Board of Estimates Budget Discussion Recap (Amendments 1 – 19)

The meeting was a little over 5 hours long, I wasn’t even in town for the first 2 and a half hours, but I tivo’d it, so here’s what I got.

The first 25 minutes were the regular Board of Estimate agenda, 18 items. The next hour was public testimony, but for time’s sake, I didn’t blog that. Here’s the discussion on the amendments and the results. In all, they added $187,911 to the budget.

ALTERNATE – Amendment No. 1A
Agency: Miscellaneous Appropriations / Helping Hands Homeward
Page(s): 13
Sponsors: Alds. Bidar-Sielaff, Schmidt, Clear, Resnick, Cnare, Maniaci, Phair, Weier, Ellingson, Subeck, Verveer

Delete funding for Helping Hands Homeward. (25,000)

ALTERNATE Amendment No. 1B
Agency: Miscellaneous Appropriations / Helping Hands Homeward / Day Shelter
Page(s): 13
Sponsors: Alds. Rhodes-Conway, Verveer

Delete funding for Helping Hands Homeward, and provide funding for a year-round County-run day shelter. 25,000

ALTERNATE Amendment No. 1C
Agency: Miscellaneous Appropriations / Helping Hands Homeward, Community Development Division
Page(s): 13, 146
Sponsors: Alds. Subeck, Bidar-Sielaff, Phair, Weier, Verveer

Delete funding for Helping Hands Homeward, and provide additional funding for Community Services programs, with $4,706 to be allocated to the North/Eastside Senior Coalition (NESCO) and $18,128 to the Westside Senior Coalition.(Note: A separate amendment allocating similar funding to these two agencies is listed with the CDD amendments.)

Shiva Bidar-Sielaff moves to place 1A and 1C on file without prejudice (means they won’t consider them, but could later) and moves approval of 1B. Someone seconds. Mayor asks her to chair the meeting so he can speak. He says there have been references to Greyhound Therapy – he says if you saw his comments over the last week. He says this is only to reunite people with friends and family, this is not program to force people out of town and it is not a license to go any where else. He says that this city had a previous program like this. Last winter no one in the governmental sector, except the City of Madison, provided a warming center. This summer no one but the city provided a cooling shelter. Except, someone from the county showed up at Warner Park and gave us advice on how to run the shelter and not to admit anyone under the influence of drugs and alcohol. He says those are the folks most at risk due to dehydration. The city solely took on that cost, with only support from the Red Cross and Department of Health. He says there were two anlaysis done in 1990 and one two years ago, in terms of costs, 7-10% of the people who are homeless are 90% of the problem in the downtown area in terms of cost. It has been 18 months since he took office and during that time there have been several discussions with the county about what to do with the folks who have alcohol or drug abuse issues or mental illness problems that lead them into conflict with law enforcement and fire fighters who are trying to treat them. We are not getting compliance with voluntary commitment. In the next few weeks he will be finishing a report on housing and homelessness and this will be in the report and there will be recommendations. He says we spend 100’s of thousands if not a million dollars on services but too often we are left with the notion that this city does nothing – we do more than any other city in the state. And often we are criticized for providing these services because it is the duty of the state. Later there will be other amendments on the Judge Doyle Project and the public market – but when we talk about housing, including the recent SRO that the city partially funding, we should understand that planning is not financing. We should continue planning, but that does not mean we can finance it.

Mark Clear says that the county did not help us with the warming center last year, have they asked us to help them this year?

The Mayor says that they have asked them to match $75,000 with theirs (this is for the permanent shelter, not the temporary warming shelter) but his position is that we are part of Dane County and don’t ask us for $75,000 unless you ask for municipal sharing from the other communities.

Clear asks if they have asked other municipalities. Mayor says not that he knows of, Clear says he can guess what they will.

