They had a huge agenda, 38 items, but the meeting was only an hour and a half. And 12 minutes of that was waiting for it to get started. They discussed 6 of the 38 agenda items – personnel changes, the merger of the Treasurer’s Office and Finance, leasing equipment from the Navy for the police department, the Public Market, EOP funding and Tree Lane.
First let me say – I don’t like these new camera angles!
They passed all the items on the agenda except they separated items 1, 12, 18, 33, 34, 35, 37 and 39.
#1 Recreating a Program Assistant 2 (CG17, R12, pos. #1054) to an Administrative Assistant (CG17, R14) and reallocating the incumbent, M. Hatfield, to the new position in the Parking Utility Division.
Mike Verveer separated this item. He calls “Mike” up to the table and tells him that none of the Personnel items are updated in legistar (ok – so then what did the Board of Estimates just pass if there were no recommendations for all those items?) He says he’s not, the recommendation is to adopt all the items. Verveer says he found the draft minutes in legistar, but the individual files are not updated. Verveer asks about the appeal by the incumbent of the initial determination, it was denied by Harper (HR Director). Did the incumbent ask the for the Personnel Board to hear the appeal? No, they did not. Motion passed.
#12Create the classification of Treasury and Revenue Manager in CG18, R16 and create a new 1.0 FTE position of Treasury and Revenue Manager in the Finance Department budget. Effective with the retirement of the City Treasurer in June, 2019, delete the classification and position of City Treasurer.
Mike Verveer says he separated this item because he thinks it would be better to keep this item with all the other Treasurer and Finance Department merger items that were introduced at the council meeting last week. Mayor Paul Soglin asks if he wants to refer it. Verveer says that he wanted to ask Finance Staff if these items would be at the next meeting, David Schmiedicke, the Finance Director says yes it should because it is going to CCEC on the 22nd, but that he won’t be at the next two Finance Committee meetings because he will be at meetings outside the city – Dave Gawenda and Mike May will be at the next meeting. And the next finance meeting after that is not until March. They want to get this wrapped up so they can begin recruitment and so there is overlap in the position with Gawenda. Verveer asks when they will start recruitment – Schmiedicke says early February. Verveer asks if they won’t wait for the council, Schmiedicke says the resolution. Verveer says he has no concerns, he’s a co-sponsor but he has had colleagues ask questions. He wanted to ask their questions publicly. Schmiedicke says that what Verveer is describing is logical but but not working out with his schedule.
Verveer was having trouble seeing who was in the room and the Mayor requests that next time they set the room up they rotate it 90 degrees, so its set up so they are all facing the audience (with their backs to the press). I didn’t realize the press have their own row . . . with lots of chairs! Hopefully some electrical outlets, I’ll have to check it out!
Verveer asks if he should ask his questions. They say yes. Verveer said the first question is how it affects checks and balances with two departments. David Schimiedicke says that there is they have internal controls and clear separation of duties. They have an external auditor, Baker Tilly and they will review all those internal controls, they do that now. He thinks that is how they will get at the checks and balances. He says that this is a practice that is done throughout the country and there are ways to set up internal controls and monitor them. Mayor says this used to be their structure. Verveer says he remembers Ray Fisher. Mayor says the reason it was undone was because of personnel issues, not structural issues. Verveer says the other question is Gawenda’s financial planning and investment background and when you read the position that is a heavy emphasis and he asks if that is what they are looking for. Schmieidke says yes, they are looking for skill sets of revenue accounting, systems understanding, investments, treasury management. Verveer asks if the Mikes have anything to add. Michael May says that on the first question his recollection is that the resolution requires establishing the internal controls. It’s not just a good idea, it’ll be the law.
Verveer moves referral to the next item.
The mayor says that the investment skills aren’t about what type of vehicle to invest in, but the secure nature of the vehicle and an appreciation for highly rated instruments, triple A and things of that sort. Schmiedicke says they are very restrained under the state law what they can invest in – they can’t invest in equities and things like that. There is not a large array of elements in the portfolio.
Larry Palm separated this one.
As the staff come up, they rearrange where everyone is sitting so alders don’t have their backs to the staff and audience.
