Big Dane County Budget Night Meeting!

November 12, 2019 8:22 am

County Board budget night lasted about an hour . . . no discussion on the capital budget. Limited discussion on two amendments to the operating budget totalling $2,480. No public input. But plenty of speecifying.

You can watch along here:

ROLL CALL/INSPIRATIONAL/PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE

Roll Call – People are still coming in during the roll call. Knoll was the only one absent by the end of the roll call.

Matt Veldran does the “prayer/inspirational message”. He essentially forgot he was supposed to the inspirational and missed the last meeting, but he says tonight’s inspiration “pretty much writes itself”. He thanks staff and board members for the well wishes, it was kind of hairy last week, a week ago Saturday, a little bit of pain, a lot of pain and then no pain. He appreciates the well wishes and he’s almost back to normal. And then, well, we’re doing the budget tonight and that’s an obvious theme, but even more importantly and overarching, its Veteran’s Day. We thank the people that sacrificed their families and their personal lives to give time, and devote time to serve their country. It’s not just today, we use today, but it’s every day and I think that is being acknowledged more and more. He wants to thank the veterans Supervisor Ripp, McCarville and Knoll. Their service was important for them and everyone else. He says when he was in the hospital he thought about what was going on and a theme that came up for tonight was experience. The experience of the EMTs who were great, calming Lisa down, not that she was hysterical, she did a great. She just knew she wasn’t going to be able to get me to the hospital by herself. So they did a great job. And when I got to the hospital, in UW, you know you’re going to see a lot of people. So, there were nurses obviously, and there was an EMT recruit that was there early on. And a resident came in early and told me what was going on, you’re having surgery. And then there were others, there was a surgeon who was great, and an anesthesiologist who was the only person who said I should run yesterday, he was a marathoner himself. I was going to run the half marathon yesterday. The anesthesiologist was really good and the surgeon said he’s fabulous, we watch over those from experience, but he’s coming right on staff as soon as he’s finished. And the nurse chain, we always know how great nurses are and they serve us well, but there was a particular young woman who was a nursing assistant and we got into a discussion and she was a 5th year senior and she’s going to medical school. Having a niece that is doing the same thing, I know that she is doing the exact same thing for experience and she was great. She was the person that checked me out and went over my home care. But it was that experience that was really important. When you think about our veterans and they have a chain of command and they have people that have been there before and it comes in all ranks from enlisted to commission to non-commission, but we don’t have the youngest really leading because they have to learn. And those are important, as well as what the hospital staff did. And finally, we talk about the budget tonight, we talk about the experience of people who have been here for a while and what they know and how they worked hard on budget after budget to make sure that our priorities remain. So, I think it’s important that when we think about these three themes, its experience and we look to others when we are less experienced. He thanks the veterans and asks them to join him in the pledge.

They do the Pledge of Allegiance.

Chair Sharon Corrigan announces that Supervisor Knoll had indicated that he wasn’t able to join them for the meeting.

OPERATING BUDGET

County Board Chair Sharon Corrigan says this “is our budget hearing, as you all know” and congratulates them on all the work they did to get us to this point. She says that they have had public comment throughout the process and this is their night for the board to consider the budget and take final action on it and considering any amendments that are offered by members of the board. She says they start with budget operating resolution 284. She says it is the 2020 Dane County Operating Budget Appropriations Resolution. She says she will go through the order of consideration of amendments and see if Supervisors have amendments in those areas. If you have amendments in two different areas, she asks them to consider having them together if they are revenue and expenditure in different areas. She says Sub 1 is before them, as proposed by the Personnel and Finance Committee.

General Government

The first area is “general government” activities that includes general county, County Board Office, County Exec, Office of Equity and Inclusion, County Clerk, Administration, Treasurer, Corporation Council, Register of Deeds, Miscellaneous Appropriations, Destination Madison and Personnel Savings Initiative.

There are no amendments.

Public Safety and Criminal Justice

This includes the Clerk of Courts, Miscellaneous Criminal Justice, Family Court Service, Medical Examiner, District Attorney, Sheriff, Public Safety Commission, Emergency Management and Juvenile Court.