Satya Rhodes-Conway says it is inevitable that the issue of homeless would be rancorous, she says she doesn’t have energy to dispute who should be responsible, we all should be. She also doesn’t have time and energy for back and further about who should do what. Of course the county and state and federal government should do more, there is a role for the private sector, there are people in the room who can raise a whole lot more money than someone who is homeless and maybe while they are out there raising money for other things, they can think about that as well, but that is not our decision to make. We can’t decide the federal or state or county or private sector do anything – put aside the question of who should be do, just look at the $25,000 and if we are going to spend it on homelessness, where would it be best applied. In her day job she is doing a lot of research and it is clear that housing first is the national best practice for homelessness and we are not there yet. We don’t have enough supportive housing to get them into housing and then deal with the issues they have. Given that we are not there, a year round day center that gives them access to resources, to AODA counseling and other services, case management, jobs, life skills, etc, that will bring stability to people’s lives and give them someplace to go and get resources. We should contribute to bringing that do Dane County, of course other municipalities should contribute to making that happen. And the state and federal government, but we don’t get to decide that. When we look at our resources, a year round permanent day shelter is what we should do an she urges support.

Brian Solomon agrees with Rhodes-Conway. He says that this isn’t nearly enough resources, we should spend more, but if we are going to spend this money in a tough budget this is a good start but others need to support it as well. There is a huge need for this and that need will continue and saying this is an urgent priority is good. He says he was agitated on the Helping Hands Homeward comments and he thinks that some of these comments are unfair. There are many people who would never go home again because it is incredibly dangerous or unsafe. Some people had a home but were forced to leave and that is what caused their homelessness, but there are people who do need the support of their family and this is who it was targeted for and he hopes we continue to help re-unite people with their families. None of us in the room would be where we are without the support of our families and this could be a positive solution for some people, and we hope we will keep looking at it, but the priority is this right now.

Bidar-Sielaff says she is all for re-uniting people with their families, but that is done through case management and in a place where people can have a safe conversation and it should come from them. We can’t just look at this funding that way, it has to be integrated into other services and that is the kind of conversation that may happen in the day shelter. If someone decides that is what they want, the community is amazing at pulling together the funds to make that happen. So, this is not a bad idea, but it should be done in that context.

Seems to pass on a voice vote unanimously.

Amendment No. 2
Agency: Miscellaneous Appropriations / Joint Land Use Study
Page(s): 13
Sponsors: Mayor Soglin, Ald. Bruer

Provide $30,000 to participate with Dane County and the Greater Madison Convention and Visitors Bureau in a joint study. Dane County will also provide $30,000.

Motion and second for approval. Larry Palm asks for an explanation. Mayor asks if that should be him or Bruer. He explains that the county has done quite a bit of study on the Alliance Energy and Expo Center and they found the future of World Dairy Expo is critical but if they take a 100 year view of the land, rebuilding might not be the answer, but we should look at the entire area and there might be better long term solutions. The county is putting a matching amount in their budget and he looks at it like a partnership with a property owner. It’s like the decisions to locate the capital, UW or MATC here or for Epic to go to Verona, this ranks up there with those decisions.

Tim Bruer says something, don’t hear the first part because his mic wasn’t turned up. He says much of the property around the Expo Center is in the city and we might lose the World Dairy Expo and there is lots of promise in the area. This could mean jobs in an area that has a large unemployment rate. This will take a more global view of the area and will look at the potential. The county will put in not $30K but $100K, we should have our planning staff at the table and we should work together on this.

Palm asks if the Madison Convention and Visitor’s Bureau is contributing. Bruer says that they will be but he doesn’t know how much.

Palm asks about the area, asks Mayor to be more specific. Mayor says John Nolan, Rimrock, Quann Park. Palm asks about Sheritan. Mayor says it doesn’t include that. We have a professional planning department, the county doesn’t, this is going to be in the city of Madison and we want a say in it. (Wow, different conversation than the one above, eh?)

Clear says the Convention and Visitor’s Bureau are giving $25,000.

Mike Verveer asks if we could use Room Tax for this. Mayor says they looked at it and this isn’t a new destination for hotels, this could be a new residential, retail commercial facility.

Motion passes on a voice vote, not everyone votes. Mayor says he heard at least 3, maybe 4 votes and if it was a tie he would have voted aye so the motion carries.

Amendment No. 3
Agency: General Fund Revenues / Ambulance Conveyance Fees
Page(s): 15
Sponsors: Alds. Weier, Bidar-Sielaff

Reduce the ambulance conveyance fee increase for residents from $300 to $100, resulting in a resident fee of $700 instead of $900. (See Fire Department Budget Highlight No. 8 on p. 35.) $1,330,000 changes to levy.

