County Board Recap

It may have been short, but I'm glad Robin Schmidt and others did what they did. Once again, the most excitement was during the announcements. I predicted 45 minutes or less, it was about 31 minutes.

A. ROLL CALL
31 present, 6 absent. Kyle Richmond excused. [I missed the beginning of the roll call, so I don't know who was basent, tho it looks like Duane Gau and Patrick Miles from the cameras and I didn't hear Downing say aye. Dunno who the others were.]

1. Prayer/Inspirational Message – Supervisor Duranczyk (Supervisor Erickson next)
None.

2. Pledge of Allegiance – Supervisor Duranczyk
They did.

B. SPECIAL MATTERS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. Proposed 2010 County Board Meeting Schedule
Chair Scott McDonell pointed out the schedule is in their packets. [Wow. They don't vote on them?  The Council helps set the dates and reviews them for obvious issues and then votes on them.]

2. Announcements
Brett Hulsey welcomed the Webelos, Cub Scout pack 15 from our Lady Queen of Peace. They were working on their citizen ship award.

Robin Schmidt talks about the campaign spearheaded by the lobbyist for the Realtors Association of South Central Wisconsin. It contained misinformation about the water bodies classification project. It upset many of her constituents as well as others. Miles, Tom Stoebig and herself drafted a letter to the Lakes and Watershed Commission in which they acknowledge there are no rules or ordinance changes pending before this body. Over the next two years, county staff will need to revise ordiances to ensure that we are in compliance with NR115, now finalized by the state. In their letter they provide direction to county staff as they work on this over the next two years. In contrast to what they have claimed, Dane County Citizens will not be limited by the ordinance to what color they paint their houses, whether they can build a deck or whether they can remodel their homes. Nor should they fear that their property values will decline as a result of compliance with NR115. The letter also provides direction to county staff in some other areas. Anyone wishing to sign the letter is welcome to do so and can see her after the meeting. [Let me repeat, for those of you who sometimes only read the purple comments! (You know who you are and you probably shouldn't encourage me. THERE ARE NO RULE OR ORDINANCE CHANGES PENDING FOR LAKESIDE RESIDENCES!!!! IT WAS ALL MISINFORMATION THAT WAS MEANT TO SCARE YOU!!! NOT BASED ON FACT!!!! Nothing bugs me more than spinmeisters who spread false information on purpose.]

Patrick Downing said that in deference to everyone who doesn't like long presentation at the beginning of the meeting the Environment Committee has arranged for them to learn about a project at Stuart Lake, it will be at 6:30 before the next county board meeting and they invite others to attend.

Downing's second announcement is about Kathleen Falk's veto of a rezoning in Springfield. He would like to know how they take an action to overturn that.

McDonell explains that he can make a motion under other business to place a veto override on their next agenda.

Downing says he'd like to be recognized under other business.

Carousel Bayrd wishes everyone a good Hanukkah and Festival of the Lights.

Dave deFelice says that he is asking people to buy local. This year is especially bad because of the avalanche of bad economic news we are trying to dig ourselves out of. He says that you can point and click and buy, but you can point and buy with no shipping costs locally. For every dollar spent in this area, 76 cents stays here in our local economy. If we all do a little, we can all do alot.

Matt Veldran says last Saturday there was a serious tragedy on the southwest side, where a man shot his live-in girlfriend and her two children, then tried to take his own life. It highlights the concern for domestic violence and the problem that is pervasive in the area, especially with the economy. Miraculously, everyone is alive and the man has been taken into custody, and they are all supposed to make a recovery. A fund has been established at the Heartland Credit Union to assist the children with their needs, if anyone is inclined to help the family, it would be appreciated, especially this time of year. Checks can be sent to the Loreen Drive Victims c/o Heartland Credit Union, 5325 High Crossing Blvd. Or any other Heartland branch or through their website.

McDonell announces that there are birthdays in December.
8th - Schlicht
17th - Kostelic
18th - Martz
Happy Birthday everyone.

McDonell is told Duranczyk's birthday is on the 14th. That's what happens to the rookie, sorry about that.

C. APPROVAL OF BILLS & ACCOUNTS
1. Claims Recommended for Approval
Moved by Levin, seconded by Matano. No discussion, passes on a voice vote.

