Now taking suggestions for a better title for these random comments on the things going on in Madison. Today, the post includes Soglin/Skidmore got it wrong, neighborhood meeting on the Edgewater needs a professional facilitator, firefighters agree to no pay increases, radioactive smoke detectors in our landfill, study shows we shouldn’t be playing poker with TIF . . .
PAULS – READ THE ORDINANCE!
Joe Tarr reports that Skidmore/Soglin don’t think Joel Plant should be on the Public Safety Review Board, er, Committee. Plant might be being a bad committee member and monopolizing and controlling the meeting, but there is nothing wrong with the appointment. Just look at the position on the committee, its the “Mayor’s designee” as opposed to a citizen appointment. Why? Because the ordinance says this:
33.22 says
(2) Membership. The Public Safety Review Committee shall consist of the Mayor, or his/her designee, two members of the Common Council, four citizen members, and one alternate citizen member who may participate in Board business as though a full member, but may vote only in the absence of one of the citizen members. The aldermanic members and citizen members shall be appointed by the Mayor subject to confirmation by the Common Council. All elected members shall serve by virtue of their office (ex officio). (Am. by Ord. 10,240, 4-26-91; 12,560, 4-7-00; Ord. 12,695, 10-20-00)
Now, if Skidmore wants to change it, he still has an opportunity – they could amend the ordinance that is before the Council right now. It will be talked about at the next Common Council Organizational Committee meeting on September 1. And better yet, the time to address this would have been when Joel Plant was appointed.
Ok, let the ribbing begin, yes, I just took the Mayor’s side on this one . . .
THIS IS NEW
I was quite surprised that the neighborhood meeting on the Edgewater, which usually includes the alder and planning department staff, this time, includes staff from the Organizational Training and Development Office – i.e. a professional facilitator. How curious. I haven’t seen that before. Is this issue so contentious that city staff time is going to be spent doing the alder’s job? In the past when I had problems with a development – conflict of interest because the project was in my backyard – I just found another alder, Mike Verveer, to hold the meeting for me. While I think in the case of the Edgewater because it is contentious and it is a new alder, the facilitator might be of use, and the facilitator is a good one, I wonder if this resource will be available to all alders who have tough projects in their district on a regular basis? That could be a slippery slope . . .
FIREFIGHTERS STEP UP
Wow, this took me by surprise! Firefighters agree not to get a pay increase. Now, after the agreement is done, the Board of Estimate (not the entire council) will be briefed (maybe, maybe they’ll just get a brief summary on paper) and rubberstamp the decision. When I was on the council, I kept pushing to have the council discuss the employment agreements BEFORE the agreement was made . . . not after. In this case, it looks like a good outcome, but I wonder what the city gave in exchange and how long that will cost us down the road? And I’ve always been curious, if the council didn’t like the agreement that the Mayor and the unions came up with, how do they participate in changing the outcome after the fact? Again, my guess is they won’t do that here, but I don’t know the details either.
SMOKE DETECTOR FIASCO
Seriously, why didn’t the Recycling Coordinator arrange to have a collection of these old smoke detectors and have the city send them back to the manufacturers? We might not have local people to recycle them, but telling people to put them in the trash makes no sense at all . . .
Sadly, the best idea I’ve heard beyond doing the right thing is to collect the smoke detectors and give them to people outside of Madison, since the ordinance only affects Madison. Kudos to Dorothy Borchardt for the suggestion.
Yes, that’s two. Mayor Dave and now Borchardt . . .
MADISON DOES IT RIGHT
This article from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is interesting. It outlines how the economy is affecting TIF districts. It also references a new study that shows that Madison is doing it right by using more scrutiny. In their list of policy options to address issues they note:
Greater scrutiny by municipal governments. The evidence presented in this report suggests that while TIF districts may offer sizable equity leverage
for real estate developments in many communities, municipalities may benefit from greater scrutiny of TIF-backed projects. Adopting formal TIF guidelines that are rooted in community based goals is one alternative. Cities such as Minneapolis, Chicago, Madison, and now Milwaukee have either formal or informal guidelines
for TIF.
More evidence that NOW is NOT the time to loosen up the rules and start giving TIF away because we feel like playing poker.
I gotta run, there is more and I have a new computer and have the day off, so there may be more later this afternoon.
