No time to go back and grab the pieces I missed, but you can watch the video here if its really important to you. Otherwise, I got most of it.
GETTING STARTED
Roll Call: All here.
Verveer notes that this is the last meeting of the year.
Suspension of the rules: to take items out of order and introduce items at the end of the meeting. Passes.
Poetry reading: Poet Laureate Oscar Mireles says its been exciting to be the Poet Loaureate and all the events he has been to throughout the year. Rob Dz does spoken word about Community.
Community
By Rob Dz (Rob Franklin)My people, you people, people we see;
Living as one within our community-
My community is more than blocks and streets;
It is folks within it that gives it it’s heart-
That rhythm, it beats at multiple degrees;
That went from Mr. P’s to Pearlie’s-
Community, it’s the way that we exist;
Through the struggles it allows us to uplift-
Through the tough times, mothers praying and crying;
Testifying from Fountain Of Life to Mount Zion-
It’s on us, for we set the communal tone;
Helping one another so we never stand alone-
For me, it’s a side of town we may choose;
Conversations over haircuts at Lord and Lou’s-
We can bring it forward to Style and Grace;
And Lord knows how I miss R-Place-
See, community means interaction with others;
Where we all exist as sisters and brothers-
To commune is to live together;
Side by side working to make things better-
Since these are the days when so much is a mess;
To be in a community means we are communally blessed-
In my community everyone plays a part;
That is what gives a community it’s heart-
This is the community that I adorn;
And from it the heart can never be torn-
Cause it’s my people, your people, people we see;
God bless the very fabric woven that is our community.
Honoring resolutions:
– NBC 15 Share Your Holidays food drive for Second Harvest.
– Honoring Marcus Boyce, Freddie Carter, Greg Gersback, Travis McGuire, and David Radtke for saving a neighbor from a fire. –
– Honoring Rich Beadles for 38 years with the City of Madison
Not petitions, communications or public comment.
CONSENT AGENDA
Everything passes as recommended except the following:
5 – 22 are public hearing items
Extra-majority items – recorded as unanimous
– 40 (speed grant funds)
– 47 (McManners legal fees $13,000)
– 53 (2,700,000 year end budget amendments)
Additional recommendations:
– 26 substitute on their desks – easement,
– 35 has a substitute on ALRC chair serving on subcommittees
– 52 is $1.5M loan to Heartland in Affordable Housing Fund at 1202 S. Park St. and there are three registrants available to answer questions,
Community Gardens
– 84 – East side library
– 100 – Demetral Bike Path – refer to Ped Bike Motor Vehicle
Separation
43 – 14.6M in sewer bonds
44 – 40.8 M in Water Utility Bonds
81 – Community Gardens
SEPARATED ITEMS
43 and 44 they need formal roll call votes. They are doing 43, 44 and 81 first, they then will go back to the public hearings.
43 – Sewer bonds. No discussion. Roll Call is 20 ayes.
44 – Water Utility Bonds. Mayor asks Dave Schmiedicke to brief them. Interest rates are 3.09% for 15 years on the sewer rates. Water Utility rate is 3.18% on 20 years, $15M is refinancing. The interest rates are the result of a bond market that has gone up 100 basis points since the election. Sewer is up 80 basis points and water is up 50 basis points over what they anticipated. Roll call is unanimous.
81 – Alder Steve King notes that Madison is unique, there are few communities of our size that have an infrastructure in place to support community gardens. This committee was formed in 2005 from a report in 1999. We have evolved so far they put themselves out of existence and just before this meeting he adjourned the committee for the final time. He reads various portions of the resolution. He says this is a model for citizen led committees and he believes that the Food Policy Committee will continue this work moving forward, particularly recognizing Nan Fey for her leadership.
PUBLIC HEARING ITEMS
Items 5 – 13
5 – place on file without prejudice – close public hearing
6 – roofdecks, porches and balconies as open space – no registrations, public hearing is closed
7 – registration in support and available to answer questions – it says re-refer but recommendation is to adopt, but it was really confusing, they close the public hearing
8 – this one is recessed
MISSED – It’s about 45 minutes into the meeting
9 –
10 –
11 – New Mr. Roberts – no registrants, grant with conditions, close the hearing
12 – Gib’s – no registrants, grant with conditions, close the hearing
13 – Visions – no registrants, recommendaiton is to re-refer and recess
Items 5 – 13 Pass as noted above.
