Long meeting, most of it monkey testimony. But the most interesting issue was the one that you couldn’t tell what it was on the agenda. How does the County Board get the word out about what it is doing? A relatively short recap of the meeting. The meeting was the Executive Committee of the County Board. Present were: Carousel Bayrd, Jeremy Levin, Scott McDonell, Melanie Hampton, John Hendrick and Dave Ripp. Absent: Patrick Miles Other supervisors hanging out: Al Matano, Kyle Richmond, Tom Stoebig
One more note before I get started. This is only the second agenda at the county where they post not only the agenda, but the attachments for the items they are discussing. The first I saw was Personnel and Finance. I very much appreciate that methodology and I hope it is a growing trend. Makes it much easier for the public (and press, hint, hint) to follow along.
MONKEYS
Apparently the meeting didn’t really get started until 6:30 due to fire alarms, I didn’t get there til 7:30 and I still had to sit through almost two more hours of testimony to get to the decision making. Since I missed an hour of testimony I didn’t take notes. Just noted the discussion, or lack thereof.
After three hours of testimony, slightly a few more in favor, they announced there were an additional 8 registrants in oppostion and I think they said 25 or 26 in support.
McDonell calls for a motion.
Levin moves to indefinitely postpone.
McDonell rules him out of order, says there has to be a motion on the floor first before it can be postponed.
McDonell calls for another motion. Silence.
McDonell prods them and says that it dies if there is no motion. Silence.
McDonell says there is no motion, and therefore no second. Continued silence.
McDonell says “I’m kinda surprised” and moves on.
EXPLANATION: I’m not an expert on the county board rules, but I overheard Stoebig explaining it to a person in the back of the room and asked a few questions of McDonell and Hendrick after the meeting as well as overheard Levin asking what needs to be done to get it back on the agenda. Here’s what I pieced together. If it sits in committee, it can be withdrawn after 60 days. Withdrawing from committee is frowned upon and usually bad news for the item, but it can be done with less votes that if it was indefinitely postponed, because then it would take a 2/3 vote to have the county board take it up. Stoebig explained it is in “never never land” for the moment. He says a majority of the committee members could take it up later. McDonell explained to Levin how to get it on the agenda and he seemed like he was going to do it, even if it meant another three hours of testimony, which is admirable, since this is the second meeting he attended on this issue. So, that’s what I pieced together without going an looking up their rules (too much to do this morning and too many topics to write about, sorry, my bad.)
WAR
They took a brief break, I was talking to someone in the room and didn’t even realize that they started, there was so much noise you couldn’t tell. Someone kept shutting the door to the room, which was warm and it was noisy with people in the hallway, but the door locks when they shut the door and this is an open meeting and I was tired of opening the door back up, so I propped it open several times and then went out in the hallway to explain that they were making a lot of noise and the door needed to stay open, but it had no impact.
Anyways, I missed Richmond’s testimony on his resolution. I did get the discssion.
McDonell asks Richmond to briefly explain the resolution.
Richmond says this will not stop military funding or the war on terror or funding for Iraq or Afghanistan. It will stop doing supplemental spending that is on top of the 57% of the federal budget already being spent on the military. This is to stop the discretionary funding. Obama has allowed it several times. This is to reverse funding that goes over $153B or the 57% of the federal budget.
McDonell asks about the reference to $ 35K of income, is that a separate issue?
Richmond says the author is saying here’s what you can do with the money, he wants to return to taxpayers and pay down national debt by $15 or 18B.
McDonell apologizes for not reading/understanding the proposal. He asks what sponsors there are from Wisconsin.
Richmond says he tried to find out, but didn’t get the answer today.
McDonell wants to know if Tammy (Baldwin) is a sponsor. He says if she supports it, that makes a difference for him.
They pause while Levin googles it to find out.
Richmond notes that the internet night not be up to date and more sponsors might have signed on.
Bayrd makes a motion to table while they take up the next two motions, Hendrick seconds and it passes.
MEDICAL MARIJUANA REFERENDUM
Hendrick moves to approve, Hampton seconds.
McDonell says there are several registrants (6 – 8) registered in support. He says there were some in support on the last issue too.
Hendrick says this has a lot of cosponsors, the idea of it is to let November voters advise the legislature, although it has a lot of support by the public, there is only latent support t in legislature, this is to help them take a vote on it. Let the people speak.
Bayrd asks something I can’t hear, but it passes unanimously.
COUNTY EXEC APPOINTMENTS
Passed without discussion.
WAR
Hendrick moves to take off the table, Bayrd seconds.
McDonell reads the registrations of supporters.
Levin says that there are 18 cosponsors, none from the great state of Wisconsin. He says Ron Paul is on it.
McDonell says he’s not sure if that is as talking point they want to use. He asks if there is anyone else on there who he knows or respects.
Levin says Conyers, Jesse Jackson Jr, Kucinich, , James McGovern.
McDonell says he guess he respects them all cuz they are Congresspeople. Says there is a motion and a second.
Levin says that he had a brief conversation with author before hearing, his real problem is petitioning congress or elected body, I think we did it the right way on res 70, told sponsor would sign on to letter, but not right county board to petition congress so vote against it.
