Board of Estimates – items 2 – 10 passed in one motion. Only two items left, a presentation by the Finance Director for the City’s Life Insurance program and the budget item. This is mostly “live blogged” so not as precise and missed a few parts.
LIFE INSURANCE
They are shifting this from a pre-tax to a post-tax item to comply with Federal laws. This affects 2400 – 2500 employees. They are working on this with the auditors, the tax liability might include federal and state income taxes and social security and medicare payments on these payments.
BUDGET
Amendments are all here. Some of the descriptions aren’t very helpful.
Amendment One
Increase revenue by $53,000
Apply the remaining bond premium to reduce debt service and increase the Direct Appropriation to Capital to be used for additional new and replacement cameras and server(s) in the Information Technology Capital Project No. 12, Surveillance Camera System. (Adopted Capital Budget BOE Amendment No. 3 is a companion to this amendment.)
Dave Schmiedicke says this is a follow up to a capital budget amendment. This adjustment is needed to align the operating budget with the capital budget.
Passes unanimously on voice vote.
Amendment Two
Increase funds by $89,092
Increase General Fund Revenues for State General Transportation Aid and State Connecting Highway Aid (based on revised estimates).
No discussion, passes unanimously on voice vote.
Amendment Three
Increase funding $25,000
Increase fees and associated revenues. (An authorizing Ordinance will be required to implement the fee changes.)
Verveer says that there is a hand out that gives them the specifics of amendments 3 and 4. The main revenue source is bartenders licenses and the pawn shop ordinance program user fees.
Passes unanimously on a voice vote.
Amendment Four
Increase funding $37,500
Increase fees and associated revenues. (An authorizing Ordinance will be required to implement the fee changes.)
Verveer says that both amendments will require ordinance amendments immediately after the budget process and there will be a policy issue of the $10,000 licenses. Shiva Bidar-Sielaff says that this could impact small businesses and small family owned restaurants. She knows there is a whole process to go through. Verveer talks about the different types of licenses and they have always resisted raising the liquor licenses which are capped by state statute but now they have to take this approach. It is first come, first serve basis for the grandfathered licenses. They have 3 licenses before they get in to the $10,000 licenses which they refund the $10,000 as an economic development grant. And this would end that. Ahrens supports it. Bidar Sielaff says she is concerned about the restaurants, it is different for downtown bars – she is worried about the unintended consequences of hurts small businesses and restaurants. DeMarb suggests that they have a competitive grant process. Verveer reminds them that the restaurants may get a beer and wine license.
Motion passes on a voice vote, seemed unanimous.
Amendment Five
Eliminate the transfer out of $275,000 from the Affordable Housing Trust Fund and the transfer in of $125,000 to the HOME-Buy Fund and $150,000 to the Homebuyer’s Assistance Program.
Cnare says that these funds are hard to use at the moment, but they should not raid the funds for homebuyer programs, but we need more apartments. She asks to leave the money in the trust fund, give the CDBG committee to figure out a way to get these dollars in to the pipeline and have a more balanced approach and build rental housing. Jim O’Keefe says the funds to support affordable housing, one of the programs is homebuyer assistance and that is a weaker link to the trust fund. The rehab program has a closer link. The two funds are running short on resources, they each have $80 to 90K in their funds. They had $310K from the state earlier this year. This is a stop gap measure at best and we would find ourselves in the same predicament. They are looking at streamlining and consolidating these programs. We need a long term strategy for the Affordable Housing Trust fund and we have to decide if we intend this to be a trust fund and if we can identify a source of revenues. There is not a critical mass right now. Subeck thanks Cnare, she struggled with fund, she says that she helped pass it as an advocate, she says the problem is it was never capitalized. She would support the amendment, don’t talk about how we should use the trust fund, but instead we should talk about how to capitalize it and use it in perpetuity. Verveer asks Aaron Olver about his memo and if he recommended this and if not, is there a recommended approach in the executive budget. He hands out the memo. There is some explanation about various funds. Mayor has questions about where the money comes from and when it started. No one really knows. Mayor says they are under pressure to develop an affordable housing program. Mayor says this program is not working (Affordable Housing Trust Fund) he says that it seemed reasonable to take a portion of several million dollars that has been sitting for years and put it to good use for families that are not rich. Phair says that there is no disagreement the programs are good, but there seems to be a desire to have a discussion and there is a fear that this is precedent setting. Cnare says you could pass this and the two funds will make it through the spring, the doesn’t think the AHTF needs to sit there, but it needs to be rolled up into a comprehensive strategy. To begin a practice of raiding the AHTF, there will be other opportunities for affordable housing and let us develop a comprehensive fund. Seems to have passed unanimously.
