com/streets

And, it is useful to sign up for the listserve that alerts you via email when a snow emergency is in effect.
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Computer Round Up on Saturday

Now is the time to get rid of your old computers cluttering up your house.

The semi-annual electronics drop-off will be held this Saturday, from 9 am to 1 pm at the City of Madison transfer station, 121 E. Olin Avenue, between the Alliant Energy Center and the Goodman Pool.

This event is limited to home electronics ONLY. No computers from businesses.There is a $5 fee for computer monitors and laptops and a $25 fee for televisions. There is no charge for other computer or electronics parts or components.This event is open to all -- people do not need to be a resident of the City of Madison to participate.

A webpage for the drop off is at http://www.cityofmadison.com/streets/computerRoundup.cfm. In addition, the Dane County recycling web pages list other places that take electronics year-round. Go to www.countyofdane.com and click on the recycling symbol.
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Operating Budget: Part I

Ok - I might as well keep going at this point. It's 12:45 a.m. and we're not moving very fast so I think I can keep up.

Amendment No. 1
Agency/Service: General Budget Policy
Page(s): ii (new)
Sponsor(s): Alds. Brandon, Sanborn, Cnare, Palm, Schumacher

Add the following narrative:
General Budget Policy:
To avoid the creation of future structural budget deficits, the City of Madison will not use one-time revenue sources to fund on-going operating expenses.

$ -
Total $ - Levy Impact: $ -

There were several questions about what the language really meant and what impact it would actually have in the future but it passed unanimously on a voice vote.

Amendment No. 2
Agency/Service: Miscellaneous Appropriations / Sister City Program
Page(s): 11
Sponsor(s): Alds. Cnare, Palm, Brandon, Compton

Eliminate funding for the Sister City Program

Sister City Program $ (10,000)
Total $ (10,000) Levy Impact: $ (10,000)

Here we go again . . . . . . .
And it fails . . . again . . . .
AYE Cnare, Compton, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Skidmore, Brandon
NO Clear, Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Konkel, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Schumacher, Solomon, Verveer, Webber, Bruer, Clausius

Amendment No. 3
Agency/Service: Miscellaneous Appropriations / Emerging Neighborhoods
Page(s): 11
Sponsor(s): Alds. Cnare, Brandon

Reduce Emerging Neighborhoods by $100,000 to restore to the 2007 level of $100,000.

Emerging Neighborhoods $ (100,000)
Total $ (100,000) Levy Impact: $ (100,000)

The Council is grilling the Mayor about this fund and its clear that there are various levels of understanding and misunderstanding. I'm not even sure if the Mayor understands his own program, but we're muddling through and even though it is now after 1:00, seems like we're getting a second wind. I think we're just practicing for tomorrow night cuz we're going to have the same arguments. AYE Cnare, Compton, Kerr, Palm, Sanborn, Schumacher, Skidmore, Brandon, Bruer, Clausius. NO Clear, Gruber, Judge, Konkel, Pham-Remmele, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Solomon, Verveer, Webber.

Looks like we are ending now (1:15). We'll pick up with amendment number 4 in the Operating Budget. We only got through 20 amendments. We have 52 amendments left. That would be 8 amendments per hour if we wanted to be done by 1:00. Could be an all nighter. Or we're going to have to set another date to meet.


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Capital Budget Votes

So we started on the Capital Budget at 7:00 with everyone in attendance once Judy Compton got there just a smidge late. The Mayor kicked off the meeting by pointing out the "memo" from Attorney May with a lovely little cartoon with a man with an attorney (with a halo) standing on one of his shoulders telling the man to "Run it by legal" and the man on his other shoulder (with horns) that say "Run it by accounting." If only the rest of the meeting is only half as entertaining.

As this meeting goes on, I will post the votes if I have them. Once we are discussing the item, the item will be bolded.

Amendment No. 1
Agency/Project: Fire / Project #9 - FEMA Grant
Page(s): 13
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel, Rummel

Add language specifying that the Fire Department shall not spend any of these funds until the grant is received.

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

The motion passed on a voice vote after a friendly amendment to change the work "received" to "awarded".

Amendment No. 2
Agency/Project: Police / Project #1 - Taser Deployment Plan
Page(s): 17
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel, Solomon

Remove funding for tasers, including the estimated funding amount of $35,000 in both 2009 and 2010.

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

This motion failed 4 - 16. While the officers have enough tasers (103) for an average shift (approx 75) and there remained some skepticism about the use of tasers on a national basis the council and only 2/3 of the officers are trained to use them, still the council voted to give the police more tasers even tho they don't need them on a daily basis. The roll call was as follows: AYE Konkel, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Webber NO Clear, Cnare, Compton, Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Verveer, Solomon, Skidmore, Schumacher, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Brandon, Bruer and Clausius.

Amendment No. 3
Agency/Project: Police / Project #3 - Rifle Acquisition Project
Page(s): 17
Sponsor(s): Alds. Brandon, Rhodes-Conway, Solomon

Remove funding for the rifle acquisition program, including the estimated funding amounts in 2009 and 2010 ($25,000 G.O. and $25,000 grant funding in each year).

General Obligation Debt $ (20,000)
Other Funding (20,000)
Total $ (40,000) Levy Impact: $ (2,590)

Some remained consistent in the arguments to trust the police and they need the tools to do their jobs as with the tasers. Others, pointed out that we've used a rifle once that they fired the weapon. We don't need our average officers to have these military style automatic rifles since we have a sniper/swat team on staff of the MPD for the extreme circumstances. Lots of questions, some debate. Alder Webber called the question, I was the only who hadn't spoke but I didn't object. The motion passed 11 - 9. AYE Judge, Kerr, Konkel, Palm, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Solomon, Verveer, Webber, Brandon, Bruer. NO Clear, Compton, Gruber, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Schumacher, Skidmore, Clausius, Cnare. Cnare originally passed and voted at the end.

Amendment No. 4
Agency/Project: Information Technology / Project #5 - Enterprise Financial System
Information Technology / Project #11 - Enterprise Permit and Licensing System
Page(s): 36, 37
Sponsor(s): Alds. Brandon, Sandborn

Remove General Obligation funding for projects Nos. 5 and 11 and replace with other funding. The source of this other funding is a transfer in from TIF cash due to TID closures. This is a companion amendment to Operating Amendment No. 6.

General Obligation Debt $ (2,400,000)
Other Funding: TIF Closure 2,400,000
Total $ - Levy Impact: $ (310,811)

Alder Brandon kicked off the debate by explaining to us all, as if we didn't notice, that we're going to have a hole in our budget in future years because the Mayor used the $3.9M TIF windfall in the operating budget. Some refer to this as the "sustainable" issue, others call it the "structural deficit" issue, but many of us are concerned. This amendment would take the funding in the operating budget to use one time money for one time costs. Mayor spoke to the council, he claims that this is all "overblown". Roll call vote was called and the motion failed 9 - 11: AYE Compton, Konkel, Rham-Remmele, Sanborn, Clausius, Solomon, Schumacher, Skidmore, Brandon. NO Clear, Cnare, Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Verveer, Webber, Bruer, Palm.

Amendment No. 5
Agency/Project: Facilities Management / Project #3 - Development Services Center
Page(s): 46
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel, Rummel

Move $1,440,000 of funding from the 2008 Capital Budget to the 2009 Capital Improvement Program. This funding is being moved to allow for consideration of potential reorganization of Planning and Community and Economic Development staff. The remaining $160,000 will be used in 2008 for planning and design.

General Obligation Debt $ (1,440,000)
Other Funding -
Total $ (1,440,000) Levy Impact: $ (186,487)

The argument here is that this is the funding for the "one stop shop", but it is also funding to remodel offices for much of the Department of Planning and Community and Economic Development and given what we just went through with the Economic and Community Development Unit hire, I felt it prudent to proceed with caution. I attempted to get some numbers on how to let the "one stop shop" move forward, but they couldn't give me the numbers of how that could be done. I was unsuccessful in convincing the council. It failed 18 - 2. AYE Konkel, Rummel NO Clear, Cnare, Compton, Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Rhodes-Conway, Sanborn, Schumacher, Skimore, Solomon, Verveer, Webber, Brandon, Bruer, Claussius.

Amendment No. 6
Agency/Project: 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)
Page(s): 62, 67, 68, and 69
Sponsor(s): Alds. Webber, Rummel, Konkel, Gruber

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 -
Total $ (1,050,000) Levy Impact: $ (135,980)

The main issue here is: Shouldn't the County pay for a COUNTY road? The counter-argument is that the City of Madison benefits from from this road because people are coming to Madison to work and shop. It's now two hours into the meeting, and we're only on our 6th amendment. We have 11 more to go in the Capital Budget and 55 in the Operating Budget. There are lots of concerns here about our land use plans, our transportation plans and the sustainability of this project. AYE Gruber, Konkel, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Webber NO Clear, Cnare, Compton, Judge, Kerr, Palm, Rham-Remmele, Sanborn, Schumacher, Skidmore, Solomon, Verveer, Brandon, Bruer, Clausius.

Amendment No. 7
Agency/Project: Engineering - Major Streets / Project #42 - Monroe St. / Regent St. Intersection
Page(s): 73
Sponsor(s): Alds. Solomon, Kerr

Move funding for the Monroe Street / Regent Street project from 2008 to 2009.

General Obligation Debt $ (1,010,420)
Other Funding (69,580)
Total $ (1,080,000) Levy Impact: $ (130,854)

This was tabled until after after Amendment 14. This passed unanimously.

