This one is from Sunday night. There’s video, a recap and comments and scoring. East Side Business Associations forum is here with scoring that resulted in Soglin +8, Resnick -5. Let’s see how they do this time.
Here’s the video to watch for yourself
Opening Statements
Mayor Paul Soglin: He asks why he is running for re-election? He says he’s been called old (tho I think they figured out that wasn’t a good way to get the over 40 vote), tired, gray and bland. So he’s going to tell us about old tired gray and bland. It’s about judgement, understanding consequences and systems. It means having the judgement in 1963 to look at military advisers in Vietnam and saying this is a really bad idea, but that is not why you vote for a mayor in 2015. Instead you’d ask, what are you doing for me lately. When an institution like Uber comes to town, what happens when they come in with a business model, do you have a mayor that can look at it, analyze it and look at the consequences of that model, that it is more than just a shiny new app. An app that can be used eventually by any cab company in the country or the world? It’s more complicated than that. Its understanding a business model that deceives the drivers and understanding the consequences of using your own vehicle, the lack of commercial insurance that puts everyone at risk the passenger and the person walking by. A business model designed purposefully to create a economic condition where workers don’t get any benefits of working for the company and it will take 70 hours to make a living wage instead of 40. Maybe its running for office in 2011 and identifying that the economic condition of the city is unsound and the impact that has on poverty and equity. At the time his challengers said he didn’t know what he was talking about. Now we have the 2013 Race to Equity report with significant successes in terms of unemployment, children living in poverty and equity. It means dealing with national issues and not backing off to Bill and Linda Gates on things like education reform, but instead working with the school district on Out of School Time and recognizing that there is nothing more they can do for quality of life than make sure we have the best school system possible.
Plus one, for the old, tire, gay and bland comments and meeting things head on, for the Uber comments and for talking about poverty in a meaningful way.
Alder Scott Resnick: Scott asks about what he loves most about Madison, and he says he came here from Wausau because Madison is a great place, when you’re from Wausau and you are looking at the rest of Wisconsin, Madison is the one place you can have hopes and dreams. You can have economic prosperity, you can come here for an education and have a great way of life. We have done amazing things in terms of recycling, civil rights, bicycling and then he looks at the last 4 years and asks if we have lived up to those values. He looks at what is going on around the country and Burlington are moving aggressively forward on a sustainable economy, when he looks at New Orleans which has ended Veteran homelessness. They aren’t planning for it, they ended it. He looks at Virginia Beach and what they are doing with education, Oakland with affordable housing, Miami with rail, and he sees communities that are leading from a local level, they don’t blame others for their mistakes and they are moving in the direction of progress. Homelesness has increased 41% in the last 4 years. Where we have 14 individuals who are sleeping outside of city hall, he finds that completely unacceptable. He looks at disparities from the 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2013 and he looks at what we have missed in the way of opportunity, we haven’t found the political will to address these. He sees what the priorities have been from city hall, he talks about a luxury hotel and what we have spent on planning for it, he looks at the travel costs from the mayor’s office and he was gone 174 days, we are talking about sound judgement in the city and we need to address them here in Madison. He looks at what really is holding the City of Madison back, he thinks it is lack of cooperation. WE have a county executive pushing forward on issues and the mayor can’t walk 100 feet to the county executives office and make sure we are on the same page. We have issues of racial disparities and we should be right there pushing forward with the county. When he looks at issues of 9-1-1 center where the mayor is pulling political cheap shots instead of coming forward with solutions that make the city a more equitable and safe place, that is an issue. We need to start talking about shifting our priorities, major investments in terms of transportation, figuring out how to reduce car ownership on the isthmus, focusing on energy reduction and sustainability, do everything we can for our lakes and makings sure our major investments are focused on economic development, child care, to benefit everybody, not just a select few. The City of Madison can move forward and be a leader once again on civic engagement and involvement and he is looking forward to having these conversations.
