I lied/Can't Sleep Extra Round Up

So, I wasn't going to blog today, but . . . I came home last night after being sniffly all day, made dinner and laid down. I was freezing so I covered up and fell asleep. Now, in the early am, I'm awake, sick/can't sleep cuz of runny nose and cough and waiting for the cold medicine to kick in, so . . . here's what I have for today . . .

STILL, NO ANSWER
Looks like council leadership (Tim Bruer, President and Mark Clear, Pro Tem), Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and Bob Dunn (Hammes Company) didn't come to any agreement today. They're meeting again on Tuesday.


CAT IS OUT OF THE BAG - HO CHUNK AND UNION CORNERS
I've been hearing about this, but was sworn to secrecy, that's why Barrett scooped me! :P Guess it's not a very big secret as this went out over a neighborhood listserve or two:

Today there was a meeting at the Ho-Chunk Nation office on Mendota Street to discuss their plans to develop the Union Corners property located at East Washington Avenue and Milwaukee Street. There were about 20 people including Alders Rummel, Palmer and Rhodes-Conway, reps from nearby neighborhood associations, including SASYNA, and other groups interested in development of this site (i.e. Commonwealth, Project Home, Eco Realty, Progressive Party, Urban Farming, etc.). The nation plans to purchase the entire property and would like to develop it over an eight year period. The very preliminary plans for the first phase include a building for nation offices and a nation museum, a health center and daycare center. The office/museum would be located at the very visible East Wash/Milwaukee Street corner. Phase 2 might include a gas station/convenience store. Phase 3 might include affordable apartments and senior housing with a public meeting hall. A grocery store is possible and the nation is open to partnerships with other businesses or organizations. There are no plans for a casino. The nation has similar types of developments elsewhere in Wisconsin including health care, child care and community centers.

Plans are very preliminary and will be open for input from surrounding neighbors and interested organizations. Joe Green from Ho-Chunk Nation discussed their plans. He grew up in the neighborhood and attended East High. He made it clear the nation wanted to create a project which benefited the neighborhood and city. The project would be affordable and environmentally positive including features such as solar panels and low energy consumption. It would fit into the existing neighborhood so buildings would be shorter than previously proposed for the McGrath development. They would not remove the property from the tax rolls so it would contribute property taxes for Madison schools and services.

A decision to pursue this project will be made by the nation during January. By the end of the January, preliminary plans for the property would be available for review by the public during meetings with interested parties. SASYNA was very involved in the original plans for Union Corners and will continue to involved. Stay tuned for more info during the new year.

There was a very positive reception to the Ho-Chunk plans for Union Corners. This is a very positive development for the neighborhood.

Looks like it wasn't a big secret if all those people were there and its on list serves and even Barrett knows about it. :) Giggle. I'm just always glad when someone tells me something is confidential, and I can't be accused of being the leak.

THAT'S WHAT MAKES THIS FUNNY
Giggle. This article chooses a funny example (and picture) given the above. And points out how out of touch the council leadership is.

AN AGENDA FOR THE CITY
Joe Tarr from the Isthmus gets the Mayor to talk about his agenda for the city. And uses a progressive as Mayor Dave's foil. I suppose he had to, since I'm not sure others have a vision for what the city should be working on in the next year. I happen to agree with Satya Rhodes-Conway and I'm happy she was able to clearly articulate an alternative as good progressives do, I'm just frustrated that the story doesn't have an agenda from the moderates or conservatives on the council. Is this part of the positioning towards the right of the Mayor - or did no one else have an agenda? Or don't they want to admit what their agenda is?

The Mayor's agenda is crime. And then there's these other things:
- building support for a referendum on regional transit next fall
- breaking ground on the new Central Library
- winning federal support for high-speed rail
- improving relationships with the business community
- and pursuing green initiatives, like making the city more bike-friendly and energy-efficient.

Rhodes-Conway counters with:
- strong attention to economic development - she says. "I don't mean attracting large companies. I mean helping support and grow the businesses we have."
- review some basic economic development mechanisms, like tax increment financing and put a process in place for evaluating job creation proposals for TIF
- equal review of downtown and periphery projects
- help people in these tough economic times, pay attention to community services

Heh, people. Notice the mayor didn't mention people who are struggling or community services, even tho they are going through an extensive review of their funding processes and priorities.

Falk gets it right, focusing on jobs.