Amendment No. 8
Agency/Project: Parks / Project #14 - Warner Park Stadium
Page(s): 102
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel, Rummel

Delete General Obligation Debt funding for a loan of $1,200,000 to the Madison Mallards.

General Obligation Debt $ (1,200,000)
Other Funding -
Total $ (1,200,000) Levy Impact: $ (155,405)

There was a big long amendment that allowed us to borrow the money, but requires a long list of things to happen first. Sorry, I don't have the language. AYE Clear, Cnare, Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Pham-Remmele, Rhodes-Conway, Sanborn, Schumacher, Skidmore, Solomon, Verveer, Bruer, Compton, Clausius. NO Konkel, Palm, Rummel, Webber, Brandon.

UPDATE: Here's the amendment

Parks/Project #4 - Warner Park Stadium

The General Obligation Debt funding for a loan of $1,200,000 to the Madison Mallards shall be contingent upon completion of a public input process to review potential stadium renovation issues such as traffic, event scheduling, noise, naming rights and economic impacts on surrounding businesses.

As specified in resolution 07-00853, enacted by the Common Council on September 4, 2007, proceeding with the construction phase of this project is also contingent upon the outcome of the preliminary design and feasibility phase, and is subject to Council review and approval of a revised lease agreement and public works resolution.

Amendment No. 9
Agency/Project: Parks / Project (New) - James Madison Park
Page(s): 103
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel, Rummel, Verveer

Delete language making funding of $200,000 contingent upon land sales (see Board of Estimates 10-29-07 Amendment #4) and convert to General Obligation Debt.

General Obligation Debt $ 200,000
Other Funding (200,000)
Total $ - Levy Impact: $ 25,901

There were a few amendments here. I made the motion so that the neighborhood would no longer be held hostage by the land sales. Alder Brandon moved to allow the language but take out all of the money. That motion failed. AYE Compton, Gruber, Palm, Sanborn, Schumacher, Skidmore, Brandon, Clausius. NO Clear, Cnare, Konkel, Pham-Remmele, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Solomon, Verveer, Webber, Bruer, Kerr, Judge. (There was some confusion, Judge changed his vote from aye to no.) Then we went back to the original motion which passed on a voice vote with Compton audibly voting no.

Amendment No. 10
Agency/Project: Planning and Community and Economic Development
Page(s): 125
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel, Rhodes-Conway

Add the following note to the Capital Improvement Program page:
"Note: PCED project numbers 2, 3, 4, 23, 24, 25 and 26 (as well as the Reverse Mortgage Program, project number 1 in the Miscellaneous agency budget) will be considered for inclusion in the 2009 operating budget as separate, special revenue fund statements.

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

This was mostly technical. Passed on a voice vote.

Amendment No. 11
Agency/Project: Planning and Community and Economic Development
Page(s): 125
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel, Rhodes-Conway

Add the following note to the Capital Improvement Program page: "Note: For the various PCED capital projects, the following PCED budget units are primarily responsible for project oversight:
CDBG - Projects 1, 2, 3 (also with ECD), 22, 23, 27, 36, 37, 38, and 39
ECD - Projects 3 (also with CDBG), 4, 5, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 21, 25, 26 28, 31, 32 and 35
Office of the Director of PCED - Projects 6, 29 and 34
Planning Division - Projects 24 and 30
Senior Center - Project 33"

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

There was some discussion and this item was tabled until after the break.

Amendment No. 12
Agency/Project: Planning and Community and Economic Development /
Project #6 - Preliminary Planning
Page(s): 128
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel, Rhodes-Conway

Add the following sentence to the project narrative: "Expenditures are subject to Common Council approval."

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

This item passed on a voice vote, with Kerr audibly voting no.

We took a break and came back around 10:40.

We reconsidered item 12 and amended it to say that expenditures over $2500 had to come to the council.

We then pulled item 11 off the table. The item failed, but I don't have the votes on that one at the moment, will need to get them from the clerk.

Amendment No. 13
Agency/Project: Planning and Community and Economic Development /
Project #12 - TID 28-Bassett Neighborhood
Page(s): 128
Sponsor(s): Alds. Verveer, Judge

Add $450,000 of TID cash funding for additional projects within TID #28, involving the undergrounding of utilities.

General Obligation Debt $ -
Other Funding - TID Cash 450,000
Total $ 450,000 Levy Impact: $ -

Passed on a voice vote.

Amendment No. 14
Agency/Project: Planning and Community and Economic Development /
Project #13 - TID 29-Allied Terrace
State Street - Capitol Square / Project #1 - State St. Phase III: 500/600 Blocks
Engineering - Major Streets / Project #42 - Monroe St. / Regent St. Intersection
Affordable Housing Trust Fund
Page(s): 128, 27, 73, 19 (Operating Budget)
Sponsor(s): Alds. Solomon, Kerr, Webber, Konkel, Mayor Cieslewicz

This amendment will remove the $3,000,000 in "Other" funding (from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund) for the Allied project, increase General Obligation borrowing for the project by an additional $1,700,000, and reduce overall project costs in 2008 from $3,500,000 to $2,200,000. The amendment will also provide $1,300,000 in General Obligation funding in the CIP for 2009 for the Allied project. In addition, this amendment will reduce the General Obligation borrowing for the State Street reconstruction project by $1,300,000, as this funding is no longer required for this project. The amendment will also remove the 2008 funding for the Monroe / Regent Intersection construction project, as this project will be delayed until 2009. Additionally, this amendment provides that the 2008 funding for the Allied project is granted solely for the Allied infrastructure improvements and demolition on the City owned property, contingent upon project approval by the Common Council and the receipt of WHEDA low income tax credits. This amendment spreads the infrastructure / demolition costs associated with Allied Drive over two years. (Note: If this amendment is adopted, the change will be reflected on the TID statements in the Capital Budget and the Affordable Housing Trust Fund statement included in the Operating Budget.)

G.O. Other Funding Net
Allied $ 1,700,000 $ ( 3,000,000) $ ( 1,300,000)
State St. (1,300,000) - ( 1,300,000)
Monroe/Regent (1,010,420) (69,580) ( 1,080,000)
$ (610,420) $ ( 3,069,580) $ ( 3,680,000)
Levy Impact: $ (79,052)

Alder Solomon explained the project. Alder Brandon, probably rightfully so, is tired of being told "this is all we need to do" on projects. I agree. This isn't all we need to do for Allied Drive. Alder Brandon is upset that this isn't real savings, that this is a good bid and project that isn't going to happen that is paying for the project. I think that might be a matter of semantics.

Amendment No. 15
Agency/Project: Planning and Community and Economic Development /Project #14 - TID 30-E. Washington at Hawthorne
Page(s): 129
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel, Rummel

Eliminate funding for the purchase of 3 properties in the Marquette Street area that are potential subjects of the City's Chronic Nuisance Ordinance. (Funding is from TID proceeds and will not directly impact the levy.)

General Obligation Debt $ -
Other Funding (300,000)
Total $ (300,000) Levy Impact: $ -

There was a substitute with language as follows:

1. Zero out $ in Project #14 in PCED

2. Delete the language and replace it with:
This project provides funding to study the expansion of TID #30 to include areas of the Darbo Worthington Neighborhood, purchase suitable properties, begin the process to vacate the unimproved right-of-way at the end of Hauk Street, and perform any subsequent utility relocation. Any properties assembled will be combined to create a larger development parcel intended for owner-occupied townhouses. This project is subject to all standard TID requirements and processes.

3. Add a new project #40 (or whatever the next project would be): This project directs the Department generally, and the CDBG Office specifically, to work with Habitat for Humanity of Dane County and the Madison Area Land Trust to create homeownership opportunities in the area of Hauk Street and N. Marquette St.

Alder Compton made a substitute in #3 to delete "Habitat for Humanity of Dane County and the Madison Area Land Trust" and replace it with "eligible entities".
Failed with a voice vote.

The motion then passed on a voice vote with Alder Compton audibly voting no.

Took number 7 off the table, passed. Placed the item on file because it was included in the Allied Drive amendment, passed

Amendment No. 16
Agency/Project: Planning and Community and Economic Development /
Project #36 - Public Market
Project #37 - East Isthmus Arts Incubator
Project #38 - Goodman/Atwood Neighborhood Center
Project #39 - Urban League Economic Development Center
Page(s): 133
Sponsor(s): Alds. Konkel, Rhodes-Conway

Add the following sentence to each of the project narratives:
"Loan repayment proceeds will be used to support future Neighborhood-Focused Improvements projects."

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

There was discussion about not creating a revolving loan fund in the budget. It failed on a voice vote.

Amendment No. 17
Agency/Project: Planning and Community and Economic Development / Project #37 - East Isthmus Arts Incubator
Page(s): 133
Sponsor(s): Alds. Rummel, Konkel, Webber

Remove funding for the project.

General Obligation Debt $ (70,000)
Other Funding -
Total $ (70,000) Levy Impact: $ (9,065)

There was a substitute that deleted funding from 2008 to 2013. It passed on a voice vote.

FINAL VOTE ON THE CAPITAL BUDGET
Brandon raised concerns about how much the capital budget has increased in the last few years, nearly tripling. I agree with him. I also think that we authorize too many projects that are not ready and as a result, we end up only actually borrowing half of what we need. We need to find a better way to predict what needs funding. Brandon was the only one to vote against the budget.

I'll get you the bottom line numbers in a bit.

We agreed (by show of hands) to keep going until 1:00 and then took a break, tho 7 or so people wanted to just break for the night. After the break we re-voted (by show of hands) on what to do next. We had the option of doing the police amendments and letting everyone else go home or just agreeing to try to get up to amendment number 8. We chose the later option. I think I am done live-blogging for tonight, will have the first 8 operating budget amendments in the morning for you along with a little clean up on the above missing information.