Minus one, he’s been on the council for the last 4 years and was the council president for one of them. He shares in this blame. What has he done to address these issues that are suddenly more important? Where has his leadership been? And what are his ideas to fix the problems he identifies and why isn’t he moving those forward? It just rings so hollow with me – what is his responsibility in all this? Also, nice jab on the travel. On the cooperation thing, I’m not sure I want a mayor that compromises on his principles to get cooperation and then we truly end up – bland. Plus, the other parties bear some responsibility for not getting along, Parisi doesn’t get along with his own county board or anyone else as far as I can tell. I don’t know how he came up with his solutions to racial disparities, but there was no public process or input. I don’t want a mayor that acts like that.
Score: Soglin +1, Resnick -1.
How specifically can we foster upward mobility in the City of Madison, how can we help families move up the income ladder.
Resnick: It all starts at an early age, issues like childcare and making sure every child entering the schools starts on an equal footing and a strong background. Job training, equitable forms of transportation and making sure people can get to and from work. He looks at what he has done to create jobs in the tech sector, to makes sure that someone who had a background not a fortunate as his home has the programming skills to get a job in the 21st century.
I won’t ding him again for points because I already did, but what has he done for childcare while he was an alder? Or transportation so people can get to and from jobs? What ideas and initiatives has he pushed forward in these areas? None that I am aware of. No points since there’s no concrete ideas to move us forward as he claims we need to do.
Soglin: He says Nan was the person that first introduced him to the fact that they were keeping track of kids who get free and reduced lunch. When he first left office it was about 8%, in the next decade it skyrocketed. He came back to office in 1989 and to 1997 and 1998 it tapered during his time in office and it slowed down. When he left office is skyrocketed again, and when he returned in to office in 2011 and now it has flattened out and last year it dropped. We have never had 2 or 3 years reducing like we have had recently. Why? He went to work the first day. The re-established the neighborhood resource teams. He traveled, spent your money, looked at what they were doing in Burlington and said that we needed to have an out of school time program, its not academic focused but it is critical to what the kids do after school, on weekends and in the summer. He engaged public employers and they started the Wanda Fullmore program for summer youth employment and after we received the award it was announced we will have over 650 kids in the next three years added to the roles to have summer jobs. Summer jobs innoculate the kids for 14 months in terms of academic success and staying out of trouble.
Plus one, he actually worked on getting programs started and had details. And directly answered the travel criticism.
What specifically would you do to institute a 24/7 day care center for homeless children and what are your plans for improving the status of homeless people in the City of Madison? Nan Brien says that a few years ago they had 24 families with homeless children under three, now they have 74 families. We all know what that means for early childhood brain development for those kids.
Soglin: He says another thing he learned about in his travels was Parcel G in San Franscisco, along the way her found out about the work in Phoenix and Salt Lake City and the real successes in terms of Housing First. So they went to work to provide a program to eliminate homelessness, to provide housing, to get beyond transitional housing and shelters and provide permanent solutions with supportive systems, whether it is transportation, quality childcare, healthcare, or education and job training. He has a 5 year plan, $25M and the council approved the first segment for this year, they have under construction the Rethke project, there is no solution that is temoporary, it has to be permanent housing based. The evidence and conclusions done by academicians, make it clear that unless you have a comprehensive program covering all those areas, you can’t deal with homelessness. He is pleased the council has adopted a commitment to end homelessness. We are committed to end homelessness for veterans this year and next year for . . . he gets cut off (the rest was . . . chronically homeless.)
Plus one. He’s the first Mayor I can remember to take on this issue and he did it in a way that I would have done it, and embraced Housing First (of course there are battles ahead about making things truly “Housing First” but its the biggest step forward I’ve seen)
Resnick: The reality is that homelessness in the Madison School District will reach record numbers this year. The mayor put in his budget to bus homeless people out of Madison. What we need to be looking for is community solutions. We need to be looking for collaborative approaches, because when it comes to funding for these programs, we won’t be able to do it alone, we will have to work with our partners in the nonprofit sector, our communities, the business community and the county to address the issues, particularly for families. We cannot have students who don’t know where they are going to sleep at night have success in our schools. We need to be talking about immediate solutions, it involves all our partners at the table. We need our families to have a place to go at night. Hopefully we can continue to work with the county and other partners to achieve this goal.