"ANOTHER DUDE"
This note from the Mayor was forwarded to me with the title above . . . can't say I'm surprised.

I wanted you to be among the first to know that I’ve made a decision about the City IT Director position. I’m pleased to welcome Paul Kronberger to the City of Madison.

Paul has an extensive background in IT. He started his career in the City of Milwaukee IT Department, has worked for the Wisconsin Department of Revenue as IT Director and the Wisconsin Department of Commerce as IT Director. After a few years in the private sector, Paul is eager to return to the public sector to serve the City of Madison.

This was certainly not an easy choice, as we had three very qualified finalists for the position. Dave Faust and Rich Beadles have been the consummate professionals throughout this lengthy process and throughout their careers. I thank them for that and I know that they will continue to make great contributions as we move forward.

You will have the opportunity to learn more as Paul’s confirmation comes through the Council. I look forward to you all having a chance to meet Paul.

I don't know what the applicant pool is, but I'm glad someone is noticing the trend besides me. It may or may not be a valid comment, but, I'd like to hear the Mayor articulate what they are doing to bring gender equity to the leadership in the city. Think maybe the next planning director might be a woman? Ok, I bet not.

MORRISEY ON POT
Um, no, he's not smokin' it. He has an opinion on it. An interesting one at that.

WORDS MATTER
Hmmm, I found this article curious. Joel DeSpain says the following:

"The crime took place outside, and one of the four suspects had a handgun," DeSpain said.

However, if you read to the end of the story you find out:

"Money and electronic items were taken during the robbery, and one suspect was found carrying at least one stolen item," DeSpain said. "Officers also recovered a facsimile handgun."

If the second statement is correct, shouldn't the first statement perhaps have been worded differently?

GOOD TO KNOW
Was I running against Noble Wray? David Blaska claims the following:

In the spring election, Police Chief Noble Wray and the police union defeated Brenda Konkel.

[NOTE: When I quote someone, I provide a link, to provide the reader with easy access to information and to ensure I don't take something out of context and to keep things honest. It would be kinda cool if professional newspapers would hold their bloggers to the same standards.]

Good night, happy holidays to those who will be celebrating over the next few days and stay safe on the roads. Read more!

And then there were 5 . . .

A while ago I posted about the lack of women in top leadership positions in the City of Madison. And the trend continues. Yesterday the Mayor announced his intention to name Enis Ragland as the Interim Director of the Office of Community Services replacing 30 year veteran Dorothy Conniff. Out of about 31 positions, that only leaves the following women leading departments:

• Library: Barbara Dimick
• Clerk's Office: Maribeth Witzel-Behl
• Department of Civil Rights: Lucia Nunez
• Fire Department: Debra Amesqua
• Senior Center: Christine Beatty
  

That's 19% of the top leadership positions in Madison. Most of the recent recent positions have gone to or are recommended to go to men except the City Clerk and Department of Civil Rights - thats 2 out of 11 or 18%:

• Overture Center President: Tom Carto
• City Assessor: Mark Hanson
• Interim Water Utility Director: Larry Nelson
• Metro Transit General Manager: Charles Camp (formerly Catherine Debo)
• Public Health Director: Dr. Thomas Schlenker (formerly Kate Vedder)
• Inspection Unit: George Hank (formerly Linda Grubb)
• Office of Business Resources: Matthew Mikolajewski (formerly Katherine Naherny)
• Office of Community Services: Enis Ragland (formerly Dorothy Conniff)
• Human Resources: Brad Wirth (Interim was Roger Goodwin but permanent position was held by a woman)
  

We have some opportunities to change this with openings in Parks, Water Utility, Economic & Community Development and City Treasurer. The last two of those positions which have been open for quite some time. I hope they are making efforts to recruit women to some of these positions.

To add insult to injury, I'm kind of appalled that after 30 years Dorothy Conniff was making $90,000 but Enis Ragland will be doing the same job with only 16 years experience with the City of Madison and no where near the expertise in childcare issues that Dorothy Conniff had and he will be making $102,000. Read more!

Gender & City Employment - The Controversy Continues

So, Vikki Kratz calls me and asks me what I think about the Mayor hiring another man. I say, you can't look at this on a case by case basis. I don't know who applied so I can't really comment. I also say that until the report comes out, I don't expect anything to change and that likely, our problem is in recruitment and maybe not in the actual hiring decision and that I look forward to the committees recommendations about how to get more women to apply for jobs.