Olbrich Biergarten
14 – Olbrich Biergarten – registration from Ed. Kuharski, re-referral is the recommendation. He says he missed the public hearing. He says there is alot of support, but he says that this is one of 19 items about alcohol and the good news is its not on State St. or the Square but he thought that new commercial enterprises on the lakefront is not permitted. Maybe because of the city’s role, but he’s concerned about the commercialization of our lakefront. He says he goes by the ppark every Sunday and its a well used park. Who he sees there is Latino soccer players, African American basketball players, its a mob scene on Sunday afternoon. He says we’re supposed to be looking through a equity lens and he is concerned about gentrifying that area instead of allowing it to be used by people who use it for free. The bathrooms and shelters need to be approved. But on the broader level, we have people who are banned from shelter, banned from detox, banned from jail, and when he sees this number of applications for liquor licenses all the time, why don’t we have a wealth transfer fee from these licenses. Alcohol isn’t going to go away, but we need to have some attempt to deal with the negative impacts through out tax dollars and the human toll. Then Paul Skidmore won’t have to work so hard in his job on State ST
McKinney asked about the equity lens. Could you say more about the negative impact. Alcoholism is a disease, its a disability which is a protected class and the city and county are negligent in their duties. Detox re-calibrates your level to enter if you are experienced. They will turn you away if you have .2 or .25 and its not a uniform standard and that’s a way to turn away hard cases. If we are going to have alcohol be a large part of how people make money, then they should have to help pay for some of the consequences.
15 – 17
15 – grant, no registrants, close hearing
16 – grant with conditions, no registrations, close public hearing
17 – place on file without prejudice – hearing closed.
They pass 14 – 17 as noted above.
Rocky’s West
I missed some here, its about an hour into the video. Sorry, no real time to edit.
Neighbors complaining about people passing out on their lawns, drunk drivers and litter. The neighbors say they are not doing this because they don’t like people of color. The woman who bought the store says she should not be punished for what the old owner did over the last 35 years, she never said anything about race in her comments. They run a store on the east side and and haven’t had trouble there, so they have a record of running a good business. The neighbors said they didn’t know that they could complain about the other owner otherwise they would have. There were about 4 neighbors who spoke or registered against. 1 neighbor from the Eastside testified in support.
Shiva Bidar asks questions of the owner. Everyone else gets to sell small bottle (airline bottles) except her. She says she agrees with the motion light and she will call the cops (conditions 5 and 7) Bidar asks about loitering signs and those are already posted (condition 9). They also will meet. She opposes 1, 2, 3 and 4. She has cameras that will catch activity.
Marhsa Rummel says that if items 1 – 4 are in place, what is the typical sales. She says 45% of her sales are small sales, otherwise they would go to the grocery store to buy bigger quantities. She says that she reminds people to use the garbage can.
Rummel asks about these being common conditions. Rick Petri says these conditions do apply to other. The client says that most of the time the conditions exist in the downtown. Rummel says she has liquor licenses with these conditions in her district.
Owner talks about trash that they claimed they picked up, they said they picked up the garbage during the last few days, and the store was closed during that time, so it wasn’t trash from their store because they were closed.
RANT ALERT: It’s painfully clear that the client is doing all the advocating here and I have no idea why she is paying Rick Petri to represent her when he CLEARLY was working against what his client wanted. This was about an hour and 20 minutes in. I give him the WORST ATTORNEY EVER award. I seriously hope she didn’t pay very much for his “representation”
McKinney asks about when they opened.
Sheri Carter asks if they observed the conditions of the property prior to buying it. Samba Baldeh helps to ask the questions differently so she understands They fixed it up, painted, and cleaned up. They threw out alot of jumk that was saved. Carter asked if she accepted the conditions – she says yes.
Mo Cheeks asked why she accepted the conditions that evening if you felt it was going to be so drastic. She was objecting but she was told she could reappeal. She would rather have it now, she was given hope that she could get it back in six months. She will be back then, but she wants to know why she is given these conditions when no one gave the old owner conditions. SHe is being punished for what he did. THe neighbors already said they are doing a better job already and she is working with the neighbors to do better.
