Dane County Housing Facts for thedailypage

I can't take it any more. Here's some facts for thedailypage readers (it's a little painful, I don't recommend reading it.):

Supply (blue) and Sales (maroon) for Dane County Single Family Homes Quarterly 2002 - 3rd quarter 2008 (Click on the photo to make it larger and more readable.)

Same info on Condos

Median prices (Sorry its blurry, those benchmarks are $150,000 and $200,000)

Any questions about what is going on in our housing market? Seems obvious.

Tho I have no idea what all this data has to do with the approval of an apartment building. It'd be really cool if we had data on our rental market.
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A sign of the times.

Yesterday, I was the housing counselor at the Tenant Resource Center from 9 to noon. During that time, I had 9 people come in to the office. Here's a snapshot of what's going on out there in tenant/landlord world . . . and it's not very pretty.

First of all, it was all tenants, which is odd, because about 10% of the people we serve are landlords and odds were high that at least one of them would be a landlord. However, here's their stories:

TENANT ONE
For the third week in a row, I helped an black woman from the Raymond Road area who was looking for a 2 bedroom apartment that she could afford. So far, she's not having any luck. She put on a happy face, but it was one of those clients that you could just tell has been under the stress of poverty for years. She took our list and went on her way, but I have a feeling she will be back again next week.

TENANT TWO
A white older gentleman (over 55) from the Allied Drive area came in because he's being evicted over $200. He had a job at Walmart, but lost his job. His landlord was telling him if he didn't pay this week, he'd have to be out immediately. I explained the eviction process and that the landlord has to give him a 5 day notice and if he doesn't pay in 5 days, then the landlord has to take him to court and that only the judge can decide he has to leave and only the sheriff's department can force him to. In other words, he has at least 5 days to come up with the money since the landlord hadn't given him any notices yet. I gave him information about places that can help him pay his rent and had a little hope since he's such a small amount behind in his rent and he was going to get his W-2 from his past employer and file his taxes right away. He was elated to find out the landlord couldn't just throw him out. He was hopeful that his taxes might be able to help him pay his rent until he gets a new job.

TENANT THREE
A black woman who lived on the west side of town came in because the landlord refused to sign her Homestead Credit form for her taxes. And because she paid her rent in cash the landlord is claiming that she has unpaid rent after she moved out and won't return her security deposit ($300). Luckily, the amount the landlord thinks she is behind (around $800) is the same amount of a money order which she kept a copy of and it was an odd number like $817! Most tenants don't have that kind of documentation, but I'm not sure its going to be enough for her, but its better than nothing. The creepy thing about this landlord is that he won't give anyone his last name, he wouldn't sign her Homestead Credit form (unfortunately, nothing requires a landlord to sign it, but she can try sending in copies of her money orders) and wouldn't give her receipts for her cash payments (illegal under state consumer protection laws).

TENANT FOUR
A latino guy from the State St. area who works at a local non-profit came in because his apartment was flooded when some pipes in the apartment above him froze and broke. He was new to Wisconsin having recently moved from Florida. He doesn't have a thermostat to regulate the heat and if I understood correctly he has either a space heater or a heater that can either be off, or on. The landlord is now claiming that it is his partially his fault that the pipes froze because he didn't keep his heat on when he wasn't in the apartment. This, despite the fact that when he moved in, the landlord told him not to run his heat all the time because his electric bill would be too high. Luckily, he has renters insurance, but he wanted the landlord to pay the $250 deductible and reimburse him for the time that he couldn't live in his apartment. Also, he had already signed a lease for next year and I explained to him how he should try to break that lease and the landlord should have to mitigate their damages and hopefully find a different tenant before August so that he wouldn't have to pay any rent on that new lease.

TENANT FIVE
A black woman with a section 8 voucher came in because she had applied at 8 different apartments and had been denied at 8 different apartments. I asked her why and she told me a few of the reasons, and none of the landlords were using the same reasons to deny her, which seemed odd. Her section 8 voucher would cover about $1100 of her rent, so I found it odd that she was rejected at one place because she and her kids owed over $200 on her credit report. Another one denied her because she didn't make over three times the amount of rent in income. This, despite the fact that a large majority of her rent would be paid by the Section 8 voucher. I had her have our staff at the Housing Help Desk write a letter to the landlord explaining the minimum income standards ordinance (it was a little complicated) and that she should show that she could pay a similar or higher amount of rent in the past. She has just a few days to find housing before she loses her voucher and I really wanted her to find a place! Sadly, I had to give her our "flexible landlord" list (worst euphemism ever!). And explain that some of these landlords are fine, but some have some serious issues with repairs and other landlord practices, but in order to keep her voucher, she might have to rent from one of these landlords for a year until she could find a new place.

TENANT SIX
A 69 year old older gentleman from the northside has a landlord that had been foreclosed on, but somehow had been able to get refinanced. She had come and pounded on his door at 4:30 am, drunk, to give him an eviction notice for $100. She also claimed he owed $675 in security deposit, even though he had been living there for 6 months and he thought they had a deal that because he cleaned up the apartment he didn't need to pay it, and was evicting him for having two people living with him. The two people living with him was his daughter who had lost her job and a woman who is dying of cancer and has a very short time to live. He had a check for the $100 in his hands. I explained the eviction process, some problems with the notice she had given him, and the fact that his lease does say he can't have guests without written permission of his landlord (which I believe violated the city's guest policy law, but it was a close call). He only gets $810 per month in income and the two people living with him don't have any income. I also sent him to the Housing Help Desk to have them help write a letter as it seemed that his reading and writing skills were a little weak and I didn't have confidence that the letter would otherwise get written.

TENANT SEVEN
A older white woman (over 55) who was either mentally ill or being adversely affected by the medications she was on for pain who lived in a trailer park in the Town of Madison wanted to move. She owned her trailer by it was worth only a little over $2,000. She wanted to move and find a place that was more appropriate for her. She also had a bill that she felt the mobile home park owner was unfairly charging her. She had no lease but did at one time about 15 years ago. She only paid about $300 a month for rent and I believe was on SSI. It all got complicated very quickly, she was crying and I had people lined up so I also had to send her to the Housing Help Desk for more in depth help. However, I fear she really needed a case manager and that our help was going to be minimal and that she was going to continue living in an unsatisfactory situation.

TENANT EIGHT
A white guy with some sort of mental or cognitive disability came in and was looking for a housing list of affordable housing options in the City of Madison. He had a friend that was moving here and they could only afford to pay 30% of their income for their rent. I gave him the list he was looking for and then also gave him the list of Section 42 units, explaining that they weren't as affordable, but they might be less expensive, maybe.

TENANT NINE
A black guy with a disability of some type was on section 8 and looking for a new place to live this summer but was starting now because he knew how hard it would be to find a new place to live. I explained that all landlords had to accept section 8 and gave him our weekly housing list and told him how to find it on line so he didn't need to come to our office in the future.

5 of 9 of the people I helped were people of color, three were over 55, at least three had a disability of some type. About 6 were looking for better housing for themselves or friends. 2 or 3 involved people out of work and looking. 2 or 3 were struggling to stay where they are. This is just a three hour snap shot of what we see every day. It's a side of Madison that many don't see and often, don't understand. It's hard to look these folks in the eyes, give them the small amount of information that we have and hope that it helps. Each of these people I'm sure has a bigger story than I got in the few moments I spent with them and probably need more help than we can provide in the few moments we spend with them. The good news is that they were all grateful for the assistance that we gave them and the left knowing a little more information than when they came in so that they could make good decisions about how to proceed. I wish them luck!
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Breathtaking.

It seems that yesterday's blog is creating quite the stir. Pat Schneider of the Capital Times chimes in with her comments. And I am continued to be reminded of many more, "snubs" as she puts it. And know that there is one more on the way, here's a list of things I've blogged over the past few years.

This post reminded me of Stuart Levitan getting tossed of the plan commission and moved to the CDA, Kelly Thompson-Frater getting tossed off the plan commission and moved to the CDA and the appointments to the Capital Area Regional Planning Commission.

Here's some examples of by-passing committees - By-passing the Parks Commission regarding solutions are Brittingham Park, plus skipping committees when items of interest should come before them like the Housing Committee and Allied Drive Plan, the Elections Committee and the Zatch Act and the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Chronic Nuisance ORdinance . . . well, it sends

Then, there's the committees he took forever to appoint, or never appointed.

There was the problem of the city council budget actions not being followed. The attempts to ignore the laws and CDBG commission role in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

There was that odd process on the RTA. And it's not just the residents of the city he doesn't want to hear from, its the city employees as well!

And I only went back through posts through July 2007 . . . I'm sure there is more.

It's no wonder he tried to find someone to run against me, he hates it when I point these things out and share them with the public.
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Citizens Sound off on THEIR City Committees

When Alder Satya Rhodes-Conway sent out an email to the neighborhood listserves to get people to serve on city committees, as she always does, there was quite the response this time. And sadly, it was one where residents expressed concern about losing faith in the city committee system.

Here's how it all started:

All -

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

Affirmative Action Commission
Board of Building Code, Fire Code and licensing appeals (builder)
Community Development Block Grant Commission (low income rep)
Downtown Coordinating Committee
Economic Development Commission
Commission on the Environment
Housing Committee
Parks Commission
Parking Council for People with Disabilities
Sustainable Design and Environment Committee
Senior Citizens Advisory Committee
Vending Oversight Committee
Transit and Parking Commission
Water Utility Board
Zoning Board of Appeals
Disabled Parking Enforcement Assistance Council

Please let me know if you have any questions or if you decide to apply!

Thanks
Satya

To my surprise, this was one of the immediate responses, from someone I thought was a mayoral ally:

What about dedicated citizens who are excoriated by the mayor and some alders for daring to have an opinion different than their own? What about Common Council-approved city committees that are never convened because the mayor loses interest? What about star chambers that ALRC members set up because the public process is too challenging (public and therefore accountable) for them to deal with?

How does this anti-participatory democracy tendency mesh with the "price and promise" notion of citizenship that you're supporting? Why not be honest? I think our city government has become very antagonistic towards citizen commissions and don't see any indication that this will change anytime soon.

Those comments were followed by discussion about what could be done to get people to participate and the merits of trying to participate. I asked the following question:

Alder Rhodes Conway took the time to notify people of the current committee openings and I appreciate her wading through the reports we get to make them useful. (See information below.) She sent the list out and got some feedback that there was no point serving on a committee because they felt like what they said didn't matter. This makes me incredibly frustrated. We need good people to serve on these committees. Perhaps we should just start to consider that you serve for two or three years and you won't get reappointed, but meantime, you make your voice heard!

If anyone has suggestions about what we can do to restore the faith in our current committee structure and resident input, I'm all ears! And thanks again to Satya for continuing to try to recruit people to our committees, we need your thoughts to help make the City a better place!

