Since the public testimony took a couple hours, I did a separate post.
PUBLIC TESTIMONY (I hope I get these names right!!):
Dan – Board member of Simpson St. Free Press. Talked about program and how it helps the youths. Argued that this highly successful program should not be cut, but the cuts should be spread across all agencies.
Godwin Amagashie – Also a board member of Simpson St. Free Press. Understands these are tough times, but we should not be throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The program has really brought many kids to the point where they can be good citizens. Madison should support these good programs in the City. He is worried that without the Simpson St. Free Press many of these young kids of color will not have such a positive influence. They are about to receive a national award at the White House next month.
Andrea Gilmore – Former student with the Simpson St Free Press program and now the editor. Many of the kids come from low-income background and they have the older students mentor the younger students. She is now a UW student. As a staff member, she primarily responsible for helping the kids with their stories, but has become more and more aware of the budget and how difficult it is.
Thuy asks: How many students? 40 students, 2 days a week after school and Saturday morning. She says beyond the students that write they reach 1000’s of students who work with the paper in schools.
Thuy suggests: They should get more ads. The speaker says that they have and they are.
Two people had to leave early . . . so they went next:
Mark Bergum – SASY Neighborhood Association and EINPC – Amendment 18. Talks about work in Worthington Darbo Neighborhood Association and talks about capacity building in a renter community. He doesn’t think that a city position will do the same type of work that the EINPC does. EINPC gets $38,000 but the loss of $15,000 will decrease the capacity of EINPC because the person they will hire will have to raise that amount of money instead of doing the program work.
Mariah Miller – Worked on a recent project that brought people together to learn. She has learned about EINPC through that project and has really gotten involved in the neighborhoods as a result of that work.
Tom Zarnick – Amendment #4, Doubletree Hotel Manager, Innkeepers Association Member, Chamber of Commerce member and on the Monona Terrace Board. He was on the study committee for the Room Tax – and he says amendment #4 reflects their recommendation. He asks us to support those recommendations.
Renette Mauer – Amendment #4 Director of Sales and Marketing of Hilton Hotel. Says we need to invest in tourism to compete with similar cities. She wants us to reinvest in GMCVB and tourism.
Noel Radomski – Amendment #4, a way to invest hotel revenues to bring more people to the Madison area and Monona Terrace and that will help pay off the bonds. More customers for locally owned businesses, and more visitors to hotels, which creates more taxes, which we can then reinvest. Talked about legislative intent and disagrees with Mayor that it is not for property tax relief. The intent is to invest in marketing. Hotel tax revenues are not a property tax relief mechanism. If that is what you are looking for, then prioritize what is important. Says its no different that what the state legislature is doing and we should be investing these monies in hotel tax.
Bob King – Raymond Management Company – Built and continued to own a dozen or so hotels in Madison plus another handful in Dane County. Has seen effects of well-funded CVBs (Convention & Visitor Bureaus) other areas and the affects of not well-funded CVBs. We need to continue to compete and in tough economic times – those cities that fully fund their CVBs they will be the winners in tourism dollars.
George Weisner -President of Innkeepers Association. Started off by apologizing for being somewhat nasty at the last meeting. Wants to work with alders over the next few years and wants to seek a compromise and leaves it to the wisdom of the alders.
Rhodes Conway to Radomski: Asks about contract – what was his perspective on the deal we made when he was an alder. He said that it was the art of compromise. It was appropriate at the time and that at any time we have the ability to amend the contract or leave it alone. The fear from his perspective is that the current mayor and the city council is going to take more money from the hotel tax and he thinks that takes away from the purpose. And that is why he thinks we need to reconsider the contract. He says there needs to be checks and balances on the executive branch.
Rhodes Conway to Radomski: So, you are worried about the money being taken from the room tax and not how much goes to GMCVB. Radomski says no, that we are below the average that most cities give to the CVB and we should get to the average of our peers. So that is why he supports amendment 4 because over time, it gets us to the average of our peers. It also sends a message that this is an account that is supposed to be for investment. He hopes the city council will put the breaks on the mayor’s plan.
Webber to Radomski: Average of what? He says the percentage of room tax spent on marketing.
Mayor says law says it allows 30% to go to the general fund, but we will only be at 23%. However, that law doesn’t apply to Madison. Radomski argues that the intent was for that not to happen and just because they say that we can, doesn’t mean we should.
Pham-Remmele – Asks if room tax is increasing every year. Radomski says rate went up 8 to 9 percent with the support of the industry. But they believed that it would benefit them indirectly.
Pham-Remmele – Asks if this is to make Madison to be a destination marketing and isn’t it right that we shouldn’t kill the golden goose. Radomski says yes.
Rhodes-Conway asks King about jobs he has created. He says hotels are a joint venture partnership and he doesn’t have the numbers of the operating company of the hotel. But it is a variety of hospitality jobs. He lists a variety of positions. He doesn’t think any of them are union shops.
