Will Madison City Council oppose F-35s tonight?

The Common Council asked the Airforce to reconsider Truax “until and unless the findings of the EIS are shown to misrepresent the significant environmental impacts to those living, working, and visiting the north and east sides of Madison”  The EIS is out, not much has changed, will the Council oppose the beddown of the F-35s tonight?

Among the many things on the council agenda tonight – Amazon facility, Tourist Rooming Houses (AirBnB), declaring an emergency and determining the council’s role in this pandemic, allowing mayor to make all decisions related to elections and lawsuits we may participate in and reconsidering sending 100 officers to the Democratic National Convention.

WHAT THE COUNCIL PREVIOUSLY PASSED

Here’s the final “be is resolved” clauses of what the council passed back in September

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Madison Common Council recognizes that the impacts described in the Draft EIS would substantially reduce the quality and quantity of current affordable housing stock, decrease the value of the property tax base, reduce opportunities for Transit-Oriented Development, disproportionately affect residents who are low income and people of color, and children, and are contrary to the City of Madison’s values of equity, sustainability, health and adaptability as codified in our Comprehensive Plan adopted in 2018 <https://www.cityofmadison.com/dpced/planning/documents/Part1_ComprehensivePlan.pdf> the City’s Racial Equity and Social Justice Initiative <https://madison.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=1737326&amp;GUID=CAF0563E-DD7F-46EB-9009-F434F7FD2B93&amp;Options=ID%7CText%7C&amp;Search=Racial%2BEquity%2Band%2BSocial%2BJustice%2BInitiative>, and undermine multiple long-term goals of City policy makers and; and,

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Madison Common Council requests that the Air National Guard reconsiders the selection of Truax Field as a preferred location until and unless the findings of the EIS are shown to misrepresent the significant environmental impacts to those living, working, and visiting the north and east sides of Madison; and,

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the Madison City Clerk send a copy of this resolution to the F-35A EIS Project Manager, Secretary of the Air Force, US Senators Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson, Congressman Mark Pocan, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, Wisconsin Senators Miller, Risser, Erpenbach, Wisconsin Assembly Representatives Sargent, Taylor, Hesselbein, Anderson, Subeck, Stubbs and Hebl, the Dane County Board & County Executive Parisi, and Dane County Airport Commission.

DID ANYTHING CHANGE?

No much did!   All the same impacts are still there.  Here’s what I found when I compared the preliminary EIS with the final EIS.

All the same concerns are still in the Final EIS.  Here’s a few more background resources for you if you want to know more.

• Rep. Chris Tayor and Community Response to Final EIS on F-35s

• Final EIS for F35s is out – How did Madison Rank?

• How Did the Air National Guard Respond to Madison’s Comments on F-35s?

WHAT DOES THE COUNCIL HAVE BEFORE THEM TONIGHT?

Here’s the link to the resolution that was introduced two weeks ago.

WHEREAS, on September 17, 2019 the Madison Common Council adopted RES-19-00588, “Responding to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Air National Guard F-35A Operational Beddown”; and,

WHEREAS, in that resolution, the Madison Common Council requested that “the Air National Guard (ANG) reconsiders the selection of Truax Field as a preferred location until and unless the findings of the EIS are shown to misrepresent the significant environmental impacts to those living, working, and visiting the north and east sides of Madison”; and,

WHEREAS, the Final EIS released on February 18, 2020, confirms the significant environmental impacts identified in the Draft EIS, including substantially reduced quality and quantity of current affordable housing stock, decreased value of the property tax base, reduced opportunities for Transit-Oriented Development, ongoing soil, ground and surface water PFAS contamination violations by the ANG, significant adverse health effects that disproportionately affect children, residents who are low income and people of color; and,

WHEREAS, these impacts are contrary to the City of Madison’s values of equity, sustainability, health and adaptability as codified in our Comprehensive Plan adopted in 2018, the City’s Racial Equity and Social Justice Initiative, and undermine multiple long-term goals of City policy makers,

