Video, recap, scores . . . by now you probably know how this is going to turn out, but I found myself being more critical on these answers and disappointed in things that they failed to mention. To be clear, I haven’t endorsed either candidate, but after my last two posts on East Side Business Association and the East Side Progressives debate, I might as well have. Still waiting for the housing and homelessness questionnaire to be done, and I want them to be pushed on racial disparities in the police department arrest rates, but at this point Scott will have to work REALLY hard to get my vote and overcome his weaknesses or Paul will REALLY have to screw up. Regardless, here you go, round three. Paul won the first two.
One thing different in this debate they gave the candidates the opportunity to ask their opponent a question, Resnick does, Soglin doesn’t. And thanks for asking some questions that haven’t been asked by other groups.
Opening Statements
Mayor Paul Soglin: (this will sound familiar) He’s the guy who has been identified as old, tired, gray, bland. He won’t cover what he did in the past, State St. Mall, Concourse, Monona Terrace, 1000s of units of affordable housing, he won’t discuss events like the Capitol East District getting started, finishing off the 700/800 blocks and dealing with incredibly low housing vacancy rate, the lowest in the country and building 5000 units under construction. He wants to focus on what they have accomplished, because old, gray, bland and tired has done a lot. We participated with the County and we put together the Rethke project for 110 new units on E. Washington where we will house some of the worst cases of chronic homelessness in our community. We laundered a $25M housing program to produce 1000 units in the next 5 years, using WHEDA tax credits and new opportunities in TIF and which if we don’t get any new increases, should eliminate homelessness, they re-established the neighborhood resource teams, they joined in three national efforts that have kept them in the forefront with the group of My Brother’s Keeper, Cities United and the Racial & Equity Social Justice Consortium working with Portland, Twin Cities, Seattle, New Orleans, on the challenges in making sure that young Af. American and Latino men are integrated economically and educationally into our society. They have an award winning summer youth program that has caught on in the community and created another 650 jobs in the next three years because of a generous donation from the Rennebohm Foundation. Through his efforts working with the private section, they have a commitment of $1M in cash to create 200 jobs for adults in the next coming years. We just finished a disparities study which is in the news, collaborated with the school district on Out of School Time. He says that they are improving the housing stock, they forced the sale of the Woodlands and they have substantial improvements there, they increased the library outreach, the created a NRT budget to focus on community projects in certain neighborhoods, we spurred the purchase and development of a community center in the Theresa Terrace area, they expanded the Meadowood Center and made a major addition to the Meadowridge Library and now they are working on an employment center for young adults. We have created an outreach worker for kids in Brentwood, we’ve gone further than that . . .time is up? I got a lot more.
Alder Scott Resnick: Today Madison is missing opportunities, we don’t live up to our potential, he looks at cities across the country and what they are doing to be cutting edge, he looks at Burlington VT that is doing more in sustainable energy than communities around the country. He looks at New Orleans which isn’t planning on ending veteran’s homelessness but they have actually done it. It looks at Virgina Beach when it comes to childcare and affordable housing in Oakland and what Seattle is doing with their libraries and Miami which when the state said no to rail, they were able to find a pathway forward. He looks to see where the City of Madison is today and he looks at the 41% increase in homelessness from 4 years ago. He looks at the 14 individuals sleeping outside of city hall, their possessions stacking up and he finds it absolutely unacceptable. Yes, housing first is a strategy, but it will take years before we see incremental improvements, we need a new men’s emergency shelter, we need it today, but we aren’t going to see it. We need a one stop shop to corral all services in a central location near to the downtown, we need to take a wholistic approach that includes drug counseling, health care, job creation, and therapy. He takes a look at racial disparities and these are conversations we have had in the 80s, 90s, 2002, 2009, 2013 and we’re still having them once again today. He started to listen to the faith based leaders who didn’t feel like they had a voice in this conversation and they identified 4 areas for us to focus in. One, childcare, 24 hour childcare and what that means is to seed resources to make sure localized day cares can open up throughout the city and we have more scholarships for students throughout the city who simply need childcare. We know if the kids are entering the school district on equal footing, they have a better chance for success. Its about transportation. We no longer are a top 10 bike friendly community but what this is about is how we connect the downtown to the rest of the city. To make sure we fully fund programs for jobs and transportation and make sure we have strong transportation networks. It means that we have a strong jobs program that follows Portland that says innovate, include and invest or we ensure the equity isn’t a buzzword and we talk about jobs that we can create and economic development that includes everyone in the city of Madison, but we can’t do this if we have a polarizing city government, when the county executive can’t work with the city council, the county executive can’t work with the mayor, where the mayor’s office can’t work with the city council, when we are fighting our partners, this is what collaboration is about, and if we don’t have it, it holds the city back from what the true potential can be. This is why he is running for mayor.
