What would be different a year from now if we re-elect our current mayor?
Madison will be even greener. In my time in office, we’ve built one of the largest hybrid bus fleets in the nation. We far exceeded our goal of reducing carbon emissions by 100,000 tons. We’re a leader in programs to increase biking and make it safer. We’ve dramatically increased our reliance on fossil fuel alternatives, and we’ve lowered our utility bills through aggressive conservation measures. We implemented automated systems that made our workers one-third more efficient, recycling increased by 30%. Together with the County, we made the largest conservation land purchase in the city’s history. All this has earned us international recognition as a green city. By this time next year, our efforts will continue to improve our environment, and projects like the City Sustainability Plan will be underway to continue our efforts.
Our city will be even safer. Crime rates are at their lowest in decades, thanks to the addition of 64 new police officers and special units designed to combat gangs and career criminals. We added the first new fire station in 25 years and two new paramedic units, the first in 15 years. And, we’ve made smart investments to strengthen our neighborhoods, so that for in the first time in years, we have no single troubled neighborhood like Broadway Simpson or Allied Drive were in the past. I want to keep up those investments and continue to look for innovative approaches so that we never again develop serious pockets of poverty in our community.
We will be well on our way to becoming a leader in the new economy. Madison has always been a leader in all we do, and the next step is to be a worldwide leader in the new economy. We have weathered the recession better than nearly every other community nationwide, and they key is not only to recover, but to recover into the new economy. All the pieces are in place to compete globally, attract and retain talent, foster innovation and provide sustainable job creation. Our challenge is to implement and defend the progressive values that are key to competing in the new economy–regional transit, the domestic partnership registry, stem cell research, investments in locally produced fuel sources, our world class university, and so much more. While I can’t guarantee that we’ll be competing with Zurich come this time next year, I can say that if we continue to be both progressive and pro-business, we will be light years ahead of nearly every other city in this country when it comes to having the infrastructure and policies needed to compete globally in the new economy.
The mayor is proud of the reduced bus carbon emissions under his watch, but he has done nothing to stop the idling buses waiting for a shift to start, nor has he trimmed any of the $38,000,000 per year in salaries at Metro.
Mayor says “We’re a leader in programs to increase biking and make it safer.” Bike boxes didn’t make anything safer, it just confuses bike riders and drivers. Recently inking a deal with Trek without doing a study or even putting the project out for bid was not a good idea. Sounds kind of like Doyle’s Talgo selection.
Does the mayor truly think Allied is no longer troubled and is no longer a “serious pocket of poverty?” Which rock has he been living under?
Mayor Dave needs to stop focusing on trying to become some other city (Portland, Seattle, Zurich, etc.) and he needs to stop with the pet projects (Edgewater, public market/train, etc.) We need a mayor that only deals with the “sexy projects” after our basic services are improved and the budget is trimmed. We are heading into an era where the largest portion of the operating budget (nearly 15%) will go to debt payment. We have Mayor Dave to thank for that.
I’m curious as to why a number of Madison progressives are joining the Soglin for Mayor camp? Are Steve’s comments reflective of said progressives?
I’ve been trying to decipher Soglin’s beef with Mayor Dave and roughly what percentage of progressives are now siding with Soglin (and what are their pet issues). Admittedly, my sources are limited mostly to the internet, so I haven’t really come up with much…
Hi Matt,
I know this is on Forward Lookout somewhere but here are Soglin’s answers to the above question. For me, the debt service is a significant concern as are the committee assignments. Also, I feel that Soglin will work more effectively with the Madison Metropolitan School District. I just don’t think Dave gives a hoot about the schools.
Paul Soglin’s response:
1. EMPLOYMENT AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE. Working for jobs and an economy that serves all of Madison. When I was mayor in the 1990’s, two things were different. Madison had the lowest unemployment rate in the United States, or was sometimes second to Lincoln Nebraska, and over 130 city employees were organized in Neighborhood Resource Teams (NRT).
The economy is tough but we can take significant steps on the local level if we coordinate our efforts with Dane County as we did twenty years ago in creating teams that focused on our neighborhoods. We can combine public health nurses and police officers, firefighters and employment specialists, librarians and building inspectors in workgroups that serve communities and strengthen neighborhoods.
