Bad news Friday Review along with other things that happened in the last three days . . . and some items of interest coming up this week.
BAD NEWS FRIDAY REVIEW
1. Protest Petition filed on Edgewater. Wisconsin State Journal covers it.
2. Ordinance on Waterfront Setback for Edgewater
3. Restraining Order partially granted, automated system for non-emergency calls goes into effect (seemingly smoothly), but 911 operators still answering City of Madison parking calls. Their editorial this morning was good, but it wasn’t on line yet, chastising Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and County Executive Kathleen Falk for not working this out and making it a public and legal spat. I still think this whole flap has more to do with the $800,000 for the 22 channels instead of the $33,000 over parking calls, but in talking to several alders, no one is quite sure. Funny tho, the judge didn’t buy the (pot. kettle. black) argument that the committee had to act before the system could be implemented.
THE WEEK AHEAD
City
County
School Board (Thanks TJ!)
EDGEWATER TIF BAD FOR SCHOOL DISTRICT
Lucy Mathiak weighs in on her blog. Her opinion is particularly important because she sits on the Joint Board of Review that will eventually need to approve the expansion of the TIF district – remember, the Edgewater isn’t currently in a TIF district. Another major step that needs to occur before this whole thing can happen.
HAS THE SCHOOL BUDGET REALLY GOTTEN THAT BAD?
While promoting the Social Justice Center swap of office equipment, one East High School teacher contacted me to find out if our desks were still available, because they have no money to buy new ones and they were hoping some of ours might be better than theirs. That’s bad when low end non-profit office furniture is better than we have in the schools!
SCHOOL BOARD FORUM
How’d it go? Check out the Wisconsin State Journal.
THE COUNCIL HAS TO PAY MORE ATTENTION TO UNION CONTRACTS
Mostly, they’re told to stay out, but when things like this happen, its time for some council oversight. Mostly, the union contracts come to the council as a done deal and they are told that its a product of careful negotiation and they can’t get involved. I agree with the Dave Zweifel, you can’t blame the drivers, but I do think we can blame the hiring freeze and the council lack of oversight. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not easy, I tried a bit, but something still has to change in the system.
RENT FRAUD
This is off a friend of a friends facebook page, but something to look out for . . .
A woman fraudulently rented us a house..cooked up a huge story pretending she was helping her fictitious mother rent the house. Her boyfriend’s Grandma owns the house. It’s not up for rent and she doesn’t have the authority to rent it out. She had us sign a lease with her “mother’s name on it and write out check to her. This woman has many different aliases. she lied about who she is. She spent our $ of course..I told her I’m gonna sue Grandma (Grandma is aware of this matter and has done little about it) if she doesn’t fork it over.
The funniest part is she was trying to hold me the terms of her fake lease and she had 30 days to return it..I told her to f*ck herself and she has one week to return it. Supposedly she has a $100.00 money order in the mail. The rest is suppose to come next week. We’ll see.
I never used to hear about this, but this is the 2nd or 3rd time in the last year or so. I guess its a sign of the times and how desperate people have become. The police, of course, said “that’s a civil matter” and didn’t do anything. Really?
SIGH
Seriously?
County, county, county, not city!
CHANNEL 27 NOTICES WYOU FUNDING PROBLEMS
A short, short story, but a story nonetheless.
SCOTT MCDONELL TAKES ON THE CHAMBER ON SLY
Funneling corporate cash to republican candidates . . . McDonell points out that the Chamber hasn’t had any issues before the county board, except the RTA which they supported. Sly and McDonell are pretty harsh on the Chamber and their corporate money, you might want to take a listen.
IT’S HARD TO BE A MAJOR CORPORATION
Says Emily Mills. She looks at AT&Ts latest antics.
WHAT WOULD JESUS DO IN LABOR NEGOTIATIONS?
The title was just quirky enough to catch my attention and ICWJ does good work.
RTA AGENDA
This is all over the listserves, but I still don’t know where you would look to find it.
For those interested in what’s up with the RTA, the first board meeting will be on March 4 at 4:30 PM in room 315 of the City-County Bldg.
The agenda looks pretty straight forward, maybe even bland, but if you are interested in seeing who’s who an what’s what, you might want to stop by:
1. Welcome and introductions
2. Election of officers
3. Resolution requiring a referendum to establish a sales tax
4. Discussion of the following items concerning the organization and operation of the Dane County Regional Transit Authority:
a. Designation of Dane County Clerk to notice agendas and serve as initial repository of public records
b. Creation of Possible Committees
c. Setting Meeting Schedule and Meeting Locations5. Adjournment
CITY LOOKING FOR LIFEGUARDS AND POOL ATTENDANTS FOR THIS SUMMER
Employment Opportunity: LIFEGUARD 1 (HOURLY)
Agency: Parks Division
Category: IMMEDIATE HOURLY RECRUITMENTS
Salary: $12.19 per hour
Date Posted: 2/19/2010
Application Deadline: Ongoing Residency: No City of Madison Residency is Required for this Position.
Job Announcement Details: http://www.cityofmadison.com/employment/employmentListingDetails.cfm?Id=450Employment Opportunity: POOL ATTENDANT (HOURLY)
Agency: Parks Division
Category: IMMEDIATE HOURLY RECRUITMENTS
Salary: $11.62 per hour
Date Posted: 2/19/2010
Application Deadline: 3/19/2010
Residency: No City of Madison Residency is Required for this Position.
NEW MURAL AT CENTRO
Friday March 5, new community murals will be dedicated at Centro Hispano, 810 W Badger Road.