No points at this time, however, Scott’s opening statement has improved, has some specifics about what he would do. I’m surprised by his bruised ego about not being cutting edge, seems more like he is concerned about bragging rights than identifying and solving problems. No longer being a top 10 biking community doesn’t bother me, we have damn good biking facilities and continue to improve them and we don’t need awards, what would he improve about our system? His bashing of the mayor’s last 4 years continues to irk me since he was on the council the whole time and council President for one of the years and I think he shares in that responsibility and all these issues that are important now, he wasn’t a leader on for the last 4 years, seems like he is bringing them up to score points, if he really cared about the issues, he’d be sitting on committees that work on these issues and bringing forward initiatives. If we need a new men’s emergency shelter, what is he doing to make it happen? Where was his budget amendment? I could go on, but you get my point. It’s becoming a pet peeve, but the opening statements were pretty solid, either no points or they each get one.
After 4 shootings on the West Side this weekend, Madison Police Chief Mike Koval said “we’ve got to get a grip on this, we’ve have plenty of home grown gang issues right here, right in Camelot, Southwest residents are growing increasingly frustrated at what they see as a quickly escalating crime and violence problem, when soliciting questions for this event, we received more on this issue than any other topic, knowing that, what is the strategy you would pursue as mayor to decrease the threat of gun and gang violence in Madison’s neighborhoods, please be specific.
Resnick: This is not the first time the police chief has raised this as a major issue, and when the mayor criticized the city council for moving forward on a west side police station, these are the issues the police chief was talking about. We need to create a task force with our partners in place, the county, the sheriff’s department, the school system, our philanthropic community, our nonprofits and have a task force to start addressing the issues of gang violence immediately within Madison. We need to make sure Madison is a place of hope. We need community members to find safe havens where if they want to break out of a different path, that we will put forth the resources to find someone a job, find someone housing if they are in a gang and looking for a way forward. We also need to ensure when we are looking at re-incarceration rates and people re-entering our community that we can provide them with the resources so they can’t have to go back to the cyclical issues of gang violence. We need to provide individuals housing and make sure they have supports when they return to the community. Make sure they have a place to go that isn’t a former gang and we do this through a community effort. This is going to be a problem that the city of Madison is going to continue to face if we are not working together.
-1! Think of all the money we will be spending on a new police station which won’t in and of itself lead to anything except more operating costs. Why not invest that money in a neighborhood center and the operating money real social workers, not cops with a badge, we could get two social workers for the price of one cop. And they’d actually be TRAINED. Increased crime, if it is real and not perceived (crime rates are generally going down) won’t be solved with bricks and mortar. Finally, if he was so concerned about these issues, what did he do to address them, what proposals or budget amendments did he put forth in the last 4 years, one of which he was the council president.
Soglin: A midtown police station is not going to solve the problem, it was put in the budget ahead of the request of the police chief because a couple of alders were confused because their districts were served by multiple stations. South and Central and West and South. Lets get straight about what we have done and what we are doing, the additional station will not add more officers on the street, the additional station will not do anything in terms of restorative justice, it will be more convenient and right now we have more important priorities than convenience. Four years ago he was the only candidate you are looking at now that said we have problems dealing with poverty and social justice. My critics said I did not know what I was talking about, but we went to work on the initiatives, many of which you heard me reiterate in the introduction. We restored the neighborhood resource teams, we have a Madison police department cad check so we can have greater contact with young people and so they don’t get into the criminal justice system because of equipment problems with their cars. We have a re-entry program, which speaking of the faith based community, is with Madison Urban Ministry and in 2013, 2014 that works on community violence, we have another program with MUM that works with bakery to get people into the work force, we have the Jesse Crawford Recovery Center for prisoner re-entry, we are doing that, we partners with Nehemiah on breaking the school to prison pipeline for middle school students. We are working with Centro Hispano. The key is working to break the cycle of poverty institutionalization. Where are the young people arrested in our community, they are arrested in 12 critical spots in the city, our four high schools, our four transfer points and four big box discount stores, that is where they are arrested. Why do they get in trouble in those places, the school district is now working to see what kind of intervention we can have within the district to stop these kids from going on that pipeline from schools to prisons, our police officers are engaged in the south district in a peer court so they don’t go into the criminal justice system so they can focus on their activities, their health and their academics. It was critical that we get the summer youth program started, there were 25 kids involved and then last year we created 25 positions in the city alone, which Alderman Resnick mocked, and we got another 25 working with the Boys and Girls Club and the Urban League and then that inspired the creation of 650 jobs, that is how we are going to do it.
Good, concrete specific answers, most of it was what has been done, but not much about what they do next. Gotta work harder to get points from me as we move along here . . . or maybe I’m just getting tired of giving the mayor points. Problem is, I agree entirely, its all a good start and the right approach.
Score. Mayor 0, Resnick -1.
Resnick: We’re not going enough. If each one of these programs were having success, we would be seeing incremental improvements. Right now we have a serious issue, and we can talk about it, but we need to look at what we can do in the immediate, whether it is gun buy back programs, we talk about job programs, but lets make sure we have the accountability and that these programs are actually curbing the youth violence we are seeing right now.