Amendment Six
Add $15,575
Upgrade 1.0 FTE Police Officer position to Lieutenant to process records requests.
Passes unanimously on a voice vote without discussion.
Amendment Seven – A
Add $37,835
Add 1.0 FTE Management Information Specialist 2 position, effective Jan.1,2014, to maintain and manage technology systems. The total first year cost including purchased services and supplies is $85,410; a grant will fund the remaining $47,575. The full-year cost of the position, without grant revenue, is $77,725 and will need to be included in future year budgets.
Schmidt says that 7B is a late start and 7A is the full year. Palm doesn’t support 7A. He is worried about the levy.
3-3 Tie, motion carries with the Mayor’s vote.
Amendment Seven – B
No impact on the budget
Add 1.0 FTE Management Information Specialist 2 position, effective mid-year 2014, to maintain and manage technology systems. A grant will fund all of the first-year costs of $47,575. The full-year cost of the position, without grant revenue, is $77,725 and will need to be included in future year budgets.
Place on the table.
Amendment Eight
Add $35,000
Add an additional $35,000 for peak service times in the Central District. The 2014 Executive Budget includes $2.6 million for Police Department over time pay. Of that amount, $50,000 is ear marked for citywide safety initiatives, $30,000 for the Southwest Safety Initiative, and $65,000 for peak service times in the Central District.
Verveer says they talked about it quite a bit a few weeks ago. This is the Downtown Safety Initiative and he thinks it is critical they acknowledge the importance of this program. He says this is the planned overtime. Verveer says they will still go over budget. Schmidt says he is struggling with this because he has issues with this vs. overtime. Bidar-Sielaff asks questions about over time and the staffing study. Randy Gaber says it is more effective and efficient to staff with overtime instead of permanent beats. She asks if there was ever an issue with getting overtime for downtown. They say that if there is a need, they will staff it. It is hard to hit the overtime budget. They usually get more money every year at the end of the year. Officer involved shootings, protests and presidential visits can affect their overtime budget. Bidar-Sielaff asks if it has to be tied to a specific district. It is hard to predict says Gaber, they would like flexibility to move it as necessary. Verveer tossed Captain Gloede a softball to talk about the need. Rummel asks about the University helping pay for overtime. Gloede says that the University pays for 16 hours of overtime. Phair asks about the county paying for some of it or the deputies being on the streets. Clausius says it won’t accomplish what they want and he won’t support it at this time due to the levy. Missed some.
Motion failed.
Amendment Nine
10,000 of the fund balance applied.
Funding for travel expenses to be used for outside people who have already established an equity tool or those in the process to meet with city staff to advise on our process and inform us of their process.
DeMarb asks them to support it. Weier asks why they can’t just do this by telephone. Palm asks where the $10,000 comes from, what fund balance. Schmiedicke says this adds $10,000 to $3.9M. Motion passes on a voice vote, I only heard Palm vote no.
Amendment Ten
Increase in fees $90,157
Legislation to increase court fees has passed in the Assembly and State Senate and is currently pending the Governor’s signature. This amendment assumes the pending legislation will be signed into law and increases revenue from court fees and eliminates levy support for the Municipal Court.
Passes without discussion.
Amendment Eleven
An increase in Municipal Court fees from $28 to $38 is likely to be authorized by the state and will result in additional revenues of about $240,000. An ordinance change to raise the fee is expected to be introduced to the Council on October 29, 2013. Current City of Madison levy support for the court is $90,157. There is no requirement that excess court fee revenue be applied to the Municipal Court, though the spirit of the state law suggests it should be. Additionally, the Municipal Court currently does not have a program for juveniles who need more supervised assistance and supervision. A program such as that does exist for the Circuit Court. $32,000 is provided to issue a RFP for a pilot program to provide youth support services for the Municipal Court, to be issued by the Community Development Division (CDD) and the Municipal Court Judge. It is anticipated that in 2015, a permanent program will be established and funded with Municipal Court fee revenues. $116,992 is provided in 2014 to offset levy support of currently-funded programs that have a connection to the Municipal Court:
$11,775: YWCA, Girl Inc.
