County Week Ahead
16 meetings, only 6 before 5pm. That's good for the county, the city had that many on Thursday alone.
City Week Ahead
20 meetings, nearly half of them are on Thursday (6 of them start before 5pm). And . . . missing agendas again this week, I knew it was too good to be true.
County Board Responds: Transparency and Public Participation
I got a pretty poor showing, only 4 of the 37 county board supervisors bothered to respond, and I can only reprint 3 of them. I gotta say, no surprises there. The trend seems to be going completely in the opposite direction.
And the Best Actor Award Goes To . . .
A little before 2am on Wednesday morning, there was a very interesting exchange between the mayor and a couple members of the council. It's amazing how catty they can get when they think no one is paying attention. Mark Clear was particularly unnecessarily snarky and unprofessional and the best actor . . . was just bizarre. I loved Mike Verveer's reaction.
Common Council Recap – Olbrich Biergarten Discussion
After nearly 4 hours, had to go to a new blog post, my blog get cranky when I write too many words
Common Council Recap – Public Testimony on Olbrich Gardens
So, I'm sick, but I can't skip this . . . so it will be whatever it is . . . probably brief.
What Will the Council Talk About Tonight
Olbrich Biergarten . . . and . . .
Olbrich, Start Over.
F for transparency. Beyond the Eskrich debacle, this thing is a mess! Email your alder (allalders@cityofmadison.com) and ask them to scrap this thing! Start. over. This is not how good government works. While you're at it, ask the mayor (mayor@cityofmadison.com) to veto it if it passes. If he can do it for State St. liquor licenses, he can do it for this one!
County Board: What will you to for Public Participation & Transparency?
11 of the 22 meetings this week that the county has listed (there are more that are not listed electronically) are held during the day. Not before work or during lunch, but 9 am, 1 pm. How are the public and the elected officials with day jobs expected to be able to participate? At the county level, this is particularly problematic as by the time something gets to the county board, its decided. All the action happens in committees and their meetings are over in 45 minutes and even that is mostly just announcements.
Madison Schools Week Ahead
2 candidate forums and three meetings - wow, most meetings noticed since I've been doing this? Sadly, I think you have to wait til tomorrow for me to link to anything . . . maybe. I don't really understand this system.
County Week Ahead
11 of the 22 meetings start before 4:30 - they have meetings at 7am, 8am, 2:30, 3:45, noon, 8am, 1:30, 4:00, 9am, 3pm . . . meetings I'm sure they don't expect or want the public to attend . . .
City Week Ahead
Wow . . . Equal Opportunities Commission and the Council Police Committee BOTH have agendas already!!!! That's progress!!!!!!! So did the Food Policy groups!!! We'll see what else pops up this week, but it seems, message received!