Pathetic Round Up

This is kinda why I stopped, there just isn’t much . . .

GENERAL/OTHER
none.

CITY
THIS MORNING, I LOVE THE STATE JOURNAL – NOT THE NEWS DEPARTMENT, THE EDITORIAL BOARD!
I would have preferred to have had a news story with these facts in it. But the editorial board has a good point about the secrecy of the Police and Fire Commission Fire Chief hiring process. They take issue with the process, for many things I routinely point out, especially their awful agendas. Here’s their list.
• Draft a vaguely written notice about a meeting involving “appointment process management.”
• Schedule the meeting to occur on an official city and federal holiday.
• Hold the meeting at an attorney’s private law office.
• Refuse, when asked, to disclose the result of a closed-door vote to hire a fire chief.
Long time issues with the Police and Fire Commission, I’m glad their being so publicly called on it, I just wish it had happened sooner – and on the news side, not editorial. And, I wish they had asked how we managed to have 5 finalists and not one of them was a woman. I should note, they have not one, not two, but three stories on it as well, but none mention these issues. I prefer to hear these things as “news”, not “opinion”.

RICKERT THINKS MADISON DOES ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BETTER THAN THE STATE
Well, probably. Not sure I agree with his reasoning or how he got there. One quick point – he says we “negotiated” the TIF down $400,000, I’d say the developer was unable to prove they had a gap that was as big as they claimed. Theoretically, TIF comes down to the amount that without, there would be no project. There is some judgement call and analysis of the numbers that makes it not a hard number, but it isn’t a “negotiation”.

COUNCIL ARBITRATORS
Department of Justice, the District Attorney and the Department of Civil Rights all investigated Brian Solomon, none of them called for sanctions or “found him guilty”. The council has attempted to create rules to sanction their own, but that appears to be falling apart and they have failed to act and most agree they should have standards for themselves but leave it to the voters. The voters re-elected him while these allegations were out there. There has been no attempt at recall in this recall-happy land. But now 6 alders have appointed themselves the arbitrators of the situation and have asked him to resign. At least one of which has had allegations of sexual harassment of his own (Bruer), they just never got this public – but the actions were done in the council chambers and city hall. It’s so hypocritical. Another alder who clearly has feelings for the woman himself and wanted to drive her home himself that night (Schmidt) and that makes the situation a little creepy. Another is unquestionably the least ethical member of the council (Maniaci). They can’t win through the administrative (city investigation), electoral (the last election and no recall), political (passing their own rules) or legal process (District Attorney/Department of Justice), so they are taking their campaign to the media to harass their colleague and continue to drag his name through the mud when he hasn’t been “found guilty” conclusively by any authority. Meanwhile, have you EVER seen the details of a situation like this printed in the paper in this kind of detail. This whole thing stinks.

COUNTY
none.

SCHOOLS
none.

NEWS I’D LIKE TO SEE
– Follow up on the county board or school board candidates and provide more about their backgrounds.
– Cover the Urban Design Commission meeting from yesterday (I couldn’t make it)
– Preview the James Madison Park houses sales and explores issues around the sale of the homes.
(Not that there are any reporters just laying around doing nothing, its just that there aren’t that many reporters!)