The rest of the meeting was done by 8:10 . . . Church Wars went on til after 1:00.
I’m sitting here listening to what I think will be 3 hours of testimony. And trying to get this blog done instead of blogging about student partiers and shadows. I will, however, attempt to get the council discussion on the matters.
OPENING
Mayor Soglin is in Washington, Council President Lauren Cnare calls the meeting to order about 7 minutes late.
ROLL CALL
Everyone present except Lisa Subeck who is excused and Maniaci who is out of the room.
SUSPENSION OF THE RULES
Bidar-Sielaff microphone not on – eventually moves suspension of the rules for purposes of taking things out of order and to introduce items at the end of the meeting.
ITEM ONE, ARCATAO SISTER CITY 25 YEAR CELEBRATION
Referred to the next council meeting.
ITEM SIXTY – GIFT FROM CHRIS THIEL FAMILY FOR SEATING BLOCK AT WINGRA DAM
Cnare says Sue Ellingson has a motion to suspend another rule.
Ellingson is confused and asks if that is what she is doing. She wants to move to take item 60 up. They don’t suspend the rules.
Ellingson explains that Wingra Dam is in her district, it was beautifully rebuilt and a Chris Thiel was the landscape architect, he died in July and his parents and family have generously offered to give the city an addition limestone seating block and they are here tonight, she offers a special thank you and wants to let them step up and tell us a little about him. Then, after speaking, she moves adoption.
Cnare calls for a vote. Passes unanimously on a voice vote without any further discussion disguised as a motion.
Jill Taylor, a special friend of Chris is here on behalf of the family, he was talented landscape architect, not just with Wingra Dam but for other commercial and city projects. He was working on Union Corners and proposals for the Don Miller site. He loved Madison. He lived Lived in Middleton and Madison all his life. His grandparents lived in Greenbush, and for 16 years he lived a block away from the dam. The opportunity to have an extra seating stone with his name on it in his memory would be a wonderful honor for them to give to the city in his name. The thanks them.
There is confusion, people expect to vote. Cnare points out they already did, she did it the other way, because she is up there and that is the way she does it. (It totally makes no sense to vote before people speak.)
ITEM TWO – COMMUNICATION ON HOUSE IN JAMES MADISON PARK
Bidar-Sielaff move to accept, it was seconded and it was approved.
EARLY PUBLIC COMMENT
Joe McCormick was here available to answer questions on item 2 which was already accepted.
No other early comment.
CONSENT AGENDA
Bidar-Sielaff moves the consent agenda, she explains that they would pass the entire agenda as noted except for items that are public hearings, where people have signed up to speak, if there is an extraordinary roll call and then if alders separate an item for discussion.
3 – 6 public hearings
14 & 37 are extra majority items that will be included in the consent agenda as unanimous unless someone speaks up
8, 17, 22, 38, 72, 75 – items 75 would be rerefered to 10-18-11 council meeting.
Bidar-Sielaff repeats it.
Cnare says that 12, and 13 have speakers, also 75.
Satya Rhodes-Conway asks to co-sponsor on 10, voting no on 14.
Verveer notes they would re-refer 38 and 72 as well.
No one registered on 17 – Cnare says it would be referred to the city attorney.
There is confusion about speakers and which items will be separated for testimony.
Marsha Rummel want to sponsor on 10.
Chris Schmidt asks to add everyone on 10 (Arizona copy cat law), he also has a technical question – there is an error in title, says it says 2001, should be 2011 – please note correction.
The list seems to be that they are separating items 3 – 6, 37, 8 12 13 22 38 75, that finally passes.
AGENDA ROULETTE – AND PODIUM NOT ACCESSIBLE TONIGHT
They decide to take all the items except the church wars item out of order before they get to the Luther Memorial vs. St. Frances issue.
The accessible podium microphone doesn’t work, so people in a wheel chair won’t be able to speak at the lowered podium.
PUBLIC HEARING ITEMS – EXCEPT 3 & 4 – (CHURCH WARS)
EARLY PUBLIC SPEAKERS
– Someone registered in opposition to number 3 (Church Wars), they were available to answer questions.
– Judy Karofsky, in support of number 3, did not wish to speak.
– There was an early speaker in support. (I didn’t take notes on any of the speakers)
– Harvey Tempkin – the lobbyist against the project was ill and spoke so he could go home. Said it didn’t meet the standards. He ran out of time, just like just about every one else who spoke.
CAPITAL BUDGET
Susan Schmitz lobbyist for Downtown Madison Inc., thanks them for letting her speak early, she has to pick up her husband from the airport. (Does she speak when the item comes up any more, or does she always use this mechanism intended for people who have child care, transportation (Madison Metro) or medical needs?) She says they had a board meeting today, they discussed two items. They discussed TID 32 and the transportation master plan. She did send an email on the transportation master plan to them. TID 32, she says on March 17 2009 Downtown Madison Inc. approved the following position on Edgewater – Downtown Madison Inc. supports the concept of expansion and redevelopment of the Edgewater for economic development and the benefits. They endorse the concept for public access, historic preservation, and they left the design issues to the review process. At meeting this morning discussed that position and it still stands and they should not violate all the process it went through, it was a tough process, they should respect and uphold that decision, there was a lot of work into the process, this project as approved has no impact on 2012 budget, they should support it going forward in original form.
