Madison

Complete with maps this time! See if it affects you. Read how it will benefit the lakes and the city.

The Common Council Executive Committee is considering the Task Force on Equity in Music and Entertainment report today, the last stop before it goes to the council. This has already gone to the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC), Alcohol License Review Committee (ALRC), Transportation Policy and Planning Board (TPPB), Public Safety Review Committee (PSRC) and the Madison Arts Commission (MAC). In the past month and a half they all have recommended to either accept or adopt the report. Accept means they receive it and don't commit to actually doing it, adopt means it becomes policy. The title says accept, the resolution says adopt so I think there might be some confusion. Anyways, here's their 31 Recommendations!

The list is out, here's a list of who Mayors Satya appointed to which committees!

What Special Interests Gave Money to School Board and Alder Candidates? I wish I knew. I went to the clerk's office to find out. I was told I was handed "everything" but clearly I was not. Where are these missing City of Madison Campaign Finance Reports? Apparently, candidates turned in their reports, but I couldn't get access to them. Deadline was Monday, today is Thursday and I still don't have access to the information, 5 days before the primary election.

Here is a great example of the games played with agendas, legistar and lack of minutes and handouts at meetings. Thank you to Maria and Jim Powell for their continued work with the Midwest Environmental Justice Organization (MEJO) and this fantastic blog post.

The very same committee responsible for removing the seats in the City-County Building and kicking homeless people off the front "porch", now are allowing dogs into the City-County Building?  Same champion of both causes, Enis Ragland, from Mayor Paul Soglin's Office. Tho, I hear this isn't over, and the Common Council will be taking up some portion of this through a resolution or ordinance proposal. And I see that it requires an ordinance change so people in violation of the proposal can get ticket.

I don't think its for lack of people applying. It's because the mayor doesn't appoint people who have applied. One of the things the Task Force on City Government is looking at is reducing the number of committees. Unfortunately, they thing that is a solution partially because of all the city committee vacancies.

I was explaining this to new alders the other day. It made me realize just how complicated it actually is to find City of Madison agendas. I thought I should share so you can d.i.y.

Here's 10 things city hall could change that I witnessed in less than 2 hours!  Good grief. I was interested in going to three different meetings yesterday. Government officials and committee members are wondering how to get more people to participate in local government - based on my experiences yesterday, I can name a few.  

Gone are the days of a grassroots campaign where you bought the voter file from the state, your friends come up with your logo, designed your lit, stuffed envelopes, did data entry, knocked on doors and dropped lit, baked some cookies and a Wisconsin casserole (hope you caught the Wis/Minn accent der) . . . these mayoral candidates are paying for staff, consultants, videos, photography, event space and food and credit card and banking fees and more . . .

Random things you might be interested in, mostly related to local government and the City of Madison.  Many additional government meetings.

A quick round up . . . may need to do another tomorrow once I sort through more emails!