Steve King says its counter-intuitive to restrict it and not see how it goes, instead they should allow it in restrict it in 6 months if it is necessary, he says this makes no sense. I don’t understand why appeal in 6 months when it potentially better and the argument will be is that its better because of the restrictions.
Cheeks moves approval with the conditions of ALRC.
Verveer is a member of the ALRC, and Skidmore had already left, Bidar was not there, but he can answer questions after the 3 people will discussion have spoken.
McKinney says for 35 years the previous owner operated and Nov 11th of this year, the new owners took over, she needs better clarification about why there are 9 restrictions before they know if they will be a good tenants (sic) or not. Is this a new policy or procedure for new licenses?
Verveer asks if they object to him responding from the chair. Verveer says that he doesn’t speak for all of ALRC, but it was unanimous, the motion was made by the vice chair (Michael Donnelly), the 9 conditions were from input from the Alder (Cheeks) and public testimony (more than tonight) and written communications and the petition – so all of that boiled down to location, location, location. There was no dispute that they did a great job at the other location. The neighborhood association and police also gave testimony. Conditions 1 – 4 are applied in the campus area. All in districts 4 & 8 and some in 2 & 6. Those are about the size of the products. This language was developed with industry language.
Bidar says that she wasn’t at the ALRC meeting. She says that with new applicants they want to see their track record in the location, and then open it up more. It might be counter-intuitive, but they start with restrictions and then release them with a good track record. She says it is hard to put restrictions on after the fact. They have to wait a year and do it at renewal time or have a proceeding before the ALRC, which is a quasi-judicial, so the new license is when they can be the most careful and put the restrictions on the license. She says that the new applicant isn’t judged by the old applicant, but it is more the neighbors and alders that they talk to. 1 – 4 are very commonly for other establishments. She says she has some in district 5.
Denise DeMarb wants to wait til she hears form Alder CHeeks.
Samba Baldeh says that his main concern is that the old liquor store was there for 30 years and the neighbors didn’t know they could do something. He says this might not be race, but it might be perception. He thinks that she should be able to prove herself, in the next 12 months if she doesn’t follow through, they can deny the license. If we put the restrictions on her so she can’t succeed he doesn’t think this is how you encourage small businesses. He would like to remove 1 – 4. He thinks we should encourage this business. She will employ people who need jobs. She spends $600,000 and then to not let her succeed doesn’t seem fair.
Matt Phair says we shouldn’t get stuck on that since it was this way for 35 years we should continue. He says that is all history and he doesn’t know why it didn’t change. As much as he feels for the small business owner, he thinks that this makes sense. It’s not an easy issue, but he thinks Alder Bidar’s explanation makes sense.
Cheeks says its rare that he goes to ALRC. Hats off to those who deal with this often. He finds the process at ALRC very difficult to describe quantitatively, and it looks subjective. He respects the ALRC members who have to think about how to apply these rules uniformly. He spoke in support of the conditions, specifically the ones made by the neighborhood. 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 and the airplane bottles. The others were about uniformity. He is hopeful that the new owner has a commitment to the neighborhood and own the land and they will be more engaged and they are making efforts to make good on that. As the alder he is pleased that they will be able to have a business that contributes more positively and he hopes this can be modified in the future.
Denise DeMarb says it hard to know where to start, she generally defers to committees where detail work has been done. But she does not happen to agree with what has been done here. She believe there is a race issue here, and there are code words about disenfranchised folks. She understands what Alder Bidar said about track records and this applicant has a track record and there have not been calls for service. She thinks this applicant is being unduly punished. She would ask Mr. Tucker about building inspection.
Matt Tucker, Zoning Administrator, they have been there in 2014 for exterior painting (resolved), 2006 property maintenance for garbage and trash and holes in building from cars hitting the building and before that for weeds. This property is very light on enforcement activity compared to others in the city.
DeMarb says that she thinks that items 1 – 4 are too restrictive for this applicant at this time, we can go back in the future.
Marsha Rummel is sympathetic to the recent comments and will leave it up to Bidar for a motion. She says she normally has neighborhood meetings. She says that Mr. Roberts was on the agenda and they had the same restrictions and the last managers didn’t do so well. She thinks management makes all the difference.
