County Board Responds: Transparency and Public Participation

I got a pretty poor showing, only 4 of the 37 county board supervisors bothered to respond, and I can only reprint 3 of them. I gotta say, no surprises there. The trend seems to be going completely in the opposite direction.

It got off to a rocky start. Within minutes I got this response:

Delivery has failed to these recipients or groups:

deFelice@countyofdane.com
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The following organization rejected your message: EXCHANGE21.daneco.us.

Seriously? Who’s mailbox gets full? I didn’t even know that was a thing.

Here’s the responses I got . . .
Heidi Weglietner:

Brenda,

Thanks for sharing your concerns. You bring up a number of issues and I’ll try to respond to at least a few of them, but am interested discussing this with you in more detail at a later time.

Meeting times during the day: I’ve always successfully resisted scheduling meetings before 5:15 PM for the committees on which I serve and encourage other supervisors to do the same.

Meeting locations: I advocate for meeting locations well-served by public transit. Usually this means at the CCB. I don’t shoot on CDBG, but have requested they not meet in rural locations that cannot be accessed by bus.

Attachments to agendas: I have previously introduced amendments to county board rules to require materials that are distributed at meetings by supervisors or staff to be attached to posted agendas. While that amendment was not successful, we took an important step in the right direction by requiring this for amendments to be introduced in the County budget process.

Videotaping meetings: I would like to see standing committees and possibly a few other committees of vital interest (e.g., Criminal Justice Council, Lakes & Watershed, Homeless Issues) available for viewing online. I think a growing interest in local government will help make the case for doing this. I did not get a cost estimate to assist with drafting a budget amendment, but will continue to push on this as I think it is really important for equity, inclusion, and public engagement.

I look forward to discussing this further.

Thanks,
Heidi

Jenni Dye:

Hi Brenda:

Thanks for your work on helping the public to navigate local government. While we’ve made improvements since I first joined the board – Legistar among them – there is always still work to be done.

One thing that I am working on currently is a review of our boards and commissions and, through that process, recommending changes we can make to these committees to improve community engagement. This is through the Exec Committee’s subcommittee on review on boards and commissions that was created out of a desire to address many of the issues you have raised.

That committee review process is ongoing, and this month we are going to start having meetings where we invite the boards and commissions to attend and give us feedback about what is working and what isn’t, from their perspective. We’re dividing the boards and commissions by general issue area for those to make them as productive as possible. The first meeting will be March 22 and will focus on public works and transportation issues.

If you look at the history of this review committee (it’s a subcommittee of Exec Committee), you’ll see that we have had our meetings during the day. While I agree with your general desire to have meetings outside of business hours, the first few meetings here were focused on gathering staff input and reviewing that input, and given that staff are working for the county during the day we held our meetings during the day. Now, as we shift to gathering more public input, we are scheduling meetings in the evening

A few recommendations from that process that are already making there way through the board as we continue to work on this issue:

1) requiring boards and commissions (and their subcommittees) to submit an annual work plan to the county board office. My goal in putting this forward is to make it easier for the public and also the board to identify what issues different committees are working on so that they have a better idea of whether they want to attend or get engaged with that committee. For example, Human Services Board is so broad that it is nearly impossible for someone to just read the name and know what their meetings might be focused on in the coming months. The workplan would hopefully offer some insight that is currently lacking. Of course, committees may still take up emerging issues, but this would at least hopefully offer some advance insight that is currently lacking.

2) requiring approval of subcommittees. The goal here is to make sure that our process is as streamlined as possible and we aren’t creating additional meetings that the public has to attend in order to really be engaged in the issue that they want, limit scheduling conflicts for staff that sometimes result in meetings being held during the day, and ensure we are making good use of the time of individuals who are appointed to serve.

One challenge in scheduling meetings can be that elected officials are assigned several committees which then present scheduling conflicts for evening meetings. In reviewing the boards and commissions, we are also assessing the make-up of those committees as we want to ensure that we have the right people there but that we aren’t creating unnecessary challenges in scheduling, in filling vacancies, or in encouraging a diverse and inclusive set of individuals serving on boards and commissions by being overly prescriptive in who can serve.

Those are things that immediately come to mind that are already in the works. Additionally, we should continue to do training with committee staff on Legistar best practices, including making sure as many attachments as possible are posted with the agenda, as you mention.

I’d also welcome any suggestions you or others have as part of the review of boards and commissions. Feel free to send them by email or join us at an upcoming meeting.

Best,
Jenni Dye
Dane County Supervisor, District 33

Michele Ritt:

Hi Brenda.

For all of my meetings, I make sure that they are after 5 pm. Also, that they are on bus routes. I believe that Heidi is working toward getting more meetings taped—I support this. It may seem like a small thing, but I am working toward making all meeting rooms accessible and welcoming to people with mobility challenges or who may need a non-standard chair. Rooms should be set up this way, not modified while a citizen waits for existing furniture to be rearranged.

Thank you for all you do for our community.

Ronn Ferrell:
My old seat mate from the common council replied . . . but nothing suitable for re-posting! 😉

Dane County Housing Authority
Got a very nice call from Rob Dicke, the Executive Director of the Housing Authority, at the direction of his board. He explained that they used to have their agendas put into the Legistart system by the county clerk’s office, but they stopped doing that. Now, when they send in the agendas, they just get posted in the hallway. He explained they don’t really have any control over that since they don’t have access to the system.

So, I don’t expect much to change, there isn’t alot of interest on the county board. Heidi, Jenni and Michele likely have an uphill climb to implement their good ideas.