Minus Paul Soglin. The contest for who will run against him. Here’s the video, the questions, cliff notes on the candidates responses and what my responses would have been (WWBKD).
Remember when you are watching that they got these questions in advance and got to prepare, this are not off the cuff answers. This was a definite swing and a miss for most of these campaigns. They missed the real chance to distinguish themselves and show off their policy ideas. It was a real snooze, lots of words, not much substance. I thought I was just in a cranky mood when I went to the debate and might have missed some of the substance, but upon watching again . . .I was disappointed again.
Who are you, why do you want to be mayor, what is your vision for the city and how does the downtown fit into that vision?
Richard Brown – Strong fiscal background, auditor for the legislative fiscal bureau, Risk Manager and Director of Operations for Mendota Mental Health, Accountant for No Child Left Behind (DPI), Assistant Accountant in Dane County Comptroller office, wants to hold the line on taxes. Wants strong fiscal policy and partnerships and collaboration. He has been a prison guard, police officer. Everything that touches us today, he has done, we have to work for the common good. One Madison, One Future. State St. excites him,he walks down it every day. He sees community of students, baby boomers, milleniums, its a neighborhood. He wants an economic devleopment boom, they have the density, its a commercial hub for entertainment.
Christopher Daly – Not running because he has a lot of influential or powerful friends or logical next step in career, but has a vision for the city that socially, economically and environmentally sustainable. He wants to work with business and non-profit community and use the talent we have here. Can solve state and federal problems at the local level, those government are too ideological. Madison has a generous heart and we are a powerhouse within Wisconsin and the region, we are the leaders. Businesses need to play a strong role. We have reached this place not through competition but cooperation and that is how we need to move forward. He feels strongly about a lot of issue, everything is interconnected.
Bridget Maniaci – Alder for 4 years, served in Mayor’s office and put together first year of Freakfest, 5th generation Madisonian, she says we have to get to solutions. She talks about district 2 as a neighborhood and says other communities don’t have that mix and we need to provide that throughout the city. She is running because it is time for new leadership to step up, we don’t have cornfields left to develop, we have hit the geographic boundaries and we are at the second generation point in the city and we have to be smart and saavy and we need to bring new ideas to the city. She has worked in many of the hot topic buttons downtown and it has been the core of economic development, but it can’t be just about downtown. She says the Capitol East Corridor and the Edgewater have dominated the press and now it is time to look at other parts of the city – Park St, Northside and Cottage Grove Rd.
Scott Resnick – Wants Madison to live up to its progressive values and have equity define every decision. Local entrepreneur, started a company and has 22 employees, represented downtown and and State St. for the past 4 years. If our neighborhoods are our heart, then our downtown is our soul. It sends a message to the rest of the community, when downtown is struggling with homelessness or businesses, that sends a message to the rest of the community. We’re at a tipping point, its not just inequality, but communication struggles, city hall no longer communicates, city hall doesn’t have conversations we have to meet our community challenges. We need to work together, be more collaborative, address issues with new solutions.
Skipping who am I am why I am running for mayor, cuz I’m not. What is my vision for the city and how does the downtown fit into that? I gotta go with Richard Brown on this, we need to have ONE Madison. While Madison is a great place to live for some people, its a whole lot different for 1 out of 6 or 17% of our population that live in poverty. And its different for those who are not white. We need to be focusing our efforts and resources on leveling the playing field so everyone has a chance to be successful and can experience the greatness of Madison, not just a few. The downtown has to become not just a playground and home for Epic employees, but we need an economically and culturally diverse downtown. Bartenders and waiters and waitresses need a place to live they can afford on their wages because the buses don’t get them home at night after their shifts if they have to live outside of the downtown. We have to start with these kinds of basics first and focus on serving the people who live and work here.
What do you think are the top three issues facing the City of Madison?
Christopher Daly – Economic system as it is run today. Private banks and how they conduct business. We have to distance ourselves from private institutions in case the economy tanks again. Look at austerity plans in Europe, that is the plan for us to, pushed by the far right. Need a public banking model. Not a member of corporate parties – not a Democrat.
Bridget Maniaci – Growth wall, housing is expensive and vacancy rates are low, we need a tax base to provide services, transportation and public services are stretched thin. We need strong schools and youth services so people who are having kids don’t leave the city. In city hall the state of relationships between the mayor and other institutions and council and county executive. We need resources to accomplish goals, citizens work on initiatives that go nowhere, says 60 page Sustainability report is an example. She says there is a lack of diversity in decision makers at the table, look at when meetings are held. The equity of services relates to who is at the table, mayor has been in office on and off for 40 years and he is the common denominator.