No points. If we need immediate solutions, what has he done for the last 4 freaking years? I didn’t see any budget amendments from him! GRRRRRRRR. But I already took points for that. Also, focusing on families is easy and compelling, but the chronic homelessness that we have is over 424 men, 16 women and less than 100 families. The greatest need, and the people sleeping outside the city-county building are the homeless men.
Note, neither of the addressed the first part of the question about a 24/7 day care center for homeless children – tho I am confused about if they mean a day center for homeless persons.
Score: Soglin +2, Resnick -1
How will you work to empower and protect neighborhoods, especially communities without high proiority needs.
Renick: Its about treating each neighborhood with the same energy and emphasis as every other one, when you look at neighborhoods with roads that go unpaved, when you look at areas without strong sewer and gutter and have flooding on a regular basis, we are not serving each one of our neighborhoods. We have made serious investments on our isthmus and in the downtown and the idea of economic growth and we need to make those same investments in each of our neighborhoods. We need to be ensuring that we have strong transportation lines in and out regardless of where you live. We need to address each neighborhood otherwise we won’t have a truly equitable community. We can get there, but we need to focus our major investments throughout all our neighborhoods.
No points. He’s been on the council for 4 years, what has he done? What are the concrete steps he will take in the future? I want to know what this guy will do – besides criticize what he and the mayor and the council didn’t do for the last 4 years he was on the council.
Soglin: Throughout his career as mayor he focused on neighborhoods, whether it was creating a sense of place, recognizing the proximity of urban services and the relationship to schools and parks. Solving the problems do not come from city hall, we are the resource, we are the government that serves. Lets look at the issues of sidewalks that weren’t built in the 50s and 60s and the inadequate roads that won’t support buses. Now we have a difficult situation, there is a question of equity in terms of assessments, issues with the right of way, trees, plantings, fences and walls. There is not a cookie cutter solution, in tending to neighborhood issues we need people in the neighborhood to identify the problem and come forward with solutions and it is our job to find fair ways to address these challenges.
Plus one. He is the “neighborhoods” mayor, he has a strong track record, and his comments about government serving are absolutely what I have seen him do.
Score: Soglin +3, Resnick -1.
In what ways can the city use new technology to move the city forward?
Soglin: Mayor says we have an IT department, it works closely with all the city agencies. There have been a number of challenges with new technology, the bottom line is this, we want to be not on the bleeding edge, but just on the cutting edge. We have learned that if we rush in too soon, we might be buying equipment or software from companies that might not be around in the future. When he came back into office they were buying a system that cost millions of dollars that was postponed year after year in terms of going live, we were facing a crisis about if we could actually implement it. We went forward, challenged the vendor, stopped payment which got their attention, and instead of being like other governments that wasted millions of dollars, we are no underway. The same thing is true in our efforts to wire our city not just for school children but for businesses. He has been working nationally on two things, he was a coauthor of a resolution on net neutrality that won this week at the FCC. We are also working hard to emulate cities that created their own broadband access like Chatenooga.
I agree with him, don’t feel like he gets a point here tho. I think I’m being stingier with the points today. His work in this area seems a little slow to me, but that is kinda how he gets things done.
Resnick: In 2007 the City of Madison was winning awards for the most innovative city hall, taking advantage of new technologies and implementing them here in the city. We aren’t on the cutting edge any more, we are simply playing catch up. The project the mayor talks about is a $4.5M program that doesn’t work properly yet today. When we talk about fiber, that is a $120M investment, its what we were talking about with Googlefiber and what people are finding out is there are better technologies out there that are cheaper, we could use 4G service instead. There are so many ways city hall can be more efficient, using ipads in the field, new technologies at their desks. Whether talking about civic engagement or other technologies, we don’t need to be on the bleeding edge, but we shouldn’t be playing catch up.