Supervisor Tim Kiefer has two amendments, one is revenue and one is expenditure, they balance each other. The revenue generating amendment is under public works but he would ask that it be taken out of order to consider the one under Miscellaneous Criminal Justice line. Corrigan asks him to start with the revenue so they can consider the other one. Kiefer moves Board Operating 01 – its seconded by Andrew Schauer. Kiefer says the amendment is in the packet, it raises $2,480 in Public Works. He says the AFSCME employee group brought the suggestion that they needed another janitor at the Zoo and that ultimately was approved and he voted for it and that was going to be starting in October and this has it start in November, which frees up $2,480, which will then go toward the other amendment which is the bar dues for the staff attorney. He asks if he should speak to both of them now. Corrigan says yes, and then they will vote on them separately. Keifer says that the companion amendment is for $2,480, Schauer seconds his motion, Kiefer says it is the staff attorney bar dues amendment. The presiding Judge for Dane County Bailey-Rihn is here to show support. He understands they are not taking public testimony but she is here tonight. He says it had its genesis this summer when we started with the civil service reform and in the process of him doing his due diligence research on it, he found some issues with the staff attorneys and that led to testimony at committee hearings and also at the board meeting that they held at the zoo. Some really emotional testimony from some of the former staff attorneys including at least one person who actually broke down in tears as she described the poor treatment when she was previously employed by Dane County as a staff attorney and he thinks they all agree that they needed to change that. One thing they did which had no budget impact was to make sure that the staff attorneys had holidays where they wouldn’t be forced to make up the time that they weren’t working on holidays. The second thing was to bring the staff attorneys in line with what Assistant District Attorneys for Dane County are getting as well as Corporation Council Attorneys are getting, which is to have their bar dues reimbursed. This is an annual bill that comes in the middle of summer that has to all be paid at once and when you’re not making a lot of money it is a significant hardship and they thought they should do something for that. He says that he should point how much they are or aren’t making, just because they are paying for this by delaying the start date for the janitor at the zoo. The janitor at the Zoo is going to start at $21.88. The staff attorneys actually make less than that, they make $21.17 so it certainly is not a high paid job. They needed to find the money to do that and they were able to get it through adjusting the start date for the janitor. He thinks frankly its the least they can do to show the staff attorneys that this board does support them and cares about them. It’s not a lot of money but its something so he asks for their support. He says he did liaison with AFSCME about this and Neil Rainford has indicated he is not objecting to having the start date moved back and obviously the judiciary is in favor of the other side of it, the staff attorney part of it. So there does seem to be no opposition that he is aware of and he asks members of the board to join him in voting for both of the amendments.

Corrigan clarifies that Board Operating Amendment 1 is the revenue side and PP&J O-04 revised is the bar dues.

Schauer asks if he can speak to both at the same time to save time. Corrigan says yes. Schauer says he was in the Board of Public Works meeting and the revenue is as good of a place as any to find the extra $2,480 in order to fund this. To speak to the need for it, as a practicing staff attorney himself at a different organization having those bar dues covered is very important. If they are going to hire attorneys to do important work they should cover that expense that allows them to do that work as attorneys that can practice. Bar dues are different from other types of membership groups, this is not a voluntary membership like the American Bar Association membership would be. In order to practice in the State of Wisconsin as an attorney you need to be a member of the Wisconsin State Bar. He is in favor of both the amendments and they should be passed.

Board Operating Amendment 1 passes on a voice vote seemingly unanimously..

PP&J 4 Revised

Supervisor Matt Veldran asks if the dues cover all of the staff attorneys and how many are there. Kiefer says that its slightly complicated because the bar dues are slightly different depending upon when you are admitted to the bar, but this is the best estimate and it will come in slightly below the $2,480 that has been budgeted but that is as close as they are going to get to precision on it. Corrigan says there are 6 attorneys. Lots of cross talk.

That motion also passes on a voice vote seemingly unanimously.

She almost skips the rest of the areas and tries to vote on the full Sub 1 amendment, but catches herself.

Health and Human Services

Corrigan says this includes Human Services, Board of Health and Veteran’s Service Office.

No amendments.

Conservation and Economic Development

Corrigan says this includes Planning and Development, Land Information Office and Waste and Renewable

No amendments

Culture, Education and Recreation Activities

Corrigan says this includes the Library, Alliant Energy Center, Henry Vilas Zoo, Land and Water Resources and Extension.

No amendments

Miscellaneous Appropriations

Corrigan says this is the Dane County Historical Society

No amendments

Public Works

Corrigan says this includes Public Works, Highway and Transportation or the Airport

No amendments

Debt Service Activities

No amendments

Discussion on Sub 1 – the entire Operating Budget

No discussion.

Passes on a voice vote seemingly unanimous.

CAPITAL BUDGET

This is resolution 285, the 2020 Dane County Capital Budget Appropriations Resolution, and Sub 1 is before them as approved by Personnel and Finance Committee.