Scott Resnick – Says first it is the true inequality and opportunity gaps. 3/4 of African American students live in poverty and 1/2 of them graduate on time. 1000 students were homeless while going to Madison Schools and we will break the record again this year. We need to find solutions and work together, empower community leaders and implement their suggestions. Affordable childcare, public transportation, people looking for work can find work at every single hour. They need an equitable work place providing good paying jobs, entry level positions on up. How we manage growth, he sits on plan commission, community leaders don’t know what they are going to get, if the neighborhood plans will be followed or if someone is going to try to rewrite the rules. Projects are delayed, its the stress and unpredictability that are the issue. 2,000 young professionals are going to be moving into the city and that will change how we move forward. We need to make smart investments in our future – internet access, streets, need smart investments in transportation.
Richard Brown – We need strong fiscal management, debt is out of control, we have to match the debt to the city growth, he wants more analysis to empower the city council, he says they should be paid for the hours they work. Office of performance analysis will help them make good decisions. Racial Disparities, and that is tied to downtown, re need to get away from retail leakage, we need African stores in the downtown. Affordable housing and homelessness. He will get 200 kids in housing in the first 100 days in office. He’s been working on the issues for years, they need to hold the line on taxes, downtown is growing there is going to be demand and we will get there.
Top three issues are housing wage jobs, public transportation that gets people where they need to go in a timely manner and tackling equity issues in our community. We have to make the city workable and livable for all before we can focus on playing. Housing costs have to match with the jobs we have available. We have to focus on getting the housing vacancy rate up to a level that gives people a chance to find an apartment that they can afford. To afford an average 2 bedroom apartment at $898 you have to make $17.27 or have 2.4 full time jobs at minimum wage, and downtown we are building apartments that are 300 sq feet that cost more than $1000. We are pricing people out of our community and if we’re going to do that, then we have to have public transportation options that work for people who are not commuting to work during traditional hours. Finally we need to get serious about “equity” and think about it in every decision we make. Spending $13M in TIF for class A office space downtown and apartments people can’t afford in hopes that somehow we will get more tax money that will inevitably go to pay for police doesn’t lead to equity. We need tools in place to make sure the council is truly considering equity when making decisions.
What is your opinion on the importance of public input and how do you plan to develop a process that engages the public on city issues?
Bridge Maniaci – She says there is a lot happening in other cities, we have a lot of voices at the table, but we need a balance and to get hose people who can’t be there at 4:30 in the afternoon to testify. Wants a citizens portal, wants a CRM. She says they should use google docs to log on and give suggestions. She wants to see better access for sign ups to speak. She says that there are systems and data systems we could be using. This should be fun, citizen engagement needs to be positive. Bring city hall to people and we need real time discussions and get real time input in a modern way that keeps a public record of it.
Scott Resnick – He talks about meeting on community car, only 5 members of the public showed up. We don’t have enough public input. Citizens don’t testify at the length hey need. He says we don’t have our information out there in real time, is the information people get accurate, how do people find that information. He made changes as an alder, he put things in color, put pictures on it and simplified the questions. A few more people showed up, but more people walked up to him in his neighborhood and hallways. We need to get outside city hall. He says the meetings should be where the issues are. They need to get information on line and listen to the feedback, he talks about ideascale and how they collected budget ideas and it wasn’t referenced. We need to listen to constituents.
Richard Brown – Talks about a radio show he hosted, he connected with pastors all over the city, we need a faith based partnership. He says no one is closer to our community than these organizations, we can do job trainings. We need to engage people. They are setting up a roundtable with pastors. Look at who is providing services. One Madison, One future.
Chris Daly – Internet communications. Need to improve internet access, get more people online. City Wi-fi, cloud data storage network. City web portal is robust, there is a lot of information and a great deal of interaction it allows. Need to work with the Madison School District. Talks about neighborhood association that wanted a development change, that didn’t comply with plans, and they were ignored. That sets a precedent of ignoring neighborhood associations. He wants to strengthen their input.