To which this was one answer:

Brenda, the way to restore the faith is to respect the process. The Mayor does not. It's not something you can do. People voted him in, unaware that he would over-step his authority and become dictator. This town has the kind of expertise that few places have. But does that matter? No. He purges committees of anyone who disagrees with him, whether they are Alders or common citizens. He's done that with Parks, with Equal Opportunity and now with Transportation. For the latest, the Council plans to rubber stamp him. You may have voted against his budget for example, but even Solomon and Rhodes-Conway [sic] voted to approve it (they did not even abstain).

And there was this response:

Elect a democratically-minded mayor?

Some other important responses to these emails:

I submitted an application for one of these committees listed many months ago. A position was open then and even again later on. Now it is open yet again -- a third time.

However, I never heard a word about my application the first time other than that it was received. I certainly don't feel inclined to resubmit an application each time an opening is announced particularly when I got no response the first time. I have plenty else to do.

Perhaps responses to requests for committee membership would be better received if a decision from the city one way or the other were issued to those who take the time to complete an application. I know for myself that since I got no response that I am not inclined to submit an application again.

I have a long history of community service in places where I've lived, but if people aren't interested in what I have to offer, I can certainly find other things to do. I'm never short on things to do.

I wish the city the best in filling these positions. I think they are important which is why I applied the first time. Feel welcome to reactivate my original application.

Hi All - I have served . . . for about 8 years and I am very glad to have done so. I think I have about 2 more years on my term. Some eras are a lot of fun. Others it's true require a lot of fortitude. But overall I wouldn't trade it for anything. I want to encourage others to consider the possibility of serving. Peter Munoz, aid to mayor Sue Bauman, talked me into joining a commission by telling me it was where democracy happens. I have to say that especially now I feel it is important to have our communities' voices represented and heard via the commissions. Our alders do their darndest to represent their constituents and the mayor looks at the city as a whole. I have found myself taking perspectives of both the city as a whole and also sharing the unique information from living in my own neighborhood when an issue arises that I know more about. I don't assume that a mayor will always agree with a commission or me specifically. In fact I often assume the opposite which is why I think our commissions are so important. Our voices often get heard by the media and shared more broadly to enliven debate where it is needed. Framing the debates is part of what it takes to protect and enhance a city's public policy and operations.

I urge you to consider serving. I'd be happy to talk with anyone further about this. It's not been a bed of roses, but it's been very meaningful. . .

And probably, the most interesting response to me, was this blog post by John Quinlan. It's worth checking out.

My feelings are captured in this response to a question from the listserve about what the process is and why it isn't transparent and if I felt that there was something wrong with what's going on:

The Mayor decides, using whatever criteria he chooses. The "process", if one is to call it that, is a bit of a mystery to many. I usually suggest people submit a resume with their application as the mayor tends to look at degrees and jobs held. I also suggest that the person get an alder to put their name on the application - but not me, because that will not help.

I do feel that there is a definite chill. The Mayor's track record of tolerating those he does not like is not good - Alders Bruer (ALRC), Golden (not appointed to committees when he left, even tho I believe they were expected), Skidmore (Parks) and me (Plan commission) - were all tossed off committees where we disagreed with the mayor or as "punishment". More recently, the mayor has not appointed people to Transit and Parking (Tim Wong), Urban Design Commission (Mike Barrett) and Equal Opportunities Commission (Michael Howe) and I may be missing others. And, of course, there was the blow up over the bus fares . . . and the threat to disband the Transit and Parking Commission. So yes, its feeling a little chilly these days.

It's not just cold outside! Sadly, this doesn't bode well for the future of our local government. As Alder Rhodes-Conway noted, "One of the things that makes our city government go is the dedicated citizens that serve on city committees and commissions." So, I say, apply! Make noise! And consider it a short term commitment. Then help recruit someone to be your replacement. We can't just give up and give in to this bullying and thereby give up on our city - it too important.
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The Week Ahead

Another week, another list of meetings . . .

Monday, January 26, 2009
4:30 PM BOARD OF ESTIMATES ROOM 260 MMB
-Shifting $95,000 of health insurance costs to our unrepresented management and supervisory employees.
- Hiebing Group and Vandewalle hired to do marketing plan for BioAg Gateway.
- Adopting the Economic Development Workplan for 2009.

4:30 PM PLAN COMMISSION ROOM LL-110 MMB
- Update on Zoning Code rewrite

4:45 PM LANDMARKS COMMISSION ROOM LL-130 MMB
- What to do about people who do work on historic buildings without permits/permission.

5:45 PM PLAN COMMISSION ROOM 201 CCB
- Acacia Project
- East side Theater & Entertainment District
- Demolition of Royster-Clark

Tuesday, January 27, 2009
1:30 PM HOUSING MERGER PLANNING AD HOC COMMITTEE ROOM 103A CCB
- Educating the committee and getting the up to speed

5:30 PM COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT COMMISSION ROOM 315 CCB
- Affordable Housing Trust Fund
- Homeless property ordinance

5:30 PM ZONING CODE REWRITE ADVISORY COMMITTEE MADISON SENIOR CENTER, 330 W MIFFLIN ST, ROOMS 1 & 2

Wednesday, January 28, 2009
8:00 AM EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION BOARD ROOM 260 MMB

Thursday, January 29, 2009 & Friday, January 30, 2009
There were no meetings on the schedule - none at all as of Monday morning.
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District 2 Race

So, I'm interrupting the regularly scheduled program to answer questions people keep asking me . . . I don't intend to use my blog for the campaign, but here's some quick information if you're looking for it.

My website.
Facebook group.
Follow me on Twitter.
Help the campaign.
Campaign Events.
Growing list of supporters.
There's much more on the website - including issues which largely point you back to my blog for details!

And, since people ask, here's the websites of my opponents:
Dennis Denure
Sherman Hackbarth
Bridget Maniaci
Adam Walsh

Feel free to stop by the Brink Lounge (701 E Washington Ave) on Friday, January 30th (a week from tomorrow) from 5 - 7 to meet the candidate (me!) and donate to the campaign if you're so inclined. Meanwhile, if you're looking for campaign news, visit my campaign website and expect my blog to remain what it has pretty much been for the last three+ years.
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Milfred: Same old bitterness.

We all knew it was coming, Scott Milfred was just dying to write this. I thought about writing a point by point response correcting his factual errors . . . but decided it just wasn't worth the time or effort. Luckily, someone else did a better job of responding! Thanks to Bill Benedict for his response that starts out like this:

How deflating and tragic was Scott Milfred's column in the Sunday State Journal about the Progressive Dane Party. At the very least it was insensitive and out of spirit with the Martin Luther King Day celebration and President Barack Obama's inauguration.

Almost all Americans are rejoicing over the promises of greater social and economic equality, freedom and a "new deal" for the working man and woman. Special interests and deregulators are on the run, the political power of individual citizens at the grassroot level seems to have triumphed.

Now, when a "community organizer" can be elected president of the United States, where there's some real hope for democratic government with a small "d," Milfred ironically asks readers to use the occasion of Obama's inauguration as evidence or an excuse for supporting the demise of the Progressive Dane Party in Dane County.

It was, to say the least, poor timing on Milfred's part. At a time when people are uniting and coming together and celebrating and even I, was celebrating with the nation, about a President I didn't vote for (I voted Cynthia McKinney/Rosa Clemente), and the departure of the old one! - he felt the need to be all bitter.

And, since Bill inspired me, here's a few comments:
- Scott acts like if Progressive Dane holds less than 1/3 of the seats on the council we are in sad shape. Well, there may have been 3 years where we held more than 1/3 of the seats. And part of that was because of an appointment when an alder left their seat. Progressive Dane has ALWAYS held a small portion of the seats on the City Council, never more than 8 - even if the State Journal didn't act like it.
- Yes, PD's brand has been damaged - but due in large part to these types of made-up-facts editorials - not news - by the Wisconsin State Journal. But hey - Progressive Dane is a scrappy little organization of regular folks that volunteer to make the community better by participating in local government - and one that can roll with the punches and thrives during times of adversity. It's always been the underdog.
- The "debate" on the impeachment of the president took 1 hour. And a huge chunk of it was spent listening to members of the public who stayed until 3:00 in the morning to talk to us about this issue that was important to them. Other items that kept us there that long that night were Allied Drive and Bus Wraps.
- Note how Milfred links to a Daily Cardinal opinion that was inaccurate in saying that I introduced ordinances (among other things) - I introduced one ordinance about property of the homeless. And I never said homeless should pee in the park. I said that we should decriminalize homelessness - see for yourself what I said. Maybe Milfred wants to look at the bottom line - it would cost our taxpayers less if these tickets weren't given and people eventually jailed for not paying them. We all end up paying because we don't provide adequate services.
- And finally, does Milfred think that we can't work on basic city services (defined as trash and snow plowing by many - but not buses and human services) and other issues at the same time? Does he think that our community is that simplistic? Or that the issues of lower taxes isn't impacted by failing to deal with these issues - I guess we'll just hire more police to deal with it - and watch our taxes go up even more. Even the police have started saying they need help and more services to deal with issues that are more community issues than police issues.

So, ther you have it - a brief response - its more complex of course, but not worth any more time. Perhaps the WSJ should be cutting other positions and then maybe they could actually report factual news instead of uninformed opinion. After all, don't we read newspapers for NEWS?
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Charter is fined, but not enough!

I can't say I'm sad to hear this. I see Charter got the high end of the range of fines, but its not enough!

Seems as tho even folks in the last federal administration questioned the moving of channels to digital and the impact it would have on viewers who only get the lower tiers.

The agency was concerned that customers who subscribe to less expensive tiers of analog service, such as basic cable, will have access to fewer channels because some have been moved to the digital lineup, even as those subscribers' bills continued to rise.

Cable companies want to move analog channels to digital to free up bandwidth so they have more room to add high-definition channels and other content. It is not related to the national switch to digital broadcasting.

The FCC said most of the cable companies it fined had provided incomplete or evasive answers, or even refused to answer some questions.

Of course, the cable companies didn't cooperate. Why would you if you know you probably did something wrong, but would only get fined $25,000. I hope the new administration follows through on this!
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The Inauguration Evening Common Council Recap

Another short meeting (go figure), we were done in an hour and a half. Alders Rhodes-Conway, Solomon and Gruber were absent.

We started off the meeting by honoring Si Widstrand. He wasn't able to join us, so Keven Briski accepted his plaque. That was a little awkward I thought.

We then set the hearing for bus fare appeal for February 24. That will be the date we hear from the public on if we should raise the bus fares to $2.00 or leave it at the $1.75 or move it back to $1.50. Look for further notices on the buses and in your text alerts.

We then passed most of the agenda with a few exceptions for some items where Thuy Pham-Remnele had some "minor" questions - that probably could have been answered before the meeting, but with the holiday, there wasn't much time to talk to staff before the meeting.

We attempted to confirm the new economic development director but he wasn't there yet, so we moved on. Dealt with the facade grants questions, passed that and then went back to the "bring home the bacon" confirmation hearing. I call it that because several alders used it as an opportunity to tell the new Economic Development Director why the projects in their districts were most important. It was, kinda embarrassing.

