He doesn’t get it, why all this fuss about process, just give him his library – he all but said, the ends justify the means . . . doesn’t matter what is sacrificed to get it. [With comments.]
GETTING STARTED & SUSPENSION OF THE RULES
They started roughly on time, all alders present except Maniaci.
The started with a moment of silence for Nan Cheney.[I smiled thinking about what she’d have to say about that!]
Mark Clear moved to suspend a bunch of procedural rules that they routinely suspend to take things out of order and to introduce things from the floor.
CINCO DE MAYO RESOLUTION
[I kept getting distracted and didn’t have batteries for my recorder with me,, so I have apologize for several gaps in my coverage today.]
Brenda Gonzalez from Centro Hispano spoke to the council, thanked them for the resolution, said something to them in spanish about beer [I missed both what she said in English and Spanish, but somehow I caught the word cerveza!] and invited them to celebrate with them at the Cardinal Bar tomorrow.
Shiva Bidar-Sielaff thanks everyone who came to celebrate, invites people to join them tomorrow [Today.]at the Cardinal Bar at 5 pm to celebrate, she says it is time to show our strength as a diverse community. She is sad to see what is going on in Arizona, but also in our own backyard, she will celebrate tomorrow.
GEESE
Yeah, they sufficiently got the word out that people should stay away, so there were no speakers and they referred it. Which makes the next discussion really ironic.
SUSPEND RULES TO LET PERSON SPEAK ON ITEM ON ON THE AGENDA?
They did it for the first speaker at this meeting just a few weeks ago, but . . . they really, really don’t want to hear from the public if they don’t want to.
Clear moves to suspend the rules to allow someone to speak on an item not on the agenda. I didn’t hear who seconded it, but I thought it was a woman’s voice.
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz says its a 2/3 vote 14 vote item, but then checks to see what the city attorney has to say. They wait, meanwhile they suggest asking if there is any objections.
Judy Compton “asks” Attorney May, she says she assumes that you have some kind of help for us, procedure wise?
Michael May, city attorney, says that rules of council says it has to be something on the agenda, if not on agenda they can’t speak. He says if they start doing it for this person, what happens next time? He says at a recent meeting, the Edgewater not on agenda and a person was told no and turned away without a motion. He says the motion is proper, but its not debatable, it is a 2/3.
The Mayor cautions people to make sure they are asking questions, this is not debatable.
Tim Bruer says this comes up every two years or so, if in fact this is a practice to be overturned, what would stop any group that had a number of individuals from asking for hours of the council’s time.
May says that if they suspend the rules, they have to allow it.
Thuy Pham-Remmele says she has no idea who it is and what they want, she says she still has a lot to learn here.[Yes, she said it yet again, despite being on the council in her second term.] She says it seems like someone come in and asks for the rules to be suspended and then we are put on the spot to agree or not agree, what is your legal advice, what is safeest way to handled it? She doesn’t want preferred treatment for someone she doesn’t know.
May says this is a policy decision. He says they only have discussion on item on the agenda, they are opening the door and they should look to the agenda for what you have in front of you.
Pham-Remmele says thank you for wise information.
Lauren Cnare asks if they could have a time limit.
Mayor assumes three minutes.
Cnare verifies it is the total amount of time, not 3 minutes for each topic they want to talk about.
Mayor says they are in new territory but he’d give them 3 minutes total.
Rhodes-Conway asks if the items will be coming up at a future agenda.
Mayor says he doesn’t have the registration form.
Clear says possibly, clear says the person wants to talk about walk/no walk lights, the Edgewater and MATC downtown.
The motion to allow the person to speak fails on roll call vote.
AYE: Kerr, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Solomon, Verveer
NO: Bruer, Clausius, Clear, Cnare, Compton, Eagon, King, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Sanborn, Schmidt, Schumacher, Skidmore, Bidar-Sielaff.
ABSENT: Maniaci
[Note to people who want to speak to the council and attempt to get their attention: You can always just sign up for any item, you don’t have to be germane, meaning you can talk about anything you want. Also, if you want 5 minutes instead of 3 minutes, sign up for a public hearing item. Of course, if you try this, I’m sure they’ll put lots of pressure on you to cease your comments, cuz they really don’t want to hear from you.]
EARLY PUBLIC COMMENT
Mary Ann ??? from Faithful Acting for Justice urges them to accept the resolution to recommend county accept the task force report on racial disparities in the criminal justice system. People of color are severely over represented in the criminal justice system and our county the worst in nation, that is upsetting to her and her organization – please pass the resolution.
Dennis Collier also from Faithful Acting for Justice and he registers in support.