$ 8,652: YWCA, Driver’s License Recovery
$40,000: Porchlight, Outreach Worker
$25,500: Operation Fresh Start, Youth
$31,065: Centro Hispano, Juventud and Juventud MAS
These programs are currently in the second year of the Community Services biennial funding cycle. By funding them through the Municipal Court fees, $116,992 of levy is available for other purposes.
Substitute resolution, it took out the break down, there is a correction on the levy impact. Passes.
Amendment Twelve
Add $32,305
Restore full year funding for the 1.0 FTE Administrative Clerk 1 position.
Passes on voice vote without discussion.
Amendment Thirteen
Add $15,000
Funding to purchase or program an analytical tool to track city spending based on measures set forth in the Equity Resolution.
Passes on a voice vote without discussion. Palm and Subeck vote no.
Amendment Fourteen
No levy impact
Provide additional staffing to the Mall Concourse Maintenance section. Create a 0.70FTE Parks Maintenance Worker and add seasonal hourly wages. Expand the service area of the Mall Special Charges district to include the 300 block of W. Gorham and the 400 block of N. Broom Street. The increased funding will be focused on an intensive sidewalk and streetscape cleaning program throughout the district and providing service to the expanded district. General Fund Revenue increases will be from encroachment agreements, event, vending, and other related fees. (Anauthorizing Ordinance will be required to implement the fee changes.)
Passes on a voice vote seemingly unanimous.
Amendment Fifteen
$83,547
Provide funding to expand the composting pilot program to several additional neighborhoods in 2014. In addition, add more commercial establishments and possibly an industrial facility. This additional material would help replicate the mix of material Streets expects to process from a citywide program. Testing of this material is important in determining the processing needs for a facility as well as the revenue potential of the feed stock.
Subeck asks for clarification. She wants to know why they are expanding the pilot. Resnick says this is about the biodigester and we need to justify the demand being there, we need to start building up to that point instead of discovering there is no demand. The second reason was the idea scale and participatory budgeting, 1% of the city voted and the number one idea was expanding composting, so if we are going to do both parts of participatory budgeting we need to fund it. Subeck asks what more information they need. Mayor says there is a demand for it, but given the financial constraints they can wait a year since they are moving the biodigester back. George Dreckman says that this would give them the opportunity to work in multi-family, like Allied and student neighborhoods. And then on the commercial side. Right now everyone in the pilot is a volunteer and they have no experience with the less than willing. Subeck asks how many households are participating. Dreckmann says they limited it to 300. DeMarb asks if they can just delay this a year. Schmiedicke says they can still support it through a resolution later. Resnick says if they are going to ask for feedback, they should do that. He also points out they could do this for 6 months. That would change it to $41,233. Palm supports it. He says the issue is gradually ramping it up, he thinks it is critical and the more data they have and more experience the better we will be at the big dollar totals. DeMarb supports it because they need data to figure out where the problems and bottlenecks are.
Seems to pass unanimously.
Palm asks where they are at in terms of dollars. Schmiedicke says that through this amendment there is about $529,700 still available under the levy limit.
Amendment Sixteen
Cut $30,000
Delete funding for the Recyclopedia.
Schmidt moves approval, Palm moves to table. Fails. Clausius supports keeping the money. He says the new battery recycling is new and people do read this. He says it encourages recycling, he will be voting against. Palm moves to strike deletion of advertising and print services, they can print it and not mail it. He strikes $20,000. No second. Fails. Subeck votes in favor of the amendment, its not about the $30K, its the irony of printing a recyclopedia that will get recycled. Clear says there is all kinds of info we want people to get, they might want to figure out a better strategy to get the word out, perhaps with the tax bill. DeMarb says that we would still need to print it if they mail it with the tax bill. Verveer says that many of our citizens are not property owners and property tax bills are a foreign concept and he didn’t get one until he purchased a condo. When water utility send out annual report they didn’t send it to renters. He wants to remind them they have renters in the community. Mayor says there is a digital divide. Palm wants to know if they can send this with the water utility? Mayor says we would have to pay a proportional charge. Schmidt says he was amenable to cutting it but then had a discussion about mattress recycling, he says they should send it out periodically, they can discuss later how often it should go out. It is appropriate for the operating budget and Delete funding for the Recyclopedia. (I think the funded the recyclopedia, lost track)
Amendment Seventeen
$10,000
Add $10,000 to purchase planters, rain barrels and other related items for the creation of a community garden on the periphery of the lower deck at the Crowley Station.
