So, Tuesday night’s Council meeting did not disappoint. There was all the spinning, grandstanding, puffery and otherwise unnecessary talking that you could ask for. I sure hope the new council can do better, this is growing tiresome. Anyways, here’s what happened . . .
First of all, the following Alders were absent: Tim Bruer, Santiago Rosas, Paul VanRooy, Isadore Knox. That’s the most absences we’ve had in recent memory.
The agenda had several items of note:
- Neighborhood Conservation Districts Failed for the third time. The “deal” struck with the “industry” didn’t sit very well with several council members. The new language said that 75% of the area in the district couldn’t be buildings that were less than 25 years old. This was problematic for infill areas and the periphery (and not so periphery) of the City. There were attempts to refer that failed. The vote eventually was 10 – 6 with the 4 absences. Voting against, despite the “deal with the industry” were Sanborn, Thomas, Brandon, Compton, King and Skidmore. Then I changed my vote to no, so that I could move reconsideration at the next Council meeting after we worked on the above noted problem. So, we’ll be discussing this, for the fourth time, with the new council.
- Compact Fluorescent Light bulb proposal This was a truly bizarre discussion, complete with props from Alder Brandon. If you were to believe some of the near hysterical arguments, if we passed the ordinance we’d all be dying (particularly the children) from mercury poisoning, the City of Madison would be be putting 15,000 American workers out of work, we’d be destroying the environment, recycling the bulbs would be bad for the environment, Austin King is the new champion for Walmart , this was an ordinance proposed just to “get landlords” cuz they’re a “favorite to be picked on” and businesses would go out of business cuz they’d have to deal with hazardous chemical spills every time a lightbulb broke. Ok, there may be a slight exaggeration in those statements, but not much. There were several votes on this item. First we voted on referral; the argument was that there wasn’t enough time to discuss this, despite going through the process – as explained by Ald. King – of introduction, referral, discussion at committee level, (compromise with the industry) and then coming back to the council. That failed with only 9 votes in favor – Radomski, Sanborn, Skidmore, Thomas, Brandon, Cnare, Compton, Golden, Gruber. Alder Brandon the made a motion to change the types of bulbs used and the time that the ordinance would take effect. That failed with only 6 votes in favor – Radomski, Sanborn, Skidmore, Thomas, Brandon, Compton. Then, we voted on the ordinance and it failed with only 10 votes. The council requires 11 votes for an item to pass regardless of who shows up for the meeting. Those in support were Olson, Palm, Verveer, Webber, Benford, Cnare, Gruber, King and Konkel. And I should say thanks to all the Sierra Club members who helped to educate us so much about this issue, it was really educational for many of us.
- We put around $1M in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund
- We completed more of the Health Department Merger (#14 & 15). And thanked the many people who worked so hard on this over the years.
- We passed a mandate banning paint ball guns. There were a few amendments to this that passed easily.
Um . . .did I mention, we put ONE MILLION DOLLARS in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund? That passed without comment. Unanimously. We will have $3.8 million dollars in the fund. Former Alders Todd Jarrell and Tom Powell should be proud!
Well, so ends another two years. We have much to look forward to in the new council, regardless of who wins next Tuesday. And likely, we’ll have many challenges ahead as well particularly with all of the new members and their varied learning curves. Stay tuned!