REGULAR PUBLIC COMMENT
Amy Kinast – she is in opposition TID 41 (University/Whitney Way)– she holds up website address http://silurian.org/meos and says that it is her commercial. She explains that Landmarks did not recommend the Erdman building for landmark status to the council meeting for Oct. 4th but she says they still get to vote on it. They do think it is historic cuz Marshall Erdmann is historic. The project information is at http://silurian.org/meos at 5117 University Ave. She is opposed to the TIF which is $1.3M for project 13. TIF 41 would be used to demolish the building and put up something different where the the building exists now. The development has a lot of money coming in, she asks what is the value of history, why are all these people here for Luther Memorial church? History is valuable. This was Marshall Erdman’s place of work for 45 years, it was a very important place for him, she could imagine it was spiritual. We talked last night about all the risks with the development. Check out legistar info for plan commission and landmarks discussion of Sept. 19 and learn more about it. Project 13 includes $3.4M for TIF that would stretch from Taco Bell east of Whitney Way to Erdmann West of Whitney Way, it will not go to Perkins. $3.4M would be $1.3M for one building for a clinic. I thought health care had a lot of money, I thought their asset to cost values were really good these days, why would we give them 1.3M?
Steve Brietlow, President of the Building Trades, he says he supported your work in the past, the Edgewater development is one of the most vetted developments since Monona Terrace. They spent two years to get it approved. They weathered countless meetings, hearings, and debates, much of them were about process. We learned a lot about process and how city and developments work. After a year of meetings, hearings and compromise, it developed into an acceptable project. It was unprecedented in that they negotiated a project-labor agreement. These are good paying jobs for construction trades, it will keep workforce trained going into the future, he appreciates the willingness to work with that, this project is important to them. It is also unique TIF project, he is not aware of a project that has put that much public space in with a TIF loan. It provides access so they can live, work and play and realize general tax revenue, he appreciates and respects the work of those that they did back then, move forward and do not go back and change your mind, you send a terrible message to developers that you can change your mind after years of work. We’ve been through a lot, keep TIF for Edgewater, its important for us and the city.
Eric Cobb – Executive Director of Building Trades. Steve and Susan and he are all on the same page. He wanted to point out that this is about jobs, a colleague pointed out to him its not about a job, its a job to mow the lawn when he gives a high school kid $20. But this is really about careers, people have invested their entire lives in careers and care about the work they do. Projects like this are important to them and careers, they are talking about income here. There is no way better way to bolster the economy than o build projects like this. This is one of the most vetted projects. Thanks for coming to visit with us, you have ample time to look at the project as well as the neighborhoods and citizenry, these are good jobs for building trade council members, but also tax revenue for the city. He is here in support of funding – move forward as planned.
Pete Stren – did not mark not support or oppose.
Bob Dunn not here- they have to go find him.
Tim Dementer – does not wish to speak not in support or opposition.
Bob Dunn says “I’ll be brief”. He’d say it is “good to be back” but some of us might have a different opinion on that. We have done this before, “I will be brief”. He wanted to make sure he communicates directly with each of you on the TIF. We have spent years together, its important that we take a step back and think about what got us to this point, this is a partnership guided by ourselves and by everyone in room at council that was on the council at that time, the city commissions and overwhelming input from community. The direction that was given consistently, it is his intention to make this a great public place on the waterfront. It was the clear direction on what that they meant consistently. That is what we id’d on the bullet points on the board. People wanted a gathering space for the public, a year round environment, this is our version of Rockefeller Center, Millennium Park. The driving force has always been making it a great public place, he heard comment lately that the space will be restricted 30% of year and people will not able to use the space. He shows huge stack of documents, he would welcome anyone show him a a thread of evidence that suggests the public access will be limited 30% of the year, he’d be happy to go through as much details as you like on the economics of TIF. This is the vision you have created on one of most important properties, he is here to tell the the project is not viable without $16M TIF.
Cnare calls for questions.
There are none.
Cnare closes the public hearing – they re-refer the capital budget to Board of Estimates.
Item 6 – Board of Public Works Item, there are no speakers, they close the public hearing.
Bidar-Sielaff moves approval, passes unanimously on a voice vote without discussion.
ITEM 8 – APPOINTMENT OF SAM STEVENSON TO THE ALRC
Bridget Maniaci moves to refer appointments to ALRC to the next meeting.
Someone seconds it.
Maniaci says she has a meeting with Soglin on Thursday, she would like to discuss questions she has.
City attorney asks if that includes all the names.
Maniaci says refer only ALRC and pass balance of recommendations.
Cnare calls for a vote, few people vote, she says “she thinks” it passes.
Rhodes-Conway votes no, Verveer, Rummel vote not. I thought Cnare also said lSchmidt and King, but then she said that it passed with 4 no’s. Motion passes.
Mark Clear clarifies, they passed the rest with only one separation.
Cnare says that is correct.
Note: Apparently Maniaici says this is just a political appointment. Sam is too young to serve. ALRC needs more experience, etc. Mark Wolfe apparently talked to Maniaci about this and they thought she was ok with it, but apparently she says she was only “informed’ of their decision. Funny to me, when Mayor Dave did it, they acted like that was the way it worked, now that a less favorable mayor does it, its a big deal.
Also, Clear seemed to be looking for a fight on something . . . wonder why he had to clarify for a 2nd or 3rd time?
