This may be my last post for the week. I have the rest of the week off . . . but then again . . . maybe not.
UPDATED COUNTY BOARD INFO
I updated yesterday’s post with websites and facebook pages I could find. Please feel free to forward any info you find. I also updated with info from the clerk’s office yesterday at around 4:20. I also corrected a few errors, there are now up to 20 races possible if everyone files their paperwork.
THIS GUY IS RUNNING IN THE SECOND AGAINST VEDDER?
Yeah, screw child labor laws, who needs em? Department of Labor press release. He also gives money to this PAC that gives mostly to Republicans. Wanna place bets on if this is the realtors candidate? (Um, when I say “realtors candidate” I do mean the association and leadership backed candidate. Some of my best friends are realtors, and they don’t vote for many of the association candidates, if they are informed.)
STATE TO TAKE OVER CITY SNOW REMOVAL POLICIES?
It’s hard to take anything Glen Grothman does seriously, so this did make me smile. He’s such a tool. Yeah, our snow plowing policies suck, maybe our legislative branch of government should take a whack at it first. I wonder if anyone will step forward and get this to the council floor as a discussion. I know we tried in the past . . . but there is great resistance to that. We got accused of micromanaging and were told to stay out of it. So, I appreciate Soglin’s comments about the alders not making any conscious decisions. It’s all those pesky details people got upset about me paying attention to. They matter. This is why.
DEPUTIES UNION APPROVES AGREEMENT
Finally. More information and press release to follow . . . . uh, when?
HEARING MORE ABOUT WYOU
It was an active year . . . and more changes coming in the new year! Stay tuned! Channels 95 or 991. Consider donating today! It’s your public television stations, and yours to lose.
MORE BIG BUILDINGS FOR DOWNTOWN
No official notice of demolitions yet, but here’s the addresses:
1208 Spring Street (1880 building)
1212 Spring Street ($1M property)
1214 Spring Street ($.65M property)
45 N. Orchard St. ($1.2M property)
EDGEWATER, DO-OVER, DO BETTER?
Wow. This is quite the dilemna. No one wants to hear all that testimony again. But, there are three members who will make or break this decision, and they haven’t heard it. So, if you care alot about the issue, you kinda gotta show up again. No one wants the meeting to go until 5:15 again. So here’s some suggestions to do this better this time around.
1. Schedule the issue for a special council meeting, where this is the only issue.
2. Don’t let Fred Mohs and Gene Devitt talk for 25 minutes, but not other opponents. That was an ad hoc decision made by the Mayor.
3. Don’t take questions after every 10 speakers, especially the developer and neighborhood folks, if they are going to be there til the end, ask them questions at the end after other speak and go home.
4. Have the Mayor pay attention and actively chair the meeting, especially during the council discussion, keeping people on task.
5. Use staff time efficiently and don’t make that many staff people sit there for 11 hours. (4 planning staff, 2 clerks, 2 economic development staff, 1 city assessor, 1 city engineer, 1 comptroller, 4 Mayor’s staff, 2 city attorneys there well after midnight. And after 2:00 only lost one Mayor’s staff. I’m not sure, but we may have lost a few more along the way.)
More comments and critique here. There must be other ideas as well, I just hope they aren’t limited to limiting public input. (Yeah, you only get 3 minutes this time around, not 5. Problem is, I don’t think the public was the issue. It was the questions from council that dragged it out.)
Schumacher is hopeful the council will approve revisiting the matter, and isn’t daunted by the prospect of another all-nighter.
Of course he isn’t. He wasn’t there for the first 11 hour meeting. And, if there is that many staff there again, is he going to pay for all that staff time that will be used. Or, pay for the 11 hours they wasted the first time around? I wonder how much that cost us? And what the human cost was – I wonder how miserable they all were if they had to go to work the next day.
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE MONEY
I find Bruer’s comments interesting. Could the council go through all of this, for nothing?
Bruer met with representatives from Hammes last week and says the project is now seen by the company as more of a long-shot. He says Hammes had lumped the project with several others around the country to secure financing. “Now that that door has been slammed,” Bruer says, “This project is a stand alone competing with hundreds of projects nationally with only a handful of banks able to finance a project of this scale.”
If this is true, Cnare’s motion was crucial to saving the project. I don’t know why supporters insisted on voting against that motion. That may have been the vote that killed the project.
AYE: Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Solomon, Verveer, Cnare, Kerr, Palm, Bidar-Sielaff
NO: Sanborn, Schmidt, Skimore, Bruer, Clausius, Clear, Eagon, King, Maniaci
ABSENT: Pham-Remmele, Schumacher, Compton
DANE COUNTY REPBULICANS TAKE A STAND!
Against plastic bag restirctions. Hmmmm . . . it might be more effective to show up to the council meeting when the decision is being made, instead of writing a letter to the editor after the fact. But it is good to see a name connected with the party here, not many are willing to do that. And I liked the first comment after the letter. The commenter forgot to mention cost to the taxpayer as well.
