Summary of the Council Meeting 8/6/24

August 7, 2024 1:08 am

Only 3 hours . . .1.5 hours of testimony on the referendum and an hour of questions that are 40 minutes by one alder.

This is what passes for a council meeting these days. Phoning it in!

Getting Started

All alders kinda present except Tishler Excused, Vidaver Late

Mayor starts of with comments, reminding people to be civil, welcomes Meagan Tuttle the new Planning Division Director. They honor Che Stedman from the Fire Department who is retiring. Field discloses conflict on 18 but says it won’t effect his vote. The adopt the consent agenda as read by President Yannette Figueroa Cole. Only two items are excluded, number 68 and 69.

Public Comment

Police Chiefs 2nd Quarter Report

Chandra Osterhouse – had concerns about the reporting being called a “word picture”, she wants objective, concrete language being used instead of subjective language.

Referendum (overly brief synopsis of pubic comments)

Nicholas Pjevach, Chair of the Madison Arts Commission supports referendum and urges them to remember their values as the consider this question. Urges them to be strong leaders in this moment.

James Ganther – Opposition to referendum. Wants cuts starting in mayor’s office, don’t want the BRT and staff shouldn’t have gotten 6% pay raise last year. Rents will be increased as a result of this. Says we get enough money from the state, we are getting more than we have in the past. There is a lot of wasted money in the city.

Adam Nelson – Some downsides if it passes. We have to zoom out, the school board is also asking for money, this will impact renters. 60% of tax increases are passed on to the renters. Homeowners will also be impacted. There are also additional fees that people are going to have to pay as well as a potential future sales tax.

Dan Rolfs representing MPSEA (city managers), we need to have the same quality of services and if this referendum fails many people will lose their jobs. Service cuts will be felt most by those who can least afford it. Our staffing levels are lower than they have been while services are growing along with the city. Supports referendum. Says the previous speaker who talked about wages being increased should know that the increases were for some stagnant employees wages to catch up with other city city employees wages and reach parity.

Noah Lieberman says he’s heard a lot about who is going to pay if this referendum passes, but unlike property tax increases where the higher income earners pay more, the cost of failure of this referendum is a cruel regressive tax on the least fortunate among us. It will be felt by those who use city services (libraries, parks etc) and the city staff. As chair of the Tenant Landlord Committee he sees the hard work of the Building Inspection staff. It is essential this service continues and not be cut. Every cut proposed would be devasting to someone. No one wants us to have to go to referendum, the Republicans at the state put us in this position. Urges them to pass the referendum.

Cate Kingston – Sandburg Area Neighborhood Association. Advocate for Imagination Center in Reindahl Park, with or without the referendum. They don’t have services, the men’s shelter will be coming to their neighborhood and they were not supported with services when homeless people were at Reindahl Park and they have not had equitable access to city resources for meeting spaces and programs.

Christina Powell – AFSCME representative – has been attending meetings on the budget, feels the referendum is needed. She answers questions about city services and fees. The fees hit modest homes the same as larger houses on the lake. She says talks about all the services people need and will further stress the limited city staff that remains. Please vote yes.

Micahel Zelescki – Operators Union – He talks about the services the operators perform. The cuts would hit the operators hard, their workloads increase and their wages fall behind those in the private sector. Many of them can’t afford to live in the city, they have a lot of turnover, and yet they will still need to clear the roads in a snowstorm and if the referendum doesn’t pass this will be very stressful.

Robert ?? – AFSCME but speaking for himself- Forestry Special Charge is his concern, supports the referendum. Forestry is funded with the Forestry Special Charges, but the flat fees hit every one the same, its an equity issue. If we continue to rely on flat fees it will have an impact on the most vulnerable people in our population. He says the renters rent will go up no matter what. He thinks the fees should be put back on the property taxes.

Julia Matthews – supports referendum. Appreciates all the budget meetings and information that is out there, she looked at the cuts and this is a severe situation. She appreciates the light that has been shone on the state practices that put us here and that is the long term solution. We need the referendum, she is a new homeowner and the cost of the increase is worth is not to lose services, especially in neighborhood like Sanburg and if they need to make cuts she hops they look at equity issues.

