I’m so glad Kristin from the Cap Times heard this the way I did:
“Are we going to do this piecemeal or is there any chance for a discussion of our priorities?” Ald. Brenda Konkel asked.
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz assured the council that a team of mayoral and city staff will meet Fridays to tackle the stimulus process, and that council leadership can attend the meetings and forward information along.
What? The question was – can we discuss our priorities? I don’t want to know that people are meeting in the Mayor’s office. Where is the public discussion? Where is the broader idea generating about what would be good for our community? Where is the public input? When do the alders get to weigh in on behalf of their neighborhoods?
This should have been done before the Mayor submitted his list of ideas to the Feds and State. I’m not looking for a protracted complicated process, but how about a public hearing where the public gets to tell us what they think? And then a public discussion where we set priorities? I’m not interested in hearing a report on what was decided – I’m looking for input and discussion – and hopefully a better outcome as a result of that input and discussion.
If we don’t have this discussion and work through this, I’d expect more last minute craziness like this.