I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Cooley earlier in the day. Here's a few quick observations:
- When he talked about all the resources our community had and possible tools to get investments into our community - he didn't mention TIF, at all. Although many have touted it as a major tool in our tool box for economic development.
- He pointed out that our Economic Development Plan was written, although recently, before the economic crisis and that was a different day. So, while there might be some things to be used out of the plan, there is also a need to re-evaluate. At the council meeting, he said we could that internally without hiring someone to re-do the plan.
- He seems interested in going out and meeting with large employers and neighborhood associations.
- He talked about small businesses and how we need to try to figure out how to retain the businesses that are not the "drivers" of the economy, but the "derivatives".
- I had asked him what his relationship with the Community Development Director was going to be. He seemed really unclear about that. As are most people.
- He said that we have a local reputation for being anti-business, but nationally, our profile is mostly nothing. It's a great University town that people seem to like - and that is about the extent of our reputation.
- If I were to guess, he's going to place an emphasis on retention of businesses not attracting new ones. I asked him how our low unemployment rates would help or hurt recruitment activities - he didn't really answer that except to say our unemployment rates were great!

The above are my perceptions from the brown bag lunch and council meeting. Alders Monson, Clausius and Clear were the other alders who joined us for the 12:30 meeting. He was confirmed unanimously.

We then went back to the public hearings, and dealt with the daycare issue. It seems like the two week break gave them enough time to work things out and we were given a list of eleven items the neighbors and the daycare agreed to work on. There was still a neighbor or two that were unhappy, but nothing compared to the people who showed up last time. The project then passed with Alder Kerr voting no.

That was about it for the notable items. We spent a little more time getting the minor questions answered and then adjourned. I had to run off to my fundraiser at the High Noon but I'm sure some went out to enjoy the evening.
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The "Good-bye Shrub!" Week Ahead

Seems silly to talk about anything except national events today . . . except we have a council meeting this evening. And we almost decided on the bus fares this evening . . . almost.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009
12:30 PM ALDER BROWN BAG LUNCH ROOM 403 CCB
- We get to meet and talk with the new Economic Development Director

6:30 PM COMMON COUNCIL ROOM 201 CCB
- setting a hearing date for considering the bus fare increase.
- The West side daycare is back.
- Resolution to the car camper issue on E Wilson and this.
- Confirming the new Economic Development Director
- Hiring the architect for the Tenney Park Shelter
- Contract for improvements to James Madison Park
- Accepting improvements to Breese Stevens Field
the second district parks trifecta!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009
4:30 PM URBAN DESIGN COMMISSION ROOM LL-110 MMB
- Acacia, again! (Hopefully for the last time.)
- Badger Bus Redevelopment

Thursday, January 22, 2009
4:00 PM TAX INCREMENTAL FINANCING POLICY AD HOC COMMITTEE ROOM LL-120 MMB
- Could this be the final meeting? And a final policy? Or will it get thrown out with the hiring of the new Economic Development Director?

How is anyone supposed to concentrate this morning?! Other city meetings this week are posted here in case you think I missed something important to you!

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Comments (Not Quite) Enabled

I can't figure out what is wrong with my code!!

Ok - so recent events convinced me to try enabling comments on my blog. I made all the changes that I thought should make it work, but just like the "Read More" link, the language appears but clicking on it won't do you any good! Sadly, I think it is a problem that is beyond me how to figure it out.

Why'd I try enabling comments? Well, three things prompted me to reconsider it. First, I started thinking about trying to enable them when I had a conversation about the Mayor's blog with Sarah Edgerton, the City's webmaster and she told me, yet again, "it's not a blog if the comments aren't enabled". Well, you could have fooled me, if I haven't been blogging for the past three years, what have I been doing? Then, I talked to Kristin from the Cap Times and she told me that she liked having comments to get feedback from people. So, I thought they made some interesting points and I tried to enable the comments . . . and failed.

Then, I listened to the Dane101 podcast last night and I think they said I was wimpy or cowardly for not enabling my comments. Which spurred me to try one more time. But, I failed again.

So, I'll try again this weekend, and if I can't get the form to show up I'll remove it.

Just so you know, I was going to do this on a test basis. I never enabled the comments because I figured it was just another forum for mean-spirited attacks like you see at madison.com and thedailypage. I wasn't going to allow anonymous comments, which I struggled with because it might limit city worker feedback - since they make up a HUGE portion of my readership! If the comments went well, I was going to change that.

My other concern is time to respond to the comments and being able to do that in a timely manner. I am kind of am stuck at work and in meetings and should be paying attention to those things instead of commenting on my blog.

But, like I said, I was willing to give it a try - if I can just figure out what the heck I'm doing wrong! Hopefully I can figure it out this weekend and we'll see how it goes.
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Parking Meter Reprieve

This didn't stop me from getting two tickets this week! One ticket I plugged the meter for 2 hours and was there for 1.5 hours and somehow, got a ticket. I need to find the ticket and notify the city about a potentially broken meter. The other one, I was just too cold and out of change!

However, yesterday, we received word that if there is too much snow by your meter, they won't enforce it.

Chief Wray,

We are aware of the concerns that have arisen as a result of significant snow accumulations that have occurred over the past two months. It has also come to the attention of the Department that the responsibility for snow removal from the metered areas has not been assigned to any City agency.

Consequently, Parking Enforcement Officers (PEO's) have been directed to use appropriate judgment when deciding whether a meter violation should be enforced. Specifically, if a meter is obstructed due to snow accumulations and the PEO has to attempt more than one step into the snow bank, the meter is deemed unenforceable. If the PEO can safely reach the meter, it is presumed that a citizen should be able to do so as well.

As is our policy with any issued parking citation, a citizen can request an "Administrative Review" of their parking ticket within ten (10) days of issuance. The instructions for this process are located on the back of the citation. If you have any other questions or concerns, please let me know. Thanks.

Stefanie Niesen

Read more!

House Economic Recovery Package good new for childcare and early education!

From National Women's Law Center:

To: State Child Care Advocates, Child Care and Early Learning Coalition
Fr: Helen Blank
Re: Very Good News!
Dt: January 15, 2009

The House just released its proposal for the economic recovery package, and it provides funding for many important child care, early education, and related programs, including:

-$2 billion for the Child Care and Development Block Grant to provide child care services for an additional 300,000 children in low-income families while their parents go to work.

-$2.1 billion for Head Start to provide comprehensive development services to help 110,000 additional children succeed in school.

-$600 million for IDEA Infants and Families for formula grants to help states serve children with disabilities age 2 and younger.

-$726 million for Afterschool Meals to increase the number of states that provide free dinners to children and to encourage participation by new institutions by increasing snack reimbursement rates

-$2.5 billion for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families for block grants to help States deal with the surge in families needing help during the recession and to prevent them from cutting work programs and services for abused and neglected children.

A more detailed description of the proposal can be found here:

Thanks for all your hard work in making child care and early education part of the economic recovery plan. Please stay tuned for next steps!

Hopefully this is good news for Madison!
Read more!

Offical Word: Council will NOT decide bus fares on Tuesday - only Hearing date.

The official word from the City Attorney. And we're lucky, see the note about paratransit users below.

From: May, Michael
Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 3:33:50 PM
To: ALL ALDERS; Cieslewicz, Dave
Cc: Kamp, Charles; Peters, Tammy; Harmon, Ramon; Strauch-Nelson, Rachel;
Piraino, Janet; Hogg, Carolyn
Subject: Appeal on Bus Fare Issue
Auto forwarded by a Rule

NOTE: THIS IS INTENDED TO BE A ONE-WAY ELECTRONIC MEMORANDUM. DO NOT REPLY. This is an electronic memo, and is not to institute a discussion of any of the matters in the memo. Do not reply or reply to all. Any response should be by new email to the sender only. Do not forward this email.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mayor Dave and Alders:

Earlier today, Alder Konkel sent an email with a number of questions on the procedure for considering the appeal filed on the Transit and Parking Commission action on bus fares. This memorandum responds to those questions. I will paraphrase her questions.

1. May the appeal be set for determination on next week's agenda, or must it be referred?

I had originally advised the Mayor and others that I believed the Council could take action on the appeal next week. I have changed my opinion.

Alder Konkel pointed out that sec. 3.14(4)(j), MGO, provides as follows:

"(j) Any decision of the Transit and Parking Commission may be appealed to the Common Council. Such appeal must specify the reason therefore and be filed with the Transit General Manager. The Transit General Manager shall transmit such appeal to the City Clerk who shall file such appeal with the Common Council. The Common Council shall fix a reasonable time for the hearing of the appeal and give public notice thereof as well as due notice to the parties in interest, and decide the same within a reasonable time. The action of the Transit and Parking Commission shall stand unless the Common Council, by a majority vote of its members, reversed or modifies the action of the Transit and Parking Commission." (Emphasis added).

If we were writing on a clean slate, I think this language could be interpreted in a number of ways. For example, without doing any research, I suspect that the ordinances may often use the term "Common Council" when what is really meant the Council or someone they designate (by action or tradition), like the Clerk or other staff or the Council President. Moreover, one could interpret it as meaning the matter should be set for a hearing by the Clerk and if the Council wishes a different hearing date, it could refer the matter. Or, one could interpret it strictly, requiring that the Council itself set any date for a hearing.

There is some history of how this language has been applied. Last year, Alder Kerr appealed a determination of the Plan Commission regarding a demolition. See Legistar item # 10593. The item was first on the agenda for May 20, 2008 under the following:

"Appeal of the Plan Commission decision approving a demolition permit for two commercial buildings to allow construction of a four story, 48 room hotel at 1501 Monroe Street.

NOTE: THIS ITEM WILL BE REFERRED FOR PUBLIC HEARING. THE PUBLIC HEARING DATE WILL BE ESTABLISHED FROM THE COUNCIL FLOOR. "

At the meeting, the matter was referred to the next Council meeting, June 3, where it was decided.

The ordinance language under which Alder Kerr appealed is found in sec. 28.12(12)(h), MGO. It provides in part:

"An appeal from the decision of the City Plan Commission granting or denying a demolition or removal permit may be taken to the Common Council by the applicant for the demolition or removal permit or by the Alderperson of the district in which the building proposed to be demolished or removed is located. Such appeal must specify the grounds thereof in respect to the findings of the City Plan Commission and must be filed with the office of the Zoning Administrator within ten (10) days of the final action of the City Plan Commission. The Zoning Administrator shall transmit such appeal to the City Clerk who shall file the appeal with the Common Council. The Common Council shall fix a reasonable time for the hearing of the appeal, and give public notice thereof as well as due notice to the parties in interest, and decide the same within a reasonable time." (Emphasis added).

Sound familiar? Yes, the same language that, for better or for worse, was transplanted into the TPC ordinance.

In addition, I consulted with Ms. Peters of the Clerk's office and she was able to find one other appeal that predates me, in 2003, where a similar referral process was used.