So, Vikki writes a story, Jason Joyce starts a thread on thedailypage, I get attacked (again) and the thread goes to hell. And so it goes. However, it does give me an opportunity to update you on some information I have about how the City of Madison is doing in general.

The Department of Workforce Development groups jobs into job families and somehow, they can tell you the percentage of women and people in racial/ethnic groups are available in those jobs. We can then compare this to the number of women and people in certain racial/ethnic groups that are currently in those positions. Here's the areas in the City where women are being under-hired compared to their availability in the job market:

Job Family 1A - 1B (Senior Official & Executives; Unit Directors & Managers)
Available in the Job Market: 36.6%
Currently Hired: 28.89%
Women are 13 of 45 employees in these job families

Job Family 1C - 1F (Program Managers & Supervisors; Major Program, Project or Operations Administrators and Supervisors; Program, Project and/or Operations Administrators and Supervisors; Program, Project or Operations Supervisors)
Available in the Job Market: 49.9%
Currently Hired: 36.11%
Women are 39 of 108 employees in these job families

Job Family 2F - 2J (Police Captains; Police Lieutenants; Fire Captains; Fire Lieutenants)
Available in the Job Market: 21.9%
Currently Hired: 17.28
Women are 14 of 81 employees in these job families

Job Family 2K - 2M (Expert Consultants; Public Health Protection; Heath Care Services)
Available in the Job Market: 87.4%
Currently Hired: 80%
Women are 36 of 45 employees in these job families

Job Family 3A - 3E (Police Sergeants and Special Investigators; Firefighters/Paramedics; Fire Inspectors and Investigators; Advanced Specialized Regulatory and/or Code Enforcement; Specialized Regulatory and/or Code Enforcement; Inspectors)
Available in the Job Market: 32.6%
Currently Hired: 27.62%
Women are 50 of 81 employees in these job families

Job Family 3F - 3K (Engineering Program Specialists and Surveyors; Engineering/Planning Technicians; Architectural/Engineering and Related Aides; Property Assessment and Real Estate Aides; Biological and Chemical Science Technicians)
Available in the Job Market: 32.6%
Currently Hired: 19.67%
Women are 12 of 61 employees in these job families

Job Family 6A - 6K (Advanced Administrative and Program Support; Fiscal Processing; Resource Assignment; Administrative and Program Support; Advanced Administrative and Clerical Support; Administrative and Clerical Support; Clerical Support; Library Clerks; Library Page; Cashiers; Inventory Clerks)
Available in the Job Market: 84.3%
Currently Hired: 76.98%
Women are 408 of 530 employees in these job families

Job Family 7A - 7F (Crafts Group; Advanced Electrical Systems Installation, Maintenance and Repair; Facilities and Buildings Maintenance/Construction; Water Supply Operators, Skilled Mechanical Maintenance)
Available in the Job Market: 12.1%
Currently Hired: 1.35%
Women are 2 of 148 employees in these job families

Job Family 8A - 8B (Service and Maintenance Leadworkers, Coordinators and Crew Leaders; Specialized Grounds, Conservatory and Arborist Workers)
Available in the Job Market: 23.20%
Currently Hired: 12.96%
Women are 7 of 54 employees in these job families

Job Family 8D - 8P (General Public Works Maintenance and Equipment Operations; Advanced Public Works Maintenance and Equipment Operations; Advanced Equipment Operators; Refuse Collection, Street and Sewage Maintenance Operators; General Facility/Equipment Repair and Maintenance; General Maintenance/Mechanical Repair Work; Custodial and Facility Maintenance; Metro Transit Custodial and Service Workers; Hourly Public Facility Service Providers)
Available in the Job Market: 30.8%
Currently Hired: 22.28%
Women are 123 of 552 employees in these job families

So, for those who think that we don't take various factors into account, such as availability in the market place, you're wrong, we do. And even after taking those factors into account, we're still failing. Read more!

Gender (and Race and Disability): Preliminary information

The Affirmative Action subcommittee had their first meeting on the "gender resolutions". The two resolutions asked them to research and report (by Feb 2008) on recommendations to improve gender (and race and disability) balance in top management positions and on city committees, commissions and boards.