Steve King asks what the frequency of lifting restrictions is, is it regularly done? Bidar says it is frequent. THey ask to be on the agenda to get the restrictions removed and if they have a good track record, they are removed. Verveer says that That Barbecue Joint had restrictions removed tonight.
King says that he is glad he only has 2 liquor licenses. He doesn’t think its singling out because they have used the language before. He will defer to ALRC. He is comfortable with Bidar’s explanation.
Bidar is moving an amendment to grant with conditions 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. (Removes 1, 2, 4) She says that this is made in the spirit of compromise. She feels like she can make it because she was not at ALRC. Condition 3 is left because it is about hard liquor, the rest is a continuum of going toards hard liquor. The neighborhood association did request 5 – 9 and everyone is ok with them, but the first was no sales of airplane bottles, which is what started the conversation. Unfortunately we know from the work at the ALRC that the industry has language that is different so they use the standard language from the industry. She wants them all to attend an ALRC committee meeting, it is one of the most diverse committee members and a diverse set of applicants. We are the ones that see the most diverse applicants every month for hours. She wants them to be careful in reflecting some perceptions about the very hard working committee and she hopes that this establishment will be successful and that the restrictions will help the neighborhood understand how they will run their business. This will be separated for consideration in July and people can come and speak at that time to remove or add restrictions.
Cheeks says that he takes solace in uniformity, what Bidar proposed is exactly what the neighborhood asked for in the first place. He mentioned something similar at ALRC and its tough to not realize that we have restrictions where there are homeless people (downtown) and where there are poor people. The restrictions have to be looked at for how it impacts the business owner and the neighborhood. On the same night there were consent agenda items for places that serve 1500 people. The uniformity is slightly more comforting, but he respects the work ALRC does. He is not confident that we have the most forward thinking way to make uniform decisions at ALRC, its hard to see how we are following a uniform practice. He doesn’t think the decisions they are making are out of fear and racism, based on his little interaction (5 times) but he thinks the latitude can get them into trouble.
McKinney says when she looked at this, she only had one liquor license and that went through and they had a neighborhood meeting. When she looked at this language about the size restrictions, the equity lens popped in. The perception issue Baldeh talked about and the industry standard language maybe should be applied across the board. The neighbors asked for 5 – 9 and the owner said yes. So as the community spoke, the owner heard and listened to the voices of the neighborhood and then ALRC put in 1 – 4 and she says if we are going to have some kind of uniformity in looking at new licenses, we should do it for all new licenses, even though the intent was not racial biases, when you have something like the perception about who buys six packs and flavored malts it seems punitive. If it is consistent it’s not punitive.
Rummel asks the city attorney about uniformity. Do all liquor licenses have this? Star Liquor doesn’t. Michael May says they are added where there have been issues (mostly downtown) but they are analyzed on a case by case basis and generally speaking when there are conditions, there is a very specific inquiry about the establishment, but they are not uniform. And he doesn’t think that they would want that. Verveer agrees.
Bidar corrects the record that one of the conditions was no sales of small airplane bottles. They did not intend 1 – 4. Second, beware of what you are saying if you want uniform conditions, then there needs to be a proposal and you can take that on. She says that it varies by location and that is why there is a ALRC. She is delighted to see us talking about this, but we did away with the Alcohol Policy Coordinator. Now its just clerical support. The role of Alcohol policy coordinator is no longer in existence and if you think it is needed, we should revisit that.
Passes on a voice vote – the motion is amended.
No further discussion.
Main motion passes unanimously.
Items 19 & 20
19 – Visions public hearing – no registrants, recess public hearing and re-refer to ALRC.
20 – Mining non-metalic items. Recess public hearing and refer to FEb 7th common council meeting.