Schumacher asks Deb Archer if this is just going to line the pockets of the hotel industry and he asked for the overall impact. Deb says that there is an independent group that assesses the value and that it is 1.2billion dollar industry that supports about 30,000 jobs in Dane County. Lodging is only about 13% and the food and beverage industry is about 30% of the people who benefit from the visitor industry.
Paul O’Leary – Amendment #5 – concerned about the language in the amendment. Thinks that the data keeping might not be the business of the city and county government and it is between the pet owner and the Humane Society. He has volunteered with the Humane Society and worked with rescue groups and he thinks that these are private relationships. Is thinking that the data should only be collected for animal control issues, not all animals in the shelter. Seems like it is an information privacy issue. He thinks the language should be limited to admissions related to public health and animal control.
Jim – Simpson St. Free Press – wanted to clarify that its not clear if Simpson St. Free Press was intended to cut. He thought the commission intended to fund him.
Satya and Brenda Ask questions – which I missed . . . probably because I was so annoyed that I raised my hand, Mayor Dave sees my hand, looks at me, looks at Rhodes-Conway and calls on her . . . and now can’t remember what Satya’s question was. I know I asked about how much they were being cut. A poignant point that Jim spoke about was that “some people call this an increase, our their funding is going from $34,137 to $30,000.” He pointed out that the new process is confusing and although he wasn’t saying it, it wasn’t working, because here he is.
Jim Powell – Madison Environmental Justice Organization – Wants the signs to tell people about the dangers of eating too much fish, and the signs are only being placed in one location. He suggests for $700 more you can put the signs in all places. The signs are only $35 per sign.
Compton asks questions about how much we are paying for.
Kerr asks for a summary of how the money will be spent in the City of Madison. Jim says he can get us the information.
Verveer asks if Dane County Personnel and Finance will do the joint budgeting. Jim says two county supervisors is going to make that happen. Verveer says that he will try to straighten it out if it doesn’t get straightened out tonight.
Twink – Concerned about the large spending on roads and lack of investment in buses. We need to better reflect the Natural Step and Sustainable Planning concepts. She wants us to freeze road spending. Our funding is increasing 65% for roads and population growth is only 1%. Use road building savings to prevent increasing cash fare on buses. Agrees with SASY letter to council. Is worried that increasing fares will decrease ridership. Worried about non-attainment for Dane County and health implications. This could also affect economic development in that with non-attainment will prevent some businesses from locating here.
Carl Durocher – chair of TPC but not representing them. Agrees with Twink. Wants to remind us that public transportation is integral and as important as snow plowing. It is really important have access to transportation for employability reasons. Members of TPC do not want to go to the public and hold public hearings about proposed fare increases. They had an arduous late winter/early spring meetings and thought that public transportation would be stabilized after those proposed cuts. Reliance on public transportation grows when there is predictability and stability. Amendments 11 & 12 are strategies to maintain existing services with no impact on levy without a fare increase. He reminds us that the fuel contract is less than anticipated and that is a $350,000 savings and that goes a long way to decrease necessity for increase.
Joe Lusson – left.
Laurie Wermter – supports amendment 10, 11 or 12. Likes amendment 10 the best. She thinks that Madison Metro should be supported by the City because it benefits everyone.
Thomas Koslovski – easy to get downtown on the bus and supports #9, thinks that many people rely on the bus and the .50 fare increase should be eliminated. Low-income workers need to use the bus and many workers have been in recession for years as wage increases have not kept up with the cost of living. We have seen increase in homelessness and use of food pantries and the city needs to increase service and keep current fares.
Susan DeVos – had to leave.
Ted Voth: Fare increases by their very nature hurt the people most who need the bus services the most. His vision for Metro is 24/7 fast, dependable system that is the preferred method of transportation in Dane County. Given sustainability issues, this is what we need. There is something wrong with the idea that it is a problem for government to provide community services. Its in the Constitution. It’s ok to do something for the good of the population. If we’re giving 65% more for roads, why don’t we put that into our buses. We spend alot of money to the state and feds to be put in corporation pockets, but why can’t we get some of that back for the public good.
Michael Barrett – We hear alot about fiscal conservatism. This budget is not that. We are doing just the opposite. Says each car trip $30.74 vs $2.85 for metro riders. $1.50 is paid by bus riders so its $1.35 per ride. Which is more effective for the tax payer. As long as we are paying over 20 times more for cars than buses. Let the market do the work, get more riders, raise more revenue by having good service. It’s time to fully fund Metro at levels like before the mayor came into office. (Ok – it was alot more colorful and critical of the mayor than portrayed here, its worth checking out on line if you’re into that kind of thing.)
