Catching Up with the Round Up

Many, many miscellaneous thoughts on things that happened last week - very, very busy during a time when most people are on vacation.

DID YOU EVER NOTICE
This has driven me crazy for quite some time. The very first thing on the Common Council Agenda says the following:

If you need an interpreter, translator, materials in alternate formats or other accommodations to access this service, activity or program, please call the phone number below at least three business days prior to the meeting.

Why does that drive me crazy? Well, the agenda typically comes out on Friday, sometimes late in the day, so there is not way to comply with the requirements to get assistance. I'm quite certain it is true for many meetings throughout the city, but it seems particularly obnoxious on the Council agenda.

3 OF 13, CLOSE ENOUGH
Why did the Board of Estimates approve this and send it on to the Common Council without a better plan in place? It seems that they still have to find 10 sites for program which might be in city parks or at retail stores. Seems like it has quite a bit of work still to be done, but if they approve this it won't come back to council. Seems it is not soup yet.

BENCH DIVIDERS - STATE STREET NEXT?
I understand that the Greater State Street Business Association has placed an item on the agenda this week that would put dividers on benches just like on the Capital Square . . . What bothers me on these decisions is, where is the public process? A group of business leaders decide something should be done and the City just jumps and asks how high?

DEEP POCKETS - AND THE CITY JUST KEEPS ON GIVING - FOR SOME
$2M for police training facilities, $16M for TIF for the Edgewater and now . . . $37M for the library, but we don't have $150,000 - $200,000 for Cost of Living increases for much needed community services that are facing increased requests for services and haven't had adequate cost of living increase for years - while health care costs skyrocket and the living wage continues to increase rapidly, squeezing the organizations at a time when fundraising is down. (Ok, I won't rant on, but you get the picture) What the hell are our/the City's/the Mayor's/your Alder's priorities? Seems so backwards/asinine to hire so many police (over $1M per year) and not support the prevention and support services with minimal increases.

CELL PHONES - NUMBER ONE REQUEST OF THE POOR?
Somehow, I don't believe it. It's probably not even the number one unmet need. Help paying rent and utility bills, bus passes, food, clothing, emergency shelter, childcare assistance, legal services, a place to put their belongings, help moving, security deposit assistance and many, many, many other things seem to come way ahead of requests for cell phones. Not that its a bad idea, don't get me wrong . . . it just isn't the number one need by a very, very long shot.

THE CRIME REPORT
When you look at the latest news and you see this (example from the 29th):
* Madison teen taken by MedFlight after vehicle accident TCT 7:45 am
* Madison man killed in alcohol-related crash WSJ 7:27 am
* Prepare for a somewhat chilly weekend TCT 7:16 am
* Woman convicted in Richland Center fire WSJ 11:49 pm
* Madison man charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide WSJ 9:42 pm
* Chemical reaction at House on the Rock; no one injured WSJ 8:27 pm
* Massachusetts man arrested for Thursday night incident in Madison WSJ 7:31 pm
* This one's no joke: Plastic pink flamingo might be named Madison's city bird WSJ 7:24 pm
* Oregon man charged with sexual assault WSJ 7:11 pm
* Verona city administrator resigns WSJ 5:56 pm

It seems like all that is happening in Madison is crime. I know it easy to report on because the police spoon feed the reporters (the police have a full time press person with nothing else to do), but it seems absurd that the news is so dominated by this. That's why I'm happy to see that on the new madison.com website, the Cap Times has a separate section for "law and order". . . now if the Wisconsin State Journal would do the same . . .

MORE CHANGES REQUESTED AT THE NEW MADISON.COM
1. Make the archives easier to find and the search function work better.
2. Make the blogs easier to find. (Cap Times did a little better.)


POLICE WON'T RESPOND
Lukas Diaz said it better than I could. I attended the meeting of the Public Safety Review Board where they discussed the Woodman's problem and I was a little horrified that one of the members asked what was going to happen when word got out that you could steal up to $20 and the police would do nothing - and all they got was a shrug. They can use the civil court process. Why does this remind me of the attempts by the police not respond to burglary alarms . . . and the increase in robberies in the following months?

SOUTHWEST SIDE DIVIDE
Mayor and Chief Wray don't know what to think . . . attempts to solve community problems without the police? That just wasn't part of the plan. They can starve the non-profits to make them ineffective, so the police are the only answer, but the community isn't falling for it. There are other solutions out there. Even Lenfeld got it when he said that "Law enforcement is a very short-term solution,". The programs, community response and preventative services that aren't being adequately funded are the long term solutions and will have a much greater impact than a code of conduct. (That oughta give Blaska something to write about! I can hear it now, Progressive Dane ala Konkel is ruining the world . . . fyi, this blog are my thoughts only, not the official Progressive Dane word, I'm not on the spokesperson, or even on the steering committee. Just a former alder with some time on my hands!)

WHAT DID LUEDERS SAY?
The city assessor is in favor of limiting information available to the public because it would make his job easier? Huh? He should have thought of that when we went through that whole property tax fiasco which his office aggressively pursued to no avail. That wasted alot of time, money and effort for many.

CREDIT FOR EMPLOYMENT
This makes sense to me. Why does your employer need to know your credit, what does that have to do with what kind of employee you are going to be?

There, I feel a little caught up - but its a very, very busy week ahead and I'm still behind on some library stuff and the operating budget grades. Read more!

It's September! Week Ahead

The first week of the month is always very busy, this week is no exception.

Monday, August 31, 2009
4:00 PM HOUSING DIVERSITY PLANNING AD HOC COMMITTEE ROOM 403 CCB
- 2nd meeting, and they will be looking at school district data.

6:00 PM COMMON COUNCIL - DISCUSSION ROOM 260 MMB
- Alders to talk about their budget priorities

Tuesday, September 1, 2009
4:30 PM COMMON COUNCIL ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITTEE ROOM 108 CCB
- The Common Council hasn't submitted their budget yet, so they need to approve/amend the staff recommendation at this meeting. Their proposals include cutting alder small budgets in half or dropping staff to 80% and 75% positions.
- Rediscussion of adding alders to ALRC and Public Safety Review Commission
- Eliminating residency requirements for managers and supervisors
- Fixing chapter 32 and having more items eligible for police to issue tickets plus requiring landlords to put info on check out sheets about right to inspect photos of apartment.
- Discussion of TIF and "but for"
- Create a committee to talk about alcohol licensing and enforcement (I think this is about the bar raids)

6:30 PM COMMON COUNCIL ROOM 201 CCB
(Find your own links, there's alot, item numbers in parenthesis)
- Pink Flamingos (3)
- Plastic Bag recycling program (17)
- TIF for Danisco (18)
- Burr Oaks Senior Housing Plan (19)
- Expanding the SW Industrial TID (20)
- Creating the Northside TID (21)
- Police Overtime Report (22)
- More money for SW side (23)
- Law for Majestic Marquee (26)
- Demolition of buildings on Allied (57)
- Ban on Sale of Novelty lighters (71)
- Landlord entry ordinance (72)
- THUY ALERT: Midvale Westomorland Neighborhood plan (73)
- Recycling construction and demolition waste (80)
- Buying busses for Metro (82)

Items for Introduction/Upcoming items
- Notifications for ALRC issues (83)
- Sign requirement for ALRC issues (86)
- Zoning code revisions (89)
- ALRC issues with suspension, revoation non-renewal (90)
- Removing sunset for chronic nuisance ordinance (92)
- Downtown Lighting Initiative (103)
- Rifles for Cops (114)

Wednesday, September 2, 2009
12:00 PM NOTICE OF POSSIBLE QUORUM OF COMMON COUNCIL AT ALDER BROWN BAG LUNCHEON WITH MAYOR DAVE CIESLEWICZ ROOM 403 CCB
- I never understood how this was legal, if they didn't announce what they were talking about. I haven't seen one of these for quite some time, but they will likely talk about budget, hotels and library and whatever else the Mayor wants to announce.

12:00 PM PERSONNEL BOARD ROOM 525 CCB
- This one sucks, personally. I spent a year or more helping come up with the important recommendations in this report, but can't even speak to the committee about them.
- Finally adopting the personnel rules (glad to have played a role in having made this happen too - tho I haven't reviewed them in detail to determine what they changed - but they were in severe need of updating.

4:30 PM BOARD OF PUBLIC WORKS ROOM 108 CCB
- This has been on the agenda for months, and I'm beginning to wonder what is going on.