Passes unanimously, no discussion
Amendment Eighteen
No levy impact.
Reallocate one Field Service Representative 1 position (CG-RG16-09) and the associated salary of $43,121 to a Water Quality Aide position (CG-RG 16-09).
Passes unanimously, no discussion
Amendment Nineteen
$142,000
Decrease Fleet Service Gasoline expense by $50,000; decrease Fleet Service Diesel Fuel expense by $100,000; increase Metro Transit Diesel Fuel expense by $292,000. The increase in the Metro fuel expense budget will eliminate the need for any potential service reductions or fare increases in 2014.
Passes unanimously, no discussion
Amendment Twenty
$21,000
Provide funding for hourly salaries and benefits for bus cleaners.
Weier says that this is a small amount that could add a lot of quality of life for those who have no other way to travel besides by bus. She was surprised to find out that there were only 2 cleaners for 208 buses and they only get cleaned thoroughly 4 times a year. Subeck asks if the cleanliness of the buses is a concern and have we gotten any complaints. Chuck Kamp says that he rides the bus and it is a concern. He looked at the other supplementals, they did ask for this in the past. It would allow them to clean the buses 5 times a year. Subeck asks how much it costs to add a route. He says an extra trip is $26K for an extra route to Epic. Mayor asks why 2 part-time instead of one full time. Kamp says they have more flexibility.
Fails unanimously
Amendment Twenty-one
$50,000
Increase funding for contracted pavement marking services.
Schmidt says they have this discussion every year, part of it is to fund implementation of transportation corridor study for University Ave. There are also some other pending requests and that is where the number came from. Bidar-Sielaff says $40K was in the supplemental request, this is a frequent request from constituents. She feels like a bad bureaucrat when she explains they don’t have paint to paint crosswalks. She says they usually run out of money. She says they shouldn’t pay for studies and then not be able to pay for the recommendations. She also talks about how it impacts her district. Subeck asks why contracted services. This is for the epoxy program, not the paint. ON arterial streets we do it because it is most cost efficient. The epoxy product is hard to maintain a truck for it, we would need infrastructure for it so they contract it out. Palm makes a motion to make sure it is for “crosswalk pavement services”. Palm says there has to be a tipping point where the epoxy services become more viable. Staff says for neighborhood crosswalks it still makes sense to use paint. Palm asks why this is a supplemental – staff say they have done more work in recent years, they have done lots of miles of bike lanes, there is a maintenance aspect to it. Usually with epoxy it is 3 – 5 years and they have been getting 5 years out of it, but there is a replacement cycle, unlike the paint where they have to do it every year. Palm asks how much less expensive it is. Staff says it is twice as expensive up front. I missed a bunch of discussion. They withdraw the motion. I did really stop paying attention, they are trying to determine how much is for the University Corridor and how much serves the rest of the city.
Amendment Twenty-two
No levy Impact – Version A
Develop and implement a pedestrian safety education program utilizing advertising on the back of Metro buses. Public education messages will be developed for both motorists and pedestrians. The intent is to create improved understanding and cooperation between pedestrians and motorists in traffic especially with respect to the use of crosswalks. In the Community Development Division budget, reduce funding from $150,000 to $100,000 for the Community Services allocation process study.
A – Placed on file without prejudice. Bidar-Sielaff wanted to put it in to have food for thought on education and there is only so much we can do with enforcement.
Reduce by $50,000 (from $150,000 to $100,000) the funding for the Community Services allocation process study.
B – Moves approval – Mayor strongly urges against it. Schmidt changes it from 150K to 120K. Mayor says it should not be below $120K, we spend 10s of 1000s of our own money and this study is to examine how this money is expended and to figure out how to have rational and functional system that is not charitable but investment. Phair asks why 120K, mayor says he made the decision, the original estimate was 150K and they can see it come in at 120K and still work. Mayor asks about the reduction, how does that affect the levy. Schmiedicke says it will create capacity under the levy and increase the amount available by $30K.
Amendment Twenty-three
$150,000
Increase funding for the Overture Center Foundation.