D. APPROVAL OF PROCEEDINGS – November 5, 16 & 19, 2009

[Something screwy happened here. Cuz the motion sounded like it was on C.1. and then McDonell said it was for the 5th, 16th adn 19th and then he skipped D. So something must have happened out of the mic range I didn't hear, or they made a mistake.]

E. CONSENT CALENDAR
1. Ord. Amdt. 12, 09-10 – Amending Chapter 82, Incorporating the Town of Vermont
Comprehensive Plan into the Dane County Comprehensive Plan (Adopt)
2. Ord. Amdt. 20, 09-10 – Amending Chapter 82, Incorporating the Town of Oregon Comprehensive Plan into the Dane County Comprehensive Plan (Adopt)
3. Res. 80, 09-10 – Amending the Dane County Farmland Preservation Plan by Adopting the Town of Vermont Comprehensive Plan (Adopt)
4. Res. 159, 09-10 – Authorizing a Contract Between Dane County and Inmate Calling Solutions, LLC, for Dane County Jail Inmate Telephone Services (Adopt)
5. Res. 166, 09-10 – Authorizing Leopold Lease for Joining Forces for Families Program (Adopt)
6. Res. 171, 09-10 – Authorizing an Agreement Between Dane County and Matrix Consulting Group to Conduct a Staffing Study of the Dane County Sheriff’s Office (Adopt)
7. Res. 173, 09-10 – Approving Change Order #14 for Robert’s Construction for Direct Purchase of Materials for Badger Prairie Construction (Adopt)
8. Res. 174, 09-10 – Authorizing an Extension of Limited Term Employee Hours in the Department of Public Works, Highway and Transportation (Adopt)
9. Res. 176, 09-10 – Authorizing an Extension of Limited Term Employee Hours in the Division of Information Management (Adopt)
10. Res. 177, 09-10 – Awarding a Collective Bargaining Agreement to the Dane County AFSCME Unions (Local 705/720, Local 1871, Local 2634, and Local 65) (Adopt)
11. Res. 178, 09-10 – Authorizing 2010 Compensation and Benefit Changes for Unrepresented and Confidential Employees (Adopt)
12. Res. 181, 09-10 – Registration of Black Earth Creek NRA Community Forest Under a Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Forest Stewardship Management Plan (Adopt)

2 & 8 are separated for discussion.

McDonell says on 1, 3 - 7 and 9 - 12 what is before them is the recommendation of the committee.

John Hendrick asks to be recorded as voting no on item E 10.

2. Ord. Amdt. 20, 09-10 – Amending Chapter 82, Incorporating the Town of Oregon Comprehensive Plan into the Dane County Comprehensive Plan (Adopt)
Gerald Jensen says that this is the culmination of 10 years of work in the Town of Oregon. When he became Town Chair in 1999 he calls staff at UW Extension and they did what they called a visioning process, they had committees made up of town residents and they had dozens of people coming to Town Hall discussing the future of the Town of Oregon. Out of that process they got a visioning statement, love it cuz safe and beautiful and other attributes. Then started the Comprehensive Plan revisions, again had dozens of people working on it. He thanks the planners. He says when the Farmland Preservation map was submitted to DATCP they ran into trouble so he especially wants to thank Brian Standing for getting it into a shape where the Town and DATCP and Land and Water Board could accept it, it took four tries. It was alot of work and they are happy to have this over with.

McDonell says its odd sometimes something that takes hundreds and hundreds of hours just flies through on the consent agenda.

Passes on a voice vote.

8. Res. 174, 09-10 – Authorizing an Extension of Limited Term Employee Hours in the Department of Public Works, Highway and Transportation (Adopt)
Veldran says that there aren't issues with this, but this position is going to be working on the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants. They got $2.3M for it and projects were submitted today. This is a positive step for us to move forward.

Passes on a voice vote.

G. REPORTS ON ZONING PETITIONS
a. Map of Dane County
b. Summary of Grant as Modified Petitions
1. Petition 10113 – Town of Christiana – Robert Johnson (Grant)
2. Petition 10114 – Town of Rutland – Kathy Hansen (Grant as Modified)
3. Petition 10115 – Town of Vienna – Watzke Tr (Grant)
4. Petition 10116 – Town of Cross Plains – Michael Coyle (Grant)
5. Petition 10117 – Town of Blue Mounds – Andrew Davidson (Grant as Modified)
6. Petition 10120 – Town of Cottage Grove – Soleil Development Corp (Grant as Modified)

Skipped until 7:30.