Soglin: We have preliminary data in some of these areas. We’ve already seen – and by the way the Race to Equity Study numbers are 4 years old – the latest data we have is 2013 which was made available at the end of 2014. In terms of household income, for children living in poverty and unemployment, we have closed on all three areas, in terms of arrests, its too early to tell, but he is confident that we are on the right track, especially since we have a mayor that recognized this problem and did something about it.
No extra points, nothing new, nothing spectacular.
The 12% turnout in the primary indicates diminished engagement with local government in a city that is by all accounts overly knowledgeable about politics and extremely active, how much blame do the candidates deserve for such a low turn out and how much of a priority will community engagement be for your administration. Laughter from the crowd.
Soglin: Hey, I got 53% of the votes, don’t look at me. Community engagement has been the hallmark of his administrations for years, for those of you who are old enough to go back to the 1970s, I see more than one of you here, you know that we started out at that time fully committed to strengthening neighborhoods, we are nationally recognized as having one of the strongest neighborhood organization systems in the United States. In addition he would hope all of you, not all of you, would consider serving on a city commission or board, if you’re from the 2nd or 6th district, there’s too many of you, lets be fair and leave room for other people. He’s like to see more diversity, geographic, gender, race, ethnic background, because that is the hallmarks of city government. The neighborhoods of this community have played and important and vibrant role, but we cannot lead to the balkanization of the city. We have to recognize the overwhleming need to have a strong city for all of us in developing transportation, housing policy, childcare, health policies and particularly housing.
No choice but to give him a point, they wrote that question for him!
Resnick: Its about civic participation and how we can use new tools to modernize that entire process. He says that Ideascale was an tool they used during the budget, anyone could submit their ideas. When we look at what time our meetings take place, its really difficult to show up to city hall to be able to testify, to wait hours on end to have your voices heard, we see that happens at the State Capital and they have a time limit on it. Here in the city of Madison is is every single Alder and the Mayors priority to make sure that every persons voice is heard in our democracy. We can take steps to make sure that it is transparent so that you know if you are going to a meeting you know what time it is at, where is is and what is the subject matter that is going to be discussed. In this time of modern technology we are taking a step back from those core elements that make communications and processes less efficient. We’re seeing times when we are not communicating to our residents about the issues at hand and there is room for improvement.
I’ll give him a point for innovation with Idealscale, that was his idea and he implemented it. But he’s going to lose it in a moment, and I just have to point out that while they did Ideascale during the budget, there was never any indication that they actually used the information collected with that tool, I don’t think it was brought up once during deliberations as a reason for doing or not doing something. Plus, it is biased towards those of us glued to our computers. I also don’t get his transparency issue, the agendas are all on line.
Soglin talks about the Neighborhood Resource Teams and challenges we have if it is evening meetings like this or modern technology, there are 2 critical elements we must have for citizen participation and meaningful engagement, they are access and trust. We can’t assume that because we can go to an evening meeting or have access to a computer, that everyone does. It’s critical that we take the responsibility to neighborhoods. One of the things he has seen is the beginning of a strong neighborhood group at Worthington, the fact that in Meadowood we are getting tremendous engagement, in the Brentwood area both the homeowning community and the renting community, this is the basis for neighborhoods that work.
I’d like to doc them both 1 point for not recognizing that the trend in the last 4 – 8 years is more daytime meetings (Scott might have gotten close on that one, but I think he was referring to meetings running late into the night), less notice to the public about the meetings and more cryptic descriptions of agenda items and often less prepared materials available prior to the meetings, making it hard for the public to participate. Gotta address those basics before any new tools are going to have any affect. If people don’t know what they are giving input on or only get 24 or 48 hours notice that they are seeking input, or can only get the information by showing up to the meeting, what’s the point? Swing and a miss on both candidates parts on that part of the question. They also missed the obvious one of managing agendas so that items the public is there to speak on get taken up first, and that equity issues are taken up first so people who rarely show up get to speak before they have to leave and paid lobbyists are made to wait. Also, the practice of having presentations or providing handouts after the public has given their testimony and then not allowing them input should stop. They need to strengthen the lobbying law so we can see how much money Uber and Lyft have spent lobbying in our community. I could go on, but I’m disappointed in the answer.
Score remains the same, they lost the points they earned: Mayor 0, Resnick -1
We have heard about the racial disparities and opportunity gaps in our community for years now with a dramatic increase in those discussions in the last year and a half, lets look at just one of those factors which has a significant impact on all the others, social separation. How much energy would you give to desegregating Madison socially and what strategies would you pursue as Mayor.
Resnick: This is conplex, can’t be answered in 3 minutes or just by individuals in this room. This room is a predominantly caucasian room, but they still care significantly about these issues, but we need to do so much more. When he looks at what he has done, he read Justified Anger, reached out to Alex Gee, went to Nehemiah, talked about issues he was facing in the community. He asked what he as a business leader or the city could do to have systematic improvements, what we did was a couple different things. THey held a jobs programs at the Urban League for technology, many members had never been to South Madison before, we looked at what members of that community were looking for, it was access to technology, how to use social media. This was not lead by people in city hall, but members of the community. They created an internship program that followed, 30 jobs sponsored by the YWCA, every single student who signed up got training in programming and got an internship. But we have major issues where there are silos in the community, people are not traveling back and forth and we all need to work as a community to break that down.