Justin Hammel, AFSCME member, there are huge vacancies in many departments, he feels the pressure of being short staffed and sees the mass exodus to the private sector due to the discrepancies in pay. What was once a competitive jobs to get, are now positions they are begging anyone to come do. Turnover is high. They are increasing services but not increasing staff. In 2014 the polar vortex caused people to be without water for up to 24 hours and they were fully staffed, if this happened now that would be much longer. If you have to pay overtime would the salary savings be worth it.

Rick Marks, AFSCME, retired city employee. Was President during the Wisconsin Act 10 uprising. He is an advocate and will continue to advocate for worker. They are in favor of the referendum and support the current language. Funding gaps have been filled by the pople who lost their rights 10 years ago and he is looking for parity.

Susan Millar, Sustainability Committee Chair. We have no time to waste when it comes to the climate crisis and she supports the referendum. If it doesn’t pass many of the layoffs will be in departments where this sustainability work is being done. With this referendum the vital work can continue. If we don’t continue this work it will impact low income people most. An ounce of prevention with worth a pound of cure.

Michael Odden(?) – Opposed to referendum, taxing and spending it out of control. This referendum will impact people for years to come. Continued abuse of the capital budget continues to have impacts on the operating budget. Thanks them for poking the bear and getting people involved. He is alarmed by the financial mismanagement. We have to live within our means. WE are being asked to support $28 million in referendum but last year there was $31M in excess funds. Why did it take so long to find out? No business could work with those delayed financial reports. A week later it was reported that we are $12M behind in collecting fees. Ridership is down and yet we are paying for BRT . . . mayor trying to cut him off and he keeps talking.

Lisa Veldran (former council staff member) expects city services in exchange for her property taxes. She expects surplus funds are carefully reviewed. Higher property taxes will be passed on to renters. Since 2011 the City Council and Mayor’s have had ample opportunity to address the challenges posed by Act 10 and the pandemic. Instead they and you have chosen to support unsustainable projects. She lists various taxes and fees the council has implemented and says “shame on you” and every elected official since 2011. You have put us in this structural deficit, not the taxpayers. She will be voting no and reminds people there is an election in 2025 and urges all those who are not afraid to educate themselves. Mark your calendars for December 1, 2025 when you can start circulating your nomination papers.

Cate Mallory – urges support. Renter and lives paycheck to paycheck. She does not want to live in a city that cut services that impact marginalized residents. She reviews what cuts would mean for city services. The Rapid Transit program is not funded by the city, its mostly federal funds and not relevant in this discussion.

Mary Botari – City structural deficit budget has been around since 2012 long before many of you were around. It due to a rapidly growing city and state shared revenue. Madison gets the lowest amount per resident and this is not a accident. Just like they cut so many other program and bullied the UW system and teachers. We’d be getting $54 million if we got our share, which is more than twice the deficit. We continue to cut and keep jobs open. We have 10% less employees than 10 years ago. We can’t keep doing this, city services need to grow with the demands. You may hear some magical thinking where the state will get a sales tax. The governor proposed that and it was shot down by the republicans. You may hear we should use our rainy day fund, but that helps us keep our AAA bond rating which saves us a lot in financing fees. We all rise and fall together.

Alexus London – Executive Director of Bayview Foundation. Supports the referendum. The consideration of cuts at 5% is. unimaginable and we have more needs to services for residents in the city. Lists many of the services people would lose. She sees the value of these services every day.

Harry Richardson – long time resident, AFSCME retiree, supports important city work that AFSME workers do. Urges support, will do his part to support the referendum. Urges council to educate their constituent. This is the state’s fault for not adequate funding the cities of Madison and Milwaukee. We need more city support, not less.

Mark Clear (former alder) says that as a former member he is partially to blame, but also should get credit that this is not worse than it is. They used tools or “gimmicks” to balance the budget. The did those things because they had so few options. These are the result of artificial and arbitrary constraints by the state. He shares story about how shared revenue system is not fair and how it has gotten more lopsided over time. Over the years we have added fees, we need to . . . ran out of time.

