The meeting went past 10:00! That has become so rare!
The meeting started off with much confusion. Alders Sanborn and Bruer were not in attendance, but excused. As a result, Alder Clear made the motions (here’s the agenda) for the meeting. However, for some reason, after introducing his new staff person, the Mayor called on me. I attempted to move adjournment . . . to no avail! 🙂
The first item of business was the #1 the report of the Chief of Police on the state of public safety in the City of Madison. Apparently leadership decided that they didn’t want Noble Wray to do this in front of the camera and so they are setting up a different meeting for this report. They attempted to have it during the time when we would have had the 2nd August meeting (the 19th) when most council people plan vacations. I believe they are rethinking that.
The second item of business was #2 a resolution congratulating the City of Madison Fire Department on 100 years of service as a career Fire Department. Chief Amesqua made some brief remarks.
The third item of business was #3, a resolution welcoming and honoring the visit of His Holiness the XIV Dalai Lama of Tibet on his 7th visit to the City of Madison. There were a few speakers and we were all presented with scarfs as a sign of friendship. Technically, we are not allowed to keep anything of value, so at the end of the meeting we were instructed to turn them in to the Council Office. Thuy Pham-Remmele however, very visibly refused to turn hers in and walked out of the room with hers.
Next, we did the consent agenda. We passed the entire agenda minus the public hearing items and 12 other items.
The issue during the public hearings was about a waiver request for Linden Park (items 5, 9 and 61). The issue was that the city did not offer enough incentives/offsets to make the developer whole, so they applied for a waiver. This was the first time the staff had done the waiver process and there were several questions about if the numbers were correct or if the policies were followed. The staff admitted there were likely some errors and we were not clear if the process was done correctly. There was a long explanation, that I have to say at least 75% of the people in the room didn’t understand. And the argument ended up being about if we should just trust the staff (who said they weren’t sure the answer was correct) or not. Absurd. Of course we trust the staff, this issue was just complicated and there are several issues to be resolved. The vote ended up AYE: Brandon, Clausius, Clear, Cnare, Compton, Gruber, Judge, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Rummel, Schumacher, Skidmore, Solomon, Verveer, Kerr. NO: Webber, Konkel ABSTAIN: Rhodes-Conway ABSENT: Bruer, Sanborn I asked a few people why they voted the way they did and the biggest reason I heard was the they had to pay $7,800 into the Inclusionary Zoning fund and people didn’t want the number to go any lower. My argument was, we should make sure they do it right and if the amount of money changes, maybe even goes down, so be it. We should just make sure we do it correctly. For me, its about integrity. I should have known better trying to make that argument to a room full of politicians. It was also during this discussion that Alder Thuy Pham-Remmele pulled out the standard insult that I don’t have a “real job” and haven’t ever done a development. Classy.
The next item (#26) was the Allied Drive Task Force Employment report which was accepted after a few questions.
Then we discussed the budget process for next year (#28), which was an amended substitute reflecting the work of the Presidents Workgroup. We are attempting to get more council members involved earlier and make the process more welcoming (starting with having enough chairs in the room!). I also posed the question, if instead of doing 3 the budget meetings 3 nights in a row, if we might haveing the meetings in a little over a week (Tuesday, Thursday, Wednesday) so that we could have more time to work between the meetings and also more time to work things out with our colleagues. While many thought that had merit, we didn’t think we could change it for this year. If the budget is going to be as bad as they say it is going to be, I think we need to do it this year. Who knows, it still may change.
I think this is where we took a “10 minute break” that lasted 20 or 25 minutes. When we came back we did #74 the annual report on gender, racial/ethnic minorities and people with disabilities on City of Madison committee, commission and board appointments. There were a few softball questions about how alders could help get more people on committees and the report passed.
We then went back to the Salt Use report (#31), no one was there to answer questions so we referred it.
Union Corners redevelopment district(#59), also referred, for 90 days.
Mailboxes ordinance (#62) also referred for more work.
Next up – a new lease for Madison Metro (#69) – a bigger space at a higher costs and in spite of the worlds worst budget ever for next year, we approved the lease.
Finally, somewhat appropriately, the fireworks (#72). Alder Cnare attempted to lower the fine from approximately $400 to approximately $100. Before the meeting, I talked with Alder Cnare and we came to a compromise of $225. However, Alder Brandon had went on a little rant about how the police shouldn’t be able to not give tickets, then come to us and tell us they won’t give tickets because what we decided was appropriate was inappropriate in their eyes. There were some issues about different types of fireworks (bottle rocker vs. mortar vs. multiround) and an attempt to refer it back to PSRB to give different fine amounts based on the type of fireworks. That motion failed on a voice vote. Next we voted to lower the fine to $225. That passed AYE: Webber, Clear, Cnare, Clausius, Compton, Gruber, Judge, Konkel, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Rhodes-Conway, Schumacher, Solomon, Verveer. NO: Brandon, Kerr, Rummel, Skidmore ABSENT: Bruer, Sanborn Then we voted on the final and the vote was the same except Palm and Schumacher switched to no.
After that, we went to Brochah. Gruber, Clear, Rummel, Rhodes-Conway, Webber and the Mayor’s staff (Mendoza, Plant, Pariano and the new kid on the block), the Mayor and the City Attorney were there. Home by midnight.