Soglin: He asks how many people have been to Dane Dances, he thinks that is one of the best examples of a diverse, integrated race, ethnic income events in our city, that should be the hallmark, the standard for all our efforts. What it means is it makes some people uncomfortable. When I get in trouble, which I do alot, when I get in trouble for being critical of Overture, it was about lack of diversity and putting so much money into that facility and it doesn’t reflect the diversity of this community, we have made improvements in the last couple years. There are other things we can do, we are meeting with Reverend Gee in the morning, Michael Johnson is here and they would agree we can do more than that. You can ask Sara about nights that I get out in the car, by myself and drive to Vera Court, Penn Park, Meadowood and other neighborhoods or when they are out together and they take a detour and drop in on neighborhoods, unannounced, no press, no escorts, no one to make introductions, that is a standard that a mayor can set. We need to create access and trust, it means engagement and that is why it is so important we start with the schools, you go and look at the complexion of the kids and then the parents and it doesn’t match. There is something wrong with this picture and that is why he is so adamant about working with the schools and more has to be done with parental engagement. Why, when we hold city conferences he proposed that they have childcare and transportation so that if someone has challenges and is without resources for someone to watch their kids, to pay for a sitter. These are the things that a mayor can do, that is why so many of the issues he started with are so critical. How many remember Harambe, half a dozen people. That was a mechanism that we set up on the south side that over a 8 year period of time took Madison and Dane County from what was then a standard infant mortality rate and dropped it so that for one year, it was lower than it was for whites, and then, people said we had victory and dissolved Harambe. He met today with someone committed to bringing it back.
Resnick: He wants to add that one night this summer Overture had a performance, live on King St had a performance (Ziggy Marley) and you had Ziggy Marley, and for one of the rare nights, in Madison’s Downtown, you would see such a wide range of race, age and people enjoying our city, it was such a beautiful night, that is what we need to be charging for, culture and arts is what brings people together, we need to be setting that bar of excellence not just one day a year, but 365 days.
Both -1. I’m not sure either really answered the question, in question about social separation they talked about jobs and Harambe. The mayor did mention Dane Dance and Resnick recovered in the rebuttal, why they didn’t say how much time they would devote to this, how it would be a priority or note. And notice things like Freakfest, Rhythm and Booms, Art Fair on the Square, Taste of Madison, Farmer’s Market – all events that could be better integrated were not mentioned. Make Music Madison also was not metioned, the local music scene was not mentioned, the fact that bars serving hip hop music and all the problems they have with the police department were not mentioned, the issue of black ownership of clubs and bars was not mentioned. I think these were all misses.
Score: Soglin -1, Resnick -2.
Both of you agree we should establish municipal broadband access, but differ on how to arrive there, give the FCCs decision to pre-empt state barriers to community broadband in Tennesee and N. Carolina last week and Wisconsin’s still existing barriers, what do you see as the immediate and long term paths forward for municipal broadband in Madison.
Soglin: Mayor says believe it or not, he doesn’t know the answer, but he shares his thoughts on how the work together to get to that answer. The FCC decision was the best we could ask for, because it said the restrictive state laws designed to protect the monopolies can be challenged and the FCC will allow them to go forward, good news. Bad news, it will be appealed and it will be in the courts. Another challenge for us is how we establish our perimeter to find a commercial partner so we can go about creating broadband connectivity for two important groups, children in households on the other side of the digital divide and those companies that vitally need high speed internet for their companies. And the vast majority of some of us somewhere in between. He met with the IT Director today, asking him to take this back to the committee, do we go and continue for one small $150,000 commitment for one area, do we go forward with an investment and a study continuing that kind of line, or do we come in and find ourselves a private partner who will want to take on the responsibility of bringing the best internet service available in our community. This will go forward to the committee in 2 weeks, he awaits their recommendation, we have a great challenge and opportunity before us. He was one of a few mayors, who led the way getting the US Conference of Mayors to go forward full speed on net neutrality, which was also a victory last week so those of you downloading won’t have to pay more for popular content and on the this question on the restrictive state laws, it won’t be easy or quick. If you look at the speeds in Chatenooga, Paris, Seoul South Korea, they are so far ahead of us and if we are going to have a robust economy based on technology, people gravitating to us becaus eof Epic, we are going to have to take on this challenge, his guess is there are some private companies out there that want to take on this challenge, because we are a vibrant community that is growing and that will help us solve the problem.