4:30 PM URBAN DESIGN COMMISSION ROOM LL-110 MMB
- Edgewater
- Lisa Link Peace Park

5:00 PM ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE ROOM 300, MMB
- Royster Clark
- 2010 Economic Development Workplan
- Economic Dashboard

5:00 PM HOUSING COMMITTEE ROOM 260 MMB
- Photo ordinance notification
- Residential Sprinklers (I know nothing more than this . . . no attachments.)
- Homebuyer Assistance programs for minoirities.

7:00 PM MADISON AREA TRANSPORTATION PLANNING BOARD 119 E. OLIN AVE. ROOM A-B
- Public Hearing on the 2010 - 2014 TIP, won't be adopted til October
- Verona Road Plans

Thursday, September 3, 2009
7:30 AM FUNDING PROCESS SUBCOMMITTEE FOR THE COMMUNITY SERVICES COMMITTEE, EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION COMMITTEE AND SENIOR CITIZENS ADVISORY COMMITTEE ROOM LL-130 MMB

9:00 AM CITY OF MADISON/AMPS NEGOTIATIONS ROOM GR 22 CCB
- This is odd, I've never seen labor negotiations conducted as a public meeting . . .

5:00 PM COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT COMMITTEE 1917 LAKE POINT DRIVE
- Public Hearing on the 5 Year Consolidated Plan - setting priorities for funding.
- Update on Allied Drive - Phase II (currently useless link)
- Northport/Sherman Neighborhood Plan

7:00COUNTY BOARD MEETING 201 City-County Building 215 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
- Making their Fair Housing Laws more consistent with Madison (H.1.)
- Making Dane County a Recovery Zone for Stimulus Funding (J.1.)

Read more!

Long Overdue Weekly Round Up

I did a bad job filling in for the Cap Times this week! The Edgewater, capital budget grades, Southwest meeting, Danisco BOE discussion and County Human services news all kept me very, very busy for what should be a "down" week at the end of the summer. In this summary you can find: Mayor's spending mania, will we ever have a housing plan, southwest side meeting comments, thank you Verveer, the Lorax, CDBG changin priorities?, ride the drive/WYOU and the obligatory Bridget comment.

NO MONEY . . . EXCEPT FOR . . .
Police and Hotels. $18M! If I remember correctly when we borrow $18M that will impact the budget by $40,000 per million for 10 years (a general rule of thumb) or over $7M. Many will claim, at least in the hotel case, that money will be paid by TIF so its no big deal. However, it is a big deal, because for 10 years while the taxes are frozen in that district they are not going to the schools, or county or technical colleges or the city for other projects. In the case of the police, many have emailed me questioning the timing and need for this facility. Our debt payments are up to $26M in our current budget according to the WSJ - that's even higher than I thought!

WILL WE EVER HAVE A HOUSING PLAN FOR THE CITY
At this pace . . . no.

SOUTHWEST SIDE MEETING
It certainly was bizarre. While I questioned if Blaska was out of touch, Lukas Diaz did a better job of pointing out why. It's worth readiing. And many are asking, what is SWANS and which neighborhoods are involved in it? The comment points out that channel 3 reports, none. They took this one right out of the Rove/Bush playbook - to hell with the truth, just create a perception!

THANK YOU VERVEER
After being on the council for over 8 years, you learn a few things. One of them is that you learn how lobbyists and developers operate, what strategies they try to employ and you get a sense of what falls withing the realm of acceptable. Most citizens never seen any of the behind the scenes manuvering, but its kind of amazing to watch. Which is why I particularly appreciate Verveers comments here:

"I welcome Brenda's complaints," says Ald. Mike Verveer. "In my opinion, this is clearly a great example of why the [lobbying] ordinance is important and helpful to people, particularly given the unorthodox, behind-the-scenes methods in which Hammes has proceeded these many months."

His comments are particularly important because he is the alder on the council who has dealt with the most development - perhaps as much as all the alders on the council combined due to his length of service and the downtown area he represents.

NEIGHBORHOOD TAKING ON THE ROLE OF THE LORAX
This was one of the issues I was growing more and more concerned about, so I'm glad to see this especially with the Emerald Ash Borer threat breathing down our necks:

Preserving and Enhancing the Urban Forest
A program and discussion with a focus on the neighborhood's street trees and forest.
6:30 - 8:30 pm, Wed., September 23
Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center, Jenifer at Brearly

The program will include a review of Milwaukee's successful urban forest protection program during street construction projects. This will be the prelude to an engaging discussion with Madison's City Forester and staff of Madison's Engineering Division administration on tree protection and other urban forestry questions.

The event is free and open to the public.

Sponsored by Marquette Neighborhood Association and Friends of Historic Third Lake Ridge, www.thirdlakeridge.org

CDBG PLANS ARE OUT - TIME TO COMMENT!
Here's the 5 year plan and the one year plan is here. This just came out 2 days ago, but comments are next Thursday.

The CDBG Committee will have a Public Hearing at 5:00 p.m., on September 3, 2009 at the Bridge-Lake Point-Waunona Community Center 1917 Lake Point Drive.

HOW MANY JOBS?
So, Danisco only said they'd create 25 jobs and retain 20 in their TIF application, so why is the Economic Development Director Tim Cooley claiming 170 or over 300?

IN CASE YOU ARE LIVING UNDER A ROCK.
Ride the Drive is this weekend. I gotta say, I don't get it and I'm tired of hearing about it everywhere. But, I'll be there, stop by WYOU (600 Block E Wash) for some lemonade and to sign a petition in support of city funding for WYOU! PEG funding doesn't end until 2011 (thanks to the state video competition act), but the Mayor has plans to cut the funding early, even tho your cable fees will still go to the city and be used for something else.

OH, BRIDGET
So, my announcement that she had dinner with folks from the Edgewater elicited a rather rude response from Alder Maniaci which has since been amended (see the url address for the original title of the post: http://riotinthecity.blogspot.com/2009/08/b-is-being-b.html) wherein she denies having dinner with Bob Dunn. So, I feel compelled to say what I was told. Bob Dunn was outside of the Old Fashioned talking on his phone, Bridget rode up on her bike, alone. She briefly talked to him, walked in and went to the restroom. Dunn walks in, talks to an alder in the room and goes and sits down. Bridget walks out of the restroom and goes and sits by him. Was it a chance meeting? I don't know, but as well all know, in politics, perception is reality and that is what more than one person told me happened and they told me the same story independently. And I'm not sure why anyone would make that up.

As always, I have much more, it was a busy, busy week! Read more!

Dane County Human Services 2010 Budget Recommendations

You can see the entire budget submission here. The summary is here if you want a quick snap shot. The presentation was given to the Health & Human Needs Commission.  It was kind of gruesome for the Purchase of Service agencies, since it appeared that they would not be facing 4% cuts, but the cuts ended up being 3% across the board, plus they took away the COLA increase from the beginning of the year, plus they didn't fund the living wage increases required by law . . . which is all on top of a few years of flat funding . . . which all adds up!


PUBLIC COMMENT
Carl Chenoweth is on the City Council in Stoughton but he is representing a group of concerned citizens including former Mayor Helen Johnson. He is worried about relcating Human Services outside of Stoughton. He says the facility serves 500 families and over 1,000 children. He asks them to defer the action because it will only provide an increased burden for the families.

Lynn Green (Director of Dane County Human Services) says that the closing is in 2009 budget, passed it in 2008. Even though the staff will be moved, the services will continue in Stoughton, but will centralize them in one of the city offices. They don’t have money to rent another location. They just put the building up for sale. The staff will be moved to S. Madison or Northport. The services won’t be available on site, but many of the services are done in people’s homes (child protective services) and some economic support can be done without face to face contact, except W2.

Bruskewitz asks about seniors. Green says they are not included in this. Staff include a JFF worker, children youth and families and protective services and 4 public health nurses.

Vedder asked what the plan for the changes. Green says they won’t leave the building until they sell it. The Economic Support workers will go to the Job Center. Soocial Workers to will go to South Madison or Northport. Public Health will determine where to put the nurses. Only services related to delinquency and W2 were provided in that office.

PRESENTATION ON 2010 BUDGET
Green says this budget was difficult, but not as difficult as originally anticipated, grateful the County Executive allowed them to submit a budget that was GPR neutral instead of 4% decrease as originally requested. Green said that losing revenue is major challenge this year. They lost $2.2M from State, so main problems were COLA [for the department, not the purchase of service agencies] and reduction in revenues from other sources. She says the County was good to us and they appreciate that.  She says the pain is shared with department and purchase of service providers.

