Sorry, computer malfunction and I didn’t get finished last night, but here’s what happened after the Mayor said he would veto the budget and they reconsidered the offending amendment. It’s all the drama.
Ok, so they voted on all the amendments, the mayor told them he would veto over combination of the the arts study and the half a million extra to the Overture. King moves to reconsider amendment one, the arts study, hysterics begin and they vote to reconsider . . . here’s the rest!
Amendment One
Lauren Cnare takes the chair.
Mayor Paul Soglin says he made it clear what was important in this budget. He refrained from saying anything about Overture as many of you asked me to, you know how important it is to me. I worked hard on the Civic Center and there was a great deal of pain to look at Overture and its failure to get support from the community and provide accessibility. Someone had the gall to mention my daughters, they all performed at the Civic Center, one of companies they performed with is gone, the second went under and only revived with a $500K gift and its still a shadow of what it used to be, you heard it mentioned that 40 high schools get access, how many are in Madison? He’s glad they are reaching out, but where are their citizens supporting Overture, this city took on the responsibility for 30 years and the last decade has been difficult for people working there, audiences and performers, for everyone, but also difficult for those who care about the performing arts outside of the Overture. Read your study on the arts here in Madison, there is no community performing space on the south side, there are problems at the Barrymore, what is the plan for ht next 4 years. He came back form Phoenix and stopped at Las Vegas at his own expense, he spent 3 hours with Paul Beard, he knows more about perforning arts than anyone he has met, he started in Madison, 10 years at Civic Center, he won’t bore you with what happened in between, but he was at Fort Worth, he opened a facility. He started with the programming, that leads to design, that leads to construction, and that leads to opening, then he did the same thing in San Antonio, then Las Vegas, and he’s soon opening the Smith Facility in Las Vegas. I went around facility with him and then talked. In the conversation it was me asking questions and him answering and him anking questions and I kept saying the same thing . . . I don’t know, we don’t have those answers, I can’t get the study approved, and then he’d say to me, what will you do if it doesn’t work and I said we don’t have any answers. I made this very clear. It’s a very serious responsibility we have. It’s not good enough if we give $1.2M or 1.3 or 2M, its not good enough to just write the check, the responsibility is greater than that and that is why the study is so important and I have made it clear over and over again, I made it clear a year ago.
Lisa Subeck appreciates the mayor’s comments and when we voted to take it out I didn’t think it was forevermore, I did think we need to do it at some point. I walked out thinking I would not change my mind and then thought and listened to King with the hill and Bidar-Sielaff with the high road and went with the middle ground, this is overall a good budget that meets so many needs and accomplishes so many objectives and its silly not to find the middle ground. Its sooner than I would have done it, but certainly for $1.41 per average home this is well worth doing.
Bridget Maniaci says she has had many years of being an artist, if you go through with the study, we need to know why music doesn’t work in Madison, why venues and don’t work, it’s the committee process, the ALRC, the promoter structure, performers were shot down cuz of promoter limiting artist choices, it gets into what Overture has for parking, its online ticketing, so be prepared for what we are delving into, we have very low ticket prices but then what is the in house cost, maybe the City of Madison could support sound staff that would make renting the rooms available for up starting artists, if we want the study we don’t need $125K to talk to people who do this to get on track, if you want to do this, if you want to get bullied, get lectured at, then fine, we’ll do it, it’s such a silly thing to get worked up over especially in this way.
Brian Solomon heard a lot during Overture discussion, he heard this is the first year, they’re not ready to have training wheels off and we know we will have the debate every year, he hopes the training wheels come off soon. Commitment was $2M every year, its a huge investment we are making into the future plus all other performing arts facilities, these are hugely important decisions about budget and vitality of private businesses in the community, $125K, that is not chump change, but we know we have a problem, we absolutely know it, at worst we learn that we are not doing such a bad job and the $2M investment is a good and we learn that business have good business plans. Or learn some things about how we can secure our investment and importance of the other venues, either way its worth the investment.
Cnare says we are all in an unpleasant situation. She was on the losing side. This is $125K that should go to Overture Center. She asks the mayor about when he talked about need to veto, was it about Overture and the arts study, or if the vote changes on the arts study will you veto it too.
Mayor says was prepared to leave the room and prepare the veto. You asked me to tell the council. It was not a question about an idle threat, that is how strongly he felt. The two critical elements are the half a million and the absence of the study. He has been prepared to accept the half a million dollars, that is not what prompted the decision, it was the combination of half million for Overture and lack of study. He can live with half million if they have a study.