Resnick: He says what the mayor is talking about today, they have been talking about for the past two years. Although he understands technology and started a company, he understands dark fiber. He put together the smartest individuals he could find from the private sector, the nonprofit sector, the university and they started reviewing the options for what they could do today. They talked about fiber to the home, that is what they are doing in Chatenooga, it was funded by federal resources and for Madison came to about $120M and we decided we couldn’t afford it. They started talking about a LTE 4G network, internet that goes to your phones, it was an efficient and cost effective way to get internet into the hands of individuals on free and reduced lunch on a network that makes sense, it maintains internet access for everyone and crosses the digital divide. We have been working on this issue for well over 18 months, they have put together budget amendments, they discussed this at length, he is glad this comes back to them and they can reaffirm their decision. When it comes to businesses, we have the MUFN group, its what sits under our streets, its the high speed internet that we are really excited about. But there are things we could do right now, we have exclusive agreements that only a few select companies can tap into it, if you want to see more fiber in the communities and high speed access, let more people tap in to fiber, we don’t need to look outside our city for providers, we have them right here and want to be part of the conversation. He is excited to move forward on issues he has been working on for years and he is very passionate about it and is glad that they agree it should be a priority for the city of Madison.
Soglin: Says they do have some major disagreements, he’s not sure who his experts or smartest are but he has relied on Barry Orton at the UW, one of the nationally known experts on the subject, and Barry and he are in agreement on a few things, Resnicks plan is based on Sun Prairie and it doesn’t work for Madison, it has different structure and they have their own municipal utility and we don’t have it. Also, he has been saying for months to look at what the FCC has done and you have dismissed that and I haven’t figured that out, MUFN is the great backbone and he is very proud to have been instrumental in making sure that the schools and community centers have been connected, but it is going to take a public-private partnership.
Resnick: What the mayor is talking about with the FCC is going to be debated in courts for the next few years. We have the resources right now with the individuals they brought together, they have Supranet and who lay the fiber lines to schools and community centers, 5 Nines are the ones who work downtown, he has brought together people as far as the White House CTO to talk about what other communities are doing and how we can be on the cutting edge of internet access with the resources we were handed to us. The City of Madison has had failed attempts in the past with Mad City Broadband and other initiatives and there are areas we could see true improvement right now with the resources we have and instead of fighting about this, lets put our experts together for the best outcomes for the city of Madison.
No points, but its partially my fault, because I don’t know which one is right here. It’s also their fault too, where were both of them 2 to 3 years ago when WYOU needed high speed connection on Willy St. and construction was going on with the street and the city could have helped WYOU keep their studio to do live shows and have 24/7 access to their automator? It would have cost less than $12,000 and provided access for many nonprofits and other groups, where were they then when we were working with the city on solutions? I’m also surprised neither of them mentioned creating a municipal utility, like the water utility. Also, if Resnick has been working on this for 2 years, where are the results?
An aside, I don’t understand when they both get rebuttals and when only one does.
Score remains: Soglin -1, Resnick -2.
Three recent high profile parks projects have happened within blocks of each other on the near east side, Central Park, Tenney Park Pavilion and Breese Stevens Field improvements. Which area of the city is up next for a significant parks project, do you have a time table in mind and as mayor how will you make this a reality.
Resnick: The creation of central park has been a great resources, but there are also stresses, there are homeowners that hae lived in their homes for 15 – 20 years and are not expected to move next to a concert arena, its seems like every single night there is noise and complaints and while one or two festivals are phenomenal, when you start having them on a regular basis there is not a whole lot of predictability there and there are a number of residents feeling stresses of those projects. We need to make sure we have paid off the debt from those projects, where he sees the next area of opportunity is what is the future of Olin Park, he sees community leaders talking about the future of Olin as a potential gateway to our community and the exciting things going on with Alliant Energy Center and how will will make connections to downtown and the isthmus. He is excited that we have passed new projects and planning for that area with the mayors support, however, it is going to take additional community engagement and participation. Just like it took a long time to plan it out and we will need to see that again.
Soglin: Says he doesn’t think anyone is going to see something as massive as what happened with central park, we were fortunate to get federal funds earmarked for that and given the present condition of the Congress that can’t see to keep federal agencies open, he doesn’t see that in the future, but coming back down to earth, he wants to remind people about the splash pads at Rhindahl and Elver. He says the immediate need it Penn Park. The shelter is inadequate, it resembles a Soviet style bunker and doesn’t provide adequate services for those who use the park. Resnick mentioned Olin Turville and the planning has to start here, but we are dependent upon the county, the Alliant Energy Center is under study from the county because it is considered 4 generations old and not in the city and not scheduled to come into the city until 2023, so many of us are working to advance that date, not for the energy center, but for a coherent plan for the southside. We have some ideas for the lakeshore property and how to make it more usable, but it is hard to do when we are waiting to see what happens with the Alliant Energy Center, we should go along with the planning process but lets not over anticpate what will happen there. On the other hand, we have issues with Warner Park, we have neighborhood groups, you would almost think it was a downtown park, there is one faction Wild Warner that wants nothing done there, another group wants a swimming pool, another group wants it to remain stable but to have a youth oriented center at the south end of the park. All I can say is stay tuned, it is critical because it is surrounded by so many neighborhoods.
