My sincere apologies, here is the rest of the the recap, parts one and two are the rest of the meeting. This is the rest of the library discussion and the Task Force on Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System report.
I’m going to repeat this first part, cuz it was so stunning:
5. Mark Clear says he spoke at Board of Estimates so he’ll be brief but the 15 vs. 11 votes, and supporting or not on principal, he finds baffling. [Why am I not surprised he finds principles baffling?]. He says if you support the library you support the library project. Who would be punished by supporting 15 not 11 vote item? For all intents and purposes the its the same, he intentionally left out question of budget numbers, we had no idea other than it would be “less”, depending upon how much renovation would cost, may need budget amendment, when we have better handle on it. He even left $4M for exiting site which obviously we will not do. He wanted to leave it alone and state direction on change of direction, so he doesn’t follow the logic of making it harder to make the decision out of principle, it mystifies him. [A dude this clueless should not be in leadership. The problem is, I don’t think he’s dumb, I think he understands perfectly well what is happening.] He says he will grudgingly support it, what is the important thing is the outcome, that is the outcome most, if not all of us, want. [I’m pretty sure he just said the ends justify the means.] Whether support or oppose this version, support original if this fails.
Now, the new stuff not in the last two posts . . .
6. Mike Verveer says he is going to try to be positive and use his council prerogative, he wants to talk about the library, our central library, the branch library for his constituents, it means a lot to him, its taken a long time to get there, he has waited patiently while they rebuilt the branch library system, while its not perfect and many excellent points have been made that we need more branches, but central library is crucial to entire system and he urges colleagues whether this is a 15 or 11 vote itme that we support it in the loudest, strongest possible terms. Regarding the rebuild, he has become slowly more enthusiastic on a daily basis, he was as blown away as all of you when realized negations were failing, he was not at the negotiation table, he knows what he was told. He does not want to dwell on the past, instead he’d like to dwell on the future, he’d like them to support it. As he has talked to downtown stakeholders about this vital issue the message he is getting is “let’s just do it”, time is of the essence, we know the deficiencies, deferred maintenance could cost us millions. He appreciates the enthusiasm for the so called “plan b”, he was a strong supporter of other project, wanted full block solution, the economic development of block 66, but that wasn’t to be. He urges them to make sure they have 15 votes cuz he wants to move forward immediately, time is of the essence, they have been at it a long time. He thought we were close in 2001, 2005 and now 2010 let’s just get it done. He appreciates the support shown in the budget last fall, but time is of the essence, its in the budget, we need to take advantage of construction rates, the New Market Tax Credits and we need to get moving on this, if we wait maybe there is another option, but we’ve waited way too long. [Sorry, I missed some here] Hopefully in a couple years we will have a new library we can be proud of, it will be less expensive, greener and better.
7. Compton says you would think the world is going to stop, she will vote for this, she thanks Shiva, thanks Chris Schmidt, and many of you who were part of this conversation. We can’t continually just roll this money over and this will hold us to a standard we should be at all the time, that is why she will vote for it – I missed a bunch – and then I couldn’t follow what she was saying – Taxpayer hold us responsible to maintain and preserve, she will vote for it but say that listening to conservatives, we have specialists in this community, we have a high degree of craftsmanship, are we going to say that those people did not have the right to put in their application for doing interior work, the process is faulty if we don’t allow them to come in, it is an insult to any profession to assume there are no people in that profession that focus on one aspect of the profession. Would I go to a podiatrist to get reconstructive surgery on my face? Both are doctors. Just cuz someone operates a hammer or nail or saw, does not make them the person we need? We need all applications, she doesn’t even know about who, should be opened up again, we need the highest quality and pull in all applications to pull in craftsman in the community.
8. Steven King says ditto to Conway. He says he went to all the meetings – and I missed a bunch – He says he has no branch library, they go to Verona, he wanted the full block solution, he wanted to see the economic development. What a waste to put up a structure on the site and close off the block for future development. He is not enthusiastic about voting on it, we spent too much of energy on this, he is disappointed in where we ended up, he will grudgingly support, but not the underlying resolution on principle. This is not the project I voted for first time around.
9. Brian Solomon says it has all been said but not by everyone as Skimore usually says. He’s going to say it anyways, he completely agrees this is a change in the budget, this is a 15 vote item. It not about making it harder, its just the right thing, the bigger issue is exactly what King spoke to, he was shocked that so quickly and so easily we gave up. What happened? We have a mayor and 20 alders and we were moving forward, are we so concerned that one small step back that we will lose momentum, are we really that concerned? If we believe in it and want it to happen and collectively we want it to happen there is no reason one step backwards should so thoroughly wreck that project, that we support something we don’t want. He is concerned about willingness to so quickly give up – he says he can maybe support the alternate, which he thinks will pass tonight, he will be proud of the new library and he thinks all of us will be, he’s sure it will pass tonight, but next time, if we believe in something and its important, give it a couple shots before we give up.