McDonell says hes concerned about being at odds with Baldwin and he doesn’t know why she didn’t sign on. His first response is to find that out, he’d vote for it for now, find out what rationale is, and he may switch his vote, or maybe sign letter instead, will take time to find that out, the concept is not unreasonable. He just wants to give the sponsor a heads up about the possibility of him changing his vote.
Motion fails 3-3.
Hendrick moves to postpone, Levin seconds.
McDonell says he’ll put it on when I know everyone is here, he makes sure it isn’t time sensitive.
Richmond nods indicating it is not.
Motion to postpone passes.
SHOULD THEY HIRE STAFF TO HELP THE COUNTY BOARD WITH PRESS
This was the agenda item on the amended agenda:
8. Discussion and Action Item:
• Use of auditing services POS line
• County Board Office Fund Transfer Request
Not exactly the most public friendly language, or indicative of what they were actually going to talk about, I just happened to be there for three of the previous issues.
McDonell explains there is not enough money in the line item to do any audits this year. There is less that $20K. He explains that currently Karen has written some articles for newsletters, he also explains that Saterfield is recuperating from a surgical procedure, and the staff are a bit overwhelmed in general and they, as the county board, have almost no press capacity. Staff don’t have time to write articles or press releases and I thought let’s look at contracting for that service and see how it works and maybe it will work or maybe it will not . He wants to make sure the service is available to everyone on the board, they could write articles about what going on in county that people could alter for their needs or have to know what is going on. The only other media services in the county are in the County Exec’s office and for the Airport, and it is glaring that there is no one providing that service for the county board.
Hendrick says it is their responsibility to let the public know what they are doing on the county board and with the decline of media, with the notable exception of [giggles and glances my way] of the one in the room, they have to work harder than ever to get the word out.
NOTE: And I don’t do a good job of covering county board, there just isn’t enough time for one person, so if anyone wants to join us here at this blog I’ll show you how and you can help out! You don’t have to take uber detailed notes, a few paragraphs written about a meeting you went to would be great!!!
Hendrick asks about the hiring or contracting process, he says he has been involved in audit selection, will they contract with someone same way if they transfer the money.
McDonell says they need a process, not sure if simplified bid or get three bids to compare, will need to check on it. It will be good to interview a few people.
Hendrick says since it is less than $25K, it should be easy.
McDonell says he does not want to eat up two months doing that, if this is how do it, we should think this through, we may not like it this way after we try it. He says that Saterfield is looking at retiring, not right away but in a next year or two, he doesn’t want to commit him to that, but they could then reorganize the office. They could hire the skill set or have 2 policy analysts and this on the side. McDonell asks Karin Peterson Thurlow to put it on the next agenda especially for when they look at the office and the budget for next year. This will be a hard budget, like it has been for the last 10 years, but this audit line is why they have 700 not 1200 people in jail so would he would like to restore that audit line in the budget.
Bayrd asks about taking $20K they could carry over to get an audit next year.
McDonell says they could look at it, thinks we need to do both, doesn’t want them to compete, the question should be moving forward what would this do?
Ripp says he’s concerned about to to keep it from appearing to be partisan, a lot of things they do together, can see somethings being a problem where they disagree, it can be touchy. He says he trusts Peterson Thurlow now, but he’s not sure about someone new, it took a while to get to know her.
McDonell says that is a reasonable concern, a big part of the job will be to make sure people knows the resource goes to everyone. Most events in the county are reported by County Executive before the County Board has even voted on them and they are presented as a done deal, this puts people in a jam when they are asked to come to a press conference. [NOTE: That’s not the way he said it, those were my words, I didn’t capture his comments clearly. It’s very much the way it happens at the city too, the Mayor says the Overture deal is struck, or the library, or the train station. It looks like a done deal before the council or county board even know what the proposal is.]
McDonell says they can try it and it will address the current problem and then between now and January they can revisit it and if its unpopular, they can find a new way to do it.
Hendrick says the logical question is if someone is hired into the position would you see having a memo saying what the person does, and explain what supervisors should be asking the new person instead of Saterfield or Peterson Thurlow. This is not an ordinance or policy, but assuming you are the supervisor and you say what their duties are and how they should react that is what you should do. He says to Ripp, I understand your concerns, I’ve been in the minority before, I remember it well.
Carousel asks if POS is to write press releases that are negative as well as highlighting county board action, people won’t appreciate the newsletter offerings and don’t agree with majority might not get anything out of it.
McDonell says he can have staff do it now, this needs to get done, but they have so much to do, should I have them doing that instead of other work? I could make that decision, so, all I can tell you is what is going on to date, there has not been a high need to put them on that job, but there is so little knowledge of what is going on, we don’t do a good job of telling people and there is a lot going on. He says they can put it off, but he genuinely wants to know what they want.
Hendrick says not delay, it should be done, with the two things he mentioned. You should come up with abbreviated process and he has very little opinion about what that process should be, there just should be a process and once hired, it should be clear to people what the persons job is, so if you write it down and put it out if people don’t like it they can discuss it at the time. He says there are a lot of possibilities, if a person disagreed with county board, or what if disagree with County Exec, it will not be the staff position to say you can’t criticize the County Executive. He is looking forward to seeing how McDonell expresses that.
McDonell says he thought he could just do it, but needs fund transfer.
Levin moves adoption, Hampton seconds.
Motion passes 5 – 1, Ripp votes no.
Very . . . interesting . . . I’m interested in how this works out.
