The City of Madison Government public participation process is for all intents and purposes shut down, now is not the time to move forward with the police chief hire.
BACKGROUND
The Wisconsin State Journal reports:
Per the article the four public listening sessions scheduled for March and April are cancelled, but you can submit public input via PoliceChiefSearch@cityofmadison.com
And it says “The board will also seek input from current city employees, members of city government and various organizations.”
KONKEL INPUT
I submitted my comments as follows:
from: Brenda Konkel <brendakonkel@gmail.com>
to: PoliceChiefSearch@cityofmadison.com
date: Mar 25, 2020, 8:57 AM
subject: Don’t move forward
I can’t believe after waiting 6 months and giving hardly any information to the public about what is going on with the police chief hire, you are moving forward among the chaos. Please wait 2 – 3 months more before moving forward with this search – allowing the public to adjust to our new reality and give yourselves a chance to break through the noise at the moment. If you do not wait, the search process will be suspect and many will be left out of this very important process.
I got the following response:
Your e-mail message has been received and will be forwarded to Jenna Rousseau, Legal Counsel to the Board of Police and Fire Commissioners of the City of Madison.
OPINION
What kind of candidates will we get?
With qualified people all over the nation rightfully paying attention to the national crisis and no one wanting the jobs internally, what kind of applicants are they going to get? What officers aren’t spending a lot of time, energy and effort on the current crisis and have time to be looking for jobs? Who is going to be paying attention to job recruitment ads?
Public Participation
Now that the petulant and unpredictable Chief-who-shall-not-be-named is gone, the department is much more stable and has a more reasonable person in leadership. There is no need to rush this process.
It has been nearly 6 months since the former chief threw a fit and quit with no notice. And we have heard almost nothing during that time.
Let’s review what has happened to our democracy and public participation over the past week or two:
- Over 100 city committees are shut down and cannot meet without permission of the Council President and the Mayor. (Open letter and more info here.)
- Finance committee held a meeting where the only input was via sending an email.
- The council is meeting next Tuesday and then not again until April 21st. Totally missing in action in this crisis. The mayor is making all decisions based on the recommendations of the EOC (Emergency Operations Center) (More on the EOC here.)
- The council is not approving additional spending, but will be asked to approve it after the money is spent.
- Council members can only communicate to city staff through their chief of staff.
From: Davis, Steven
Sent: Saturday, March 21, 2020 9:27 PM
To: All Alders
Cc: Rhodes-Conway, Satya V.; Obeng, Kwasi; Hank, George; Bottari, Mary; Crawley, Katie; Ruckriegel, Edwin; Stouder, Heather; Heinrich, Janel; Phillips, Robert
Subject: Contact with the City EOC
Alders,
As you can imagine the City EOC is very active. Since activating on Tuesday morning, we have received over 300 requests for service/needs. I am begging you to please follow the process that was discussed at CCOC on Tuesday night. If you have issues from residents that you are assisting, please send those requests to the Council Chief of Staff (Kwasi). Today we have gotten several requests directly from you, or residents themselves. As we are moving into a potential operational phase (many sick people) it will be very critical for the success of the city to stay within our structure.
Please do not share the EOC contact information with residents!
Thank you!
Steven A. Davis
Fire Chief
City of Madison
And yet, the police chief hire, a decision that could last for years or even decades, that decision is moving forward? Why?
And it is moving forward with limited public participation and only plans to seek input via
- current city employees
- members of city government
- various organizations
Wrap Up
While Vic Wahl and I have not been the best of friends throughout the years, he’s not a bad acting chief. I mean, I don’t always agree with what he says and does, but he’s doing a capable job of leading the department. I don’t see a need to hurry to replace him.
To move forward right now is unacceptable. There is no rush. This process and decision should wait. There are two very important reasons why:
- We need a qualified candidate pool. We deserve the opportunity to get the best fit for our community.
- The public deserves to get timely information from the committee and to give meaningful, informed input and feedback on this process and the final decision.
YOUR TURN
PoliceChiefSearch@cityofmadison.com