CONSENT AGENDA
Mark Clear moves to:
– Accept all the items on the agenda except the public hearing items (3 – 20 and 155 – 174)
– Without objection have a unanimous vote recorded for items on the agenda that require a super-majority vote (66, 75 and 117), there is no objection.
– Adopt the 2nd substitute that is on their desks for item 58
– Refer item 64 to Board of Estimates
– Separate items 65, 110, 114, 115
Mike Verveer adds item 56 to the separation list, because he knows there are speakers. He also asks for a quick explanation on item 58.
Brad Wirtz, Human Resources, says it is technical correction, original didn’t move people with the positions created, sub moves people with positions to assessment technician.
The Mayor notes that item 25 has to be separated as it is a confirmation hearing. He recommends that 110 just get referred to TPC and council on May 18th since that is the reason it was separated. He also notes there are speakers on 108 and 118.
Mayor recaps for them noting the items left to be discussed are 25, 36, 108, 114, 115, 118 and 65.
PUBLIC HEARINGS
#3 1 registrant, Brandon Cooke in support and available to answer questions. No discussion, it passes with Kerr voting no.
ALRC (Alcohol License Review Committee) items #4 – 12 – there are no registrants, they adopt those items with recommendations as on agenda and that passes.
Board of Public Works items 13 – 19. There are no speakers or registrants on any items except 16 and 18.
David Thompson speaks in opposition to item 16, the plan for storm water in Hillcrest Upland Greenway. He says it was a defective process, the plan should be shelved until they have better cost estimates, the problems in the greenway are not urgent, the current process only sees storm water as channel for water to the lakes, but the channels are really a precious resource that is undeveloped, they have water, and there is the possibility of plants and water life. They can be beautiful places, he asks them to think of the soccer fields at west town, if go to storm water ponds, they are beautiful areas, other storm water channels may look awful, but they have wonderful potential, it is city policy to infill with greater density, as Madison grows and becomes more dense, how will we maintain quality of life? We don’t make parks any more, storm water areas are unrecognized and undeveloped opportunities, put it in perspective, city came up with plan, and residents rose up to defend beautiful greenway. Since it was neglected for many years, it grew into a beautiful place without planning, they have potential and can be meaningful places for people to restore when the city becomes more dense, put in place process to see them as a potential.
18 – Two people registered in support.
All the Board of public works items pass without discussion.
Item 20 Report of plan commission is referred.
Items 155 – 174 are the summer events where vending is suspended on the square and various other places for the events. Pham-Remmel asks to be added as a sponsor. The items pass without discussion.
CONFIRMATION OF GEORGE HANK AS BUILDING INSPECTION DIRECTOR
[This gets a little silly, but it was nice for George to get some recognition and his comments were sweet.]
Compton asks if there is any reason he could think of that we should not be very proud for wonderful job you do? She explains she just wants to embarrass him.
The mayor points out he’s wearing a tie, which is unusual.
George Hans says thanks to the mayor for having faith in him to put his name in again, and thanks council members for support, he’s worked for the city for 23 years, loves his job, loves coming here and working with you, pleasure and looks forward to next 5 years.
Compton asks if anyone broken record with lizard in back yard?
Hank says that she has the record for the biggest lizard in her yard.
Pham-Remmele says she speaks for many people in district 20, we love you and we thank you and anytime need something that we can support let us know, you represent city well and thank you.
Sanborn asks why it took 11 minutes to respond to me today and and how can you improve that response?
Hank laughs and says he spends a lot of time at his desk.
Kerr joins colleagues in praising him, she says she breathed a big sigh of relief when she heard he was reupping, appreciates what you do and thank you.
Rummel says that when she got elected her dad asked her if she could fix tickets. She explained this is not Chicago but Madison. However, she can fix snow tickets, they come out and look at what was shoveled and then what happens when the city plows, so she could tell her dad she can fix tickets.
George Hank gets a standing ovation and the Mayor points out that usually they only get standing ovations when the are done with their employement.
Motion to confirm passes.
365 DAY LIMIT FOR ALCOHOL LICENSE DENSITY ORDINANCE (ALDO) SUSPENDED
Susan Schmidt from DMI talks about hiring the Responsible Hospitality Institute to look at how they can have a vital nighttime economy, and having a safer and more vital downtown and entertainment district. They did a survey and issued a report they called Transpotainment. They had 3 areas of focus, they are looking for social options, best practices and transportation issues. Social options is one where they found out people are looking for a diverse range of options to encourage broader range of people to come downtown, people looking for more options beyond vertical drinking. They want dancing and movies, etc. They support the 365 day suspension, this was developed with them at the table, they heard from well run businesses that people want to work with, they want to get the right mix of establishments to create a safe and vital entertainment district, they need to attract more businesses, the more that stay and safer city becomes. The ALDO has unintended consequences, that are currently working against healthy and vital downtown and property owners. It’s not working, they support the amendment.