We need to start with using language people can understand, for example billboards should not be called “Advertising Sign Banks and Replacement Advertising Signs” and we need label items before the council and committees so people know what is going on and not bury East High moving its football and soccer games to Breese Stevens Field in a MSCR contract. We need to give people adequate notice of when meetings are and not put out a weekly schedule that is incomplete or have meetings that have 24 to 72 hours notice. The weekly schedule needs to be out earlier than late Friday afternoon to give people adequate notice of upcoming meetings. Meetings shouldn’t be scheduled in the middle of the day, especially meetings that impact neighborhoods like the Street Use Staff Commission. If public input is going to be first on the agenda or there is going to be consent agendas where they pass a large amount of items without discussion, then meetings have to start later so people can get to the meetings before their opportunity to comment is gone. Meetings should start after 5:30 at night. If people show up for items that got passed quickly early in the meeting, there should be an automatic reconsideration. People should be able to register for or against items on-line and be able to provide public testimony, our libraries should have public input kiosks where people can provide feedback to the decisions makers. Meetings should all be recorded and the audio put into the legistar system so a full account of the meetings can be available to the public. There is no reason why handouts provided at meetings can’t be made immediately available to the public electronically and when new information is presented the public should have additional public input opportunities. There should be a civic engagement school people can attend to understand how city hall works and it should be available on-line. Not understanding how city hall works shouldn’t be a barrier. People shouldn’t have to wait hours to speak on items on an agenda, they should be given an option to speak early in the meeting and leave or stay for the item they are interested in. Ok, my three minutes are probably up, but I could go on and on and on an on!
What is your approach to addressing public safety and behavior issues on places like upper State St, University Avenue and the City-County Building.
Scott Resnick – He says this is a safe community and we have issues to address, he says they particularly have issues with chronically homeless individuals on State St., many have been in Madison longer than we have, they are mostly harmless and live on State St., we also see them in front of city hall because they feel safe there. That issues needs to be addressed with permanent housing. The transient population without community ties and threaten homeless individuals and are a safety concern, we have to make sure the police have the resources to address this. They also take advantage of students. He talks about shooting on University Ave, we need a safe vibrant atmosphere that is more than just liquor. People are moving here and we need to remain diligent on the safety issues.
Richard Brown – He’s been a police officer, in the military. He was also a prison guard. His background is in criminal justice. We need an inpatient treatment facility, a lot of problems are mental illness or drug and alcohol. He says we can do better. Increase enforcement, have a reserve police force, put more officers on the street. Density will increase, that is good, with density there is safety and it means jobs. If you work late you don’t have time to act the fool. He wants to give city employees 4 hours a month to volunteer, they might pick up garbage on State St., a cleaner place is a safer place.
Chrisopher Daly – He says it boils to poverty, mental illness and addiction. Madison needs to work for everyone. He says we need to look at the source of addiction, we need strong connections in the community and support networks. We need to create facilities. He talks about mental illness and PTSD, it is traumatizing to be poor, and there are problems that need to be recognized, we tend to blame the individual, but we need to look at the issues. We need to face the issues head on, find robust solutions, not just from the government but from the private sector as well.
Bridget Maniaci – We have folks congregating and they have no place to go. She had the day center in her district and this year the city and county couldn’t come together. She says people need to be aware of the resources that exist. She wants a comprehensive place to go to find resources in the community, wants a google calendar of services. She thinks State St. is clean. Wants a late night circulator bus, she says that running for cabs on University Avenue causes stress and chaos. She wants city and University police to work together on sexual assault. We need a comprehensive day shelter. She has a flyer that has her ideas.
We have to stop looking at punishment and bans giving a homeless person $12 – $25,000 worth of fines and start looking at what is leading to the undesirable behavior. Different people perceive different issues in these areas. For some, the mere presence of people hanging out is the problem. That isn’t a problem that I feel we need to solve, people should be able to hang out in public spaces if they want, but clearly a comprehensive day center with a variety of activities and spaces and services that is operated with harm reduction and trauma informed care philosophies would go a long way. A second issue we need to face is that some of the issues should not be policing issues but there should be services available. We need a robust homeless outreach program with resources to better understand what the needs are and to start problem solving in meaningful way. Mental health services and AODA treatment programs need to have less barriers to entry (transportation, times for intake need to be more flexible, people shouldn’t have to wait for hours once they get there) and shorter waiting lists once you do an intake. And finally, we need to look at our homeless shelters and their policies limiting people to 30 or 60 days per year in shelter, not letting people in who have used up their days unless it less than 20 degrees outside or less. We need some cheaper weekly or daily pay to stay options for people with income but not enough income to afford an apartment. We need a wet shelter for those who are causing issues and are intoxicated. If the issue in these areas are drunk college kids, I think we need to look at bar capacity limits, staggered closing times and more entertainment options and activities in the downtown area. We have thrown a lot of policing resources at the downtown (cameras, downtown safety initiative, etc) and to some extent these are working.