General Government (see above) – no amendments.

Public Safety (see above) – no amendments.

Health and Human Services (see above) – no amendments.

Conservation and Economic Development (see above) – no amendments.

Culture, Education and Recreation (see above) – no amendments.

Public Works (see above) – no amendments.

Discussion on sub 1 – the entire Capital Budget – no discussion. Passes seemingly unanimously on a voice vote.

FEES

Corrigan asks if there are any request for separation on the ordinance amendments.

Supervisor Ripp wants to be recorded as voting no on “15 & 16” (public health amendments).

No discussion, pass on a seemingly unanimous voice vote with the exception noted above.

SETTING THE LEVY

Corrigan says this is resolution 286, which is also Sub 1 as approved by Personnel and Finance Committee.

Supervisor Patrick Miles says that this is his 3rd year on the Finance Committee and I might be a little dorky because I find myself each year when I look through the budget binder being inspired by it. Looking at the amount of things that the county does and the steps we take to improve the lives of people in Dane County and to see a lot of that is built year after year after year. Board membership that has come before us that have taken steps that we continue to build on and they have left us a legacy and we continue to build a legacy as they move forward. To drive that home through metaphor he has given each of them a little pouch with a few seed. They are purple prairie clover seeds, a native prairie flower, that is loved by pollinators such as bees and butterflies and he wanted to share them because planting seeds is a strong metaphor to our tradition of budgeting and that is what he finds inspiring. Each budget seasons brings a new round of them sowing seeds of change and potential for growth. While each of them have a few seed, but collectively together they can create a blossoming prairie over time with the planting of each of these seeds together. Our staff come together to nurture and pollinate these plants. This budget is no different than past budgets. They continue to build on those past plantings of seeds for tomorrow. He gives a few examples, but won’t go into details, he’ll leave that for other supervisors to reflect on priorities for them. He says that some of the things he has noticed over the years and where they continue to take steps forward. One area is confronting climate change and sustainability. Several years ago they started the sustainability fund through the leadership of Supervisor Chuck Erickson and former Supervisor Robin Schmidt. That fund has been effective at lowering the counties carbon footprint and in this budget continues our effort toward that end, through greater use of CNG vehicles and the budget also includes an investment in electric charging stations. Many years ago they established Yahara Clean, a partnership with state agencies to better address our lakes and improve the health and cleanliness of our lakes. This budget continues that effort and related to that they have their Water Legacy Fund to preserve water resources and habitat and this budget expands our effort to preserve and restore more wetlands to help us meet the challenges of climate change. Especially in seeing stronger storm events and higher water levels. Several years ago they started the Affordable Housing Fund and he appreciates the County Executive established the new division of Housing, Access and Affordability in the Human Services Department to better coordinate and manage our efforts. Additionally he says in this budget they are investing in housing in the Bayview Redevelopment Project, in shelter at the Salvation Army as well as increasing the Affordable Housing Development Fund. Early in his time on the board they were spending millions each year to house inmates in other facilities, we invested in a study to determine if we needed to expand the jail and asking such questions is a scary proposition because you may not like the answer that you get in the end but they learned that there were a number of reforms they could make to reduce the jail population and they did just that and saved millions for county tax payers. Now, as they look ahead a the jail facility consolidation they will be developing a facility that broadens programming and reduces jail beds. In this budget they expand on reforms like that of the restorative justice court and look ahead to the potential of a community justice center. This budget invests in prevention efforts such as mental health services that will link people to appropriate services rather than finding their way into the criminal justice system. Those are a few example he can think of and he could go on with many more. He wanted to end with noting that sometimes the seeds we plant are not necessarily an investment in dollars, but a willingness to ask some tough questions of ourselves to reach a higher sense of self and grow. After seeing the data about racial disparity in our state and county, Supervisor (Sheila) Stubbs asked what might be seen as a simple question, “what can we do to improve equity in county government” but that was a seed in itself and now today we have the Office of Equity and Inclusion and that division is guiding each of our departments to developer their plans to address equity in county government. He says he’d be remiss if he didn’t take a moment to thank the staff, especially the county board staff Karin Thurlow Peterson and then the Controllers Office Chuck Hicklin in assisting all of us supervisors in crafting our budget amendments. He says collectively they are part of a larger ecosystem planting seeds and making positive change for the people of Dane County. He is happy and proud to be voting for this budget.

