After midnight, still on the capital budget – only made it through 12 amendments so far . . . 30 or more are left to go through . . .
See Part 1 (public hearing) and Part 2 (12 capital budget amendments)
Still on amendment 12 . . .
I missed the end of the mayor and SKidmore
Fails on a voice vote.
13 – Parking Utility – Capitol East District Parking Structure Mayor Soglin, Alder Rummel, Alder Zellers 3,000,000 (other funds, not city tax dollars)
Rummel says that they incrased the size of the ramp and this will come from parking reserves. Staff is here to support it.
Passes.
Mayor’s thoughts
He says it was almost 1 am, he thought they would be done with the capital budget by now. He thinks there are two controversial capital budget items left. He’d like them to finish the capital budget and then they can decide if they want to finish tonight.
14 – Parks Division Ice Rink Debt Refinancing – Alder Clear, Alder Palm, Alder Zellers, Alder Hall 1,075,240
Clear reminds them of the comments by speakers earlier tonight, she says this refinances and allows them to retire private debt and make the investments to bring them up to standards. The loan will be in a separate resolution and he included language that will need to be in that agreement. He says that the city will benefit by $7500 compared to the current deal. He says this is a way to help an excellent nonprofit that benefits our citizens and there is little risk.
DeMarb says that she looked at reviews of the facilities and there wasn’t one negative review on staff or programming, but they do need to spruce stuff up. She says there are good things going on but they need to make improvements.
Skidmore says he was on the Parks Commission when they sold the ice rinks and he thinks this is a great opportunity, he hears nothing but good things. He has skated in both of these facilities and this is reinvesting in the City and the people who use the programs. They have taken over an important part of the Parks Department. This is an investment in our city.
Motion passes on a voice vote.
15 – Planning Division Funding for Oscar Mayer Subarea Plan by Alder Palm, Alder Kemble 100,000
Palm asks Heather to go over what the scope of this would be and why we need a budget amendment.
Heather Stouder (Planning Director) says that this site was not contemplated in earlier planning processes. It is planned for industrial uses and there will need to be a rezoning and a special area plan to accommodate almost any use beyond what is there today. It is unlikely that any company would take this over. They think they should start planning in the coming year. They don’t have staff resources, they think a consultant could be guided by staff and they think this would be prudent and it should be done next year.
Bidar asks if this was in the executive budget. No. Is there a reason why? She says that the closure was announced after other commitments were made and they didn’t feel that they could fold this in to their workplan.
Clear asks if this will be RFPd and there will be a resolution with specific language. Stouder says absolutely, likely in 2nd quarter.
Eskrich asked about synergies . . . Stouder is talking about the comprehensive plan. She doesn’t want to wait for the comp plan to be adopted and then do the special area plan.
Motion passes on a voice vote.
16 – Police Department Police Body Cameras by Alder Eskrich, Alder Carter, Alder Wood, Alder DeMarb, Alder Bidar-Sielaff, Alder Ahrens (75,000)
Skidmore says he opposes the amendment. He supported the trial, there was a committee to come up with guidelines. He thinks body worn cameras that increase accountability and transparency. He thinks they are a tool, but maybe not cost effective. He hasn’t heard about them being detrimental. There is opposition from the focus groups. He says that is not a good sample. He says that the groups opposed to the police are critical as well. He says he is pro-police and the police want the transparency, they are not afraid to wear them and to have them scrutinized and to have them be accountable. He says that Freedom Inc doesn’t want the cameras, he thinks the reason to have the cameras is because of allegations like the females being treated improperly and that would warrant and investigation adn sanction. Koval isn’t here because there is a rally downtown. He says that on one occasion the events don’t always match what we are told and discrepancies can be cleared up with the use of a camera. Right now we only have he said, she said. He says this is limited and the police department will come up with guidelines. Its a tool, it will be cost effective. He says he doesn’t know if he will support them in the future.
Palm asks the chief what his position is. He says whatever the best interest of will of the community. He says they started with the groups and there was no one clear response. He doesn’t want it to be said they are jamming it down anyone’s throats and they want to follow the policy makers. Palm asks if its oke ot wait for the study to be done. Yes. When will it be done? Chief says the 29th they come in January 2018 is when the report will be done says Deputy Mayor Reyes.
Eskrich is in support for accountability. We asked the communities what they thought, and they said there are other things to work on, so our responsibility, especially when we hear fro communities of color and those most impacted we need to listen. The police department study is going on and we need to let them do that work and that takes time and resources and $75,000 doesn’t do the study or pilot justice. Doing it later with appropriate resources (staff and funding) in a well defined way will serve us much better. Support the amendment.
Zach Wood (first time speaking?) says that we are trying to build trust and one way not to do that is to have a focus group and then not listen. He says we should wait longer and he also had concerns about the money .
