I was really hear for the discussion before hand of the police department. Bottom line on that, they are all concerned and feel the need to do something, but they aren’t sure what or how, but they seem determined not to let this moment go without doing something. They ran out of time on what. Then they had a presentation on the East Side Library, looks like Riendahl Park is the favored location – over East Town, (one I forgot) and Grandview Commons, which came in last.
ROLL CALL, GETTING STARTED AND HONORING RESOLUTIONS
Harrington-McKinney seemed to be the only one missing, but she’s here somewhere, I’m pretty sure.
They suspend the rules to take items out of order and introduce items at the end of the meeting..
Resolution declaring July 20 Columbian Day – two speakers thank them and speak.
They move to item 20 – naming the Lake Rescue Boat after Ralph E Chamberlain II. It will be christened on Saturday. Ralph Chamberlain thanks them and commends the Lake Rescue team and says they are among the best. The boat is apparently parked out front. There are several others here who introduce themselves.
They receive the petition that is number 2.
PUBLIC HEARINGS
3 and 14 – referred back to ALRC
4 – 6 and 8 – 16 are passed as recommended on the agenda, very few registrations, those who did register are all in support.
Item 7 is taken separately, and additional condition to stop serving alcohol at 11pm.
CONSENT AGENDA
All the rest of the items pass as noted on the agenda except the following:
89 – passes by a unanimous vote (changes planning budget vote to spend money on Neighborhood Conference as raised)
128 – also referred to Madison Food Policy Committee
130 – substitute to fix typographical errors
145 – is withdrawn and not referred
The following are separated to be discussed.
98 – equity of health care costs
99 – RP Pasta loan for Sherman Plaza
100 – Also a loan for Sherman Plaza
101 – Judge Doyle Square
Rummel adds referrals to EOC and Homeless Issues Committee for item 131
Clear clarifies 93 and 94 recommendations – Mayor says 94 will be taken up with the budget. 93 has no recommendation since it failed at Board of Estimates, Verveer says it would be placed on file.
33, 86 and 87 and 55 and 56 – Gruber abstains because he is playing at the festivals and is employed by Pizza Hut.
McKinney notes some errors in the agenda that would be accepted.
Everything else passes as noted
THE REST OF THE AGENDA
98 is referred to the end of the agenda
99 & 100 Larry Palm moves the substitute. It passes
JUDGE DOYLE SQUARE
5 registrations in support – no one speaks.
David Ahrens says he pulled this off the agenda to get a report since he didn’t think this should be on the consent agenda. George Austin gives a brief report reviewing the history of their actions. He says there will be 144 apartments, 4300 retail at grade on block 88. Block 105 will be 210 and 7800sq ft in retail and a urban mixed use hotel. The public development is a replacement ramp below grade on block 88 and a bike center. $13M in parking utility reserves will be spent and then TIF funds. There will be a 98 year lease with two extensions, they will pay $755,000 annually will increase in 5 years. The city will bid out the ramp. The hotel will come back for review at some point. There is a “good faith” clause in the for the labor peace agreement. There are other detailed that were rattled off quickly. All in all that presentation didn’t seem to last more than 5 minutes.
David Ahrens asks about the parking being $63,000 per stall. He says that is high, and they have said it could be much lower ($35 – 40k). He asks how this will work, does the parking utility put the money in first, and then the TIF money pays the rest?
David Schmiedicke says the $13,000,000 is fixed, the difference in cost will be in the TID 25 contribution for the costs of the parking being underground.
Ahrens asks what happens to the unspent TID money.
Schmiedicke says that they can close the TID earlier as long as the school gets their money first.
No discussion . . . ooops, well . . . .
Rummel says it can’t go by without saying something. She says she was never a supporter until this last version. She just wanted to say it out loud. She thanks everyone involved and hopes they got to the project that will get built.
Ahrens says that they have come a long way, this is a good project and once the public sees it and gets used to something different downtown, it will add alot. We’re aren’t financially engaged with a developer and they take their own risks and we take ours. He urges support.
Maurice Cheeks says it is fascinating that there is no public testimony today. He thanks the negotiating team and hopefully this is another thing Mr. Austin can be proud of. This is a great thing and this is a momentus thing that did not go without public input . . .. ooooooops, Freudian slip . . . . without public investment.