Resnick: This is why collaboration is so important. We can start today if we are working on collaborative efforts, treating people with respect, having civil conversations going back and forth between the city of Madison and the County, and conversations with the Town of Madison, these conversations won’t happen over night, they only happen when there is someone truly committed to collaboration and treating everyone with respect.
Soglin: Mayor says that if Alder Resnick is going to lead the city, you have to know what is happening and what has happened. The city of Madison worked very collaboratively with the county, we provided cash, which no one else did, not even the Town of Madison, and we provided 2 staff people and the county board and county executive got into a fight, they are the ones that are quarreling and then when the county board prevailed, the county executive pulled everything off the table and took his marbles and went home. He’s not getting into that battle, you can, but whenever they get their house in order, we’re available.
Again, neither had a plan or a timeline. The mayor may have been closest with the “none” answer due to budget. I also liked his focus on splash pads and Penn Park as opposed to the business community plans for Olin. I’m glad neither mentioned Law Park and the crazy idea to fill in the lakes. I’m also surprised there wasn’t more mentioned that both the Breese Stevens Field and Central Park items that were 15 or more years in the making with committees that studied things and made recommendations. Tenney just had a wealthy donor that got naming rights, puke. I wish they had said we wouldn’t be doing more of that (that was a Mayor Dave thing), bumping projects up when rich people want to to them should not be how we prioritize parks needs. Also, neither mentioned, and probably have no clue about, the parks master plan. Its hard to get info on it, I see it on agendas from time to time, but this should be a HUGE public discussion and community involvement process instead of being tucked away in a subcommittee that no one knows what it is from its name “Long Range Planning Subcommittee”. The whole Olin Park thing also should be a huge community wide planning process, not just business types looking to make money off it, that should happen sooner rather than later, after all the decisions have been made. Also, no mention of skate parks, community gardening and nuts and berries in parks, East High football and soccer coming to Breese Stevens Field, dog parks, etc. One point for Soglin, liked his answer better on Penn and Olin and Warner and setting the record straight on the county executive.
Score: Soglin 0, Resnick -2
These next questions are from the audience.
The Transit and Parking Commission and Madison Metro are eliminating bus stops and routes throughout Madison to implement Bus Rapid Transit light, what is your position on this and please explain how you plan to improve rapid transit during your term..
Soglin: He points out that the Madison Metro system is dear to his heart, he led the acquisition of the Madison Bus Company over the serious protestations of Mayor Bill Dyke, as mayor in the 1970s he oversaw major commitments of investment in the system and record ridership levels, unfortunately when he left office they declined, they increased again in 1989 and the late 90s and now we are seeing ridership increase again. He is frustrated we can’t get rail, given we don’t have the density and capital resources, here is what we can do, he doesn’t know about BRT light, we are doing BRT, it will resemble rail, it will have platforms and bus stations, you will not be paying fares, hopefully you honestly paid before you entered, we need to get vehicles form the edge of the city to downtown and that means you can’t stop at every block, so we are looking at alternatives where they stop every other block, it means someone will have to walk an extra block, but it tremendously increases efficiency, it increases capacity and like Cleveland and Portland, it will expand the service to other communities and reduce automobiles. This last month he met with Robin Vos, he has made it clear about how opposed he is to a regional transit authority, it was cordial, he says one person said he might be the first person who discussed it with him that didn’t get his head chewed off, he quips, “just call me Mr. Congeniality” (laughter). He explained the eocnomics and environmental impacts, he was willing to take the responsibility for making the argument for half a cent sales tax to pay for it and agreed with him that one of the flaws in previous iterations was that elected officials have to sit on the board. If there is going to be tax money raised and spent, there has to be people who are accountable to the public, not individuals as private citizens as well meaning as they might be.
Resnick: Says his wife and him have been a one car family until the campaign, but the reality is when you are using the bus and bike paths and rely on those forms of transportation you see the imperfections of the system and it has to do with timing, that is the trouble with removing bus stops, there needs to be predictability in the system. There are other areas of efficiency we can have, he says the hardest thing about riding the bus is the fear you will miss it and he thinks we need real time kiosks, he won’t ride the bus if they don’t have it. There are other things other metropolitan areas have done making it easier to pay fares and easier to on board and off board, but it is still the main mode of transportation for many riders and we need bus rapid transit if we can pay for it, if we have progress iwth an RTA and we can do it with a half cent sales tax that is great, I don’t know why we didn’t do that 4 years ago, but it is a step in the right direction. The future of Madison is that if we are going to have growth and density we are going to have to have strong multi-modal forms of transportation and the metro system is one of those forms.
Soglin: No rebuttal.
Point to Soglin for having details and actions that are more significant, an RTA and talking to Robin Vos as opposed to real time kiosks, he’s just a bigger picture thinker.
Score: Soglin 1, Resnick -2.
Mayor Soglin, your critics in the campaign say you are hard to work with and don’t have a good relationship with the city council, Resnick, your critics have charged that you are elevating style over substance and city residents don’t really care if the mayor and council like each other, as long as work gets done. How do you define your leadership style and what specifically are your top priorities when it comes to the relationship between the Mayor’s office and the City Council?