Palm says he wants to understand the purchase better, can you give an overview. This looks like a monthly payment, so what are we buying. Vic Wahl from the Police Department says its a lease program, this is their 3rd year of doing it, they can get equipment they can lease and exchange and replace at a fraction of the cost. There is language in the lease that we normally wouldn’t agree to but they worked with the risk manager and city attorney on it and there haven’t been any troubles with the indemnification language. Passes.
Jamaal Stricklin is the President of the Madison Public Market Foundation Board and he was there to support all three items. He says the foundation has been working on a shoestring budget to have events and raise awareness and funds. He says they are approaching $1M in funds and they have had no support from the city. The funds have been approved and he says this is something Madison needs and wants and this will help them move forward in fundraising for the project.
Verveer asks about the agreement and naming rights. Stricklin says they haven’t thought about naming the entire project, but they have talked about naming rights for portions of the Public Market. They realize that would have to go before council before they took that step.
Verveer asked about Exhibit A, Naming Rights policy – he doesn’t understand the difference between naming rights, who in the city approves the naming rights and what criteria would they be using for approval. Dan Kennelly says that they were differentiating between spaces in the market, but not the outside spaces. They wanted the city to be able to reject names that might be inappropriate. By “the city” he thinks it means the council. Kevin says interior and exterior spaces was a staff level decision. The PMDC would be making the final decision. They did put this in there so there could be discussed. They hadn’t originally thought they would name the whole building but they might.
Verveer asks for an overview of the three items. Dan Kennelly says that the quarterly report will be out soon, but the operations and governance, the Public Market Foundation is picking up momentum, has new members, hosted some events, has filed for 501(c)3 status and has raised almost $1M. In design and development, we have redirected back to the fleet services garage. One of the resolutions is to move forward with working on design and to get to the point where where can start construction. In terms of vendors, the Market Ready Program has 30 vendors getting training and grants and they are making progress on their business plans. He says they are making progress on the design and operations and vendors. Fleet Services has to move out and are starting their new project on Nekoosa Trail in the next few months and they hope to move in late 2020 and then we will have all our design work done and funding set up to be under construction in 2020 and will be ready to open in 2021.
Verveer asks about the timeline in the exhibit and Dan says that he would have to make sure there were no changes.
Mayor points out that they are creating a food venue where there was a garage and while they don’t anticipate any problems, he wants to caution people there could be soil contaminations that they can’t find until Fleet moves out – that is a possibility. It’s not very likely tho. he also says regarding naming rights, when they were raising money for the Civic Center they were $250,000 short and Oscar Mayer stepped in at the last minute, but in perspective, that naming right that went on for 30 years was a bargain for Oscar Mayer, they should keep that in mind as they work on naming rights.
Verveer asks about the progress of New Market Tax Credits. Kennelly says that so far they are getting the applications in and getting in the pipeline, they are getting in the Community Development Entity (CDEs) applications to the US Dept of Treasury and in those applications we have been listed as projects for a couple years in a row. Some have gotten credit and some haven’t. Next we would have to work with those CDEs to close the transaction but that can only happen once we are ready to break ground. We are well positioned, its just getting the project to be ready.
Larry Palm says the architect did the Library and Municipal Building, he is wondering if they are losing new ideas and thinking by going with the same architect again. Another staff person Brian says that the architect worked on the Library, Municipal Building and Olbrich. He hasn’t been on every selection team that has selected them, but its a common theme that when there are people from various backgrounds that have been drawn to that team, especially for adaptive reuse projects. They have excelled in that area. So, this team that selected MSR was people from Planning, Food Policy, Economic Development and Facilities. He was the only one who was consistent with the other project. Kennelly says there were 11 responses to the RFP and they were scored with purchasing and then they interviewed 5 teams, and scored them based on the questions and MSR rose to the top in that quantitative approach. Then we asked for more information later on, it was robust and quantitative approach. Jamaal said that he was on the team and they ranked in his top two, they definitely brought it to the table.
Palm says the question wasn’t about picking the best team, but he is concerned about alway picking the same team, why would others apply. He loves what they have done, but he’s nervous that no one else will compete.