Based upon this, it is my opinion that, although the language might be subject to different interpretations upon a clean slate, the Council has set a pattern or precedent of interpreting such language as bringing the appeal to the Council floor where the Council then refers it to another meeting for the hearing. I also believe that this practice is most in accord with the plain language of the ordinance. If the Council believes that a different practice should apply to appeals from the TPC than from the Plan Commission, the Council may wish to amend the ordinances.

Therefore, I have instructed Ms. Peters to place this on the January 20, 2009, agenda as a Communication to be referred by the Council for hearing at a future meeting.

2. Does the Council have authority to accept the $1.75 fare adopted by the TPC, decrease it, or increase it?

The Common Council has all of these options before it. It takes 11 votes of the Council to "reverse or modify" the action of the TPC. With 11 votes, the Council can essentially set the fares at any level, and may include or not include the low-income reduced fare proposal that was not adopted by the TPC. My understanding is that the appeal brings the entire fare structure before the Council.

It should be noted that all these actions regarding fares relate only to the revenues of the Metro Bus system. Even the low-income reduced fare plan relates to fares and thus to revenues, and thus does not constitute an appropriation that constitutes a budget amendment requiring 15 votes.

It should also be noted that, depending on the action taken by the Council, the Metro budget may not be balanced, and other future actions may be required by Metro Staff, the Council or TPC.

3. Is the Appeal to be a public hearing?

It is a public hearing under the Council's rules, allowing 5 minutes per presenter. However, it should be noted that, unlike public hearing matters under the Zoning Code and the Plan Commission's jurisdiction, there is no legal requirement by state law or the MGO for a public notice to be placed in the newspaper (it is possible that this publication requirement is a reason that the Zoning Code allows the Council to set the time of the hearing, a requirement not present in TPC matters). The ordinance gives to the Council the discretion as to how to give public notice. In our view, all that is required as a legal matter is proper notice under the open meetings law which is, by definition, public notice under sec. 19.84(1), Wis. Stats.

4. Would approval of the low-income fare proposal require separate action by the Council to adjust the budget?

No. As noted above, the Council is dealing with revenues, not appropriations. Although the effect of adopting this plan may mean that other payments planned by Metro must be delayed, since there is no new appropriation, no separate action other than approval of this plan as part of the fare structure is needed.

I believe this answers the questions posed by Alder Konkel. If the Mayor's office or other Alders have additional questions, I ask them to send them to me separately.

Thank you. For those who may not have it handy, I attach our earlier memo on the TPC appeal issues.

Michael P. May

City Attorney

City of Madison

Here's the paratransit info I was sent by a TPC member:

Hope everyone who uses paratransit hears about this Common Council meeting on Tuesday Jan 20 soon. I don't know if all customers know about the reduced time they willl have on Monday to schedule Tuesday rides. I intend no criticism of Metro staff for this service outage, which I imagine was scheduled some time ago. This is a common council agenda issue.

Paratransit users have to schedule rides at least 24 hours in advance; because of a computer upgrade, no rides can be scheduled this coming Monday until after 2 pm; and because of the MLK Jr. holiday, Metro customer service will stop taking calls at 4:30 pm.

From the Metro homepage:

PARATRANSIT SERVICE NOTE:

Book Rides Before or After Monday, Jan. 19

Due to computer network upgrades, Metro's paratransit booking system will not be available until 2 PM on Monday, January 19.

Paratransit riders are encouraged to book rides before or after Monday.

And then, from http://www.cityofmadison.com/metro/Paratransit/HowtoScheduleTrip/HowtoScheduleTrip.html

Schedule your ride by no later than 4:30pm for next day service. For your convenience, rides can be scheduled up to seven days in advance. It is best not to wait until the last minute to call as the phone lines get very busy. Both the destination and return times are needed.

We are unable to schedule any `same-day' ride requests.

Read more!

Clarification on Bus Fare "Public Hearing" Matter

I have several questions about procedure and process, which I am seeking clarification on. It seems to me that perhaps we can't do what I understand is being proposed - namely vote on the bus fare on Tuesday.

Here's the email we got from the clerk's office this morning:

From: Peters, Tammy
Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 8:54:50 AM
To: ALL ALDERS
Subject: Notice of Appeal

Pursuant to MGO Section 3.14(4)(j), an appeal has been filed regarding the Transit and Parking Commission's decision on file ID# 13187 and is being placed on the 1/20/09 Common Council agenda as a public hearing. Here is a copy of the appeal.

The appeal is available in this blog post.

Here's the email I sent to Attorney May, the Mayor and his staff, Chuck Kamp, Clerk's Office and All Alders.

Attorney May/Hogg -
I see that the appeal of the TPC decision is going to be placed as a public hearing agenda item. I have several questions regarding this matter and one regarding your memo you sent us on our possible options for action. My understanding is that the language below is what we are dealing with. If there are other ordinances that govern this issue, please let me know.

(j) Any decision of the Transit and Parking Commission may be appealed to the Common Council. Such appeal must specify the reason therefore and be filed with the Transit General Manager. The Transit General Manager shall transmit such appeal to the City Clerk who shall file such appeal with the Common Council. The Common Council shall fix a reasonable time for the hearing of the appeal and give public notice thereof as well as due notice to the parties in interest, and decide the same within a reasonable time. The action of the Transit and Parking Commission shall stand unless the Common Council, by a majority vote of its members, reverses or modifies the action of the Transit and Parking Commission. (See Note Below.)

Two things of note in the above language.

1. The Common Council (not the mayor or clerk or city attorney or council president) decides when the public hearing is. Isn't the appropriate action to be taken setting the public hearing? And shouldn't that what should be placed on the agenda? When the TPC does fare hearings, the bus riders get notification. I don't believe this really gives people adequate notice for a decision that impacts so many people.

2. The memo from the city attorney - a scanned pdf so I can't cut and paste - says that we can increase the fares (but doesn't say we can decrease the fares.) Could the Common Council decide to keep the fares at $1.50?

Additionally, since it is a public hearing the public has 5 minutes to speak instead of the regular three minutes, correct?

A separate question is regarding the low-income bus fare proposal. The appellant hardly mentions it in the written appeal, but in an email states that this is the primary reason for the appeal. The $100,000 for this program comes from the shift of money to the reserves. Do I understand correctly that this requires a separate action of the council to adjust the budget?

Thanks for all the time and effort you have put into sorting this issue out and your usual thorough good work! Unfortunately, a speedy reply, given that the meeting is just days away and we need to inform the public, would be appreciated! And, could you cite the language or better yet, cut and paste the language, that you use to make your decision?

Sincerely,


Alder Brenda K. Konkel

As they say, stay tuned!

(Thank goodness for that new TRC winter weather policy the board passed, we close when the schools do, so I have plenty of time for politicking today!)
Read more!

Updates on Bus Fare Increases - TPC Decision Appealed.

It's all in a day's (not) work. Here's what happened and the sequence of events, as near as I can tell!

11:45 - Mayor posts blog. (I'd link to it, but I can't because it changes every day and there are no archives or dedicated pages for the posts.)



11:49 - We get the following from the Mayor's Press Secretary four minutes later.

From: Strauch-Nelson, Rachel
Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 11:49:06 AM
To: Strauch-Nelson, Rachel; Solomon, Brian; Webber, Robbie; Sanborn, Jed;'retrotech@gdinet.com'; 'amanda@communitycar.com'; 'Poulson, Gary';'dhinz@forstereng.com'; 'smccabe@bus.wisc.edu'; 'hoag@wisc.edu';'kmstreit@facstaff.wisc.edu'; 'mmbergamini@facstaff.wisc.edu'; ALL ALDERS
Subject: Last Night's TPC Action
Auto forwarded by a Rule

Please see the mayor's most recent blog post below, with his thoughts on last night's TPC action.

https://www.cityofmadison.com/mayor/blog/

Been There, Done That

Last night the Transit & Parking Commission voted to raise fares to the equivalent of about half of what the Council and I budgeted for fare revenues. The TPC is revisiting the same set of policy choices I had back in the fall when I was putting my budget together, but they're reaching different (and I think wrong) conclusions.

When I was putting together my budget in September I was faced with basically two choices. I could call for raising fares to $1.75 or $2.00. (Not raising fares at all was pretty much off the table because I didn't want the deep service cuts that would come without a fare increase.) We called for information, debated the pros and cons... essentially struggled with it just as the TPC has been doing for the last several weeks.

My conclusion was (and still is) that the bigger increase was better because the smaller increase is the worst of both worlds: higher fares for, at best, the same service. By going to $2.00 we could actually increase service for the first time in years and provide a lot of other improvements. A smaller increase doesn't get us much; it's just running in place. And it sets us up for the possibility of another fare increase pretty soon with, again, no service expansions.

Moreover, the more ambitious fare increase makes possible a whole new and exciting program for low-income riders. Developed by community activist Lisa Subeck and others this proposal would actually dramatically lower the fare for 3,600 low income riders from the current $48 for a monthly pass to $27.50. The smaller fare increase won't provide enough funding for that.

Finally, the TPC still left a Metro budget deficit of something around $210,000.

So, I appreciate what the TPC's trying to do here, but the Council and I have been over the same ground, struggled with the same difficult choices, and reached different --- and I think more sound --- conclusions.

What happens next? Well, I'll talk to Council members and others to see how they feel about it. Bringing this back to the Council is a possibility. Stay tuned.

Rachel Strauch-Nelson
Communications Director
Office of Mayor Dave Cieslewicz
608-266-4611

(Yeah - stay tuned for about, well, it took the city attorney about 8 minutes after that post to tell the clerk the Mayor was appealing - continue reading.)

12:25 - 40 minutes after the blog post, I hear from someone in a department other than the Mayors, City Attorney's, Metro or Clerk's offices, that the Mayor is appealing.

12:24 - Brenda tweets an update.

12:34 - Brenda tweets more details.

I sent out some emails updating people, made a few phones calls, did a little actual work, more calls, asked some questions, did some research, tried to do more work.

Somewhere in there I heard Lisa Subeck was now filing the appeal - which I thought was odd as I had just gotten done talking to her around 2:00 and she was on her way to a staff meeting and she didn't mention it, so I asked the clerk to send me the email where she got the original request to put this on the agenda for Tuesday. Here's what she sent me at 4:15, just minutes before the clerk's office closed and the clerk had no paperwork for the appeal.

from Peters, Tammy
to Brenda Konkel
date Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 4:15 PM
subject FW: Legistar #13187; Bus fares
mailed-by cityofmadison.com

From: May, Michael
Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 11:53 AM
To: Peters, Tammy
Cc: Harmon, Ramon; Hogg, Carolyn; Kamp, Charles
Subject: Legistar #13187; Bus fares

Tammy:

I'm told the Mayor will be appealing the decision of the TPC made last night, and this should appear under the Public Hearing items on the agenda for next week. Talk to Ray or Carolyn for more details.