Chai Moua wants the referendum to be on the ballot because of the essential services, but can’t support it because she has seen a 300% increase in housing requests. She says the city has not been putting adequate efforts into affordable housing and needed services. She has a hard time supporting the referendum without knowing where it will be invested. Public Health and Community Development only get 25% o that which the police department gets. Against the referendum. Needs to know where the funding will be invested. As a homeowner and someone who works with folks and is worried about the impact this will have on housing. Increased taxes will drive housing costs up until the City of Madison supports the needs of the most vulnerable

Jacob Owca learned about this when a friend in the police department asked him to vote for this so they won’t lose their job. He likes that when his garbage is full someone empties it and when his house is on fire someone puts it out. He talks about a friend who owns a $300,000 house who spend more for dinner than this will cost him on his property taxes and he will gladly forfeit his spinach tortellini for city services. Businesses will pay a very small amount with this. Be upset with the Wisconsin State legistlature for this.

Kayla Every not in support or opposition, but has concerns. She works with services for people experiencing homelessness. She talks about the 5 year plan to end homelessness. She says a lot of work went into this, paid for by the city and county and this plan needs to move forward. She needs more information to support the referendum. There wasn’t enough time to consider this. Housing First programs work (cut off)

Kara (missed last name) – concerned about cuts to library system and they need the Imagination Center, they need transportation to libraries and services and programming. This referendum would allow this to be built and growth is going to continue and we can’t cut services with the growth of the city we are seeing.

Robbie Webber (former alder) quotes Oliver Wendal Holmes “Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society”. We are all in this together, there is no way to have a society without us all putting something in. There are lots of taxes, there is no perfect system, but the city relies on property taxes and whatever the State gives back in shared revenue, those are our option. We have great services, but this question on the ballot with make us look at what we value. We aren’t getting our share back in taxes, because they don’t like Madison. We are going to have to pay more, or face cuts. You’re going to have some tough choices, this needs to go on the ballot and then we need to educate your constituents.

Nino Amato in opposition. He says that the city is taking advantage of the generosity of the taxpayers. He says that the referendum should be put off until April because we should be former alders and the business community on a committee to come up with a strategy to address the state fiscal constraints. He says they will lose the vote at referendum.

Paul Soglin says we all agree with economic justice. He says we have more options that referendum and drastic cuts. There is another choice, shared revenue is only one of the reasons for the deficit, its only one part of the problem. He says the City also gets money from the Expenditure Restraint Program and the Municipal Services Program. He says there are opportunities to work with the state. He says that structural deficits of $2-3M occurred in most of the years he was mayor, due to external costs, rising fuel costs, raising insurance. They were not they type we have seen in the past 5 year of $10-20M that are a result of inappropriate decisions to use of premium and the rainy day fund. There is an alternative but you have to look to Milwaukee for the answer. Open records requests show that there was far more lobbying to the state legislature from Milwaukee than from Madison. Nothing is going to happen if you don’t show up. You have at least 4 solutions with the state, you are not dealing with Scott Walker, you are not dealing with Act 10. You are dealing Governor Evers and a different legislature. You should look to a sales tax, a RTA and . . . (cut off)

Tamaya Travis representing HSC Education and Advocacy but neither in support or opposition. Potential cuts jeopardize the progress made during the pandemic. She talks about the advances with shelters and services. Despite the achievements, we are also experiencing setbacks like loss of units from Rethke and Tree Lane and the Hotels to Housing Program. We need 1,600 units to fill the need and we have many housing services needs. Increasing property taxes could make it even harder on renters

Alexis Turner – AFSCME and worked for city for 40 years. The more roads we build, the more it costs us to maintain it. Supports BRT. Supports referendum and wants to not subsidize personal vehicles.

Questions of Speakers

Mayor asks that they ask a specific question or extend by 1 minute.

Alder Sabrina Madison asks to give former Alder Mark Clear an additional minute. Clear says that the folks of Madison understand the issues before us and will support a referendum.

Alder Charles Myadze asks to give former Mayor Paul Soglin and additional minute. Soglin passes

Alder Nasra Wehelie asks if Alexis Turner wants another minute – she says no.

