What’s interesting on tonight’s Council Agenda?
#1 – The Mayor sticks with the current trend when making new committee appointments. Only 12, or 37.5% of the people being appointed are women. To be fair, 27 of the appointments are re-appointments. Of the 5 new appointments 2 of the 5 are women. These appointments are only being introduced and get referred to the next meeting.
#2 – The Mayor’s appointments to the Capital Area Regional Planning Commission (The new RPC) are somewhat curious. He is appointing two people who really have no background or experience sitting on committees that deal with planning or transportation issues. (Do a people search here to see what committees Alders Palm and Brandon sit on.)
#3 – 11 – Here’s a geeky thing to notice, but did you ever notice if you click on the legislative file (see example here) for Alcohol Licenses you get no information? You’d never know that number 4 on the agenda is being denied if you just looked at the item we are voting on. You have to look here at the legislative history or on the agenda.
#14 – We will be authorizing condemnation for pieces of 4 properties for the Starkweather Creek bike path. (Sponsored by Larry Palm)
#36 – Once again we’re giving more money to the Fire Department, outside of the budget process. And reducing our $1M Contingent reserve by $156,330. (Sponsored by Mayor and Paul Skidmore)
#57 – We’re approving plans for up to 7 bus shelters on the Capital Square. For the same amount of money in the budget, we can get an extra one or two shelters. (This item just comes to council without sponsors)
#66 – We’re approving a policy that city vehicles can’t idle for more than 5 minutes with a few exceptions. Hopefully we can make this a little stronger at the meeting. (Sponsored by Larry Palm, expect additional people to add their names tonight.)
#76 – We’re making covenants in deeds and other neighborhood documents unenforceable when it comes to the storage, placement or location of the recycling and garbage carts. This item got stuck in the system for TWO YEARS! The Urban Design Commission recommended denial of this in 2005! Solid Waste Advisory Committee recommended approval 4/5/07. I don’t think the Plan Commission ever voted on it, or at least not recently. On 4/4/05 we asked for a legal opinion which I don’t believe we ever got. The notes say that on 4/18/07, when there was no meeting, the Plan Commission recommended approval, but that can’t be right . . . (Sponsored by Mayor)
#78 – We’ll be passing approval of an Request for Proposals (RFP) for a bus pass pool that would allow small businesses to get the same benefits of offering unlimited ride bus passes to the employers as the largest employers such as the UW and the Hospitals. (Sponsored by Satya Rhodes-Conway, Mark Clear, Brenda Konkel and expect names like Robbie Webber, who should already be on there, to be added tonight.)
#79 – We’ll be asking the Common Council Organizational Committee to explore putting an additional alder on the Board of Water Commissioners and discuss additional information that the Common Council would like to receive from the Water Utility. (Sponsored by Brenda Konkel, Satya Rhodes-Conway, Robbie Webber, Marsha Rummel, Tim Gruber, Brian Solomon, Mike Verveer, Tim Bruer and Julia Kerr – this was passed around the council but no one else chose to sign on.)
The resolutions to look at gender balance for top management positions and commissions and committees are being referred to the Affirmative Action Commission for input prior to the Council approving them. (These are currently sponsored by Brenda Konkel, Lauren Cnare, Satya Rhodes-Conway, Marsha Rummel is being added and they will be passed around tonight to get additional sponsors.)