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that based on the significant adverse impacts identified in the Final EIS to multiple neighborhoods in and around the north and east sides of Madison, the Madison Common Council opposes the selection of Truax Field in Madison, WI as a preferred location for the 5th Operational Beddown and requests that the Secretary of the US Air Force not move forward with a beddown of F-35A jets at Truax Field, and to remove Truax Field from future consideration; and,

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the City of Madison Clerk forwards this resolution to the Secretary of the Air Force, US Senators Tammy Baldwin and Ron Johnson, Congressman Mark Pocan, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, Wisconsin Senators Miller, Risser, Erpenbach, Wisconsin Assembly Representatives Sargent, Taylor, Hesselbein, Anderson, Subeck, Stubbs and Hebl, the Dane County Board & County Executive Parisi, and Dane County Airport Commission & Director.

WHAT DID THE COUNCIL SAY LAST TIME?

My recap of the council discussion is here.  At least one of the alders actually said they would vote no if they didn’t get different information.  Others were simply asking for more information or a seat at the table.  I don’t think they got it – more information or a seat at the table.  (This was live blogged, so its a little clunky  – but hopefully you will understand what the alders were saying at the time – it was an 8.5 hour meeting!  And much of the conversation got personal about who got personal.)

Alder Keith Furman

• The truth is the draft EIS has raised a lot of questions and there is a lot we don’t know yet. If the worst case impact statements are correct he believes they are absolutely unacceptable.
• The draft EIS report, as we heard this evening, makes assumptions that don’t reflect local usage about frequency and flight path
• If it were truly up to the council to decide on the beddowns of the F-35s he’d be supporting a referral of this issue until we had a final EIS report and all the official answers to many important questions about mitigation an dF-16 retirement plans. He is frustrated that people are attempting to use the draft EIS report impact statement to push an anti-military agenda, but he also doesn’t believe that the worst case scenarios in the draft EIS report are just the cost of freedom. It is incredibly important they get the information about mitigation strategies around actual flight frequencies and flight paths. If the impact to our community will be as bad as the draft EIS report says, he doesn’t want the Air Force to pick Truax Field for the F-35s. He believes and is hopeful the impacts can be mitigated and reduced via smart strategies beyond new windows and insulation on homes and think that is enough, reducing flight frequency via flight simulator matters

Shiva Bidar

• I think some of us is saying that when there is a document that says draft on it and they are asking for input, we should provide input and see what the final document says. If the final document continues to not correct the record, provide additional information, answers to the many questions that are still pending, the answer to the many questions to which we still do not have answer, for which our Senator Tammy Baldwin, our Congressperson Mark Pocan, State Representative Melissa Sargent have written. Our Mayor has written a press release to say “I have a lot of questions, answer these questions” It’s an opportunity for us to get those answers. If those answer come back and it looks like this, we don’t want this type of plane here, I think we all agree on that. It is unfortunate for her to see that if they all agree on that, if this is what we are going to get at the end of this process, we think this is not what we want. But we also feel that this is a draft document, it doesn’t say final, and there is a period in which we need to give questions to be answered. That is where the only difference is. I don’t think anyone on this council thinks its ok to negatively impact people of color, low income people, people because they live on the north side vs. the west side. That is not who we are. She believes that every single one of us believe in that.
• She has spent an enormous amount of time and she knows many of them have, and she has read every single email and she was amazed by the amount of people who said that took the time to write. She appreciated that, but the intent has also been, that I have a lot of questions and I’m going to try to get as many answers as possible but some are left. On this council floor tonight you heard a whole different thing that I’m going to have to understand, and I’m going to want in writing to see those two things match, because if they don’t match then I’m not sure how to reconcile that.
• Bidar says she wants to speak quickly to the phrase that says that there is no strategy to affirmatively mitigate the noise, she understands that there is another process that happens, but it is also her understanding based on the letter from Congressman Pocan who says the draft EIS didn’t provide that, and I am requesting that information. I don’t know what detail he will get, it is also her understanding that the final EIS in Vermont did have some strategies around mitigation. She is not trying to say…I don’t know what they are, if they are broad things, or if there is detail, but she still thinks it is appropriate to ask for the in the final EIS and if its not provided, then fine.