Read more!

Budget Night One: Public Testimony (Updated - Final)

Last night, we heard 5 hours of public testimony on the budget, and didn't vote on one single item. We have 17 Capital Budget Amendments and 55 Operating Budget Amendments to cover in the next two nights. It's questionable if we'll be able to do it, but we'll dive right in tonight at 7:00 in Room 201 of the City County Building. Here's the run down on the meeting last night.

We started about 10 minutes late, all alders were here except Alder Palm who was being elected President of a local non-profit. The Mayor announced that we would be done by 11 or whenever the public testimony ended, whichever was later. He informed people that they have 5 minutes on the Capital Budget and 5 minutes on Operating Budget.

I just have to say, I am impressed with the number of folks that were willing to stand up in front of over 100 to 150 people to tell us what is so very important to them. It’s impressive! Also, important to note, but you won’t be able to see here on my blog, is that there were a notable number of people of color who showed up to speak to us. We don't often get that so it was good to see.

Here's a flavor of the testimony. I have 12 pages of notes, but I'm afraid that I can't do the speakers justice. There was so much good testimony and my notes are kind of hit and miss depending upon what else was going on in the room. We started with taking testimony from those who needed to leave early first. That testimony was as follows:

• Support increased hours for South Madison Branch Library, support funding the Weed and Seed Coordinator for the last quarter of the year and opposed cutting planning council funding.
• Support MAP program and the Weed and Seed Coordinator – talked about youth court program in the neighborhood and how it is working well.
  
• Against cut of the neighborhood planning council. She has worked with EINPC to help her grow as a leader.
• A man from Operation Welcome Home. For Amendment #10 to cut 12 police pending the police staffing report and a report from the comptroller. Wants to see police work with people more often. Supported Amendment 22 for additional homeless outreach workers. He had been homeless for 15 years. In support of number 33, for eviction prevention and housing entry funds.
• A member of Groundwork and Operation Welcome Home. In support of homeless programs that treat people with dignity and respect. Spoke in support of homeless outreach workers, eviction prevention and housing entry funds (security deposit and first month's rent) as well as the bus tickets for people looking for jobs.
• Woman who works with Freedom Inc, Groundwork and Operation Welcome Home who was in support of cutting 12 police, having the police report more information, homeless outreach workers, eviction prevention funds and bus tickets for the homeless. She addressed the need to talk about racism in our city and the need to provide support and options to people to prevent crime. We’re at a critical point – what will happen if we don’t have options for people. When we talk about public safety, we also have to talk about options for people.
• Woman from Operation Welcome Home and Madison Environmental Justice Organization. She spoke in support of homeless outreach workers, eviction prevention and housing re-entry funds and bus tickets to help homeless find jobs and housing. Said we need to connect people to resources that help them help themselves. Please support their efforts be self reliant.
• A homeless man who said he has an income, but no place to stay. In support of homeless outreach workers, eviction prevention and housing reentry costs. He expressed concerns about police profiling. He said he had gotten 4 tickets in the last 4 days. He said we don't need more police, we need more funds to help the homeless. He has been homeless for 6 years and said "I'm not asking you to hand me anything" and "I just need a helping hand."
• Another homeless man from Operation Welcome home. In support of cutting 12 police, the reporting from the police, homeless outreach workers, eviction prevention and reentry funds as well as the bus tickets to help people find jobs. He said that Mayor Dave told them in a meeting that "It’s been a long standing policy of the city that we know we have a homeless problem but we are not recognizing homeless people” so he asked “Why do we need to be the invisible people” . He noted that he was not asking us to give him what we have, that he just wants an opportunity.
  
• A MMSD social worker for 25 years, now working at Jefferson Middle School with several of his kids standing behind him, asked not to cut afterschool and summer youth programs for Wisconsin Youth Company. He noted most of the kids that attend the programs are low income and kids of color. He also noted that we lead the nation in incarcerating people of color and that one way to intervene is to create programs for kids to go to after school. He supported more police, but he also asked to help keep these kids out of jail.
  
• Another homeless man spoke in support of homeless outreach workers, eviction prevention and housing entry funds as well as the bus tickets to help people find jobs and housing. He reminded us that the shelter only lets them stay there for 60 days per year and he noted that he just needs a job and somewhere to go.
• A woman spoke in support of the MAP program. Also in support of Weed and Seed funding. Noted that she had also been homeless and without these programs, she would have no where to go. She said that with these programs "I have got my mind back."
• The woman who runs the MAP program asked her students to stand up, there were about 20 people there. She talked about the details of the program and the 55 people who have graduated from 5 classes that are now in classes or full and part-time employment. She said the program helped take 7 drug dealers off the street. She said just like people believed in us when we ran for office, this program provides the same thing for their students. She said the program "Helps people from all over the city to change their lives. "
• A man who was in the MAP program said hesees a chain reaction, if no support of the youth, then they end up homeless and with no job. Knowledge is the key to success. And he wants to work to make sure he is not homeless. There should be a MAP program in all parts of Madison.
• Another MAP program talked about the positive impact of the program. He saw the program as a way to bridge cultural differences as people talk about struggles and successes.
  
• Another MAP program student. She said that "People took risks with me" and as a result she got stable employment, got involved in the neighborhood and works with the neighborhood association and the JFF office and volunteer at the day care centers of her grandchildren. She noted that now her daughter will also be going to the MAP program.
• A woman spoke against cutting the sister city programs.
• The next person was another MAP student who was really nervous about speaking. She got lots of encouragement. Including Alder Brandon suggesting that she should picture the Mayor naked. After the laughter, she told us that she was the youngest member of MAP at age 17. She told us the class gave her alot of skills and it was helping with her writing and vocabulary so she could go to college. She talked about learning 10 new words every day.
  
• Another MAP students told us about her 10 words she learned every day and how she used some of her new words when speaking with the owner of the store she worked at and how nervous she was when her boss asked her opinion about something. She noted that she later got a promotion.
  

That was the end of the "early testimony" for those who had to leave early. Many of the homeless people had to leave so they made it back to the shelter on time before they stopped letting people in the shelter for the night. It is worth noting that of all those speakers, only 4 were not people of color. At this point, the room was crowded with people waiting to speak and all the chairs were filled and about 8 - 10 people were sitting on the floor of the Council chambers.

CAPITAL BUDGET

• Speaker spoke in support of cutting money for tasers and rifles. She also supported cutting the police and the additional reporting requirements in amendments 9 - 15. She quoted the Police Chief in the Capital Hues reminding us that crimes are down 4.5% in first half of 2007 and that we are safer than 30 years ago, when there were more crimes. She asked us to get away from the politics of fear. She was disappointed that the best she could do was support cutting 12, implying we should have cut more police. She said the proposal to hire 30 officers were "irresponsible" because we were using the one time TIF windfall money to for 30 expensive new hires. She asked how will we pay for them in 2, 5 or 10 years. She reminded us that the best way to reduce crime is to uplift people out of poverty and that those programs are a fraction of a cost of the police. She noted that the MAP program is asking for 25,000, not millions. She asked us to cut the police so she didn't need to run for Mayor next time around.
• He spoke against loaning the Mallards $1.2M and in favor of police amendments 9 - 15. He wanted to know why are we helping the Mallards when we don't have enough money to run the city. He asked why we had $1.2M for a "certain group of people". He thought sports should support themselves. He also noted that we have too many police, we have not only City police, but also police from Sheriff, Capital, UW and many other jursidictions. He spoke about his concerns about militarization of the police and use of force for minor incidents. He reminded us that tasers are not things that will harm people, they will kill people. He also reminded us that the people most hurt by more police are the minority, the poor and the mentally ill and that the police have recently shot two mentally ill people. He said sometimes, when you add police you don’t make the streets safer, sometimes you do the opposite.
• Phil Salkin, the lobbyist for the REALTORS spoke in opposition to delaying $1.44M to remodel the Municipal Building to make it easier for developers to interact with the city. It's called the "one stop shop". He said it would help with affordable housing, but it wasn't the whole answer, because time is money.
• Delora Newton, lobbyist for the Chamber of Commerce also opposed delaying the one stop shop. She noted that while the reorganization of this department was up in the air, if we supported amendment 31, then we could support this remodeling moving forward because it will cost more the longer we wait.
• Susan Schmitz, lobbyist for Downtown Madison Inc supported Delora's comments in opposition to cutting the one stop shop. She also praised people for their work on amendment 31 in the operating budget.
• The guy from the Mallards spoke in opposition to cutting the $1.2M loan to the Mallards. He explained that when the city decided to put money into fixing the bleachers, they decided to suggest a much bigger project which would rotate the field and add parking. The total project would cost $4M. He said something funny about "they city has used the word loan" but he didn't see it that way. He thought we would get our money back through the leasing of the land to the Mallards and that we would recoup 3/4 of the amount of money we put in to the project and would own it in the end.
• The next person testified in support of Jobs with a Future, additional childcare assistance to get 10 more kids off the waiting list, Girl Neighborhood Programs, funding for the Rape Crisis Center, the MAP program, the bus tickets for people to find jobs and increasing the library hours for S Madison and the Hawthorne Library. She spoke against cutting youth programs for Southwest Madison and the money to get kids from Darbo to activities as well as after school and summer programs. She also opposed cuts to the childcare stabilization grants, youth integration programs and Latino Childcare program. She questioned why we would remove funding for childcare just to fund the police. She also opposed cutting the Neighborhood Planning Councils. She said it doesn't make sense to invest no money in intervention and only support the police. She talked about the library hours and how people wait in line for just a few computers and that kids need knowledge and access to technology. She said we were sending the wrong message to our kids, that we were saying we want to put you in jail instead of making sure that you are healthy and smart.
• A social worker spoke in favor or the amendment saving the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and investing in Allied Drive. She said we can't just build big houses, we need to build housing for everyone in Madison, and that has to come in all shapes and sizes. She talked about the grassroots effort to start the fund to leverage state and national funds and provide affordable housing for Madison. She talked about how the low wage jobs in Madison make it hard to afford housing and that people with disabilities and fixed incomes need a place to live and we can't just build housing for the high end.