Verveer says that he agrees with Alder Palm but his concern is that they don’t have a physical presence in the state. We originally chose them because they were library experts but they are getting every major design since then. He says he has heard complaints from local architects about them, but also when there are architects from Milwaukee. He says we have a local purchasing policy and he thinks its weak, but at some point even tho they do excellent work, they should consider putting out a shingle in our community if we are going to continue to work with them. It’s not a question, I just wanted to say what I have been telling the staff privately.
Passes unanimously.
Verveer has two questions. First, what is the difference between the original and substitute. The substitute has an applicant that changed fiscal agents. One of the projects will be using Northside Planning Council instead of a church.
Verveer also asks where the staff recommendations and the conference committee recommendations conflict. He couldn’t find the staff recommendations. Nancy Saiz says there were two differences, More Smiles Wisconsin was considered more of a public health project not a community development project. Also 1000 Friends of Wisconsin was recommended by staff it was part of the Leopold/Arbor Hills Neighborhood Plan. The committee felt that it wasn’t working enough on poverty issues. Staff was trying to work with other agencies. Those were the two main differences. Verveer asks where that money went? Nancy says that with this funding process they are doing an equity analysis in 2019. It is a popular program and they have gotten over 300 applications and over $6M in requests and only 1/3 of it has gone out. They need to look at what this program really funds and the parameters around that. They added more under capacity building, Unidos, Central and Maydm received full funding. In this funding you usually don’t see full funding of programs. Verveer asks if that was unanimous. Yes, for where the money got added. There was a lot of conversation over 1000 Friends. They say there was consensus.
The Mayor asks Jim O’Keefe from the Community Development Division to give a presentation and notes that there are registrations in support from Michael Goldberg and Candace McCoy-Cunningham from Heartland. O’Keefe says that he sent out a memo earlier today regarding the situation to the committee and the council. Tree Lane is the second permanent supportive housing project on the West side that provides 45 units of housing for formerly homeless families. It opened in June and we’ve had some difficulties as residents have settled in. One of the issues of greatest concern is the ability to manage access to the building. It has only one entrance, but it works best when it is fully monitored. They needs to make sure that people who are not supposed to be there are not there. There have been some destruction and criminal activity. Mayor Soglin organized a response team late last year headed by Deputy Mayor Gloria Reyes and they are working with Alder Paul Skidmore, the police, Heartland staff and the YWCA staff and the private security firm. One of the continuing unmet needs is to have staff to monitor the door. Heartland has budgeted $145,000 for security and has increased that by another $80,000. That is sufficient to have a single security staff person 24/7 and the money in this resolution is to have a second person on the weekend. $165,000 is for that second position for all of 2019. They hope they might not need to use all that money. There is general consensus in the response team. This is one time funding but there is a need for additional support services and they are working to assemble a package of support services that they hope to bring to the council over the next few weeks.
The mayor says he wants to review how we got here, he says that they had two sessions with Carmen Porco and then they visited his site at Packers Northport – he manages a site 5 times this size, but when he first came to Madison, they had similar problems. At the time, with a couple 100 apartments, there is no security service, the changes are monumental and its achievable at Tree Lane. It has to do with the management and the relationship with the tenants that work as a team. There are also some design and service opportunities there. That should be the standard for all housing. He says there are three critical areas where change needs to be made. First the initial decisions between Heartland and us to locate the most challenged families at this site, that was overly ambitious and we have seen the results. If they would do it over again, they would do 20 households instead of 45. There would have been other families that didn’t need the case management. 4 families have left or about to leave and they have made the situation challenging. They are not going to fill those apartments for a while, we believe with those families gone it will contribute to an improved atmosphere for the tenants and surrounding area. From a design standpoint it is not the most welcoming and we need to do something in terms of engagement. Art and color can make a difference. The other thing was the deadline to get the building open meant that they didn’t have services in place, they had case management, but things like the community room that they eventually decided would be for teens is completely bare at this point. There isn’t enough structure to the room for the kids. Some of that needs to be put in place. We don’t have the engagement yet with the residents in terms of the future of the building. It’s his belief that if they get the security in and make it secure then they can double back and get the services in. He says that he wants to see the tenants and management be aligned as a team.
