So, whatever I type tonight is all you’re getting on the budget this year, unless the go to a second night. Just. No. Time. I am audio recording in case there is something extra juicy that needs to be reported in the morning . . . I”m guessing not. Meeting starts at 5:30.
Started only 7 minutes late, everyone here if I heard correctly. Mayor starts out by asking for cooperation in the logistics of the room. Cuz you can’t see the whole room from up there and the microphones might be on or not. The audio people will not know everyone. There’s no clock in the room to keep time. They are intending to enforce the rule that people can only speak twice and not for more than 10 minutes. They will raise their hands and the mayor will keep a stack, unlike the electronic system where they can drop out. He says if they come back tomorrow night, they will have the tables for the council members moved together so they can see everyone at the same time. You can hear people talking in the hallway due to the acoustics, keep conversations to a minimum. He says if they do it again tomorrow night they will seat the Attorney and Clerk closer to the mayor.
Mike Verveer, Council President explains that they are meeting here so the County Board can use the chambers. He says they are also meeting tonight because of the Annual League of Cities meeting that starts on Wednesday. He says they should assume the mics are live at all times. He thanks Monona Terace staff for their hospitality, points out where the restrooms are and explains there is food for city staff behind the curtain. He says that they are hoping to finish the budget tonight because two colleagues (Rebecca Kemble and Larry Palm have international travel) Tomorrow they will likely be back in the council chambers since the county board usually finishes their meetings very quickly.
Verveer points out there are two podiums for people to speak. The public hearing will allow 5 minutes per speaker on the operating budget and 5 minutes per speaker on the capital budget. They will allow early public comment for people who need to leave for childcare, health or transportation reasons. They will do the capital budget first and then take comment on the operating budget. He requests that all amendments we made through the finance staff, they have a printer.
Verveer suspends the rules as they do to take things out of order and introduce items not on the agenda.
RE-CONFIRMING . . .
That we are Madison and Trump sucks. Unanimous support from the council. 2 registrations, Walt Jackson in support not wishing to speak. Fernando Carl
Mayor says he will call people in groups and ask people to be ready to speak to save time.
Shiva Bidar reads the resolution. (See link above.
Fernando says thank you for protecting everyone, this community is what makes Madison a great place to live. He says hopefully they have a good meeting and it won’t go until 6 in the morning.
Samba Baldeh says that he is working on organizing a forum for Muslim and immigrant community. He will send more information later.
BUDGET PUBLIC HEARINGS
Verveer moves the capital budget.
Marsha Rummel asks if its ok to speak to both Capital and Operating Budgets at the same time.
Mayor says yes if there is no objection – no one objects.
There are 25 speakers on the Capital Budget and 6 on the Operating Budget.
Early Public Input
Dan O’Connell speaks in favor of ice rink refinancing. Says they couldn’t raise enough money. They are asking to address refinancing. Says they work with youth and disabled people as well as people coming out of jail. They are a polling place at no cost to the city and an emergency area for Falk, they allow the Sheriff to train there and has meeting space for nonprofits. They have paid $900,000 back to the city, they can pay it back, they just need to address the non-amortizing debt. In 10 years there would be $1M left on the debt. The rinks have appreciated in value due to the improvements. The total value is approaching $9M. Beeper went off, he’s still talking.
Carousel Bayrd is here representing the YWCA supporting amendment 6. She says in one year they pulled 100 youth out of the criminal justice system. If they opt in to this they will not have any criminal record, they will fulfill their debt to society in other ways and understand the impact that they have. There are services available to help them make better decisions in the future. We have racial disparities across the country. There were 486 issued to youth 12 – 16 and 64% were African American, 5% Latino. 80% of all youth referred opted into the program. She says that 60% of the youth who opted in were AFrican American and 8% were Latino. Its entirely state funded. $150,000 is going away. Originally they were only going to support one part fo the city, but Koval supported doing it city wide. She says $122,000 will be picked up by the city and 22,000 will be covered by the county board. She says this is a huge success because of the collaboration.
Denise DeMarb asks if they can ask questions of the early speakers. Mayor says it would be an exception to the rules but if no one objects they can.
Denise DeMarb asks BAyrd why this was not supported more from the county board. Bayrd says that this was a state funded program, the county does support it. DeMarb asks why not more support. Bayrd says that it was supported unanimously. DeMarb says why not more dollars. Bayrd points out it is city-only. DeMarb says she has person objection to that, all Madison kids are county kids. More than 50% of the kids are in Madison. DeMarb says that her objection has nothing to do with her support. Bayrd says the county 100% funds the youth court.
Shari Carter asks what kind of tickets the youth are getting. Two highest are disorderly conduct and retail theft . . . and she reads off many others.