Preliminary information presented is as follows:

As I reported earlier, for top management positions, the salaries as of 5/17/07 are as follows:

• Average: $86,561.46
• Average for Women: $84,544.83
• Average for Men: 87,266.05
• Average for Racial/Ethnic Minorities: $95,314.70
  

It's slightly better for women and worse for racial/ethnic minorities than it was on 12/31/06

• Average: $86,086.16
• Average for Women: $83,191.67
• Average for Men: 87,086.72
• Average for Racial/Ethnic Minorities: $91,596.44
  

The DWD "job families" have 18 categories for all city employees.

• Women are under represented in 10 of the categories.
• Racial/Ethnic minorities are under represented in 7 of the categories.

When it comes to cities, commissions and boards, I can tell you this preliminary information, which is pretty close to what I originally figured when it comes to gender.

• Women are the most under represented, they are only 40.2% of the appointments, while being 50.9% of the population.
• Asians are 5.8% of the population, but 1.7% of the appointments.
• People with disabilities are 10% of the population, but 6.8% of the appointments.
  
• Hispanics or Latinos are 4.1% of the population but only 2.5% of the appointments.

The staff did a wonderfully thorough and efficient job of presenting the information needed for the committee and the committee already decided that for the study they would define "top management" as Comp Groups 18 (Supervisors), 21 (Department heads with 5 year contracts), 44 (top people at Madison Metro), the city attorneys and top fire, police and engineers.

All that, in less than an hour. Next meeting: August 14th before the Affirmative Action Committee meeting. Read more!

Gender Resolutions, Expanded and Supported.

The Affirmative Action Commission, not only liked my resolutions, they expanded the scope of the information that they thought would be helpful to the City Council. On Tuesday night, among other things going on in City Hall, the Affirmative Action Commission took a look at the two gender resolutions (1, 2) that I introduced as a result of various issues regarding gender in city hall. Mostly, committee appointments and women in top management positions and their salaries.

The Affirmative Action Commission seemed excited that I was bringing this up. One member commented that they receive alot of information, but don't get much of an opportunity to act on it and give recommendations for fixing various issues they see. However, they noted, that perhaps these ordinances were only addressing part of the problem. They were equally concerned about issues of race/ethnicity and disability. So, they added those two categories to the resolution. And then, to my surprise and delight, Ald. Joe Clausius signed on as a co-sponsor! (Yes, that Joe Clausius. Let me just say, since he got elected, I've gotten to know him and quite enjoy having coffee with him from time to time.)

These resolutions may have enough time to get back to the Common Council for Tuesday's agenda, however, I won't know until I see the agenda later today or tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, I'm glad to see that they took my concerns seriously and that we have support for looking into these issues. Stay tuned.
Read more!

Gender Watch: Still no change.

Men are still being appointed to City Committees 2 times for every 1 woman.

Of the appointments submitted on May 15th that we will be voting on this Tuesday, there were 12 women and 20 men. Or, 37.5% women and 62.5% men. Of the appointments submitted for Tuesday's meeting, to be approved on June 19th, there are 24 or 64.8% men and 13 or 35.2% women. (I didn't count the informational appointment information or the recommendations from chairs of committees.)

Not much has changed. I was kind of hoping that we might see some change once the issues was raised. Hopefully this resolution, and the recommendations we receive, will make a difference. Read more!

Gender, Managers and Salaries

In my quest for knowledge about the role of gender in employment for the City of Madison, I have some more information. Out of 113 people in Compensation Group (Comp Group) 21, 18 and Metro 44, or in layman's speak, the top two tiers of management positions in Madison, 30 are women. That's 26.5%.

In Comp Group 21:

• There are 5 women (20.8%), 19 (79.2%) men.
• There are 2 women (12.5%) and 14 men (87.5%) who get paid over $100,000.
• Women's salaries in this Comp Group range from $70,624 to $119,941, while men's salaries in this Comp Group range from $89,116 to $131,000.

In Comp Group 18 & Metro 44:

• There are 25 women (28%), 64 men (72%) .
• There are 11 women (32%) and 23 men (68%) who get paid over $85,000.

In all groups combined

• There are 12 women working for the City over 20 years, they get paid $62, 738 - $105,535. There are 30 men working for the City of 20 years, they get paid$74,802 - $131,368.
  
• The average women's salary in these ranges are $84,544 compared to men at $87,266, which is a little better than in 2006 where women averaged $83,191 while men averaged $87,086, but worse than 2005 when it was women at $82,171 and men at $82,681.
  

