EVERYONE is talking about how to get involved in local government. The catch is, it first needs to be made easier. There are simple things that can be done, today. Will your alder be a local leader to make this happen? I asked questions, posting results on Thursday.
This is the email I sent to the alders yesterday . . . I will post the responses on Thursday.
Dear City Council and Mayor –
As you know, I look at the agendas every week and somehow, over the years that I have been doing it (despite Legistar that has led to greater transparency), somehow following along with city government has become harder than ever. Alders and Mayor – what will you commit to doing to fix this? I’ll be posting responses on my blog and perhaps in other places.This week, there are 15 meetings listed on the clerks website. I see multiple issues with this:
1. The Common Council Organizational Committee Subcommittee on Police & Community Relations meetings that have been scheduled in the evenings (as opposed to during the day) have been cancelled and multiple meetings have been noticed late. It’s obnoxious in that this is a committee specifically designed to bring more transparency and participation to the process. But that doesn’t work when meetings are cancelled and notice late on many occasions, including the following:
Cancelled:
– Monday, February 27, 2017 at 6:00pm
– Thursday, February 2, 2017 at 12:00pm
– Tuesday, January 31, 2017 at 6:30pm (after it was added late to the weekly schedule)
– Tuesday, January 10, 2017 at 6:00pm
Also, it was added late for the following meetings
– Thursday, December 1, 2016 at 12:00pm (Added two days before)
– Wednesday, November 9, 2016 at 7:00pm (added two days before)
– October 6, 2016 at 11:45 am (added two days before)2. 4 meetings I can see in legistar don’t yet have agendas:
– MADISON FOOD POLICY COUNCIL 3/1/2017 5:30 PM 201 W. Mifflin St. Rm. 302 Central Library – Not available
– PUBLIC MARKET DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE 3/2/2017 4:30 PM 210 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Room 108 (City-County Building) – Not available
– SOLID WASTE ADVISORY COMMITTEE 3/2/2017 5:00 PM 1501 W. Badger Rd. Not available
– COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BLOCK GRANT COMMITTEE 3/2/2017 5:00 PM 119 E Olin Ave (Madison Water Utility) Madison WI 53713 Madison Water Utility 119 E. Olin Ave Not available3. And finally, last week there was a record number 10 changes to the alleged weekly meeting schedule – which is nearly 1/3 of the originally posted 33 meetings, and who knows what will be added or changed this week:
– Meeting: ADA Transit Subcommittee to the Transit and Parking Commission Cancelled
Date: Monday, February 20, 2017 at 5:15pm
Location: City-County Building 210 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd Room 417 Madison, WI 53703
– Meeting: Housing Strategy Committee Cancelled
Date: Thursday, February 23, 2017 at 4:00pm
Location: 30 W Mifflin St Room 1002 Madison, WI 53713
– Meeting: Council President’s Work Group
Date: Thursday, February 23, 2017 at 3:30pm
Location: City-County Building 210 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd Room 501 Madison, WI 53703
– Meeting: Notice of Possible Quorum of City of Madison Committee(s)
Date: Tuesday, February 21, 2017 at 6:00pm
Location: Central Library 201 W Mifflin St Room 301 & 302 Madison, WI 53703
– Meeting: Disability Rights Commission
Date: Thursday, February 23, 2017 at 5:00pm
Location: City-County Building 210 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd Room 354 Madison, WI 53703
– Meeting: Madison Food Policy Council – Healthy Retail Work Group
Date: Thursday, February 23, 2017 at 4:30pm
Location: City-County Building 210 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd Room 417 Madison, WI 53703
– Meeting: Homeless Services Consortium Board of Directors
Date: Friday, February 24, 2017 at 11:00am
Location: 30 W Mifflin St W Mifflin St Room Tenth Floor Madison, WI 53703
– Meeting: Council President’s Work Group Cancelled
Date: Wednesday, February 22, 2017 at 3:30pm
Location: Human Resources Conference Room 210 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd Room 501 Madison, WI 53703
– Meeting: Madison Food Policy Council – Healthy Retail Work Group Cancelled
Date: Thursday, February 23, 2017 at 4:30pm
Location: City-County Building 210 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd Room 417 Madison, WI 53703Alders and Mayor – what will you commit to doing to fix this? I’ll be posting responses on my blog and perhaps in other places. The public can’t meaningfully participate with 2 days notice or when plans are made for babysitters and with family and then meetings are cancelled multiple times, people just stop trying to participate because it takes so much last minute effort. This is a serious backslide for local government transparency and participation and it continues to grow worse instead of better. And, as you can imagine, it makes an organizers life a living hell, but perhaps that is the desired effect? And this backslide continues, despite the fact that I continue to ask for help in this area for the public and despite my alder’s (Ledell Zellers) attempts to raise issues with the clerk’s office, who can only post what they are given. We need leadership on this issue. Who will step up? Or maybe you think its not an issue and are happy with the way things are?
Sincerely,
Your “favorite” local government watchdog
Brenda K. Konkelp.s. where are the minutes to the meetings that are not in legistar?