The Williamson Street Art Center, in partnership with Centro Hispano and the Overture Center for the Performing Arts, is celebrating the creation of a series of murals during a 2-year artist-in-residency program under the direction of Sharon Kilfoy. Hundreds of children, youth and adults have participated in the transformation of Centro Hispano where murals including “Home Away from Home” (“Mi Casa Es Su Casa”) and “Heroes of the Hispanic World” educate community members while offering a welcome respite to all.
Join us for a community celebration featuring the musical group Sones de Mexico from Chicago who will offer music workshops and a FANDANGO (a celebration that is part performance, part jam session, and part poetry slam.)
– The evening’s festivities will begin at 5:30 p.m. with music workshops.
– The mural dedication will be at 7:00 pm, followed by the FANDANGO.(The mural project has been supported by the American Girl’s Fund for Children, University of Wisconsin Educational Outreach and Partnership programs, and the Wisconsin Arts Board. Muchas gracias!)
COMMUNICATION WITH MMSD
Wanna communicate about communications, then this is for you! Article here.
More information is at http://drupal.madison.k12.wi.us/kinder
Weigh in on district communications
Everyone is welcome to attend and give input about Madison School District communications at a Community Engagement Session scheduled for:
Monday, February 22 6:00 – 7:30 p.m.
Marquette/O’Keeffe Schools’ Cafeteria, 1501 Jenifer St.The session is a step in the development of a communications plan aimed at ways to focus on the positives of the MMSD school experience and to publicize the benefits of graduating from the MMSD.
MAD SKILZ
Can you teach others to garden, sew, keep chickens or some other practical skill? Interested in helping with the re-skilling of our community and the re-localization of production? Earn extra income as an instructor with the Heritage Skills Institute!
The Heritage Skills Institute is Madison’s new center for teaching and learning about sustainable living skills. Committed to accelerating the transition to a low-carbon, low-energy future, HSI seeks to harness the wisdom and experience of the community to create the changes we seek. We are recruiting instructors to lead “mini-courses” on a wide range of relevant topics.
Change is coming and we all need to learn new ways of living. By teaching each other basic practical skills, we build resilience in our communities that can help sustain us in an uncertain future. Share your special knowledge, help your community and make a little money — what could be better than that?
The first round of workshops is planned for Spring 2010. Have an idea for a simple course or workshop on a sustainable living skill? Do you already have a program and need more students? Let’s work together to build our shared capacity to educate our ourselves and create a more resilient community!
Send comments, inquiries, proposals for courses, etc. to jwmingle@tds.net or leave a message at 332-1493. Thanks in advance for your interest and support.
and
Yes, we already have a program and need more students! Fitchburg Fields offers hands-on workshops in organic gardening techniques, (including 2 workshops on Permaculture!), food preservation (canning, pressure canning, freezing, drying, jam-making, pickling), and cooking healthy meals on a budget.
Our gardening workshops are held either at Focuscorp, 3201 Latham Dr., Madison, or at our garden at the corner of Lacy Rd. and Fahey Glen in Fitchburg. The garden is easily accessible by bike trail from Madison. Our kitchen workshops will be held at the Christ Memorial Lutheran Church, 2833 Raritan Rd. in Fitchburg, the Oregon High School Home Ec room, and possibly we’ll have some in Madison as well.
All of our workshops are reasonably priced, and we have partial scholarships available for people who qualify (based on percentages of official poverty levels), for as long as our scholarship fund lasts. (You are also welcome to make a tax deductible donation to our scholarship fund.)
Please look over our offerings below and let us know if you want to register! The mini hoophouse workshop is already full, but with enough interest we’ll do a second one. If you can’t read this, go to www.madison.com/communities/ff and click on events.
FUNDRIASER FOR DANE COUNTY TIMEBANK
Sunday, Feb 28, 2010
8:00 pm-1:00 am
High Noon Saloon, 701 E. WashingtonAges 21+ (sorry)
Suggested donation: $20 or 4 Time Dollars – but we’re flexible!
Lots of talented TimeBank members will perform for your listening enjoyment, plus we’ll hear from them and others about how they use TimeBanking to help develop and promote their art.Featuring:
Kathleen King
Carell Casey
Beat Road Blues
Art Paul Schlosser
Stephanie Rearick
The Rohnellaros (featuring Cat Capellaro and Andrew Rohn of VO5 and Walmartopia)
Bob Westfall Band
The Catalog Babies
Ladyscissors
MC Johnnie of Koool Karaoke
WILLY ST ROAD CONSTRUCTION OFFICALLY DELAYED
Our alder Marsha Rummel received word yesterday that the DNR has signed off on the delay of the lead pipe abatement deadline. This makes the Willy St. resurfacing/reconstruction officially delayed until 2011.
Thanks Marsha!
ScottScott B. Thornton
President, Marquette Neighborhood Association
www.marquette-neighborhood.org
LOCAL PUBLIC FINANCING OF CAMPAIGNS
On Thursday 2/25, 9 am, room 328 Northwest of the State Capital, the Assembly Elections and Campaign Reform Committee will hold an executive session on AB 619, which authorizes local units of government to write their own campaign finance laws, as well as two other elections-related bills. See below for more information.
Assembly Bill 619
Relating to: county, city, town, and village authority to create local elections boards and to regulate the financing of campaigns for county, city, town, and village offices; duties of municipal and county boards of election commissioners; and granting rule-making authority.By Representatives Pocan, Smith, Berceau, Hebl, Milroy, Parisi, Pope-Roberts, A. Williams and Zepnick; cosponsored by Senators Risser, Lehman, Miller and Sullivan.
