Council Discussion on F-35s

The Chamber of Commerce was just one vote away from from preventing the City of Madison from giving input on about the F-35s. Luckily, reason prevailed. And please note, if you think all liberals are the same – that’s not true, there are big differences. Some liberals stand up for the Chamber of Commerce, some stand up for the people of Madison, particularly low-income neighborhoods that are impacted by decisions like bringing F-35s to Madison. This is what happens when people aren’t paying attention (i.e. not election time, media doesn’t cover things.) And wow, this is either “much ado about nothing” or it IS about something. And I don’t think alders would be fighting this hard to not do something unless it somehow mattered.

Samba Baldeh, the new council president was in the chair, and the new Vice President Sheri Carter moved the substitute version that was different than when they discussed this last week.

Public Input
Margaret Bergamini was there for the briefing on the Transportation, but stayed because she attended the listening session about the F-35s and appreciates that they called that meeting. She was grateful that they called that because this is not a process that is transparent for the average person. She supports the substitute and appreciates the questions that were raised at the listening session. She feels the substitute resolution captures the questions nicely. Given the county controls the airport, they have not taken steps to have these conversations. The airport is deeply embedded in Madison and she is disappointed in the county for not doing this work and she would like to thank them for filing these questions on our behalf.

Alder Mark Clear moves to place this on file without prejudice. (He can always be counted on to do the Chamber of Commerce/business community bidding) He says that they discussed this last week and alders raised concerned that this was not a citywide process, he asked for a public engagement process created. He says the substitute double downs on the process. This was not a citywide process and this compounds the problem. There should either be a citywide process with citywide listening sessions or additional listening sessions and there should be a process. He thinks the alders who held the listening session should submit the comments on their own on behalf of their residents or they should do a citywide process. (Note: represents the the northwest side of Madison)

Alder Steve King, who hardly ever speaks, agrees. He thinks they are in unchartered territory and the alders should submit the comments on their own, the report is organized well, but he thinks that the comments should be submitted, but “the City of Madison” is not urging this and should not submit this on behalf of the “City of Madison” because it was just a few residents, not all residents that have these concerns. It would be more appropriate to re-write the summary as coming from a few of the alders on behalf of their residents, not on behalf of the City. (Note: represents the southwest side of Madison)

Alder Rebecca Kemble asks Heather Allen (Common Council Legislative Analyst) to come up and talk about the process and outreach that was done. She says the first step was to notify people most impacted by postcard about the meeting. A meeting was held on February 28th and it was well attended, alders also received emails and then there was a meeting hosted by the airport on March 8th where more information was provided to alders. She took all the information from the various resources, she did background research on the issues and put that all together. Kembel says there was also a press release but she wasn’t sure how that was distributed. Kwasi Obeng, city council Chief of Staff says that there was a press release but he would have to double check how that was sent out. Kemble asks if this is the opinion of alders. Allen says this is the concerns of residents with supporting information from the City. She doesn’t think this represents the opinions of the alders but the information they gathered.

Kemble says she was unable to attend and Alder Marsha Rummel actually organized the meeting and sponsored the resolution, so maybe we can hear from her about her resolution, Kemble drafted the substitute. The original talked about the intent because the comments were not finalized, now they are. The substitute clarifies the document was finished so lets just say that we are submitting those comments and it is clear that they are giving input on an Environmental Impact Statement process. They are not opinions, these are points that were heard, please ask them to consider this. This is a document of questions people from the City of Madison have. She is not sure if this was just north and east side people who were there. She says it is important to submit this so at least one body is saying that it is important for the people who live around the airport to have their voices heard. The timeline was compressed because there were deadlines, one was last week but its ok to continue to submit comments. Alder Rummel can speak for herself about the original resolution, but she signed on. She felt that if the county wasn’t going to represent the voice of the people impacted, the city should.