At this point, we took a break in the Capital Budget because they found more "early registration" slips. So, we took testimony from people who needed to leave for childcare or other purposes.

• The first woman talked about the Girl Neighborhood Power program at Vera Court and how she started when she was in 6th grade and how it gave her an opportunity to keep her off the streets. She talked about how the program gave her confidence and an opportunity to be a leader. She became the summer camp coordinator a youth worker and now the coordinator of the program at Vera Court.
• The next person coordinated the Girl Neighborhood Power program at Vera Court for 4 years and then 3 years at Bridge-Lakepointe. She still volunteers for the program. She shared several stories with us about kids in the program and how the community asks the girls to speak or perform at many events.
• I missed the next speaker as I took a bathroom break, but they also spoke in support of the Girl Neighborhood Power program.

Then, we went back to the CAPITAL BUDGET

• A person who works with the homeless with severe mental illnesses. He talked about how they got $10,000 from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund to "fix up run down 4 unit" and were able to help house a man who spent a lot of time sleeping and camping in a park in Alder Claussius’ district. He also wanted to clear up serious misconception about the homeless. He said he has a stack of applications and waiting list about 8 inches high and he wanted to make sure we knew that the vast majority of these people have lived in Madison for years. He talked more about more people who they were able to get into housing including a man who was homeless for 7 years and living in a room in a commercial building in Ald. Clausius’ district, a woman who slept in a in van for 8 years, a man who slept in a van for 12 or 14 years, a man who had a serious heart condition who slept in a lean to in the woods by Shopko Drive and an elderly physically disabled woman who lived in Madison for 50 years. He closed by saying that we’re dealing with people huddled in hide away places in all of the districts, these are your neighbors that have been among you for many years.
• A non-profit developer who had spoken in support of CDA doing development on Allied Drive because he thought that only the CDA would work with a group like his. He didn't expect to see the Affordable Housing Trust Fund being used for infrastructure. He asked us to put people first because cities are about people. He told us if we put people first, it will help make these deicsions a little easier.
• Joe Lindstrom from the Homeless Services Consortium talked about the 2006 plan with identifiable actionable strategies to end homelessness. He talked about the proposal that they submitted to the Mayor and the fact that the Mayor didn't include any of the proposals they recommended. He spoke in support of eviction prevention funding and noted a recent study from Minnesota that showed that it takes $500 to prevent homelessness and $5000 to shelter and rehouse people. He spoke in support of the emergency housing vouchers for victims of domestic violence and to the difficult decision that women who are turned away are forced to make: live on the streets or go back to your abuser. He reminded us that 30% of all police calls in Dane Co are domestic violence related. He talked about the Transit for Jobs program, which provides bus tickets to the homeless. With $40,000 in the first year they served 758 unduplicated individuals. However, people are only allowed two passes for one day and some people get monthly passes to go to work on a regular basis. He told us that beyond the $40,000, several agencies spent additional money on bus tickets so far this year they spent as follows: Porchlight ($20,000), Salvation Army ($12,000), Interfaith Hospitality Neighborhood ($3,000) and the YWCA ($2,100). However, this doesn't come close to meeting the needs. On Monday, Wednesday and Fridays there are 25 slots per day that are alloted and you have to wait in line at 9:00 and the tickets are gone by 9:06. His time ran out but he also asked us to fund the year round warming shelter for people who can't get into the shelters because they are full.
  
• The next speaker went home before they had a chance to testify.
• A staff member from Habitat for Humanity came to speak to an amendment about TIF funding for a project on Marquette/Hauk. He was neither in support or against since we tried to find another way to fund the project without having to extend the TIF district and go through the TIF process.
• A Worthington Park/Darbo resident showed up to support the Habitat project at Marquette/Hauk. She thinks this project can help build up the neighborhood instead of dragging it down like the current program is doing. She urged us to ind solutions to get Habitat to do this project.
• Pamela Hathaway who is staff at the East Isthmus Neighborhood Planning Council talked about their work to help strengthen the Darbo/Worthington neighborhood. She said that they worked on the Chronic Nuisance Ordinance and wanted to see it used as little as possible and that supporting the Habitat project at Marquette/Hauk would be one way to do that. She urged us to support the project, in whatever way that might happen.
• An Allied Drive resident spoke to the MAP program and the difference it make in her life and how it helped her bring out her skills.

That was the end of the EARLY and CAPITAL BUDGET comments.

There were an additional 10 who registered on 42 more amendments but did not wish to speak and their input was as follows:

• Adding language about the Fire Department not spending money before they get a grant - 2 in support, 1 against
• Cutting $35,000 for tasers - 3 in support and 2 opposed
• Cutting money for automatic, military style rifles - 2 in support, 2 opposed
• Using the TIF windfall to fund $2.4M for a new financial software system instead of borrowing - 2 in support
• Moving the one stop shop to 2009 to iron out details on the new reorganization of the Department of Planning, Community and Economic Development. 2 in support.
• Cutting County Hwy M from the City budget. 2 in support.
• Delaying funding for Monroe Street. 2 in support
• Cutting funding for a $1.2M loan to the Madison Mallards. 2 in support.
• Funding improvements to James Madison Park with borrowing instead of continuing to wait for the land to be sold. 2 in support, 1 opposed.
• Moving revolving loan funds from the capital budget to the operating budget. 1 in support.
• Designating which units work on projects in the Dept. of Planning and Community and Economic Development. 1 in support.
• Requiring Council approval before money is spent in a "slush fund" for the Planning and Community and Economic Development department. 3 in support.
  
• Undergrounding utilities in the Bassett Neighborhood. 1 in opposition.
• Cutting some road projects and borrowing to fund the Allied Drive project instead of using the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. 2 in support.
  
• This is the project that we need to amend a TIF district to fund for Habitat for Humanity on Marquette/Hauk. 3 in support, 2 in opposition.
  
• Creating a revolving fund for neighborhood focused improvements. 2 in support.
  
• Cutting funding for the East Isthmus Arts Incubator. 3 in support.
  

It was now about 8:30. We took a 10 - 15 minute break. At this point we had 62+ people left to speak, and the Mayor cautioned speakers and asked them to keep it short because if everyone took their 5 minutes we would be here until 2:00.

After the break, we started testimony on the OPERATING BUDGET.
These notes are going to get a little more raw, as I rush to make them available.

OPERATING

• Against cut to sister cities.

At this point, the Mayor announced that we would not be getting to the Capital Budget that night due to all the public testimony and he told staff to go home.

• An AFSCME representative testified in support of paid sick leave for hourly employees, adding back the Fit City Coordinator position, converting 2 part-time workers to one full time Humane Officer, against not doubling (from 2 workers to 4 workers) the park rangers to pay for the homeless outreach workers. And against privatizing the public pool. He noted that if the private sector wanted to build a private pool they should.
  
• A citizen who works with AFSCME spoke to the same amendments as above. Particularly that sick leave for seasonal/hourly staff was a matter of equity. People in those positions provide a valuable service and have needs and families as well. He supported the fit city and human officer positions. He noted that homeless outreach was a laudable goal, but they also need the park rangers. Finally he noted that the pool was a gift to the city and it should be operated by the city.
• The Innkeepers showed up to oppose spending part of the $8M in room tax for Downtown safety, even tho they did it the year before. They also support a committee to look at how this money is spent.
• Opposed adding more officers. Concerned about calling police and not getting help.
• A Worthington/Darbo resident said that everyone knows that preventative medicine is less expensive than the hospital stay and that is the same as social services and police services. The money we spend on prevention is much cheaper. She said there are lots of working families in their neighborhood that need access to quality day care and higher education. People want careers and respect - that is what will create a healthy community and reduce crime. The preventative measures will outweigh the pound of cure that is being proposed. Supported increased library hours and access to technology. Opposed cuts in 38, 48 and 47. Supporting transportation for Darbo kids as well as 35, 24, 27, 26. Opposed to cuts to neighborhood planning councils. Her neighborhood association would not exist without services of EINPC.
• SW Madison resident against cutting police officers and any reporting requirements. He's glad we're finally having an honest dialog about crime and safety. Showed pictures of gang graffiti in his neighborhood. Thinks police are needed to deal with noise, drug dealing and gang graffiti in his neighborhood. Asked us to put aside politics and support the 30 new officers. Also wanted us to support neighborhood center funding on SW side of Madison but programs need to be in the immediate neighborhood and withing walking distance.
• The next registrant left before she was called on.
• The next registrant was in opposition to cutting the police. Reminded us that the police we might add are for the entire city, not just the westside. He felt that they spoke loud and clear that they need more police. He thought some of us might be fortunate enough to not have crime in our neighborhoods. He recognized that it was a tight budget and that there are concerns about how they will be funded. He said his neighbors would tell you that they would spend more dollars to make sure people are safe in their neighborhoods. He aid the debate boiled down to – do you respect your police chief, do you honor his knowledge, integrity, professionalism? He said if people start leaving the City of madison, there will be no funding for any of the social programs
• SW Madison resident since 1958, didn’t think I would be stainding here asking for more police officers – never thought I’d see gang graffiti in front of my house or live two blciks from a murder or a block away from places where people are carrying a gun and selling crack cocaine. I thought madison was the alternative to reality and the reality in madison has changed.
• SW Madison resident who said that they are the 6th or 7th most populated area in Wisconsin with the least number of police officers. Opposed cutting the officers, but supported several of the reporting requirements. Supported funding for neighborhood center on the SW side of Madison. Worried about seeing drug deals in neighborhood, at the gas station, at the grocery store and the Meadowood shopping center. She said people were afraid to go to shopping after school cuz the kids go there, even tho the stores only let 3 kids in the stores at a time. Worried about the shopping center thriving. Liked the neighborhood officer they had. Thinks crime has increased since he left. Quality of life is decreasing in the neighborhood and just wants to sleep with the windows open.
  
