Gender, City’s Hiring Practices, Schools, Affordable Housing and more . . .
Gender – Paul Soglin has some comments about a news article about the resolutions I introduced about lack of gender and pay equity in top management positions and gender equity on city committees based on information I provided on my blog post and follow up . He asked what took me so long to notice that so many women managers were replaced by men. Good question. It wasn’t that it took me this long to notice, it took me this long to feel like I might get support on the council. There’s still only 7 women on the council, but its one more than before. Even so, I had a hard time getting co-sponsors, even from the women. So far, Lauren Cnare signed on, followed by Satya Rhodes-Conway and Marsha Rummel. ThuyPham-Remmele had this to say:
Thank you for sharing this.Currently I don’t see the need for more “feel good” resolutions.Staffing is the Mayor’s job and I expect him to do it right.Also, as Common Council we approve his hiring/appointing decisions and can address this matter through established city process without having to create more work for the already backlogged Affirmative Action Commission.Furthermore, the City of Madison encourages volunteers to participate in civic duties, I don’t see how CC control/select the volunteers. Currently we have many vacant positions, for the sake of “gender balance” we may end up NOT accepting dedicated male volunteers until sufficient females meet the quota, if ever.Thuy
I still have to circulate it among more council members, but generally speaking, it seems gender equity is a difficult issue to address. Yes, even here in Madison. It still needs 11 votes and it seems incredible that we can’t even count on the women to vote for this. Luckily, I’m certain several men will sign on without hesitation. Oh, and for the record, I talked to Affirmative Action Commission members, they are not backlogged, the Council hasn’t addressed this issue in the past 6 years I’ve served on the Council and I’m not aware of any city committee commission positions we are holding open for gender balance because we don’t have quotas and we shouldn’t. Paul Soglin had some good recommendations and I agree, its about recruitment. That’s why I was so surprised to read the hiring practices for the City of Madison and find this:
Job announcements will be sent to all city agencies via e-mail and to a mailing list for recruitment purposes. The Human Resources Department will only pay for local advertising if funding is available. Ads in professional publications will be paid for by the hiring agency.
City’s Hiring Practices – Maybe the above quote explains how we hired someone for the Facilities and Sustainability Manager position that was unqualified. However, I don’t think so. I’ve requested additional information about the other applicants and will share them when I get them if the media doesn’t. Several people have asked for the job description and application. I am hoping that the good folks at Isthmus will make all of this information available when it becomes available. Vikki Kratz did an open records request and they told her to pick up the information on Friday at 4:00, but when she got there, everyone who knew anything had gone home for the day, so hopefully she will get the information today.
Schools – School Board members, please do the right thing tonight. Do not consolidate Lapham and Marquette to save $81,000. It’s an incredibly short-sighted thing to do and it is not good for the community as a whole. I’ve heard so many good arguments about why consolidation is a bad thing, but the ones that probably bother me the most are:
1. Health and safety of the kids as they try to get to school. It’s hard to promote a healthy lifestyle and walking and biking to school when kids in these areas have to cross E. Washington Ave, Williamson St., E. Johnson and E. Gorham. The less kids that have to cross these streets the better. The current set up isn’t ideal, but it is better than what was passed in the budget. (Please don’t stop the bussing for crossing guards, we couldn’t possibly fund enough crossing guards for these streets!)
2. The Tenney-Lapham and Marquette Nieghborhoods have worked really hard to get developers to include family-friendly housing in their new developments so that we can increase the number of kids in the area. Consolidating the schools sends the wrong signals and sets the efforts of the neighborhoods back.
3. Projections indicate that within 5 years, the schools will be overcrowded. Again, this seems incredible short-sighted to consolidate the schools now.
4. It’s only $81,000 that will be saved. We can’t be that desperate for money. Or, we need to re-examine our priorities.
Affordable Housing – I don’t know much about RDM, but they are offering 3 bedroom condos starting at $94,900. Their project is The Crossing at Elver Park. What amazes me the most is, if they can convert the 3 bedrooms at Elver Park to condos at this price, why can’t the city create affordable housing on Allied Drive when we’ve put $5.5M of TIF into the project?
I was so surprised I picked up the phone and called the sales folks and asked them how they did this. They had no federal, state or local money to help make it affordable. The ad didn’t seem to be a scam where they list the lowest price to drag you in then sell you something at a much higher price. I probably should have asked what kind of reserves they were providing for the condo association and what kind of warranties were included on the condos. Nonetheless, if a private company can do this with no federal subsidies, the City can certainly do much better in Allied Drive. Some of the numbers I have seen have us spending that much money just to renovate the units.