No points. This should be his strongest area and I heard, nothing except a criticism of his last 4 years in office. What has he done to solve these issues besides stand idly by and watch the city burn if you believe what he is saying?
Soglin did slightly better because at least he can say what he has done and what he is going to work on. But no points for either.
Score remains: Soglin +3, Resnick -1.
How do you raise revenues to meet the needs we are facing in today’s society
Resnick: When we talk about growth we are no longer a boomerang city, we are a city that people are choosing as a destination from day one, they are choosing to start a family here and they want to be in our downtown, they want to see through economic growth in our city. Partially this is about density, but it also means we start working together with other partners (county and municipalities) and look for efficiencies, what if we combine our IT departments? The City of Madison is on a great trajectory, we need to build and grow so we are ready for the future. When we look at capital budgets 1 – 4 years from now, we are seeing our debt expenditures going to an unprecedented level, 14, 16, 18% grown in captial expenses. We need to look at who will be paying for this in the future and our future is bright if we continue to be fiscally responsible.
Minus one – Dear lord, combine our IT departments? The county barely has one and it would be a HUGE step backwards with us bearing the brunt of that merger! Seriously? And the capital expenses, I’m pretty sure he voted for all 4 budgets and while the mayor was trying to get them to cut back, he was voting for more – ahem, including the Edgewater. Just doesn’t ring true here.
Soglin: Asks how we will get fiscal responsibility if you don’t know what you are talking about. Busing the homeless, that was in the city budget, why don’t you tell everyone what the proposal was. There are two ways of dealing with homelessness, one is Housing First, the second which is effective is for those who are separated from their family and friends to be reunited where they will get support and services. The proposal that was in the budget that you read made it really clear that it would only available if people had family and support services waiting for them. It was not designed as you have been repeatedly describing in the election. He says the problem is also in the capital budget, because you are the one who voted to load up the capital budget and create the trajectory we are on. You’re the one that moved to advance a police station and a fire station that the police and fire chief said were not needed for 3 more years while he was trying to get the funding to close the equity gaps and when he recommended they don’t spend $16.7 on the Edgewater Hotel, you voted with your colleagues and it wasn’t necessary and we saved the people in this room and city $17M that can be used on other capital projects.
+1 cuz he did what he said on the capital side of things, he has been the one raising the alarms about this while the council ignored him. However, I have to say that the “helping hands” budget proposal had very little detail. I’m going to dig that up and post on it separately.
Score: Soglin +4, Resnick -2
What are your thoughts on TIF and TIF use in the future
Soglin: Let’s finish off with the Edgewater, talk about a luxury hotel. Talk about spending money when the data and the report said all you needed was $3.3M. But then lets jump up to the modern hotel we were talking about. Alder Verveer and he recommended a modest hotel. Alderman Clear continually made motions, which Alder Resnick supported to make it a more opulent hotel. We wasted a year, and just a month ago we took another vote to scale back the hotel with no TIF, and Alderman Clear came right back to expand the hotel and guess who seconded the motion? Let be clear and look at the record and look at the votes. He has been in office for a number of years and he has never let you down on TIF. He has never wasted your money, the city has been paid back 10s, 100s of millions of dollars in tax revenues, and to this day, TIF districts like 25 are throwing off millions of dollars that benefit this community. The present project we are talking about he is committed to no TIF on the hotel, there will be an office building that will be a tremendous benefit to the city and we have to replace the parking. The ramp is crumbling, but please don’t accuse me when you continually voted for the project and to make it more opulent.
+1 For being right on both hotels. I feel uncomfortable with the amount of planning money we have given George Austin and the amount of staff time we have spent running in circles over Judge Doyle Square, but in the end he ends up with the right position.