Resnick: He says when he was elected to leadership and it doesn’t matter if we can get along, it matters that we are moving forward, and making progress. Its more than just style, its the lack of collaboration holds us back, when there is uncertainty, when council members don’t know what is on the forefront or when they can contact the mayor, when the mayor is regularly unavailable to communicate. The mayor can deny it all he wants, but as a member of leadership, he had his colleagues regularly coming to him with their struggles with the mayor’s office, that is why 7 of his colleagues endorsed him in this election. We need to work together on ensuring we have collaboration so we can have a great place.
Soglin: Lets not run from our success, in the last year 2 major companies that evaluate cities said we were the best cities, within a week we were named one of the best cities for young entrepreneurs and the best place for retirement, this is not based on the weather (again laughter). It is true that he said in 2011 that we need a great city for everyone and he won’t rest until those standards are achievable for everyone in out community. In 2011 it became very clear that we had a new serious financial crisis on top of the one created. He said he wanted to fix the city’s finances and then work on poverty and equity. If we were going to get to those issues, preserve the AAA bond rating there had to be changes. If you recall Alder Verveer, the longest serving member on the city council said the city council never gave the mayor a chance, he was never given a honeymoon, but he went forward on the commitment he made to you, and he said if there is a report in the city plan department that you only need $3.3M, then they only get $3.3M, that is millions of dollars when they disappear. You lose the capacity to use that money for something else. When city employees saw their wages and real income change, he said everyone has to make a sacrifice and they renegotiated city contracts with the bargaining units and he was not prepared to give Overture with everything that had been promised and as recently as the last year when the council raised revenues higher than I thought they should have been, by well over a half a million dollars, I said no, I said it was not right that the city council vote not one 25% increase, but two 25% increases in their salaries for 50% and then turns around and turns down a half a percent for city employees. 50%? .05%? Turns down half a percent to city employees who still are not whole.
Resnick: When the mayor came back to city council and leadership, asking for his own raise, asking for the salary go up, members listened to the arguments and said yes, they understood the arguments that the mayor was making and we said it was appropriate. Alders were making $6800 to be a council member, to put their time and energy on the line, to sit through hundreds of hours of meetings for the City of Madison and we voted to provide an increase over time, there are many issues that impact the budget, we make them polarizing conversations.
Soglin: Lets explain the mayoral salary raise, its based on what the rest of the city employees got, the mayor’s salary bumped up every four years, which created a significant increase in the budget, what they did was went back to the original system in where it went up annually instead of every 4 years, but it didn’t go up 25 or 50% in one year.
So, after those answers do you know what the top priorities are of the candidates in the relationship between the council and the mayor’s office? No mention of changes that could be made to the mayors leadership meetings, being more available by email, more brown bag lunches, on topics set by the council not the mayor, making sure everyone has his cell phone number and guidelines for using it, more meeting time reserved for alders, etc. Tho, they need to properly notice such meetings, ahem. Nothing concrete from either of them. No points.
Score remains: Soglin 1, Resnick -2.
In a Cap Times essay over the summer Alder Lucas Daley argued for a full time city council, saying that it was a full time job with a $8000 salary, in theory, anyone can run for council, but in practice only those with financial means and highly flexible jobs can serve, is it an unrealistic goal to expect that the make up of the council reflects the make up of the city and what needs to be done to accomplish that.
Soglin: Goes back to the salary increase. He has never seen an increase for a legislative body come like that without first going to a public citizen group to make recommendations. That is where any significant change in the structure of salary or structure should come from, this is not a decision for the Mayor or City Council, what he will do, is he will comment on what he thinks are the differences. His own personal preference is for a part time council that they have now, he doesn’t buy the assumption that only those with income can do this, he has seen state employees, work for insurance companies, there are a variety of people with different experiences, but if we are going to have the discussion it should be from a citizens commission, and we must examine not Portland or Seattle, not New York or Los Angeles, not Verona or Mt. Horeb, but cities our size with our type of economy, like Lincoln or Des Moines. This has to be done by a citizen commission, not the council or the mayor.
Resnick: He is right, it should be up to the residents, we are your representatives. What you are seeing is the stresses of many council members who are getting overwhelmed about what it means right now to serve the city of Madison, we are a growing city, we have many needs, so as you have city council members who are regularly stating that we need more resources, hopefully the residents can listen to the message. He is encouraged that more people of color are running, you can see in Capital Hues Primary Colors, no matter what you are going to get a white male mayor, that we can’t change, he sees more public participation and he is excited by it.
Soglin: We also have to look at, this is not a criticism of any members of the council, but we should look at the size of the council. Should we reduce it, we have one of the largest bodies of comprable cities in the United States and maybe this is an example of where less is more.
Like the citizen oversight +1 for Soglin, dislike reducing the size of the council, I think it should be increased to account for the growth in population and workload, more members means more manageable campaigns, less doors to knock on and people to reach, more individual attention and less committees you have to serve on leaving more time for other things. So -1 for Soglin on reduction of the council. Resnick didn’t add much to the conversation.