Verveer asks if there are noncompetitive bidding request forms? Is there a copy? The mayor makes it clear they should be voting on the substitute. Verveer asks where the form is, Finance Staff says they forgot to attach it in legistar. O’Keefe says that there should be a second substitute. Verveer says its not labeled 2nd substitute. There is version confusion. It was first title only, then a version, then a substitute.
O’Keefe says there are changes at the bottom of page 2. Paul Skidmore says that the changes say that the funds would be solely for temporary support as the response team feels appropriate. Verveer tries to qualify that every penny of this has to go for security. “Absolutely” The mayor says all that is spent, but they might not max it out. Verveer asks if Skidmore wanted MPD special duty officers? Skidmore says that private security will not be allowed to carry weapons to defend themselves and there may be a need for armed security which would mean there might be a need for police overtime. That cost would be covered by that. Verveer asks if the security company is not allowed to carry weapons and Skidmore say just on this property. Verveer asks if that was Heartland’s decision and Skidmore says by city and Heartland. MPD has suggested that private security be allowed to carry weapons. Verveer says you are clearly an expert.
Verveer asks what the thought process was to fund this todays so soon in the new year with all the good things happening there. With the improvements, evictions and whatever, why do we need 24/7 security for the next full year, why not a quarter or 6 months at a time. O’Keefe says the finance department advised it, he doesn’t think they would need it all but this way they won’t need to come back. He says some of the modifications the mayor alluded to have occurred and other will take some time to play out. If its community engagement or improved support services will be more successful in an environment of greater safety. The point of this step to temporarily increase security is to bring settlement and normalcy to build on the support services and engagement.
Verveer asks about the timeline to deal with the support service needs mentioned in the memo and this draft. What might that cost be? O’Keefe says they are in the midst of conversations about what needs to be provided and he anticipates that they could be ready at the first council meeting in February to send it out for referrals, he is reluctant to make an estimate, but it will be significant – at least this much and the costs will be on-going, but they are also talking to other funders and they are looking at accessing medical assistance and he is hopeful United Way will increase their commitments. They are assembling a package and should have something in 2 or 3 weeks.
Mayor says that he called Renee Moe (United Way) and said that we made a commitment to house people with the greatest challenges and the responsibility cannot be just the city of Madison. Long term we cannot fund and subsidize the operations of these facilities. He says that Carmen Porco has the support of the Baptist Church. If we are going to talk about equity, there has to be support for this kind of endeavor. We can’t turn our back on them and we have to figure out how to do it. If you look at the report that came out this morning on homelessness in the United States most cities haven’t come close to solving the trouble, so we don’t have the models to look at, but he thinks that Packers Northport and the modifications that they made with their own CDA housing at Bayview 25 years ago are models to look to. O’Keefe says that Heartland Housing has a property comparable to Tree Lane and they don’t spend any money for security there. What they do have is some $650,000 in support from Milwaukee County for support services, in comparison, they have $165,000 here for support services. He doesn’t think they will need $650,000 but it gives you some sense of where we are compared to comparable properties in Milwaukee.
Verveer asks what we spend at Rethke. The mayor says its not comparable, you don’t have one child there let alone 100. O’Keefe says it is shy of $150,000. But 25 of those clients have VASH vouchers and have support from the Veterans Administration and they are working to take full advantage of medical assistance and believe that can be a solution there. Verveer says that he understands that this is one of the challenges in that WI is different than Illinois. O’Keefe says that it is more difficult to use than what Heartland has worked with in Illnois. We put maybe too many eggs in that basket and they are working with county staff and Heartland to take full advantage of the program.
Verveer asks about the YWCA not working there. Skidmore says they will have no role in the future. Verveer asks when they will be leaving and will there be services to fill the void when they leave. O’Keefe doesn’t know the exact date, they have a contractual obligation through March 15th. O’Keef says that they will be reasonably well prepared, there will be a period of transition and they know they need a transition and are confident it will go well. Other members of the Homeless Services Consortium are interested in helping and providing technical support, he thinks they will be in good shape come March 15th.