MPMay
Madison City Attorney

4:52 - From the Mayor's office

From: Harmon, Ramon
Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 4:52:40 PM
To: Harmon, Ramon
Subject: FW: Metro Fare appeal
Auto forwarded by a Rule

Please see the attached communication from Lisa Subeck to Chuck Kamp re last night's TPC action.

Sincerely,

Ray Harmon
Office of Mayor Dave Cieslewicz
210 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.
Room 403
Madison, WI 53703
608-266-4611
608-267-8671 (fax
_______________________________________
"Be the change that you want to see in the world".
Gandhi-


From: lisasubeck@sbcglobal.net [mailto:lisasubeck@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2009 4:34 PM
To: Kamp, Charles
Cc: Mayor; Harmon, Ramon
Subject: Metro Fare appeal

Mr. Kamp,

Attached, please find my request to appeal the TPC decision regarding Metro fares. I faxed a copy to your office as well because I was having trouble earlier scanning and emailing the document.

Thank you,
Lisa Subeck

Of course, the attachment is scanned so hopefully you can read this:

5:22 - Lisa explains her actions to fellow advocates:

from lisasubeck@sbcglobal.net
to mabaaa@yahoogroups.com,madisonahaa@yahoogroups.com,Discuss PD ,4lakesgreens <4lakesgreens@yahoogroups.com>,bikies@danenet.org,
Brenda Konkel
date Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 5:22 PM
subject Re: [madisonahaa] Fwd: FW: Metro Fare appeal

Hello all,

A very quiick and basic explanation of my action:
There is nothing in the plan passed last night to mitigate the impact of the fare increase on low-income individuals. Without that, I don't believe it's an acceptable or reasonable compromise at all. Additionally, there is no guarantee or even intention outlined in the plan passed last night to implement a low-income fare program. So the way I see it, the fares were increased by a lesser but still significant amount versus the original $2 proposal with absolutely no relief to low-income workers. And should the fares increase again in future years, there is no plan in place to mitigate the long term impact on low-income residents. We had what I strongly believe to be a good plan that would have helped low-income Metro riders now and in the future. Had it been part of what TPC passed last night, I would not be asking the for an appeal of the decision.

--Lisa

6:42 I got a google alert where Cap Times reports on the "aggrieved citizen" posted at 6:33 and a resolution already sponsored by several alders (tho it doesn't seems to be available anywhere at the moment so I can't tell you who sponsored it.)

Busy day, used up a half day of vacation over it!

In my mind there are a few outstanding questions to be resolved, so, stay tuned! :)

Hint: See bolded sections.

Read more!

Gotta love Wisconsin Winters . . .

Last night I ran a few errands and picked up a few things, lightbulbs, garbage bags, diet coke etc. But the hardest decision was . . .

Gloves?


Or flipflops?

It almost seemed like some sort of cruel joke!
Read more!

Bus Fare $1.75 - No Low Income Rider Fare

Well, after more public testimony, several motions, much confusion and about 2 hours of debate they settled on $1.75.

I missed the motion to reconsider. Apparently Gary made the motion and Brian (I think) seconded it. The argument seemed to be that there was new information. Everyone except Margaret Bergamini and Robbie Webber voted to reconsider - putting Brian Solomon's motion back on the table.

I also missed some of the public testimony. And not knowing what I had missed, didn't take notes on the public testimony. I got there around 6:45 and Lisa Subeck was speaking and took several questions. Several others spoke after her. They took a break and around 8:10 they resumed. At that point, the City Attorney told them what they could and could not do. Most notably, they couldn't change the budget. At one point, Gary Paulson sought to clarify - if they can't vote to change the budget then the fact that people were calling them irresponsible was inaccurate. In fact, they had made many suggestions at their last meeting - they just couldn't take formal action. But you know, that doesn't stop editorial boards or some politicians from making such statements.

Finally, they got to debate. Jed first made a motion to keep the $2 increase as passed by the Council. Duane Hinz tried to modify it to include the low-income bus fare program. Then he withdrew it because it got all confusing. Jed's motion then failed, I think unanimously, but it was more procedural than a comment on the motion.

The next motion was to go with Jed's motion with the low-income bus fare. Ken Streit made the motion with Duane seconding. There was alot of discussion about why what was here now still didn't justify raising the fares, discussion about the models and how they were all just guesses and that in these times no model was likely to be accurate, and alot of talk about the future and what might happen with various changes and decisions at the federal government/fund levels. There was concern about losing the choice riders and if the low income fare program goes far enough. And, slowly, you could see people putting on their gloves, and hats and eventually coats because it was so cold in the room. And eventually they voted 4 - 4 to pass the motion and the chair Carl Durocher had to break the tie causing the motion to fail. (Voting yes to raise fares to $2 were: Duane Hinz, Ken Streit, Gary Poulson and Jed Sanborn. Voting no were Brian Solomon, Margaret Bergamini, Robbie Webber, Amanda White and Carl Durocher)

Brian then made a motion to change the are to $1.75 and I honestly don't think he thought they were making a decision about the low-income bus fare due to the previous confusion. More talking. Staff had some concerns about his numbers and there were some questions about if they were working with the current budget why they needed to make up for the additional money the staff said they still needed. Lost more discussion with some of the same talking points discussed. Strong statements about this isn't the time to compromise, that you can't call service increases actual increases, they are restorations of previous cuts to service and that we have been in the death spiral for 10 years now. However, it was all enough to have Carl change his vote. Brian and Jed changed their votes. So it was another tie with Carl breaking the tie. AYE: Duane Hinz, Ken Streit, Gary Poulson, Jed Sanborn Carl Durocher. NO: Amanda White, Robbie Webber, Margaret Bergamini and Jed Sanborn. Carl explained that he voted to prevent this from going back to council. It sounded kind of odd at the time, but I believe what he meant was that politically, this was a viable compromise - not that he was voting out of spite for the council as I believe at least one person in the room interpreted it.

At this point, more confusion. I believe at this point is when Brian figured out that the low-income fare was no longer on the table and that they could no longer vote on that. He tried to make a motion to refer that discussion to the next meeting. With that, some of us who hadn't already done so, put on our coats and went home - or to the bar.

At the end, there were still 7 members of the public there along with Alder Clear and myself plus 6 staff members and 2 reporters. It was 9:45. I don't think anyone walked out of the room happy. I always thought that compromises were supposed to be win-win situations, but I think most felt it was lose-lose.
Read more!

The Thuy E-mails!

Due to popular demand . . . for the facebookers!

ROUND ONE: County Board Supervisor v. Alder

Dear Alder Pham-Remmele,

I am writing to let you know that there is strong demand to have a public hearing in the Midvale Heights Neighborhood as for the proposed changes to Westgate Mall and the Hy-Vee development. As you know, Westgate Mall is within the Midvale Heights neighborhood.

It has come to my attention that you are seeking to have a public hearing on this issue in the Orchard Ridge Neighborhood. While of course there is nothing wrong having a meeting in that neighborhood, I would hope that you would also seek to have one in the area of your district that would be most impacted by the project, the actual neighborhood in which the project and construction would be located.

Please let me know if there is anything that I can do to assist you with this meeting.

Best,
Carousel

Carousel Bayrd
Dane County Supervisor

Hi Ms. Bayrd,

I am surprised that you mentioned, "it has come to my attention that you are seeking to have a public hearing on this issue in the Orchard Ridge Neighborhood".

To date, I have no such plan. Orchard Ridge Neighborhood Association President Tom McKenna can vouch for this.

I am going to review Midvale Heights/Westmoreland Neighborhood Plan with Planning Division in the very near future.

The only upcoming meeting relating to MHCA is with Tocora Lane residents concerning Bike Path between Tocora Lane and Science Drive. I am looking forward to hearing more details from MHCA President Denise Lamb about this.

Sincerely,

Alder Thuy
District 20

Dear Alder Pham-Remmele,

Sorry, I do not understand your reply. There must be some misunderstanding.

The message I got about the Orchard Ridge meeting was directly from city staff, with no political interest in this at all. They told me that you had made such a request. If there is an error in that, that is fine to know. As I mentioned in my first email, it is perfectly fine to have a meeting in Orchard Ridge. But, if that is not the case, that's perfectly fine too. I don't need anyone to vouch for you-- your word is good. Hence the whole point of my asking you in the email in the first place.

I was writing to ask if you knew if there would be a meeting in Midvale Heights. And to offer help organizing it, since I live near Westgate Mall. Several neighbors had asked me about this, and I thought I would just ask you.

Thanks,
Carousel

Ms. Bayrd:

I am interested in knowing WHO the "city staff" telling you that I had made such a request are.

I know my words are good because I conduct my business openly & transparently, with NO POLITICAL INTEREST in whatsoever.
It's NOT "fine" with me to be linked to hearsay "errors".
I don't need anyone to vouch for me, yet I must let Tom McKenna know that I never go behind his back.

Please refrain from committing any such "error" again.

Thank you very much,

Alder Thuy

Dear Alder Pham-Remmele,

Here is the link to the city of madison planning department document on the Westgate Mall redevelopment.

http://www.cityofmadison.com/planning/projects/conditional/160wm.html

This is the information that was provided to me by planning department city staff.

If you clink on "Letter of Intent", you will find a letter written by Hy-Vee. In the middle of the first page, under "Actions to Date:", in the middle of the first paragraph it reads: "Alder Pham Remmele asked that in addition to sharing our plans with the Midvale Heights Neighborhood Association as discussed below, that we try to coordinate a meeting with the Orchard Park Neighborhood Association and said meeting took place on November 16th."

City staff told me that they have interpreted this to mean that on November 16th you requested that they present with the Orchard Ridge neighborhood.

If this information is incorrect, I suggest to contact Hy-Vee and ask them to correct their note, so that they stop spreading hearsay errors.

Best,
Carousel

Ms. Bayrd:

As the alder for District 20 I openly support Hy-Vee's Proposal and the Economic & Employment opportunities it brings.
I am thoroughly familiar with the document you cited, thus, I do expect you and professional staff NOT to misinterpret any part of it.

Hy-Vee 's Letter of Intent accurately described the October 28th initial meeting at City Council Office when Mayoral Aide Mario Mendoza also attended. I did "asked that, in addition to sharing our plans with the Midvale Heights Neighborhood Association as discussed below, that we try to coordinate a meeting with the Orchard Park (sic.) Neighborhood Association "

It was understood that Hy-Vee is in charge of co-ordinating such events.
I am pleased that Hy-Vee did meet with MHCA later that same day, and also with Orchard Ridge Neighborhood Board later on Sunday, November 16th.
Hy-Vee co-ordinated both meetings and carried out my request exactly as suggested.

I myself did NOT attend Hy-Vee Presentation at ORCC on Nov. 16th, so I am mystified by your statement that "City staff told me that they have interpreted this to mean that on November 16th you requested that they present with the Orchard Ridge neighborhood...".

And HOW could any of this lead YOU to conclude, "it has come to my attention that you are seeking to have a public hearing on this issue in the Orchard Ridge Neighborhood". ?!

