As usual, not much happened.
The meeting started at 6:37 with Jed Sanborn and Thuy Pham-Remmele absent. We started out by recognizing Boy Scout Troup 15 that meets at Queen of Peace. They were there to watch to get their citizenship and community merit badge.
Next, we has resolutions honoring more experienced city staff retiring. Kitty Rankin was our Landmarks staff for the last 30 years and Jim Voss worked with the City Attorney’s Office for 34 years. I shudder to think of the depth and breadth of knowledge the two of them take with them. They will very noticeably be missed. I can’t imagine a Landmarks meeting without Kitty Rankin being there to help us with the history of things and the may examples she has.
We then received a petition to paint some crosswalks near Wexford Village.
We next did our consent agenda and we passed the recommendations on the agenda for all the items except #26, public hearings and the following:
#33 – Smoke detectors – referred.
#34 – Elevator inspectors – referred.
#35 – Julia has asked to discuss this item, but instead we adopted it. It was the ability to apply for a $25,000 grant for the tree inventory we are trying to do.
#82 – Curfew ordinance – referred.
At some point, Thuy showed up – bringing treats for her birthday.
So, then we went back to the public hearings and there wasn’t much of interest that happened except:
#5 – Quizno’s withdrew their request for their liquor license. They said that they plan to come back after considering the “tough love” feedback they had received.
#16 – The controversial daycare. This item clearly took up the most time. We heard about 45 minutes of testimony from upset far side neighbors who didn’t want the daycare. Mostly cuz its too big and has some shared driveway issues. There was, of course more than that, but it essentially boiled down to that. To me, the real issue had nothing to do with the daycare. The real issue was Jed Sanborn was not there. We thought he wanted it referred and city staff told people to go home before the meeting and some did. Then the Mayor also announced that the item would be referred. Then 7 alders wanted to vote on the issue anyways. We discussed referral for a bit, Thuy made more boarderline racist remarks depending upon how you interpret what she said, Schumacher sort of led the charge to just vote. I made the point that we told people to go home and shouldn’t vote – didn’t seem to make a difference, the vote on referral ended up AYE (to refer): Konkel, Palm, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Solomon, Verveer, Webber, Bruer, Cnare, Gruber, Judge, Kerr. The NO votes – the ones who don’t care much if we misled the public – Monson, Pham-Remmele, Schumacher, Skidmore, Clausius, Clear and Compton. Next time there is an interest of theirs, I think someone should inform the public that we are referring, get the Mayor to tell everyone its getting referred and we should vote on it and then watch them squeal. Ok – maybe not, but you get the point. It was totally unfair to the public to try to push this through. Luckily, it was referred.
Then, we approved our Council budget dates and times for next year. The problem is that we set the Common Council dates before we get the schedule of when the Mayor releases his budget. This year we had a full week less than the year before. I urged the Council to consider changing the dates when we get the budget schedule. Particularly because, I talked to many people who were interested in running for alder, but all of them bowed out, thinking they don’t have the time to do the job justice – particularly when it comes to the budget. It think we need to think about how to make the process one in which more people can be involved.
With that, sometime after 8:00, but before 8:30 we adjourned. Webber, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Monson, Schumacher, Clear, Bruer, Gruber, Judge and allegedly Verveer (I never saw him as he was with his posse!) attended. Congratulations all around for the 13 alders who don’t have anyone running against them.
That’s it, again, not much of interest and a sad commentary on what the council thinks of YOUR public input!
NOTE: Sorry no links today – woke up too late and have about 4 more things I want to blog about! The holidays are over and the issues are flowing again!