Alder Marsha Rummel understands they are doing something unique and hopes they vote against the motion to place this on file. She says 7 alders did outreach, she sent a postcard to the low income neighborhood that was most impacted, the community center did outreach, she reached out to the county board and 3 (of 37) attended. She feels like there was outreach, people have different opinions, she has her own. They are reporting on the Environmental Impact Statement that has specific elements that people were supposed to comment on like noise, water quality and burial mounds. (They are in a different room and Shiva Bidar is on camera and shaking her head and rolling her eyes during the entire time Rummel is speaking, she is in clear disagreement) She says that we heard these concerns and even today she got an email about a person who lives by Lowell School and due to weather the flight paths change and they were concerned about the kids and the noise (over 100 decibels) and to the extent that they can ask that they avoid that flight path at all times seems important. It’s important that they hear this collectively. She says that individual alders can do this, but in the law that they have to follow for these impact statements there is an explicit expectation that there is an environmental justice component. She wanted to make sure that happened. Low-income and no choice to avoid the impacts people should be heard from. She hopes they appreciate the unique process, she hopes that there is more when they come back for more hearings. We talk about the local economic impacts, but this is an international system. We are now with a president that is more likely go to war and that is the bigger issues, that doesn’t always consider the environmental impacts that devaste the world. I think we have an obligation to do our small part. Do not place is on file and support the substitute.

Alder Sarah Eskrich thanks Kemble for drafting the substitute to better explain what was done, there was diligent outreach done and she thinks the voices of the residents should be heard. However, she has concerns about the council as a whole submit the concerns on behalf of a few residents. The beginning of the letter makes it really clear so she is comfortable with the resolution and the first page. She thinks there should be a find and replace for “City of Madison” to “city of Madison residents” – that would make her feel from comfortable. In the future we should be more clear about our processes and what to expect so we don’t get to this point. She says we do this as individual alders all the time and that is appropriate, but we shouldn’t do this as the council as a whole. (Note: represents near west/slightly south side of Madison)

Alder Shiva Bidar says that Eskrich captured her comments. She has three points. First there is no doubt there was a good listening session for those who participated, the alders who called that did a good job and those residents should be heard. She doesn’t think this is the place or time for her own thoughts about the military so she is setting that aside, that is not the subject before them. The question is if the city council should submit reports on behalf of government. She says there was a lack of good community engagement in this case. She thinks what they did was a good way of doing it and they connected with people in different ways. But they did not do that same thing throughout the City of Madison and her residents were not engaged appropriately. She says that even the press was about the east side having a listening session and she didn’t reach out to her residents so she can’t say that this represents the views of all of Madison and doesn’t think that they should submit this on behalf of the “C” City of Madison. She would also like to have it say “city of Madison residents” not “City of Madison” (Note: represents near west side of Madison)

Kemble asks how they amend an attachment to a resolution? Attorney May says that they could make it part of the motion that the changes be made.

Clear says they can resolve this as a letter from alders, rather than being “from the City”. He would encourage that and the council itself wouldn’t have to take action. Any alders that want to can sign on to the letter and make corrections and it can be clear that this is the opinion of the residents and alders that send it in.

Alder Barbara McKinney says she was surprised to get 2 comments from her residents. She says that when we are talking about the Council as a whole, her constituents were not included but it surprised her that they did give input after the listening session and she thinks placing it on file would solve this so that when it comes back to them they are not going to be fixing it on the floor. (That made no sense at all. If it is placed on file it doesn’t come back. Note: Alder McKinney represents the far west side of Madison)

Kemble says there is a resolution and a letter. The letter does not say it reflects the City of Madison, it says it reflects the input we got from city residents at the meeting. If it is not clear, we can clarify that throughout the document. The resolution says that the input was created and we as a body want it to be submitted to the National Guard, it is not saying that we did a huge public process or engaged the whole city, we just recognize the work was done and we are submitting it on behalf of the residents. She is amenable to making the changes suggested to clarify. Placing on file to do a citywide public engagement on the scoping statement on the EIS, the time is passed. This isn’t about the F-35s, this is about EIS that they are working on now. This just says that we think residents should be represented and we think that they should hear this input. We can do more work for the statuatory required hearing in October. There was a time crunch and we tried to do something. The resolution is that we affirm that democratic input is important and that elected officials instead of giving their opinion about war and war machines worked to collectively get comments form residents about this one very specific part of the project. She hopes they vote no.

