Well, I’m ready for a new laptop! But for now, this external keyboard will do. Here’s the rest of the meeting.
PUBLIC HEARINGS
Item 12 and 13
They opened and closed the public hearing on items 12 and 13. They voted on 12.
A woman speaks to a stormwater run off issue. She has questions for the council about her driveway and a culvert they are going to put in where they have no curb and gutter. She has issues with water draining into her yard from other properties. She says someone from the city came out to look at it and saw the problem.
Lauren Cnare moves adoption.
Soglin asks staff to answer her questions.
Rob Phillips, City Engineer says there is a drainage problem behind Prime Quarter at intersection of Ridgeway and ?, the problem can be solved two ways, one is a street reconstruction with curb and gutter and drainage system and the other way is what they are doing now.
There is a little confusion as the woman registered on the wrong item. The vote on item 13 and vote aye without discussion, then they reconsider item 12. That passes and then they continue the discussion.
Phillips says that these are the culverts across the driveways, not owned by or maintained by the city , but by property owner, there is a larger project to provide piping that stormwater utility is paying for and then assessing two driveways.
Soglin says area annexed 50 or 60 years ago and no curb and gutter in the area.
The persons who spoke says there is nothing in their driveway either.
Soglin asks Phillips about two properties to be assessed, what is the assessment on that?
Phillips says $1510 in 8 years.
Soglin says motion is to adopt, there is no discussion on the question. Motion passes, sounds like unanimously.
Item 14 – Zoning Conservancy Land to Light Manufacturing
Ken Saiki is registered to answer questions.
John Becker speaks in opposition. He says they would like more time to discuss, he found out about this on election day, he was collecting signatures to prevent rezoning on anther norhtside property that had gotten a lot of coverage. He notes that the Northside News papers is a good tool for the northside and that he had seen information on listserves. He helped form the friends of Cherokee marsh, he follows planning issues. On election days he was collecting signatures to save Cherokee marsh and lots of people talked to him thinking it would be a recall petition, but he explained it was to save Cherokee Marsh. People asked hin why they had to save Cherokee Marsh again, was this what was in the Northside News? He said yes and he got over 250 signatures in a few hours. This is a group of people who know the issues when given time to study this, in contrast to the other issue to his knowledge nothing was in the Northside news about this proposal. A woiman approached himand told him about the project and asked if he could do anything about it. She didn’t think the Friends of Troy Gardens would like it, he contacted elected officials and they said to slow it down and check it out, he got good responses but asks for courtesy to new alder to delay this to talk about it.
Beth Kubly, congratulates newly elected officials, she says she just found out about this 48 hours ago, there is now a sign, but on the way here the sign was face down in the grass, its a black and yellow sign and it was hard to see, because it is facing the wrong way, that is insufficient notice and she would like to delay final approval, she has additional concerns about the size of the structure, this is a residential neighborhood and conservancy land. She is concerned about the neighborhood impact and the expansion of Troy Gardens to the west, if a new building is there it will set precedence to move conservancy land to light industrial. Nothing of that nature is out there now and she doesn’t know why they need to begin. There are other areas more appropriate, finally, she asks to delay final approval pending more infut, more environmental study and a chance to research more suitable site.
Jill Jacklitz is the Executive Director at Community Groundworks which works at Troy Gardens. She would like them to delay action to allow time for the new alder to hold informational meetings, in last week she has been hearing from neighbors with concerns about how it impacts neighborhood and long term implications to zoning from conservancy to light manufacturing, she knows the state sent out notices, but there was not a lot of info to the neighborhood and some didn’t understand that the flyers were the only notice, there were no community forums or discussions, they couldn’t learn more about the project or have an opinion. One neighbor got the postcard, went to plan commission to learn more about the project and was surprised to see the were making a decision and she didn’t have info . . . I missed the rest
Timothy Garrett has lived on the northsede 2.5 years and enjoys it and finds one of the unique things is amount of flora and fauna and wildlife they have, its not as metropolitan, there are plenty of undeveloped ares and greenspace to enjoy and he wants to see it kept that way, the area where this would be built has a thriving ecosystem of plants and animals. He saw a red tail hawk in the area, if buidling is developed the hawk will be taken away from its hunting ground and we mill missing seeing rare birds in this space. Thinks will be disruptive to Troy Gardens, and the children who play in the area won’t be able to. Every child should have a special secret place where they feel safe, its time for us to slow down the war on nature, and acknowledge these gifts instead of destroying them.
