Each Council member takes 3 minutes to share their hopes, dreams and priorities. They didn’t have any time left to discuss what each other said, but you can get sense of each council member’s priorities.
Here’s the audio.
This is essentially live blogged as I have 25 pages of notes from last night and I just can’t get through it all, so forgive all the typos and sentence abnormalities. I’m not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good – or, leaving things left undone because there is no time. Hope it is not too terrible.
First, they have a little discussion about who goes first, Subeck doesn’t want to go first (District 1), Phair doesn’t want to go first (starting with District 20). They settle on taking volunteers.
Marsha Rummel thanks council leadership, not the right time but has thought of all of it, but hasn’t had time to absorb opportunities. We were asked for capital and district priorities – she didn’t break it out. Community security – food, shelter, safety and jobs is how she looked at it – basic needs. In her district she thinks of wasting money on roads – our environmental future will rely less on cars and more on mass transit and walkable neighborhoods and we need to think about the future of the car. Building is not just for people, but the cars that live with the people. We need to “fix it first” and then think about growing the road. The other big issue is water quality. We have a lot of water but getting it and getting it in a good form is a big question. How do we deal with the commercial legacies all around the city. Central Park is important, also Garver Feed Mill.
Mark Clear says top priority is collaborative process on Overture. The argument and conversation is unproductive and he wants to focus on more critical parts of the budget and we need a better process to come to consensus about its value instead of fighting over it. He wants a conversation before the Mayor puts out his budget and draws a line in the sand. He wants to deal with it before it is a crisis. They were hoping they were done with crisis and doesn’t want another manufactured crisis. Second he wants a more collaborative process and wants a more open process about amendments. The omnibus process was done in secret and wants it done in an open, public meeting. He wants an open process as amendments talked about in an open process, unlike the state.
Anita Weier wants Menominee channel dredged in the capital budget. Says the channel is degenerating into a swamp. She says there is a ramp and pier in Cherokee Marsh that is often under water. Also wants a dog park at North and Manor Park. She wants a neighborhood celebration at Warner Park on July 4th and an economic development project.
Scott Resnick thanks people for participating. He wants to focus on fairness among districts, socio-economic levels, especially in the parks budget. He didn’t like the alders who got their projects get pushed up. He is looking for innovation. Affordable Housing Trust Fund, Planning or Community Services, he wants more efficient use of money even if we have less. He wants it to be more transparent, and wants people to bring in ideas early on or late in the process. He wants this to be the most transparent process we can create. He says that about the last budget items on the floor, he says if you get items in early on you are good, but later in the night it gets harder. He wants to do a ranking early on to set the agenda prior to coming in. Hasn’t thought through that lately, but there is work to be done on this idea.
Sue Ellingson says people have been so high-minded with transparency and collaboration. She is focused on pedestrian issues in her district. Crossing-guards is a priority, don’t push Monroe St. back again. Housing in Greenbush needs to be improved because landlords and students don’t care about these properties, she wants a TIF district and wants to work on that. Student trash pick-up is important and want that in the budget. Planning is also important, with all the new projects we need these professionals to help us with the process. She likes transparency and collaboration too.
Shiva Bidar-Sielaff also thinks Overture process is important, she wants a 5 or 10 year process to settle the funding issues. She says they need to come up with a process and thinks it is unproductive to talk about it for so many issues every year. The second biggest issue is to maintain current services and the workforce. She doesn’t want to lose employees or services. The third one is about human services and deep thought around affordable housing. WE need to be proactive work with emerging needs in our neighborhoods. She is interested in private partnerships in these areas. She also wants us to think about the omnibus amendment process. When we do it amendment by amendment it is hard to do that and we need to try to do that in an open process – it was a very productive way to do a budget discussion and it prevented us from looking at our narrow interests.
Matt Phair says that Overture process is important to lessen the “torture” (wrong word), there is work to do there. His top priority is neighborhoods from two prospective, we need to look at the core, we need to make sure protective services are there. He also agrees place making is important, are we attracting young families to Madison, not just high-tech jobs, but are we attracting families who want their kids to go to schools in our neighborhoods. We need partnerships in out of school time and we need to work with county and schools to look at work with the education committee.
Larry Palm welcomes the budget discussions no matter how long. He presumes that what floats to the top is what is of concern to us and we should be as honest and transparent as possible. North Street, north side economic development and after school/out of school and safety issues. DAIS funding for domestic violence issues and he will have a resolution shortly and would like continued funding in 2014. Composting collection is a great opportunity for the landfill and a good way for people to interact with the city. Thinks the recycling program expansions are important. (People are giving him grief about comment about 1/3 of his waste being somewhere else) He wants plantings in medians to be maintained when approved and wants that to be funded.
King likes omnibus process, doesn’t share the comments about it, it was a much better outcome. He says the planning staff is important and we need to get out of our “consultant conundrum” and we need to get out of the cycle of going outside and invest in our staff. Hopes waste sites stay open. He is disappointed with what happened with BOE, glad we are having an open process, hopes that we don’t have issues like we had with shenanigans at the BOE this week, hopes this is an open and honest process and that we don’t rehash overture – that was personal, but he’s not hopeful if that is the way we are going to operate.
Mo Cheeks would like to think about longer than 12 months. He longs for a day when everyone feels as strongly as we do about Madison being the greatest place to live. He likes the committees he is on and he is looking for discussions about place making, need reliable transportation (some feel they have it, many don’t) and as far as public safety we have a safe community but it needs to continue to be safe. People need to feel safe and feel respected by those that enforce the safety. He also wants to collaborate with the school districts and private entities. He is excited about his first budget.