Mary Carbine from the Central BID which includes greater State Street and the Capital Square and represents 220 commercial properties and 370 businesses supports the amendment to eliminate the 365 requirement. They have been working closely with downtown property owners and real estate brokers and current and perspective business owners, this is a major issue, there was strong turnout at 5 subcommittee meetings, as well as full ALRC. We support the amendment to help property owners find good tenants and responsible operators, this will provide relief to property owners struggling with leasing space, city and BID want responsible operators and safe establishments and a safe and vibrant downtown. It should be a destination for region and contribute to the tax base instead of having vacancies, one of best tools to get good responsible operators is by having thoroughly vetted tenant and they need time for that. Even in good times, 1 year is short for commercial leasing, now that economy is constricted, less people take will take a risk, not enough time for property owners . . . missed some . . . she says some properties can’t be re-purposed, there are some unintended consequences to the ordinance that are counter to intentions, landlords require tenants be bars to preserve option to keep the license cuz 365 days is too short. Also, landlords are keeping tenants failing financially to preserve option for license, that doesn’t contribute to a safe establishment. Those unintended consequences and time are reasons to support the ordinance.
Jamie McCarville says she lives and works downtown, she is opposed, only one business is affected by it, taxpayers have subsidized drinking enough.
Susan Springman from the Mullins group says she is concerned about best practices for establishments, not just in ALDO that is what we all want to focus on, the ordinance imposes an arbitrary date on all of us, hard to find tenants we want to have in downtown and in properties. They have turned away a business and they were able to do it early in process and hope to hold out for best operator, but a lot of mom and pop properties need to pay mortgage, utilities and taxes, if no tenant to fill the space that is hard. We would all love to have the spaces filled with businesses without liquor licenses, they are less of a headache, not as many deliveries, smaller trash issues, much prefer other tenants and hope to have more supply of them, another problem is off Henry St they own a property and it is not conducive to be anything but a bar. That is one that they turned away interested tenants, it is not conducive to anything besides a bar, and it will be boarded up if they don’t find someone, the assessment will go down, they will pay less taxes, and be a safety issue and not attractive. This is just a temporary fix, ALDO is aldo sunsetting they will discuss this later, they want to be part of solution, to work to specific recommendations, to make an impact on what the problems are, this portion of ALDO will have an impact.
Brian Mullins registered in support.
Verveer says one more speaker just walked in.
Paul Muench from Urban Land Intersts is working with BID in supporting changes for ALDO, they are a real estate development management company, they rent to 65 businesses that are employers. The question for them is what businesses should go in vacant storefronts, we all have different answers depending upon vantage point. As a landlord there is nothing fantastic about having a bar, they can be troublesome, they have had problems and one bar had to be closed and lease ended, but can also be wonderful. Challenge with downtown leasing is that area is limited, there is low density,[?????!!!!!] low expendable income, there are 2 other major retail centers, retailers don’t have enough market for a third location downtown, if we limit some uses, what is the replacement use and it is not always that great of a pool of uses. To the 365 day rule, that time can go quickly when trying to replace a storefront, first there is a courtship and looking, they review the operator, there is a letter of intent, banks trying to find out if they can finance, there are lease negotiations, and then a contingency period where they get public approvals and licenses and that can consume 365 days – they kept an operation operating to extend liquor license even when they were not paying rent, they eventually rented it to a restaurant, and the license ended up not being relevant.
Verveer asks them to support it this evening, it comes to them from all three of the ALRC alders and unanimous recommendation from ALRC. Mary Carbine stated well the arguments well for the ordinance, but at ALRC subcommittee on ALRC issues, it was discussed extensively, testimony was limited tonight, they heard from experts in downtown real easte market, including real estate brokers representing people who want to come downtown. This is a limited fix, ALDO will expire, it sunsets on Oct 5th 2010, this will only suspend the rule for 5 months or so. The ALRC subcommittee will work over next few months to analyze efficacy of existing ordinance, may suggest that its sunset but he thinks that is unlikely. This is due to the fragile economy, recession has had a toll on downtown commercial market, there are a number of vacancies, some are more than or approaching one year, as McCarville said, this will affect not just one, but it is rather limited, only a handful of licenses will be impacted. He believes that it is meritorious cuz of recession and they deserve to reward downtown landlords who want to find the right tenant. He appreciates them considering whether or not a tenant would be good, know that they are absolutely doing due diligence and waiting for the right tenant, the spaces have been vacant are not the places conducive for non-alcohol purposes, he believes it is limited in scope, they will only suspend for 5 months, when ALDO is back before the Common Council and ALRC, then 365 still a part of the ordinance. It is unusual to suspend until day before sunset, some concern that they will wipe this away that is not the case, clearly crafted so when debate larger picture we debate 365 days, agrees has had unintended consequences. This is one of them. He says that a liquor store or tavern can only be opened if it previously existed there, they have a one year window of opportunity to find another establishment.
