The Council meeting went until 8:00 last night and did, indeed, include a couple surprises.
First, we approved the honoring resolution for Hickory Hurie for his 30 years of service to the City. Tho, several city committees (CDBG, Housing Affordability Subcommittee and Inclusionary Zoning Oversight Committee) were interested in refusing his resignation. Between Dorothy Conniff and Hickory Hurie retiring, the city is losing quite a bit of experience in the Community Development Unit for the City. Hickory takes many, many years of experience with him and will be greatly missed. And the entire city owes him a huge debt of gratitude for making the City of Madison so much better than it would have been without him.
Second, we approved the honoring Helen Dietzler for her 11 years of work in the Clerk’s Office. Apparently, she thought she was there for another matter. The resolution is quite amazing in that is quantifies the number of pounds of elections equipment she has moved over the years. Another big loss of experience, but she staying with the City and will be in the CDBG office.
We also declared it National Youth Week in Madison and named a piece of City property the Jessica Bullen Orchard and Quiet Garden for a woman who was hit by a car while riding her bicycle.
By this point, it was already 7:00 and we moved on to the rest of the agenda.
The council approved the McGrath Project on Broom which nearly everyone agreed was out character in mass and scale with the rest of the neighborhood. While the project looked nice, a significant chunk of the neighborhood had remaining concerns with the project. The council still approved it, despite the PUD criteria. I voted “no” along with Alder Rummel.
Next, we once again referred a bartenders license back to ALRC to consider the City attorney’s information about what we need to find to deny a bartenders license.
Next was the police union contract. I separated to ask several questions. Things I learned as a result of those questions are as follows:
- We approved the police spending an additional $28,772 beyond what was approved in the budget for the people who were hired in the “accelerated” class to start at a higher pay scale than other new officers. They said that they would pay for this out of salary savings in other areas. Quite interesting given how much discussion the Clerk’s Office position discussion later in the agenda.
- There is a committee that is looking at different scheduling for the police department, including moving to 4 10-hour shifts. That committee will review the yet-to-be-seen study that the council approved. Apparently there are some problems getting the report from the consultant – it was supposed to be here last November. Once the committee makes some recommendations, there will be a Memorandum of Understanding entered into.
- They are returning to a competitive hiring process for the Neighborhood Officers. These officers will be hired for a 4 year period of time.
- Police are paid 15 minutes of overtime for every shift that they work for “briefing”. This overtime can be taken as pay or time off. They say it only costs us $200,000 each year, but that doesn’t include the time taken.
- Apparently, these union contracts are the Mayor’s contracts and staff doesn’t feel that the council has a role to play in determining what goes into the contracts. Really? Apparently, we’re just a rubber stamp and should stay out of it and when it comes to budget time, just approve whatever the staff negotiates. I’m wondering what the taxpayers think about that?
We referred the $10,000 for the financial education for Allied Drive back to the Emerging Neighborhood Committee. This funding did not follow the procedure we proscribed in the budget process. It might be a good project, but we did agree on a process that this funding did not go through.
The other items changing the budget and approving contracts for Allied Drive work were all referred to the next council meeting.
The CDA Budget Template was referred so it could come back with the twice-referred CDA workplan. This was the third time we make the motion that the two items were supposed to come back and be considered together.
The Police Overtime Report was approved given the questions answered during the police union contract.
And then . . . we spent quite a bit of time approving the staff for the clerk’s office. The bombshell of the evening was when Alder Brandon made a motion to make the clerk’s office funding not only be taken from the Economic Development and Community Development directors salaries and salary savings, but also that it would be contingent upon a study merging the Council Office Staff with the Clerk’s Office. Apparently, about half the council didn’t know this was coming. While I was given the courtesy of a head’s up by Pro Tem Clear, I guess many others were not.
We struggled with this concept, heated words were said, some felt blackmailed, some felt blindsided and nearly everyone just wanted to get the clerk’s office the work that they needed. We took several votes and hopefully I got these right.
- The first was to table the discussion. I was in favor to table to get to other items to let other staff go home while we wrangled with our own internal issues. The motion to table failed 15 – 5. Aye: Rummel, Sanborn, Solomon, Verveer, Webber, Brandon, Bruer, Kerr, Palm, Rhodes-Conway, Pham-Remmele, Clausius, Cnare, Compton, Judge. No: Schumacher, Skidmore, Clear, Gruber, Konkel
- We voted to take out the language saying that we believed there would be efficiencies in merging the two offices. That failed 9 – 11. Aye: Rummel, Schumacher, Skidmore, Verveer, Brandon, Clear, Cnare, Konkel, Palm. No: Sanborn, Solomon, Webber, Bruer, Clausius, Compton, Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Pham-Remmele and Rhodes-Conway
- We next voted, after Alder Solomon had been recognized to speak, to end debate. That motion failed because it needed 14 votes, but only got 13. Aye: Sanborn, Skidmore, Solomon, Verveer, Webber, Bruer, Clausius, Compton, Cnare, Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Pham-Remmele. No: Rummel, Schumacher, Brandon, Clear, Konkel, Palm, Rhodes-Conway.
- Next, we voted on the motion to take the money from the Planning Department and delay the hiring of the Economic Development Unit Director and the Community Development Unit Director. This motion had the language in there about us finding efficiencies with the merger of the Clerk’s Office and Common Council Office and requiring us to study it and make a proposal for the 2009 budget. That motion failed 8 – 12. Aye: Sanborn, Schumacher, Skidmore, Brandon, Clear, Konkel, Palm, Pham-Remmele. No: Rummel, Solomon, Verveer, Webber, Bruer, Clausius, Cnare, Compton, Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Rhodes-Conway. And the Brandon-Konkel curse remains in full effect – but we got more than 2 or 3 votes. When this motion failed, Council President Bruer said he would find a way to address the concerns raised with Council Office staff and looking for efficiencies.
- Then, we finally voted on the underlying motion, which would take the funding from the contingent reserve to give the clerk’s office the MUCH NEEDED help that they need. This finally passed 18 -2. Sanborn and Brandon voting no.
- One might remember, this is the same thing I submitted an amendment for during the budget that failed 10-10 with the Mayor breaking the tie. The vote at the time was AYE: Clear, Gruber, Judge, Kerr, Konkel, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Solomon, Verveer, Webber NO: Cnare, Compton, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Schumacher, Skidmore, Brandon, Bruer and Clausius. Upon further reflection and after seeing how the Clerk’s Office has been struggling and with the elections coming up – several alders decided that with new information, that the Clerk’s Office really does need this position and I appreciate them changing their votes.
Finally, we took item 45 off the table and referred it back to the ALRC and moved on to approve the Water Filter for the Pool and the report that addresses concerns about police interviewing tactics highlighted with the “Patty” case.
With that, it was 10:00 and only a few of us went to the Argus. Alders Bruer, Clear, Schumacher, Solomon, Kerr, Konkel, Webber, Gruber, Rummel were joined by Attorney May. We enjoyed the great weather until it started to sprinkle on us and then some of us went inside while other departed for home.