Oops . . . . technical difficulties, so this will get really brief for a moment . . .
Capital Budget Public Comment
I think its no longer early public comment.
Greg Frank said get on with the Public Market and on amendment 12 . . . downtown retail study is coming out this week.
Linda Rand – spoke on Monroe St.
David Glomp is speaking in support of the Midtown Station – says this is three years and nothing has been done.
It’s about 6:18 right now and hopefully I have no further issues . . .
A gentleman whose name I missed is talking about Midtown Station. He also talks about the additional staffing that is needed.
Andrea Chaffee – speaking in support of the Ice Rink. She works for them. She talks about their accomplishments and who gets to use the arenas. She talks about how they are top in disabled programming. Their service to the community accommodates 200,000 people who come through the doors for their programs. THey help raise money for Make a Wish Foundation, the Humane Society and work with Fire and Police Department Hockey teams.
Joel Fitzgiven – He has cerebral pulsey and this is the only place he can play as an adult, they are increasing the amount of teams and he supports this.
Paul Jayden (sp?) He asks for support of the Madison Public Market. He says there are important opportunities they don’t want to miss out on. He says they are in a good position to get federal funding this year. He says the Kraft closing will give them extra credit in grants for the stress this is putting on Madison. There is a window from the March closing for about 6 months. He says MadRep is not to support retail or tourism, its about aggregation, processing, training and incubation. They will continue to work hard to bring dollars back from Washington.
Jeff Sauer – here to support Madison Ice Arena, he’s been on the board since they purchased the two facilities 12 years ago. They’ve put alot into the two facilities, they have been able to service special needs kids, the disabled community and wounded warriors. They are the only rink in the state that is set up for sled hockey. Its one of the only ones in the midwest. He says that disabled Hockey is the fastest growing group – include deaf and hard of hearing and blind hockey players. Tey got a grant from Goodman last year and with this support it will be a tremendous thing.
Barry Orton – also supporting Public Market. This is a economic development tool that should be a high priority. This is a key economic development piece for the food district.
Susan Schmitz representing Downtown Madison Inc, speaking to number 12. She appreciates what Sarah Eskrich is wanting to do, to have a conversation about TIF. She says that they produced a white paper and with what is going on at the state this is our only economic development tool. She disagrees with Eskrich’s statement about TID 32 spending being unacceptable when we have spending priorities. She doesn’t want to see the city restrict development and infrastructure improvements. She wants them to reject amendment 12 and have a conversation after the budget.
Danielle Bailey – in opposition to Midtown Station. Invest in community, not in policing. She says that if you need to hear it from her white skin, because you can’t hear it from people with different color skin, then she will say it again. She says it for almost her entire 5 minutes.
Alix Shabazz from Freedom Inc – speaking against Midtown and against police cameras. She tells a story of 2 black women who were going to bed when 5 drunk white men wanted to get into their apartment and they didn’t let them in. The men started throwing rocks and lifted up one guy to try to break their windows. The women ran outside and found some police who told them to call 911. They ran back home, called 911 and 45 minutes later the police showed up, one officer questioned the men and let them go. 4 questioned the 2 victims, who threatened to put them in the back of a police car and said they were not at risk. How can the police continue to fail the community and get more money. They want less money for police and more for programs. Invest in communities, not more policing. The police department is a failed institution if they are supposed to protect and serve all people. They are one of the highest funded institutions. Invest in communities not more policing.
Mayor asks who is here from the police department. But then says nothing. (The officers that were here earlier are all gone, no one seems to know where they went)
Peyton Yang from Freedom Inc. He is against building the police station. Asks for them to invest in communities, the reality of Janelle Laird and Tony Robinson, means we say no to the police department. If you are bothered by what I am saying, invest in community.
T Banks from Freedom Inc. They want community control. The police have the highest line item in the budget, and in polling we find we need more services, more access to housing, food, mental wellness services, better learning tools, more services for basic human needs. They don’t want more police. Mitown police station is by West High School, one of the largest population of black youth, ask them if they are ok with that. They will tell you they don’t feel safer. MOre police in schools make them feel less safe. For every 6 black kids that are arrested only 1 white kid is. 64% of black students get the citations, even tho they they only make up 18%. THe average white family makes $64,000, the average black family makes 20,000. We want community control over the police, housing, safety in our communities and this budget. Our communities know what is best for us. We need more resources to sustain their lives. Pouring more resources into MPD will not make us safer. Divest from police and re-invest into our communities. Divest from surveillance, tickets, violence by police officers. Reinvest in communities so we can be safe, and that is not done with police.