Aneliese Eicher says she regrets to inform them all that she did not bring budget party favors and she does not have a beautiful metaphor about the budget for them this evening, but she wants to talk about something really important to her that she though shined throughout the process. She says that is the idea of engagement. We, throughout the budget process had three public hearings in front of the entire county board, our standing committees all met and had public hearings, some of them one, some multiple nights. Hours of work engaging folks on this budget. Seeking and reviewing feedback. They have Polco, email, facebook, meeting with constituents, calls and holding meetings in their districts to get input the last couple of months. That sort of engagement is really important to the budget process and she is grateful to them for being engaged in that. She also wants to highlight a new engagement tool they used this year which was the pilot of the “balancing act”. She says she doesn’t know how many signed in and had some fun with it, but it was a good time, she took a look. But they actually were the first legislative body to utilize this new tool to have people engage in the budget. She asked Lauren for some updated numbers from the presentation that she had given us. Of the 776 page views, 214 people actually went in and submitted budgets. Back of the napkin math, that is 28% completion. She asked what 28% means, the engagement rate is normally 10%. So, the people in the county 28% said they wanted to be engaged in the budget this way and they learned a lot from this process and the balancing act is going to continue in the years to come. To be something we can expand on and learn from and find new ways to engage more folks in our county. She knows that the staff already have a lot of good ideas on that. As they close the process she wants to thank everyone for engaging with your colleagues, your constituents, with staff and county board chair and with each other – for your leadership and engagement. So thank you and lets keep engaging.

Paul Nelson says this is his first year on Personnel and Finance Committee, a perk for being 1st Vice Chair with Aneleise being 2nd Vice Chair and also serves on Personnel and Finance and its been a very interesting experience for him. He’s enjoyed it and its gone extremely well for a variety of reasons. First of all he wants to thank Chair Corrigan for her vision and leadership. He thanks Supervisor Miles for, particularly during the budget process, for the hard work and long hours and diplomacy that is required of his position, particularly at budget time of year. As you are probably aware we had 33 amendments to the budget which put us over the levy limit, which means we had to make some decisions and they weren’t always easy decisions to make and a lot of that fell to Supervisor Miles and he thinks Miles handled it well and did an excellent job. He also wants to echo thanks to Chuck Hicklin who is a veritable walking reference library of Dane County County Budgets, he is just amazing, you can ask him anything. He hopes everyone appreciates all of the quiet work done behind the scenes by the county board staff, led by our Chief of Staff Karin Peterson Thurlow, he thinks its invaluable. He thinks they deserve a hand (clapping). He got a call from a colleague earlier today and the question was – what is the tax levy this year. He said he’d have to call the person back, because like a good reference librarian I didn’t have the answer at my finger tips by he knew exactly where to go to get it. So he did, he had a copy of the resolution they will be voting on in a few minutes as well as the one they voted on last year and at the bottom there is a summary that includes the gross county taxes, which are up $11M this year. And then if you subtract the county sales tax (up from $64.6M to $68.2M) and that gives us the net proposed county property taxes. Last year it was about $185M plus this year $193.7M. The number the person wanted was the net tax rate per 1,000. Last year that was $2.96, this year it is $2.89. So actually, or net rate per 1,000 has gone down 7 cents. Now that doesn’t mean everyone’s taxes are going to go down. It depends upon the community and where you live how often they re-evaluate your property, but the fact is that we are being efficient with the services we provided and we are fairly fortunate to be in the position we are in. He has a map that they can see some colors on, the darker blue color shows the greater population growth and Dane County really stands out on the map. Since the 2010 census Wisconsin has gained 126,000 population, Dane County has gained 54,297. That’s 43%. Of the 72 counties in the state that is an extraordinary amount of concentrated growth in that area. That being said, that much growth really means we have a lot of challenges and some of those challenges we have addressed in this budget, affordable housing, mental health, climate change, but obviously there is a lot more that needs to be done and that is why he hopes this seeds will grow into big, strong and enduring plants that will also for a while because there is a lot more work that needs to be done but once again we made good forward progress in our budget and he thinks that as Sharon was quoted in the Capital Times the other day, this is a budget that we can be proud of and he is proud to be able to vote wholeheartedly for this budget and he hopes they will all do the same.