Resnick: He says he made a mistake voting for the Edgwater hotel, he shouldn’t have voted for it, we know that know. The lesson he learned is different, we shouldn’t double down and now build a luxury hotel in the downtown for even more money. (35.11) He wasn’t the mayor in 2011, 2012, 2013 and planned out the vision for Judge Doyle Square. He wasn’t the person who spent over a million in planning, many months before we ever had a vote at the city council level. When we talk abotu the votes we took when it was time to move forward on negotiations on a $20M hotel in November, he said no. We had enough negotiations, the promises that were made to council members, earlier in February were not being held true. We should return that money to the school district and have a reasonable plan moving forward. When it comes to TIF related projects, yes they have been a community and created increment throughout our entire state, but what we need to do is be responsible with our TIF and that they are following the plans of the City of Madison and make sure that they are good for everybody, not just a select few.
-1, for being hypocritical, for failing to speak up on Judge Doyle Square years ago, remember this all started with Mayor Dave . . . he sat there and voted along with everyone else on that planning money for years. And he voted for the Edgewater. Two serious lapses in judgement.
Score: Soglin +5, Resnick – 3
What vision do you have for growth inspiring TIFs that create employment opportunities and revenue for the city.
Resnick: We need to look for the opportunities for great returns for the city of Madison, when you look at great returns on economic generation whether outside the isthmus with TIF locations that make sense. We have a great track record on TIF, we need to make sure the proper safeguards are in place, that we are investing in true economic growth not just in the project, but in the area. He sees it as a great tool for the entire city and we have staff responsible for our needs moving forward and we should look for more opportunities through our economic development division.
No points. Non-answer. I wish he would have talked more about the “safeguards” he would want to put in place because the TIF policy safeguards are routinely ignored by the council.
Soglin: Says you will need to make a decision about if someone who provided the leadership for the State ST. Mall, Capital Concourse, original Civic Center, Monona Terrace, thousands of units of public housing, a variety of neighborhood centers like the one at Warner Park is capable of making these decisions in the future. He says one of the things that he will do is take advantage of new legislation and extend the life of the TIF for one year, capture the value ($500,000 – $4M) and use that cash to build affordable housing. That is in next year’s budget and is part of the Housing First program. When you look at TIF you need to ask a few questions, what are the benefits? TID 25 is one example, our downtown projects, we have one proposed for the Anchor Bank site, which will, without taking money from other projects, will pay back the TIF and provide a profit to go to the city, school district, county and MATC.
One point. TIF for affordable housing! Obviously, I support that. Of course, we might have fights later about how “affordable” the housing is, but one point.
Score: Soglin +6, Resnick – 3
The school board asked you to close TID 25, and that wasn’t able to be done, why?
Soglin: says the bottom line is that they wouldn’t be able to do the housing, $4 -5M that the TIF would throw off. But they did offer a proposal that is just as good. The school districts portion would be $7M, that is what they would get. If that is the objective, to get that money in the hands of the district, they would provide a loan, which they could spend and after they close the district, build the affordable housing, the district would get its $7M and pay back the city. It seems to me if we have another vehicle to get it into the hands of the district and we don’t jeopardize taking off the money for the affordable housing that is something that they should do, this is something they are still working on with the district.
One point for being creative with the school district.
Resnick: He says part of the reasons the school district rejected what was outlined is that the city was dictating the terms of the loan and where it would be spent. If you take a look (aside to Paul and somewhat agitated: We had these conversations in leadership) at what we could do with the TIF district if closed now, it is still open to pay for the parking. If we closed it and look at Judge Doyle Square as a single project. The schools need the money now, we should respect the judgement of the school district members and we should close it now.
-1. And the affordable housing? How would he pay for that?
Score: Soglin +7, Resnick – 4
What are the challenges you see that the east side neighborhoods will face as a result of the DOT project on Highway 51, Stoughton Rd, how will you help preserve these neighborhood connections to the rest of the city?
Resnick: he says the first piece is convincing the state what Hwy 51 is and what it means to the businesses and shops in that location and we don’t need a thoroughfare equivalent to the beltline in that location. No matter what, this is a road and project that needs to be done, but we need transportation available during construct and need to understand that the shops and businesses are critical to the city and the neighborhood. This is going to be a challenging fight for the next 4 years and it will take working with the state for success.