6:51
Joe Mingle is from Healthy Food for all of Dane County. He thanks the people who have spoken about investing in the community not the police. He sent them an email about guns vs butter. He has been a activist and organizer for years. He says think about long term food security and resilience in our community. He says the public market it critical to issues we may have in times ahead and to ward against issues in the industrial food system. This isn’t just about people of color, it is about careers and job pathways and this will be used years into the future.r
Anne Reynolds is the chair of the local food committee. Thanks them for their support of the public market up til now. They are asking for a name change for the committee and more members. She says during the transition we need to make sure that we have a committee responsible to the city of Madison while it transfers to a nonprofit. She talks about poeple impacted by this – the potential vendors, who will be able to climb up the rung of the ladder to support their families. Many of the people impacted don’t even know this discussion is happening. This will also fill the need for a public space, it will revitalize the area and increase food access in a food insecure area. This is a time of uncertainty, we are about to lose one of our largest private employers and this will add 200 jobs. The pieces are in place, we don’t need more planning, we need to move forward.
Lauren Draeger – delay reconstruction of Monroe St. He says that pedestrian safety and access as the most important issue and this doesn’t address that. Delay until they can develop a better cross section.
Several people went home when their names are called.
Meghan Blake-Horst – see works in lots of local groups. She says that many of the vendors for the public market are not here, they are out there working or working 2nd and 3rd jobs. She gets calls weekly about the public market. There are several people working on the project here tonight. (missed some) Support #2, opposed 3 and 4.
James Shult – supports the public market.
D Avid Sandowski – from a west side neighborhood association – he supports Midtown. Says the budget needs to be balanced and they can support focused interruption and a police station. Look at the equity in not only the old programs, but also the new.
Ms. Esparza – here to opposed Public Market, thinks it will cause more accidents with bike, she says they haven’t been talked to about this and she is just hearing about it and she thinks there are better things to do. She says there needs to be more conversation with those who will be most effected.
Sandi Torklidson – against amendment 12, investments in the downtown are very important and the downtown brings in alot of revenue. She says 1/3 of the people who visit her store are from out of town. This is money being imported and its good for economic growth. Downtown is dense and the services delivered there is cheaper than places on the far west side with alot of miles between them. Alot of this is infrastructure that would need to be done anyways. She says we want to make the high density areas more desireable.
7:16, Mayor is back in the chair. Read the additional registrations – 2 available to answer questions. Looks like the there are 4 against Midtown, 3 in favor of 2 and against 3 & 4. One supporting 14 and one supporting 16.
They are arguing if they should take questions on the capital budget or speakers on the operating budget. There are 8 or 9 speakers on the operating budget. Mayor is asking what they need to do, no one is answering.
Verveer moves to place capital budget on the table, moves the operating budget. They take public testimony on the operating budget.
Operating Budget Input
Coach Asaad (sp?) from Mellowhood is here to speak in favor of the Emerging Opportunities Grants. He says that this is the only way many small programs can get started. This money is vital, they should be increasing funding for it.
Neal Rainford for Local 6000 on amendment 16 and asking support for that. He explains that some groups were able to get more wage increases than others. This corrects the inequity across all employee groups.
Dan Rolfs – MPSE group which are Madison supervisors and professionals and they are also in support of amendment 16.
Veronica Lazos – from Unidos, she is in support of the EOP funding. Taking funding that supports many organizations seems to pit some agencies against others. We need to promote unity and collaboration. Keep the EOP funding intact. Invest in our community.
Arecile – volunteer with UNIDOS, supports 4, to increase and keep fudning for the 15 point plan. She says given what has just happened in our country, we cannot take away these emergency programs. These programs keep our community together
Greg Rosetti – A madison police officer, supporting amendment 6, restorative justice amendment. This is a program that works on stopping the pipeline to jail. He works with Dane County, Timebank and the YWCA. He says kids make mistakes. He says the restorative justice program works and is successful. He says that they started this in Darbo and 10 years has created critical mass. He asks for their support
Operating Registrants
2 people support operating budget for Midtown
7 support 16
2 support 6
Questions of speakers
David Ahrens asks Neal Rainford about people who are concerned about employee consent on the 1%. Neal says that the budget won’t be impacted by this. He says last fall there was a meet and confer process that resulted in a consensus to allow groups of employees to develop a VEBA plan (Volunteer Employee Benefit). Many already have these – police, fire, transit, supervisory, streets. He says this is a tax shelter for post retirement health care – flex spend dollars. He says the council approved that last fall. He says all people were invited to meetings. They (Local 6000) created a committee to address this, they worked on the plan and noticed the meetings. They think they came up with a plan that is actively supported. They voted unanimously in support at a membership meeting. All active members were notified. They communicated to those they could. Some people who are not members have a different take on things. Missed a bunch of what he said.