McKinney says its convenient to wait for the study, but every week we get a report of incidents that the police department supplies to us and any one of the m can go sideways and we have seen examples of that. The Laird incident, we saw outside but not the back area. The Robinson case we saw the officer get out of car and go towards the building and then shots fired. The money has been allocated, its a pilot to determine feasibility, etc. She says yes we have given $400,000 for the study, but we are in a time now but those questions related to the operation of the body cameras, we are compelled to do that. We have 3 committees, she doesn’t want to have something go sideways and have a knee jerk reaction. We need to be proactive, she won’t support the amendment. They still need to create the policies so they won’t do the pilot tomorrow, but we can begin to look at the issues. To say lets wait a year, she doesn’t agree with that. She hopes they take a look at what the study is designed to do, it is a pilot, a test, a small scale evaluation on the north side in a community that can process it and handle it. Will it build trust, it is not designed to do everything, but it will give us a view of what happens in dark spaces. Iphones are taking all the pictures and we need to have our own.
Bidar urges them to support this. The reality of the families – a community gathering and vigil – which was at Centro Hispano tonight – they said the cameras will not build trust. They need to have a broader discussion. Veronica Lazo, our undocumented residents are living in fear, much more than a week ago. A woman will not call the police if they will be on camera. That call won’t happen, she will suffer. That video will be a public record and it is out of our hands. We need to think about everyone in the community. The police are stretched, they are working on restorative justice, do we need another pilot when we have heard that this is not a priority. Its easy to say “do a pilot” when you are not impacted. If you are undocumented and you could be taken away from your children, think about that. Please do not impact the most disenfranchised in our community.
Ahrens will vote for it because there is no evaluation, its a new project, it complicatd in terms of protocols, there is no statement of the objectives, what is measured, how it is measured, and we don’t know if it would be a success or failure. There are many questions and none are outlined here. If we were to do this, I don’t know how many 1,000s of dollars would be required, but we would have to have an outside evaluator determine if its a success.
DeMarb agrees with Skidmore, I’m not sure how I feel about body cameras either, a pilot might give us insight into that. But I agree with Wood, Ahrens, Eskrich and would add to Alder Bidar’s statement that the woman will suffer, but so will her children. Let the work happen that is underway. Let us work with the police department to understand what they may need help with to be the best they can be. It might not be body worn video, it might be restorative justice, it might be something we haven’t thought about yet. If we come to body worn video we will need a pilot. Let the communities do their work and find out what the answers are, she will support the amendment.
Baldeh will not support this. He thinks the issue of police and citizen is more about trust, he isn’t anti- or pro-police. Body caeras on police will not change anything. Its almost always recorded. The cameras will widen the gap and increase distrust. He doesn’t want the cameras, he will vote yes, he doesn’thtink this will help anything, he doesn’t want to widen the gap of trust between police and citizens. She does not think illegal immigrants are afraid of this, we need to invest in training about he diversity of the city, so he will vote yes not to have the cameras. Lets wait for the recommendations. Vote yes.
Cheeks says that we are debating policy in the budget. A policy decision we have varying feelings about and we shouldn’t handle this complicated discussion in the budget. McKinney has made an argument and many of us disagree and he wants to re-emphasize the fact we should take it up in a policy discusison through resolution and in response to the review that we have begun. He can’t form a thought or sentence at this point . . .
McKinney says that Alder Bidar and myself were passionate. She was in a restorative justice circle today and in the circle a person said that they wished there was video – and when this person said that, it did impact me. She is very sensitive around people being safe, accountability and restorative justice. She truly supports the pilot study for the cameras because she has a sense that this is the way our world is going. We paid the Y to have focus groups and she went back and read that. This probably will pass, but she hopes that one of the reports don’t go sideways and we can’t see what happened.
Verveer says that the Board of Estimates (BOE) considered this and rejected it and passed an amendment that we need a resolution to pas the council to move forward. Technically that is in the budget. At the BOE the police said that they need to put alot in place before they can implement a pilot. He’s not sure about if body cameras is the way to go, but if this amendment passes its an 15 vote item, otherwise its an 11 vote item.
Passes on a voice vote.
17 – Sewer Utility – Citywide Pumping Stations- Emergency Power Stationary Generators by Alder Skidmore, Alder Carter, Alder Palm 400,000 (other funds, not city tax dollars)
DeMarb is wondering why this wasn’t in the budget originally. Rob Phillips says there was a storm late August that created problems city wide and during that storm there were backups once the power went out. this brought the issue to their attention. There is a period of time to get an emergency generator to the station and sometimes that time is too short. This did come up late, but this amendment will possibly have a federal match. The city share is . . . I didn’t hear.
Passes on a voice vote.
18 – Stormwater Utility – Citywide Flood Mitigation Program by Alder McKinney, Alder Carter, 1,275,000 (other funds, not city tax dollars)
McKinney asks Rob Phillips to explain. Phillips says same storm . . . there were several flood issues along McKenna, Hawks Landing and many more and they have several areas that need to be looked at.
Passes on a voice vote.
19 – Traffic Engineering Traffic Signal Installation by Alder Clear, Alder Skidmore, 11,763 (city tax dollars) 33,737 (other funds, not city tax dollars)
Clear says this is a technical correction.
Passes on a voice vote.