Score remains: Soglin 1, Resnick -2.
Pandering to the audience . . .
Politics and this race aside, do you respect your opponent and what do you admire most about that person.
Resnick: The mayor has been a mentor to me, he taught me a lot, he was the man of the century, last century (laughter), but he says that with a lot of respect, there are a number of projects that would not have been accomplished if someone else was in office. This is about the future, but not one of disrespect to Paul Soglin.
Soglin: He is still reeling from the mentor business, because our record on major issues, Mark Clear has a record against most of what he has been trying to push and he has endorsed Resnick. We judge people by what they value and think is important to them and often times people will say things that sound good but don’t practice it, but Resnick made two decisions that are important and earn his respect. The first one is not as important as the second one. The first is that despite the fact that he could have left the campus area, he kept living downtown. The second was to locate in the downtown area when so many similar type companies ar ein the periphery and outside of Madison and that is a real value based decision.
That should be a point for each, they had nice answers.
Soglin 2, Resnick -1.
Alder Resnick’s question to the mayor.
The last point in time homeless count from January of this year counted 808 homeless persons in Madison, this is a 41% increase from January 2011, given this information how do you feel about proposing $25,000 to ship homeless people out of Madison as you did in 2012.
Soglin: First of all, I think we gotta recognize the natures of the homeless problem in Madison, and his reaction when he gets a letter from someone in Mt. Horeb saying we need to do more about our homeless problem, they are everyone’s homeless, we have police departments in Dane County that pick up their residents and drive them a block from where we are here today. We have a criminal justice system and mental health system that discharges individuals often times where it is convenient, in Madison WI and that is unacceptable and is a significant part of the growing homeless problem. He doesn’t remember the 2011 numbers, but for the last two years it has been relatively flat. But lest go back to the $25,000 budget items in 2013, and lets ask all the journalists and political commentators and all the candidates for mayor who mis described, misspoke and said everything but the truth about that proposal. They likened it to greyhound therapy where you round up homeless and get them out of town. The program was only to provide tickets to people who wanted to return to other communities that they came from. Steve Schooler, the operations director for Prochlight said, his organization does provide tickets for people who request them, it wasn’t a new, novel or cruel idea, it was based on if someone wanted to return home, wanted to be with family and friends, and demonstrated that there were people prepared to accept and recieve them with services we should have tickets available. The day after the proposal was turned down, a homeless couple asked where the tickets were. The real issues isn’t his proposal, a sound one, one supported by social workers, the issue is why do people find is necessary to misdescribe, miscast, mischaracterize a proposal? Why do we need to take cheap shots in this debate? Why do we do these things if we are really committed to solving the homeless problem. He is committed to doing that. And he has made it clear that he is willing to do what has been seen scientifically and proven in Salt Lake City, and Phoenix as the right way of doing it, you create permanent housing, then deal with the other problems.
No points since Resnick didn’t get a chance. More on the greyhound therapy later.
Score remains: Soglin 2, Resnick -1.
Closing remarks
Resnick: Where is the city of Madison going in the next 4 years, are we taking advantage of all the opportunities that make us a great place, are we making those major investments in our economy, transportation system, budgeting and infrastructure. It is making sure we are holding ourselves up to the highest level. It is saying we have done these amazing things on energy efficiency and transportation and we can hold ourselves up as a model, that we have done amazing things to make sure we have an equitable workforce, that includes, empowers and innovates, we can do that, but it will take new ideas, working together and looking at how the city can be the greatest place for everyone to work, to live and enjoy our community. Thank you, vote on April 7th.
Soglin: The responsibility of being mayor is a joyful one, as difficult as it might be, the vision of the city is to create an inclusive place for us to all work, play and live together, its a real challenge to deal with the budget and mounting debt he inherited and face the challenges of homeless and disparity, the worst vacancy rate for housing in the country and work with the private sector, council and you on the challenges, we have made great progress in 4 years. AFter the last budget was adopted a member of the council said it was a great budget, the mayor and council got everything we wanted, the mayor said, “that’s the problem”, we can’t do it all, we have to make tough, fair choices, he tried to serve you that way and he will continue to do so. His responsibility is not an insiders game, there are people with influence and movers and shakers that can build buildings and write out checks for $1M, they are important, but so are the people who go to work every day, don’t show up at every neighborhood meeting, don’t write a comment on every post online, its recognizing the importance of the people who do the day to day lifting around here. He is committed to serving everyone fairly, intelligently and hopefully with with a degree of grace and recognize I don’t have all the answers. In the 90s a reporter said he gets everything he wants, but he said no, I didn’t want them, those were other people’s ideas, it wasn’t his idea to solve the civic center by dusting off the Monona Terrace, my job is to make it happen fairly and equitably and with your help I can do that.
Score remains: Soglin 2, Resnick -1.
Tonight, the Dane Dems, if I don’t burst in to flames . . .