Verveer wants to express his gratitude for the funding for Overture. DeMarb is voting against, she personally supports the arts and the city supports $1.45M but times change, and so she can’t support the extra $150K because she thinks it can be used in different way. Mayor asks how this impacts the levy, Schmiedicke says this is from the levy. He clarifies that the study original source of funding was from fund balance. The way the amendment is put together, this keeps the fund balance amount. This is $30,000 of fund balance. It reduces the appropriation but not the fund balance applied. Mayor points out by doing that wherever that 30K goes, it goes to a reoccurring item, they have a problem. $217,000 left, the remaining amount left in amendments is $452,700 remaining expenditures in the amendments not yet voted on. Palm says that there are $235,000, Schmidt points out that one will be placed on files and they have two positions they could do a partial year
Passes
Amendment Twenty-four
$58,000
Increase funding for the Emerging Opportunities program.
A – Bidar-Sielaff says that it is important to fund things to a level where there is a good return on investment, she feels like $200K is not enough, but she is supportive of the rest of the amendments so she is willing to let something go to get other things is more important. If you want to place this on the table so it is between $8 and $58K. Subeck moves to place it on the table.
$8,000
Increase funding for the Emerging Opportunities program.
B – Schmidt says this just rounds it up, that passes unanimously.
Amendment Twenty-five
$110,000
Provide funding for a Cost of Living Adjustment for personnel costs for Community Agency Contracts.
Palm moves approval. Subeck says this is the single most important amendment they can do. She says they hear that it is hard for people to keep up with living wage and the compression that causes. She thinks the small adjustment goes a long way for the providers. She says this was identified in the neighborhood center funding process, this was a top priority, they were not competing with them. She says this is the most important thing they can do to keep the program strong. Weier asks to be added as a sponsor. Ahrens says Subeck covered it. Bidar-Seilaff added as a sponsor. Passes.
Amendment Twenty-six
$67,000
Provide funding for an Early Childhood Initiative (ECI) expansion in the Frank Allis School attendance area. The City, in partnership with the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD) and Dane County, will expand ECI in the Frank Allis School attendance area. No funds would be expended until the City’s Community Service staff convene a staff team to include Dane County and MMSD staff for implementation of the plan. The plan would require Common Council approval. It is estimated that the cost of a site for a year is $200,000, with the City’s portion of funding at $67,000.
Place on file without prejudice. Passes
Amendment Twenty-seven
$99,000
Provide funding for Community Agency Contracts that are on the funding allocation B-list, as follows: Caminando Juntas employment program: $16,000; Resilient Cities Neighborhood Center programs: $50,000; and, funding for Neighborhood Center programs: $33,000.
Phair says this is the “B list” from the conference committee, we are running up against the levy and there are other things in the docket, part of me thinks we could cut it in half. This is what the committee decided. So he is uncomfortable with it. He suggests placing it on the table. There are good programs and we should put as much money as we can into people. It was 3 – 2 adopted, mayor would have voted aye.
$700,000 left before they hit the levy limit.
Amendment Twenty-eight
$40,000
Provide funding to support shower facilities, lockers, portapotties and laundry for homeless individuals to fill the gap from January to the projected mid-year start of the County Day Shelter.
Schmidt moves adoption. Verveer places on table for Palm to come back.
Amendment Twenty-nine
No levy impact
Change Highlight #1 to read as follows: Funding of $125,000 for an Apprenticeship program primarily aimed at helping prepare low-income and disadvantaged persons for employment in the trades, with a particular emphasis on helping ensure that there is proportional participation by women and persons of color who have been historically under-represented in the trades. The program, modeled after Milwaukee’s Big Step program, will offer pre-employment education and training in collaboration with community partners to help those in need of employment qualify for family-supporting jobs in the industrial and construction sectors. No levy funding is used to support the program, as the funding is supported by an appropriation from the General Land Acquisition Fund ($66,250), the Parking Utility ($7,500), the Sewer and Stormwater Utilities ($15,000 each), and the Water Utility ($21,250).
Passes, no discussion
Amendment Thirty
No levy impact
Increase a Teen Services Librarian position at the Meadowridge branch from .8 to 1.0FTE. The additional costs will be funded through management of salary savings in 2014.