G.P. Foster went through a power point presentation, which is essentially the summary provided here.  These are the highlights/general summary.

• The total Human Services budget is $233,121,414, which is an increase of $5M over 2009 adopted budget.
• Expenses increased 2.2%.
• They had to keep GPR at $63,274,451.
• They were able to keep the funding by:
• an increase in Federal funding
• eliminating 13.7 staff positions
• 3% decrease in purchased services across the board
  
• Exemptions were made for vital public safety services such as
• child protection
• delinquency
• gang related programs
• Youth Restitution
• Services we are providing that no other county provides includes
• Joining Forces for Families
• Services for high school graduates with developmental disabilities
• Senior case management
• Unmandated services that are prevention/early intervention services are
• Neighborhood Intervention Program (youths at risk of being involved in delinquency system or gangs)
• Youth resource centers
• Parenting groups
• Runaway Services
• Youth Employment
• Homeless services
• Services to those at risk of losing their homes
  

The rest of the presentation really was just what is in this handout.  The only additinoal pieced of information were that:

• The $188,000 in stimulus money was largely for senior nutrition, it will be used to help the caterers who got a 3% cut.
  
• The living wage is going from $10.20 to $10.61
• There was a clarification that the POS (purchase of service) base was the 2009 budget, without the 1% cost of living increase.  The 3% cut to agencies was from that smaller number.  She says that administration considered that 1% COLA increase to be a one time only increase.  Vedder asked why and Green said that it was not a department decision, it was made by administration. 
• Projects eliminated in the senior services includes United Asian Services, the United Way Database project and the Stoughton Hospital Home and Adult Daycare Services which are already gone.
• They should be posting their powerpoint presentation of the summary to the website.
• The only added feed were for certification of some providers bringing in $505,000 in fees.  The MA personal care was also increase by $560,000
• All the increases in funding are due to outside funding revenues.  
• 95 - 96% (or probably more) is not one time money, but on-going funding.
• The elimination of some staff at Badger Prairie is because they can contract to providers who can bill for their services for occupational, speech and physical therapy.  They will be ending the physical and speech therapy contracts and then eliminating an occupational therapist and their assistant.
• The redesign of the W2 program is a bureaucratic redesign that creates a W-2 unit so they can get funding for the unit - it should be invisible to everyone else.
• The budget is $5M higher than last years, but they hae $5M in outside funding and GPR stayed the same.

DISCUSSION AND QUESTIONS
Green explains that the County Executive also took some other "one time" expenses out of the budget beyond the 3% including some of her own AODA initiatives.

Vedder asks about the COLA.  Which is explained again.

They ask what the 13.7 positions are.  Green and Foster explain that it is

• 2 Joining Forces for Families Social Workers
• The public relations manager in administration
• A clerk 4 position
• One paralegal
• The occupational therapist and assistant at Badger Prairie
• 2 security at badger prarie
• 1 social service tech, 
• Americorp coordinator
  
• 3 clerk typisst and;
  
• A lead economic assistance worker for which they lost funding(lost fraud funding)

She says that every division and administration took a reduction. Some of the positions are vacant or will be through retirements at the end of the year. [Obviously, not all of these positions listed were a full 1 FTE]

Bruskewitz asks how many newly created fees there are.  Green says none, she says that they have run out of options for creating new fees.

McDonell asks about Badge Prairie loss of jobs.  Green explains the contract elimination and job elimination again, says the total savings in $180,000 in staff and the current contracts for the physical therapy and speech therapy are being eliminated cuz find cost neutral possibilities.

Vedder asks where the outside revenue came?  Green says it came from MA, personal care, childrens long term support which totaled $2.8M/  There was also $500,000 in DD cerificationt fees, $400,000 for the W-2 redesign, stimulus money of 188,000 (senior nutirition meals), areas where some POS can bring in insurance or medical assistance funding and $600,000 for purchase of care.

Vedder asks about 3% cut for services and the elimination of the COLA.  Green explains that in order to be GPR nuetral and also increase the department COLA they ended up having to cut an additional $1M from the budget.  [This means that the Department increases in expenses for staff and supplies were covered, even tho non-profit and purchase of service groups did not get those cuts.]

Stubbs asks about Birth to Three program.  Green explains it is mandated by the federal and state government and the state includes more people in their eligibility standards.  She says that they get some money to provide the services but they didn't get an increase from the state.  They know they can’t control those costs because they have to serve eligible people and if they budget any other way, it would just create a deficit.  They added $15,000 to make it closer to reality.  Green says there is over $1M of GPR in the mandated program from the state. $1,280,000 is real number. She says they were cautious about exemptions that they made – they feel that they are things that keep our costs down. Prevention services for juvenile delinquency will says in jail services.  They also did the same in mental health services.

Wheeler asks about DD.  Green explains that they can help pay for items (equipment) that help families care for family members in their homes. 

Veldran asks about the living wage.  Green explains that the ordinance requires purchase of service groups to comply, but mandate the county to pay for it, they just have tried to do it over the years.

McDonnell says that is another cut if they have to increase from $10.20 to 10.61.  Foster explains that this is a big jump due to increased gas prices 2 years ago and that in 2011 we may see a decrease due to the current economy. 

They clarified that CDBG did get some stimulus money, but only about $60,000[?]

Vedder asks who is implacted by the living wage.  Green says it is mostly DD and care giving staff.

Stubbs asks about stimulus money.  Green explains there is very little federal money in their budget, that the federal government gives the money to the state and the state did not pass along those increases in funding that they received.  So even though the federal government gave increases to help lower the amount of money the state would match, the county didn't get that money.


Mcdonnell asks how much the living wage will cost agencies?  Green says it is about $700,000.

Vedder asks about aoda money?  Green says they got the 3% reduction.  Vedder asks if they counted the COLA, Green says no.



Stubbs asks if the agencies have been notified.  Green says they were called and sent something in the mail.  They requested to get a same of what was sent.

Genter (Adult Services) says they only called agencies that had changes that were not 3%.

Green sasy that the POS community is hurt, not going to downplay it – a lot of hurt in department with the 13.7 staff they are losing.  They are sharing the loses.  Really tried to spread the pain – many of reductions in department are painful.

McDonell asks about original and new guidelines given by the County Executive.  Green says they would have had to cut $1.45M and as a result, they have less cuts to the POS Agencies.

They wrap it up by reminding people the public hearings are the 8th and 10th at the Human Serives Annex (old Kirby Vacuum) at the Dane County Job Center.  It's not in the ball room, but a separate entrance through the Mall.  They note that people will only have 3 minutes to speak this year, instead of 5. Read more!

Blaska Out of Touch?

So, I went to the meeting about the "code of conduct" on the SW side expecting people to rail against "those people" on Section 8 and who wear baggy pants, but found something quite different. There ended up being very little talk about what the code of conduct actually said, except some concerns. The one person who was slightly offnsive was shut down immediately, perhaps making it so that others were discouraged from speaking up. Here's the details [with comments] and I bolded some interesting statements. There were about 200 people who attended and about 10 people of color.

INTTRODUCTIONS
Don Severson from the Dane County Council of Public Affairs did a brief introduction, talked about the groups involved and talked about the ground rules. [If you are interested, you might want them join them in "fighting back" against Obama's health care proposal at the town hall meeting they are supporting. In case you want to know more, they also endorsed Nancy Mistele.]

PURPOSE OF THE FORUM
Tom McKenna explained how this meeting came about. Says for 15 months people participated in the South West steering committee who created a neighborhood plan [I'd put in a link here, but the city's website isn't behaving at the moment.] for the area that was accepted by the Common Council. The plan addressed issues of the neighborhood. Major goals were to make changes to enhance the neighborhood and strengthen neighborhoods and he talks about 4 priority areas in the plan. He says the Meadowood community center is a result of the plan and a library is next. He says that the next priorities are to have a neighborhood network to disseminate information and establish a coalition of neighborhood associations. He talks about the press release from mayor [I'd put in a link here but the city website isn't behaving.] saying that it is not work of city alone to solve the neighborhood problems, and that he can't be successful without neighborhood leaders.  He says that 6 weeks ago a couple of groups got together to say we need to address the mayor’s challenge. After being on steering committee, he took it upon himself to go to the city’s website and got info on all the neighborhood associations in the area and sent an email to presidents.  They have held 2 meetings so far and he thanks people for joining them. Wants to join with Communities and Family's United to have one voice to talk to the government about their needs.