Bidar asks why this wasn’t in the Executive Budget? Neal doesn’t know. Mayor says the issues were not resolved by the time he submitted his budget.
Carter starts to ask questions of staff . . . until she was told they weren’t on the amendment yet.
Ahrens is cross examining Anne Reynolds . . . . I took a quick break . . . . its 7:47. The gist seems to be that Ahrens wants to know why people are assuming this is a done deal. Reynolds says because the city has supported many aspects of it and people are excited about it. The city is signaling that they are preparing vendors to go into the market. He asks if she tells people that this isn’t certain. She says she is clear that this is in a planning stage. Ahrens asks her what the funding structure should be. She says it should be diverse, federal, local and private funding. He asks what share. She says that she doesn’t have the plan in front of her. She says tax credits and federal grants are a large piece of it. That is the majority share of funding coming from outside sources and they are working on a private capital campaign. Ahrens asks about the food desert. She says it is impaired food access area. She says there are maps where there is limited food access and high poverty rates, which are not a food desert as defined by USDA. She says there are lots of areas with transportation issues with high poverty rates. David starts to argue, the Mayor reminds him to ask questions.
Larry Palm asks about economic opportunities for those with less economic opportunities, he wants to hear more about how the public market committee would ensure the public market isn’t just for fancy wines cheeses and breads. Reynolds says rents will be reasonable. They want to open without debt on day one. If you can keep rent reasonable then you can offer opportunities for those just starting out.
Palm asks her what her favorite market it and why she likes it. She says one in Minnesta (Mercado central?) because it is a coop and has lots of vendor input.
Samba Baldeh asks how people would get a space in the market. Reynolds says that they are working on a plan that would be sustainable and not need city funding to operate. They have not operationalized it yet. They would offer different types of stalls, in size and number of days of the week. Baldeh asks what they would look at to approve people. She says it will be a balance between people with a proven track record and those we want to take a change on. The operator will need to have experience and have conversations and offer an opportunity to fit their needs and the market needs. Baldeh asks about those without experience. She says there might be short term and long term contracts, everyone will come to the table with different experience. People might move from a stall 3 days a week to a full week or have a cooperative where 3 or 4 vendors sell together. Baldeh asks about diversity component? Not at this time, the guiding principle should be that when anyone walks in they will see people who look like them with people from their culture vending at the market. So is there a guarantee the market will be diverse. She says that is the goal.
DeMarb asks about economic development, she says when she looks at the report, this is where all the challenges are. Is the committee talking about that. Reynolds asks which challenges. DeMarb says we already have a robust food economy – how does this enhance and not detract from what is going on (farmer’s market, FEED kitchen, etc) She also points out small vendors are more at risk. Reynolds says that they would work together with those working in this area already and the idea is that more is better because a rising tide lifts all boats. There is strong support for food businesses in Madison. DeMarb asks about the diversity of shoppers and vendors, but the polling is white folks, not a diverse population. She says we need to think about business support or training to enhance the success of those not in business. Reynolds says the market ready program will address the training needs. She says they are working on addressing issues. DeMarb asks about preservation of food since we have excess some times of the year. Reynolds says they would have classes and talk with the FEED kitchen.
Mayor Paul Soglin asks about the vendors “planning” on being involved, didn’t we need to make sure there would be interested vendors? Reynolds says they did and had forums in different languages and they have over 400 vendors interested and when you get people together they begin to dream and have lots of ideas.
Mayor asks about instruction and training. He says they had several types of technical advice at the Mercado (lawyers, distribution, etc) she adds licensing and food safety. She says delivering to a group on site is an efficiency factor. They will ask for what they need.
DeMarb asks Sandi Torklidson to come up but she has left. DeMarb asks Susan Schmitz instead about Sandy’s comment that it more appropriate to use the money downtown because it is denser. Schmitz says that she is not sure.
McKinney asks Coach Assad about the Emerging Opportunities Program and the 15 point plan. He says that without the EOP so many initiatives would not have happened. He says with $7000 they were able to build a community with unity that engaged people of color. Parks were cleaned, elderly get assistance and with their latest funding they were able to also employ parents not just their kids. He said the usual role models that always have to do things for free, actually got paid. He says the 15-point plan speaks to recidivism and that is important, people should not just survive but thrive. We have to do that, but we also have to help the youth so they never get into that cycle. We cannot do one and ignore the other.
McKinney asks what the evidence is to support the 15-point plan, she understands EOP, but not the 15-point plan. He says they need both.
Part II – Capital Budget is here.
Verveer puts the operating budget on the table and asks for a 10 minute recess. They will resume at 8:40.