Storage lockers
Tami Fleming speaks in support. She is from Friends of the State St. Family and she started it 5 years ago and its 100% volunteers. They have 24 trained people who go out and do outreach. A year ago in July they were called by Gloria from the mayor’s office and they asked for ideas because the dog cage was not working. She developed the Keys to Dignity project, they are a full size gym locker that will be modified, weatherized and urban camouflaged and they are locked until someone registers with them. They will be working with people who don’t have a relationship with an agency and are chronically homeless. They did work with Gloria, Jim OKeefe, the Homeless Services Consortium and worked with homeless people and advocates and they work with the police department, Tellurian, Birarpatch and Porchlight outreach and this was done with a lot of input. This is something people want, their things are stolen (medication, photographs) because they can’t carry them or don’t want to because of the stigma. They will get a bike or bus pass for 6 moths, they will get consistent phone access. These are all steps to hep someone reintegrate, a place to store stuff, communicate and get around so they can get a job. They can’t afford to get people into housing, but they do a lot of VISPDATs. The agreement is available if people want to see it. It requires that people not sleep on the property and help keep it clean.
Karen Andro from First United Methodist Church and is in support. She works with them and has a great deal of respect. At first she had a lot of questions, but the questions have been answered by action, because I was skeptical. She says they do overflow shelter for Men Nov – March and for families they did it for the first time this spring. She does street outreach with them and saw our most vulnerable out on the street late at night and she met people who don’t come during business hours. They do a 9am breakfast which is easier than going out at 9pm at night. She likes the “locker buddy” part of this. She supports Keys to Dignity, which is a vital part of the issue and the Friends of the State St. Family. If it weren’t for the strong leadership from Tami, she would not support the program.
Ed Kuharski registered in support.
Steve King thanks Tami and asks what the demand for this? HOw many do we need? She says the plan is to fund 100. But that depends upon how many people will allow them. The need is much higher, but she’d like to get to the main areas.
Matt Phair also thanks her. He asks about the day resource center, lockers has been a challenge or discussion, have you thought how you would work with the day center or how it will affect the day resource center. Tami says that she has an office at 1202 Williamson St where there is a homeless storage space and there is one at Fish Hatchery and some things they will need to store won’t just be day to day stuff – they will be storing things in a 40 gallon tub and that will continue to be needed, she’s not sure if that is plan for the day resource center. Phair asks if they will deal with the same people and they’ve discussed this a lot and he hopes that she will help talk about the solution. Tami says they are interested in that and they will provide 200 40-gallon tubs, but we need space to store them. Whether the Willy ST. center continues or ST. Vincent DePaul.
Ed Kuharski speaks and says that they have a committee to maybe someday have storage but thinks its complicated and difficult. The city is doing this because county leadership won’t do it.
Zellers moves approval. Zellers says she got into working on this somewhat unexpectedly and it started with a meeting with Tami and didn’t know her or the Friends of the State St. Family and as people have mentioned I was impressed with her dedication and thoughtfulness and hard work. She was convinced this would help some of our homeless neighbors. We don’t have a single solution, we have to be aware of a variety of things we can do, its is an AND. She does see the county playing a role in the homeless day resource center and they need to step up on this issue, this will hep but is not THE answer. She would like Matt Tucker to explain what we did to get to this.
Matt Tucker says this ordinance is a voluntary framework where a religious or nonprofit organization can work with a property owner to place the locker. There has to be a management plan, to deal with conflicts and they will deal with the property owner if they have issues. There will be a licensing provision to allow for dealing with problematic places. They have worked closely with Tami and visited two sites to see how it would work and have comfort with the ordinance language.
Zellers says if you know of locations, let Tami know!
DAvid Ahrens asks if the lockers are inside or outside. Tucker says they will be outdoors and they will be modified by Sector 67 under review by George Hank to make sure they are weather tight and appropriate for the placement.
DeMarb asks what downtown businesses thing and if they have weighed in. DeMarb says that we heard from advocated but not the business community and she thinks from their absence they must agree, but she would like to know what they think. Zellers says over a year ago a prominent owner indicated support but I don’t know if that means they would have the lockers on their property, but there was an acknowledgement of the need and if you walk around downtown you might see why they might eagerly embrace this kind of approach.
Passes unanimously!
Finishing up the meeting
22 – Revivial Ridge – no registrant, move approval. Cheeks would like ot be a sponsor, he supports and it builds on the work they have done.
INTRODUCTION OF ITEMS FROM THE FLOOR – I think it was just the one item on the consent agenda, but honestly, I quit listening.
Steve King does is favorite thing for the final time of the year – he moves adjournment.