Verveer asks for them to explain what is on the screen and the update on the maximum allowable levy. The Finance Director Dave Schmiedicke explains the chart on the screen, it has the assessed value $20.64B which has been updated based on the latest numbers from the assessors office and will be updated again. There was about a 4 million change and it changes the mill rate by 2 1000ths of a mill. The next number is the maximum levy which is about $193M. That is 6700 dollars higher than in the mayor’s budget. The -$2M is what it would be if all the amendments passed, it has been adjusted because of the decisions already made. The unused premium is a result of the debt issuance, the amount in reserves is not yet allocated and they have about a half a million dollars there. There are a number of amendments that use that funding, and actually go beyond that amount. The last amount is the direct appropriation capital is the money from the general fund and there is about half a million there in the amendments. It also has the executive budget number and he will create numbers to compare the Board of Estimates decisions when they get further.

Clear asks about the remedies the state has if we exceed the levy limit. Schmiedicke says that if it is not done with approval by the voters, then there is a $1 for $1 reduction in state aid for each $1 they go over.

Bidar-Sielaff moves approval for purposes of discussion.

Anita Weier says we should not balance the budget on the backs of sick people. She has a friend who is a nurse who says she fears people will not call. Some people say insurance will cover it, but that means higher costs for us all in premiums. And yes, there are waivers for poor people, but then we all pay more for that. She says she didn’t have an amendment to fund this, but she suggests the $623,000 in travel expenses for city employees and elected officials.

There isn’t one vote for this. Motion fails.

Amendment No. 4
Agency: General Fund Revenues/Licenses and Permits/Miscellaneous Licenses
Page(s): 16
Sponsors: Ald. Verveer

Increase license and fees revenues derived from scrap metal dealers (Note: An authorizing Ordinance, which was introduced to Council on October 16, 2012, will also need to be approved.) $50,000

Verveer explains there is an ordinance amendment that was introduced at the last council meeting that would address this. It will adjust fees to people who deal in scrap metals. Motion passes on a voice vote.

Amendment No. 5
Agency: General Fund Revenues / Intergovernmental Revenues / State Utility Aid Payment
General Fund Revenues / Intergovernmental Revenues / State Expenditure Restraint
General Fund Revenues / Intergovernmental Revenues / State Connecting Hwy. Aid
General Fund Revenues / Intergovernmental Revenues / State Exempt Computer Reimburse.
Page(s): 16
Sponsors: Mayor Soglin

Adjust General Fund Revenues associated with several State Aids due to revised estimates.

Adds $267,000 before we hit the levy cap.

Move and second. No discussion, passes on a voice vote.

Amendment No. 6
Agency: Room Tax Fund / Transfers to General Fund
Page(s): 18
Sponsors: Alds. Bidar-Sielaff, Schmidt, Clear, Resnick, Cnare, Maniaci, Phair

Delete the Transfer related to Madison Scouts and Capitol Sound of $12,000 and increase the Transfer to the General Fund for Arts Grants by $12,000.

Move and second. Bidar-Sielaff says they are not removing the funding, they had this discussion last year and thought that this should be part of a competitive process and they should apply for the funds.

Verveer asks finance staff to explain what they did last year. Deb Simon says we did put it in there last year, last year they made a transfer to the general fund and the notes just make it clear what it is for, but in the 2012 and 2013 budget, they don’t have money allocated directly for them.

Rhodes-Conway makes it clear this changes nothing, just clears it up. They agree.

Motion passes.

Amendment No. 7
Agency: Room Tax Fund / Civic Promotion
Page(s): 18
Sponsors: Alds. Bidar-Sielaff, Schmidt, Clear, Resnick, Cnare, Phair, Maniaci

Reduce Civic Promotion from $20,000 to $15,000.

Bidar-Sielaff asks for an explanation about what this is used for.

Verveer asks staff to explain.

Deb Simon from the Finance Department explains that this is consistently used for Dane Dances and Juneteenth and this year it was used for Homebuyers Round table, Black History month ad, Racial Justice Summit at YWCA and most recently the Meet and Eat to reimburse vendors for the $2 coupons.

Bidar Sielaff asks how much has been spent this year.

Simon says a little over $5,000, last year it was $4,000 but in 2010 it was $7500. She says there were other things that came up. Badger Herald and other things that came up.