Aldre MGR Govindarajan asks if Adam is still here – he’s not.

Alder Juliana Bennett asks Mark Clear about the mitigating measures former councils have taken and what conversations were happening then. Clear says that every budget cycle is the worst budget ever and that’s true. The needs grow and the constraints get tighter. He says Alder Rhodes-Conway helped get the Urban Forestry fee passed to get around the constraints.

Alder Isadore Knox asks Nino Amato to finish his statement. Amato says that we can’t solve our problems unless we restructure, we need to look at the county and the services we provide. When he was at MATC they welcome and audit nad restructured so the Republicans didn’t do it for them. Give the voters more time and put this on the spring ballot.

Alder Barbara Harrington McKinney asks Robbie Webber about the comment about how we all need to “give something”. Building out is more expensive than building yet. BRT is expensive but building roads costs more. Expanded roads are really expensive and the decisions we are making now are more expense.

Alder Derek Field asked Michael Odden to finish. He said going to referendum is letting the genie out of the bottle and they won’t be able to put it back.

Alder Marsha Rummel has a question for Nino Amato. She says that most people think its better to ask during a higher turn out election in November and other than the point you already made, how do you counter the timing questions. Amato says that timing is everything in politics. We are in a middle class crisis, even with big turn out people are going to say they can’t afford to live in the city. He thinks there will be groups urging to vote now. He thinks we need a plan, need a committee and then we should go to referendum. Without that, it won’t pass.

Alder Charles Myadze asks Paul Soglin if the budget issues were the same the years he was mayor. The short answer is yes, there were not major crises every year. In the 70’s there was the oil embargo and prices shot through the roof which was unanticipated. Long term the city solve that with the fuel futures to keep prices down. He says Mark Clear is completely wrong about the history of shared revenue. Shared revenue didn’t have an adverse effect when it was passed in the 70s until the 80s, the reason is the financial economy was stagnant. Mid 80s to the late 80’s the City of Madison starts taking off compared to the rest of the state and when you look at the three elements that go into shared revenue (population, poverty and tax base) our tax base increased and we were also seeing an increase in poverty. In the 70s 7% of kids in schools were eligible for free and reduced lunch and that was the same number of AFDC families we had. When we got to the 1990s it was 22%. So by the time we got the 90s we had an deficit due to the shared revenue and we combined efforts with Milwaukee and worked with Governor Thompson on the Expenditure Restraint Program. At that point, the rate of revenues made a difference. No one has fought this the way I have, we put up wanted posters of legislators around the square and the art fair. When we get to 2011 at the time of Act 10 the city was in a rush to get contracts signed and no one put pencil to paper. The county had layoffs and furloughs and we made an agreement there would be no lay offs or furloughs but they gave up salary increases until future year. Then we had the Emerald Ash Borer and so we changed some fees. There were then years when we didn’t have issue. We met with Healthcare Providers and put the screws on the them and we had 2 years of no health insurance increases. He then had an ongoing battle with the city council and they met in illegal meetings during the budget to put together omnibus amendments and debt service was going out of control. Every year is different depending upon external factors. But, you can’t play the game if you don’t show up. You have to go and talk to Robin Vos, he and republicans have been berated here, and you have to go to the Governor now and talk about the opportunities. He knows Madison is critical to the state and to his political base and you won’t have the same legislature in the next few year. It’s time for someone to fight, but their not going to fight if Madison doesn’t show up.

Alder Yannette Figueroa Cole asks Dan Rolfs to talk about the impact on city employees over the years. He says city employees have been asked to do more with less over the past 20 years plus the number o employees have dropped from 11.1 per capital to 10.0. The city continues to grow by leaps and bounds and the city staff increases a little bit. The demand put on city staff, we are doing more with less in the past 10 years. It’s been supercharged since Act 10. He says going to the state is a risky bet given we’ve been kicked in the shins so far. He’s rather make certain that we have a budget that provides those services. I’d rather put my money back into the community as a homeowner than take services away from those who need them most and see his colleagues lose their jobs.