RESIDENTS BILL OF RIGHTS AND CODE OF CONDUCT

David Glomp spoke next.  He said he wants to make the neighborhood a better place to live.  He will talk about the Resident's Bill of Rights and Code of Conduct.  He says that we all live by laws and rules and they protect our individual liberties.  He says that the residents bill of rights is similar to the United States and State Constitution.  He says that members of neighborhoods need to have enumerated the kinds of quality of life they want for their neighborhoods. They repeatedly said the documents were developed with all citizens and people in mind – honoring protected classes (race, religion, ethnicity) and they want to have dignity and respect for everyone. He says that most of the rights are self explanatory. Talks about the government agencies that can help.  He calls the document should be called the Resident's Great Expectations for the Good Quality of Life for All of Us.  Some of the things he highlights from the agreement are:
- He says he wants the police to enforce the laws on the books, don’t need more laws.  He just wants to assure that the ones on the books will be enforced.
- They also want to continue some laws – particularly the chronic nuisance ordinance [Sorry, site still down, so no link]. He says that two years ago it was brought up that is was difficult for landlords to deal with some of their residents and that is ordinance was a result. He says this will sunset this fall, and that they need this to enforce against bad landlords and in some cases bad residents.  [That was an interesting change of wording from one sentence to the next.  Not clear if he thinks the ordinance is for bad landlords or bad tenants.]
- Wants more information shared with the neighbors from the police.Wants to know what is going on in their neighborhood. That way they will feel safer.
- Neighborhood alliance will help agencies by being the eyes and ears in the neighborhoods. He notes that they added 30 officers in the last year, but only accounted for 5 new round the clock officers – takes 6 officers to staff a beat – so only 5 new full time positions.
- Need to be prepared to step up and address inappropriate behavior – not suggesting vigilantism – just vigilance.
– They want to partner with police, schools and PTOs to make sure people know these rules apply to everyone 24/7 for adults and youth.
- If we need new laws or ordinances or rules they expect elected leaders to make it happen. But they think there are enough laws.
- Wants the rules to be uniform so kids can’t say they don’t know the rules if the rules are the same in school and out.  He wants people to think about the code as 10 commandments.
- He wants people to think of sharing the code of behavior with anyone behaving badly, explain how behavior is inappropriate – need to suggest better way, need to be conversational not confrontational. Not afraid to address those behaving badly. Protect the rights of citizens and neighborhoods. It can be done in a respectful and dignified way. Maybe all you say to someone that their action are bothersome and ask them to stop and make alternative suggestions.
-In a public place, he hopes other neighbors will step up and stand with you to address bad behaviors.
- Wants neighborhood associations to utilize the neighborhood watch groups in existence to inform neighbors of activities that have been bothersome, need good two way communication between police and coordinators. Need to have a dialog.

He says we can step up to the plate and be part of the solution. Don’t want to hide behind our curtains in our homes. Use bill of rights and conduct as starting point. Not all of these things raise to the level of a crime. We need to be the eyes and ears of the police. If behavioral issues or quality of life issues we need t talk to people creating the problem


SCHOOLS ROLES AND STRATEGIES
Don Severeson says schools are center of our neighborhoods.  He points out the 12 schools involved with the neighborhoods.  Explains some schools are not in the neighborhood, but kids from the neighborhood go to them.  When talking about having residents involved, they need to be all inclusive regardless of where they go to school. Schools are center of neighborhoods and what goes on. What goes on in the schools affects students, staff and neighbors. He notes that across the school district 76% of households do not have children in the school. A lot of us residents that don’t have kids in the schools but still are committed to relationship with the schools. Some might have grandchildren in the school. We need to understand the expectations in the schools and some of us are going to have to learn some different skills and attitudes. We need to relate better and reach out. We need to establish relationships with staff, teachers, parents and kids. Last few years all the schools have adopted and are implementing policies.  One policy is Above the Line, Below the Line and the Bottom Line.   He notes there are some differences in how the schools implement it.  Student and staff and parent handbooks. [He actually called them hymnals. twice.  I guess we're carrying out the religious them this week]  The second policy is Positive Behavior Initiative [you need to sign in to see it.]. There are ways which staff and parents have been trained and students are engaged in learning about positive behavior. Suggests parents and the rest of us residents need to be more aware about those expectations are. So, when kids leave the school, it isn’t a different world they go into. Code of conduct and behavior is very closely aligned with those policies of the schools and school districts. They shouldn’t be any surprises. He lists some expections or things that nee to happen.
- They need to further identify or discuss what Dave started in terms of the aims of the code of conduct
- They need to make sure the public is aware of the expectations.
- The need to expect school to uniformly enforce and use restorative justice.  He says people need to learn what "restorative justice" means.
- Expect parents to support school efforts at home and residents respect throughout the community. Being a parent is the only job left totally to on the job training.
- Wants schools to proactively seek collaboration with neighborhood associations and community groups to help develop the skills.  Some of that is happening and there needs to be more and thinks it can be strengthened. Encourages schools to come out to the neighborhoods. He says the schools don’t get many volunteers. We need to reach out and ask specifically.
- Needs to create a communications network among all the stakeholders to encourage positive behavior. Alot going on and a lot is positive and need to build on that and identify shortcomings and collaboratively work together to build it and take positive steps.

HOUSING STRATEGIES
Tom McKenna – Talks about housing in the neighborhood. Wants to come up with suggestions in the housing area. He says it is easy for a tenant to be a good tenant and outlines what a good tenant needs to do:
- Know lease and follow it
- Pay rent on time
- Keep apartment clean
- Tell landlords about repairs
- Be a good neighbor
- Keep copies of all correspondence.

A good landlord has to:
- Keep property in good shape
- Screen tenants

He points out three people he thinks are good landlords [including Brent Milfort who is open ignoring Dane County Fair Housing Laws and proud of it.]   The city through Building Inspection has a great 10 page brochure that spells out responsibilities of landlords and tenants. A couple things in there that are spelled out. He says if you don’t know who landlord is 32.08 requires that info of the contact person be included in the lease. MGO 27.04 requires in a 3 unit or more there must be a note in the hallway of who to contact. He talks about landlord registration and he says that if we know who they are because the information is hung in the hallway and we have police calls to an address and that is how you know if someone is a bad landlord then you can run the addresses of the owners of the property and contact them.  [Sounds simple right, someone can just go to every rental property and collect that information out the the hallway of all the buildings, because you see those notices all the time, right?  Yes, I'm being sarcastic]. He says one property had 123 calls to one address. Not all are bad requests.  He says that we know who the bad landlords are already. We all have to “go after” the bad landlords – that is one for the reasons we have the chronic nuisance. Noise, drugs, criminal activities and code violations can be addressed. Wants to support chronic nuisance ordinance, lets property owners know the city is serious. He says if tenants are having problems they should call the landlord and if the landlord doesn't fix the problem, call the Building Inspector, Health Department or Police Department.  [Great advice!  Should we just start having tenants call the police when they have tenant/landlord problems?  Do they have time for thousands of calls per year?]  He talks about how the neighborhood association should  use neighborhood watch, should send landlord a notice when they are violating code of conduct and say "we’re giving you 5 days" and then we’re going to file complaints. Easy to complain about the tenants or bad landlords, but we all have to work together. We need to help the people who need the help because the properties are not being taken care of and the people in the properties need to take care of them too.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Severson review the rules:
- One person can speak at a time
- 2 minutes per resident for questions/comments
- Residents to identify self by name, neighborhood and affiliation (if any)
- Address question/statement to the chair and for which presenter
[I gotta say, it was much more respectful and better run that the Edgewater meeting where the alder was shouting down and cutting off people trying to speak.]

Severson asks Jim Monroe to speak first.  He declines and says he wants to listen until he knows what he is commenting about.  [He is the one organizing the event on Saturday.  Sounded like he was waiting to see how nasty it got before he was portrayed as supporting some of the questionable items.]

John from Orchard Ridge says that up until a few years ago we didn’t have these problems, the problems moved in the last 3 – 4 years and wants to move the problems out. 