It passes with only Julia voting (loudly) no.
LIBRARY
I separated this amazing discussion into a second post so I could get the rest done.
LOCAL PURCHASING FAILURE
I spoke to this issue, which is why it was off the consent agenda. I don’t know exactly what I said as I didn’t take good notes, but here’s my points:
– Not one single vendor was chosen in the last year because of our local purchasing policy.
– The policy is a failure, last year, only three vendors were chosen as a result.
– Local purchasing is actually down 1% from when we started.
– We’ve impacted less than 1% of our purchasing with this policy.
– The Board of Estimates or a task force needs to look at this policy to review how it might be more effective.
– One thing they might look at is the purchases made with P-cards. They are essentially exempt from the policy.
– We can “do better” in the words of Nan Cheney, who they had a moment of silence for in the beginning of the meeting.
The mayor quickly called for a vote so there could be no questions of staff and no discussion. They accepted the report unanimously. [Two points. It’s hard to convince others to speak before the council when this is the way people are treated. I’d be offended except that other speakers were treated the same way. Essentially ignored. However, two alders asked me about it afterwards, one had some ideas about who should discuss it and a non-PD alder offered to help work on it and any other issues that I thought were important that are being ignored.]
PAIR OF WATER UTILITY ISSUES
[For some reason, I was having trouble hearing Rummel, while she was talking, so this was a little unclear to me.]
Marsha Rummel asks about the contract in #114, she says her constituents are concerned about water quality, we are thankfully past that, but because of contamination it is hard to site a well in district 6 & 2, we went through a well 3 replacement process, we created new practices, what has transpired in last few years, concerned there is not a place for neighborhoods to give input – how will stakeholders be involved.
Tom Heikkinen says that east side project that Rummel refers to is a major initiative of the water utility now, public participation aspect is paramount, it was a critical factor in ranking the chosen contractor the highest. Yes, there was no private citizen on the selection committee, that is unusual in his view, but subsequent to that, there are tremendous opportunities for involvement and to shape the project. In the last year and a half there has been tremendous improvement, they have citizen advisory panelists who would agree the process is improved. The process the council approved a year ago is not perfect, it’s a positive process and look forward to getting together a working group and look at lessons learned.
Rummel says that there are neighbors that are still active and they have a email list on water quality issues, she doesn’t want them to get forgetful, there are serious issues with draw down and other issues and she encourages the public to participate.
That item is passed unaimously.
On item 115 Rummel urges the water utility board to look at cap situation – people could bid and win it and there could be a a little more refinement in the process, to go forward with the review, not sure if just a directive to alders on board and to Heikkinen but she wants a review.
Cnare says that Rummel brings up a good point, if you were around for trial and tribulations, water utility to redeemed itself, the bent over backward to . . . and then I missed the rest, sorry. The motion passed.
Maniaci shows up at this point.
REPORT ON RACIAL DISPARITIES IN THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
Also in part II.
WRAPPING IT UP
Clear asks for introductions from floor/
He introduces 18349 which is a resolution to double fill of mayoral aide position.
Clear also introduces a resolution 18356 sponsored by the Mayor, Maniaci, Bruer and Clear for the $16M TIF for the Edgewater.
Rhodes-Conway introduced resolution 18366 by title only [ahem, that requires a 2/3 vote, which they seem to have forgotten.] its acceptance of the 7.2M in energy grant money, and creating 2 fte positions. [Shouldn’t this be that Larry guys job?]
Shiva Bidar-Sielaff introduced a recommnedation to implement the report of the low-income bus pass report – referred to Transit and Parking Commission.
Compton asks the Mayor why the police had their ceremony tonight when the alders couldn’t go and why they were not invited.
Verveer says they have something on their desk.
Compton says that they should be thanked by the council.
Mayor says they can ask them not to schedule it on nights when there is a council meeting.
Adjourn, 9:04
APOLOGIES
Sorry, the most interesting part, is yet to come, I hope I can get it done this morning, but I’m feeling skeptical and it may be afternoon before it is ready. But its worth the wait.