• Near east side resident agreed that we have issues with crime but the study is out there and we haven't gotten it back yet. 30 police officers is based on 1.9 officers per 1,000 residents and that this is not the best assessment, especially since it doesn't count the UW and Capitol police. Wants their neighborhood officer back, felt she was effective. She said it wasn't about visibility, but about knowing people in the neighborhood. She feels like the neighborhood helps with neighborhood cohesion and makes a feeling of a community neighborhood. She feels like it is important for the police to know the residents, including the folks in the cars because they are our neighbors. She felt like no matter how good a community policing team officer is, they can’t do as good as of a job as a neighborhood police officer. She said we have good police, but they can’t do the job 30% time. She told us the story of a kid from the neighborhood who asked "where’d the lady cop go" and when she said she was gone, the kid said “that ain’t right”. She agreed, that ain't right.
• An east side resident in support of cutting the police. She wanted to know if 30 or 24 or 18 police officers was right and how we were supposed to know. Said we need the staffing report and what kind of officers we need. Concerned about long term sustainability of this many new hires. Felt many of the issues are quality of life crimes, not violent offenses and reminded us that crimes are down from 30 years ago. She said it was pointless to fill courts and jails in quality of life offenders. I doubt that police coming down harder on people is the right answer. If we have to prioritize, should be prevention, not apprehending and deterring minor offenders. She supported better reporting for the police, including more information about complaints that they get. She opposed cutting the funding for the neighborhood planning councils. She noted that the planning councils leverage subatantial volunteer time and talent, draw citizens in and that probably soon the westside will want a planning council as well based on what they have said. Supported increased hours at Hawthorne Library and was hoping to see it open until 9:00 instead of 8:00.
• Darbo/Worthington resident. Supported not funding 30 officers now. Noted that their neighborhood has had crime issues for years. Thinks we need a sustainable plan and a study, we need to be thoughtful. She called this "fear based budgeting at its worst" and wanted to know what we would do next year. Said effective public safety combines enforcement and prevention. The nickel and diming of community services undermines community efforts that get to the root causes of crime. She challenged us to add up the money spent on community services and police services to see if they were equal. And, she said if we didn't like the way community services decisions were made, that they should reform the way it is done instead of acting in a random and arbitrary manner to make a political point. To cut programs in the name of fiscal responsibility is laughable since cutting $5,000 or $10,000 here and there is pennies on our tax bills. She opposed cuts to afterschool and summer programs in 27 and 38. Supports the weed and seed program. Opposes cuts to neighborhood planning councils since they helped her neighborhood so much.
• Former alder Brian Benford left before he had a chance to speak to us.
• The next person works with the chronically homeless with severe or persistent mental illness in the downtown area. She pointed out that when illness is untreated, housing is a problem. When the illness is treated, housing becomes easier. We need the homeless outreach coordinators to reach the others that don't have mental illnesses in the downtown area and to address crisis areas as they arise. Even though she said that homeless has many causes, she suggested that one of the people should be an AODA specific position.
• Next a homeless outreach worker at Briarpatch that works with youth under 24 testified. She said that we need more general outreach workers because if she is working with a 19 year old and a 26 year old is standing next to them, she can only help the one under 24. And, its hard to change your situation if you are homeless if you don't have the guidance that a outreach worker can provide to direct you to services or advocacy within the system.
• The next speaker lived downtown and helped organize the homeless discussions that the Capital Neighborhoods group has been having. She talked about how the neighborhood association started with the premise that the status quo of the state of homelessness is unacceptable. She talked about spending 20 - 30 hours a week studying the homeless problem and the respect and the gratitude she had for the work that is being done and the ripple effects that it is having on others. She also said that the need is far greater than the current outreach workers can currently offer. She supported adding the homeless outreach people soon. She added that this is a promising place for powerful change if we are determined.
• The next worker went home before she could speak.
• The next person spoke on behalf of funding for a neighborhood plan for the James Madison Park Neighborhood. She said we are on the cusp as a neighborhood. We have lots of potential new development as well as issues with homeless and high percentages of renters. She said the neighborhood needed a vision before the developers come in with their agendas. She was concerned that we look at transportation issues and bike flow as well. She wanted to make sure we included a long list of stakeholders, including the small business owners. She also wanted to make sure we looked at which buildings needed to be conserved.
  
• Another downtown resident spoke in favor of the homeless outreach workers but wanted to make sure that they also did outreach to people who live in the area. He said when those who live in the park and have no choice and those who live in houses around them begin to work with each other. He also spoke about how the plan for the James Madison Park District is from another generation when the neighborhood had a different name and different boundaries. He wanted the city to help the neighborhood create a more modern plan when they step up to put the work in.
• Another person lives and works downtown who supported money to create a plan for the James Madison Park Neighborhood District. She pointed out that this was a historic part of the heart of downtown that is experiencing quite a bit of development pressure. She was concerned that developers are making choices for the neighborhood and changing the fabric of downtown Madison. She was concerned that once our history is gone, there is nothing we can do.
• Carole Schaeffer, the lobbyist for Smart Growth Madison, spoke in support of the new plan for the reorganization for the Department of Planning and Community and Economic Development and dividing the job of the director of the Economic and Community Development into two positions.
• Phil Salkin, lobbyist for the Realtors also spoke in support of the new plan for the reorganization for the Department of Planning and Community and Economic Development and dividing the job of the director of the Economic and Community Development into two positions.
• Greta Hanson from Community Action Coalition spoke in support for the homeless or near homeless programs. Particularly for the additional eviction prevention and housing entry costs. She said that they receive 15,000 calls for financial assistance for people at risk of being homeless or help getting and apartment and they can only help 10% of the people who call. This money would help 50 - 100 families get into housing.
• A case manager from Interfaith Hospitality Network talked about her work with families at a homeless shelter. She said the worst part of her job is when she has to turn people away. There is no place for them to go. She said that they turn away people when they they are full and that 466 people were turned away last year. She said that every family and child deserves a safe place to sleep and to know where their next meal will come from. She supports the homeless overflow shelter even though it will double her workload and she doesn't get a pay raise.
• Another homeless case manager that does follow up work testified in support of additional eviction prevention and housing reentry funds. She pointed out again that is much better to keep someone in their current housing than to rehouse a homeless family. And that expense is not just costly for the agencies, but for the family as well.
• A person who works at Madison Urban Ministry testified about the work they do in the community to help prisoners who are reentering the community. They thought that they would serve 150 people in 2006, but instead they served 777. People returning to the community really struggle to find housing and they rely heavily on the homeless shelter system. They support the funding for the overflow family shelter. She also pointed out that when you think about public safety the most dangerous person is someone who has no housing, no job and nothing left to lose. She sees the faces and hears the stories every day - and homelessness happens for many reasons - lost pay for sick time, too many medical bills, getting custody of grandkids while on a fixed income, etc. She also noted that she is personally a foster home parent and they have housed teens whose mom's wanted them to have a place to stay and they stayed in the car because they can't get into shelter. She urged support of all of the amendments recommended by the homeless services consortium.
  

At this point, we were half way through the list of names, but many people had started leaving, technically, we only had 33 people left to speak.

• The next speaker left, but might come back.
• The next speaker left.
• The next speaker spoke about childcare issues and funding for 4C's and the Latino childcare project. He pointed out that this is one of the best places in the country and we have serious issues of child abuse in family daycare, with half of the busts happening on the southwest side of Madison. He said that when abuse happens, often we just "bury the baby and the conditions continue". He explained that when the child went to work with his mother at a hotel on the east side of Madison and drown in the pool, they didn’t let that happen. The started a program to help 15 spanish speaking childcare homes get started and they have trained 184 providers. This small amount of money has a big impact and helps with economic devlopment and gets people to work. He said they are trying to find other funding and that this is a one time fix. He talked about why he moved here from Chicago (better schools and daycare) and how the police were important to the work that they do, however, he said if you sacrifice the kids, you’re killing a very special part of Madison, we need to strike the balance – we can’t cut the kids to fund the cops.
• The next person was from the Project HUGS program. This program helps families of teens with AODA issues.
  

At this point it was 10:15 and I opened my 3rd diet coke . . . I wonder how many of those red bulls Eli had . . . .

• I didn't take notes on a few that I missed because I was looking at the registration slips that were being passed around and I thought I'd remember but its all a blur at this point, so my apologies to the one or two people I don't have notes on.
  