Bidar-Sielaff asks for that info to be sent to all alders.

Mayor points out it is also for sister city programs and when delegates come here from other countries. Where do the funds from that come from.

Simon says that comes from a separate line item, unless it is not a sister city, then it would be from here.

Cnare asks if we can track this throughout the year and how could an alder ask for use of these funds?

Palm asks about the $5,000 in another amendment for Dane Dances.

They discuss, they have been getting $1000, they will now get $5K, not $6K.

Simon says the mayor’s office determines how much and it has been different each year.

Phair asks about the Parks budget and Meet and Eat?

Mayor says not to, if we are going to expand Meet and Eat we will need the money for staffing and getting the picnic tables out and we might end up short.

Verveer asks for an explanation of the increase in the items.

Mayor says we have more and more visitors that are not sister city delegations. We generally have food, water, etc for people when they get to the city. The other activities they are trying to centralize in one account and given the success of Meet and Eat which was just one neighborhood for one night a few nights of the summer, if they expand it, then they need more money. This is one of the low impact items with tremendous results when you look at the costs and the results, its marvelous.

Bidar-Sielaff says she won’t die on this hill. She does see that we should have a better program for visiting delegations but she thinks we should have more guidance for how the fund is used, and there should be a way to have alders have ideas submitted for consideration. She also says the Meet and Eat money should all be in one fund. She says that we haven’t even spent $10,000 in the past and this is a significant increase.

Mayor says that they will have an amendment that has more specificity and maybe merge whatever is left into one accounting for Meet and Eat.

Palm also isn’t dying on this hill. He says that we just put Capital Sound in a competitive process and now we are singling programs out, he thinks they should merge them all together. He says if 8 fails, reducing the money for 7 would make it more difficult. If you want to fund Dane Dances out of another line (Capital City Music) then you can’t do that either. So he thinks there should just be one big fund.

Mayor says he’s also not dying on this hill . . . (its’ the new catch phase on the city council) . . . bad analogies about an ant hill. grrrrr.

Motion passes.

Amendment No. 8
Agency: Room Tax Fund / Madison Music City
Page(s): 18, 19
Sponsors: Alds. Bidar-Sielaff, Schmidt, Clear, Maniaci, Cnare, Phair, Ellingson
Amendment No. 9
Agency: Room Tax Fund / Debt Service Payment – General Obligation Bond Issue (footnote b)
Page(s): 18, 19
Sponsors: Ald. Verveer

Reduce Madison Music City from $100,000 to $30,000 to be used for Dane Dances ($5,000) and Summer Solstice festival ($25,000).

Palm makes amendment to remove Dane Dances and Summer Soltice and add it to the Civic Fund above, they are just moving the language, not the money. It’s seconded. He says if we’re not going to single programs out, then we have to be more consistent.

Joe Clausius asks about the Summer Solstice issues, he points out he and several alders are members of Starkweather Creek. He asks if they are duplicating something already done.

The mayor says that this is based on an event in Paris and this would make the celebration city wide and that it would be music everywhere with the performers being amateurs. It would be hundreds of 1000’s of people.

Clausius says it will be more than a bonfire?

Karin Wolf from the Arts Commission. She says this is a celebration of the first day of summer. She says they will partner with various groups already doing things, she says she is trying to keep the program small and the mayor keeps trying to make it bigger. Hopefully we end up in between.

Palm agrees that the Summer Solstice would get absorbed in the bigger event, but we shouldn’t point it out.

Verveer asks about approval from the Arts Commission – is that the whole $100,000 or the parts designated.

Mayor says he’s not sure. Since this is the first time we are doing it, we would like it to be run by the Arts Commission, its all new programming and he isn’t sure he understands the discussion about earmarking the items. He says it is outlined here because it is for specific programs, he is not sure what is confusing about that.

Verveer asks if the programs would all be administered by Karin and the commission.

Wolf explains that many of these projects are grassroots and she will be dealing with red tape and hoop jumping and the citizens will be promoting and planning the events. Websites and other issues. The money is for the coordination of the event. The video will be minimal involvement, but they will do an rfp. These are more grant programs for things like Dane Dances – where they have a contract and do reports and she oversees it. The study is also similar, they would contract with someone, she would draft part of it and manage the payments. She won’t be creating an event.