Alder Charles Myadze asks if Rolfs if he saw County Executive of Milwaukee fight for state increases. Rolf’s says no and recounts what he knows. We’re not Milwaukee, they were in more dire straits. They cut a deal so they didn’t go bankrupt. He’s not a political operative, but we’re in a different position. If we’re going to go to the state and get the deal Milwaukee got, but look what it cost them. He’s not willing to count on the current legislature to change enough to make a difference. We would be playing roulette. We have control over this, its better than just hoping.

Myadze asks if he can count on the unions to talk to the state on behalf of Madison. Rolfs says count on us being there.

Alder Latimer Burris wants to ask Mary Botari questions but she is no longer there. Instead she asks Mark Clear. She asks about the fair system and different time periods, and the act “everyone was down there protesting”. Is there a reason we get less money besides that they hate us. Clear says the formula and Madison’s success and high growth. Which means we are more required to comply with the Expenditure Restraint Program.

If you are interested in this section, its’ worth a watch! It was more discussion and argument than actual questions. Video starts at 2:28:00

Burris asks if this is an equalizer for other communities. Clear says the the legislature is helping cities that need it more, more. And, it punishes us and he thinks there are people in the legilature who appreciate that.

Burris asks what Clear thinks about why the numbers of the deficit are so high, she’s looking for a nonpartisan, truthful answer. Clear says there has been an incremental squeeze over the years and then COVID issue and funding accelerated the process.

Burris says it sounds like we are 10% understaffed and what is up with that? Clear says you heard it from staff, they are working more, you know they work hard and have a strong commitment to customer service but at the end of the day there is just so much you can do.

Burris asks why were we going to face the deficit anyways and what do we do in 5 years when we are back in the same place. Clear says that referndum is not a permanent solution and there may need to be another referendum in 5 – 8 years.

Burris says if we knew we were going to hit this roadblock, what factors got us there. Clear says yes we were kicking the can down the road but there wasn’t anything we could have done differently.

Burris says the Mr. Schmidicke loves our bond rating and he would tape himself to the door so we don’t go below it and then goes all over the place and I”m not sure she’s asking a question but it ends with asking Clear’s opinion on why we can’t apply the rainy day fund until we get more answer. And she gets into discussion . . . .Clear says that one time money is eventually gone and you lose the bond rating.

Burris says we probably need to look for different solutions long term, Clear says yes.

Alder Barbara Harrington McKinney asked something about net new construction. Clear says he didn’t understand the question but its the growth from new construction and the Expenditure Restraint Program is based on that number.

Alder Burris asks Rick Marks (AFSME) a very long question that asks his position on spending funds and getting more education and hoping for a more supportive legislature. He says that one-time money is for rainy days and emergencies. We should solve this with one time money, it only causes bigger problems in the future. The people who were stripped of their right have not been able to keep their wages going up to avoid lay offs. He likes the idea that the state and tax-exempt properties should pay more fees. We need to slow down the need for fees going forward. We need to get the state aids turned around, but it won’t help now. If we cut a few jobs, you can’t imagine the strife that creates in the departments. We will have vacancies and people have to do twice as much work for lower wages and they are finding jobs outside of the city government.

Alder Burris asks about parity – some employees gave up increases and didn’t get increases when other (police) did. This year we achieved parity after a decade and changes mean they would be immediately behind again. He is hopeful for changes to address changes long term.

Alder Burris asks if it was police and fire that got to keep their wages. Marks says that Metro and others could do and it has been inequitable.

Alder Burris is doing a lot of talking, she asks about municipal services from the state – after the mayor tells her what she is asking – Marks says he’s not even sure that is technically legal. He says that fees are regressive but one place it might be a small source of funds is the tax exempt properties

Alder Burris makes another incomprehensible statement.

Alder Burris asks Paul Soglin about 4 possibilities. Soglin says that since Alder Latimer Burris likes to set up questions, he’d like to set up the question about Shared Revenue gives his version of history on shared revenue. You’ll have to watch professor Paul. It goes on from 2:54 to 3:11.

Referendum Vote

Referred to 8/20 special council meeting. No discussion, unanimous.