10. Lauren Cnare supports either, this is not a year long process, she respects that, but library is one of two big project we talked about this time last year and it doesn’t take rocket scientist to understand that they are big deals for all of us and staff and citizens and when we heard form Hoffman about how to manage RFQs and selection process and sometimes as a council we started to lack information – instead I read about it in a headline, and I thought “I should have known that” and then I think that while they do not need to provide us with details that they made 3 phone calls and got 2 callbacks but in big project, they can send us an email that sayd “today we are letting the RFP. Some might ignore that, when big things come up we can’t over communicate, but if they had communicated, we could have had less discussion. She will vote for either – hers is a vote for the library.
11. Jed Sanborn says it is says this is difficult to decide, cuz you will remember from the budget debate, he is concerned about pressure on future operating budgets for debt service. If this was a 10 year general obligation borrowing deal, he would not vote for it, but cuz it is a longer term it is different and we pay only interest only at first, there is not as much pressure short term, but cuz of that, means that on tail end, it will have a greater impact on operating budgets and he wants them to think of it this way, if they were debating creating a multi-million dollar program in budget, he would be hesitant, but that is what we are doing. The argument that construction costs low now is a strong argument but think about why it is lower, people are paring back in a struggling economy, they are being more cautious. Why is that not having an impact goverment as well, we have to tax to pay for it, we should feel the same pressure. He is hoping that if we do that, that we think about how this will impact future capital budgets, we have to get a handle on our obligations. This is a setup for the future that can’t change their mind. He will vote for it because of the financing structure, he thinks it is important to have a new library but he does it with a lot of reservation.
12. Tim Bruer says he’s going to sidestep the process and fiscal accountability issues. [Again, not surprised. Somewhat surprised he and Clear are being so brazen out it.] He appreciates the intent of the alternate, he is hopeful that it will bring people together. We are in difficult times, there are cost advantages now, he is disappointed that economic development benefits of the original are gone but don’t lose sight of prize, this is a community asset that will be realized after decades of wont and wait – this council will benefit generations to come, this is a tremendous investment in the future and the city, hopeful people will support alternate.
13. Bryon Eagon says that a year ago the biggest item with the Edgewater was this and he got razzed about not having a library card, he now has one along with his student id that gets him into 42 University libraries. He says he is somewhere between Verveer and King’s deserved grumblings, he hopes going forward we learn from this and think about who is at the table and who knows what, he is not as enthusiastic about losing benefits of full block project, also said that he has no doubt that rehab or redesign could be incredibly beautiful state of the art building, we need to recognize the forethought that went into process last year, can moract e efficiently and timely as we move forward tonight, wants to recognize that tonight. While less enthusiastic, he will support alternate and underlying, but even more reluctantly, this is as deserving project, recognize the urgency to get it done soon.
14. Pham-Remmele says this is a painful meeting for me. [And its about to get painful for everyone else.] She strongly supports the library, it is the heart of the community the best we can do to support citizens, last year she voted against due to cost and expense and logistics questions not answered, she was voted down, the council enthusiastically approved it with a roof top garden [untrue]before anyone saw the design, with such enthusiasm, what am I to raise concerns, people raise $10M like nothing, what she sees around her painfully, he son lost his job, her brother in law lost a job, next door neighbor lost a job on other side of the block there are elderly citizens, they have no transportation to get to enjoy benefits of the city, you want state of the art, to be a city of the 21st century, reality is not that if we build people will come, still a lot of questions, plus Overture, the school district has a deficit, MSCR says they can’t participate in recreational activities if they raised fees by 70% and she knows as a fact for many years maintenance has been neglected, schools are leaky and all kinds of problems, the $80M to fix the schools, she don’t fabricate it, the numbers are real, think at last meeting not half way joking but reality, former president Bruer, said we get 15 cents per hour and I feel very honored and privileged that I can serve at 14 cents an hour so when talking about a wonderful project, we are not rushing into thing, thinking of legacy, putting old and middle age elite and others, we are putting a burden on children and grandchildren, she can walk away and never come back, she might move away and not look back,[could it be that she is thinking of moving out of Madison?] she is enthusiastic and reluctant, talking out of two sides of her mouth. It’s not prom night, and I went for some slick guy ask me to go, should I go for some thin younger fresher flashy person and couldn’t get it and come back and decide the other guy is as good as any that I would get. Would I do that, should we treat the citizens of Madison to that? Last time we were told that we had the best, now it is best idea to not move forward with what was not good, this is what we rejected, we don’t create problems, we raise issue, locations is not the best yet, of all places of Madison rare for her to go from where she lives to go there and enjoy it, foreign students could borrow painting in library and display in living room, alto for people who know the service they can use at the library, but she is talking the entire population not just elite, but location right now is almost impossible to serve the population if going to do something think beyond the rush and talk about the internet and 21st century, do we need a store house to keep the collections, the only place burdened with that is the national gallery in Taiwan, they only rotate a certain things, you either see it or miss it forever, is this what we try for the long term, ask you to why is there a rush, why need to spend, she agrees with Sanborn, she has not talked to him for months, she has a question about cheap and good, gosh if I could do that I’d buy all the foreclosured houses, and make money on that, whether she wants to stay in Madison [wow, she said it again]and keep paying property taxes, if treat citizen of mansion this way, we hand this to our in-laws neighbors and friends, she can’t approve it, people can say I am bad, I cannot go forward with this, thank you for your time.
