The agenda kept us up until 4:00 in the morning, that’s a 9.5 hour meeting. Here’s the highlights, or lowlights, depending upon your opinion . . .
4 & 5 – Finally appointing the James Madison Park Committee, after all this time! (It only took 7 months)
29 – Putting the nail in the coffin on a good project on the Westside of Madison? We ended up placing this on file without prejudice meaning that if the developer chooses, they can come back with their proposal without waiting.
34 – Approving changing 625 E Mifflin St from a 5-story building to a 3-story building at the request of the developer. This passed without comment.
53 – Fixing our Living Wage Ordinance so that non-profits and for-profit businesses are treated equally. This passed without comment.
62 – Finally approving the consultant to help us update our 1980 Economic Development Plan for the City. This passed.
69 – Issuing an RFP to hire somone to Advertise the BioAg Gateway. We’re planning on spending $235,000 on this in the next 16 months. Seems like alot of money to me, but it passed.
70 – Police Overtime Report. There was a little discussion but nothing earth shattering. It’s the same old, same old. We budget, they go over, we say ok. Nothing changes.
72 – Approving Frank Productions to help with Halloween on State St. Passed without comment.
136 – Small tweak to reporting on the lobbying ordinance. Passed without comment.
137 – Allied Drive rush job. This passed with two votes against, the other alder besides myself was Thuy Pham-Remmele. The WSJ reports about it here. The outline of my arguments are essentially there. I offered a few amendments that failed. My biggest concern after getting the CDA projections are that they are projecting that it will cost $187,000 per unit to build these 47 rental units. It was nearly twice the amount that it should be per square foot. But more on that later.
150 – Alcohol and Gambling Bus Wraps. This was referred to the City Attorney’s office for legal comment.
152 – Another goofy Water Utility Contract. We authorized spending of $40,000 for technical services and public participation. It is estimated that 20% of these funds will be spent on public participation, however, we don’t know who will decide or how, but someone should.
155 – The latest and greatest Zatch Act Ordinance. This failed on a 10-10 vote with the Mayor breaking the tie and killing the ordinance. No votes were Verveer, Webber, Bruer, gruber, Judge, Kerr, Konkel, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel, Solomon and the Mayor broke the tie. In favor were Brandon, Clausius, Clear, Cnare, Compton, Palm, Pham-Remmele, Snaborn, Schumacher, Skidmore. Kind of predictable except for Judge’s change of heart.
156 – Police horse and dog crap. Suffice it to say, it passed unanimously after an amendment to clarify. Lots of bad puns and giggling.
159 – RTA After alot of wrangling and a couple amendments, it passed with everyone in support except Judy Compton.
160 – Impeachment We didn’t get to this issue until 3 am and yet there were 9 people who spoke and 15 citizens who stayed to watch. The final votes were Verveer, Webber, Gruber, Kerr, Konkel, Rhodes-Conway, Rummel and Solomon in support. Clear, Compton, Pham-Remmele voted no. Brandon, Bruer, Clausius, Cnare, Judget, Palm, Schumacher and Skimore were wimpy and abstained. Jed Sanborn chose to leave. What does it say that the County Board passed this and and City of Madison Common Council didn’t? I don’t even want to think about it.
I may have more later, but I only got 1.5 hours of sleep and I’ve been on two different radio shows for a half hour each already this morning and I have meetings starting in 25 minutes.