Lisa Subeck says that interested and commitment to meeting Southwest Community Center needs. Nothing has been done on Park and Park Ridge because there may be opportunities connected to community centers, still kids playing in the street. Wants to take a comprehensive look at transit and unnerved areas, many of which want or need it. Olson Elementary is not on a bus line and they need to deal with that. They have an alternate PTA because the parents can’t go to the meetings. Wants to continue investing in neighborhoods, old and new. She wants departments to continue to meet neighborhood needs like trash pickup in low income neighborhoods where there is a lot of a mobility and turn over and where there are lots of needs with parking enforcement and abandoned property. Community services and police come to mind, of course. She also wants waste center kept open. Loved omnibus amendment but hated the way it was done. If we do this, we need to leave room for things that don’t get in to the amendment, there were several issues that didn’t get in, it has to be inclusive, we can’t say if it doesn’t get in, we can’t discuss it, because we don’t need
Denise DeMarb – Overture, already been said. Dutch Mill triangle economic development area, businesses re waiting for DOT. NRT needs to be neighborhoods and schools. We have one neighborhood cop on the East side, there is more than one neighborhood, also wants neighborhood cop to liaison with schools. The emerging neighborhood program goes through, would like to see it funded, perhaps % of budget, Joiner study might inform it, we need to hear new ideas and what is going on in our cities. Last is walkable, bikable neighborhood. Most kids in her district have nowhere to go. She says place making is also important. Those are no in order, feels strongly about all of them.
Lauren Cnare says that she is a strong supporter of Overture and will be until she is dead. She says that people want to reimagine Madison at large level and at neighborhood level, she wants all neighborhoods to have a piece of the pie. Traffic calming (walking and biking) and traffic issue need to be prioritized. Building inspection needs more money, every neighborhood has houses in rough shape, some are landlords from Florida and others are neighbors who are struggling. Grass at 8 inches was too long 4 or 5 inches ago. She says that parks need attention, we need to talk about what people need, like dog parks, we need money for more. More ambulances throughout the city are needed. Also we need to talk about homelessness, we need dollars and partnerships to figure out how to do ta in a better way. Go East Side Library.
David Ahrens, East Side Library seguay. He says that the Library is first and foremost, need a new Pinney Library and that recommendation is fortunately coinciding with Royster Corners. He says the third issue is affordable housing, this new community will have at least 100 units that are affordable in the true sense of the word and 1/3 of the units will be for people with physical disabilities. The third one, again is, that we need another approach, a fiscal approach to deal with affordable housing in the future. 4th of all, if there is one, is to decrease the temperature of the building.
Ledell Zellers says that there is some duplication, but say them anyways. Place making is important, including the parks. She says that we need to do more master planning for the parks, in district 2 we are hugely increasing the population, we are going to see more heavy use of the parks and would like to see us plan for the future of the parks and how to get there. Some things might not be very expensive but others will need more planning. Preservation plan needs to have something done about it. People come forward with landmarks proposals when a development comes up, but we aren’t doing anything proactively, we need to get out in front of that. She says traffic is also an issue, pedestrian safety, speed of traffic, bike safety, transit and diverting traffic into the neighborhood. Basic services, garbage pickup and August 15th is important. Building Inspection is also important, can we enhance that, as I went to doors some porches I really wondered if I would end up down below. Another thing was undergrounding of electric wires. And Overture is important to economic health of downtown, we need to get it on sound footing and have a plan for the future.
Joe Clausius says that he didn’t think the omnibus was not a backroom deal and we came forward with a clean package. Public safety, he wants more community policing teams, he has issues with loitering and drug dealing. He is between two districts (East and North), he wants a lot of emphasis in police and fire. Likes the police crime analysts and need more. Homeless, hopes we can deal more with it, need to work with the bounty, solution is permanent year round homeless facility not in a residential area. 3600 Portage Rd could happen again when Lake Farm Closes – need more affordable housing, CCOC should work on it. Libraries is important – we should supersize them, partner with schools and he will have more to say when they get to it. They will always have to support the overture, when it was created it seemed to be a city thing, we didn’t pull the county in, we need to reach out to the county. Pleased with the fundraising, understands we are short. Nothing against emerging neighborhoods programs.
Mike Verveer says his priority has always come down to “clean and safe” and the mayor’s have always been supportive of doing that. When push comes to shove, we do overwhelmingly support police and fire and we should continue to do that, basic city services are the priorities for all of us. Beyond police and fire it’s also Building Inspection and Community Development Division – police act as social workers but we also have to fund the social workers. Building Inspection has focused on the challenged neighborhoods and have cut back on the programmed inspections on the oldest areas of the city. Community Development and housing – it is tragic we have not done for affordable housing – not just money but the zoning code, areas in op and cap budgets that we can do – TIF or AHTF – we need to do more to develop affordable housing. He always believed year round day center is critical and they proved their worth last winter and we need that type of facility year round and the central library can’t be the de fact o services for the homeless population. On “clean” he says that the parks division downtown plays a critical role in keeping downtown clean – capital mall/concourse area could be expanded. Two last things, improving Law Park access should be a capital budget priority. He says we need to do more for the arts, including the Overture Center.
Paul Skidmore apparently didn’t have any or wouldn’t share them.
Chris Schmidt, no layoffs. Everyone shares that.