15. Chris Schmidt – echos Shiva Bidar-Sielafff – when this was something new, we built if from the start to grow, we saw potential, they designed it that way to add 2 stories, maybe this will not be the gleaming shining beacon of hope, but fulfilling a promise to using the space efficiently, it might be exciting, he might be the only one who thinks that.
Palm says no.
Schmidt says this can be spectacular, he hopes we can get two extra stories.
16. Marsha Rummel says trying to find out info, they knew she was looking for information, then this resolution came forward, part of her supported it, part of her says that she was right, but they persuaded me the whole block was better, they talked about tax growth and she voted for it, but then when she read the mayor’s blog about the rebuild, he made all the arguments that were the ones I made, I feel vindicated on some level, but this is a rush, she is so frustrated by the process, I voted for something and I was persuaded to vote for. What changed? And why not explain and get us to vote with you and not decide for us? This resolution is an opportunity to change that number, the other route didn’t work, would not have supported underlying resolution, happily support this, she is excited about renovations, really a rebuild, but we don’t know yet, we need to listen to the public, get more comments, having budget numbers are better than the underlying resolution – we haven’t gone through process to figure out what we want to build, thank the people who worked thought this to get us to this place.
17. Paul Skidmore is convinced we needed this, it was a long effort, he was on the library board when they interviewed consultants, hired a high profile library designer and that went nowhere, supported last effort and effort after that, and in back of mind still felt needed d a strong central library, on the first board was Bill Clingan, Larry Palm, David Wallner, Tripp Widder, names you recognize. We have a long established need, we keep talking about it, we support a strong central library, he supported a new one, supports renovation, maybe not perfect, but its there to serve public, what is there that they like it and want to use it, this is a facility like parks that they treasure it, we shouldn’t forget that. Discussion on who to hire, people on the list are people he has worked with all qualified, who builds it is driven by low bid, now is time to build and if we wait prices will go up and he hopes in a year that he will be back doing landscape work for a change, this is not a private sector project, its political, we;re making sausage, it’s very good, he supports the project, its a good library, and doesn’t want to see in paper 10 years that council is still talking about where best site is.
18. Joe Claussius says the library is inn bad condition, district 5 alder alternate is basically just housekeeping, clarification and no problem with supporting it, because of labor and construction costs this is the time to move ahead and every day still hears from people that are out of work. Will support alternate
19. Larry Palm says this is a good conversation, he’s glad there is support for the library system and central library, many have spoken on long process to get this close, hope will have a library in a couple years and all attend ribbon cutting, when first on board and had a process they looked for visionary architect, for at earlier discussion he pointed out 3 of the 5 finalists for RFQ were part of the teams that submitted to that 10 years ago, and we didn’t select them, they are quality people looking at the library, there was a lot of citizen support, not have political support, he appreciates the mayor for putting neck out there, this is the keystone of his tenure and truly a turning point for library system, without that courageous act we’d still be sitting with a building we don’t know what to do with – we would not make investments in if we would just replace it. He also favored renovation, many things said were things he brought up in the process – nice to hear that some of this stuff comes back and he appreciates efforts, appreciates alder from 5th for pushing forward and appreciates mayor for pushing forward in whole process to get library we will all love, modern with no mold, asbestos and lead and access all books and sunlight and greenery and activity spaces and huge embrace of technology and meeting rooms that people will want to go to the library and use. Hopes can count on your support.
Mayor says he’ll brief, former council president reminded him when you have the votes you should sit down. One point he;d like to make, this isn’t going to just be a rehab or reconstructed, this is a new library on current site, reuse floor plates and pillars, its a greener building than any other, otherwise not recognizable, more than just lack of mold, better than that. He was recently stuck in Amsterdam, he went to the library, it was brand new, beautiful, he paced it off, it was 160 sq ft, ours is 139 sq feet, smaller than community of 1M. At 2:00 in afternoon on Friday it was packed, for those who said that library is dead, they are vital part especially important in this community that values education, state of art library is important, appreciates support, on current site, been with project of a few years one person over a decade, someone who put heart and sole into project, not here tonight if not for Tripp Widder. There is a round of applause. [Nice sidestep of the elephant in the room!]
All vote aye except Pham-Remmele and Maniaci was absent.
Yikes, there is going to be a part 4, I had to get up at 4:00 to drive to LaCrosse and just ran out of time.
