City-County Liaison Committee met to discuss, but postponed to the next meeting after a little very annoying information was shared. First, let me note, no press were there to cover this. I’m not surprised, but disappointed, as usual. I don’t think it is the subject as much as there just aren’t any reporters left to cover anything and they can just read my blog to find out what happened, they count on me to do the work – but that is not a very good idea given how busy I have been with work.
When I got there, late . . . because I was at the James Madison Park meeting, Rosemary Lee was there complaining about the homeless and how awful it is that tourists to our city see the homeless. Wow, I’m always confused by people who are more concerned about looking at people who make them uncomfortable instead of people freezing to death. I can’t even comprehend what they are thinking.
Staff (didn’t catch his name) passed out the matrix that explained the changes to the policy they already adopted. (No typos there – they approved something and now staff is telling them in detail what they did..
They says they are going to put this on the agenda for next meeting.
He says he took the old operating rules and showed where it would go in proposed operating rules. Instead of the standard strikeout and underline version of the policy, there is a chart that shows the rules adopted in May, the changes and then the explanation of the changes.
He says they also created a list of the issues that were in the building. They went through emails to facility manager trying to find incidents of issues in the building over the last year. The things they know about. The last one is . . . ?? . . . .didn’t understand what he said.
The list consists of the following incidents that occurred before their meeting August 11.
9/8/10 – 2nd floor near municipal court offices – City employee complained that she finds homeless slepeing in hallway “every morning” and but this morning “a guy asked me for my phone number and said something nasty” when request denied.
12/13/10 – Entry way of building – City employee complained of urine on the floor.
4/13/11 – 6th floor visitation waiting area – Female visitor and her child found individual passed out in bathroom.
7/9/11 – Outside facet – Citizen reported that their child has discovered that “someone defecated near outside faucet”
This is the complete list of 4 items before the meeting where they were asked permission to put up signs. There are some additional incidents that they are probably now tracking better.
8/31/11 – Unisex restroom on 2nd floor – General complaint from CCB staff about homeless sleeping in unlocked bathrooms. (Action taken: Reported to Facilities Management, who will follow SOP re: locking bathrooms)
9/3/11 – Ground level near cafe – Dane County employee found family (mother, 2 kids, finace and 3 dogs) in lobby on the weekend. (MPD approached the family and allowed them to stay until their ride arrived.)
9/6/11 – MLK entrance – General Complaint form citizen to the County Board regarding squatters harassing citizens and tourists (I believe this is an email from Rosemary Lee)
They say they will take the information and review it and bring questions to next meeting.
Staff chines in that Captain Gloede has met with Porchlight and is planning a bigger meeting.
I call bullshit. I asked Porchlight staff about this, they said it was mentioned in passing, but that they would be interested in any conversations that are had about this. They did say they were meeting to talk about the library and closed capitol. Also, apparently some of the people there are women . . . and families . . . not served by Porchlight.
Shiva Bidar-Sielaff says that they have had number of discussion with the mayor about the larger issue, over the next month they would like to come up with some appropriate humane ways to deal with this issue.
Staff says he read the minutes to say that they approved 2.0 allowing them to put up the sign as long as City of Madison met with homeless advocates, that meeting took place with Porchlight. He understands the signs are too big, but he wants to know if they can put up an appropriate sized sign.
Bidar-Sielaff says that Gloede is not here but that is not what she heard, the idea of meeting was not just a meeting, but a plan about what to do, are we going to put a person outside when it is minus 20 degrees outside. They need to do more than just mention it, they have to have a plan.
Staff says the sign was up for one weekend, there were homeless in the building, police did approach them and did work it out, did allow them to stay until their ride came, it was a family with dogs. They have a process to work with them humanely with the sign up.
Mark Clear says that certainly is his understanding , perhaps not stated well, they had significant discussion and actual enforcement is not changing, there is still a great deal of discretion with the Police Department, the situation you described is ok. This is not the announcement of some new draconian policy. Yes Mark, that is what you were led to believe, but listen closely to what the staff says. They are not asking for these signs for no reason. They have a plan.
Staff says police will not approach people loitering unless there is a sign, if same family comes back with dogs, the police will not approach them, cuz no sign. If there was a sign, they could ask the to leave (and he implied they could be ticketed) Note: I don’t think that loitering is trespassing. Trespassing is trespassing. Madison doesn’t have a loitering law.
Paul Rusk asks that one member of the public be given a copy, I raise my hand to request one as well.
Dennis O’Loughlin says they authorized the sign, right?
Staff says that is what they understood.
O’Loughlin asks why it was taken down.
Staff says that DOA misunderstood, they didn’t just want them to contact the homeless services provider, it was supposed to have a plan before the sign went up, so they took the sign down.
Bidar-Sielaff says it was the look of the sign, red letter huge sign, but also underlying issue that sign was supposed to go up after a transition period to figure out appropriate solutions might be.
O’Loughlin says something but we can’t hear him. Talking in the hallway, can’t hear. Someone said that people are scared when they come in and this issue should be concluded, I think that was O’Loughlin. It could have been Rosemary speaking up from the audience. I can’t hear, get up and shut the door . . . but I forgot, the doors lock when you close them. Seriously! Get a key so that people can hear what is going on in the meeting! Staff gets up and opens the door. It’s kinda confusing, someone says that staff says they were acting in an aggressive manner.
With that, they started to talk about the remodel of 201, I had to leave to go back to the James Madison Park meeting, there were no reporters or bloggers there, so I don’t know what happened next. However, I do know that O’Loughlin had to leave to go to Personnel and Finance and as he was leaving, he kicked me (not hard). I know he likes to tease me, and does things like shut my laptop when I’m typing and makes jokes with me, but that was odd. But not as odd as his comments at the budget meeting . . . which I hope to get to . . . .