Keith Furman asks about using MPD, or armed security – if they go with armed security will this cover the costs of that? O’Keefe says this covers private security on weekends and evenings. It doesn’t cover Madison Police officer. He thinks the language provides them with flexibility to use MPD if needed. Skidmore says that these funds should be sufficient through the end of the year – it is not intended that there would be a regular presence, just if there is a need for significant overtime. He shares in MPDs belief that having 2 guards instead of one, and two sets of eyes will stem the significant threats that are there now. He thinks this will be sufficient and shares the mayor’s optimism that this could end the threat and stabilize this in 2-3 months. The mayor says that in regard to private security vs. Madison Police Department, he says that question about if the private security should be armed, the consensus was that with over 100 children there they didn’t want the private security to be armed, but if it is necessary they will have the Madison Police Department. Furman says he isn’t advocating for armed security, he just wants to know what to expect and he appreciates the efforts that have been made.
The vote to make the second substitute the main motion, the motion passes. They adjourn.
You can watch the meeting here yourself, Tree Lane is the last half hour if you are interested in that:
Here are the other items that were not discussed. You can find links to them here
– #2 – Recreating a 1.0 Program Assistant 1 from a 1.0 Automotive Service worker in the police department
– #3 – Recreating a Program Assistant 1 from a 1.0 Administrative Clerk in the police department
– #4 – Recreation a Program Assistant 3 from a Police Records Services Supervisor in the police department.
– #5 – Deleting Lifeguard 1, 2 and 3 and creating a Lifeguard, Swim Instructor and Head Lifeguard (in Parks, I presume)
– #6 – Double-filling an Administrative Assistant at Flood Services Feb – May
– #7 – Double-filling a M.T. Building Maintenance Supervisor for 60 days
– #8 – Creating a Librarian 1 in the Library budget
– #9 – Deleting a Electronic Maintenance Technician and creating a Control Systems Technician in Water Utility
– #10 – Creating a Child Care Program Specialist 3, and recreate positions 107 and 109 into that position in the Community Development Division
– #11 – Change a Housing Maintenance Work position to a Maintenance Mechanic 1 in CDA Housing
– #13 – No competition to see the city over $25,000 of chemicals and supplies for EAB mitigation
– #14 – Accepting $6,000 Evjue Foundation grant to grant to “We Talk Chalk, Inc”
– #15 – Accepting $155,075 from WisDoT for safety education program.
– #16 – Allowing Police Department to accept donations for Canine, Mounted, Community Outrace, Honor Guard, Training Center and other initiatives and to use that money however they want, but they have to report donations to the City Finance Committee Annually
– #17 – Accepting a grant for $30,000 annually for two years of overtime for the Dane County Narcotics Task Force for conducting heroine and opiate investigations
– #19 – Amendment to lease for Madison Area Transportation Planning Board allowing the city to terminate early
– #20 – Amendment to Development Agreement for Garver Feed Mill – modifying closing conditions and amending environmental responsibilities
– #21 – Moving proceeds form sales of Lots 1-4, 7 – 10 and 15 in Commerce Park from Land Acquisition Fund to Special Assessment Fund
– #22 – Early Attachment and Revenue Sharing agreement with Town of Burke for 4202 – 4210 Hoepker Rd
– #23 – Lease with Town of Blooming Grove for space at 3325 Thurber Ave for use as an artist studio
– #24 – Formalize appointment procedure fo City’s appointees to the Madison Metropolitan Sewerage District
– #25 – Accepting 3 grants for water quality projects, adding $650,000 to the Storm Water Capital Budget
– #26 – $250,000 in sewer funds moved around to fund a pilot project to install sewer backwater valves to properties upon request
– #27 – Buying 2 properties at 330 and 342 East Lakeside Street for $5.5M to add to Olin Park
– #28 – Funding Specialized Transportation activities in 2019
– #29 – Accepting $180,800 from WIDoT to operate MPO’s Rideshare Etc. program
– #30 – Agreement with CARPC for to provide transportation planning in 2019
– #31 – Allowing CDA to pay us back a $300,000 loan later than originally agreed upon
– #32 – Approving the Scope of Services and creating the Executive Board of the Madison Cooperative Development Coalition
– #36 – Request for proposal for early childhood services for funds in 2020
– #38 – Affordable housing projects and capital improvement funds for Goodman Center
