I just did this on Saturday, but didn’t want to wait for some of these items to get too old, so here’s a new round of things to comment on . . . Edgewater, lobbying reports, clerk’s office, city administrator, media boondoggle, benches, spray park and more . . .
EDGWATER – NOT ALL ROSES
The Cap Times editorial was a bit of a surprise to me, as I thought that the media were all wrapped up and supporters of the project. However, they are right, if the Edgewater is getting over $10M for the public spaces portion of the project, but the public spaces will be privately managed, we need to ask questions. How that works is crucial, otherwise, it simply won’t work and the public will be shut out in favor of their exclusive guests ($400/night . . . )
GIVE ME A BREAK
So, Bob Dunn says the lobbying law is confusing and he can’t figure out why I didn’t complain earlier. Um, well, when you hire Hank Gempeler, a former city attorney, who regularly lobbies the city, I just assumed he was informed of the rules and had one of the best legal counsels to explain it to him. If not, he should be fired – or maybe he was, since it appears he didn’t do anything in the last 6 months while they were talking TIF with the staff – anyone believe that? I honestly assumed they had filed since Gempeler knows about the law. When it became apparent to me they had not, I was sort of waiting for them to correct it. Since we know they are monitoring social media websites, mine being first on this list, they had to have read my comments about them not filing appropriately. I was simply giving them a chance, three times in the past month, to get it right on their own and give me the opportunity not to file the complaint. FAIL!
LOBBYISTS WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
So, I filed 6 complaints, at the moment, I have less than 10 others planned and then will evaluate what to do next. All the unregistered lobbyists out there could just file now and avoid a complaint. We’ll see what happens after that. On the city side, I just want to say thank you again to the clerk’s office for taking the lobbying laws seriously and starting their new section of the website. The City Attorney says that his next steps are:
My view of the ordinance is that until I get a response from the other side, I cannot determine whether the allegations are meritorious. When I get that response, I then determine whether to bring the complaint in municipal court.
If the response is that “we’ll cooperate” and file correctly, then I think the matter will stop there. Even tho that is not what the law says, I’m comfortable with that for most. However, with some of the frequent flyers, at some point, they need to do more to enforce the law.
HOW’S THE CLERK’S OFFICE DOING?
If you too, have gotten great service from the clerk’s office, I’d urge you to go down and fill our a customer satisfaction survey. I haven’t filled one out myself yet, just heard about it. But, they seem to be one of the hardest working groups in the city. And they are often over looked, when they do their job wonderfully, not many notice, when they screw up, its often hard not to notice.
DID YOU READ THIS? MORE KUDOS TO THE CLERK’S OFFICE . . .
I’m so glad Satya shared her experience of problems with her voter registration, which is what prompted the clerks office to take action, its pretty unbelievable.
The letter I received was dated 7/29. I received it on 8/3. I called 8/3, 8/4, 8/6, 8/7 and 8/10. Except for the last time, I received the “mailbox full” message (this was always during business hours). The last time, I got a live person who said he was transferring me to some kind of “specialist”, but what I got was voicemail. We’ll see if I get a call back.
I also sent an email on 8/4 to the GAB, cc’d to the City Clerk and my State Senator and Representative. The Clerk emailed me back right away, and one of her staff called me that afternoon. A staff person from my State Rep’s office emailed me the article on the Clerk’s press release after it came out. I have yet to hear from the GAB or my State Senator.
So, bonus points for the City Clerk’s office, half credit for my State Rep (full credit if they actually do something about the GAB incompetence), incomplete for my State Senator, and FAIL for the GAB.
WONDER WHAT BRUER’S SURVEY WILL SAY?
I don’t think I even want to know. I’m not sure when or where the war began, but I have my suspicions. I do know that my budget amendment to give them an additional staff person ended in a 10-10 tie and the Mayor’s office voted not to give them staff and that accelerated the downward movement. And then a few other things happened and here we are. Question is, what is to be done about it?
SCHUMACHER’S CRUSADE
Schumacher continues his crusade for a city administrator and specifically suggests it as a solution to the above. Seems to me that the Mayor, with a $1.2M budget ($180,000 increase in last two years) and a staff of 11, should be able to handle these problems. If not, he isn’t working hard enough and doesn’t belong in office. The Mayor tends to treat this as a ceremonial position, often listing more press contacts/ceremonial events on his weekly agenda, than serious meetings. And often not listing some of his most important meetings. I don’t think adding a layer of management is what we need. We need a Mayor that empowers his staff, communicates well with them and focuses on wht it takes to make the city run well, instead of focusing on his next press release.
WHAT’S GOING ON WITH THE CRIME REPORT . . .ER, NEWS?!
Check out this snapshot of stories from yesterday:
- Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department could charge someone in fatal crash 3 min
- No charges filed against Richland County sheriff’s deputies involved in fatal shooting 37 min
- Man mugged in Boys & Girls Club parking lot
- Lincoln statue on Bascom Hill to get cleaning this week
- Woman in Krazy Glue case on ‘Today’ show: Man was the predator
- Woman mugged outside Shopko
- State schools get $1.6M for homeless kids
- One killed in crash near Lodi
- Jury selection under way in second trial in ‘Brown’s Chicken Massacre’
- Father, son accused of poaching 26-point trophy deer
- Surgeon gets 30 years for fatal crash that killed pregnant woman, daughter
- Report: Public opposes early voting in Wisconsin
13 items that come from the police/sherriff’s department, follow up on stories they have run from police/sheriff’s departments or (criminal) court related items. 7 stories about other matters. Now I know its easier to just have the public relations staff at the police department tell them what to write and then check the court records, but could we get a little bit of variety. I usually have so many things to write about, I don’t know where to start, and often, I write about them first, then they show up in the paper. I know they’ve cut back on staff and the papers are getting thinner and thinner, but as the papers get thinner, could we get some proportional cutbacks. It wouldn’t be so bad, but with the seven other stories being weather, a blog post and two stories from campus, I gotta wonder what’s happening in the rest of the city and county. Seriously, I’d rather hear about the school budget or the many issues going on in Dane County. It seems another giant leap towards dumbing down the electorate and increasing fear to keep us in our places.
SPEAKING OF CRIMES . . .
Did you know it was a crime to be poor? And that in some cities, people are not accepting that and being more tolerant. Who knew Nashville Tennessee was more progressive than Madison? Makes the whole bench incident all the more embarrassing for the city. How’d Madison get turned all upside down, catering to the business interests and abandoning our great progressive roots? If not progressive, can’t we at least get a liberal response to identified issues?
SPRAY PARK FAILURE
Hmmmm . . . at least my alleged screw ups (IZ) created over 40 affordable housing units. More than any other program in the city . . .