Mike Verveer says he should quit while he’s ahead if Alder Ahrens supports this and shut up. He appreciates Ahrens good work asking the tough questions, he is relieved we are at this point and he does the Verveer thing . . . thank yous . . . he points out there are 4 guys in suits from the Beitler team here and he thanks them, points out organized labor is here in support but perhaps with a wait-and-see attitude and hopefully they won’t be disappointed. He says once the hotel opens they hope they see a strong commitment to this partnership. He is excited about a ground breaking in the new year.
Denise DeMarb also thanks the negotiating team and the alders that worked on this over many years. Thanks for being resolute enough to say no, and that was disappointing but it got us to a good place with an amazing project.
Ok, now they are really done. Passes unanimously on a voice vote.
Clapping. Mayor gumpily says “no outbursts” but then cracks a smile.
HEALTH CARE EQUITY
Steve King and Shiva Bidar recuse themselves and leave the chambers. Verveer is in the chair, the Mayor wants to speak.
Mayor Soglin gives . . . a history lesson . . . to explain why this item is before them. Wisconsin has always been the lowest of the states in taxes paid to the federal government and dollars coming back. This is measured in many ways – we have few military bases and defense industries, it shows up in Dept. of Transportation, housing and community development. He says that there is a real difference in Medicare as well, and they don’t correlate to the cost of health care, but instead it has to do with political influence. Florida gets more money than other states in the nation. He talks about other information he has heard over the years, and notes that the academics noted this, but they don’t get involved politically. He says of the studies done, there were small samples and a small amount of the charges. He talks about a letter they got today. They will be meeting with the faculty to further discuss this. He says even if we disagree with the aggravation of the private data, we are faced with two items. The first is a wide variety and discrepancy of payments for the same procedures around the county. The payments may be influenced by politics, logic or a formula (based on wealth and poverty) or it may have little to do with the ability of hospitals to influence decisions, in any case there is a disparity. Even if we challenge the data about the payments in the sample he used, we still have UW Hospital and Clinics documentation of the variances and they are significant. He’s talking about the document that was passed out. He says that the amount charged is the sticker price on an automobile, no one pays it, a lower amount is paid. He says the missing part is what the real cost is. But if you look at what insurance pays and what medicare pays, you can assume the cost is lower than what insurance pays and higher than what medicare pays. He goes over some more numbers. He says that we may be subsidizing the federal government or not witnessing the federal dollars that should be coming here for the medicare charges. He refers to the letter again saying that the private market subsidizes medicare. He says there may not be cost shifting, but there is subsidization that is coming out of our pockets. One of the solutions is to do a better negotiation and work with our elected officials to get a better reimbursement. The mayor thinks that they would be remiss if they did not look into this. The initial stage is not an enormous burden – in terms of dollars and time – given the possible reward and some of our mis-adventures. He says we’d like to look at other cities and the primary responsibility is with the state government. At least one US Senator is keenly interested in this subject. Insurance companies and hospitals in the area are interested, it doesn’t need to be contentions, but there needs to be collaboration and we need to go to the federal government and get information. A little sunshine never hurt the public interest.
Tim Gruber asks about the difference between what the mayor offered and the alternate that is not before them. Mayor says there is another broader issue, and that is the larger issues of the overall cost of the healthcare system. There are other discussions in this area, discussions about self-insurance and the state pool. What the substitute doesn’t do is address the medicare formulas for Wisconsin and Madison. This wasn’t meant to take us into the larger discussion.
Sarah Eskrich did communicate with them yesterday and laid out her vote against this at the Board of Estimates. She says we face many issues as a body and we choose which issues we take on and what we don’t, this is not ours on to take on right now. We have to prioritize, we don’t disagree that this is an issue, but we disagree about by whom this should be addressed. It is being addressed by the federal and state government. Medicaid formulas are complex and changing, but this resolution will not come up with radically different solutions that we can address. Her alternate is to look at things that they can address. She says they need more information. She hopes they support the alternate, because we need to prioritize what they can make a difference on.
Maurice Cheeks moves the alternate – requesting a briefing. He thanks Eskrich for doing this.
Ahrens also thanks her for doing the more modest resolution. He says that the mayor’s goal has shrunk to find out what medicare pays what they do. There are organizations that can get those explanations, we might not agree, but they are explanations. He says the alternate resolution is more modest, doable and less expensive. He says the other is a long expensive road. He says this has been going on for 50 years and if we did find it within our means and wherewithal to address this, we would follow in the footsteps of others who have done this. The federal government will say they don’t want to pay and expect private insurers to pay because they can’t. This is not a battle we can reasonably take on. Going down the road of why the world is the way it is is a deep tunnel that we will spend lots of money on consultants to find out very little.
