Sad, sad day for the taxpayer. More blank checks for the CDA. For land that should have been free!
The Council meeting started 10 minutes late with Judy Compton, Robbie Webber and Zach Brandon being absent. Here’s the agenda, you’ll have to do many of your own links.
We had a packet of over 1200 pages and we passed all but 12 or 13 items and 16 public hearing items of the 143 items for action in the first 5 minutes. Some of the items that passed without a word included:
25 – Assistance to a new emerging neighborhood, the Great Gray Neighborhood, or “Owl Hell” as the police refer to it.
27 – Supporting more District Attorneys for Dane County.
62 – More money for Urban League project at Villager Mall.
110 – Finally getting the policies on security cameras available to the public, years after the Council requested the Mayor to write the APM.
111- Revising Cable Ordinances due to the changes at the state.
140 – Declaring voter registration week.
Next we did public hearings. Two items of interest in the public hearings.
CHICKENS (#2)
We had a 90 day referral for people to get answers to their questions and so Dr. Schlenker from the Public Health Department could be there. He wasn’t. We referred again after waiting for him to show up.
MIDVALE/SEQUOYA PROJECT (#3)
We passed a “compromise” that was what the developer wanted in the first place. Some compromise. The developer essentially told the neighborhood and the plan commission that there would be a Midvale entrance/exit. He proposes a Caromar only exit/entrance. Plan Commission passes a Midvale only entrance/exit and we “compromise” with both, even though the informal agreement is what plan commission originally passed. And ther was no additional traffic calming for the neighborhood and an we have an exit that we essentially know is pretty useless in the winter.
Moving on to the other dozen items not in the public hearings.
BUDGET MEETINGS (#26)
We agreed to start the budget meetings at 5:30 instead of 6:30 or 7:00.
CLINGAN (#28)
Gave a quick speech and got his position as the Community Development Unit Director.
“That was easy” says the Mayor.
RECLASSIFICATIONS (42, 43, 51)
I used this occasion to point out that we wring our hands over $10,000 for sister cities and yet routinely make budget commitments for next year without a thought. If I’m correct, this year through reclassifying our staff, we have committed ourselves to an additional $173,000 in next year’s budget through routine items that never get discussion. If 68% of our budget or $144M is salaries and we can’t touch that during budget time and have to cut from the rest of the budget, perhaps we should pay a little more attention throughout the year.
FUNDING FOR COMMONWEALTH DEVELOPMENT (#50)
Try as I might, I have no idea what Thuy’s point was.
NEW FINANCIAL SYSTEM FOR THE CITY (#61)
Before we even buy any software, we’re spending $249,000 to have Virchow Krause facilitate the staff and make sure it works for everyone. I hope the money spent up front saves us frustrations on the back end. It’s a shame we can’t use in house staff for things like this, it would save us quite a bit of dough in the long run. However, I’m satisfied that this was well thought through.
NEW TIF DISTRICT FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (#63)
90% of the $7M we expect to spend is on streets and infrastructure that we’d need to do anyways, 10% is on jobs. Is that really economic development that we should feel good about?
PUMPKIN HOLLOW SANITARY SEWER AND STORMWATER MANAGEMENT PROJECT (#80)
When is spending $14,500 actually coming out ahead? While the fiscal note appeared to be saying we were redesigning something on behalf of the developer for $14,500 turns out that the money comes from the impact fees and we’re getting some easements and so we’re spending money to save money. You just can’t tell from the fiscal note.
TRUMAN OLSON (#112)
Embarrassing.
We just took the first step to committing more money to what? After hours of questions without many answers the council signed on to something that wasn’t exactly clear. We’re going to lose somewhere between $500,000 and $3M for some vague concept of economic development and the CDA is going to lend money they don’t have. And all of this for what would have been, FREE land from the Federal Government. Seriously, this is just a tiny part of what the council agreed to last night. These are portions of the legally binding agreements we approved:
1. Loan Purpose. This Agreement is for the purpose of providing assistance from the CDA to Goodwill in the form of a zero interest loan in the amount of ________________Thousand Dollars ($_______) (the “Loan”) to partially finance Goodwill’s redevelopment of the Property into eight (8) units of permanent supportive housing for persons with mental illnesses who were formerly homeless (the “Project”). The total project cost is estimated at $____________. The Loan shall be repayable in accordance with the Note.
1. Loan Purpose. This Agreement is for the purpose of providing assistance from the CDA to Porchlight in the form of a zero interest, forgivable loan in the amount of ________________Thousand Dollars ($_______) (the “Loan”) to finance Porchlight’s acquisition of the vacant lands described in Exhibit A, which is attached hereto and incorporated by reference (the “Property”). Porchlight shall develop the Property into approximately thirty-eight (38) housing units with supportive services for homeless persons (the “Project”). The total project cost is estimated at $____________. The Loan shall be repaid in accordance with the terms of the Note and Section 22 herein.
And this wasn’t just a case of us having the answers and the numbers not being filled in. We don’t know what those blanks represent. But its ok – the Mayor thought we should vote for it because:
1) We should be deferential to the alder who’s district this is in.
2) Porchlight, one of the “best homeless service providers” in town, said it was ok to put the transitional housing in a swamp with bad bus service and access to little more than Walmart.
3) That it is best for that vague “economic development” concept with no details.
4) And finally, its ok if we don’t know everything, sometimes you just have to make a decision.
Nevermind that when I asked the 4 or 5 staff people answering questions how CDA was going to loan money they didn’t have, there wasn’t an answer in the room.
So, I want to spend $5M in district 2 for economic development and I’m not going to provide any details as to what I’m going to spend the money on. Council, write me a check! And sadly, in all of this, we are trusting the same staff that have us spending ridiculous amounts of money on Allied Drive and at the Villager Mall. Taxpayers, get out your checkbooks.
We did vote on a motion to refer and ask HUD for an extension, which staff seemed amenable to, but that failed with only Konkel, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel and Verveer voting for referral.
The final vote, only Marsha Rummel and I voted against it. (Compton, Webber and Brandon were absent.)
JINS CHICKEN AND FISH (#139)
We suspended Jeffery Okafo’s vending license due to some confrontations with police and a large number of parking violations and some driving after revocation of drivers license violations. The business can continue to operate, however Mr. Okafo can’t vend for the next 6 months.
RECONSIDERATION OF THE ATC RESOLUTION (#143)
Since we can’t debate reconsideration, I still don’t know why some people wanted to reconsider, but its just a resolution stating our opinion that is near meaningless. The motion to reconsider failed with this interesting vote:
AYE: Clear, Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Palm, Sanborn, Solomon, Verveer, Bruer
NO: Clausius, Cnare, Konkel, Pham-Remmele, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Schumacher, Skidmore.
With that, I think it was after 11:00 and only 4 of us went to the Great Dane. Tim, Tim, Brenda and Marsha.