I did suggest that Meadowood Neighborhhod Association (MNA) should be included as they are similarly impacted by this very project. Last night MNA Board, with several members from Iowa with positive experience with Hy-Vee, expressed strong support and the Presidentr is writing a letter to UDC on Hy-Vee's behalf..

NO Public Hearing was requested or planned on my part.
When we are facing tough economic times and the Mayor requested all of us to be fiscally responsible, I don't see any need to waste a large amount of taxpayers' money to conduct Public Hearings on this project.
Following due process everyone is welcome to attend and express feelings at many upcoming UDC and other related Planning meetings.

I expect elected officials to respect people's time and goodwill for the good of our city.


Alder Thuy

ROUND TWO: Alder Thuy vs. Citizen Bus advocate
Bus advocate to allalders:

"It became necessary to destroy the village in order to save it."

-- An American major after the destruction of the Vietnamese Village Ben Tre

* One sure-fire way to increase transit revenue: increase ridership
* One sure-fire way to decrease ridership: increase fares.


"It became necessary to destroy Madison Metro in order to save it."

-- An American mayor after the destruction of the Madison Metro Transit sysyem

I feel compelled to speak up for many Vietnamese about this ugly issue.

Please refrain from quoting lies that were started by the Monk Nhat-Hanh during his Buddhist Meditation Teaching in New York and have been circulating like urban myth for years

Don't use as evidence something you yourself have no personal experience with or are unable to verify.
I myself lived within that area of Viet-Nam during the war.

Both this "American major" and the Monk Nhat-Hanh have angered millions of Vietnamese all over the world for their intentional spreading of this lie. Ben Tre Village was never destroyed. Ben Tre Villagers have publicly & repeatedly denounced the twisting of facts, falsification of events, and inflated numbers used by both men for their own self-promotion.

Ignorance is bliss!

Alder Thuy
District 20

Alder Pham-Remmele;

I yield to no one in my admiration for the courageous and heroic Vietnamese people. They have a long and gallant history of inexorable resistance and eventual triumph in their struggle to maintain their independence against invasion after invasion by larger and seemingly invincible foreign aggressors. Earlier against the Chinese, no mean feat at all, and recently, almost within my lifetime, against the French, the Japanese, again the French, who were finally expelled, and finally against the mighty United States of America. We never really had a chance!

It has been well and truly said that the only good thing the US got out of the Vietnam War was our Vietnamese immigrants, just the sort of industrious and ambitious folk the US has depended on to infuse new vigor into our cultural life and economic vigor.

Personally, my cousin John married a lovely young Vietnamese woman who gave him five children. They live up here in Watertown for many years, and we always had the most blessed times together on holidays; just remarkably intelligent, lively, beautiful young cousins! I miss them all, now all married, and scattered to the four winds.

I certainly meant no offense toward the noble Vietnamese people.

It surprises me that a Vietnamese defends the murderous, tyrannous misbehavior of my people toward her own country.

I concede I may well be wrong in my facts as to the fate of Ban Tre, but the fact in Madison is that the Common Council and Mayor of Madison have long been presiding over the destruction of Madison Metro, and this latest fare increase can nothing but continue that destruction, as by the infamous Chinese 'Death of a Thousand Cuts.' This latest fare increase will continue that slow and torturous death

The Mayor wishes to raise transit fares in order to raise transit revenues? Well, here I go again, but it's still true:

1. The one sure-fire way to raise transit revenues is to raise transit ridership.
2. The one sure-fire way to reduce transit ridership is to raise transit fares.

I would hope, Alder Pham-Remmele, that you would lead the Council in reversing your stand on Madison Metro, and transferring funds from the capital budget, from road-building, to the operating budget, for improvement and extension of Metro service, at the current fares.

This is the wise and timely thing to do, when fewer Madisonians are going to be able to afford autos, and Madison is failing to achieve Federal clean-air standards.

Supervisor Hendrick also weighed in:

Ald. Pham-Remmele,

I'm sure my constituent did not intend to offend you or the people of Vietnam. The "destroy the village" remark has been current in U.S. culture since Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Peter Arnett quoted an anonymous U.S. major in 1968.

I understand that Wynn Goldsmith in his book Papa Bravo Romeo - U. S. Navy Patrol Boats at War in Vietnam attributes this quote to USAF Major Chet Brown (p. 184-186). Michael Miller states on the website linked below that he was present when a similar comment was made by a Major Booris. Not everything on the Internet is true, but Capt. Miller also cites an email he received from Lt. Jonathon Hubbert who remembers the same thing.

http://www.nhe.net/BenTreVietnam/

I know that others who were there dispute the autenticity of the quote. Since, as you know, Ben Tre is not a village but a provincial capital the actual quote in the New York Times was "It became necessary to destroy the town to save it."

I think Mr. Voth's point, which we can all agree with, is that we should not destroy Madison Metro by misguided policies. Thank you for your continued public service.

Sup. John Hendrick

There you go! For the inquiring (facebook) minds . . . .
Read more!

5,000 not covered in Mayor's Low-Income Plan

I'm breaking the (my own) rules. I'm taking a break and blogging mid-day! I try to avoid doing this because I need my work time to be for work as much as possible and to avoid angry blogging. But this . . . is worth it.

I finally got the "plan" from Chuck Kamp - the Mayor's office still won't send it out, despite my telling them that alders deserve to see the proposal, not the spin. And despite the fact they actually have it. I will post it below.

The fact I was trying to confirm was this:

This will be a limited program in that each month when the passes run out, eligible individuals will have to wait until the first of the following month to purchase a pass.

I didn't see that in the press release and wanted to check the facts!

Here's what bothers me about it. According to the Neighborhood Indicator's Project:

Families who received Medical Assistance, Food Stamps or W-2 5,428

The Neighborhood indicators project says "The Census Bureau defines a family as two or more people who reside together and who are related by birth, marriage, or adoption." So, there is likely more than 5,000 people impacted, but some of them might fit into the senior and disabled programs. So, the numbers are a little sloppy, but you get the point. There are high percentages of people that will not be impacted by this.

That's all I really wanted to know. If this is serving only 13% of the low income population at best (assuming one person per family wants to buy a low-income pass) is this really a "fix"?? I'd say not. I wonder if all those editorial boards took this into consideration before they jumped on board singing the Mayor's praises?

While I'm at it - check out these other kinda scary (Dane County) statistics from this site:

2008 Dane County Food Stamp Data: Cases & Recipients

. . . . . . Jan . . . . Feb . . Mar . . Apr . . May . . .Jun . . .Jul . . .Aug . . .Sep . . Oct . . . Nov

Cases 10,216 10,544 10,796 11,151 11,429 11,700 11,893 12,146 12,307 12,725 13,080
People 22,804 23,549 24,019 24,736 25,342 25,871 26,267 26,771 27,147 28,069 28,730

Sorry I didn't have time to make that look pretty! But check out that increase last year!

Here's the "summary" of the "proposal" - which I think IS the proposal:

Summary of the Mayor’s Low-Income Pass Initiative

Budget: The first phase of the initiative will involve a program where $100,000 of Metro’s contingency fund will be used to purchase 3600 low-income passes for the remainder of 2009, assuming a fare increase beginning April 1st.

Reduced Fares: The cost of the low-income pass will be half the cost of the adult 31-Day pass. The low-income pass will cost $27.50 if the Transit and Parking Commission (TPC) approves the proposed fare increase.

Qualifications: Individuals who qualify for food stamps will also qualify for the low-income pass.

Specifics: The Mayor is proposing a two-phase approach to the need for low-income individuals to access affordable transportation services for jobs, medical appointments and other essential destinations.

This program will involve eligible individuals purchasing the low-income passes at a limited number of locations including at least Metro Transit, City Hall and the Dane County Job Center. This will be a limited program in that each month when the passes run out, eligible individuals will have to wait until the first of the following month to purchase a pass.

The second phase of the initiative will be developed by a special committee appointed by the Mayor that will include representatives from:

• Mayor’s Office
• Community Development
• United Way
• Porchlight
• Salvation Army
• YWCA
• Dane County Human Services
• Metro Transit
• Transit and Parking Commission
• Other city staff

The charge to this committee will be to develop a sustainable low-income pass program for the Mayor’s consideration in the 2010 budget that would not set a limit each month on the number of passes available.

Ok, back to work!

Read more!

Low Income Bus Fare Proposal: Copy Please.

It shouldn't be that hard to get a copy of the proposal that's been all over the news, right? Especially for an alderperson, right? Ok, here's my attempt:

ATTEMPT ONE:

REQUEST
from Brenda Konkel
to "Harmon, Ramon" , "Plant, Joel" , "Strauch-Nelson, Rachel"
date Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 9:18 AM
subject low income rider proposal
mailed-by gmail.com

Where is the mayor's proposal for low income riders? I don't think I saw it . . .
Thanks! Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays . . .
Brenda

RESPONSE
from Harmon, Ramon
to Brenda Konkel , "Plant, Joel" , "Strauch-Nelson, Rachel"
date Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 9:41 AM
subject RE: low income rider proposal
mailed-by cityofmadison.com

We are working on it now. Do you have any suggestions on the subject, any proposals, anything that can help develop a program would be appreciated.

Sincerely,

Ray Harmon
Office of Mayor Dave Cieslewicz

It goes downhill from there, as it was about a week after he told me he was out recruiting against me. (It was weeks before it hit the press.)


ATTEMPT TWO
This is what started it.

From: Strauch-Nelson, Rachel
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 10:09:21 AM
To: Mayor; Solomon, Brian; Webber, Robbie; Sanborn, Jed; 'retrotech@gdinet.com'; 'amanda@communitycar.com'; 'Poulson, Gary'; 'dhinz@forstereng.com'; 'smccabe@bus.wisc.edu'; 'hoag@wisc.edu'; 'kmstreit@facstaff.wisc.edu'; 'mmbergamini@facstaff.wisc.edu'; ALL ALDERS
Subject: Bus Fare Editorials

Good Morning,

The mayor wanted to pass along two editorials from the weekend about the bus fare increase. Both editorials appeared after the mayor and community advocates presented a low income rider proposal on Friday. More on that proposal is available here: https://www.cityofmadison.com/news/view.cfm?news_id=1280

Approve increase in bus fare

Wisconsin State Journal

http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/opinion/431851

Mayor's moving in right direction in bus fare debate

The Capital Times

http://www.madison.com/tct/opinion/editorial/431875

Thanks,

Rachel

Rachel Strauch-Nelson

Communications Director

Office of Mayor Dave Cieslewicz

Of course, this prompted this response from me.

from Brenda Konkel
to "Strauch-Nelson, Rachel" , Mayor Dave Cieslewicz
cc All Alders , retrotech@gdinet.com, mmbergamini
date Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 10:48 AM
subject Re: FW: Bus Fare Editorials
mailed-by gmail.com

How about sending us a copy of the actual proposal instead of newspaper accounts, editorials and press releases? Last I looked, it wasn't available anywhere on-line and I had previously requested a copy.
Thanks!
Brenda

And this helpful response:

from Strauch-Nelson, Rachel
to Brenda Konkel
cc "Harmon, Ramon"
date Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 12:24 PM
subject RE: FW: Bus Fare Editorials
mailed-by cityofmadison.com

Hi Brenda,

I think Chuck Kamp has a one pager on the low income proposal that will be part of materials for the TPC meeting tomorrow. The only thing we've sent out from our office is the attached release, which fully explains the proposal. Please let me know if you need any additional information.