H. ORDINANCES
1. Ord. Amdt. 36, 09-10 – Amending Chapter 82, Incorporating the Town of Deerfield
Comprehensive Plan into the Dane County Comprehensive Plan (Adopt Sub. 1)
No discussion. Passes on a voice vote.

I. AWARD OF CONTRACTS
1. Res. 168, 09-10 – Authorizing Submission of Application for Participation in the Wisconsin Small Cities Community Development Block Grant Emergency Assistance Program (Adopt/Adopt Sub. 1)
Barbara Vedder moves adoption of Sub 1, seconded by Bob Salov. No discussion, passes on a voice vote.

McDonell says Sub 1 is before them, there is no discussion. Passes on a voice vote.

2. *Res. 185, 09-10 – Authorizing Expenditures in Advance of Borrowing for Technology Enhancements for Zoning System Solution (Adopt)
McDonell says this is not properly before the board and they move on.

3. *Res. 202, 09-10 – Approving Agreement for Community Development Block Grant the National Mustard Museum ( )
McDonell says it was unanimously approved by Finance earlier this evening. No discussion, passes on a voice vote.

J. RESOLUTIONS
1. Res. 27, 09-10 – Authorizing the Marketing of Land in County Property in the Town of Westport for Mineral Extraction (Deny/Adopt with Amdt.)
McDonell says this was carried over from a previous meeting.

Hulsey says he's had productive meetings with Westport officials, Chairman VanDinter and Administrator Wilson and they would like to re-refer to Personnel and Finance.

Moved by Hulsey, seconded by Hendrick.

Hulsey says that they would like to find a compromise.

No discussion, motion passes on a voice vote.

2. *Res. 194, 09-10 – Worker’s Compensation Reauthorization of Self-Insurance ( )
McDonell says that it was approved unanimously by Personnel and Finance, no discussion, motion passes on a voice vote. O'Loughlin abstains.

3. *Res. 195, 09-10 – Authorizing Purchase of Insurance ( )
McDonell says that it was approved unanimously by Personnel and Finance, no discussion, motion passes on a voice vote. O'Loughlin abstains.

K. ITEMS THAT REQUIRE A TWO-THIRDS MAJORITY FOR PASSAGE
1. Res. 167, 09-10 – Accepting Medicaid Long Term Care Expansion Funds for Administrative Projects – DCDHS – ACS Division (Adopt)
McDonell asks if there is any objection to recording a unanimous vote. No objection, recorded as passing unanimously.

2. Res. 172, 09-10 – Authorizing an Agreement to Accept Additional Highway Safety Grant Funds “Speed Enforcement Grant 2010” (No Recommendation/Adopt)
McDonell explains the motion before them is adoption since they can't adopt a "no recommendation" motion. There is no objection to it being recorded as passing unanimously.

[AHHHH, I was right . . . ]
McDonell goes back to the proceeding on the the 5th, 16th and 19th. Levin moves and Matona seconds. They pass them on a voice vote.

M. SUCH OTHER BUSINESS AS THE COUNTY BOARD IS AUTHORIZED TO CONDUCT BY LAW
Downing moves that we overturn County Executive veto of petition 10082 in the Town of Springfield. Schlicht seocnds.

McDonell says it will be placed on their next agenda for business.

Hendrick says that under proceedings, deFelice made a motion that was incorrectly reflected in the minutes and he didn't push his button fast enough.

McDonell says to just tell them what it is. Hendrick says it is the only budget item that passed, it stated someone else besides deFelice made the motion and Hendrick seconded it, but deFelice made the motion.

McDonell says it is a technical amendment and they will make sure it get fixed. And he thanks Hendrick for killing another minute since it isn't 7:30 yet.

deFelice moves to moves unanimous consent to suspend rules to take up zoning. Seconded by Dave Ripp.

McDonell says there are registrants in support on 10116, Town of Cross Plains.

