Media

Interesting use of county resources to influence legislative activity . . . er, some call it lobbying, especially when you are getting paid for your efforts. And, well, here's the talking points for those who support removing people from the city county building . . . nothing to see here, its all taken care of, services are being provided! Those homeless people are violent and present a danger to us all!

Love the bureaucratese - "All shelter, housing case management, information and referral, and food pantry and clothing distribution services are maintained at their 2015 budgeted levels." Funny, cutting 1/3 of the Tenant Resource Center budget makes it feel like something in that sentence is disingenuous. The "services" realistically can't be "maintained" when it comes to tenants in Dane County outside the City of Madison - what other agency has the knowledge, resources and skills that the Tenant Resource Center has?

Come to meetings or contact your elected officials on Monday, Tuesday, Tuesday (again), Wednesday, Thursday and if Monday goes poorly, major damage control on...

What a weird week - at the same time they're trying to kick homeless people off the steps of the city-county building, they are throwing open the doors to give millionaires, millions more. Taking the minimal safety away from those who have the least and giving away our tax dollars to those who need it the least in a gross game of Casino Capitalism. Email your alders on Judge Doyle Square! The votes seem close! Show up on Tuesday if you can stomach it.

He has the votes. The final vote is Monday. People could be removed from the City-County Building (or face trespassing tickets) by Tuesday. Need your help right now, and on Monday!

Hmmm . . . I don't know how we are supposed to know this, but the Sun Prairie Star says Joe Parisi is holding budget hearings: September 1 -- 5:30– 7 p.m., Fitchburg Public Library, 5530 Lacy Rd., Fitchburg. September 2 -- 5:30 - 7 p.m., Westside Community Service Building, 2598 W. Main St, Sun Prairie. It's certainly not on his website - last budget info on there is from 2013. Even the county board supervisors I talked to didn't know about it! Here's the rest of the county meetings.

It's a real shitshow this week . . . ALOT going on . . . ALOT!

This time, it looks like they have the votes on Monday! And they may be out by Tuesday! The mayor may finally win. (I hear he's seeming less grumpy and excited about winning.) But I have to say, if he is worried about crime, violence and rape . . . sending people back to the bushes puts many of these folks at risk to be victims of theft, battery, and yes, rape. Imagine being a single woman hiding so you can sleep, but being afraid to sleep because of your safety. This is all so very backwards. See below for meeting details and what you can do!

This bothered me so much, I did a survey, with the help of Matt Kozlowski. Our survey results of 27 of the 40 - 60 people are below. Does it match what the mayor has been saying? Spoiler alert! NO!

Last night the Common Council met for 3+ hours at the Pyle Center on campus and had a retreat on how it budgets and the comprehensive planning process coming up. Here's what they had to say about the budget and their priorities.

Why do you cover the mayor's outrageous statements and NOT the actual news - the fact that two committees have unanimously voted down his crazy bench ordinance?

6 meetings were added and 2 cancelled this week, 4 of these happened just yesterday, and 4 affect today, Thursday. And see my email about one of the cancelled meetings, I ended up more than a little irritated.