Carl Chenowith he says the people who spoke before him from the Personnel and Finance Committee stole his thunder but that is good, he didn’t bring any party favors either. He is really proud of the work the committee did this year. This is his fourth budget on Personnel and Finance Committee and the process went smooth in past years and went extremely smooth this year. We had a lot of decisions to make, as Supervisor Nelson pointed out, but they had a lot of help from their staff and board members and chairs of committees. It was a good process and he wants to thank everyone for their efforts in putting this together and its a good budget to be proud of. He would like like to reiterate some of Supervisor Nelson’s comments about the seeds are there, they did a lot of work in the 8 years he had been on the board they have done a lot of work and reflected a lot of growth and a lot of consideration of programs that they have done. They have a lot of challenges ahead of them, the growth doesn’t come without those challenges. One of them he would like to reiterate that he hopes he’ll be able to address or be part of the solution next year is transportation. They have a real issue getting people from point A to point B. That includes the workforce. Economic growth doesn’t come just by saying we have trained personnel, we have to have trained personnel living in the right spots. They have to produce an avenue to have those people get to their jobs and get back and I think transportation needs to be high on their priority list for budget consideration and he hopes everybody, including the county exec will take that into consideration as they move into 2020. He thanks everyone, especially Chuck Hicklin, he can’t say enough about him. In the 4 years he was on that committee he did an outstanding job, and you too, Chair Corrigan. He hopes everyone supports the budget as he does.

Sheila Stubbs says she is so happy to be back with her colleagues. She thanks them for a wonderful budget. She appreciates working with Director Brockmeyer, Edwina Ogden who has done a wonderful job putting our budget together, County Executive Parisi, Director Tessman and all of our staff, special thank you to Karin and all the county board staff that has worked closely with us. Chair Miles for doing a great job with us at Personnel and Finance. She is really proud of this budget, she has been on the county board 14 years and they are still moving in the right direction. Many of you hear her talk about equity that is really real to her. You have heard the stats about the State of Wisconsin and how bad it is for African Americans. She is happy to say that after she spoke with Director Brockmeyer he mentioned to me that all of the equity plans are turned in to the county to the Office of Equity and Inclusion. That was very important for her, because that would have been an iffy moment if she would have voted for budgets and those departments were missing equity plans. She really feels if you don’t do the equity plan then you don’t need the money, because we know that you have some true issues in your department so she is honored to say that those plans are in. She thinks this budget addresses some of the grass roots initiatives and issues that’s happening here in Dane County. Families back to the table, Focused Interuption, Environmental Initiatives, housing initiatives to deal with low income marginalized communities, communities of color from the Salvation Army to Bayview, very critical initiatives. She is so happy to say the family restorative court continues to grow in the right direction. They are 92% successful with an alternative to incarceration. So this budget identifies a full time program leader that will add on to the staff and continue to address the daunting, embarrassing, unacceptable disparities that exist in this county. She reads a poem she reminds herself of daily as she does this work, because budgeting isn’t easy, having our constituents come forward, having staff and others give them input, so kudos to all the constituents and community leaders and activists and tell us about that, but its what Dr. Benjamin Elijah says “you only have a minute, only 60 seconds in it, forced upon me, didn’t seek it, didn’t choose it, but yet it is up to me to use it. Give account if I abuse it, just a tiny little minute, yet, eternity is in it” This budget is all about timing.

Heidi Wegleitner thanks them for the support of the budget and the staff that worked on it and the Health and Human Needs Committee that supported amendments recommended by the City County Homeless Issues Committee and the Finance Committee and most of those amendments we approved earlier tonight. Continuing with the theme of seeds, in the first weeks that I was on the county board we passed a resolution in July of 2012 recognizing that Housing is a Human Right in Dane County and that providing access to that basic need, both temporarily and permanently for those who desire a place of shelter is a priority to us. That is something she worked on as an activist before being elected and was introduced by her predecessor Supervisor (Barbara) Vedder and she had the ability and privilege to vote on that resolution. We haven’t done everything that that resolution called for but we are definitely making progress and a couple years later in the 2015 Capital Budget we established an affordable housing fund. Last week we got a presentation from Todd Vialante on the award history and the total number of units that have been created. With the awards that we had approved last week, that’s $15,849,038 that they have awarded and that has created 1,374 affordable units. There are some market rate units that are part of the total number created, but 1,374 affordable housing units, that is impressive, we have a huge gap. We need 10s of 1000s of units, but we didn’t let the overwhelming need stop us from trying to do something, and we are doing something and she is really excited because with the RFP or awards that were approved last week, that $7.2M, all of those projects are going to come to us when its after contracts are negotiated and we have to approve the lease and the funding contracts and we need someone to be looking over those contracts so this new office of Housing Access and Affordability is something that will be involved overseeing our policy on this. A policy that we are creating in the RFPs each year with these funds. She is really excited about this new office because she thinks its not just that we need more housing, but we need to make sure people can get in to that housing, that people are not being discriminated against in the screening criteria, that there are reasonable guest policies in place and some basic tenant protections that people know about in county properties and are being monitored through our contracting process. When we recognized Housing as a Human Right in our resolution in July 2012 it said “consider a staff person” in county government to work on housing policy and we’ve had a great commitment from a number of staff that have been part of the Affordable Housing Development Staff Team but it hasn’t been any one person’s job to coordinate that effort so having an office dedicated to looking at our housing needs and having a contract monitor all of these new contracts is absolutely critical to moving policy forward and to implementing our housing justice agenda. So she is really excited about our future years and building upon that work with additional staff capacity. She says they also passed $50,000 in increased eviction prevention funds and that doesn’t sound like a lot of money, but that could mean preventing homelessness for a range of between 25 and 75 individuals or families. That’s a really big deal to individuals and families that are able to stay in their home and not have to go through the cycle and trauma of becoming homeless. She thanks them for support of this budget which will position them to do much better things in the future with their commitment to housing justice and housing as a human right.

