I think we already did this . . . maybe even twice, or more, depending upon what you count . . . what should we do with the Houses in James Madison Park? Read it and weep.
Really, you gotta be kidding me!
Dear Neighbors,
When I came into office last spring, a number of you asked me to work on the future welfare of the properties the city owns on the 600 and 700 block of Gorham Street in James Madison Park. After a number of months of conversations and preliminary steps, today I held a tour of the properties for city staff across several agencies so that we can put together a comprehensive project plan for the houses.From the conversations across city hall that I’ve had on the properties, the Mayor has agreed to move forward with assembling a surplus committee for the purposes of evaluating the future sale of the properties. Additionally, and most pressing, I’ll be sponsoring a capital budget amendment that the Mayor will co-sponsor so we may repair and improve the properties from their current state.
Attending the tour were the following individuals:
Dave Cieslewicz, Mayor
Kevin Briski, Director of Parks Department
Bill Barker, Parks Commission Chair
George Hank, Director of Building Inspection
Tom Adamowicz, Chief Building Inspector
Larry Studesville, CDBG Grant Administrator
Amy Scanlon, Historic Preservation Planner
Bill Fruhling, City Planner
Joe Stepnik, Real Estate Supervisor
Craig Wilson, Housing Specialist
Dan Rolfs, Community Development Project ManagerAlso attending were:
Richard Linster, Tenney-Lapham Neighborhood Association President
David Wallner, Parks Commission member, TLNA board member, former Alder
Jim Roper, TLNA board memberPlease contact me with any questions or comments you may have.
Thanks!
Bridget
district2@cityofmadison.com
608-516-3488
Ignoring the obvious error in the first line (she hasn’t been an alder for 4 months, but a year and 4 months), and the fact that she sent the email to the Tenney Lapham Neighborhood but not the JAMES MADISON PARK neighborhood . . . and moving on the more substantive issue . . .
I’ll let one of of the neighborhood leaders sum it up for me, so its not in my own words.
What’s with this? There has already been a surplus committee that recommended sale of the properties. What is this going to be? More delay? An attempt by the mayor to move the homes when the clear recommendation was to sell them and leave them where they are (with long-term lease of the land) to those who would maintain them (the city clearly is not doing so)? All the mayor needs to do is what was recommended by the original surplus committee.
This does not make sense.
Not much does in this city these days . . . I seem to have a constant headache . . .
This is Madison, should we be suprised that this is taking so long? My guess is that someone in city government is waiting for the right payola to help them make a decision!
What a load of crap, Steven. When have you ever heard of a Madison city official being corrupt? Misguided and misinformed, maybe even cowardly, sure, but corrupt? Please give me an example of “some in city government waiting for the right payola to help them make a decision.” Why would you write such a thing?
High priced lobbyists, fancy trips to Europe…yeah, we got a real model of a citizen’s government here…
Hey Brenda,
I’m going to post my reply to the listservs here.
Additionally:
1.) I think “last spring” is pretty self-evident. If you’d like to discuss further what I meant, please feel free to contact me at your convenience.
2) If you go back and look at the email that was sent out to the neighborhood at Wed, Sep 1, 2010 at 3:36 PM, (as you’re on both lists) you should have seen that it went to both TLNA and JMP yahoo groups. I can print out a copy of it for you, if you’d like.
3) The committee that you served on and that did the work was a planning committee, not a surplus committee. I’ll attach the email I just sent out to all the listservs you contacted on this matter now to conclude.
All the best,
Bridget
___________
Dear neighbors,
Following my previous email to the Tenney-Lapham and James Madison Park neighborhoods where I outlined several next steps towards resolving the situation with the city-owned properties in James Madison Park, I stated two items.
1) That I would be pursuing a budget amendment that I put a working ballpark figure of aprx. $100,000 towards the properties. To clarify, these funds are for the immediate repair and maintenance of the two houses at 640 and 646 E Gorham Street that currently have tenants in them and have repair needs. There are many other repairs needed, to be sure. The budget amendment is to remedy current concerns within the first few months of 2011. Our tenants deserve that.
2) That after communicating with the mayor, he has agreed to form a surplus committee to handle the next steps in the process. Please read directly from the minutes from the January 14, 2009 meeting minutes of the Board of Parks Commissioners regarding the final report of the James Madison Park Planning Committee to understand the next steps
(found at: http://legistar.cityofmadison.com/meetings/2009/1/7538_M_BOARD_OF_PARK_COMMISSIONERS_09-01-14_Meeting_Minutes.pdf )
To Quote:
Dan Rolfs spoke about the next steps in this process. A new committee would
need to be established that would deal with the disposal of surplus property. It
would make recommendations to the Park Commission on how to deal with the
four properties. The creation of a surplus property committee is necessary in
order to dispose of the properties and have them sold. That committee will be
charged with creating guidelines for the disposal of the properties and will
look for requests for proposals for the use and reuse of these properties. The
guidelines could be the same as those stated in the report or the Committee
could modify those guidelines. The Park Commission could also set additional
guidelines. It is also possible that one or two members of the Park
Commission would serve on that Surplus Committee. They would then come
before various bodies in the city, including the Board of Estimates and Park
Commission, with their final report. Proposals would be received, reviewed,
and awarded by the Committee. The selected entity would be awarded the
opportunity to acquire the properties with the conditions as set forth in the
proposal.
This is the committee I’ve requested the mayor to create.
Please contact me with any questions or comments you may have.
Thanks!
Alder Bridget Maniaci
The planning committee was set up so that it could transition to the surplus committee, but the Mayor didn’t like the result of the report, so never appointed them. That’s what he has done on this issue, every time he gets and answer that is not what he wants, he appoints a new committee. The neighborhoods have been clear on their position and the committee supported the neighborhoods. I hope you will too. The Mayor’s neglect of this issue is responsible for the deterioration of those houses.
Sheridan Glen asked that I post this for him, I believe some of Bridget’s comments are in response to this comment:
Brenda:
$100,000 doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what these houses need. When we convened the last group and came up with our recommendations, we had all toured the buildings. Collins House alone needs over $200,000. The front porch is about to fall into the front yard. I urge Alder Maniaci to look closely at the good work we did and get a more comprehensive and realistic number inserted into the capital budget. These houses, all designed by the noted Madison architectural firm of Claude and Starck, deserve much better than the woeful stewardship of the city.
Sheridan Glen
Would you please tell the District 2 Alder Bridget Maniaci that her assumption that last Spring did not mean the Spring of 2010 but rather the Spring of 2009 is yet another example of her inability to communicate effectively.
How would any rational person assume she meant the Spring of 2009? I think it was revealing that she did just come to office last Spring except now she comes with prepared statements (don’t forget she said in a city council meeting that the Mayor’s office help is her help too) Alder Rummel educated her that the city council has their own staff.
This is classic Maniaci, she responds wiht a statement that someonw probably wrote for her and then is unable to participate in dialogue.
She’s a Developer dream girl and her campaign will recieve funds from The Chamber of Commerce.
I think Stu Levitan with his insights and intelligence suffers from needing hope because no one can watch Maniaci and the mayor in action and not think of corruption.
They count on people like you Stu! You are good and vocal and you assume others are as well. The Catholic Hierarchy educated me, I used to be like that too.