Thanks,
Rachel

I asked Chuck, but that was late yesterday and hopefully I'll get it today - but I won't have time to deal with it since I'll be at work.

So, its not available on line, one person I know has a paper copy. My irritation is that this has been ALL OVER the news and yet I can't get a copy. Which means, you can't really have a meaningful response to it. It should be a part of the tons of paper that has been thrown at the Transit and Parking Commission - as one commissioners described it to me - "You'd think Dave was litigating on behalf of an insurance company, the way he's burying us in paper." But its not, its mysteriously missing.

I can't tell if its embarrassment at the brevity of the proposal, an attempt to force us to focus on the proposal instead of the bus fare increases and how they will decrease ridership and budget alternatives to increasing the fares or total ineptness.

People get mad at me for worrying about these details, but it has very practical impacts. The impact for me is this - I still don't have a a copy of the proposal that is supposed to be discussed tonight so that I can write a response to it. The reason I need write a response is that I have conflicting meeting so I won't be there to get my copy in person or comment - unless the rest of the meeting takes longer than I think. So now, I'm excluded from the discussion. I'd respond based on what I've read in the paper, but its hard to do that not knowing if what I say might be changed by something in the proposal, making my comments a moot point.

The more important impact is that the members of the public and the TPC members can't do research or prepare comments on the proposal either - at least not without the risk the their work is also moot because there might be details in the proposal that aren't in the press release.

It's just not good government!
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Own an Old House?

If you own an old house, like many of us in the downtown area do, these workshops might be of interest to you! From the Madison Trust website:

The three programs will be held at the Goodman Atwood Community Center at 149 Waubesa Street in Madison. Workshops are $25 for the series of three, or $10 each, payable at the door. Questions? Call 608-441-8864.

Getting to Know Your Old House
7 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 14

Preservation experts Phil Barlow and Andy Fielding as they explain how old houses were originally designed to function and talk about maintenance schedules for keeping old houses like new. Take this chance to learn techniques that will keep energy costs down and boost functionality.

The Truth About Historic Windows
7 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11

See how historic windows can be an important part of greening your old house. Phil Barlow and Paul Porter will lead hands-on demonstrations of basic maintenance and repairs that can save you the cost of replacement as well as on your energy bill. You'll also learn other tips for conserving energy while retaining and respecting your house's historic character.

Button Up Your Old House
7 p.m. Wednesday, March 11

As we start the long thaw, get ready to take a good look at your house's exterior by learning to identify common problems and the best methods for preserving your home's exterior.

Read more!

The bitterly cold week ahead!

Stay warm this week! Here's the meetings of interest! (And, as a side note, here's the city's website on the cold weather with tips and information.)

Monday, January 12, 2009
4:30 PM BOARD OF ESTIMATES ROOM 260 MMB
- New Economic Development Director
- Mayor recommended repealing the prevailing wage for stagehands - staff recommends against.
- Hiring architect for Tenney Park Shelter.
- Overture!

5:30 PM PLAN COMMISSION ROOM 201 CCB
- Acacia project - 201-229 West Lakelawn Place.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009
4:30 PM DOWNTOWN HOTEL FEASIBILITY STUDY COMMITTEE 1 JOHN NOLEN DR. HALL OF FAME
- Reviewing and approving a document that isn't available to you - not sure how you get one! Guess you need to show up to the meeting.

5:00 PM AFFIRMATIVE ACTION COMMISSION ROOM LL-120 MMB
- Eroding the affirmative action plan process during bids.

5:00 PM PUBLIC SAFETY REVIEW BOARD ROOM 525 CCB
- Changes to chronic nuisance ordinance.
- Smoke detectors. (Had problems with the link, here's version 3)
- Discussion of 911 Center.

5:00 PM TRANSIT AND PARKING COMMISSION ROOM 260 MMB
- The next battle in the bus fare war - possible reconsideration. There wasn't a link to the low-income fare plan when I looked this morning, hopefully they add it. Looks like TPC wants to create their own committee to look at it.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009
5:30 PM ZONING REWRITE ADVISORY COMMITTEE MADISON SENIOR CENTER, 330 W MIFFLIN ST, ROOMS 1 & 2
- Continued discussions on mixed-use, commercial and residential district definitions.

7:30 PM BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS OLBRICH GARDENS, 3330 ATWOOD AVE
- Hiring architect for Tenney Park Shelter.

Thursday, January 15, 2009
12:00 PM HOUSING AFFORDABILITY SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE HOUSING COMMITTEE ROOM LL-110 MMB
- Continued work on affordable housing issues in the City of Madison.

Bundle up! And watch for cancelled meetings. The weekly schedule will have some of them listed there.
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Snow Emergency - Move Your Car! Park on EVEN Side!

From the City of Madison

The City of Madison has declared a snow emergency. That means that alternate side parking restrictions will be in effect throughout the entire City of Madison including the downtown/isthmus snow emergency zone. Madison residents are asked to remove all vehicles from the street if possible. Residents who must park on the street this evening should park on the EVEN house numbered side of the street. Vehicles parked on the street Saturday evening January 10th should be parked on the ODD house numbered side of the street. Violations of the alternate side parking rules are punishable by a fine of $60 throughout the entire City of Madison. Violators could also be towed.

The Snow Emergency will remain in effect until at least 7 a.m. on Sunday January 11th. Parking is available in the cashiered sections of city-owned ramps in the downtown area. During a declared Snow Emergency you can park for no charge at the City ramps from 9 p.m. until 7 a.m. If you enter before 9 p.m. or leave after 7 a.m. you are liable for any parking charges before 9 p.m. and from 7 a.m. until the time you leave.

When parking in the ramps overnight, do not park on the top level so this area can be plowed. Be aware that vehicles stored in city ramps longer than 48 hours are subject to being ticketed and towed. Meters in lots and ramps are enforced 24 hours per day, 7 days a week.

Parking is also available at three central city parks. Residents can park in the lots at Burr Jones Park 1820 E. Washington Av, the boat landing lot of Tenney Park, 1615 Sherman AV (located along the east side of the Yahara River), and beach parking lot at Olbrich Park 3527 Atwood Av. Madison residents can get complete snow emergency information at www.cityofmadison.com/winter or by calling 261-9111.

Read more!

There Are Alternatives to Cutting Routes

The issues with the Transit and Parking Commission's decision not to raise bus fares seem to get more and more muddied by the day. Here's a few items of interest that the news seems to be missing:

NO REQUEST FOR RECONSIDERATION
Apparently, the current line is that the bus fares are going to be reconsidered by the commission, but as far as I know, no commissioner has requested that reconsideration.

CUTS RECOMMENDED BY THE COMMISSION
I wasn't at the last meeting, but apparently they did make a series of suggestions for other areas in the budget that could be cut or modified, but they don't actually have the authority to do it themselves, they can merely suggest it to staff, which they did.

ROUTE CUTS
The recent news of route cuts and cutting drivers hours is an attempt to scare people into supporting the fare increases. However, these are just some of the options. Many others were suggested by TPC and the council.

ALTERNATIVES
From a previous post, here are some of the alternatives:

We know there was the $235,000 that went into the reserves that can be used, and the $150,000 in extra service plus, if they want to another $100,000 for additional security or at least part of that since they didn't really get a quote on what that might cost and it is likely to cost less. Not hiring the marketing person will add another $65,000, there's the $40,000 saved by not doing the Clean Air Action Days free rides and then they are only short $95,000 toward the $685,000. ( I hope I got those numbers right, a few of them were from memory.)

This stuff isn't new. We have other alternatives and we don't have to cut service. I hope the TPC stays strong and does not reconsider their decision - they made the right one the first time.
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Mayor Blogs . . . But What About the Rules?

So, cool, the Mayor is going to blog! Welcome to the blogosphere! But . . . At the end of 2007 and beginning of 2008, I sat on a committee that looked at what the alders could and could not do on the City website. We reviewed city policies and created additional rules . . . that don't apply to the Mayor! I'm glad the Mayor is blogging on the City website . . . but something seems a tad unfair about it . . . consider the following rules:

Web Policies, Standards, Guidelines Version 1.7a May 2006 Web Policies 2

Blogs, Chat Rooms, Forums, etc.
Creating blogs, chat rooms, forums, or any other avenues for content to be posted without prior review are prohibited on any sites associated with or hosted by the City of Madison. The City would be liable for the content and does not have the resources to review or monitor what gets posted. Current Network and Security Policies prohibit City employees from using personal email accounts, chat rooms, and instant messaging.

Minutes of Feb 5, 2008 President's Workgroup on Council Website Policies and Guidelines

Website Linking questions
The subcommittee questioned linking from the alder web pages to alder blogs and/or non-city organizations (e.g. Downtown Madison, Inc., Chamber of Commerce). Roger Allen recommended that alders, when linking from the alder City of Madison web page, follow APM 3-13 – Web Linking Policy: http://www.cityofmadison.com/mayor/apm/3-13.pdf

RECOMMENDATION:
Allow mention of blog in alder biography, but no linking to the blog. Alder can state within their biography that if someone wants the blog link, they can email that alder for the link.

The policy passed in March 2008.

So . . . do we need to reconsider our policies? Or did the City's rules change and if so, where are new rules?

Seriously Mayor, good call! Glad you're blogging, hopefully it will help with transparency in local government! I've got in over 1,000 posts and people seem to like it!
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Spring Elections - The Candidates Are In!

So, unlike last year, there are many, many fewer races. Last year we got 10 new alders, this year, we only have an opportunity for 7 new alders. 3 incumbents have elections and we have 4 vacancies. Kristin from the Cap Times has the full rundown! Thanks Kristin!

For those looking for campaign gossip - the WSJ did the article for you! I don't think I need to comment beyond that! Should be an interesting spring!
Read more!

Common Council Referral Recap

As usual, not much happened.

The meeting started at 6:37 with Jed Sanborn and Thuy Pham-Remmele absent. We started out by recognizing Boy Scout Troup 15 that meets at Queen of Peace. They were there to watch to get their citizenship and community merit badge.

Next, we has resolutions honoring more experienced city staff retiring. Kitty Rankin was our Landmarks staff for the last 30 years and Jim Voss worked with the City Attorney's Office for 34 years. I shudder to think of the depth and breadth of knowledge the two of them take with them. They will very noticeably be missed. I can't imagine a Landmarks meeting without Kitty Rankin being there to help us with the history of things and the may examples she has.