• A person who works in legal services talked in support of emergency homeless vouchers for victims of domestic violence. She told the story of how an emergency voucher helped a woman who escaped and she got her kids back, she got a section 8 voucher and got into permanent housing within months after 17 years of abuse.
• The executive director from DAIS spoke about their programs and reminded us that 1/3 of all arrests in Dane County were related to domestic violence. And they only have 25 beds and they fill up quickly. She also reminded us the domestic violence is one of the leading causes of homelessness for women. In 2006 they had 30 days where they had people on the waiting list, this year it was 115 days. In 2006 that was 90 women and children, this year it was 227 women and children. So, she was speaking in support of the additional emergency housing vouchers.
• Next up - case manager at YWCA and person on board of Wisconsin Youth. She spoke about a homeless mother with a newborn that had to sleep in her car on the street and the importance of the overflow shelter. She was there to support all the homeless programs. She also spoke of the need for more youth programming on the SW side of Madison, as well as the need for more police.
• The executive director of the Rape Crisis Center talked about the work they do training the police and the MATC criminal science classes and the fact that they don't currently get paid for. She talked about how they work with Girl Neighborhood Power and the Women's Transit Authority. Last year they did 223 presentations and served 5000 individuals. This is not a downtown issue, but there are people from throughout Madison that use the services. They recently lost the funding from the UW due to administration rules at the UW, plus they lost their lease and have to move.
• At this point, a rather exhausted woman who came to speak on behalf of the South Madison Planning Council got up and told us that when she got there she had a long dramatic speech planned, around 8:30 she was going to be only half dramatic and at this point (10:45) all we were going to get was the cliffnotes. She told us that we are all empowered, but there are many neighborhoods throughout Madison that are not.
• Pam Hathaway, a staff member at the East Isthmus Neighborhood Planning Council spoke in place of someone else who had gone home. She had to stop twice because Zach was talking to the City Attorney and it was distracting. She asked us to support community members and leaders to advocate on their own behalf. She pointed out that unlike alders, they often work with people who don't vote and who are not active and do not participate in the public process. She explained that while EINPC had some troubles this year, they used it as an opportunity to reorganize their organization.
  
• The next person left, but they were there to support the MAP program.
• This person left, but they were there to support the MAP program.
• Another person left, but they were there to support the MAP program.
• And yet another 4th person left, but they were there to support the MAP program.
• Oh wait, a 5th person who left, but they were there to support the MAP program.
• The next person was there stayed to say that the homeless bus ticket program was important. She was formerly homeless and people need bus tickets to get jobs and to look for housing.
• The next person also was there to support the bus tickets for the homeless. She pointed out that the real absurdity was that you need bus tickets to get to the places where you can get bus tickets and so her job at the Interfaith Hospitality House was to drive people to places to where they need to go, but bus tickets are cheaper and gave the people more independence. She also reminded us that these meetings that go late into the night make it difficult to get people to come and speak to the issues that are important to them.
• The next speaker went home.
• The next speaker was there to support the Northside Planning Council (NPC). Opposed all cuts to planning councils. He noted what huge impact that the MPC has had on the northside, including the Warner Park Community Center and Troy Gardens. Without an organization like the NPC we would have some really good things missing in our community.
• Another person spoke in support of the Northside Planning Council.
• Another person spoke in support of the Northside Planning Council and was a former candidate for alder (and glad he didn't win.) He talked about how the MPC is helping him resurrect the Vera Court Neighborhood Association. He also noted that he has learned alot from the program and through is learning, he is able to not only be a stronger person, but make his community stronger. He also noted the important role that the NPC played in keeping the northside schools open.
• The next speaker left.
• Another speaker in support of the Northside Planning Council. Reminded us that their motto is that you "don't need to move to live in a better neighborhood". She talked about the work with a bad landlord at the Woodlands and their work on the chronic nuisance ordinance. She also talked about their work with the Cherokee plan and the timebank. She also spoke in support of the Office of Neighborhood Support.
  
• The next speaker was opposed to cutting funding for South Madison Neighborhood Planning Council and in support of the weed and seed program and the south side library. She talked about her family of 8 (including 5 young african american males) standing in line to use the computers at the library and how hard it was to get to the library during the hours they were open due to sports and after school activities. She also talked about how the work weed and seed program and how she was on the steering committee. She talked about hour the SMPC has been a gift from the city. She said she feels like an eagle soaring due to their support and like we are clipping her wings. She asked us not to take her voice from her because she has so many dreams for her community.
• The next speaker is a MMSD teacher and in support of extended hours at the South Madison library. He talked about how in Mexico they don't have libraries that serve as a source of knowledge, culture and education. He said that the library hours are hard for working families. He pointed out that equity is an issue when it comes to community resources and that it will only be equal and fair if they have the same library hours as other libraries.
• The next speaker went home, but was in support of extending the S Madison library hours.
• There were two speakers who's names were read off, but they didn't check the right boxes.
• The next speaker was from the Rainbow Project. They work with victims of trauma that are infant – 10 years old. They specialize in abuse and neglect, domestic violence and sexual assault. They had a recent cut in the preschool prevention program. This program helps childcare centers work with kids who are traumatized. She also said that police and services are not either/or. She said we have to reduce poverty and we need smart early intervention and these are not a luxury. She noted that kids are different today. They aren't worried about nt getting nintendo, they are worried about getting killed. She also noted that when she goes to neighborhoods she can leave and she can go home, kids can’t.
  

The meeting ended around 11:30 after 5 hours of testimony. In additon to those speakers, there were another 69 registrants on 284 items. Alder Rummel noted that there were around 50 women who testified while there were only around 20 men. I really miss Kristian's live blogging of the meetings. Not only was it less work for me . . . but I don't understand how he did this in real time!





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Budget . . . Budget . . . Budget

Tonight starts the City Council marathon meeting. We will be meeting tonight, tomorrow night and likely Thursday night as well. Here's a few things you should be aware of:

PUBLIC TESTIMONY - WHEN, HOW LONG, HOW OFTEN
Public testimony will be taken tonight. I've talked to several people who expected to be able to speak tomorrow night, but that's not how we traditionally do it. We take all the testimony this evening. However, if people show up on Wednesday or Thursday, I've promised to make a motion to suspend the rules to allow people to speak. However, it is not encouraged and there won't be any forms so you'll have to let an alder know that is why you are there and then the council would have to vote to allow you to speak. And then, the rest of the council will have to vote to allow you to speak and I can't guarantee that the vote would pass.

Also, this is a public hearing, so people have 5 minutes to speak, instead of 3 minutes. It is strongly encouraged that you speak to all the items in those in each of the budgets in those 5 minutes. However, we have over 70 items and you can speak for 5 minutes on the Capital Budget Amendments and then 5 minutes on the Operating Budget Amendments. If you really can't do it and your items are really diverse, it may be possible that the council would suspend the rules and allow you additional time. Again, I can't guarantee that would happen. I can make a motion to suspend the rules, but the vote has to pass the council.

REGISTRATION SLIPS
The meeting starts at 6:30 and it is recommended that you show up at that time. If you're late, you can register as long as you register before we get to your item. However, it is always difficult to know how many people might show up, so we do recommend that you show up around 6:30 so you don't lose out on your opportunity to speak or register.

There will be two registration slips there this evening. One slip is used early testimony, for those who have issues that make it so that they have to leave early. Health issues, transportation issues, childcare issues and the homeless folks who need to get to the homeless shelter by a certain time can use those slips and speak first. Questions can be taken for those folks immediately so that they can leave and get to wherever they need to go. Everyone else's testimony will be taken in order of budget amendments, first Capital, then Operating.

Several people choose not to speak but instead fill out a registration slip. If you want people to know which items you support or oppose, I'd recommend that you fill out a separate slip on each item. It's really hard for the council to keep up if a bunch of items are rattled off by number. On that note, when speaking, it's probably better to not refer to budget amendment numbers unless you also say what the subject is, we don't have the over 70 amendments memorized by number.

IF YOU CAN"T MAKE IT
If you want to give us input and can't make it to the meeting, the easiest way to reach most of us is to send an email to allalders@cityofmadison.com and mayor@cityofmadison.com. Most of us will read our email before (or during) tonight's meetings. And, if you hear things during public testimony tonight on things that we will be voting on later, you can email us over the next two days.

WHERE WILL WE BE?
Tuesday night we will be in our regular room at the City County Building Room 201. If you want to testify, you should show up at 6:30 to register. We will take all public testimony first and then discuss the amendments.

Wednesday night the clerk has it listed as MONONA TERRACE, ONE JOHN NOLEN DRIVE, MEETING ROOM K-R, but yesterday I found out that we will likely be in the same room as Tuesday since the county board finished their budget last night.

Thursday night we will be the MONONA TERRACE, ONE JOHN NOLEN DRIVE, EXHIBIT HALL B.

BIG PICTURE ISSUES
There are two huge issues that we will all be concerned about throughout the budget discussions. The first is if this budget is going to be sustainable into the future. The Mayor very foolishly put the $3.9M of TIF windfall money into the budget. That means that next year, we have a gap of $3.9M in revenues, some of which will come from more of the TIF windfall. In 2010 we won't have that money. This, combined with adding 30 police officers is really stressing our budget. The police officers are of concern because the costs for 2008 are not a full year of costs since the officers start in February or May and the following year we will need to pay the full year of their salaries. So, adding 30 officers will cost far more in 2009.

The second issue is that if we add more than about $364,000 to the budget, we will go over the state imposed levy limits and we will lose about $5M in state aids. Alder Brandon has amendments in place to fix the windfall issue above and to spend that one-time money on one-time costs, but that then will put us over the levy limits and end up costing us $5M in state aids, and we'll have to raise taxes to pay for that. At the moment, that's a lose-lose situation.