Severson says that has been attempted for several years and it’s just moving the problem around the city – we need to address the problems

John says that if city officials had the same problems in their neighborhoods something would be done.  There are a few audible displays of support.

Glomp asks what the behavior is.

John says one of problem is speeding. The problems were not here 5 or 6 years ago but something changed the complexion of the neighborhood. Why can’t we put the problems someplace else. City officials don’t want to deal with it, if you put them in their neighborhood they’d do something about it.

Severson said this should be referred for further discussion. Needs to be dealt with directly.

Larry from Orchard Ridge says that he surveyed Orchard Ridge neighborhood about what they needed, encourage tenants to be part of the community even though renters/tenants don’t seem to want to be part of or feel comfortable being part of the neighborhood. As part of community building they want renters to get involved in neighborhood assoc so we can work together.

Woman who lives on Balsam.  Didn't say her name because landlords might not rent to her if she wanted to move.  She says the reason we have problems because so much development in the area and people moved out.  Low interest rates helped people buy homes and now we have more rentals than tenants and landlords some of whom recently bought, can’t sell the properties, no one wants them and landlords need to look for renters who have money.  She is on section 8, she is low income and disabled.  She says that landlords will stack 2 or3 families in the units. Criminals have more money so they get rented to. One of the biggest mistakes people mistake is that people will recognize right and wrong cuz some have basic standards or ethics, some don’t know what to do.  She says that when you approach people you need to be careful because some people just hear “you’re racist" or "you hate us".

Alissa from Meadowood.  She lived in the neighborhood 23 years.  She points out that the group already violated the first item in the code of conduct – treating people with dignity and respect.  She points out the comments about the changing "complexion of the neighborhood".  She says we need to be careful about how you choose your words.  She points out that they were talking about people who behave differently needing to address their bad behavior.  She says just because someone is different doesn’t mean they are bad.  She says things are being things are being lumped together inappropriately.  She says she moved there 23 years ago there was low income housing at the end of the block, people are people, people are different.  She is a teacher, she says we have problems when people generalize and lump them together and not treat people with respect. Her question is about the bill of rights – who defines what is acceptable, normal behavior, who is establishing that list. She agrees about loud noises and understands that, but what about lawnmowers and leaf blowers before 10 on Sunday morning? She says she is serious about that and the room bursts into a round of applause.

Severson says that the definitions have to be determined by the residents. That will take involvement and participation. You will have the opportunity.

Someone asks what is the mechanism to determine what is acceptable behavior.  

Severson says to work through SWANS (the 16 neighborhoods). and neighborhood groups and Families and Communities United (group planning Saturday's event), Dane County Council on Public Affairs. [I don't think this really answered the question, I left wondering what people were supposed to do if they were interested in being involved.  I began to worry that the dog and pony show was all that was here and they didn't really want people to be involved.]

Glomp says that he encourages everyone to participate – code of conduct and bill of rights is a starting point, not all inclusive, might not agree with it all. We need rules or we have bedlam or anarchy. We need to work together and if we don’t like something we need to make it work for all of us. Important for neighborhood and citizens. When one person’s right sare violation they don’t want to live here. Wants everyone to stay and be happy. This isn’t about an age group or ethnicity, renter or homeowner, we’re all in this together. [At some point, after he said these things for the third or fourth time, I began to think that they "doth protest too much".]

Rich lives behind channel 3 for 5 or 6 years.  He says his fortune cookie today said – if you want to have a good friend than be a good friend. He wants people to consider if they are being a good friend, that can make a big difference in how people teatr you. Being nice can go a long way. He says he likes being conversational not confrontational.  It. goes a long way. He talks about the value of two neighbors talking over a fence.  Wants to see groups working together, respecting different opinions.  He suggestions that people should be connected to someone who you know is involved, you don’t have to do all the work, let them bring your opinion to the meeting.  He wants them to respect diversity, he says it sounds simple but hard to do.  He says someone driving down the road looking crazy might just be enjoying their favorite song. 

Betsy from Greentree has been the Preident of the Toki PTO for 3 years.  They have had  forums and conversations with teachers and school staff and parents dealing with appropriate behavior in the school – didn’t take it as far as the neighborhood. What the district told us – the message was – appropriate behavior is in school code of conduct, but the real issue is whether what is in the code of conduct is being carried through the leaders in the schools. Would like school district to apply the code of conduct. Has examples and data about it not being done. She talks about being pushed up against lockers in the school and nothing done. Staff have been injured and nothing seems to be done and parents whose students who have been injured or crimes against students can’t find out if perpetrator has been disciplined. She says that the "25 bad landlords" or other things might sound good, but highly doubts that it can be done. Applauds the efforts, supports it and would have been involved at meeting one. Schools being involved need to look at leasedership and that they buy into it. She says they need to make sure the teachers are really trained in the Positive Behavior Initiative. [Someone sitting by me muttered, "where would the get the money to do that."  Good point!]

Dave Keller – grew up in Orchard Ridge – he’s a landlord and agrees there are problem landlords and there are problem tenants and both have the same problem, lousy behavior. Brought his son, thought mayor would be here – this is part of what we do at my house, we involved the kids and show them what is right and wrong and doesn’t see that going on, no parental involvement with children. Would be wonderful if neighbors knew each other – doesn’t know neighbors today, did 10 years ago, hasn’t taken the outreach step – would solve a lot of problems, need to know who lives next door and across the street. – his house and neighborhoods house broken into in broad daylight and we didn’t know who should be coming and going.

Pat – Golden Oak lane 32 years.  Likes the want a friend be a friend – she thinks of this in terms of bridges and walls, we have developed a thinly veiled us and them mentality and the "them" are having a big event at Elver park on Saturday, "us" should also show up.   She says we need to be bridges.  We can have a code of conduct but until we build bridges, they won’t mean much. Things that are created unilaterally won’t be accepted, let’s all go to Elver Park. Let’s talk to each other and be the community we want to be and then talk about the rules on how we want to live together.  Once again, the room burst into applause.

Charles from Midvale Heights – Asks panel and people who did the bill of rights?  Asks why it is the citizens not the city or police that set the rules.  Who will define the neighborhood and what is the mechanism to set the rules?

Glomp says that he wants them to work with use and join the committee and we will work on those that you like or dislike – that is why we are here tonight. [Ok, what committee, when and where does it meet, who is on it?]

Jim Monroe, minister and resident on Valley Ridge Drive in the Elver Park area.  He says we need the freedom to speak up.  Watching what they are trying to do, he says he is part of "us and them" process, he says there should be no " us and them" just people.  He's trying to help the kids.  Inside our community is auction that we need, that is you. You need to let them [kids] know that you care – otherwise they won’t listen or hear – not just black kid, kids, not Hispanic kids, kids. Too many issues to try to address but we need to open our minds and want to stop the problem then we as adults and parents need to make a concerted effort to not let the kids kill or steal or rob, we need to let them know we care, not that we are scared. If you send message that you are afraid they don’t know what to do – more applause

Florenzo from Allied Drive.  We need to talk about public safety but also good and moral public policy. Looked over the bill of rights and some of the problems we have are not the same, we don’t have houses, working with the southwest neighborhoods is a good thing, but we need to have a lot more people on the end that need to follow the rules need to help create the rules.  This singles out a lot of people. People on probation and parole have been judged already – shouldn’t have to be judged twice. When people on probation and parole get out of jail and some are found innocent, in the pool of public opinion get judged twice. Working in community sine 1997, he worked with the neighborhood center before it was the boys and girls club.  Will be working on the YWCA project.  We need programs, not buildings, you don’t change people by giving them toys, need to change their thought process, need to give them something new to think about to create a new person. Willing to extend a hand and work with whoever, but want people in community to be included in the process of the rules they need to follow – more applause

REQUESTS FOR SUPPORT OF OVERALL PLANS AND STRATEGIES
Asked for comments from groups – it was awkward as no one wanted to speak up.

Someone asks about the mayor.  No one from the Mayor's office attended.

A woman says that we need to change the mindset of the school board, can’t let the kids run the school – need to not send kids all over to Verona or to catholic school. If she did it over she would send kids to catholic school, but can’t afford Edgewood.  [I don't think that was what this section was about.]