Last year, Mary Berryman Agard and I finished a report, “The Park Street T,” an examination of the employment and training system within the Park Street/West Beltline Corridor.
Much of what we learned on the south side, after three years of study, can be applied to Madison and Dane County. We examined the service providers, the non-profits, government agencies, and the private sector to see what could be done better. We examined the relationship between transportation, financial literacy, health care, quality child care, job training and education, as well as housing, in leading to sustainable employment.
Little did I know at the time that I might have the responsibility to implement the recommendations included for local government. With your support, I will.
An electronic version of the report is attached.
2. The City Committees. The make up of city boards, committees, and commissions will be significantly different. The appointments will be made only after each member of the city council has full input as to their own committee appointments and the appointment of citizens. The committee system is the very backbone of your government. While the Common Council makes final decisions of all matters of policy and the budget, the deliberate process of our committees proves over and over again that it results in more democratic, more transparent, and better decisions.
In addition, there will be no special executive committees based on ‘mayoral prerogative.’ I will not create any alternative or special committees for undermining or reversing the recommendations of standing city committees.
Finally, the committees will reflect the diversity of Madison. We will do our best to not only ensure that our committees reflect all of the protected classes of our equal opportunities ordinances, but also geographic, political, and cultural interests.
3.The City Budget. There will be significant changes in the city budget. A community cannot undertake special projects or effectively work for economic and social justice if the city budget is unstable. Unprecedented levels of borrowing and unsound budget practices jeopardize our community.
Presently the city of Madison budget violates some of the very basic tenets set forth by the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA). We are borrowing for basic items that should be funded through the operating budget. I know the incumbent likes to point out that interest rates are at historic lows. The problem is that we have to repay not just the interest, but the millions of dollars that we are borrowing. That borrowing is pushing our debt service towards 14% of the operating budget. There is no city in the United States that can maintain a AAA bond rating with debt service that is 14% of the operating budget.
There will be changes in the mayor’s office portion of the operating budget. There will be cuts of over $120,000 which represents close to 10% of that budget. The present mayor has six administrative aides. Assistance in working with state government is contracted out at $30,000 annually. The workload is not significantly different since I was last in office. However, I never spent money on a press person or a fiscal expert to review the comptroller’s work. In addition one of the five needed administrators worked on state legislation and collaborating with other communities and governments.
With the money saved, that will be close to $150,000, total, we can hire an additional public works employee and additional building inspector to work on minimum housing standards.
I would like to add that some of Mayor Dave’s hires have been less than sucessful – Tim Cooly is a case in point.
At the end of the day, there can be no question that Mayor Dave is a phony who uses his ‘regular guy’ persona to mask his true identity. Corruption is the name of the game in Madison right now, which is why I spend my time in New Jersey, or anywhere else that corruption is done efficiently–out in the public. I don’t mind corruption, if I can see what I’m getting for my corruption dollar.
The Mayor is in bed with the Unions but pretends not to be, so our taxes keep going up. Go figure…
The Mayor mishandled the Overture deal by agreeing to everything the donors wanted long before it was even supposed to be on the table for discussion.
Overture employees were asked by the Mayor’s Chief of Staff to call their Alders and line up support almost three months before they were able to look at the details of the plan they were asked to support.
The whole process was arguably illegal, and I’ve already filed a W.E.R.C. complaint asserting so. Further lawsuits are sure to follow, given how many laws the mayor and his army of yes-men and yes-women have apparently broken.
Mayor Dave is only a viable candidate if you don’t look too closely, and/or if you’re juiced.
Did I mention that he has me on a medical leave because he says I’m mentally ill? Not a bad gig for me. Not a great gig for you, the taxpayer.
Only in Madison could insanity like the Mayor Dave regime still be up for discussion to continue. I’m working on my website today…onlyinmadison.com
Stay tuned.
I’m somewhat of a luddite, so a simple website is hard for me.
It’s not where I want it, currently, but I’ve got a page up at:
http://web.me.com/thevoicesareyelling/Site/Welcome.html