ROLL CALL:
AYE: Duranczyk, Erickson, Ferrell, Hampton, Hulsey, Levin, Manning, Matano, O'Laughlin, Ripp, Rusk, Stubbs, Wheeler, deFelice, DeSmidt.
NO: Gau, Hendrick, Hesselbein, Jensen, Kostelic, Martz, Miles, Opitz, Salov, Schlicht, Schmidt, Solberg, Vedder, Veldran, Wiganowski, Willett, Bayrd, Bruskewitz, Downing, McDonell.
ABSENT: Richmond
[There was some confusion about how Stoebig voted, the clerk asked for clarification, McDonell said to skip him cuz he wasn't in his seat. And just let me say, that was a weird vote. You had the conservatives and the clean/fair government folks voting together and . . . I don't know what on the other side . . . ]

McDonell announces 15 ayes, 20 nots, 2 absent, motion fails.

They take a five minute break until 7:30.

G. ZONING PETITIONS
They call the meeting back to order.

McDonell reads the registrations in support. No requests for separations, no discussion, motion carries.

N. ADJOURNMENT – Until Thursday, December 17, 2009, 7:00PM, Or Call of Chair
*Contingent on Committee Action week of November 30, 2010
Hendrick moves, Mark Opitz seconds for adjournment, motion passes on a voice vote.
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An agenda for the City

This spring's elections need to be about more than water, trolleys and taxes. Yes, our water needs to be safe to drink. What candidate isn't going to say that? Yes, we need to keep our taxes in line. What candidate isn't going to say that? And trolleys, well, there's so little support, or need, for them they're hardly worth talking about. We need to get down to some issues that the City of Madison will have to deal with in the next few years, that haven't gotten so much attention. Here's a list of things I worked with Progressive Dane members to come up with, that we hope to hear this spring's candidates talking about and hopefully supporting. Don't let candidates running for office get away with vague statements about supporting economic development and local small businesses, improving Madison Metro, supporting creation of affordable housing, etc. Ask them, what they intend to do to work on these issues. Here's a few of our ideas.

Economic Development

• We need the Economic Development Commission to finally get that Economic Development Plan for the City done. The last time we had a plan was 1983.
  
• We want to see a local small business bus pass purchasing pool so small businesses can provide free bus passes to their employees similar to programs of large employers at local hospitals and the University.
  
• We need a local purchasing preference for City purchases so that when we can, we keep our money in our local economy. (Local doesn't mean limiting our purchases to businesses in the City of Madison, we can look more broadly at the regional economy.)
  
• We need to make sure that when we talk about job creation, we are not only talking about high skilled bio-tech jobs, but instead, jobs that people with few skills can get into after some training and have a career path or chance for advancement.

TIF

• When talking about TIF, we need make sure that the City of Madison is setting the goals and priorities, not simply responding to individual developer proposals.
• We want to make sure that there are clear community benefits to providing TIF assistance. The City should set goals for the number of jobs and amount of workforce housing we need. We should also prioritize areas we feel are in need of redevelopment.
  
• We should work on methods to have TIF assist small businesses, perhaps by helping them buy affordable condo space for their businesses.
  
• High-end condos in the downtown are no longer needed to spur revitalization of the downtown; we need to be looking at workforce housing throughout the City.
  
• Finally, as with economic development, we want to make sure the jobs we create or retain with TIF funds are jobs that low skilled people can obtain with a little training and have opportunities for advancement.

Allied Drive

• We need a plan; an agreed upon strategy for redeveloping the neighborhood. We need this sooner rather than later. We need to agree how much affordable housing we want to have in the area and how affordable it will be. We need to agree on how much of the new housing will be rental vs. ownership.
  
• We need a clear strategy to keep people in the neighborhood, not pushing them around and simply moving low-income neighborhoods throughout the City as we have done in the past. Removing people from the neighborhood and moving in all new people should not be considered a success.
• As landlords are forced to clean up their properties, we need to make sure that families who are not a part of the problem are not displaced from the neighborhood. The City owned properties should be part of the solution to preventing displacement of current residents.
• We need to utilize the City owned properties to help residents with less than stellar rental records or credit records rehabilitate their records to help move them into successful housing - either rental or ownership, as appropriate.
  

Strong neighborhood services

• If we're going to have a "one stop shop" for businesses, we can have something similar for neighborhoods
• We need strong neighborhood plans for more areas of the City that are new to seeing development proposals.
• We need to be more customer-friendly to neighborhoods, not just for developers.

Neighborhood policing and preventative services

• We need more neighborhood officers, not less. We need officers in the neighborhoods in the evenings when social services providers go home for the day. Neighborhood policing is a key to prevention and removing the neighborhood officers is a step backwards.
• We need to be increasing preventative social services to address issues with people prior to turning to our busy police department for law enforcement.

