I sent and email on Monday and waited three days. I wanted to know how they would help with meeting postings and getting timely information to the public in increase transparency and participation – a goal that is necessary to increase racial equity – to hear from voices that are impacted. Mostly the answer was no answer or I don’t know. Let’s see who responded!
On Monday I blogged about an email I sent to the alders and mayor about problems with the weekly meeting schedule and how to find minutes of meetings not in legistar. The email listed concerns about meetings not being posted more than a few days before they happen, on a regular basis. It also asked them what they would do to help with meetings scheduled during the day, frequent cancellations of meetings and asked where minutes were kept. I regularly communicate with them about various issues with the agendas and sadly, it appears that the problem is getting worse instead of better. See numerous examples in the email I sent to them.
I told them that I would be posting the responses to my email on my blog. Let’s see how they did?
THIS WEEK’S MO MEETINGS
Before I post the alders responses to my questions earlier this week . . . I should update you on the changes this week . . . which I typically can’t keep up with because I’d have to post everyday . . . Remember, there were only 15 meetings posted this week . . . plus . . .
Sent Monday, 11:31 am – 49.5 hours in advance:
Meeting: Madison Food Policy Council – Comprehensive Plan Work Group
Date: Wednesday, March 1, 2017 at 4:00pm
Location: City-County Building
210 Martin Luther King Jr Blvd
Room 417
Madison, WI 53703
Sent yesterday 8:29 am and again at 8:46 – 27.5 hours in advance:
Meeting: Madison’s Central Improvement Business Improvement District (BID) Board
Date: Thursday, March 2, 2017 at 12:00pm
Location: 122 W Washington Ave
Room First Floor Conference
Madison, WI 53703
RESPONSES
Mayor Paul Soglin – no response.
Barbara McKinney – no response. (You’d think candidates with races would have found time to respond)
Ledell Zellers – As my alder, and someone who tried to notify her constituents weekly about meetings that they might be interested in, she is fully aware of the problem. She has communicated regularly with me when I send emails about the problems and has had numerous conversations with the city clerks office about the issues. She responded by forwarding multiple emails where she spotted similar issues prior to me sending the email and responses that she had received. She also sent this response to a listserve that we are both on:
I forwarded Brenda several emails I have sent related to this very frustrating issue…nothing seems to help. I’m open to ideas.
Amanda Hall – Responded as follows:
Hi Brenda, I don’t have a constructive idea for a response but I don’t want you to feel that I didn’t care enough to respond
Frankly id like the capacity in the alder role to allow me to do more than glance through the agendas before meetings. I’d pay someone in gluten free baked goods to read through, highlight, and do research first me so I could participate more meaningfully in more meetings, not just for the cmtes on which I sit. (How do you do it?) I don’t know how we can better inform and involve the public, like most alders I’m trying to move at pace with these meetings and agendas myself
Wish I had a bright idea for you
Mike Verveer – We’ve talked about this issue and I know he raises it with city staff. The most amazing part about my conversations with him over time on this matter is that the walking encyclopedia of all things city government also does not know where to find the minutes of meetings that are not in Legistar. I stumped him, that that has happened like three times in 22 years. I swear to all that is good in this universe, he knows EVERYTHING!!!
Shiva Bidar – No answer (I’m kinda surprised she didn’t respond)
Marsha Rummel – She unnecessarily fell on her sword. Props for taking the email seriously, but I do think she took on too much of the blame here. She also identified some issues that can be resolved and how to do it.
Hi Brenda-
I appreciate your consistent reporting on late/missing meetings in the legislative calendar and I share your frustration. This week for example, the Public Market Development Committee, on which I serve, has no agenda posted. I contacted the staff person today, he responded that he had been out sick and will post the agenda on Monday.I have now more insight as I am the chair of the CCOC Subcommittee on Police and Community Relations and have contributed to the problem. I acknowledge that we have cancelled several meetings. At least one cancellation was based on a mid-day assessment of treacherous winter road conditions, the others were due to lack of quorum. When the committee is 5 alders and quorum is 3, it is hard to deal with illness/medical issues, vacations and lateness due to an alder attending sequential meetings. In addition, I was responsible for two late postings of agendas because as chair I did not review the proposed agenda in a timely way, and for that I apologize. It was not my desire to limit public information and participation.
My recent experience makes me realize that we need to make sure there is joint training of staff who serve committees and the chairs who must approve agendas. It isn’t just staff’s responsibility but also staff can’t wait until the last minute to propose a draft agenda and expect the chair to respond timely. Can we use Outlook calendar to set up automatic times for agenda review with staff and the chair? What if the staff person to the committee is sick, like my committee this week? Whose responsibility does it become in the department to prepare the agenda and check with the chair, if the staff person is out of the office? Perhaps if a committee agenda is consistently posted late, it could trigger an automatic legistar agenda item for the committee and check-in with chair, staff and the City Attorney’s office. I wonder how many committee members are aware of the issue? I’m sure most aren’t. Should we create consequences? Perhaps if the chair is late posting for 3 consecutive meetings, the chair must get reappointed by the committee and the staff must report the lateness to their supervisor. I assume the deadline for submitting agendas for Friday posting is Wednesday, does it provide sufficient turnaround or should it be pushed back?
We definitely need some enhanced protocols and deadlines. Can the City Attorney help revise the Board/Commission training to include specific delineation of the roles/responsibilities of the committee chair that will be captured in docs http://www.cityofmadison.com/attorney/documents/CommitteeBoardTraining.pdf and recommend how to strengthen the expectation for posting agendas with meaningful content and timely submission with staff and committee chairs?