Alder Ledell Zellers says that there is a group of residents that are impacted by this. Who else would go to the listening session? She hopes they vote against putting this on file.

Alder King says that we circled around the universe saying the same thing 5 times. This letter is not signed by anyone. To him, it would be more appropriate if the letter was signed by the alders who organized the input session. He would have this written as “city of Madison residents”. We don’t need the council to approve this, the alders could just submit it. He doesn’t understand why we need a resolution on behalf of the City. He says it should be placed on file and they can submit it, this should not be done on behalf of the City, only from the alders.

Matt Phair says that he agrees with Alder King, even if we change the language to “city of Madison residents” it doesn’t change anything, it still seems like it is from all residents. They should embrace what was done on the Northside and they should submit it on their own. He supports placing on file. (Note: Represents Southwest side of Madison)

McKinney asks how to move forward with the two paths before them. She asks what placing it on file would allow the makers of the amendment to do. She says its about the process and how we did it. She heard that if the alders want to clean up the language and send it in, they could re-submit it tomorrow, would it come back.

Attorney Michael May says they could pass it and move it forward as is. They could also adopt and make a motion to clean up the language. Or they could place it on file and people could submit a similar resolution or a different one that could go forward. Alternatively if they place it on file without prejudice the alders could submit it without a resolution.

Vote to place on file
It was really hard to hear:
Aye: Wood, Ahrens, Clear, Eskrich, Hall, Harrington-McKinney, King, Phair, Skidmore, Carter
No: Verveer, Zellers, Baldeh, Bidar-Sielaff, Kemble, Martin, Palm, Rummel,
Carter passed originally, Cheeks was absent, as was DeMarb
The motion fails because they need 11 votes regardless of who is present. 10 to place on file, 8 to not place on file. There is some discussion about this. Bidar wants to change her vote but the city attorney says she has to change her vote before it is announced. She could have moved reconsideration because she was on the “prevailing side” I believe – and I suppose she could do that at the next meeting but she doesn’t seem like she really wants to.

More discussion
Alder Kemble makes the motion to approve the substitute with instructions to staff to replace “City of Madison” with “city of Madison residents who gave feedback in the process” in the comments document.

Alder Ahrens speaks against. He says that there are residents that are very strongly in favor of the F-35s and critical of environmental concerns raised. He was there and there were 100s of people who were for the plan (he doesn’t know if they were from Madison) so he doesn’t think that this accurately represents what people had to say.

Alder Clear says we should just trust the staff to make the changes as appropriate since she heard this discussion.

Alder Larry Palm asks about the process – there was already a motion for the substitute, so this is an amendment says the City Attorney.

Alder King asks if they vote it down, can the alders who represent this submit the letter and sign it and submit it to the National Guard. Attorney May says they can do whatever they want. King says that it ends up being the same thing as placing it on file if they vote no. Several alders have side comments.

Alder Rummel says that they could have the 1st page of the letter to change how they describe the listening session and two other changes to make it more clear. She says her edits would make it clear the alders are bringing recommendations.

Kemble withdraws her motion. There is no objection.

Bidar-Sielaff now will not support the motion, she says it will not be resolved. Her compromise is that there could be a resolution that says that we think public input was important, 7 alders had a listening session, they will be submitting it and that we will continue to be engaged in the conversation for the City of Madison. We could make the point that this is an important topic and the EIS is important and we will continue to find ways to have a voice in the process. That is very different than what they have before them. She will vote no, but there is a place to do a resolution as she suggested.