Read more!

Random Monday Morning thoughts

Gender, City's Hiring Practices, Schools, Affordable Housing and more . . .

Gender - Paul Soglin has some comments about a news article about the resolutions I introduced about lack of gender and pay equity in top management positions and gender equity on city committees based on information I provided on my blog post and follow up . He asked what took me so long to notice that so many women managers were replaced by men. Good question. It wasn't that it took me this long to notice, it took me this long to feel like I might get support on the council. There's still only 7 women on the council, but its one more than before. Even so, I had a hard time getting co-sponsors, even from the women. So far, Lauren Cnare signed on, followed by Satya Rhodes-Conway and Marsha Rummel. ThuyPham-Remmele had this to say:

Thank you for sharing this.

Currently I don't see the need for more "feel good" resolutions.

Staffing is the Mayor's job and I expect him to do it right.

Also, as Common Council we approve his hiring/appointing decisions and can address this matter through established city process without having to create more work for the already backlogged Affirmative Action Commission.

Furthermore, the City of Madison encourages volunteers to participate in civic duties, I don't see how CC control/select the volunteers. Currently we have many vacant positions, for the sake of "gender balance" we may end up NOT accepting dedicated male volunteers until sufficient females meet the quota, if ever.

Thuy

I still have to circulate it among more council members, but generally speaking, it seems gender equity is a difficult issue to address. Yes, even here in Madison. It still needs 11 votes and it seems incredible that we can't even count on the women to vote for this. Luckily, I'm certain several men will sign on without hesitation. Oh, and for the record, I talked to Affirmative Action Commission members, they are not backlogged, the Council hasn't addressed this issue in the past 6 years I've served on the Council and I'm not aware of any city committee commission positions we are holding open for gender balance because we don't have quotas and we shouldn't. Paul Soglin had some good recommendations and I agree, its about recruitment. That's why I was so surprised to read the hiring practices for the City of Madison and find this:

Job announcements will be sent to all city agencies via e-mail and to a mailing list for recruitment purposes. The Human Resources Department will only pay for local advertising if funding is available. Ads in professional publications will be paid for by the hiring agency.

City's Hiring Practices - Maybe the above quote explains how we hired someone for the Facilities and Sustainability Manager position that was unqualified. However, I don't think so. I've requested additional information about the other applicants and will share them when I get them if the media doesn't. Several people have asked for the job description and application. I am hoping that the good folks at Isthmus will make all of this information available when it becomes available. Vikki Kratz did an open records request and they told her to pick up the information on Friday at 4:00, but when she got there, everyone who knew anything had gone home for the day, so hopefully she will get the information today.

Schools - School Board members, please do the right thing tonight. Do not consolidate Lapham and Marquette to save $81,000. It's an incredibly short-sighted thing to do and it is not good for the community as a whole. I've heard so many good arguments about why consolidation is a bad thing, but the ones that probably bother me the most are:

1. Health and safety of the kids as they try to get to school. It's hard to promote a healthy lifestyle and walking and biking to school when kids in these areas have to cross E. Washington Ave, Williamson St., E. Johnson and E. Gorham. The less kids that have to cross these streets the better. The current set up isn't ideal, but it is better than what was passed in the budget. (Please don't stop the bussing for crossing guards, we couldn't possibly fund enough crossing guards for these streets!)
2. The Tenney-Lapham and Marquette Nieghborhoods have worked really hard to get developers to include family-friendly housing in their new developments so that we can increase the number of kids in the area. Consolidating the schools sends the wrong signals and sets the efforts of the neighborhoods back.
3. Projections indicate that within 5 years, the schools will be overcrowded. Again, this seems incredible short-sighted to consolidate the schools now.
4. It's only $81,000 that will be saved. We can't be that desperate for money. Or, we need to re-examine our priorities.

Affordable Housing - I don't know much about RDM, but they are offering 3 bedroom condos starting at $94,900. Their project is The Crossing at Elver Park. What amazes me the most is, if they can convert the 3 bedrooms at Elver Park to condos at this price, why can't the city create affordable housing on Allied Drive when we've put $5.5M of TIF into the project?
I was so surprised I picked up the phone and called the sales folks and asked them how they did this. They had no federal, state or local money to help make it affordable. The ad didn't seem to be a scam where they list the lowest price to drag you in then sell you something at a much higher price. I probably should have asked what kind of reserves they were providing for the condo association and what kind of warranties were included on the condos. Nonetheless, if a private company can do this with no federal subsidies, the City can certainly do much better in Allied Drive. Some of the numbers I have seen have us spending that much money just to renovate the units. Read more!

