Well, after more public testimony, several motions, much confusion and about 2 hours of debate they settled on $1.75.
I missed the motion to reconsider. Apparently Gary made the motion and Brian (I think) seconded it. The argument seemed to be that there was new information. Everyone except Margaret Bergamini and Robbie Webber voted to reconsider – putting Brian Solomon’s motion back on the table.
I also missed some of the public testimony. And not knowing what I had missed, didn’t take notes on the public testimony. I got there around 6:45 and Lisa Subeck was speaking and took several questions. Several others spoke after her. They took a break and around 8:10 they resumed. At that point, the City Attorney told them what they could and could not do. Most notably, they couldn’t change the budget. At one point, Gary Paulson sought to clarify – if they can’t vote to change the budget then the fact that people were calling them irresponsible was inaccurate. In fact, they had made many suggestions at their last meeting – they just couldn’t take formal action. But you know, that doesn’t stop editorial boards or some politicians from making such statements.
Finally, they got to debate. Jed first made a motion to keep the $2 increase as passed by the Council. Duane Hinz tried to modify it to include the low-income bus fare program. Then he withdrew it because it got all confusing. Jed’s motion then failed, I think unanimously, but it was more procedural than a comment on the motion.
The next motion was to go with Jed’s motion with the low-income bus fare. Ken Streit made the motion with Duane seconding. There was alot of discussion about why what was here now still didn’t justify raising the fares, discussion about the models and how they were all just guesses and that in these times no model was likely to be accurate, and alot of talk about the future and what might happen with various changes and decisions at the federal government/fund levels. There was concern about losing the choice riders and if the low income fare program goes far enough. And, slowly, you could see people putting on their gloves, and hats and eventually coats because it was so cold in the room. And eventually they voted 4 – 4 to pass the motion and the chair Carl Durocher had to break the tie causing the motion to fail. (Voting yes to raise fares to $2 were: Duane Hinz, Ken Streit, Gary Poulson and Jed Sanborn. Voting no were Brian Solomon, Margaret Bergamini, Robbie Webber, Amanda White and Carl Durocher)
Brian then made a motion to change the are to $1.75 and I honestly don’t think he thought they were making a decision about the low-income bus fare due to the previous confusion. More talking. Staff had some concerns about his numbers and there were some questions about if they were working with the current budget why they needed to make up for the additional money the staff said they still needed. Lost more discussion with some of the same talking points discussed. Strong statements about this isn’t the time to compromise, that you can’t call service increases actual increases, they are restorations of previous cuts to service and that we have been in the death spiral for 10 years now. However, it was all enough to have Carl change his vote. Brian and Jed changed their votes. So it was another tie with Carl breaking the tie. AYE: Duane Hinz, Ken Streit, Gary Poulson, Jed Sanborn Carl Durocher. NO: Amanda White, Robbie Webber, Margaret Bergamini and Jed Sanborn. Carl explained that he voted to prevent this from going back to council. It sounded kind of odd at the time, but I believe what he meant was that politically, this was a viable compromise – not that he was voting out of spite for the council as I believe at least one person in the room interpreted it.
At this point, more confusion. I believe at this point is when Brian figured out that the low-income fare was no longer on the table and that they could no longer vote on that. He tried to make a motion to refer that discussion to the next meeting. With that, some of us who hadn’t already done so, put on our coats and went home – or to the bar.
At the end, there were still 7 members of the public there along with Alder Clear and myself plus 6 staff members and 2 reporters. It was 9:45. I don’t think anyone walked out of the room happy. I always thought that compromises were supposed to be win-win situations, but I think most felt it was lose-lose.