Robert Howard – 28 years in the neighborhood, children went to Orchard Ridge nursery school. He says he sees some school people here and feels bad that you folks may not know that they are here and part of this thing. He's a parent and works as a school social worker, commends the effort, good starting point and they certainly need some improvement and input from a range of people and the target folks, whomever they are, the them out there. I feel like a them, I certainly look like (he's black) the stereotype and feels like he is.  He says lots of people say they're just kids and a lot of the behavior many not look so objectionable if they were kids that look like you. I wantched the movie a Time to Kill and heard the summation and those of you who have seen it know what he said.. Think of that and these are all kids and all want love and attention and support. When we have the diversity that we have and the changes in the last 30 years, and there is more understanding of that change and we don’t need to accept all of it but people need to understand the community they are building.  He hopes to see people at Elver.  If you want to make a difference in the lives of the kids you can – he has a long list of kids that could use the help and you don’t need to be afraid.   Good neighborhood and it can be better – invite a kid or two to be on the body.   Often comes and see few people of color and people come as they are able to come many feel it is difficult to come, but invites you to read the Madison Times, read the paper, advertise in the paper, if you want to make a difference.  Come on out and get to know them, invite people of color to come. – applause.

Manny (Emanuel) Scarborough with the Elver Park Group.  He asks how did we get here? Why are we here? What was the situation that caused us to be here? How long will you be here? Only meeting you will be at? What are the goals? Strategies to get us where we want to go? Those are the hard questions. Are we going to change, what do I have to do, what do I tell myself, how do we come together as a community to look at how we want to live and how what we want to do. This is not coming to one meeting, its climbing a mountain, put one foot in front of the other. If you want to be engaged, get together in small and large groups and make it a concentrated effort. He reminds people the world is changing . . . and kids don’t understand old people – applause

West District Police Captain Lengfeld – west district is busiest district, encouraging that this district is that there is so much involvement from the community and what the speakers have said is what the whole city should do. Need to get everyone to do. Landlord pacts, community groups working to solve the problems and it’s the only way to do it. Law enforcement is a short term solution and you all are working on long term solutions, thinks issues and concerns will be addresses. Need to continue to work together and only good things will come.

Sheriff Mahoney – grew up in the neighborhood. Married high school sweetheart who grew up in Meadowood, lives by west towne. Sheriff and police work closely, trying to collaborate in south west Madison. Law enforcement will do their part. But can’t solve it all, requires entire community , requires businesses, faith based communities and schools. Points out county board supervisors in the room (Ferrell, Hesselbein and others).  Also alders (Solomon, Clear, Sanborn, King . . . no Thuy?)  He says they  will continue to work collaboratively. Points out Keller said parent involvement is required, can’t say that enough Anybody who is old enough to attend Memorial when Boomer was there, were made to run the hill. Takes involvement and mentors, many know kids in the school and we can be a mentor to the kids next door. Not a mother in this community that doesn’t care about their children. Robert made thoughtful comments. He’ll do his part, but want to work with all of you – some clapping.

School Board President Arlene Silveira – Public schools and education are different than other groups – we do not have the ability to say no to a child that walks though the doors – legally and morally obligated to help them, in Madison we also do it because we want to – they believe in all children, embrace the diversity – truly a positive when they are in a diverse class room – diversity defined in many ways. Embrace every child , even those at the Meadowood Community Center. There have been problems and issues and a strong relationship between positive school and community. These meetings are important. Introduces people in the room and says that that they are committed to working with neighborhoods - School Board Members Beth Moss, Marj Passman, Ed Hhughes & Maya Cole, 3 principals from Falk, Toki and Chavez, school adminstrators including Luis Yudice who is in charge of safety in the schools.  Says Nerad sends his regrets, long standing commitment to be with another neighborhood tonight.   Says a partnership is critical to making it work. Meeting with neighborhood associations, partnered with city on the Meadowood Community Center. Working on communications with neighborhood .  Committed to continuing the dialog and look at other solutions, but need to involve the kids.  Partnership is two ways and they need help as well. What do kids want, volunteer at the neighborhood center . . . .
 
[At this point I was interrupted by Blaska, who came to ask me if I wanted a quote for my blog.   Um . . . . No.]

County Board Supervisor Ronn Ferrell wanted to thank the women doing the childcare for the event.  He says he is listening, it’s a start, let’s keep it going, get involved we need a better city and this is how we start.

No alders were invited to come forward, unlike the police, sherriff, school board and county board folks.

With that, they wrapped it up and called it a night.  Encouraged people to get and stay involved, but never really said how.

Luciano from WYOU taped the whole thing, might want to watch his show to see if for yourself.
Read more!

Edgewater - Come to Jesus Meeting

No matter how many jokes and excuses Verveer made, this is just not the right place to hold an official City of Madison meeting. It was actually the second time I was in the church yesterday day but when I went in the church last night I went downstairs where the two large meeting rooms are . . . turns out, the meetings was in the sanctuary itself. Can you image what I said when I walked in here?  Alright, once you get past how disrespectful and rude the location of the meeting is, there is much more to be worried about.

The smoke and mirrors show by the Edgewater was introduced by Alder Maniaci and Verveer.  That was followed by staff explaining the project review process to the group of about 200 people gathered to worship at the alter of development.

There is a separate post for . . .
- The Review Process
- The Hammes Presentation
- The Neighborhood Presentation
- The Q&A (check back tomorrow or Friday)
- Landmarks meeting (check back tomorrow or Friday)

All of them have my [comments sprinkled throughout.]

A few observations:

-I've haven't seen that many neighbors at a meeting in a long time.  And it wasn't just the Mansion Hill or the other 4 groups in Capital Neighborhoods people, but people from 3 or 4 other neighborhood associations in the downtown area.  Including quite a few from the Tenney Lapham area, which I found a little curious. 

- I hadn't see this many developers and real estate industry folks and their supporters at a meeting in a long time.  I'm sure I won't catch them all, but I spotted the folks - Michael Matty, Bob and Dave Keller, Curt Brink, the Pallisades folks, Gorman & Company staff, Erik Minton, Findorff construction, Apex Development lobbyists, DMI, and I'm sure more that I didn't notice! 

- My favorite moment was when I took a picture of Soglin and Cooley (City's Economic Development Director of playing poker with TIF fame) cozy-ing up in the back of the church.  After I took the picture, I could hear them chattering "Did she just take a picture of us?"  "Why would she take a picture of us?", but I ignored them.  A few moments later I walked out into the hall and as I was leaving, both Soglin and Cooley snapped a picture of me in unison . . . too funny boys!

My question is, who was Soglin representing and was he lobbying Cooley and will it show up on the lobbying reports?


- The presentation really seemed to favor the developer and it seemed that neighborhood people were second class citizens that were interrupted and cut off, while the developer was allowed to talk as much as they wanted.  I couldn't tell if the Edgewater folks were there to listen to what the public had to say in hopes of addressing their concerns, or if it was a sales pitch to convince the public to like the project.  The answer came in the Wisconsin State Journal article this morning where Dunn is quoted as saying:

I don’t know why, with all the support we’ve seen in the community and within the neighborhood, we’d consider any major alterations at this point.

Interesting . . . so the public process is just beginning according to city staff, but Hammes isn't interested in making any changes, so it was all decided privately behind closed doors with no intention of having any critical public comment or input, supporters only! 

- There is quite a bit of backstory on how the agenda for the evening was developed.  More than a week before the meeting, the neighborhood, after talking to Alder Maniaci proposed an agenda, the city facilitator agreed to it upon approval of the alders.  No word was heard until a week later Monday night at 3:30 am, the day before the meeting when Alder Maniaci decided she didn't like the agenda.  Originally the agenda was 15 minutes for the developer and 15 minutes for the neighborhood.  Alder Maniaci proposed the neigborhood get 5 minutes and the rest of the hour minus whatever staff time was used would go to the developer.  In her own words:

This is not and should not be a tit-for-tat meeting. It's an alder-run meeting for neighbors and citizens to ask questions and weigh in on a proposal, of which the MH Steering Committee is one of many voices. We're looking to keep the presentation time to 1 hour, and the Q&A to 1 hour with a 9:30pm end time. We will be using the sign-in forms that are used at plan commission, city council, etc for the public Q&A. People will be encouraged to give their names verbally when they get up to speak, but no more than that. We'll have on the forms addresses etc.

That's not really how the meeting went, no one was allowed to comment.  Hammes ended up with a half hour and the neighborhood got 15 minutes.  I'm curious why she didn't want people giving their addresses and saying who they represent?  