Palm says that he would sign and send the letter. This is an incredible struggle, we are responding to the environmental concerns, not about if we should or should not have F-35s here. There are some critical issues raised here about the environmental impact. He says that some people would like to talk about the benefits to the city, and that is not the focus of that discussion. He says many people have concerns about the economic impact and the city as a whole should speak to that. He says it is a challenge to represent our district and the city as a whole. He says at the last meeting we talked about the confederate monument that was no near close to his district and he residents don’t go there, and we have to make decisions where the decision is not universal. The Mayor often says “the City of Madison is” and sometimes he gets ornery when they had no input into that. We are always in this challenge, sometimes there is the right side of history and clear facts and sometimes it is different and we put our finger in the wind. The facts of the EIS is clear and important, but is the city engaged? There is a large part of Madison impacted by the EIS, but this has a regional impact and it is incredibly important to many people throughout Madison. Madison College gets a lot of tuition, teachers are from throughout Madison and we all enjoy the fire protection. He says we talk about the process alot, but the average person on the street does not care. He finds that these are the discussions that matter most to us, we do make decisions on behalf of people. He thinks the language is true, he vacillates on the process as do many people who support this. He says that the Air National Guard probably already has it, so if its signed and by whom might not really matter at this point. Sending the letter won’t move the needle. On the other hand we are conveying to our constituents where our values are. He wants to maintain the facility, but the environmental issues are a concern. He says he would sign it as an alder in the area but isn’t sure about the council signing on. He says relying on process isn’t it all.

Kwasi Obeng says that they sent the press release about the listening session and meeting in March. City Channel couldn’t cover it. Other reporting outlets were there, and then they got more input based on the media coverage. (bold is added language from the original)

Watered down motion
Bidar makes a motion that on page 3 of the resolution, they delete several paragraphs

WHEREAS, no other representative governmental body has weighed in on the scope of the EIS on behalf of residents living in the vicinity of Truax Field,

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that the City of Madison Common Council intends  authorizes Common Council President Marsha Rummel to submit comments the environmental concerns raised by residents at the February 28, 2018 listening session and in follow-up communications to the Air National Guard as part of the F-35 Operational Beddown Environmental Impact Statement; and,

And this paragraph

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the City of Madison Common Council will submit comments based on the feedback from Madison residents. Those the questions and comments submitted include but are not limited to the: 1) flight paths and plans, 2) the noise impacts especially on low-income neighborhoods and vulnerable communities, 3) the environmental impacts of operations and maintenance of the F-35s including air pollution and runoff into Starkweather Creek, and 4) safety concerns related to crashes and munitions; and,

Becomes
NOW BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED the questions and comments collected by alders include but are not limited to . . .

And a second be it further resolved clause is added:
Be it further resolved that the City of Madison Council believes that broad media engagement of City of Madison residents is critical to good decision making

And the final resolved clause is the same.

She thinks that this makes the statement that community feels this is important and the letter can be signed by the alders, not the Common Council.

Palm says that the issues are important, we received that feedback as the City Council and then the letter would be amended to show that the council passed this resolution.

Bidar says that the letter needs to be changed.

King wants to make sure that if the amendment is successful and the comments are submitted he doesn’t want what Palm just said. He wants it to be clear it is the 7 alders, not the “City of Madison”

Palm mumbles.

Rummel supports the amendment, it is quite different than what was set out. She wants to make sure we hear from people who are impacted, not just the people who think this is a really cool idea. It is hard to get people who are most impacted to come to a meeting at a hotel in the middle of the day. We heard what we heard and we captured that for them and they need to hear that the alders and Common Council are paying attention and noise and pollution impacts need to be addressed. That is really important to her.

Clear asks if the title needs editing. It’s a question not a motion.

Lots of people are trying to help fix the problem. Attorney May suggests “A resolution on the Air National Guard F-35 beddown and Environmental Impact Statement.”

Jokes, mumbling, amusement.

Motion passes on a voice vote, seems unanimous.

The main motion passes without further comment on a voice vote, also seems unanimous.

Whew – congrats President Baldeh on surviving that as your first meeting you chaired as Council President!

– – –
Sigh, Alder Skidmore moves referral on the confederate monument issue. Passes.