The Mayor wants to expand on the issues. For Dane Dance the support has been $1 – $2K per year. It is only in August, sometimes around 7 or 7:30 they have to close off the roof because too many people attend. This is one of those things that brings joy and togetherness for 10’s of 1000s of people per year for a very small cost. He doesn’t know of any other events that produces a racially, socially, economically diverse group as Dane Dances, it stands out among all the events. They would like to expand it past August. They are working out the details. They are trying to get other funding to underwrite the event. The name is all wrong, no money from Dane County. Someone says there is a small amount, but its Monona Terrace and the city underwriting it. On the other two items, he talks about the Grand Rapids trashing in Newsweek, now going out of print, but they did a video and Roger Ebert says that it was one of the best videos ever, take that for what it is worth, but it has had a second effect, that they got 5M hits and there are many people who want to help do this. It’s good marketing. Finally, about making Madison a music center, there has been talk about this for year. People ask why if they can do it in Austin, why can’t we do it here. We haven’t tried to make it happen. He talks about the bankruptcy of the Orpheum and he says that one of the people making that work is tied to Austin City limit. He says that they will get a bang for their buck and lots of participation.

Solomon says it is for a specific purpose, he would vote against it, not sure how it is different.

Verveer is asking for clarification.

Mayor says it is deleting the references to Dane Dances and Summer Solstice.

Palm explains but withdraws the motion and starts over. Lots of confusion. He says to reduce the funding from $100,000 to $30,000 but take out the references to Dane Dances and Summer Solstice.

Hill jokes.

Rhodes-Conway says she is concerned that the Madison Arts Commission really hope line g does mean they have oversight, they haven’t heard any of these ideas, they are interested and would like to contribute to them. She says that she says we should not designate items, but increase funding for arts and have a competitive environment about how to spend the money. She agrees with that overall feeling, we should to that with civic promotion fund as well, she says that given what the Mayor wants to do, they should leave it for now and discuss at MAC about how to fund these events. Maybe they should not all be competitive in the current process, perhaps there should be a different pot of money.

Motion fails.

Back to the amendment as worded.

Solomon talks about all the benefits of the Overture as being described as the economic development benefits, the cultural benefits, the creative class benefits, all are legitimate arguments to fund other arts type programs as proposed here with the $100K, so he wants them to vote it down.

Palm says that now that they will have discussions about how to allocate the funds, he personally likes the Dances and Solstice but he hates the idea of the music video. He says they will get $5M hits of idiots on Mountain Dew looking at YouTube, welcome to that. 12 years old who I’m sure influence where their parents travel (Side note: You should see the look on Bidar-Sielaff’s face right now!) He would rather put the money under the purview of the arts commission and he doesn’t agree with that. Small hill, not sure what he is doing here, but they need a better discussion.

Scott Resnick says he hears Madison compared to Denver, Boulder and Austin, but how are we actually moving the city forward in making it a hip vibrant community where young folks want to actually be here for. If you put Madison into YouTube, see what you get, its not good. The Bucky video has 400,000 YouTube hits, so as we look at how to sell Madison, we should be looking at viral videos. The other point about the Austin festivals, its also the number one hub for film at that time, and tech, people from around the world fly into Austin to be part of that. If we are looking at smaller expenses from the Room Tax it is worth giving it a shot.

Mayor asks Resnick what insurance you can give Alder Palm and the rest of the council that if we get 5M hits that is not all 12 year olds juiced up on Mountain Dew?

Resnick says he can promise it won’t be a dubbed lip song from American Pie. He says when you look at viral media sites and twitter and sites doing better than Newsweek, when we look at the future of web communications that $50K is a small investment to look at what we might be able to put together to promote Madison.

Palm says he searched for Madison WI and he got a really cut 6 minute video on Madison, including us being one of the best cities in the country and 37,000 people have liked it.

Rhodes-Conway apologizes for having to speak, she says Resnick thinks it is a small amount of money, she disagrees, thinks it is too big. If you make a video that is slick over-produce video by a production company it is unauthentic, it flops and we get made fun of. Bureaucracies are not good at making hip, viral videos, this is not what cities do. Somebody should do get the video from the award winning city cable station and chopping us up and mixing it up, that would be interesting.