Safe, affordable, reliable mass transportation

• We need mass transit in this City that works for the people who work non-traditional hours. 2nd and 3rd shift workers should be able to use the bus to get to work and home again. During the holidays, bus schedules should match extended retail hours.
• We need more frequent bus service so transit dependent people don't spend hours trying to get to where they need to go and to encourage more riders to feel like the bus is a viable option.
• Express buses between the transfer points and during peak hours.

Childcare

• When it comes to childcare, we need to continue to work to continue to fill the gap for those who have low-income jobs. If you're working and 50% or more of your income is going towards childcare, it quickly becomes unaffordable to live in this City. While we increased the funding for the childcare tuition assistance program this year, we still have not closed the gap.
  
• High quality affordable childcare is key to the future of our schools and our community. We need to work to make high quality childcare available and a viable option for more families in our community.

Affordable housing

• We need to fund the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. At the moment, it is going to take over 20 years before the fund grows to the point where it generates significant money to invest in affordable housing. Putting $300,000 - $500,000 a year into the fund is not putting our money to its best use. Capitalizing the fund quickly simply is more effective, it, too, is an investment in our future.
• We need an affordable housing strategy for Madison. With State restrictions on what we can do when it comes to affordable housing, we need to invest money into affordable housing and we need a strategy to do that most effectively.

Transparent, accessible government

• We need better information available to the public in a more timely manner.
• We need a clearer budget process with more information.
  
• Our public input process needs to be more meaningful and generally speaking, the public needs to feel like their voices are being heard and the government is serving them.

To sum it all up, our government has to work, not only for the business community, but also for the people that make the business community successful, their employees. An affordable safe place to live, an affordable dependable bus system to get to work, daycare that doesn't eat up half your paycheck and a job with opportunities for advancement are just as much basic services our government should be addressing as plowed streets and safe drinking water. We need to make sure Madison is a high quality place to live for everyone, not just catering to the needs of the business community.

p.s. More to come. I know there are criticisms of some of our issues and I will address them in the coming weeks.
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City Council 11/6/2006: Full of Surprises!

Three of them!

First, it was only 20 minutes long. Yup. 20 minutes. That's the shortest meeting I've attended in my nearly 6 years on the council.

Second, right before the meeting, Ald. Larry Palm walks up and hands me a "local purchasing ordinance" that he said he was going to introduce at the end of the council meeting and says "I know how you don't like surprises." Wow. Here I was trying to be collaborative and work together with a committee by requesting a report and having a public discussion. If I knew this is what we were going to do, I could have introduced my own ordinance last July. Needless to say, I was surprised. (Sorry, no link yet.)

Third, I referred the ordinance that would do part of the Department of Planning and Development Reorganization to the Community Development Block Grant Commission, the Community Services Commission and the Economic Development Commission. From the look the Mayor gave me, I guess he was surprised. And displeased. Read more!

Local Purchasing

One more from the Economic Development bizzaro-world . . .

Yesterday, the WSJ editorialized AGAINST a preference for local purchasing. What? Did they forget to check in with their friends at the Common Sense Coalition and the Chamber of Commerce? Only they could twist an initiative to assist local small businesses into an anti-business initiative. My guess is, that once again, they know NOTHING about the facts of the topic of which they write.

I heard a statistic the other day that 80% of the jobs created are created in companies or businesses with less than 20 employees. It would seem that job creation could be enhanced locally by supporting these small local businesses. It would seem this should be a no-brainer. More local business = More local jobs. Ferchristsake, Russ Frank and the Common Sense Coaltion and the Mayor and I agree on this one! So what's the WSJ's beef? Here's a few comments I have about their editorial.

1. They start off with calling this another government regulation and they end by calling it a "mandate" for local businesses. It's quite the opposite. It's opening up opportunity for local businesses, not requiring them to do anything. It's a way to give local businesses a competitive edge.

2. They assume that this will cost the taxpayer more money, or least want the taxpayer to fear that might be the case. Ummm . . . if they had taken 2 seconds to talk to anyone involved, they would have known that a local preference could be simply that local vendors are allowed to match the lowest bid. But of course, instead, they sound the alarms and assume the worst.