Barbara McKinney

• I could not join in a substitute that would not answer the questions that were still outstanding. Over two hours or more we had information after information that was inconsistent, even in some of our own staff reports there were inconsistencies. Her question is how can they make and informed and intelligent decision when there are so many unanswered questions. Clearly in the alternate it was clearly stated and we made particular attention to go down each point of that well written document to say you are right, you are correct, if we missed children we missed something, you were right, you’re correct. Now let us go to the table and find out what information is accurate, what information is clear, what information is not clear. We don’t have all the answer, I don’t have all the answers and the purpose of standing for this alternate is to say what is missing, who can supply that information, is it correct and if it is not correct we can say no, we are not going to support this coming to our community. That’s why she stood up and those alders who stood up along side of me said, wait a minute, let’s pause, lets get all the information so we can base our recommendations on what is so. Our mayor asked the question, we don’t have all the information, I need more information. Systematically, through that process, we have heard we need more information.
• The basis for the alternate was lets stay at the table. Get all the information that we need so that we are protecting “we”, whether we are a north side alder or west side alder, we are protecting the residents of the City of Madison. I’ll stand with the residents of the City of Madison on the west side, I’ll stand with there residents of the city on the north side, it does not matter. We want equality, we want accurate information, so that I can say that this is the information that we had, this is the decision that I made, it was based upon the information I was presented.

Donna Moreland

• If the EIS can’t come back with strategies, then we need to tighten it up a bit to say what they want. She wants to see what the difference from the draft is going to be with the final, that is where she lands. She cares about all people, she has heard those planes, they are loud.

Sheri Carter

• And if you’re not at the table, then you’re dessert and she wants to make sure they are at the table and they are representing their constituents and the city. She wants to be there and she supports the alternate. She says when Alder Rummel talked about the kids being taken out of the alternate. She is concerned about human beings. You know we talk about the youth, we talk about the kids, we don’t talk about the seniors, we don’t talk about the folks in the middle, we talk about the millenniums, I’m talking about human beings. We all have ears, all the folks that are in the path are being effected by the sound, they were here to day talking about it. So, lets look at the human factor, lets be at the table. We don’t want to not be at the table. We want our mayor to be at the table if we can’t be at the table. We can’t predict the future. We can say we don’t want them here, but another body is going to make the decision and when they make that decision we want to be able to sit at the table and not on the other side of the door hoping we can hear a few words.

COUNCIL BEING BOMBARDED BY BADGER AIR COUNCIL EMAILS

Many of them are not from people living in the City of Madison, but they are sending a ton of emails.  They claim the council is going to sneak this through.  But that’s hardly the case.

• MADISON ALDERS SNEAK ANTI-115TH FIGHTER WING RESOLUTION ONTO TUESDAY AGENDA

A.  There was no “sneaking” here.  This followed the proper procedure.

B.  I like their spin – Anti-115th Fighter Wing.  The same Fighter Wing that is out of compliance with the DNR orders on PFAS?  That 115th Fighter Wing?

HOW WILL THE COUNCIL RESOLVE THIS

Remember, this is the language passed last time.

Madison Common Council requests that the Air National Guard reconsiders the selection of Truax Field as a preferred location until and unless the findings of the EIS are shown to misrepresent the significant environmental impacts to those living, working, and visiting the north and east sides of Madison; and,

Not much changed, that same information is still there, will they vote to urge the Air National Guard to go elsewhere?

HOW TO PARTICIPATE IN THE COUNCIL MEETING TONIGHT

Here’s the agenda.

Here’s the item on the agenda

#77 – Responding to the Final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Air National Guard F-35A Operational Beddown.

Here’s the instructions to participate.