-1. Business first, neighborhoods afterthought. 🙁
Soglin: When Scot was referring to “leadership” he was referring to himself and the pro tem meeting. Any meeting they had was not conveyed to him as the mayor. He was not in the meetings but when the three of them did meet, the only voice he heard was Alderman Schmidt saying he was opposed to any early closing of the district. You guys better get yourselves together and let me know what you are saying, but lets be clear about this. The loan is available and he is not going to jeopardize $4 -5M for affordable housing, that is cash that we won’t have to borrow. Stoughton Rd, he has made it clear to the DOT that they will oppose an expressway on Stoughton Rd and they will not support expansion of the right of way unless it is met with a complementary retraction of the land in other places. Our vision in the city of Madison is a garden parkway. Not a cavern or canyon that divides both parts of the east side, they want economic development along the right of was that doesn’t intrude into the neighborhoods and respects pedestrian and transportation access across the road as long as along side of it. They are not very receptive to that, but we will hold out until we get the right ones.
Plus one for being detailed and having a plan with concrete ideas.
Score: Soglin +8, Resnick -5
State St. is mostly national chains, how can we keep State St. unique
Soglin: Says this is a real difference between the two candidates. And Scott will give him a lecture on not listening. he has been listening and working with the people who live and work and shop on State St. all these years and the implication in that question is what he has heard continually. He says it has moved from 70% retail to 40% retail and if you want to take your family and friends and walk along State St. in the afternoon, like missing teeth in a smile, you are going to have bar after bar after bar until you finally get to a retailer. Now this whole world and country is under the onslaught of Amazon and Ebay and all the other mechanism to go on line to do your shopping, it doesn’t mean you have to surrender. In fact, they are doing things now to encourage bars and make it difficult for the retailers and make it difficult to sell clothing. Who sell household goods. he had suggested and would like to see a moratorium on any properties that do not now have a liquor license to that no new liquor licenses are issued and we have time as a community to come together and figure it out. Part of the configuration of the Street is conducive to the local businesses because they don’t meet the floorprint requirements for the national chains. He wants to keep it that way. He thinks Madison does.
Point. Agree.
Renick: He says if you look at the type of retail of what is left on State St. it reflects luxury retail, there is a changing reality, it reflects the needs of those who are downtown and moving into downtown. You look at the high rises that are going up and the young professionals moving in and what he is trying to get through to the mayor is that he should listen to the young professionals living in that area, deciding to move in that area, to let certain growth occur that reflects the eneds and desires of the neighbors. We want to keep the historic character of that thoroughfare, but it will also take thinking forward about what the next generation of State St. and it will need to be more than just luxury retail spaces. It needs a good flow, but it also has to reflect people moving down there.
Argh. So, what is your plan besides listening. If you want more than luxury retail, how will you get it? Details, plans, ideas, please.
Score: Soglin +9, Resnick -6
They have an opportunity with Royster Clark, what do you think local neighborhoods can do to encourage local businesses to develop in that area?
Resnick: As someone who has started a business, with 22 employees, shop in those local businesses. When you see a business having success, go to it, go to the local coffee shop. That is why he shops on State St, to show they have support. When one person sees success, it encourages others to open shops and at a time when it is easy to purchase things on line, shop locally.
Meh. No points, no deductions.
Soglin: Paul’s Bookstore, Ragstock, University Book Store, Triangle, B-side, if that is luxury, I think their owners would be very curious to know why they are not making millions and millions of dollars. That is his State St. and he hopes it continues. When we looked at Royster and Cottage Grove he worked with the planning team and asked if they can take Cottage Grove Rd with its design based on domination of the automobile with the parking coming out to the street, can they take that and make it similar to Willy, Monroe, etc. He is thinking about Atwood to Hwy 51. So, city staff ran with it, they got excited, they took it all the way past Milwaukee and they are not working on a plan to work on an urban environment safe for bikes and pedestrians and then be able to work with property owners who want to transition to give it a real neighborhood touch and appearance.
Point, concrete, real action.