- Finally, after many commented to me about how lobsided the meeting was and noted which people got cut off and which ones were allowed to speak, I was beginning to understand how why the neighborhood keeps saying Alder Maniaci was representing the developer not the neighborhood  . . . but to put things over the top, I got this text from a district 2 resident last night as I was about to go to bed:

BM & hammes had dinner 2gether @ the old fashioned 2night after the meeting...lobbying?  Or just social?

 - This whole this has just gotten bizarre.   Even supporters of the project told me on the way out that the presentation was a bit off and they sort of missed their opportunity to sell the project.  Most people in the room agree, the Edgewater is due for an upgrade, and there are many positive aspects of the project.  I believe, as others I talked to, that there is something salvagable here.  But I have no idea how to get there when the Alder and the developer are acting the way they are.  There is no opportunity for a transparent process that people can buy into or for dialogue.  It's too bad that city facilitator didn't actually facilitate the meeting instead of just taking notes - anyone could have done that.  What this project needs, if it is going to success and not continue to divide the community, is some true dialog about the points of disagreement, not just talking points and opportunities to see who could jam the room full of people.  These are going to be some really long, useless city meetings if something doesn't change and depending upon which way the wind is blowing, we could lose a project or drive a permanent wedge through the downtown, dividng neighbors and colleagues that should be working together.

Anyways, check out the other posts about this subject. Read more!

Edgewater - Review Process

This is the list of things Brad Murphy explained were necessary for approval of the Edgewater Building. This is one part of a several part post that starts here. 


PROJECT REVIEW PROCESS [Notes in pink/purple are mine]
Brad Murphy, the Secretary of the Plan Commission and head of the Planning Unit for the City of Madison introduced Rebecca Cnare, the acting Preservation Planner for the City of Madison and Matt Tucker the Zoning Administrator.  He explained that all the review process have standards by which they make decisions and explained there is document with there requirements on the planning website.

Murphy explained the approvals needed for the project and provided a handout.  Here is the information from that handout and his presentation:

1.  Certificate of Appropriateness required using the standards in the Mansion Hill Historic district outlined in MGO 33.19(10).  Murphy explained that the certificate of appropriateness is determined by the Landmarks Commission and without it, the project cannot move forward.  He said that the decision could be appealed to the Common Council. The next meeting of the Landmarks Commission is September 14th at 4:45.  [They had to move the location of the meeting because the room was too small and they moved it to another room that was still too small, so you will want to check the location of the meeting.]

2.  Planned Unit Development (PUD) Zoning Map requires the property to be rezoned from OR (Office Residential District) and R6H (residential histuoric district) to a PUD which needs both a General Development Plan (GDP) and Specific Implementation Plan (SIP).  He showed a map with the zoning for the area.  The standards for a zoning map amendment (MGO 28.12(1)) and PUD (MGO 28.07(6))are important to look at and in the previously mentioned document.  It needs to be reviewed by the Urban Design Commission (scheduled to meet September 2, 16 and October 7), the Plan Commission (October 19) and the Common Council on November 3.  [That might change if the project is delayed at any point or if the Certificate of Appropriateness needs to be appealed.]

3.  Conditional Use Permit for Waterfront Development.  Murphy explained that they would look at the setbacks of 5 properties to the left and right of the development to determine the setback required for development on that property. The standards for Waterfront Development are found in MGO 28.04(19).  That number still needs to be calculated by staff.  A conditional use would be considered with the zoning decision currently scheduled for the Plan Commission on October 19.  That meetings starts at 5:30 and is in Council Chambers (Room 201 City County Building).  This is a final decision made by the Plan Commission but may be appealed to the Common Council.

4.  After the Waterfront Development calculations are done, the may require a Variance from the Zoning Board of Appeals.  The hand out says this is a likely requirement. An application has not yet been submitted for this, so there is no date set.  This is also a decision made solely by  the Zoning Board of Appeals and I believe can also be appealed to the Common Council.
5.  Conditional Use Permit for Encroachments Above the Capital View Preservation Height Limit.
This approval is needed because the mechanicals for the building and the elevator are above the Capital View limit.  That state and local law is not in the handout.  This conditional use would also be considered by the Plan Commission on October 19.

6. Amendment of the 1965 Ordinance Vacating the End of Wisconsin Avenue.  This allows the City to vacate the street and offer to sell it to the two property owners on each side of the Hotel and then Landmark X/Hammes will need to purchase the property from each of those entities (Korb and National Guardian Life).  This ordinance will be considered with the Zoning and Conditional Uses which is all scheduled for the Plan Commission on October 19 and the Council on November 3.

 7.  Encroachment Agreement (Approved by Privilege in Streets Committee) and/or Lease for Private Improvements Located in the Wisconsin Avenue Public Right of Way/Change of Street Grade for Wisconsin Avenue (Common Council Approval).  This is needed for the structured parking and the access to the hotel.  Wisconsin Avenue will need to be regraded.


 8.  Tax Incremental Financing Development Agreement. Board of Estimates and the Common Council would approve this.  [It will also be considered in the 2010 budget which is currently in the budget for $6M in the Planning Department and I didn't see it on the Engineering side, but I will need to look at that closer.]

9.  Tax Incremental District Boundary Amendment.  (Common Council Approval) There also needs to be an amendment to the TIF district since the project is currently not in the TIF district.  [I think they have until September of next year to get that approval, but the City has to start working on it much earlier as it needs approval from the Joint Board of Review and the State.]
 10.  Development Agreement Related to all Improvements Within the Public Right-of-Way (Common Council Approval)

11.  Management Agreement for Wisconsin Avenue Right-of-Way and Existing Easements regarding the waterfront and rooftop. Read more!

Edgewater - Hammes Presentation

This is part of a post that starts here that is a recap of the neighborhood meeting held about the Edgewater project. [My comments are in pink/purple again.]


HAMMES GROUP PRESENTATION - BOB DUNN INTRODUCTION
[This is much the same as the presentation at the Landmarks Commission, so I'm skipping my notes from the Landmarks Commission but will insert a couple comments from that meeting that took place on Monday as well.]

Bob Dunn introduced the architect and explained how they were dividing up the presentation.  He said he was going to describe the neighborthood context.  He reviewed some history.  Says he met with the Mansion Hill people last October where they didn't haven't any proposals but outlined their ideas, introduced themselves and tried to understand the needs of the neighborhood. Asked to work on ideas and present something concrete, that is what they did. Dec 14 they got a letter from the steering committee that outlined specific issues they were concerned about. [However, they never saw any proposals, they just tried to set out some expectations about what they would be looking for in a development proposal.] Dunn says that in the presentation they will try to show how they addressed those concerns.  They said after the first of the year they were given a draft of the neighborhood plan to review.  [I don't know why he acts like this is a surprise, I'm sure staff told him about it much earlier than that and it was hardly a secret as they had been working on it for 6 years or something absurd.]  He shows an aerial view of the area.

[Next he does something I don't quite understand.  He did it at Landmarks as well.  He basically makes an argument that students don't count as residents and that there are too few "real" people who  live here, I guess he does it to say that he should just be able to do whatever he wants.  I have no idea why he spent so much research time on this, but didn't prepare the materials that the Landmarks Commission needs to review.  He makes a real nuances argument here and yet can't seem to understand the Landmarks Ordinance or Lobbying Ordinance - apparently those are just too confusing for him??  He just undermines his own credibility if you pay attention to what many have called "smoke and mirrors".] I'm a bit unclear what the actual area boundaries of the area he is looking at, but he says that the area is 55% non-residential property [I think he includes the State St. and Capital area in this anaylsis]  He says of the 45% residential, 94% is multifamily, 60% live in buildings that are 10 units or mores and that 56% have lived in the area one year or less.  He says of the entire neighborhood there are only 35 owner occupied residents. [I think he excludes condos from this because they are multi-family, but again, I'm unclear as I don't have access to his power point presentations that he keeps using.]  He says that the neighborhood has diverse uses including civic and residential uses.

Next he talks about density.  Points out it is a very dense neighborhood.  [Again, he did this at Landmarks and I don't know what relevance it had there, as they are looking at more of the visual impact of the buildinhg.]  He the average density for the proper average density which I believe he said were 212 units per acre.  He says that if you adjust for the number of hotel room that would fit in a residential unit the hotel is only 53 - 72 units per acre. [Of course, he counts all the open space on the plaza and waterfront in that calculation, so it seems kind of meaningless.]