Todd Cambio, is a gardener at Troy Gardens, he lives near the site, this is an area that go to get mushrooms and tap maple syrup, he does not disput the need for the facility but the location is not well thought out. There are Mendota Mental Health building that are vacant and the utilities are already there, he asks that they take more time and visit possibility to be located elsewhere.
Soglin reads off an additional 6 to 7 names that are all registered in opposition.
Cnare asks Ken Syke to refresh their memory about what project team did for notice.
Saiki says that this was in the works for a long time, since 2009 and in early 2010 they tried to contact Schumacher to get us going, city staff and he did try to contact him repeatedly, never got a response. Prior to formal application, they sent out a mailing and formal contact to alder, they sent notices to all required by ordinance and a number more based on staff recommendation, 195 total, one of the speakers mentioned the postcard and they did get a handful of responses, mostly questions, one in support, none in opposition and that is what they did. They didn’t get contact from the alder or neighborhood group, but he is not sure there is one in the area, then went to plan commission and a few people testified.
Cnare asks if this is referred will he participate in neighborhood meetings.
Saiki says “well, sure”.
Cnare defers to Anita Weier to make the motion.
Weier moves to refer the items to the May 17th meeting. That is seconded. Weier asks for courtesy to refer to hold a public meeting for people in the area, community didn’t have a meeting, this would involve change form conservancy to light manufacturing, Grounds Works supports it and the project manager said they would participate in a meeting.
Rhodes-Conway asks for support, you heard from the neighborhood, they didn’t have the info they needed to evaluate the project and appreciates that it is no fault of the applicant, and she isn’t speaking in favor or against the project, but join us in showing new colleague aldermanic courtesy to hear from her constituents before she has to vote.
The referral passes and its sounds unanimous.
Item 15
They open the hearing, there are two people registered to answer questions, there are no questions or discussion and Cnare moves adoption and the motion passes unanimously.
SOGLIN INTRODUCES PEOPLE
Soglin asks for a moment to introduce a few people. He introduces Anne Monks who will be on his staff. She is a former alder from the 8th district. She will be working on planning and transportation issues. He also introduces Sally Miley, who also used to be on the council in the 13th district, she is a former member of the mayor’s staff and she will be on indefinitely through the summer to help with the transition and to provide support until the staff is hired. He also introduces Milele Chicasa Anana from Umoja who was a former EOC officer at the city and he asks them to welcome her as well.
LANDLORD REGISTRATION LITE
Public Comment
Partrick McCacughy was there but left, he was opposing and did wish to speak.
Nancy Jensen, opposing wishing to speak. Congratulates new members of council, says she is the Director of the Apartment Association which represents the CDA, the Dane County Housing Authority as well as the City of Madison Police and Equal Opportunities Department. They are a diverse housing organization, they have conflicted feelings, they have always supported ordinances for public safety, including the smoke detector ordinance, they worked hard on carbon monoxide, chronic nuisance, they have been supportive of public health and safety and that includes smoking. She doesn’t think this is ready, after two years she wants it referred, they recognize and support the agencies and need for data, but oppose cuz of two issues. One is the fee, its an annual fee, and they creep, Steven Point started out at $6 and it is now up to $110 so fees have a way of creeping, they become housing taxes, they go into the rent so they don’t want to be cavalier in any fee, the other issue is the fee set for mailing, that could be done with tax statements, and the concern is that the IT department has not clarified, in looking for fees, they are interested in knowing more about the program the city is using. This ordinance that is being amended has been on the books for 35 years, it has never been enforced, so it tinges the credibility of the proposal because they could gather the information when they go out for inspection and they never enforced it.
2 other people registered in opposition.
Questions for Speaker
Mark Clear asks Jensen if she is asking for it to be referred back to housing?
Jensen says they would like an IT person to come there and talk about the software – what have they been working on it for 2 years? They did approve at their board over a year ago and approved partnering to prevent annual fees in housing, she has authority to partner to help fund the software to do it, but that is not out there and cuz the ordinance was on the books for so long and not enforced, they want to know what it is and want to prevent fee.
Clear asks why her organization would care what software the city would use.