3. My favorite out-of-touch-with-reality statement from the WSJ was this:

But such a parochial policy ignores the realities of an increasingly global economy. It also could lead to retaliatory measures in other cities, hurting the many businesses in Madison that sell elsewhere.

I laughed about this one with a member of the EDC (Economic Development Commission) yesterday. What do they think, businesses in London will stop doing business with folks from Madison because of this policy? This cracks me up. Did Madison stop doing business with businesses in New York City because they implemented a similar policy? I mean, do they have any proof that anything like this has happened? Anywhere? Ever? Where's their, um, evidence?

4. They also claim:

On top of that, there's next to no evidence that favoring local businesses for municipal contracts is needed.

Alright, this too, is humorous. "Needed"? Probably not. Good for the local economy, definitely. It doesn't take a doctorate in economics to figure out that money spent in the local economy that then stays in the local economy instead of being shipped to another state helps the local economy. I mean, should we be buying things from Walmart if we can purchase them from a local vendor who uses a local attorney and a local accountant and hires local people to do adminsitrative tasks? And if the local businesses get more business, they may hire more employees and create local jobs. Isn't that what the WSJ editorial board has been whining about for the last few years. More importantly, isn't that what we want in our community?

5. The next uninformed statement they make is:

The city already spends 60 percent of that money on vendors with city addresses, according to city purchasing staff. An additional 6 percent goes to vendors within Dane County.

That means about two-thirds of city spending is already buying locally.

Um . . .yes, Walmart and Office Depot and Office Max and all kinds of other vendors have local addresses, but is that really buying locally? I think not. Anyone who thought about this for more than a moment would have figured that out. This statistic they use is absurd when interpreted the way the WSJ did and even the Comptroller was quick to point out this flaw in that statistic when making his presentation to the EDC.

6. Next, they make this statement:

* Many products such as city buses and fire trucks are not manufactured locally.

* Other products, such as computers, are purchased through a state buying pool to save local governments significant time and money.

I'm not sure what this is supposed to add to their argument. Obviously, this is just a preference for local vendors and as I said earlier, if there is no local vendor that wants to match the lowest bid, we'll go with the lowest bid. This is a preference for local businesses, not a mandate to buy from local businesses. And for some things like city busses and fire trucks, likely we won't have any local vendors, but if a company moves into one of our industrial parks that makes firetrucks, I sure hope we try to help that business get started and thrive and buy our firetrucks from them if they can be compete and match a lowest bid.

7. The final statement they make that I want to address is:

The way to succeed in the modern economy is to hustle and to innovate, to produce and to market quality products with added value that attract customers no matter where they may be.

Hmmmm . . . this doesn't square with their mantra that local government isn't doing enough to help the local economy. This statement seems to to say that success in business can be accomplished without the help of local govenment. So which is it? I guess they don't have to be consistent in their arguments.

Honestly, is Sunny Shubert back working for the State Journal editorial board? At least her over-the-top type editorial would have been fun to read.
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Only at the EDC (Economic Development Conmission)

Sometimes, you hear the strangest things . . .

When we have a City Committee that is supposed to be:
Responsible for preparation and periodic updating of the city's economic development plan and strategy for recommendation to the mayor and Common Council; evaluating economic conditions in the community; identifies economic problem areas; recommends specific policies, programs and projects; recommends items for inclusion in capital and operating budgets in support of the development strategy.

Why do you hear certain members saying things like:

- A purchasing preference for local businesses could prevent local businesses from competing in the global economy.

- That the lead alder isn't sure if he will vote for the $50,000 for an economic development plan for the city, even after the EDC subcommittee has come up with a proposal for what should be in it.

- Members of the commission arguing against spending $100,000 of room tax money for downtown safety shouldn't be allowed, even when the Innkeepers who are requesting an increase in the room tax agree that should be an allowable expense, so they can sell a safe downtown to their customers.

- When asked to help develop a proposal to help shape it, they prefer to wait for the Common Council (which many members believe don't know anything about business) to come up with a proposal and then they will react to it instead of help develop it.

I'm beginning to think that the problem with Economic Development in Madison starts with this committee and its leadership - I don't think they want things to improve and they certainly don't seem motivated to be a part of the solution.
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Economic Development Commission: No Action Required.

What does the Economic Development Commission do?