Tim Wong – Points out that he was kicked off TPC for politically incorrect votes. Thinks we should increase the bus fares. Thinks bus should be free like garbage, police, fire, libraries. Also, whether the oil and gas prices stay where they are, we need to not raise the fees so that the choice rider stays on the bus and doesn’t shift the costs to the captive riders. Route 10 restoration is late, but shouldn’t be done in exchange for a fare increase. Notes that “bicycle escape routes” are now 4 lanes, and a bigger and bigger share of op budget is being spent on interest for the cap budget. He thinks Dane County should be contributing to Metro and the roads such as S & M.
Amanda White – TPC member, but representing herself. Supporter of amendment #11. Avoids a fare increase and increasing the levy. Not someone to say we should never increase the fares. 3 years ago she did support the increase. But not is not the time with the economic and environmental crisis and the non-attainment status. A fare increase is not a band aid fix we should be fixing with an RTA. She did an analysis of peer groups. If we raised this to $2 we would be the highest. Already at $1.50 we are at the higher levels compared to most other cities. We need to send a positive message to working families that we are providing an option. Metro is going to Middleton, American Family and Epic.
Barbara Smith – Opposes hike, thinks the employer sponsored bus pass programs have attracted new riders and stabilized the bus system. She’d like to see this model used more and doesn’t want to increase the fares lest it have a chilling effect on the riders.
Margaret Bergamini – Member of TPC – but speaking on behalf of herself. In 1998 the transfer point system was put in. The number of hours of service increased, but since then, every year we have been forced to cut hours of service. Some cuts have improved efficiencies, however, some of them have cut essential services. Some of the most necessary routes are not the most efficient. Some of these routes don’t measure up so well when it comes to lower income communities, but are necessary. Example: Route 13 and Route 5. As a result of these cuts, it would take a family an hour and a half to get from south to north transfer point once route 5 got cut to hourly service as opposed to 30 minute service.
Carmen Clark -Don’t increase the bus fare. She rides the bus year round. Has a student bus pass but works for DHS. Rides bike in summer, but rides bus when there are orange alerts. Passes are a critical way to subsidize the buses. She rides the 2 & 11 and about 2/3s of the riders have passes. A union rep and thinks more people should get the bus pass. Bright green is about finding ways to make environmental good sense profitable. If employers offer it as a benefit, they save money because not everyone gets a pass. Don’t forget about small businesses – they tend to pay less and if we raise the fares their employees won’t be able to afford to get to work. This is not the time to raise the fares.
Ledell Zellers – does not increase the increase in the fares.
Sanborn to Amanda White – asks about fare increases but they didn’t increase the cash fare the last time around. He asks what guidelines we should be using to decide how to increase fares. She says that she supported the last one because we were at a different point and that it had been a long time. Now, however, we have learned so much more about non-attainment and the gas prices have dramatically increased. And some of these issues are more pressing now than they were before. And, she is concerned that we are looking at a cycle of fare increases and service decreases (“service improvements”). She is also very concerned about the public message that we are sending. Sanborn says that it is a case-by-case analysis. Amanda says that she thinks that we need to look at the numbers and that is why she supports 11 not 10. Sanborn said it sounds like it is ok for fares to not keep up with inflation. She says that in a perfect world the revenues would cover expenses, but this is a critical service and she believes that it is important for the City to step in because it is a critical service.
Rhodes-Conway asks questions of Amanda . . . as did Kerr and Pham-Remmele . . . but I took a bathroom break . . . and when I got back, Carl was speaking . . . sorry I missed all that . . . but you know, it was two hours . . .
Ledell Zellers – Amendment #14 – supports Preservation Planner position being at full-time. They had it in their cost to continue and their budget reduction submittal. It’s a priority because it is hard to recruit at 70% vs full time and we need good recruitment. Concerns that we are woefully behind in landmarking buildings (ex. St. Rays) and there are numerous recommendations in the Downtown Preservation Plan that have not been carried out yet. The historic plaques are not in place that should be and that would help raise awareness. Finally, the job is more than full-time when you include all the meetings regarding growth in the city (planners, developers and neighborhoods).
Dace Zeps – Amendment #18 – see email. She spoke to several amendments but didn’t think that cutting EINPC is smart because the support that they get for so little means that people can get to their jobs, that their kids are safe in daycare and after school programs, sharing of ideas and resources that doesn’t further burden the city, building the community ourselves to find ways to make communities strong so we can be successful in our community. Just because you don’t have resources in your family doesn’t mean that it isn’t strong, but it creates a support system.
(Very, very rude, most people didn’t hear much she said. And I was very distracted and didn’t do her testimony justice.)
Anne Katz – went home.
Casandra Garcia – Pres of Hawthorne – new chair of EINPC, amendment 18 penalizes neighborhood because we are doing it ourselves and instead of relying on the network of volunteers and those relationships, we would be paying someone to rebuild all of that and we would be asking the city to solve the problems we are trying to solve ourselves.