Score: Soglin +10, Resnick -6
What will you do to hold the police department and Chief Koval responsible for the 8:1 arrest ratio of blacks and whites in our community.
Soglin: A couple months ago, they started doing analysis looking at arrests in the community, especially African American males, and he has traveled and worked with Cities United and the Presidents initiative My Brothers Keeper where we are working with Philadelphia and New Orleans on this common challenge of working with young black men and working on getting them successfully into the economy. Along with latinos, asians and whites. They did an analogy (using modern technology) identifying the 25 places where the arrests are most likely to take place based on history. The top two are the hospitals because that where police go when there has been an attack. But the top 12 sites are 4 high schools, 4 transfer points and 4 discount big box stores and then they plotted the addresses of those arrested and they are concentrated in a few areas. They are now working with the courts and district attorney to determine how they can create diversions and reduce the arrests, which the high schools have already done.
-1. Not answering the question. I’m looking for policing policies and practices that might contribute and how the policed department will be held accountable. Nothing about accountability of the police department was mentioned.
Resnick: He says its about accountability. What are all the systematic issues where we can be accountable from a police department perspective as well as the city, we release the numbers not regularly to the general public so we only see it later. When we come back to the issue, its more than just stopping teenagers from going to big box stores and going to bus terminals. What we need to start talking about the underlying issues and making sure we have pathways forward.
+1 cuz I’m feeling generous. he talked about systems and said the words accountability, but really didn’t answer the question, but its a start with transparency of the numbers.
Score: Soglin +9, Resnick -5
How does the Garver property fit in to Royster and Cottage Grove Rd.
Resnick: Says he is waiting for the RFP process and to see what that yields. He is concerned with the historic tax credits being capped by the governor, but he hopes they are connected projects.
No points. Not much of an answer, wait and see.
Soglin: He says there are a series of site, Royster, Garver and the Voit farm and he wants them to lead to a coherent plan for the area, we do have to wait on the RFP, for Royster, but we are doing analysis now, looking at job creation, how we leverage TIF and working with private sector developers to create a great environment and great places, but also jobs and training opportunities and going back to Garver, that is one of the possibilities. We have a few good options there based on employment opportunities.
No points. About the same answer. Still Soglin +9, Resnick – 5
Closing Statements
Resnick: Madison is a great place, its why he resides here, started a company here, keeps the firm here when they can go anywhere else in the world, this is a strong community, we need to be talking about our priorities in the next 4 years and the systems we can make to make Madison a better place. Its thinking about what the community will look like 10, 25 and 40 years from now and the big investments we can make to set us down the right path to success. Vote April 7th.
Soglin: He agrees, Madison is a great place, we are recognized as the best place in the U.S., including for retirement. That was announced it was also announced we were one of the top 5 best places for those entrepreneurs entering technology. We seem to be doing pretty well, but we all know there is disparity in the community, he said he would do something about it 4 years ago, its a challenge we all need to work on together, he talked to people about changing priorities and how we fund things. They got the data for his first 1.5 years in office, the same data used in the reports and from 2011 to 2013 they reduced the disparity gap by 9% for unemployment, children in poverty by 23%, closed the income gap disparity by almost $4,000. They did it by creating systems that work, bringing back the neighborhood resource teams, working with the school district on out of school time, setting up employment programs and him going to employers and saying it is not just about the city and how they did ban the box and use oral panels, we encourage and work with others to get people into seasonal employment, because that is the best way to get employment with the city. But saying to employers, as they look at their community, does the reflection of the workers reflect that of the entire community. They committed money to a disparity study. (Time is up)
No points for either, nothing spactacular.
Final score: Soglin +9, Resnick -5. Geez, you’d think I was a raving Soglin supporter with these scores . . . but I’m not. I just want Scott to answer questions with details and real concrete ideas about what he has done, or will do. And the blaming the last 4 years that he was in office, when he could have done something, is really frustrating to me. So, Soglin wins again. At this rate, I will have to officially endorse him at some point. Cap Times debate will be up tomorrow.