Passes, no discussion
Amendment Thirty-one
$78,837
Add 1.0 FTE Maintenance Mechanic position to provide preventive maintenance system-wide and resolve maintenance issues. The mechanic would possess the necessary skill sets to operate and maintain sophisticated HVAC and other mechanical systems. Add hourly pay for a Maintenance Worker (20 hours per week) to provide system-wide service.
Placed on table.
NOW WHAT?
$700 before they hit the levy limit. Items 28, 24a, 7b and 31 are on the table.
The Mayor explains the motions in order at the moment are to remove items from the table, further amend motions they have made or to adjourn. And they have to refer the budget. Mayor suggests not to adjourn until they do that.
Amendment 7b – Police Information Specialist
Subeck moves to take 7b from the table. Passes. Mayor says if they want to substitute 7b for 7a, the motion to make is adopt 7b and remove 7a. Subeck moves that. It passes. Now they have $38,735
Amendment 15 – Composting program
Schmidt reconsiders item 15 – Mayor points out that anything reconsidered once, no debate on reconsideration. Schmidt amends the amendment to be a half year program for $41,233. They pass that unanimously. The vote unanimously on the amendment as well.
They now have $80,900 before they reach the levy limit.
Palm makes a motion to take 28 off the table. Passes. Palm substitutes support for the county day resource center. Schmidt asks if that is 40K, yes. Verveer asks about misc appropriations on page 15, so he is curious why this is in miscellaneous, and this is CDBG, he is in favor of the $40K, but he thinks they need to marry the two items, 2 sections of the budget for the same item. Mayor says decide if adopted and then amend at council meeting to consolidate it. Bidar-Seilaff asks if the total $71,000 for 2014, $40 plus the $31K. Schmiedieke says there is $31 in the budget. Bidar-Siealff asks if that is the amount. The amount requested was $40 – 50K. Palm moves to table again – that is a good question.
They take a 10 minute recess to figure out what to do
Motion still there, place 28 on table. Fails. Palm asks to withdraw his motion and start over, seconder agrees. Palm amends page 13 of miscellaneous appropriation to amend from $31 to $50K, or to increase that by $19K. That passes.
There is 61,900 left before they hit the levy limit.
Mayor suggests leave it for the rest of the council. They argue about process and if item 28 is still on the table.
Mayor says they can ignore 28, place on file or whatever. Subeck moves to amend 28 to decrease CDBG amount from $40K, to $21K, decreasing by $19K – Palm seconds
Palm asks how much would be left on the levy if they pass this, the answer is $30,900
DeMarb is not sure what 40K bought us, did it fund the gap, what does that do if decreased by $19K, what does it look like. Resnick says Rummel had sent out budget amendment dollars and he didn’t think $11,000 for portapotties is not the right amount, we would reduce that level or the length of service, money doesn’t start til the 1st. Bidar Sielaff says that we are now spending $21K instead of $40. Mayor says $31K was based on calculations of the city share of Dane County taxes.
Subeck says that we could support $40K for the gap, if we have to figure out where to put money she would reduce this for the day center, because that is the long term solution, but there still is a gap, its not just portapotties, showers, but laundry and lockers. There would be reprioritizing what the $21K, this is value for the people who need it and for downtown. We are buying some time for the 6 months until the shelter opens. Subeck also says on proportionality with the county, she is more comfortable with the money because in the case of our downtown there is an investment to be made, the county is purchasing the facility and they should, but given that, she is comfortable with a small additional amount into the operation.
Bidar-Sielaff says she realizes its $21K in all these things, but we heard from Supervisor Heidi that she preferred the $50K, because she was bringing amendments to fund that additional amount. They would prefer us to spend it on the operations of the day shelter. We are already funding it at a higher level than the mayor had in the budget.
Clausius says that they put in an additional $19K, the $21K is a gap, so the city of Madison is picking up this gap that is county wide, he doesn’t think they should do any more. He understands that they have numerous amendments, he isn’t willing to make the amendment.
Resnick says that even tho there are amendments, there is no guarantee they will be passed at the county. We should think about what we are facing and what the gap resources are, especially showers and portapotties, this is not exactly mapped out, but at least on those two pieces, those are a necessity, but he is not sure what the cost is.
Schmidt advocates to try to not fix it tonight, do it on Nov 5, get better idea of costs and what the county did, its a one time gap, put it aside, we have 15 days, there is clearly a lot of interest, would rather do that then put in numbers and find out we have to change it again.