Given all the attention given to Economic Development, you'd think the City's Economic Development Commission would have their hands full coming up with recommendations on what the City should be doing and that they would be busy in their meetings trying to solve the problems that are percieved to exist. But no, look at this agenda . . . are they merely a platform to discuss things, or are they going to do something?

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
COMMISSION
Madison Municipal Bldg., Parks Conf. Room 120 Wednesday, August 2, 2006 5:00 PM

1 CALL TO ORDER / ROLL CALL

2 MINUTES OF JUNE 7, 2006, MEETING
Action: Accept

3 PUBLIC COMMENTS
Any member of the public wishing to speak to items on the EDC agenda or other related matters shall do so at this time. Speakers are required to pre-register and are limited to five-minute presentations. Commissioners may ask questions of speakers after all registrants have spoken.

4 TRANSIENT OCCUPANCY TAX STUDY
30-minute presentation via video by Bill Geist of Zeitgeist Consulting. Representatives from Madison Innkeepers will also be present.
No action required

5 UPDATE ON INCLUSIONARY ZONING
Hickory Hurie, CDBG Staff
No action required

6 UPDATE ON LOCAL PURCHASING POLICY STUDY
Dean Brasser, City Comptroller
No action required

7 UPDATE ON REORGANIZATION OF DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING &
DEVELOPMENT
No action required

8 UPDATE ON ED IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGY PLAN
No action required

9 COMMON COUNCIL UPDATE
Alder Zach Brandon

10 ADJOURNMENT
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CSC and BK agree on Local Purchasing

This morning I trekked out to the west side to the Common Sense Coalition's meeting regarding small businesses. It was quite the adventure, but not because of the snow . . . this story begins on last Tuesday.

Talking to Russ Frank
On Tuesday afternoon, Vicky Selkowe and I went out to visit Russ Frank of the Madison Top Company to talk about the paid sick leave ordinance. After I got in the door (which was problematic as Aaron tried to lock me out!) we actually had a pleasant conversation despite some of our differences. In fact, we found things we could agree on. So much so, that I told Russ Frank that I would introduce a resolution at the next council meeting to get us moving towards giving preferences to local businesses when the city is purchasing goods and services.

Previous thoughts on Local Purchasing
I made that promise with some confidence because over a year ago when I was on the Board of Estimates, we had a little controversy over the labor practices of Cintas and we asked the City Attorney to brief us on the purchasing policies for the City of Madison. On September 17th, 2004 the City Attorney gave us a draft memo with a list of where one could find our purchasing policies for the City of Madison and then said that the staff team would be working on a comprehensive purchasing policy book. At the time, I took the memo, looked up all the APMs, ordinances and state laws and threw them in a folder. I also did a little research on my own and rediscovered the newrules.org website. And had some good intentions, but never followed through.

Talking to others and researching a local purchasing resolution
On Wednesday I talked to Susan Schmitz at Downtown Madison Inc. about another matter, but gave her a heads up about the resolution that I was working on and she suggested that I talk with Jim Bradley at Home Savings which I did. We were able to talk about the local "buy local" initiatives and how to approach getting the city to purchase locally. I then went home and did a bunch of research. (One of the things I found on the comptrollers website was the recipes! Which, by the way, I'm not being critical of, I just find it funny in a midwest-'consin-church picnic-potluck kind of way. Lord knows when you might need some "no-fuss party potatoes" don't cha know . . .)

What I discovered was that most of the purchasing policies that are implemented in cities and states throughout the United States are for bidding and requests for proposals (RFPs). However, the City of Madison breaks down purchasing as follows:

• Up to $1,000. Best value judgment is used to purchase low dollar commodities.
• Between $1,000 and $5,000. Informal price quotations are obtained unless reasonableness of price can be determined without competition.
• $5,000 - $25,000. A Request for Quotation or Bid is prepared and published in DemandStar.com. and Vendornet. Required response time is approximately three days to three weeks.
• $25,000 and up. Formal sealed bids/proposals are obtained on all purchases for goods and services Bids/Proposals will be posted in DemandStar.com and Vendornet. Additionally, notices may be published in the Wisconsin State Journal and other relevant publications as prescribed by applicable laws. Processing will take four to six weeks.

