Paul Soglin: Three Changes

I asked the Mayoral candidates, “If you’re elected Mayor, name three things that will be different about Madison this time next year as a result?”

1. EMPLOYMENT AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE. Working for jobs and an economy that serves all of Madison. When I was mayor in the 1990’s two things were different. Madison had the lowest unemployment rate in the United States, or was sometimes second to Lincoln Nebraska, and over 130 city employees were organized in Neighborhood Resource Teams (NRT).

The economy is tough but we can take significant steps on the local level if we coordinate our efforts with Dane County as we did twenty years ago in creating teams that focused on our neighborhoods. We can combine public health nurses and police officers, firefighters and employment specialists, librarians and building inspectors in workgroups that serve communities and strengthen neighborhoods.

Last year Mary Berryman Agard and I finished a report The Park Street T, an examination of the employment and training system within the Park street/West Beltline Corridor.

Much of what we learned on the south side, after three years of study, can be applied to Madison and Dane County. We examined the service providers, the non-profits, government agencies, and the private sector to see what could be done better. We examined he relationship between transportation, financial literacy, health care, quality child care, job training and educations as well as housing in leading to sustainable employment.

Little did I know at the time that I might have the responsibility to implement the recommendations included for local government. With your support, I will.

An electronic version of the report is attached.

2. The City Committees. The make up of city boards, committees, and commissions will be significantly different. The appointments will be made only after each member of the city council has full input as to their own committee appointments and the appointment of citizens. The committee system is the very backbone of your government. While the Common Council makes final decisions of all matters of policy and the budget, the deliberate process of our committees proves over and over again that it results in more democratic, more transparent, and better decisions.

In addition, there will be no special executive committees based on ‘mayoral prerogative.’ I will not create any alternative or special committees for undermining of reversing the recommendations of standing city committees.

Finally, the committees will reflect the diversity of Madison. We will do our best to not only ensure that our committees reflect all of the protected classes of our equal opportunities ordinances but also geographic, political, and cultural interests.

3.The City Budget. There will be significant changes in the city budget. A community cannot undertake special projects or effectively work for economic and social justice if the city budget is unstable. Unprecedented levels of borrowing and unsound budget practices jeopardize our community.

Presently the city of Madison budget violates some of the very basic tenets set forth by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA). We are borrowing for basic items that should be funded through the operating budget. I know the incumbent likes to point out that interest rates are at historic lows. The problem is that we have to repay not just the interest but the millions of dollars that we are borrowing. That borrowing is pushing our debt service towards 14% of the operating budget. There is no city in the United States that can maintain a AAA bond rating with debt service that is 14% of the operating budget.

There will be changes in the mayor’s office portion of the operating budget. There will be cuts of over $120,000 which represents close to 10% of that budget. The present mayor has six administrative aides. Assistance in working with state government is contracted out at $30,000 annually. The workload is not significantly different since I was last in office. However, I never spent money on a press person or a fiscal expert to review the comptroller’s work. In addition one of the five needed administrators worked on state legislation and collaborating with other communities and governments.

With the money saved, that will be close to $150,000, total, we can hire an additional public works employee and additional building inspector to work on minimum housing standards.