Here it is, lets find out who got screwed this week!
FEE SPEECH
While we continue to talk about the impact of money in local elections and if the Mayor’s race should be publicly financed, or the alders too for that matter, a report comes out about the impact of money in state elections. It’s ugly, as expected. Check out how the special interest sugar daddies impacted the races.
Who got screwed: Wisconsin Voters.
NOTHING MORE TO BE DONE HERE!
Bullshit! When the city wants to, it breaks the rules, doesn’t follow its own ordinances and policies and generally just does what it wants. When the right powers that be decide something is important. Apparently, low income renters are not some of the lucky people like developers, who the city considers important. Some people who are section 8 renters are getting rent increases of $100 – $200 and were given less than a months notice. My staff have been tracking the people coming in and so far so that we can contact them if the community comes up with a solution the city government can’t do. My staff reports that every single one of them who came in to the office was in tears. Imagine being low-income enough to be on section 8 and getting a notice that your rent just doubled from $150 to $300 and you have less than a month to figure out how to come up with the money. The sad part here is that last I heard, it was about a $500,000 shortfall that would have prevented these rent increases. Well, hmmmm . . . don’t we have $4M in an Affordable Housing Trust Fund? Isn’t that something that this money should be able to be used for? No other options? I disagree! I want my city to try harder!
Community meeting Tuesday at noon at the Social Justice Center Conference Room, 1202 Williamson St.
Who got screwed: Section 8 tenants.
NO MEETING HERE!
I love it when the city cancels a meeting and doesn’t tell anyone. On Wednesday, the Housing Operations Committee was supposed to meet to discuss the section 8 issue above. Members were notified on Tuesday at 10:15 that the meeting was cancelled – no explanation, but as of this morning, the clerk’s office weekly schedule (sorry, that’s not a permalink and will change later today) still lists the meeting as follows:
| 4:30 PM | CDA HOUSING OPERATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE | ROOM 120 MMB |
Unlike cancelled meetings that get listed like this:
| 12:00 PM | CONTRACTED SERVICE OVERSIGHT SUBCOMMITTEE (Cancelled) | ROOM LL-110 MMB |
Who got screwed: Section 8 tenants and Madisonians wanting to attend the meeting.
THIS IS GOING TO BE FUN TO WATCH!
Wanna see the Mayor’s head explode? It just might if Alder Schumacher’s idea picks up speed. I’d refer you to his blog, but he only has two posts and this isn’t one of them! I knew he said it would be sporadic, but its been a whole month since his last post . . . but I digress. Read here about the Council appointing its own members to committees. Could you imagine what happened if the council or council president got to pick who is on the Board of Estimates! My favorite line from the blog is here:
The mayor has often compared his appointments to Obama nominating a Supreme Court justice, but imagine Obama appointing the Senate Committee on Appropriations — it probably would not go over particularly well.
Mark your calendar for the next CCOC meeting! Usually the first Tuesday of the month at 4:30 room 103A at the City County Building.
Who got screwed: The Council at the moment, could it be the Mayor in the future?
LMAO!
Ok, I seriously laughed out loud when I read this. Bill Lueders nails it on the Edgewater! On more than one point. First, he’s the first one I’ve seen publicly question the Mayor’s city sponsored clearly political “blog”. Second, he points out how the Mayor doesn’t understand basic internet ettiquette. But most importantly, he absolutely burned Bob Dunn of the Hammes Company. Who, if you ask me, is trying to be just a little too cute with his strategies to get his project developed. I get the feeling he thinks that Madisonians are just a bunch of country bumpkins and just disdains us. So, Lueders gave him a bit of his own medicine. I wonder what he “held back”. What is in those documents to be submitted on July 15th that the neighborhood can’t get a copy of and where they turned away neighborhood residents at the door at the meeting where they were discussed? And where are those damn lobbying reports? Am I going to have to file a complaint?
Who got screwed: First, Madisonians. Second, Bob Dunn! I guess he got to reap what he sowed.
MALT HOUSE WOES
$5,000, three picnic tables, zoning laws and a crappy parking lot. There’s no doubt the parking lot needs to be improved. There’s no doubt that the Malt House is a great place for great beer. There’s no doubt that the picnic tables will not disrupt the neighborhood. The real issue here is, why won’t the McGraths spend a relatively tiny amount of money to improve the area while their property across the street sits vacant. And if they don’t plan to redevelop, why won’t they sell? Or if the Malt House has enough resources to buy the property, why not enter a long term lease and let them make the improvements? The plan commission was really stuck on this one, and its not a matter of changing a bad policy, because the policy is a good one and if it is waived here, then other businesses will want it waived for them as well and the plan commission wasn’t willing to do that.
Who got screwed: The Malt House and its patrons. And I’m sure the City will get screwed when they get blamed by actions of the McGraths – there’s gotta be a private sector solution here.
KARMA BABY!
So, the Sconz challenged me, he didn’t like my blogging style. Apparently, he claims I just report things, and don’t have opinions! Ha! Then he attempted to do the same thing himself. FAIL!!!!
Who got screwed: The Sconz . . . oh, wait, maybe not, he apparently got alot of traffic from my blog.
I still have over 100 emails tagged “blog topic” from the last month alone . . . I don’t understand these folks who only blog once a month . . . I’ve got so much to follow up on and write about!