What is your approach to economic development and how does it affect the life of Madison citizens?
Richard Brown – He says he served 3 terms on the county board, he chaired Personnel and Finance and he commissioned an Economic Development Task Force, he cares about and understands Economic Development. He says we need to work on retention. He talks about a friend that had a store on State St. and he had to move because of development and we need to keep those. Attraction. He says we need new businesses, this is the hardest, if the downtown is vibrant and build the city, we will attract businessess because it is the hottest thing. Soon businesses will be open til 10:00 at night and you could do your laundry or get your hair done that late. Training and employment is important too. We need to grow businesses, we need to grow our own, he likes University Research Park. WE need to start in high school, we need to grow our own.
Christopher Daly – We need to consider the character of Madison, and we need to preserve and add to that. He disagrees that the development boom is entirely a good thing. He thinks that for other cities it has become less livable. We need to grow businesses here and make sure they can continue, we need to attract more cottage industry. We need to look at business models for those without privilege to get education and get in to affluent jobs. In addition to the public banking model, he wants them to take on commercial morgages in town, but he also wants to encourage urban agriculture. We need to take advantage of new technologies like aquaponics.
Bridget Maniaci – She says she will try to work to “yes”. She talks about some issues some of her constituents had. Need to talk with people, find out there needs and explain the process to them. She asks tough questions, she wants to know the details. She says we need to work for balance. Epic is growing quickly and it is having spin off affects. We need to look city wide. She talks about the fight for the grocery store on E. Washington. Those grocery store jobs are important to the community, we need to create opportunities across education brackets. We need to play to our strengths, we need to grow companies. We need to create the opportunities, she wants to create a lab to computer, software and equipment. She says being a photographer and couldn’t keep up on her portfolio when she lost access to that equipment at the university. We need to create opportunity across the economic spectrum.
Scott Resnick – Is a member of the Economic Development Committee, he started his own business 7 years ago, he has 22 employees in his tech community. He says he watched his friends move to other cities with their great ideas, so they started a project called Starting Block, a 55,000 sq ft accelerator to retain the companies. The TIF police focuses on construction and development, but we need to look at the jobs created and if they are living wage jobs, we need entry levels for all Madisonians. We will be facing major struggles in the short term, there are cuts at the UW and state jobs are going away, especially the high paying ones. We need to encourage people to keep their companies here, we need to think about the culture of our community and the music scene, we need to make sure that someone with a tech background can move in the downtown or reside in a Madison home and that someone that works downtown and shops there can afford to live in the community. We need strong business community, we can’t have individuals scolding the business community, we can’t be lecturing them, we need to work with them, to make sure a shop that has been here 30 years, stays for another 30 years.
Economic development has to focus on job creation, not property development. We can build buildings but what goes in them is what will make the difference in our community. Building hotels with people making less than $10 per hour means they need two jobs to afford housing and will have little disposable income. Our main economic development tool seems to be TIF, and we need to look at other supportive services for people trying to start businesses – start up loans, property locator services, technical assistance and training. I think we need to apply an equity lens to our TIF policies and focus less on TIF for parking ramps in the downtown areas and tie the TIF funds to job creation and if developers get TIF they need to guarantee the jobs they say they are creating or return the money. We also need to create TIF districts in truly blighted areas of the city where the money can have the biggest impact. There should be no reason why we fret over $300,000 for a grocery store in Allied Drive and barely blink at $13M in TIF for Anchor Bank parking and to build apartments people can’t afford. We need an Economic Development plan for the city that is not created downtown in a vacuum, but one that gets out into low income communities and looks at the needs of the lowest income people in the city. We need to apply the equity lens to the Economic Development Plan in earnest. We need the CDA to play an active role in our economic development strategy and we need to take a serious look at the tools they might provide. We need to continue the work on the work done on cooperatives n our community. And finally, we need to include the community services department in setting the goals and strategies in our economic development plan.