We then received a petition to paint some crosswalks near Wexford Village.

We next did our consent agenda and we passed the recommendations on the agenda for all the items except #26, public hearings and the following:
#33 - Smoke detectors - referred.
#34 - Elevator inspectors - referred.
#35 - Julia has asked to discuss this item, but instead we adopted it. It was the ability to apply for a $25,000 grant for the tree inventory we are trying to do.
#82 - Curfew ordinance - referred.

At some point, Thuy showed up - bringing treats for her birthday.

So, then we went back to the public hearings and there wasn't much of interest that happened except:

#5 - Quizno's withdrew their request for their liquor license. They said that they plan to come back after considering the "tough love" feedback they had received.

#16 - The controversial daycare. This item clearly took up the most time. We heard about 45 minutes of testimony from upset far side neighbors who didn't want the daycare. Mostly cuz its too big and has some shared driveway issues. There was, of course more than that, but it essentially boiled down to that. To me, the real issue had nothing to do with the daycare. The real issue was Jed Sanborn was not there. We thought he wanted it referred and city staff told people to go home before the meeting and some did. Then the Mayor also announced that the item would be referred. Then 7 alders wanted to vote on the issue anyways. We discussed referral for a bit, Thuy made more boarderline racist remarks depending upon how you interpret what she said, Schumacher sort of led the charge to just vote. I made the point that we told people to go home and shouldn't vote - didn't seem to make a difference, the vote on referral ended up AYE (to refer): Konkel, Palm, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Solomon, Verveer, Webber, Bruer, Cnare, Gruber, Judge, Kerr. The NO votes - the ones who don't care much if we misled the public - Monson, Pham-Remmele, Schumacher, Skidmore, Clausius, Clear and Compton. Next time there is an interest of theirs, I think someone should inform the public that we are referring, get the Mayor to tell everyone its getting referred and we should vote on it and then watch them squeal. Ok - maybe not, but you get the point. It was totally unfair to the public to try to push this through. Luckily, it was referred.

Then, we approved our Council budget dates and times for next year. The problem is that we set the Common Council dates before we get the schedule of when the Mayor releases his budget. This year we had a full week less than the year before. I urged the Council to consider changing the dates when we get the budget schedule. Particularly because, I talked to many people who were interested in running for alder, but all of them bowed out, thinking they don't have the time to do the job justice - particularly when it comes to the budget. It think we need to think about how to make the process one in which more people can be involved.

With that, sometime after 8:00, but before 8:30 we adjourned. Webber, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Monson, Schumacher, Clear, Bruer, Gruber, Judge and allegedly Verveer (I never saw him as he was with his posse!) attended. Congratulations all around for the 13 alders who don't have anyone running against them.

That's it, again, not much of interest and a sad commentary on what the council thinks of YOUR public input!

NOTE: Sorry no links today - woke up too late and have about 4 more things I want to blog about! The holidays are over and the issues are flowing again!
Read more!

New Tenney Park Shelter

At first, I was concerned that this new shelter would be unaffordable for the groups currently using the shelter and instead would be just another mostly unused closed park building for weddings and gatherings for people who could afford it and figure out how to get it reserved. I was reasonable assured, however, that would not be the case. We subsequently put money in the budget for about half of the costs, with the rest to be raised by the community. Check it out! And thanks to everyone who is helping to make this a reality!
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Blatant Housing Discrimination Still Not a Thing of the Past.

You'd think this kind of thing doesn't happen any more. From the Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing Center:

LANDLORDS DENIED HOUSING TO SINGLE MOM WITH TWO KIDS: HOUSING DISCRIMINATION COMPLAINT SETTLES

West Allis, Wisconsin – Kanita Brawley has settled a housing discrimination complaint against the Joseph Peltz Trusts and Crystal Sahr, the owners and manager of rental housing in West Allis. Brawley alleged that co-trustees of the Peltz Trusts and their property manager, Crystal Sahr, had illegally denied her the opportunity to rent an apartment based on the presence of children in her household. Discrimination based on familial status, meaning the presence of minor children in the household, is prohibited by state and federal fair housing law. As part of the settlement, the Peltz Trusts co-trustees, Arnold and Rebecca Peltz, agreed to pay $18,000 to Brawley. The Peltzes and Sahr also agreed to undergo fair housing training.

Brawley's complaint stemmed from her April 2007 interaction with Sahr. Brawley called Sahr to inquire about an apartment for rent at an 8-unit building on South 115th Court in West Allis. Sahr asked Brawley if the apartment was for her, and Brawley replied that it would be for herself and her two daughters. Sahr told her that tenants with children were not accepted.

"I was frustrated, angry and hurt," says Brawley of her experience. "My daughters, who were 10 and 11 at the time, kept questioning why it happened. They thought it was their fault." Brawley contacted the Metropolitan Milwaukee Fair Housing Council (MMFHC). MMFHC counseled Brawley on her fair housing rights and options for pursuing her complaint. MMFHC also investigated Brawley's allegation using an investigative method known as "testing." During the investigation, Sahr told a tester with children that the landlords "didn't rent to families with kids anymore." In contrast, Sahr provided a tester without children information about the apartment, including the rent and date of availability. Brawley subsequently filed complaints with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Wisconsin Equal Rights Division (ERD). In August 2007, the ERD issued a Charge and Initial Determination finding probable cause to believe that Sahr and the Peltzes violated the Wisconsin Open Housing Law.

In the course of the HUD investigation, Sahr and the Peltzes maintained that they did permit families with children on the first floor, but no children had resided in the property for approximately a year and a half at the time of the HUD investigation. It is illegal under fair housing law to restrict children to certain areas of the building.

Brawley says that when she experienced discrimination, "I knew it was illegal, but I have friends and family members who wouldn't know that. I hope all people are aware of their rights. Now that the settlement has occurred, I am happy and relieved that [the Peltzes and Sahr] will have to adhere to fair housing laws, and that it will be fair to everyone else who comes through and applies."

###

MMFHC is a private, non-profit organization whose purpose is to promote fair housing throughout the State of Wisconsin by guaranteeing all people equal access to housing opportunities and by creating and maintaining racially and economically integrated housing patterns. It operates satellite offices in Dane County (the Fair Housing Center of Greater Madison) and in Northeast Wisconsin (the Fair Housing Center of Northeast Wisconsin).

Persons who feel they may have experienced illegal housing discrimination should call 1-877-647-FAIR, a toll-free number. Callers within the 414 area code may call 414-278-1240. All services to victims of illegal housing discrimination are free of charge.

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School Board Update.

Thanks to Arlene Silveira for these updates!

MMSD Board of Education Progress Report – January, 2009

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a restful winter break. I wish you
all a happy and healthy 2009. December was a fairly quiet month for the
Board.

Legislative: The Board met with Madison state legislative delegation in
December. This meeting was an opportunity to touch base and get an
overview of the state budget and school finance plans that are being
developed throughout the state. The dire condition of the state budget
is certainly going to be their focus in the coming months. The Board
will discuss our legislative agenda for the district at the 1/12/09
Board meeting. Once we approve our agenda, we will be working with the
community and other school districts on the best way to advocate for the
state budget and school finance programs.

Regular Board Meeting: The Regular Board meetings will now be held on
the second Monday of each month at 6:00pm. This is a change from having
the meetings on the first Monday of the month. Committee meetings will
now be scheduled on the first Monday of each month.

Community Partnerships: The Board approved funding (under Fund 80)
proposals for the following organizations to provide specific community
service activities for the 2009-10 fiscal year. These are exciting
proposals that will benefit our students in the MMSD. The organizations
are: Literacy Network; Asset Builders of America; Vera Court
Neighborhood Center; Goodman Community Center; UW-Madison Pre-College
Initiatives; Children’s Services Society of Wisconsin; Lussier Community
Education Center; Gay, Straight Alliance for Safe Schools; UW-Madison
Center for Biology Education; Urban League of Greater Madison
(Bootstrap); African American Ethnic Academy; and Kajsiab House.

Strategic Planning Process: The Board approved the Superintendent’s
recommendation for the structure and timeline for the MMSD strategic
planning process. The strategic planning session will take place during
the month of January. We are in the process of finalizing the strategic
planning team. We have approved the use of an outside facilitator for
the planning process. Dr. Keith Marty has extensive experience in
working with school districts in developing strategic plans. I am very
excited about the planning process and will update you as we move
forward.

What’s Happening in January? January will be a busy month. We start
our new committee structure on January 5. The community input sessions
on the recommendations from the Math Task Force will take place in early
January. The strategic planning meetings will also take place.

If you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact
the Board at comments@madison.k12.wi.us or call me at 516-8981.

Best regards, Arlene Silveira

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The "Back to Work" Week Ahead.

I hope everyone enjoyed the holidays and days off . . . but now, back to work! I'm not too confident the Weekly Schedule is accurate this morning as there is at least one glaring error . . . but here it is!

Monday, January 5, 2009
One more evening off for most folks!

Tuesday, January 6, 2009
4:30 PM COMMON COUNCIL ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITTEE ROOM 103A CCB
- We're talking about our final report on changing rules for committees.

The glaring error is the Common Council meeting is not on this agenda. But we're meeting at 6:30 on Tuesday! Here's the agenda. There's the daycare project, the controversial car lot and changing curfew on the agenda.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009
4:30 PM URBAN DESIGN COMMISSION ROOM LL-110 MMB
- The Acacia project - the subject is . . . does the project comply with the Downtown Design Guidelines?
- An informational presentation on the 600 block of E Johnson project - demolishing 10 houses and building over 100 units.

The economy doesn't seem to be slowing development in the 2nd district! Perhaps we'll also get a glimpse of some of the candidates running for district 2? Development seems to be an issue for at least two of the three running against me.

- The 425 W Washington project is back - a tad bit smaller.

5:00 PM ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSION ROOM LL110 MMB
- Presentation by THRIVE. (no info available)
- Prioritization and implementation of 3 - 5 year economic development plan - it's always on the agenda, not often discussed.
- Update on the TIF policy. (pssst, right before the holidays the TIF committee added back in alot of the language and created two appendixes to maintain the information to create predicatability to prevent people from having to do alot of work to find the information. No info available in Legistar.)
- Update on the new Economic Development Director. (pssst, the Mayor finally chose someone over the holidays in case you didn't notice. No info available in Legistar.)

5:00 PM HOUSING COMMITTEE ROOM 260 MMB
- Finally discussing the Annual Housing report we'd like to do. (No info on Legistar.)
- Presentation by Mario on low-income housing taxation issues. (No info on Legistar.)
- Presentation by Gregg Shimanski on the CDA. (No info on Legistar.)
- Smoke detector ordinance.

Thursday, January 8, 2009
4:30 PM COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY ROMNES APARTMENTS, 540 W OLIN AVE
- Lakepoint, Truax, Allied (No info available), Truman Olson (No new info that I can see.) Villager (No info available) . . .

Welcome back to reality! And Happy New Year!

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