Chris Schmidt says recently an elder statement reminded us that we are politicians, this is not bullying, it’s about strong priorities for this budget, again and again we have said we need a plan and there are legitimate questions, could we do it for less? sure, but he can live with it. He stuck with his commitments, he hopes it stays in the budget, these are the kind of things we do have to make the compromise, it’s not the end of the world and frankly, as much as I think we can work to help Overture succeed there are a lot of other issues and let’s take a look at them now.
Matt Phair says he thought he knew what he was going to say. This is frustring. This is silly. We have been talking about priorities and tough budgets and that we should only do things that are necessary. 11 people decided this is not necessary and we are going to get a veto – he appreciates looking at venues but we have been told and he believes it is not necessary right now. He is befuddled, he is not changing his stance on this.
Clear appreciates King comments, but mayor has made it clear this is a hill that he was going to kill us all on, and throw all of the city into chaos over this one item. We have worked on this for 6 months, I don’t understand how you can look 230K people in the eye and explain that this was so important that it is worth a budget veto, he could not do that, so if it is that important he has to make that explanation to the budget Stick to you vote, have the veto and have the discussion.
Jill Johnson seconds the remarks by Clear, this is a poor performance, stick to your guns, go ahead and veto.
Scott Resnick absolutely disagrees with the last two speakers, what happens if this doesn’t go right and what happens if that is soon in regard to the Overture, a lot of people assure me we are going in the right direction. The mayor says he needs this information, he can make a better judgment with it, he hasn’t heard plan B, which is restart negotiation, also right now Overture is attempting an ambitious goal of $2.4M to fundraise, we have had CEO candidates say I don’t know that is possible. BOE talked about what happens if we raise it more, so when we talk about budget veto and not spend two weeks arguing over this, and the alternative is a tool, this is a good insurance plan for the city, he wasn’t sure we wanted to do it levy wise, but for the cost he would respect the mayor and we need a plan B just in case.
Solomon wants to speak on the veto, since some talked with great passion on their frustration. A, the mayor has a right to veto the budget, if we don’t like it we can change the law. He could have walked out of the room and went to the press and vetoed it, it’s the right and burden of the mayor, he has the authority and he could have not said a word and its our right to override or not. I applaud him for letting us know he was going to do it. We didn’t have to move reconsideration, tone it down a little, take a deep breath, this is not extrardinancry, he said he’d veto and there was reconsideration and we will veto or not veto, either way it is ok, hoping will pass it tonight and would be nice to end with a signed budget.
Clear says that study is not about Overture, it’s about performing arts in the city, is that a plan B for Overture? sounds like not.
Marsha Rummel says Resnick hit on something, it’s about the impact of arts facilities in downtown. Verveer could talk about impact of Majestic and she can talk about Barrymore which led to revitalization of a neighborhood. Think about a successful venue and what the means to the neighborhoods and the more we know the more we can benefit. This points us in a direction that will get us to a better place.
Shiva Bidar-Sielaff appreciates Soloman’s lesson, she has a masters degree, she understands he can veto, it’s not good process, the rich discussion that can be had and the discussion that can be had to try to convince us why, would like a dialogue and get to a conclusion over that, this does not reflect well on how we do our business no matter if it is permitted or not, the discussion right now and the information he shared was very informative, what Resnick said was informative, why didn’t we have this discussion an hour and a half ago instead of having an antagonistic conversation. She does not feel like this is worth a controversy for the next two weeks, understand the issues, understand it is important to the mayor, will vote for the study, so many other great things, we shouldn’t be here having this kind of discussion, saddened by it, will take the higher road on behalf of the city.
Phair says that teaching a class tomorrow, knows how government works, this is not the right way to go, he just learned how important it was to the mayor, he didn’t know it was this important and this personal. (Personal?)
Bruer asks the city attorney . . . (REMEMBER, THIS IS A QUESTION) he has never seen this continental divide between legislative and executive branch and hoping we can bridge that, there are so many challenges and issues and if we continue this way we will continue to see the same kind of craziness on the national level, and state level at the local level, the city government has always been for the most part where people go to come together, agree to disagree, but are respectful, this is closest political representation, to go down road to meltdown is not good, the question is . . . the mayor will come forward, now put aside process and personalities and all that protocol, if he comes forward with a resolution for such a study, the reality that it goes through a committee and the council and if don’t like it can’t we vote it up or down by majority at that time.
(Wow, so that was one of the most intelligent observations of the evening!)
Mayors says the question is, let me translate . . .
Bruer kinda objects.
Mayor says that the City Attorney asked him to translate.