Mayor says they have already asked them to get us video of Dane Dances, Triangle Ethnic Fest, Farmer’s Market, Taste of Madison . . . Karin Wolf ads other things, but is off mic and its hard to hear. Mayor says it is just an idea of what can be in there.

Rhodes-Conway says that is not the point, if you want to attract a young and hip crowd, something produced by professionals and a bureaucracy will get you exactly the opposite results. What you want is low-budget, ad hoc video done by someone in their dorm room or some crazy code writer who stayed up all night who decided to stay up all night and do a side project, that is what you are looking for, not something that is a $50K project that is a tourism video for the city, its better to take $5,000 and do a competition and say the best video gets the money and we use it.

Bidar-Sielaff says all this discussion is an issues since we haven’t asked the Madison Arts Commission, they should have this discussion and it should be subject to their approval, the rfp etc should be done by them.

Resnick would like to see an amendment to do a grant to do some viral marketing by the Madison public.

Phair says that this is the hardest one, the video is a great idea and being like Austin is great, but when he looks at what attracts people it Madison, its stronger neighborhoods and safe neighborhoods and better schools.

Jokes.

Palm agrees and wants to get rid of specificity. But now he either does $100,000 with no direction or $30,000 limited to Dane Dances and Summer Solstice project. So there is no discussion about music videos about what we can do to talk about creative artistic uses of the money. Now do you cut the budget or keep the money where he knows there are higher priorities than what is designated. That is why he did the amendment, to allow MAC and staff to work this through.

Voting confusion, after two votes they do a roll call
Aye: Rhodes-Conway, Clausius, Palm, Bidar-Sielaff
No: Solomon, Verveer

Amendment carries.

Amendment No. 9
Agency: Room Tax Fund / Debt Service Payment – General Obligation Bond Issue (footnote b)
Page(s): 18, 19
Sponsors: Ald. Verveer

Expand footnote (b) to include reference to the G.O. bonds (as well as the Revenue Bonds) by adding the following sentence: These G.O. bonds were initially issued as part of the original Monona Terrace financing. They are due to be retired in 2014.

Motion. Jokes. Passes unanimously.

Amendment No. 10
Agency: Fire
Page(s): 35
Sponsors: Mayor Soglin

Provide funding for lease cost store locate Fire Administration to a temporary location during construction of the new facility. The lease costs will be funded through sales proceeds from the Fire Administration property.

Motion and second.

Palm asks how much they are getting on the sale of the property, someone says about $1.8M

Motion passes on voice vote.

Amendment No. 11
Agency: Police; Engineering
Page(s): 38, 84
Sponsors: Mayor Soglin, Alds. Bidar-Sielaff, Palm, Verveer

$53,320 Provide funding for additional costs of maintaining the Police Training Center and stations.

Motion for approval. Second. No discussion. Passes unanimously on a voice vote.

Amendment No. 12
Agency: Police
Page(s): 38
Sponsors: Mayor Soglin, Alds. Verveer, Maniaci

$64,460 Providing funding for the Program Assistant added for the pawn program in 2012.

Motion for approval. Second. No discussion. Passes unanimously on a voice vote.

Amendment No. 13
Agency: Landfill
Page(s): 94
Sponsors: Mayor Soglin, Alds. Skidmore, Weier, Rhodes-Conway, Clausius

Reallocate existing hourly pay and associated benefits to fund the creation of a full-time, permanent Landfill Supervisor position. This position would be responsible for supervising Engineering field staff in the performance of environmental monitoring, operation and maintenance of the City’s five closed landfill sites, for reviewing and analyzing landfill gas data to identify potential problem are as and for identifying and implementing landfill gas extraction systm adjustments to prevent problems from occurring. Engineering currently has an hourly employee performing these functions, which is not a sustainable solution.

Motion for approval. Second. No discussion. Passes unanimously on a voice vote.

Amendment No. 14
Agency: Parks
Page(s): 96
Sponsors: Alds. Bidar-Sielaff, Schmidt, Clausius, Cnare, Rummel, Solomon; Mayor Soglin

$75,000 Restore funding for winter ice operations. Funding is for the following rink locations: Goodman, Olbrich, Warner, Heritage Heights, Hillington Green, Nakoma, Westmorland, Wexford and Rennebohm parks. Funding for reestablishing ice at Rennebohm is available as Garner will not be restored.