And I began to think that many of the ordinances adopted throughout the nation don't really deal with alot of small dollar amounts of purchasing that might be done locally and that we may have purchasing methods that wouldn't be covered by some of the resolutions and ordinances that I was looking at. In fact, I was quite certain that such ordinances wouldn't cover City of Madison purchases under $5,000 and I suspected that only purchases over $25,000 would be covered. We purchase goods in the following ways:

• Purchase of Goods
Products, supplies and equipment are purchased through competitive processes using the Bid Thresholds as a guide.
• Purchase of Services
Consultant, professional, and technical services are often obtained through requests for proposal, which consider skill and experience as well as cost in the evaluation process.
• Cooperative Purchasing Agreements
The City utilizes available state, university and federal contracts at its discretion.
• Sole Source Negotiation
Also called noncompetitive negotiation, this method may be used when competition does not exist or would not be in the best interests of the City. For example, scientific equipment manufactured by only one vendor.
• Contract Methods
Purchasing Services creates annual blanket and contract purchase orders for various supplies and services. Many of these contract orders are established through the bidding process. Once contracts are awarded, city agencies can use Limited Purchase Orders (LPO) and Purchasing Cards to purchase miscellaneous items or predetermined items on the contracts directly from vendors.
• Purchasing Card
The Purchasing Card is a tool for agency employees to make low-dollar purchases (typically under $1,000) for official agency business needs. It allows for a faster and more efficient process of purchasing supplies.

And quite frankly I got concerned about a list I found for blanket purchase orders that had a list of vendors that had some local places and some non-locally owned places, but I couldn't quickly figure out how you got to be on this list:

Blanket Contract Vendors Approved for P-Card Purchases

SUPPLIES
ACE HARDWARE
BADGER WELD.
CAMERA CO.
CAPITOL LOCK
CORP. EXPRESS
DORN HARDWARE
FASTENAL
FULL COMPASS
HOME DEPOT
JOHN S HYATT
KUBICHEK
LINDE GAS
MAUTZ PAINT
MENARDS
MESSNER INC
OFFICE DEPOT
OFFICE MAX
PEPSI
PERKINS OIL
PROF EQUIP
QPR
RUNDLE-SPENCE
SHOE BOX
STREICHERS
SUN BADGE
TAPCO
TEMP SYSTEMS
TOP PROMO.
UNISOURCE
VONDRA ENG
WASHINGTON EQUIP
WERNER ELEC
WINGRA REDI-MIX

SERVICES
ARAMARK
CAPITAL NEWSPAPERS
FED. EXPRESS
ISTHMUS PUBLISHING
OSI ENV.
REYNOLDS TRANSFER
ROTO ROOTER
TERMINIX
TRIGGS PLUMBING
UMOJA
UNION CAB
US CELLULAR
WASTE MGMT
WIL-KIL
XER-LITH
(10/10/2005)

Drafted Resolution
So, I ended up drafting a resolution that had the following in it:

Now, therefore be it resolved, that the Comptrollers office provide a report to the Common Council by xxxxxx regarding the following:

1. The fiscal and administrative feasibility of providing a local purchasing preference for local businesses.
2. Additional costs or costs savings that may be a result of a local purchasing policy.
3. Economic benefits to the City of Madison of a local purchasing policy.
4. Administrative challenges of a local purchasing policy.
5. Appropriate level of preference given in the bidding or rfp process.
6. Possible policies to encourage local purchasing through LPOs, Purchasing Cards and Purchase orders and any other method of purchasing items that do not require a RFP or bidding process.

CSC meeting this morning
So, imagine my surprise this morning when I heard that the CSC would be "mandating" that the City of Madison purchase locally. They even had their press release that went out a 5 am the morning of the meeting.

Talking to Russ Frank . . . again . . .
So, after the meeting, I talked to Russ Frank and asked him what I should do. Should I go forward as planned with some version of my drafted resolution, or was this a Common Sense Coalition issue and would I be stepping on their toes. Russ kind of shrugged his shoulders and said "I just want something to happen". I agreed with him and am moving forward with my resolution which I will finish drafting and pass around the council on Tuesday for sponsors.

I'm not sure how much of this is coincidence, how much of it was just curious timing, or if this was, as many have suggested, some attempt to steal the credit, or what . . . but what I do know, is that I don't care who gets the credit (btw - it likely belongs to Russ Frank). We should just work to make this happen to the degree we can do it. And hopefully the resolution I drafted will be a first step . . . It certainly does more than another press release.

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