Mayor asks the city attorney if they do an RFP on a $125K contract, does it have to come back to the council.
Attorney May says yes.
Bruer says if they like it or don’t like it at that point they can say so, he strongly urges his colleagues to move forward, we can then look at what he is proposing and act on it and its merits.
(Oh, shit, most sensible thing anyone has said so far!)
Schmidt says that he appreciates what Bruer has said, he’s only a rocket scientist, he doesn’t have a degree in politics, but it makes sense.
Roll call
No: Subeck, Verveer, Bidar-Sielaff, Bruer, Clausius, Clear, Cnare, Ellingson, Johnson, King, Palm, Resnick, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Schmidt, Skidmore, Solomon
Absent – Weier
Maniaci abstain
Phair yes
Total Budget
Mayor says the need a motion on the entire budget. Without the mill rate. The operating budget with the capital budget rolled into it.
Mark Clear says this is usually where we congratulate ourselves, and he would like to make that speech, but the events of the leaves him disappointed and bitter (no kidding the dude is bitter), he will support the budget, its the right thing to do, Bruer convinced me moving forward more important, this council needs to think about what its role is as legislative body. (Funny, I used to say that all the time when he was in leadership and had his nose so far up the mayors butt it wasn’t funny . . . now he gets it, interesting how things change.)
Maniaci thanks all city staff, agency heads for hard works and all the meetings they sat through, thanks for the information we need, happy to support operating amendment and good people (clapping and standing o)
Cnare says this was difficult cuz of two issues, but also new players and situations, this might not be our finest moment but it is the most teachable, many rose to occasion to talk about how to make decisions and for next year we should start talking about the budget in April, need to take advantage of that long period of time, its not about Robert’s Rules and amendments, but about conversations, the mayor should call us and send your staff people out, we had great successes when you picked up phone and discussed items, we should be talking about where to go have a burger not how bad we feel about the process, we got a lot done, mentions the rookies and thanks them for doing what you do.
Verveer thanks finance department and staff. Says the budget is usually not this dramatic to the new finance director. Also some people this is the last budget, thanks to Fire Chief Amesqua and Streets Superintendent Schumacher. (another standing ovation.)
Rummel says that this was a hard year, our staff gave up $10M, we talked about protecting workers, we took that $10M from them, that was hard to swallow. It was hard for the integrity of the process thanks to the state, also recall that mayor did something we hope we will do more of, participatory budgeting process, 5 meetings were had all around the city and testimony was taken and we will work on improving that, to some degree we had a learning curve and lastly, always people in my district want to talk about how we grow, we grow on edges and a dense downtown. Last year was a harder budget for me, there was less sleep and more pressure.
Bidar-Sielaff thanks the mayor staff and president Cnare, not easy to be council president and she had been a great leader where we all learned new things – thanks
Mayor and Bruer have some exchange that ends in the Mayor saying he wants the last word. He thinks Cnare, Bidar-Sielaff, staff and workforce for the city, particularly the bargaining units who were forced to make concessions by the state government that does not understand investment in infrastructure and human resources is what builds an economy that is inclusive, the City of Madison has never seen challenges as it has in last several years with what happening nationally, state and local, he is not sure if it will be in 3 or 5 years or a decade but guarantee that we will be astonished by our own successes and in terms of opening up a better place for doing business, private or public sector and he is concerned that every one has an opportunity. Madisonians are altruistic. This budget was not fair to anyone, in the sense that for people who work as hard as they do, we deserve better cooperation and partnership from others, we have challenges that will be extraordinary, challenges not already addressed, phosphorus on the horizon, in rivers and lakes is huge and the burden on the city is disproportionate, that is just one example of what is coming, the budget might have been difficult, especially the last hour and he apologizes for being to subtle in making clear what is important to me, but we did get it done in only two nights. And barely went over 12:3.
Subeck says maybe.
Mayor says motion is adoption.
It passes on a voice vote unanimously.
Vote on the whole thing – capital and operating budget
Passes on voice vote unanimously
Item 3
Schmeidicke says that it is $186,737,361 on the levy and the mill rate is 8.821.
They vote and the operating budget, capital budget and levy.
The pass it unanimously.
Announcements
None
Adjournment
They do.
Most of them and the mayor went to the Merchant with several people from the Overture. Last night most of them who went out went to the Great Dane with the opponents to the Edgewater. There were some notable, bitter exceptions, but I’m hoping it was just the heat of the moment and cooler heads prevail. They’re right, this wasn’t their finest hour, but more on that later . . . .