How familiar are you with the efforts to address the needs of homeless Madisonians and efforts to establish a new day shelter
Chris Daly – Says he is very familiar, he worked on the square for 2 years, he interacted with these individuals on a daily basis, many times I was angry at them, angry at myself and the city. How is this happening, what are we doing and what can we be doing. Its a complex issue and it comes back to poverty, there is a disparity in wealth. He has been following the progress of the day shelter. He would like to see it done immediately, it would be a first priority, there are vacant properties that could be used for comprehensive services, for day and night shelter and we need a wet shelter too. We can’t turn people away on a freezing night cuz we don’t want to wake up with another one of our community members lost. He sees this as unacceptable. The space is here and we just need the political will.
Bridget Maniaci says she is very familiar since she had the Salvation Army, she had many service providers and did laundry at the same time with the Bubbles project in her district. She says that part of stepping down from the council was to look at what other cities are doing and look more city wide. The Salvation Army was really why she is running for mayor, she would see people on the sidewalk and ask why. She says we need to build community services in our downtown. She disagrees with the development history of the city where we push homeless services, social services to where it is politically expedient at the edge of the city. If you look at the issues between the city and county, we need to put the shelter where people can access it. She doesn’t support pushing Salvation Army out to Darbo. She likes what New York is doing with a municipal I.D. Homeless people are struggling to get their basic needs met, we need to stop blaming the county, we need to work together. We need a community calendar for services, she sees people struggling with no minutes left on their cell phone trying to see if there is a meal across town or not. She thinks this is doable. She says Pittsburgh has 50 homeless people a night, when she told her professor about Madison her jaw dropped.
Scott Resnick says they have been talking about it at the City-County Liaison Committee and the council and if it were that easy someone would have done it by now. We have been working to find a solution, we need to look at low hanging fruit – lockers and spaces available so people don’t have to carry around their personal possession. We need to work with private sector and nonprofit to find locations immediately, we need to stop studying where bathrooms are going to be, but we really need a comprehensive service. We need services adjacent to each other so if you are using shelter you have mental health services near by and substance abuse facilities, that needs to be a single location. We need a place downtown, with access to transportation. We need to end chronic homelessness by 2016 and we are going down the right path with things like Housing First. We need to get on the same page, anyone who needs a shelter should be able to find one, this is about political will, we need to put differences aside and make it occur in the downtown.
Richard Brown – He says this is near and dear to him, he was a landlord, it was a struggle, it practically destroyed him. He learned a lot. A lot of people who are homeless used to rent from him. He couldn’t kick out the babies. He knows how tough it is. This is our community, we can’t say they don’t look like us, we have 1000 homeless kids in our community. He has worked to keep people in housing. He has a plan, 2016 is aggressive, we have to come together, use faith based organizations, housing first. He has a relationship with the Realtors and Apartment Association and he can work out a deal and house these people. Every day he walks by that pile of stuff at the city-county building, he feels like the guy that walked passed when there was a good Samaritan, today he is running for office because he is stopping and going to do something about it.
I feel like I wrote these questions, but honestly, I had nothing to do with them. Here’s my list of things we need to do. First and foremost we need a comprehensive day center located in the downtown that includes all the basics like showers, 24/7 available lockers, laundry, haircuts, dental and medical services, clothing closet etc. Ideally the day center would be partially run by the clients and services would be directed and chosen by the people using the services. We need to address the transportation problem and give people free unlimited monthly bus passes so they can attend appointments and apply for housing and jobs and benefits. Services also need to be provided, but they need to be provided in a client directed manner with sensitivity to various issues people may be experiencing. We need to build a new men’s shelter and get the men out of the crowded locked church basements and treat people with dignity and respect. We need a medical shelter for those with chronic illnesses that have found themselves homeless. We need a wet shelter for those that are not a good fit for the shelter system. We need to address mental health disabilities and how current services might not work for people and we need to address the issue of “bans” and the people who have been kicked out of the library, the city-county building and Bethel. We need a true warming shelter where no children are turned away from shelter – the current system makes people call in to find out if there is space each evening. We need a true joint city-county committee on homelessness that is staffed by both the city and county. We need to stop wasting $145,000 on a homeless hotline that operates only during business hours. We need true homeless outreach services that have the necessary resources to be effective. I could go on, but I think that would have been my time limit.
Closing Remarks
You can watch the closing statements on the video . . . nothing notable, except this.