Weier says portapotties are important and supports the amendment.
Palm says that we have more time, but his instinct is to put money in so people don’t see that as money that can be spent on crosswalks and then they are done, while he calls it a gap, he doesn’t think it is a gap. Jan – July 1 is when the services would be, but even with the opening of day resources center, 3 am portpotties will still be an issue. And, if they are successful in finding locations, no one will want to let those go – the hardest thing to do is to find the locations, likewise, he is not sure what the MARC east side services will be, but some of these things may be useful over time, the gap is in the services we provide, not in the timeline.
Rummel asks them to support the amendment, and while true gap funding, and there was money for the shelter, portapotties are something that will be ongoing, maybe that is not the long term facility, a public facility is the long term solution.
Bidar-Sielaff says that she supports the portapotties, and will support it if the county doesn’t want to fund it, it is important to her, she thinks Schmidt has a point, if the comfort is 20K and we have numbers by the 5th that is a great way to go about it. This is not about crosswalks.
Mayor asks why we need portapotties when we have city elevators for them to use. Subeck says that is why we need the portapotties.
Subeck wants to keep it in the budget, doesn’t want it to fall to the bottom of the agenda, this is one of our greatest needs for some of our residents and she doesn’t want to run out of money, she thinks that people need to be able to use the restroom late at night. None of us like finding excrement in alley ways or places they shouldn’t go, The mayor still talking about the city-county elevators, Subeck says if they pass this, we can change it later.
DeMarb says that public toilets is a good thing, this is beyond a homeless issues, we need to take it up on a broader level, this is for everyone, not just the homeless. We are not talking about filling a gap, but something that is needed, she is not sure if htey can change that. She thinks it should be changed.
Zellers says a lot has been expressed articulately, urges support, in her daily trips to the CCB there are so many people sleeping outside, they do need someplace that they can use, portapotties at this point seem to be the best solution, not a long term solution, we can do better and this would be available to all people and if they can do it in other places, countries, cities we can do it here too.
Schmidt says DeMarb made an excellent point for waiting. If county is looking at this we don’t want to assume we have $21K in our budget, if other countries can do this that is good, but theirs are not portapotties, when filling a gap with portapotties you need to plan for this.
Phair says Schmidt said what he wanted to say, he hears all the time why major funders should get together and plan in March and April – we have talked about this forever and really we should, Lynn Green made a good point about that, this is just an example.
Subeck says this is still filling the gap until we have a basic human dignity grossly violated, no place to go, this is filling the gap, a person’s most basic human need can be met while we find the long term solution
Clausius says he has no feelings on portapotties, he doesn’t want to commit to $21K while county is deliberating, why not wait til Nov 5th. He questions if he supports it, he thinks it is premature.
Palm says that first instinct don’t let the good be the enemy of great, the need for portapotties has been talked about for years, there have been different angles taken and yes, permanent affordable housing is necessary but at some point we need to have a solution – why not give comfort to all citizens. There are still 4 things in this amendment, it fascinates him that this is when we do the grand scheme things and throughout the year we do more, sometimes staff figure it out, this is norm for the course, the whole budget is a guess, police can’t tell us how much overtime will cost, we can plan this to death and then in Jan figure out what we do. The county board does their budget after us, if you think county is not considering this in the same scenarios, then you have misjudged it all, we are putting forward a plan. They should take the first move advantage and put our piece on the board where we want to end up.
Mayor says county has the sales tax and in declining periods they take a hit but when economic recovery they have more money in growth, they took a significant increase.
Schmidt says heard more arguments supporting his point than against. He says there is a need, but its a bad precedent and policy to put x amount in when we have another body that will do it, its bad to put a number down and then go negotiate, we have already had some discussion, no harm in waiting 2 weeks, there is desire and support for an actual plan.
The motion fails.
61,900 left.
Amendment 31 – Library Maintenance
Verveer takes 31 off table. He substitutes 1.0FTE maintenance mechanic mid year for 31.406. Palm seconds. Verveer explains this will replace hourly. DeMarb supports this because we don’t want bigger cost down the road because we haven’t maintained them. That motion passes.
30,400 left on the table.
Schmidt recommends adoption as recommended – they refer to recessed public hearing on the 28th after more discussion about process.