Jensen says it quickly becomes outdated and they offered 6 digit figures to prevent the fees.
Soglin asks if she is suggesting that in some other inventory like tax rolls the city can just add the two contacts into the field at little expense.
Jensen says yes, she worked for the Mayor in St. Louis and they used water utility, it would be simple to create info for property information, water utility mailings could stay within the postage rate and have info put in quarterly.
Questions for Staff
Satya Rhodes-Conway wants George Hank from Building Inspection to address history and why this item is before us and needed at this time and the question of why we feel necessary to charge a fee and what the costs he anticipates would be, she says there has been a substantial misunderstanding, willful or otherwise about what the money will go for.
Hank says over the years trying to get ahold of property owners, especially in emergencies is getting more difficult, especially with LLC and LLPs, it hard to get in touch with them if there is a broken furnace or busted water pipe. He was not a big advocate for this until the last 4 or 5 years when it became more of an issue. Originally this was just multi-family housing, 3 units or more, he suggested that is should address all units, because there are as many problems with those as multifamily, there are 12,500 parcels in this category, they estimated that it would cost to mail them about $7200, estimated that of the 12,500 25% would choose to fill out and mail ti back instead of going on line, not everyone is comfortable and uses a computer and do payments on line, he did talk with IT dept and went over broadly about development of expanding current software to do this. They estimated that would cost $20K, another cost that alwas associated with this is that for every transaction on line, we pay 27 cents per transaction, there are multiple costs associated with it. Originally they came up with $10 and after reviewing it he is comfortable saying $5. He understands concerns of industry about fee creep, one of the things that he suggested is that they cap it at $5 for 5 years and he is a firm believer in fees covering costs, not a way to balance budget or make money for the deaprtment. Our fees are very fair and basically cover the costs they have, not supportive of this being a hidden tax to levy fees cuz we can.
Clear asks Hank about software being developed, is it part of ELAM?
George says it is ELAM and part of the citizen access.
Bridget Maniaci thanks Julia Kerr for working on this, it was in the housing committee for quite a while, they tried hard to come to a pragmatic solution, for building inspection, asked if could do more with this, police and fire were interested as well. It passed 13 – 2 at housing and police department participated. There is a real benefit to tenants and landlords, moving our city forward, having the information available instead of the property owner not knowing there was a call to the property, property owners could find out about calls to their properties. She says there is a high need for this.There should be at least one other emergency contact that has access to the property. There is a rise in LLCs and LLPs and on the weekend if furnace goes out, they need info readily available. It is also an invaluable resource for alders as well. There was significant work on this and urges support.
Rhodes-Conway also urges support. In her brief tenure on housing committee, like Maniaci, she believes this will be helpful for all concerned. There are a number of properties in her district for which she can’t see them feeling comfortable going online and paying a fee. Many would rather do on a paper basis, some of the people are not comfortable on that basis. It would be cheaper if they did it electronically but not realistic to expect that they will. There is precedent to pay a fee for a service. She supports what Hank said, this is not a way to make money, it is a a way to cover the costs. The housing committee added a clause to ask staff to provide them with a report on the actual costs and if more than covers it or it is less than covering the costs they should look at that. This is an estimate for now, was a motion to take the fee out and the motion was rejected, doesn’t imagine that the result would be any different, asks approval tonight, lets try this and if the fee too high they can revisit it,
Clausius says not probably supporting the intent, but the comments made tonight there are loose ends to tie up, the means of notification, problems with the costs, he thinks maybe it is premature to rush this through, have it go back to housing to have it resolved, would support it down the road.
Soglin says this kind of fee is regressive, the smaller the fee the more regressive. A fee this small and modest they need to look at the cost of paper transaction, there is a cost to the person who writes it and to us and to the bank and that is easily more than $5, but would love to have the opportunity to work with staff to find a more efficient way of doing this to eliminate the costs cuz it is an inefficient fee mechanism. This is a disincentive to participate. If adopted will work with people to see if a better mechanism for compliance.
The motion passes on a voice vote
ANNOUNCEMENTS/INTRODUCE ITEMS FROM THE FLOOR
There are no items to be introduced.
Cnare announces that they are going to the Great Dane. All the alders except Clear and Skidmore showed up along with the Mayor and his 2 staff people. No department heads attended.
The meeting adjourned by 8:17.