He talks again about the demographics of the area.  He says the area is very young, low to med income, percentage of owner occupied is very low and has been very low. Trend is that declining % of owner occupancy. Then he shows the blight study and makes an offhand remark that he won't spend alot of time on it.  Then he follows this up by saying he "doesn't want to give message of decline".  [That was classic.  It's also why he makes it so hard to believe him.  He plays too many games.  He's trying to be just a little too slick.] He says that they looked at the comprehensive plan and used several important guidelines from that.  He notes that this is a collection of neighborhoods, says the plan considers this part of the Langdon Neighborhood Association and not Mansion Hill.  [I don't know why he makes this distinction - clearly Mansion Hill residents are stakeholders and he has spent almost a year rallying supportive stakeholders and holds them up as the more important voices, but seems to want to dismiss the stakeholders who live and own property in the area.].  He notes that in compliance with the Comprehensive Plan this project should be a regional attraction, have access to the lakefront, is infill development, is adaptive reuse, focuses on preservation, framing of street views and a creation of a neighborhood center.  He says that the plan meets all those criteria of the comprehensive plan.  [And he neglects to mention that the Comprehensive Plan took the dowtown area and set it aside for additonal planning that is not yet done.]

ARCHITECT 
David Manfredi, the architect, then talked about the design of the building which again, was very similar to what they presented to the Landmark Commission. He says they find Madison to be an extraordinary place. He notes that is has a unique land form, he notes the relationship of the city and its core to the lakes, talks about various plans and says they are strong and powerful with the Capital at the center with bourlevard that connects the two lakes (Wisconsin Ave and Martin Luther King) and that this is the foundation on which they started. It's about a civic space on the water's edge. Knows street ends are important. Says its a mixed use neighborhood. Residential neighborhood with imporant axis through it, civic and cultural spaces.  He calls Wisconsin Ave a "cultural boulevard" and says that the  Egewater has a civic responsibility.

Manfredi says that the next most imporant planning principle is preservation. Art Moderne architecture was mostly in Miami and Los Angeles, not much in mid west.  Shows the rendering of how they wanted the old Edgewater Hotel to look, not what was actually built.  Calls it romantic, relates it to a cruise ship.  Says much of that was lost with the 70s edition.  They want to restore the view of the hotel and notes that the most sustainable thing to do is to reuse the bulidings that exist. Talks about Edgewater and Olin Terrace - publicly accessible space lined with civic building.  Says this will get you directly to the water.

Manfreidi shows the site plan. Explains there is really three parts to the project, the the art moderne 1940s building, the 70s additiona and then the "expansion" [The 17 story building.]   He says the roof of the 70s addition will stay the same height.  Will have an auto court, plus publicly accessible public space, always open to the public but can be closed off.  They will peel off the overhang on the 70's addition.  They will peel away the 70's addition from the 1940's art moderne part and will create a gap for the public stair.  The public will have direct public access to the water's edge 24/7. He shows building from the lake again and calls it an assembledge of buildings. He says the new construction will not mimic the as art moderne building.  They will restore it to the original facade of the oldest part of the building.  [He starts repeating himself . . . ] Elevation on top of plaza is elevation at Wis Ave. Not only will be able to get to edge of the plaza but also be able to walk down to the water. He shows a cut through of the building, ballroom and parking. Architecture is supposed to compliment old building, residential and personal scale. Not an office building. Its a building where there are hotel rooms - hence residential. He says people have asked him what style it is and he calls it - post war, beaux arts.  Says materials are stone and brick and bronze colored metal. Shows straight on elevation from the water [Even tho I say the drawings from Wisconsin Ave last winter, they have yet to show them to the public.] Shows some elevations. Shows picture from bottom of Wisconsin Avenue that doesn't show the building , just the view of the water with the building hidden behind trees.  They then show a very distant view from the lake, where you can barely make out the project along the shoreline.  Shows another cut through - 16 feet wide stair to the water. opening is up to 40 feet wide between the two buildings but varies. Shows two more sections of the current building and proposal. Repeats that there will be no difference in the height of the current building and the new one. 

HOW THEY (ALLEGEDLY ) ADDRESSED CONCERNS
Dunn says he's going to address the issues he has heard "over the past year" and what they have done to address those issues.  He says there have been many meetings, worked slowly and deliberately to gain input to understand questions and concerns. He notes there is a tremendous amount of support but there are concerns as well.

Building blocking view of lake.  Originally the building was 30 feet further to the east and in the Wisconsin Avenue right of way.  [State law doesn't allow the City to agree to lease them space in the right of way if there is a building built on it - but they can lease ground and air rights.]  He says he secured the rights build on the National Guardian Life property [They are partners in the hotel] and has moved the building 30 feet and is now not building on the right of way.  [But completely ignoring the required set back from the right of way.]

Preservation of the view out to the lake. He shows photos of the current view, then pictures with a tree or trees removed and says its an improvement.  The building is entirely out of the right of way and view is opened up. He says you can now see the water's edge from Wisconsin Avenue.  [Wow, I didn't understand that.]  At edge will see entire panoramic view.

Precedent of the PUD and impact on historic district - He says the PUD in and of itself is a protective covenant. [Later, Brad Murphy says this is not true.  Someone was counting the lies, said they got up to 15 and stopped counting, but I didn't ask for the list, but this was certainly one of them.]  In the future, the city has a process. If you read the zoning text, they drafted it to speak to precedent and that no future projects could do what they do only if they have land greater than 1 acre, are on a major arterial street, provide public open space of 1500 square feet or greater and provide access to the waterfront. He says not any other projects would meet that criteria.

Design.  He said that they looked at pure renovation, expansion on existing propoerty and a much larger scale building. He says they chose the best strategy and direction in the proposed plan. [Best based on what?]

Public space. Public access to edge of building on terrace and waterfront "all the time".  [Well, except when they have private events and there is a narrow pathway that people can access but they won't put up a sign indicating that the public is welcome there.  Somehow, people are just supposed to magically know, just like people know now that they can access the stairs and roof of the hotel.]

Landmarks ordinance. Want to strengthen the historic district. He says this will stabilize and enhance property values and strengthen the economy of the city.  [Um, that's nice, but what does it have to do with the landmarks ordinance.  The major requirements are as follows:

1. The gross volume of any new structure shall be visually compatible with the buildings and environment with which it is visually relates (visually related area).

2. In the street elevation(s) of a new building, the proportion between the width and the height in the façade(s) shall be visually compatible with the buildings and the environment with which it is visually related (visually related area).

3. The proportions and relationships between width and height of the doors and windows in new street façade(s) shall be visually compatible with the buildings and environment with which it is visually related (visually related area).

4. The rhythm of solids to voids created by openings in the façade of the new structure should be visually compatible with the buildings and environment with which it is visually related (visually related area).

5. All new street facades should blend with other buildings via directional expression. When adjacent buildings have a dominant vertical or horizontal expression, this expression should be carried over and reflected.]

Parking - can self park for everyone coming to the site. Highest ratio of stalls per room.  He says the code is 1 stall per room and they are nearly twice that.  [During the neighborhood presentation they said it is currently 1.6 per room and after they add rooms, they will still be at 1.6.  I wonder if staff agree that the required parking is one stall per room, because downtown the parking regulations are pretty much thrown out and examined on a case by case basis in PUDs.]

Parking and Busses - He says 85 - 90% of traffic will come in E side of the building.  Busses won't stage on the terrace. Can be dealt with in management agreement.  [Later, in the Q & A he says something different, that the buses will be located off site, which is different than the original plan where they parked the buses under the hotel.  I wish he would just say these things up front instead of being so cagey about it. ]

Benefits - He says they are providing access to water front.  [I continue to question if it will be any better than we have now, because without signage, it will appear to be private property and I'm not sure anyone would use it.  After all, this is the current agreement with the Edgewater now.] He says they will be creating a place in the neighborhood, hotels across the country have become centers of the neighborhoods.  He says they will be creating jobs, making neighborhood improvements, will help the TIF district, will make the Mansion Hill district more of a destination.  They altered plan to add a limited number of permanent residential units to the plan. He says there are 23 people have contacted him ans say they want to live there - want to buy.  He says there are only 30 owner occupied now.  He says the vision and quality of the project has attracted them and he hasn't solicited one of those calls. [Wow, the first time I saw the 17 story building I asked what they were going to do with the top floors and they had no current use, but were contemplating condos . . . its not like this idea just came from the grassroots . . . ] Read more!