Jamie Kuhn wants to point out a couple of other things that have not been mentioned yet about the budget they are passing and the process they go through to get here. She thanks the Chair for the opportunity to chair the Health and Human Needs Committee. She says they are often talking about all the things they do in this county and a lot of times it boils down to funding and whether or not grants are going out the door and who is getting what and during this time it is a really good time to remember that what we are doing during this process is about the people in Dane County. The people who work in the county, who serve our people in Human Services and beyond, but obviously for our committee the services that the county employees provide, the overtime that they put in, the care that they put in to making sure that they are available not just to the constituents when we call them, but when our constituents call them directly or they are in crisis. Counties are very much responsible for needs that we can’t even see and maybe none of this even on this board get access to or need access to and we have to remember every time that we’re doing this that what we are doing this for is for the people who need it most. The other things is not only the people doing the work and putting in the overtime, but all of our purchase of service organizations and all of the work that they put in to really do the work that our county alone is not able to provide for the residents and we ask them to step up to the plate. We ask them to sometimes do it for less money than maybe they need, but they still do it well and they still serve the residents of our community. She wanted to make sure that as they move forward they continue to think about how they will serve folks with mental health needs in our community. She thinks they have taken a ton of steps in this budget and prior to this budget to get where they are, along the seed theme, but she thinks they have a ways to go and the only way they are going to continue to move that forward is by making sure we are working together. She thinks the chair has set the stage for making sure we, all 37 seats on this table, that don’t belong to any one of us but belong to the community, if we continue to make sure that we are working together on mental health issues we will continue to make progress for this community. It’s obviously important, they will continue to see needs and Dane County is one of the counties that is situated to do well by its residents and she thinks its a hard thing and we’re never going to get 100% but as long as everyone on this board and whoever is in these seats continues to work together we can make real change and help people. The other issue we still need to work on and is extremely important to her, but also came about during this process and they were not able to solve it, and they didn’t even necessarily introduce an amendment to this budget, but is at the forefront is making sure that we are working in our CPS and serving our child welfare program and child protection and she thinks what they saw happen in this budget is an issue was raised, individuals came and testified, we heard them, we talked about what we could do moving forward, we didn’t come to a solution, but we set a goal to continue to work on it past this budget process. And she would love for that to be a model for other things, we don’t have to do everything in the budget all of the time, but as they learned through this process and others, as people come forward and talk about the needs that the community has this is a way to, after this budget process and before the next budget, to work on an issue that they can make some improvement in. She thanks the committee, Director Tessman, the chair for being a great leader and all of them work working together. This is not her first budget, but it was certainly a smooth budget and she appreciates everyones efforts.

Motion passes on a voice vote, seemingly unanimous.

OTHER BUSINESS

Corrigan reminds them that they are taking a picture of the group. They will not be meeting Wednesday or Thursday, but they will meet the 21st of November.

They adjourn

CATCHING UP

If you’re wondering what just happened, how there was no actual debate tonight, or at Personnel and Finance, then join the club. Where do all these decisions actually get made?

Here’s my video and blogs on the process, but no where did they actually debate what would be in or out of the budget. Who put together that Sub 1 package of amendments, who did they talk to, what were the main points of contention? Who was arguing for which amendments to be in or out of the budget, who was at the table? They mystery continues yet another year.