Mayor says they aren’t hiring lawyers or consultants. Lets be blunt about this, this resolution is limited, he will gladly do the substitute, but lets not frame this as a deception. The city staff and the mayor have been working on the cost of health insurance for years, this resolution was introduced a month ago, but this resolution showed up this morning – and we have no input from staff that have been working on this for years – HR, finance, the mayor’s office. If you want to do a study on healthcare costs, lets draft it and get it right, and lets not think this will be less work than the original resolution. This is more costly than the original resolution. He wants to know what game is being played and wants to know what the motivation to kill this is and why its not being sent to staff or the committees that have worked on this.
Rebecca Kemble thanks the mayor and Eskrich for the resolutions. She says the alternate has a different purpose. She would vote for it as a separate resolution but not as an alternate. We do need to be better informed. The original resolution could have been more clear in the scope of resources required, but it is studying what is needed. She hopes if the alternate doesn’t pass, that Eskrich brings it back as a separate thing.
McKinney says that this isn’t two sides of a coin. Both resolutions have merit. In talking about priorities, there will be a cost to this. But we won’t get anything if we don’t ask as alder Rummel said. The proposals are asking the same thing, how can we advocate around health care costs collectively with others. The mayor says we have no public input, but we have voted on other things that have had no public input. This doesn’t need to be either/or. Both are important. We need to look at both of these things if we will save dollars to the city and constituents and employees.
Eskrich says if we are looking at the current rates in Dane County rates, lets add that to the alternate.
Ahrens reads the mayor’s resolution that includes outside research and legal expertise. He says that is a big dollar issue (The mayor is pissed and pacing on the side of the room) Ahrens says it would be new to him that we vet resolutions or substitutes and amendments with departmental staff – I’m sure when there is lead time that might be the case, but for that to be a red flag is not substantive and a smoke screen.
Soglin says that if there was any expenditure of funds, it would have had to have been in the resolution or been a 2/3 vote for a budget amendment. It is false to say there are substantial costs. There is no intent to spend any money, there can’t be, it would be a violation of ordinances of the city, don’t read into it what is not there. Maybe we won’t get advice if we don’t pay them, but the intent is to ask, there is no appropriation in this matter. If there was money spent it would have to be in the resolution. In terms of the substitute, lets do it right, what is to be lost by asking the people working on your behalf to look at the resolution and give you their input based on their knowledge. He can’t believe the arrogance of saying that the professionals on city staff are irrelevant. The way to do this right is to adopt the original and take the foundation of the substitute and refer it. The mayor didn’t say public input, it was staff and relevant committees. Then we can move forward with the discussion on health care costs.
Marsha Rummel says there is a line drawn that she doesn’t accept. Eskrich’s version could work with the addition that was suggested and with that we might get to where the mayor wants to go.
Cheeks takes exception that Eskrich’s lady brain needs advice from others, she was elected based on this expertise and this suggestion that she is out of line is not only ridiculous but offensive. This isn’t fundamentally opposed, it calls for collaboration to understand where we are. This type of work doesn’t require a resolution. He doesn’t understand why it takes more than a phone call to other mayors and ask if they’d put together a work group. He appreciated Eskrich’s collaborative work with city staff and local and national experts so we can get educated.
Eskrich thanks Cheeks. She moves an amendment to the substitute – “current Dane County medicare payments” added to the resolution.
McKinney thanks them for adding it and she was asked to draft this for people and she thanks them.
The amendment passes on a voice vote, unanimously.
Kemble says that language doesn’t address the fundamental purposes of the two. She thinks the addition of the language adds to the briefing, but the lobbying piece will be lost, she wants to support both efforts, she will vote no on the alternate, but would vote for it if it comes back in a different form.
Gruber asks if the original was moved and if there is a way to vote for both.
Alternate becomes the main motion, Shari Carter abstains, one loud no vote is Gruber.
Cheeks says he doesn’t know why this became contentious, thank you to the mayor for bringing it forward.
Motion passes on a voice vote, Carter also abstains, seems like only Skidmore voted no on a voice vote.
ITEMS INTRODUCED FROM THE FLOOR
43620 – Amending ordinance to change purpose of City-County Liaison Committee – referred to CCOC and City-County Liaison Committee (Clear)
43622 – Dog licensing data shared with UW (Phair)
34666 – Prohibiting machine translation for city communications, including city website (Eskrich and Bidar)
Otis Elevator maintenance, AVA Civic consulting for Judge Doyle Square and accepting a redevleopment grant (All Verveer)
Adjourn 8:25