Motion for approval. Second. No discussion. Passes unanimously on a voice vote.

Ooops, do-over, Rhodes-Conway has a question.

The chair rules the vote has not started with a grin on his face.

Rhodes-Conway says that she will vote no on this item and the next and its about numbers, she can’t add things if she can’t find cuts and she can’t vote for something that would lead to an unbalanced budget or a structural deficit. She has to prioritize, these aren’t on the top of her list. She is sure they will pass here or later at the council, but they are not her priorities so she won’t vote for them.

Motion passes on voice vote.

Amendment No. 15
Agency: Parks
Page(s): 96
Sponsors: Alds. Bidar-Sielaff, Rummel, Schmidt, Cnare, Clear, Resnick, Weier, Maniaci, Bruer, Clausius,
Solomon; Mayor Soglin

86,664
Restore funding for life guard services at the following seven neighborhood beaches: Bernie’s, B.B.Clarke, Esther, James Madison, Olin, Spring Harbor, and Warner. Restore funding for an attendant at Cypress Spray Park.

Motion for approval. Second. No discussion. Passes on a voice vote.

Amendment No. 16
Agency: Parks
Page(s): 96
Sponsors: Mayor Soglin

Add funding for Emerald Ash Borer mitigation and other Forestry duties. Funding of $5,000 is provided for Forestry Specialist overtime and benefits to enable a program for the preemptive removal (with replacement) of 200 ash trees in poor condition or under power transmission lines. $25,000 is provided for hourly Arborist Assistants for clean up operations and tree watering crews. $20,000 is provided to finish the ash tree inventory in City parks.(75 parks have been inventoried, with 185 remaining.)

Motion and second.

Rhodes-Conway asks if this is the supplemental request or what is this.

Eric, finance dude from Parks, explains that the Emerald Ash Borer committee has been meeting and this is additional funding for removal of 200 unhealthy trees and doing the parks inventory and overtime related to replanting the trees. It keeps our arborists in the trees, based on the committee recommendations a week ago. Kevin Briski, Parks Department Superintendent says they then brought that to the mayor.

Motion fails on a voice vote.

Amendment No. 17
Agency: Parks
Page(s): 96
Sponsors: Alds. Weier, Bidar-Sielaff, Rhodes-Conway

Amend the Parks Department budget by adding $1,260 to fund portable toilets from November 1 to mid-April (pending weather conditions) at the Warner Park Shelter and the Cherokee Marsh North Unit. (Portable restrooms would cost about one-third as much as the $3,900 required to keep the regular restrooms open and heated, an amount not included in the Parks budget.)

Motion and second.

Weier says that being able to go to the bathroom is important.

Laughter. Clear says we are with you so far.

She says a lot of people do use Cherokee Marsh in the winter, cross country skiing, hiking and school classes go out there and it would be nice if they had a bathroom to use. It would be good if it was one of the nice warm ones, but she was trying to be concservative fiscally, so she suggested the porta-pottie option.

Aye: Rhodes-Conway, Clausius, Solomon, Palm, Verveer
No: Bidar-Sielaff

Motion carries.

Amendment No. 18
Agency: Parks
Page(s): 96
Sponsors: Alds. Palm, Rummel

Add $13,355 for the full restoration of hourly wages, plants, and materials for Olbrich Gardens.

Motion and second to approve, no discussion, Mayor says there are three no’s. Only 2 ayes. Motion fails.

Amendment No. 19
Agency: Streets
Page(s): 104
Sponsors: Alds. Rhodes-Conway, Phair

$15,870
Add funding to keep the Olin Avenue site open for five hours each Saturday from April 6th though December 7th, thereby enabling citizens to pick up mulch. Overtime funding is provided for one loader operator and one scale operator.

Motion and a second.

Phair seems it is fair for people who work to get their mulch. It’s an equity issue.

Sue Ellingson suggests that they raise their hands to vote. The mayor says they operate under Robert’s Rules, that requires an aye vote.

Motion fails.

That’s all I could get to, the rest is tomorrow . . . after working 13.5 hours yesterday and covering the 2 hours of public tesimony at the county board and watching this on tivo, that’s all I had time for . . . off to work, I”m the housing counselor today 9 – 1, then I can get to my work.