Marsha
Steve King – No response.
Zach Wood – No response. (You’d think candidates with races would have found time to respond)
Paul Skidmore – No response. (He probably promptly forwarded it to Chief Koval.)
Mo Cheeks – No response. (You’d think candidates with races would have found time to respond)
Tim Gruber – No response.
Larry Palm – Responded as follows:
Brenda-
I’ve always shared your concern and have over time asked the City Attorney and Clerk that there is an issue here. I’d work with other Alders interested in resolving this, but at times I haven’t found much traction on that as well.I do think there are some legitimate reason why meetings are moved or cancelled. For citizen committees that really can’t be helped. But we can work towards making sure that agendas are posted and meeting date/times are set so that all residents can know what is happening.
Sara Eskrich – No response. (Too busy lining up insider deals for her husband?)
Sheri Carter – No response. (You’d think candidates with races would have found time to respond)
David Ahrens – No response.
Denise DeMarb – No response.
Samba Baldeh – I ran into him, he said he forwarded my email to the city attorney and would let me know what the response was. I haven’t heard anything, so I don’t know if the city attorney responded, but I’m guessing not.
Rebecca Kemble – Asked me what I thought should be done about it, agrees there is a problem and is frustrated.
Mark Clear – No response. (I’m a little surprised he didn’t respond.)
Matt Phair – No response.
Getting a response from 7 alders is, I suppose, a pretty good response. Typically when you send an email to “allalders@cityofmadison.com” the protocol is for your alder to respond and the rest duly note it for future reference. It does surprise me that at election time, when alders are getting multiple requests to fill out questionnaires, that I didn’t get more responses, especially from those with opponents. On the other hand, maybe they are busy trying to be alder and run their campaigns? I sincerely do appreciate those who took the time to respond and take this issue seriously. I suspect, most just don’t know what to do about it. Of course, I have ideas . . . 🙂
WWBKD
1. They could pass a resolution directing staff of committees to ensure that they have an agenda approved by the committee chair and posted in legistar one week in advance, unless there are extenuating circumstances, which happens, but that it should be an extreme and rare exception. In the resolution, ask the clerks office to report annually about late postings of agendas so they can address clear patterns. No need to get mad at the person who posted the agenda late that one time . . . but address the CLEAR patterns of issues.
2. When meetings are being scheduled by committees and they are scheduled before 4pm, raise the issue that it will limit public participation and see if they can get the meeting scheduled for a time when more people, including alders with day jobs, can attend.
3. Encourage staff to plan ahead! When planning big (special) meetings with lots of public interest – like the police doing a presentation on use of force – make sure that members of the committee are polled about their availability and make sure there is quorum – and if not, don’t schedule it.
4. Get the clerk or IT to get the minutes of meetings posted to the clerk’s website. Pass a resolution if you have to. Since switching to the new weekly meeting schedule, the “additional meeting schedule” that used to have minutes (if the staff sent them to the clerks office) disappeared. That happened last September . . . its been 5 months now. This should have been planned with the changes!!!
5. Specifically talk to staff in Community Development Division, Equal Opportunities, Mayor’s office (food policy), their own City Council staff and any others I missed about the impact that posting meetings late has. Talk to the chairs of those committees as well and encourage them to help staff fix the problem. If necessary, ask the clerk’s office or city attorney’s office to help educate them. While they are at it, talk to Community Development staff about getting information that will be handed out at meeting in legistar prior to the meeting. You shouldn’t have to show up to the meeting to see what information they are providing. Several other committees have this problem, but not as frequently and consistently. They should AT LEAST get the council staff to get it right. (Having been the council president, I’m aware of “special” issues that happen in this regard, but 12 years later, it shouldn’t still be happening, someone should be fired at this point.)
6. Put this issue on the Common Council Organizational Committee (CCOC) agenda and discuss solutions, invite staff to come talk about issues they have in the clerks office and ask the staff that struggle the most to let them know what the problems are.
7. Add staff in various departments if resources are an issue. (And I suspect they are in some cases.)
8. Rummel as a great idea about educating committee chairs. I sorta missed that one in my thinking about this issue – which is why they should discuss it at CCOC, there may be other issues that aren’t mentioned here.
DO IT IN THE NAME OF EQUITY
Equity is one of the council’s number one issues. Equity takes work on their part. I think you have to AT LEAST start with leveling the playing field and having information available for people to have a chance at meaningfully participating when something impacts them. It’s. so. basic. It’s about the simplest thing they can do. And once they get that down, they need to work on other issues of inclusion and equity in local government.
It’s embarrassing that the main offenders are some pretty important departments the disproportionately deal with low income people and people of color. Think about it . . . the CIVIL RIGHTS DEPARTMENT (Affirmative Action, Commission on People with Disabilities and Equal Opportunities Commission) is one of the main offenders, along with COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT (Community Services, Community Development Block Grant, Early Childhood Education, Homeless Services Consortium). . . its no surprise that committees that deal with development and the business community have lots of resources to make sure their agendas are posted well in advance with lots of information. And their own CITY COUNCIL staff . . . notoriously late. That’s unacceptable. You can talk about equity all you want, but its not meaningful if you can’t start with having information available to the public in a timely manner so they have a chance at participating and raising issues. It’s the basics. It shouldn’t be that hard. And it shouldn’t be getting worse . . . and worse . . .
All this talk about Trump and what we need to do locally, it starts here.