THE AMENDMENTS, WHAT ARE WE VOTING ON
Here are all of the amendments.
Capital Budget
Operating Budget

What we actually end up voting on is the Mayor's Capital Budget and the Mayors Operating Budget, plus the Capital Budget Amendments and Operating Budget Amendments that pass over the next three nights, plus the amendments that passed the Board of Estimates.
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What is Wrong with Wisconsin?

Lobbyists have taken over. If there ever was a doubt, all you need to do is look at AT&T's recent victory. And then think that Illinois even had more more sense to pass a better bill. It looks like we can expect PEG funds for the next three years, but after that, funding for WYOU, City Channel 12 and the School Board education channel will likely disappear. While Governor Doyle has not yet signed this bill into law, and he has the power to either veto it completely or make changes to it, it is unlikely he will do so. So, he needs to hear from us!

2 ways to contact the Governor.

Governor's office: 608-266-1212
E-mail: Governor Jim Doyle

Tons more information here.
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This explains alot . . .

Check out the current City of Madison personnel rules . . .


Yes, those are the current rules they are using. I was almost afraid to look. But I did find this very interesting tidbit that explains alot . . .

In case you can't read it, here is what it says:
Whenever the appointing authority establishes that a given vacancy requires a man of specialized training or pertinent prior experience . . .

And I always thought the Economic Development Plan from 1980 was embarassing. Here we have personnel rules that were written before the Equal Rights Amendment passed Congress, Title IX and Roe v Wade. No wonder we have gender issues!

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Budget Briefings

Thanks to everyone who attended the last round of budget briefings. The new round of amendments for our meeting on Tuesday will be out Friday at noon. I will be doing two briefings on the amendments again. Those meetings will be as follows:

10AM-Noon, Saturday
Hawthorne Library, 2707 E Washington Avenue

OR

6PM-8PM, Sunday
Social Justice Center, 1202 Williamson Street

Everyone welcome. I'll have copies and share what I know about the amendments so you can decide if you want to register or testify on various matters.
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The Importance of an Elevator

What if you had a public building that was three stories tall and the elevator didn't work? You'd wait til April to get it fixed, right? I guess, when you're the City of Madison, you do.

The elevator in the Municipal Building, 215 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., has been out for weeks and we got the following email on October 18th about the situation:

Dear Folks:

Starting next week the upper two floors of the Madison Municipal Building may not be used to conduct any public meetings that must be conducted in accordance with the Open Meetings Laws.

The elevator has been declared to be unreliable and the subject of an emergency work project. Unfortunately, this entails a major rebuild of the elevator that will not be completed until approximately April, 2008.

At least for the time being, the elevator will remain in service but is subject to failure at anytime. No viable plan was identified to ensure accessibility for public meetings in the event of an elevator failure. Unfortunately, the elevator has reached a state where it is more likely to be out of service at any given moment than it is to be in service. Access to public meetings is required under both the ADA and the Open Meetings Laws.

This situation does not affect either the first floor or the lower (LL) level of the building. Access for persons with disabilities can be obtained to either of these floors from the exterior of the building. A door opener switch is being installed on the lower level back door for access purposes.

Please alert any of your staff to various boards, committees and commissions of this development. The boards, committees and commissions should also be alerted. In many cases they will need to identify suitable meeting facilities, amend their notices accordingly and make any necessary coordination with the folks at CitiChannel.

If you have meetings already noticed for next week, please look for a new location and issue a timely notice for the new location.

If you have any questions, please contact me or ACA Roger Allen.

Michael P. May
City Attorney
City of Madison

So far, this has contributed to the silly Plan Commission subcommittee meeting where several of us sat outside the room in the hallway where the back door was locked by the time I got there and the screwed up Board of Estimates meeting that wasn't live on channel 12 and also crowded into a room that wasn't big enough. However, it has allowed me to master the art of being in two places at once. Yesterday I looked at where I was going to meetings since it was all jumbled up and here's what I found!

4:15 PM URBAN DESIGN COMMISSION MEETING AND PUBLIC HEARING ROOM LL-110 MMB
5:00 PM HOUSING COMMITTEE ROOM LL-110 MMB

Perfect! Unfortunately, they had it all sorted out and UDC runs behind, so I made it to both meetings and slipped into the Economic Development Commission to hear a bit from the guy that is doing our Economic Development plan.

April? As one developer muttered in a meeting "What would the City do if a developer had a building that had an elevator that didn't work for 6 months?" and "Hell, I'd have it fixed in just a few days." Where's a good facilities manager when you need one?

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Common Council Recap: November 6th 2007

A short meeting, only an hour. That's always trouble for us in the months to come. Or actually, more likely, next week when we start our budget marathon. Rumor has it that there are 100 amendments, I think that might be exaggerated. Anyways, here's the rundown on the meeting.

Mayor called the meeting to order on time, relatively speaking.

BILL CLINGAN/ECONOMIC AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT UNIT DIRECTOR
We placed the appointment of Bill Clingan to the Economic and Community Development Unit Director on file since he withdrew his name after there was a deal struck in a nearly illegal (or perhaps illegal) meeting.

ALLIED DRIVE
We took testimony from Stuart Levitan on the Allied Drive project and then, after an admittedly pretty poor excuse for a "point of order" by me, we tabled the item so that people waiting for public hearings wouldn't have to sit through a long discussion about Allied Drive.

BUDGET TESTIMONY
We heard testimony on the budget. Three people came to speak.

1. Delora Newton, lobbyist for the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce testified that they were in favor of an amendment to split the Economic and Community Development Unit Director position into two positions. One for Economic Development and one for Community Development. Just like I advocated for in the first place.

2. Bill Rowe, a Northside resident, came to talk to us about the police. He said we didn't need more officers, we needed police officers that paid more attention to kids and got out of their cars.

3. Carol Kiemel from the League of Women Voters testified and provided us with a written statement that said the following:
a. Thanks for the amendments at Board of Estimates that supported early childhood care and education.
b. The Affordable Housing Trust Fund should be preserved and not all spent on Allied Drive. They said that a small amount of money has gone a long ways in 26 months and we should preserve this valuable tool. They also make the point that it is supposed to be a "permanent endowment".
c. Finally, while she did not say it, this was in the written statement:
The League has one comment on this year's City of Madison budget process. We registered our support of and opposition to a few of the budget amendments considered by the Board of Estimate, but we did not ask to speak. We were surprised that non-speaking registrations for and against amendments were not brought to the attention of the Board prior to the deliberations as is usually done at hearings. In order for alderpersons to make informed decisions it is necessary they hear the opinions of both speaking and non-speaking registrants.

ALLIED DRIVE/CDA IN THE RED
We quickly disposed of the rest of the items, then went back to the Allied Drive discussion. The biggest questions I had is why is the City negotiating with the CDA to give them land, $3M of demolition and road improvements to the land and paying them to give us the information that proves that they can handle the project? What do they bring to the table? And why isn't the CDA paying for this prep work to get to the point where we can enter into a contract?

The answer, which I thought I knew but was much worse than I knew, is that they don't have any money. In fact, I knew that they have a negative cash balance of $35,000 and that even though some city staff bill the CDA for their work, they just don't pay us. And that doesn't count the time that the City staff doesn't charge for. What I learned that was new, was that the CDA already owes the City $550,000 because we gave them a working capital loan a few years ago. Additionally, what didn't get said at the meeting was the fact that the Monona Shores project that they are patterning the Allied Drive project on is not only not successful because of who lives there and how affordable it is, but that project has a negative cash balance of $1,443,649. That's $1.4M. And our $4M line of credit we have from Fannie Mae is actually costing us money and that project has a negative cash balance of $20,799, and its getting worse by the day.

Anyways, after my amendment to remove language in the resolution about the demolition and preparation of the land (and if we would pay for it with the Affordable Housing Trust Fund) passed unanimously, the whole thing passed unanimously.

Afterwards, a reporter asked me why I voted for it. It's actually quite simple, I'd rather spend $75,000 now to get information that will help us figure out if we will end up $1.4 M in the red a few years from now, like Monona Shores. Their track record on projects not in the red is not so hot.

MAYOR APPOINTMENTS - LEGISLATIVE VS. EXECUTIVE POWER BATTLE
Finally, we resolved the whole issue I raised a few meetings ago where the Mayor's appointments to positions that have 5 year contracts need to be approved by the Council within a certain time frame. We had a law on the books that said if we didn't act in 20 days, that appointment was automatically approved. I had proposed (on behalf of Schumacher and Rhodes-Conway that serve on a chapter 2 revision sub-committee with me) that we change the 60 days to 20 days, which ironically was what the Mayor wanted. Then, Alder Brandon proposed we just remove the language altogether. After some compromise between the Mayor and Brandon we changed the law to say that we had to placed it on the agenda for a vote within 31 days of the appointment. That passed unanimously.

ADJOURNMENT IN HONOR OF OTTO FESTGE
We adjourned after a moment of silence and in memory of former Mayor Otto Festge who passed away this last weekend.

AFTER COUNCIL PARTY
We then gathered at Brocach. I believe the Mayor, the entire Mayoral staff and the City Attorney Michael May joined Rhodes-Conway, Webber, Schumacher, Bruer, Clear, Rummel, Bruer, Kerr, Solomon, Palm, Brandon and I think Clausius and Gruber, and of course, Judge and Verveer were joined by their growing entourage. I hope I didn't miss any alders that were there, as I was busy talking . . . or should I say listening . . .
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City Staff: Your Input is needed!

