Ah, lobbying! One of the reasons I started this blog. Many of you may be familiar with my attempts to close loopholes in the City’s lobbying ordinance, my frustration that they city promised to start enforcing the law but nothing was happening and the fact that I subsequently filed several complaints. Those complaints led to bogus complaints against me by Aaron Frank and threats of legal action by Terrance Wall, who did actually file a complaint with the State office regulating attorneys, but nothing ever came of the either of the complaints. Tho you won’t read anything in the newspapers clearing my name, only the bogus accusations. It also let to limited immediate success and resulted in the city attorney writting letters to over 350 potential lobbyists that were not registered. It also had some bizarre results where people clearly over-reported their lobbying activities. This whole mess ended when the mayor cut a deal, er compromise, with the business community, which either the business community backed out of or the mayor misrepresented. Then they refused to delay the discussion on the lobbying law and the council made the many people waiting to testify on smoking wait while they voted to gut the lobbying law. Most average citizens didn’t seem to care at the time. I also got an unprecedented one, two, three, four editorials supporting my efforts from the Capital Times. It also resulted in a little public spat with the mayor. I have blogged about why this issue is important and how it affected the smoking issue over at Dane101.com and there have been several threads on various forums, one of which led to me blogging at madison.com.
Lobbying typically comes in the form of private meetings, e-mails, phone calls, handouts at meetings, snail mail, running into someone on the street and appearances at public meetings. That’s alot to track when you are tracking the activities of many different lobbyists, but I have pledged to start tracking these activities to the best of my ability.
So, in order to start reporting as much of it as I catch, I started this blog. And to get started, I’m just going to list all the private meetings I had in November. Many of these contacts may no longer count as “lobbying” under the new law, but these were definitely contacts designed to influence my decision on issue important to the companies that these people worked for or own. Starting in December, I’ll update as frequently as I can with as many contacts as I can track . . . my biggest problem is going to be remembering everyone’s names and noting all the appearances at the meetings!
November – Scheduled private meetings
Wednesday, Nov 2 – Jeff Rosenberg, Veridian re: inclusionary zoning (likely exempt)
Thursday, Nov 3 – Mary Feldt Parktowne Management re: paid sick leave (likely exempt)
Thursday, Nov 3 – Henry Sanders, Chamber of Commerce re: paid sick leave (not exempt, lobbying organization)
Friday, Nov 4 – Daniel Guerra Building Wisconsin, Inc. (not exempt, non-profit seeking money from the city)
Friday, Nov 4 – Joe Krupp, re: inclusionary zoning (likely exempt)
Tuesday, Nov 8 – Several people from Gorman and Company (Pat Mullen, Chris Laurent and ????) re: TIF for 800 E Washington (not exempt, seeking city money)
Friday, Nov 11 – David Simon and Jeff Rosenberg from Veridian re: Inclusionary Zoning (likely exempt)
Friday, Nov 11 – Todd McGrath re: Inclusionary Zoning (likely exempt)
Monday, Nov 14 – Tim Sherry from Suby Von Haden & Associates re: Inclusionary Zoning (likely exempt)
Monday, Nov 14 – Chris Laurent, Gorman & Co re: TIF for 800 E Wash (not exempt, seeking city funds)
Tuesday, Nov 15 – Gary Gorman, Chris Laurent and ???? from Gorman & Company re: Inclusionary Zoning (likely exempt)
Tuesday, Nov 15 – Doug and Mark Nelson, Developers re: Inclusionary Zoning (likely exempt) Also talked to me about a development on 600 block E Washington (likely not exempt)
Tuesday, Nov 15 – Michael Christopher and Mark Elsdon from the Pres House regarding the impact of inclusionary zoning on their project (exempt?)
Wednesday, Nov 16 – David Nassar, Walmart Watch (exempt?)
Thursday, Nov 17 – Alex Salutos (has his own consulting company) re: inclusionary zoning (exempt?)
Friday, Nov 18 – Jennifer Feyerherm, Sierra Club re: Upcoming hearing on polution at MG&E N Blount plant
Monday, Nov 21 – Sue Springman and Greg Rice, Executive Management Inc re: project at University Square (not exempt)
Monday, Nov 21 – Jason Weber and Dan Brinkman, Interlink, re: inclusionary zoning (likely exempt)
Tuesday, Nov 22 – Tim Magner (don’t know the business name) re: potential development on Allied Drive (likely not exempt)
Tuesday, Nov 22 – Scott Harrington, Vandewalle & Associates re: E Washington Build (exempt, city contract)