More on the City of Madison and Gender

It's not just the City of Madison employees, based on current appointments posted on the web today:

Of the 805 appointments to the 88 Standing and Ad Hoc City Committees with members appointed:

• 499 or 62% of the appointments are men
• 306 or 38% of the appointments are women
• 82% (72) of the 88 committees have more men than women on them
• 26% (23) of the 88 committees have 75% or more of their membership being men
  

FOLLOW UP
Apparently, the City no longer does the report that I cited in this morning's post.
Prior to Jim Hess being appointed to the Monona Terrace Director position - that post was also held by a woman. Read more!

Gender in City Hall

I made a comment about gender in City Hall the other day. Of course, people immediately freaked out and said that I was accusing someone of being sexist. That was not what I was doing. However, it did get me thinking even more. Working in City Hall it seems as though I work with many men, and very few women. And those women I did work with seem to be disappearing. I looked at the City's organizational chart (new planning and development chart on page 51) and here is what I found.

Men in Charge of Departments and Divisions
*City Assessor - Mark Hanson
*City Attorney - Michael May (previously Eunice Gibson)
City Comptroller - Dean Brasser
*Human Services - Roger Goodwin (position previously held by a woman)
Information Service - Richard Grasmick
City Channel Station Manager - Brad Clark
Monona Terrace Director - James Hess
*Overture Center President - Tom Carto
*Police Chief - Noble Wray
*Public Health Director - Dr. Thomas Schlenker (previously Kate Vedder)
Public Works and Transportation & City Engineer- Larry Nelson
Fleet Service Superintendent - William Vanden Brook
Parks Superintendent - James Morgan
*Street Superintendent - Alan Schumacher
*Traffic Engineering and Parking Manager - David Dryer (previous Parking Manager position held by Robin Williams, position was eliminated)
*Metro Transit General Manager - Charles Camp (previously Cathrine Debo)
Water Utility Manger - David Denig Chakroff
Planning and Development Director - Mark Olinger
Planning Unit - Brad Murphy
*Housing Operations - Augustin Olvera (previously Deborah Garrett-Thomas)
*Inspection Unit (I forget the new name) - George Hank (formerly Linda Grubb)

Women in Charge of Departments and Divisions
*City Clerk - Maribeth Witzel-Behl
*Civil Rights Director - Lucia Nunez (formerly EOC - Anthony Brown/Ariel Ford and AA- Kirby Mack/Enis Ragland/Norm Davis)
Fire Chief - Debra Amesqua
Library - Barbara Dimick

Vacant Positions
City Treasurer
Economic and Community Development in the Planning and Development Department- This position will supervise some offices that previously appeared higher in the organizational chart and a few more women. Those offices include:

Community Development Block Grant Office - Hickory Hurie
Community Services Supervisor - Dorothy Conniff
*Office of Business Resources - Matthew Mikolajewski (previously Kathrine Naherny)
Senior Center Director - Christine Beatty

WOMEN AS % OF WORKFORCE
In the past few years, of the 14 positions that were hired (indicated by a *), 8 of them replaced women in higher positions in government. Even if you count the offices now under the new Economic and Development Department, there are only 6 women out of 28 positions (21%) where there formerly were 14 out of 30 positions (46%).

I didn't look a whole lot at the 2004 Affirmative Action Report - the last one I could find, but what it did tell me was that:

In 2004, of the 2,661 permanent City employees . . . 898 (33.7 percent) were women.

This compared to the County:

In 2004, of the 2,083 permanent Dane County employees . . . 1,079 (51.8 percent) were women.

And State:

In June 2004, of the 40,475 permanent State classified employees . . . 20,703 (51.2 percent) were women.