This does seem to be a Mayor that doesn't want to follow the rules. Or at least feels like he can either ignore them or force them to be changed. My latest discovery of his blatant disregard for the rules/Common Council direction had me steaming mad yesterday and very concerned today, because his attempts to stifle city staff input about hiring practices are very serious.

The Common Council passed a resolution that said the following:

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the Common Council requests a review of the civil service hring practices and requests Affirmative Action staff to make necessary recommendations for changes for APM 2-8, 2-16, 2-29 as well as MGO Sec. 3.35
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Common Council requests input from the Madison Professional and Supervisory Employee Association (MPSEA) regarding recommendations to changes in hiring practices.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Common Council Office, Human Resources, Office of Organizational Development and Training and Affirmative Action staff are requested to seek input from City Staff and labor unions, including anonymous comments.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Common Council requests that reports from Human Resources, Affirmative Action, the MPSEA and Common Council staff be prepared by December 31, 2007.

So, here are the letters that went out:

Letter from Mayor's Office to MPSEA:

Staff members from the Department of Civil Rights (DCR) and Human Resources (HR) and my office staff are working to create the report requested in Resolution 06764. As part of a review of the Department of Human Resources hiring practices, and audit of the last two years of supervisory and professional hires, the Common Council has asked the staff audit team to seek input from MPSEA regarding recommendations for changes to current City hiring practices and procedures.

If you and your members have recommendations or comments regarding current City hiring practices that impact your members, please send them to Karl Van Lith in the Organizational Development and Training Division of the Department of Human Resources, no later than October 26, 2007. Karl will consolidate the input and provide it to the audit team for dicussion and inclusion in the report to the Common Council. MPSEA input may be routed inter-office to Karl or sent by e-mail. Anonymous comments and recommendations will be accepted, and no individual names will be included in the report.

Thank you in advance for your assistance. Should you have questions regarding the resolution or my request, please contract Karl Van Lith at [xxx-xxxx] or via e-mail.

Letter from the City Attorney's Office to Janet Piraino (Mayor's Office), Brad Wirtz (Human Resources), Lucia Nunez (Civil Rights Director), Dean Brasser (Comptroller), Larry Nelson, (Engineering - on behalf of MEM), Lorri Wendorf (Community Services on behalf of MPSEA):

Attached to this memorandum are two documents. The first is a copy of the resolution approved by the Common Council as Legistar File No. 06764. As part of this resolution, City staff were directed to seek comments on any necessary changes to the Madison Civil Service Ordinance.

The second item attached is the memorandum is Sec. 3.53 (renumbered from Sec 3.35). This document sets out the civil service system and the hiring process used by the City of Madison.

By this memorandum, I am asking that you or someone in your office to whom you wish to delegate this matter provide our office staff with any suggested changes to Sec 3.53, MGO. Your suggestions should be sent either to my attention, or to that of Roger Allen in our office, no later than October 15, 2007.

This issue should also be placed on the agenda for discussion by the Personnel Board.

cc: Roger Allen, Larry O'Brien, Karl van Lith, Lorie Olson, Carolyn Hogg, Christie Hill, Larry Oaks

How very, very interesting. I didn't see the council directions include anything about the Mayor's office or the City Attorney's Office who seem to have attempted to make themselves the contact on this issue, despite the clear direction the council set. And I didn't see anything in the council directions that said that this should be placed on the agenda for the Personnel Board or to seek input from various other people that this memo was directed to. Not that input is bad, and additional comments are always welcome, but that's an interesting group of individuals to seek input from given the clear directions that were given. (i.e. people who might say what the Mayor wants them to say because he either controls their appointments or budgets and/or people who participated in controversial hirings.)

The bigger issue that has me very concerned was the attempt to potentially intimidate or control the feedback that was given on this issue. We purposely provided several venues for people to give input to depending upon their comfort levels and wanted it to be an open process for staff to comment. Adding to my concern was that when I met with Common Council, Affirmative Action and Training and Development staff yesterday, none of them had attempted to get input from the City staff. They hadn't even sent out an email or any other request to get information.

It's no secret that a big part of this issue is the role that the Mayor's office has played in recent hires, starting salaries and gender issues. The Mayor's role in trying to change the directions of the Common Council and inserting himself and his staff into this process doesn't look very good. Can you say "damage control"?

Thankfully, the MPSEA folks didn't cave in to the pressure. They did not get their comments to the Mayor's designated choice by the Mayor imposed deadline and informed Karl van Lith that they would enter their report directly into Legistar so that it couldn't be edited by any "audit team" that the Mayor may have set up. Good for them! Now, I hope other staff will respond to the email they get (hopefully today) by providing information to any of the Council resolution designated venues. If employees have concerns we need to hear from them without fear of retaliation and I hope the Mayor doesn't further interfere with Council request.


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WSJ: A tiny bit right?

But factually, all screwed up, as usual. I just don't read the WSJ to protect my blood pressure, but someone sent me their editorial on the budget. On a macro level, they got it right. This budget is out of control and not sustainable. The Mayor's proposal does some truly irresponsible things like putting the $3.9M of TIF funding into the budget and adding 30 police officers. Both of those things make it very difficult to see how we will be able to sustain this budget in future years.

When you look at what they relied on to write their editorial, well, that's where it all falls apart. It's hard to believe this is the same paper that we rely on for the news. I wonder if they ever talk to their reporters before they write this crap on the editorial pages? And I'd wonder if they even read their own paper if they covered the local news in any meaningful way. Any ways, here's what the WSJ got wrong yesterday:

1. It' hardly remarkable that Tim Bruer said "one of the best he's ever seen." cuz he says it every year that he and Mayor Dave see eye to eye on the budget. So, that would be every year since Mayor Dave was elected.

2. Privatizing the concession stand operations would cause the City to LOSE money, as the concession stands make a profit. Additionally, privatizing the concession stands would not lower the wages, as any contractor would be required to pay a living wage as well under our current laws.

3. Progressive Dane alders proposed more cuts to the budget than Alder Brandon did and he failed to vote for some of them when they benefited him and his district. And more of our cuts passed, including $2.9M in the water utility. Alder Brandon failed to vote for millions of dollars of cuts in the Capital Budget which would have saved $516,000 on the levy. In the end, Alder Brandon claims to have cut only $60,000 in this year's budget, which he says is his best year ever when it comes to successful cuts.

4. The Wisconsin State Journal credits Alder Clear with trying to cut officers to pay for youth programs, but they ignore that the other name on those amendments was Ald. Rhodes-Conway. And then they say that she made the amendment to not cut the cops and only pay for the programs, but that was not her motion.

So, once again, they can't write a few paragraphs without getting a whole lot wrong. And while I agree that this proposed budget is not sustainable and that the one-time windfall from closing the TIF districts should have been used for a one-time expense, like perhaps . . . Allied Drive, it's just scary how many people read their crap and believe it because they don't know any better because the actual facts of the meetings aren't covered in their very own paper.
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NIght of the Dead!

Halloween is over, but tonight is the Night of the Dead! Rob (my sweetie!) and Baghdad Scuba Review will be playing at the Barrymore tonight with Run Side Down! Show starts at 7:30 and is only $11. CDs (Isthmus Review) and t-shirts will be for sale and it is . . . ugh, a costume party. Personally, you won't find me in one, but if that's your thing . . . feel free to use that costume one more time! I'm going for the music! Check here for some a tasty treat of what they sound like!




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Budget Spin gone amuk!

So, I do this crazy thing. From time to time, I actually listen to AM radio. Let's just call it "opposition research". Anyways, yesterday I happened to catch Ald. Brandon on Vicky McKenna and his spin on "last night". There were a few things that were kinda staggering that he was crowing about. Here's just a few of the gems. And, remember, this is the guy that didn't even stay to the end of the Board of Estimates meeting and didn't vote on the Operating Budget cuz he stormed out. There's taking responsiblity for ya!

1. He was bragging about cutting $5,000 for copying council packets, however, he didn't vote for the amendment that would have cut more money.

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.

2. He was bragging about how he got the START program that helps create jobs for people in Allied Drive to agree to cut their funding. Which was basically required because the program wasn't spending the money to help Allied Drive. In describing this, he claimed the I and the Mayor were sitting at the table saying "I don't understand.". However, I wasn't even at the table. Had I been, I would have been saying, "Damn straight they're not getting our money!"

3. He was really proud of cutting $5,000 for the "Jobs with a Future" program. This money was cut last year and he claims we shouldn't contribute money because we just help fund the program without any outcomes. However, he was willing to vote for $18,000 for the Collaboration Council without any outcomes. Jobs bad. Chamber of Commerce talking circle good?

4. He claimed Progressive Dane is rebranding itself by calling themselves progressives. Huh? Re-branding Progressive Dane by using the word "progressives". It's in the freaking name "Progressive Dane" how is that re-branding?

5. Here's some "hard choices" Ald. Brandon was not willing to make:

CAPITAL BUDGET
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.
My understanding is that there are enough tasers for each officer to have on when they go out on a shift. This money is so that they all have their own personal taser.

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.

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.

OPERATING BUDGET
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 #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.

In the end this one would have saved $22,515.

6. Here's some money he helped add to the budget:

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 #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.

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 #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.

And just a side note. Even keeping victims of domestic violence from being killed isn't worth

$5,682 to Ald. Brandon.
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)

Seems to me that a guy that doesn't even stay to vote on the budget, adds money to the budget and refuses to vote for some cuts isn't as pure as he claims. Next time you hear Ald. Brandon grandstanding on the budget, before you believe what he says, check the facts.


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