This committee is the only committee that has only alders on it, so it is a good sign of things to come.
TIF COMMITTEE
There was discussion about if Aaron Olver or Joe Gromacki would staff the meeting. Alders were under the impression that they would both be there, tho there was tension about it. Tim Bruer wants Natalie Erdman (CDA) to be at the table as well. There was also discussion that it was important to get alder level participation in policy discussions about TIF. Satya Rhodes-Conway adds that the TIF coordinator who staffs the committee will rely on the expertise of Economic Development, Real Estate and the CDA. She also says that this has to be informed by the last two processes – the last committees that did this. Shiva Bidar-Sielaff points out the whereas clause points out the extensive history on this. Clear says that the timing is stepping on the work of the Economic Development subcommittee that just started today. He says it is confusing and disrespectful to the EDC process. He wants the deadlines and dates taken out of the resolution so there is not pressure on the EDC. Bidar-Sielaff says the whole point is to put pressure on that process. Chris Schmidt says they may work in parallel, but they want to be done in February. He isn’t worried about the overlap. Clear says at least one member of the public wanted the process to go slow and get it right at EDC this morning. Bruer says that CDA is also working on strategic planning and he says they need to move because CDA planning will be influenced by what happens and what comes out of this committee and EDC. Passes with amendments.
TIF= Tax Incremental Financing
EDC = Economic Development Committee
CDA = Community Development Authority
FOOD POLICY COUNCIL
Mark Woulf has a handout and says that he figured there would be issues with the size of the committee. He explains why they are creating this committee. He says the Mayor has been to other cities and discovered how far behind we are in our food policy. Other cities have a mechanism to create policies. He explains how they came up with the types of people who should be members – says they looked at other cities and picked the 5 most common and then added the schools and community gardens. He says that the committee is big, they have to pick a topic to work on and the reason it is large is to represent the wide interests in the community. He says there is lots of interests They want it adopted at council tonight, to have it in place by food day, October 24th. There is a second substitute and they made changes in some of the members which he explains (no one from Board of Health could serve and its the School Superintendent who appoints the school person). Shiva Bidar-Sielaff says they should have food at the meeting since it has 23 members, Sue Ellingson says that they should have alcohol. Bidar-Sielaff says that it wouldn’t be able to be held in any city building now. Matt Phair asks what they consider success. Mark Woulf says that they passed policies that are implements by cities or counties. Also notes that there are other ways to set it up – they could be a 501(c)(3) and raise money too. Phair asks for a type of policy. Woulf says zoning and fast food restaurants. Rhodes-Conway says urban agriculture or community gardens. Woulf says Milwaukee allows hoop houses but they are not allowed under our code. Marsha Rummel is concerned about the size of the committee. Maybe have advisory committee members. Ellingson agrees. Schmidt asks if we can define quorum as something less than half. Michael May says that they can make members advisory. Rhodes-Conway says they can be alternates. Bidar-Sielaff says that the larger committee is good until they set the goals. Rummel says that it like the Housing Committee. Woulf says that they have work groups and subcommittees in other areas and then the larger group doesn’t have to meet every month. Anita Weier says it is large. Passes unanimously. Bruer added as a sponsor.
MADISON ARTS COMMISSION MEMBERSHIP CHANGES
Karin Wolf says this is a result of the Cultural Plan. They are clarifying roles and putting the committee in the section of the ordinance with the other committees. They are updating language and terms that are no longer relevant. There is more flexibility in the appointments, explains Rhodes-Conway. Passes unanimously.
PLAN COMMISSIONER TERMS & TRANSIT AND PARKING COMMISSION
No real discussion, passes unanimously.
ALDER AND MAYOR SALARIES
Rhodes-Conway asks to clarify the impact of this and the impetus. Michael May says it was from the Mayor’s office. Rhodes-Conway says they left. May says the best explanation is in the fiscal note. May says that the adjustments would be made annually. The alders would start in April, the mayor would not be until after this term. He says that the effect would be that instead of getting a big bump every other year there would be smaller increases every year. The increases are tied to the managerial increases, which are tied to the people’s salary that they supervise. Rhodes-Conway notes that the mayor’s office is back, but Ann says she didn’t work on it. Rhodes-Conway says that the philosophy about the mayor’s office should be tied to area median income instead of a set level, and alders are different, we don’t do this for the salary. May says that this is going back to the way it was in 2007. Bidar-Sielaff says that her conversation with the mayor was the the previous mayor made a pledge to freeze his salary in his term, but prior to that the alders and mayor got the same increase of city employees. The way it worked was that it was frozen while that mayor was in place, but then there was a big bump all at once. Bruer agrees. They vote unanimously – until Rhodes-Conway says to put her as voting no.
REPORT ON ALDER ROLE
Rhodes-Conway says she appreciated the chance to think about how we can do our jobs better and what support and resources we need to do that. She says that getting to the training and resources is going to be easy, but its good to name it. This will be phased in. She thinks it was good to identify ways to communicate and work together better. Bidar-Sielaff says there are some clear recommendations and they can do some things right away. Passes unanimously.
COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIPS
RHodes-Conway says this is a housekeeping item. There have been committees in the past who got rid of one committee, but mostly cleaned up ordinances and looked at other things. She suggests that they deal with this issue in terms of policy. i.e. should they have labeled seats or more flexible membership. Ellingson wants to hear how difficult it is to get these folks appointed. They have to explain what the staff does when working on appointments. She is concerned about how difficult it is to recruit people. Rhodes-Conway says she has heard anecdotally it is hard for specific seats – for geography and demographics combined with the committee requirements. Bidar-Sielaff says that they should also look at how many alders are on the committee because it is hard to find alders to serve on some of the committees. They discuss how they would discuss this. They say that Leila on the mayor’s staff is really getting rid of committees that are ad hoc and reached a conclusion. Rhodes-Conway urges them to move on to policy issues.