WOMEN AND SALARIES
Additionally, I noticed when reading about the folks that get top salaries in the City of Madison, there was only two women mentioned. Top salaries were for:

Dean Brasser at $133,927
Larry Nelson at $133,463
Michael May at $125,040

Others of the 43 making over $100,000 that the article mentioned were:

• Bus drivers - John Nelson, the 18th best-paid city employee at $113,610 and Roger Waggoner No. 32 at $103,786.
• Mayor Dave Cieslewicz was 23rd on the list at $111,544.
• Other top city salaries of note include outgoing Metro general manager Catherine Debo at $117,115; embattled city water utility manager David Denig-Chakroff at $116,440 and city planning and development director Mark Olinger at $115,015.
• Interim Overture Center director Michael Goldberg, who resigned after not getting the job permanently, was paid $102,999 last year.

And this was interesting to me:

Fire chief Debra Amesqua was paid $112,673 last year but that figure was topped by three of her assistant chiefs: Michael Dirienzo ($117,340), Paul Bloom ($114,959) and James Keiken ($114,451).

As opposed to

Police chief Noble Wray was the city's top-paid cop at $121,349 followed by assistant chiefs Randall Graber ($117,772) and Charles Cole ($114,384).

Now, to be clear, am I accusing any one individual of being sexist? NO! Do I think it is an issue that we should start paying attention to? YES!

Updates here.
Read more!

The Boys vs. The Girls

Last week, much of the local political gossip was about the Democratic Party endorsements. I didn't attend cuz I'm not a Democrat and haven't been for some time, but it is my understanding that they endorsed Julia Kerr, Brian Solomon, Aaron Backer, Gary Poulson, Mark Clear, Joe Claussius. 5 men and 1 woman.

Last night, when I was sitting in the Green Party endorsement interviews it struck me that based on the interviews, the Greens could be endorsing 5 women. They don't vote until next week Monday, but the stark contrast stuck me.

Currently, there are only 6 women on the Common Council. Judy Compton, Lauren Cnare, Robbie Webber and myself are not among the retiring. Cindy Thomas and Judy Olson are. Theoretically, we could be down to three women if all of the men won. In fact, of the people running we are guaranteed men in 8 races. And the statistical odds in the rest of the races aren't so hot. In addition to the unchallenged incumbents Mike Verveer, Tim Bruer and Zach Bradon, a man is guaranteed to win the the following races:

* = incumbent

District 1
Aaron Backer
Jed Sanborn*

District 9
Paul Skidmore*
Larry Pasha

District 10 Ken Golden*
Nick Dorneanu
Thomas McClure
Chris Ogden
Brian Solomon

District 18 Paul VanRooy*
Andy Lindgren
Michael Schumacher
Jon Becker
Benito Juarez Olivas

District 19 Noel Radomski*
Curt Brink
Mark Clear

Even in the races where women are running, they are outnumbered in several cases. 2 races have 3 men and 1 woman running. All things being equal, the women would only have a 25% chance of winning.

District 6 Judy Olson*
Brooks McGrath
Marsha Rummel
Carl Durocher
Adam Casey, exempt

District 12 Brian Benford*
Michael Basford
Satya Rhodes-Conway
Mark Deadman
Marcus Watson

Three races have 2 men and 1 woman. All things being equal, the women only have a 33.3% chance of winning.

District 11
Tim Gruber*
Sandra Saul
Christopher Schmidt

District 13 Isadore Knox
Julia Kerr
Duane Steinhauer
Mike Clark

District 15
Larry Palm*
Vicky Selkowe
Mark Schmitt

We have three match ups where the chances are 50-50.

District 5
Troy Thiel
Robbie Webber*

District 8 Austin King*
Lauren Woods
Eli Judge

District 20 Cindy Thomas
Gary Poulson
Thuy Pham-Remmele

And only one races where the odds favor the women.

District 17 Santiago Rosas
Joe Clausius
Sarah Florino
Mary Thornton

In order for there to be 100% gender balance on the council, 7 women and 2 men can win in races where there are choices between gender. If that were to happen, how would that change the way the council does business? Could there be a little less chest beating and game playing and a little more listening and governing with a heart? Would it change the way lobbyists approach the Council and how they try to influence us? Would there be a little less deal making with your chums at the men's basketball game and a little more actual discussion on the floor of the Council? Or, would us women fall all over ourselves trying to act like the men and help to repeat the games played at the scene at the Democratic Party meeting this last week? Could women help change the culture of the Council to one where we focus on governing instead of "playing politics"? Or would it just be more of the same?

Sorry, guys. You're nice, but sometimes the way to accomplish your goals is a little less than ideal. I don't think gender is the only thing that can change the way politics is done, but I sure think it might help. Read more!