Madison

Every year there are "year end adjustments" to the City budget.  And they spend the last of the "contingent reserve" which is usually a little over $1M that they set aside for unbudgeted emergencies.  Lets see who went over budget this year and why . . . (psst, police ($1M) and fire ($2M) get more money as per usual)

Slightly unorganized and random . . . but of interest.

Unless you show up and speak to something, of course, no guarantee they will talk about it, but it won't be passed in one big amendment and it will give them pause to think for a moment.

A few Edgewater incidents and the Mayor's bike trip in Europe have inspired the City Ethics Board to start making changes to their ethics law. Many of you know I sent an open letter to the Ethics Board about the state of ethics in the City of Madison. And, I got some results!

After a full year of the City of Madison blocking electronic petitions, the signatures should start going through today! Yay! Unfortunately, how we got here was a little ugly

A new report out shows in the past 10 years (2008-2018) Madison added 10.6% more officers, the highest in the state.

Recently the Wisconsin Professional Police Association Endorsed Vicky Selkowe "In a crowded field of outstanding candidates, Vicky Selkowe's experience and expertise are second-to-none," said WPPA...

Check this out, in the hallway, leading up to the clerks office there is this . . . and it was there last week too.

Oh my goodness, its August!  Council meets this week and several other committees humming along, 5 missing agendas.

I don't know why its so hard, but there is a definite patter to which staff care enough to get their stuff in and those who don't. I don't always follow up - but PSRC and Board of Assessors are frequent offenders.

The committee voted unanimously to support the staff reocmmendation of the GEbhardt/Metcalfe Proposal for 800 East Washington, but not before adding a bunch of instructions for staff in their negotiations with the developer.

So, I have some staff people who are themselves looking for housing, and they are coming back and telling me new horror stories every day. The statistics are there to show things are bad . . . but in looking around, here's what I found.