20 – Traffic Engineering Public Safety Radio System by Mayor Soglin, Alder Skidmore 5,200,000
Mayor calls on staff to explain. Mr. Chang(?) says phase one of the project is completed, phase two should be done in the spring. A few weeks ago the vendor approached the city about the phase 3 of the project and they offered incentives to move the project up a year. The last round of negotiation ended around 4:00 today. They will save $900,000 and they will get additional $1.4M in products and warranties and they will have $2.3M in savings. They will finish the project early, they will get a software upgrade and they will have better warranties that will save money. They need to move the 2018 funds to 2017 even tho they won’t get the funds until 2018. They just have to re-appropriate to sign the contract.
Kemble asks if this will address the current problems with the 911 center. He says this does address it. He says the current system is obsolete and they won’t support the product in 2018.
Passes on a voice vote.
To see additional language on these, look here.
Finance Update
Dave Schmiedicke says that there is $169.9M in borrowing, 190M in other funding. for a total of $360M. $9M more than board of estimates.
DeMarb asks what this does to the dragon chart. Right now we spend 14 – 15% on debt. In 2021, 2022, 2023 we will be up to 17 – 18% of our operating budget being spent on debt repayment.
Verveer moves adoption of the capital budget – passes with three no’s. Ahrens, Eskrich and Carter.
OPERATING BUDGET WILL BE DISCUSSED TONIGHT (in 15 hours)
There was a straw poll vote about if they should continue and about 6 people wanted to continue, the rest did not. They adjourned at 2am!
Here’s the budget the Mayor proposed, the amendments Board of Estimates considered and passed. And here are the amendments that the council will be considering.
Amendments
1 – Attorney – Remove Funding for the MUNICODE Upgrade by Alder Cheeks, Alder Phair (25,000)
2 – CDA Redevelopment – Correction to Debt Service by Mayor Soglin, Alder Verveer 0
3 – Common Council – Funding for Alder Constituent Outreach by Alder Palm, Alder Verveer, Alder McKinney 35,000
4 – Community Development Division – Increase funding for 15 Point Plan to restore funding for the Emerging Opportunities Program by Alder Bidar-Sielaff, Alder Phair 150,000
5 – Community Development Division – Eliminate reference to Henry Street Men’s Dorm Alder Phair, Alder Cheeks 0
6 – Community Development Division – Restorative Justice Program by Alder Bidar-Sielaff, Alder Eskrich, Alder Wood, Alder Hall, Alder Zellers, Alder Phair, Alder Rummel 122,500
7 – Community Development Division – Appropriate funds for the Office of Juvenile Justice & Delinquency Program by Alder Palm, Alder Kemble 750,000 (other funds, not city tax dollars)
8 – Community Development Division – Designate Urban League Greater Madison as Construction Employment Initiative Vendor by Mayor Soglin, Alder Verveer 0
9 – Community Development Division – Homeless Street Teams by Alder Eskrich, Alder Phair 0
10 – Community Development Division – Allocation of Funding for 15-Point Focused Interruption Plan by Alder Phair, Alder Cheeks, Alder Palm, Alder Bidar-Sielaff, Alder Clear, Alder Gruber, Alder
Hall, Alder Rummel 0
11 – Direct Appropriations – Reduce funding for the HR & Diverse Hiring Strategies Study by Alder Cheeks, Alder Eskrich, Alder Clear, Alder Bidar-Sielaff, Alder Rummel, Alder Hall (90,000)
12 – Finance – Eliminate Funding for Employee Benefit Review by Alder Eskrich, Alder Phair, Alder Clear (50,000)
13 – Mayor – Transfer Position to Oversee the Alcohol Licensing Process by Alder Eskrich, Alder Bidar-Sielaff, Alder Ahrens (50,000)
14 – Mayor – Eliminate funding for Deputy Mayor Reclassifications by Alder Clear, Alder Eskrich, Alder Hall (30,000)
15 – Metro – Examine the Feasibility of Increasing the Number of Allowable Bus Wraps by Alder Phair, Alder Cheeks, Alder Clear, Alder Hall 0
16 – Multiple – 1% Pay Increase for General Municipal Workers by Mayor Soglin, Alder Verveer 446,233 taxes, 143,073 (other funds)
17 – Parking – Parking Utility Information Clerk by Alder Zellers, Alder Kemble 21,000 (other funds, not city tax dollars)
18 – Parks – Add 1 FTE Park Ranger Leadworker by Alder Rummel, Alder Cheeks, Alder Clear 39,788
19 – Police – Police Detective Sergeant Promotion by Alder Eskrich, Alder DeMarb 4,450
20 – Public Health – Public Health Reduction of Med Drop Disposal Charge by Mayor Soglin, Alder Verveer (25,000)
21 – Public Health – Health and Wellness Events by Alder Phair, Alder Eskrich, Mayor Soglin 7,000
22 – Water – Double-fill Deputy Chief Administrative Officer by Alder Carter, Alder Ahrens 98,972 (other funds, not city tax dollars)
To see additional language on these amendments, look here.
