This is from the CCOC (Common Council Organizational Committee) last week. The issue is what will this committee, which is the only “council members only” committee will work on. It’s a chance for the members of the committee to talk about what they thought were priorities for them to work on. Generally, these would be council related issues. Here’s what they came up with. And my comments. Committee appointments, going to national conferences and travel budget, committee appointments, knotty issues, when to call a special meeting, task forces and workgroups, city communication and the state legislative/lobbying agenda and how to participate in that.
Council President Cnare, who appoints the members of the committee which automatically includes the Council President, the Pro Tem and the previous Council President as an alternate, started off by telling them to review the duties of the CCOC. She says last year was a banner year, the Edgewater and Overture came before them. The big knotty issues often end up at this table. One we will learn about tonight that will likely come here before the council votes. Anything else? Hmm, I”m not sure what she’s talking about now that I think about it. The only “knotty” issue is the budget but that wasn’t talked about at the council, it would be odd for that to come to them, since Board of Estimates is all alders and the mayor.
Tim Bruer says they have been talking about this for 8 years, but the time has come for talking about the organizational structure, the timing was off before, [why? cuz he was in leadership for two years?] but we should look at council leadership and as we look at the challenges. We should look at the council as an institution, we have been he most frugal. He wants council and CCOC to take more role in appointments. [oh, because he’s not the mayor’s buddy any more? Cuz he can’t tell Soglin what to do, like he did with Mayor Dave?] In other places council leadership are involved in the appointments and mayor makes citizen appointments, there was some interest in pursuing that. Now is the time to bring it forward and have an open and candid discussion. The legislative branch should be responsible for its own house.
Chris Schmidt says is his issue. The state statute doesn’t tell them what the process is and it may be a good idea for the alders to think about that. We had several hours of discussion last night. [at plan commission]
Cnare says that she is taking notes and will plan the issues for future agendas.
Larry Palm asks how do we decide when to have a special meeting about a topic area. Is it something that is a continuing thing, is it something time sensitive, can we have code words for task force, ad hoc or work group?
Mark Clear says that they are on the right track, thorny issues is a good all encompassing term, and things that don’t have another obvious home are what should come here. He sees it as acting as an executive committee, not like the county, his perception is that their executive committee gets together to decide what will happen, he can’t see that happening here, but being the home of big issues and meta issues that have to do with organization of the council and how we do our business.
Cnare says that when met with Soglin he is fond of the League of Cities and wants alders to participate.
Shiva Bida-Sielaff says Sielaff says he wants more participation in national groups cuz in many ways, we’re a little disconnected from all the work and thoughts and new thinking that is going on at a national level on how to run cities and budgets. He felt more alders should participate, then we started talking about money. All ideas are good until we talk about the money. How would that happen and where get the funding? The fact that can’t send postcards, we run out of money quickly, he said maybe there could be a separate pot of money that CCOC would decide and have a process to make decisions about if that makes sense. She says likely they did that in 1992, we have heard a lot about what we have done in 1992. I wish I could capture the clear annoyance in her voice.
Lisa Veldran, council staff says it was there until Alder Brandon got rid of the travel budget. She says that might be another item for CCOC, but they would have to come up with process for requests and how to accept or not.
Sue Ellingson said that she wants to look at communication across the city. Citizens see a black box, and she would like to tell them what they are getting for their money and what we do for them. They are on the front lines, its good for them to take it on, but goes beyond them. The mayor has a lot to do with the communication that goes out. Streets does the website and we might want to expand it or change focus or add a focus that is not there right now.
Bruer says that composition of the committees, including demographics and diversity is important. They talked about this the last two terms but now is the time to address it, are the committees representative of the city at large, etc. He’s starting to sound like a broken record, this must be how he sees gaining more control? Funny he didn’t have problems with this for the last 8 years and while he was council president for two years in a row and others were bringing it up.
Cnare says mayor interested in this, it’s a joint effort.
Palm says that he went to the Dane County City and Villages dinner and that they are doing important things and we should communicate with them. He says he could go to them all or should we be designating people who have it be their responsibility, he thinks not one person should go to every conference.
Bidar-Sielaff says its great to go to the meetings, but something has to come back to the entire council. When think about participation and who goes, they have to report back, we could all show up for a nice dinner, but the responsibility is for someone to say here are a few things I learned and what would be of interest to Madison.
Cnare says that issues at capitol will be big and how will they have a say in it?
Bruer asks to what extent they participate in setting that agenda?
Cnare says 50/50
Bidar-Sielaff says they would like to participate but in her years never been asked to do that, so we need to influence the agenda and be at the table. We have our finger on the pulse of the community, we are one level closer. Interesting, I’ve never heard her say a bad word about Mayor Dave, this is as close as it gets.
Palm says that one problem he has is that if a representative of the body is going to speak, then as the city of Madison representative, how do we gather feedback to allow you to speak on our behalf. He says Cnare is elected to do that, but how do we filter that when others want to do it, once we advocate people speaking on behalf of the council it has to be in a way that the council is supportive.
Bidar-Sielaff says that we agree on a legislative agenda, hopefully the executive and legislative branch and whatever it is, we agree that shared revenue is not a good idea or killing RTAs and then organize around 3 or 4 talking points and we bring it home with examples. Second if you are there representing your own district, it is helpful to know, she is getting info today about Joint Finance, there is a time and a thing, why should I research it myself when part of city government there someone is paid to do that. It’s interesting they didn’t push these issues with the old mayor, I know I tried but found little support and was told not to poke the bear. Now they feel completely comfortable doing it. Interesting.
Palm says that not wanting to debate it here, but wanted to say if constructing way for people to speak but we need to discussion what they say and on behalf of whom
Cnare says they have filled 2011 agenda for the committee. Other things will come our way, they will sit down and figure out, some might be work groups or task forces if not a subcommittee.
So, that’s what this group of merry moderates think the issues are that they should work on. Agree?
