Ok, see part one here.
10 – Library Library/Community Center Study – Alder Baldeh, Alder McKinney, Alder Zellers, Alder Ahrens, Alder Kemble,
Alder Verveer
$0
Amendment passes no discussion
11 – Parks Park Land Improvements- Reindahl Park Cricket Field – Alder Baldeh, Alder Ahrens, Alder Rummel, Alder Clear Borrowing 30,000
TOAH 0.04
DeMarb asks Parks (Eric Knepp) staff is snippy because she got an email in the middle of the meeting answering her questions. She wants to know if this is a repair and how many people use a cricket field.
Knepp says they lost one of their cricket fields . . . bleep, blip, blurp . . . we have been neglectful in working with the group that play cricket. The group is working to be inclusionary, the field is not in good working order, they would like to fix it and they are behind the curve. It is very heavily used. DeMarb asks if the $30,000 is disposable. Knepp says the new complex will be 10 – 15 years away.
Bidar asks why they aren’t using impact fees. Knepp says that they didn’t have the fees to cover the projects.
Eskrich asks the difference between the funds. Knepp says the big account is for land acquisition and they don’t have money in the geographically located funds for improvements.
Passes unanimously.
12 – Parks Park Land Improvements-Orton Park Replace Damaged Sidewalk – Alder Rummel Alder Baldeh
Borrowing 18,000
TOAH 0.02
Rummel says the fees don’t exist to fix this.
Eskrich wonders why this wasn’t prioritized.
Knepp says it should have been caught . . . (stupid tv cutting out . . . ) . . . it is in poor condition.
Eskrich asks if it would have been in the budget. It’s a big amount of money and she wants to make sure they are prioritizing and is this really needed. Knepp says it is a heavily used thoroughfare, it would meet all the criteria for replacement, they don’t have a great system and will work on better rating. It’s a real trip hazard.
Palm asks if there is something in the Parks budget you could not do, if this is clearly a hazard. What would you have done if it didn’t make it in budget. Knepp says they would delay other projects and it would have just been repaired instead of replacing it and having it last for 20 years. They would band-aid the problem. Palm says there would be some? Knepp says to give him a second and he will find some. Palm says budgeting is about making choices.
Passes.
Bidar moves to take 16 out of order.
16 – Police Midtown District Station in 2016 and 2017 Alder Schmidt, Alder DeMarb, Alder Eskrich, Alder Bidar-Sielaff, Alder King, Alder Phair, Alder Carter, Alder Clear, Alder Hall, Alder Skidmore
$0
Palm asks how this is different than Board of Estimates.
Schmidt says there is a shift in when they hire the officers, they go through training for 6 months before they are active. The officer hiring is in 2018, there is no 2017 budget impact. They will get the captain and Lt and they will manage for 6 months, this mostly impacts the operating budget.
Kemble asks about the comprehensive staff analysis and why it was struck.
Bidar supported it being struck, there are plenty of studies about staffing and the metrics . . . . bleep . .. blurp . . . she says something was a delay tactic, they shared the studies and the metrics used at the national level and we are still below that. We are very understaffed any way we look at the ratio. She says they heard from every westside neighborhood . . . bleep . . . blurp . . . they will have staff in June of 2018, there is lag time and delay. Maybe another study was not something that those of us who are ardent . . . blip . .. bleep . . . Kemble says the study is still there. People seem confused.
(by the way, in 2003 we used the police per 1000 residents standards, but made sure to add in Capital and UW police and then we were doing just fine . . . but they didn’t like that standard so they did a study showing we needed more cops . . . and now we’re back to the cops per 1000 residents . . . how curious, I wonder if they are counting all the cops this time? I don’t see how we could have fallen that far behind.)
McKinney reads the amendment and says that they don’t need another study that would give them the same results. They didn’t think that was an effective way to solve the problem.
King thanks the people who came up with the compromise. He says that almost all the alders west of the isthmus are on here and they prioritized public safety. He thinks this moves us forward in equity in how the resources are allocated.
Phair recognizes the people who are still here, there was a lot of behind the scenes works for years. The number of emails didn’t reflect the support for this since many neighborhood associations supported it for the residents.
Passes seeemlingly unanimously.
13 – Parks Warner Splash Park ($850,000 but not til 2019) – Alder Kemble Alder Palm
$0
DeMarb wants to know where this came from, it hasn’t been vetted and it is hard for her to support. Bleepity, blappity, blip. Stupid streaming.
Shair Carter also wants to hear from staff about this.
Knepp says that it doesn’t increase borrowing. There is $850,000 splash park and they worked with alders and committees to discuss needs and he trusts the alders to discuss what they have heard. The splash park was not the priority. There is a group trying to fundraise for a pool and that is not happening, the timing is far from ideal, its a community driven thing, it was very clear, at a staff level, they support expanding the center, that said, they don’t have to do this now. You will see this in the base request next year, he can assure them. It has more to do with sending a message to the community in the process we have had. Cut off . . . due to technical difficulties.
Kemble says it was in the CIP, they are just changing what it is for. They had a 2 hour session about the community vision for the park and there were two issues in where there was unanimous agreement, no new building except expansion of the center for kids and to keep the wild area wild. Kids can’t use the gym, Brentwood would like to use it for a neighborhood center, everyone agreed expanding it was a priority. This amendment is changing the purpose of the $850,000. The expansion will cost more than this but they will work on fundraising for the additional. (and a whole bunch cut out)
Barbara McKinney asks about the vetting process – when would we have had the opportunity to understand the process.
Kemble says that staff and the alders talked about it in the fall and she dropped the ball on getting it to BOE first, she apologizes for that.
Palm says that he appreciates the concern about the budget, but this is our opportunity to put forward modifications we want to see. We aren’t on BOE. There was $850,000 in the budget, this is plenty of notice, this is in a few years and we are providing the notice of changing the intent of the money. He feels like he has to justify something, you could think spash pads are more important or that we need more fundraising, but he feels angst that we are just trying to help the process and put in what is more appropriate than what was in the CIP. A few years ago they put in half a million dollars to improve the center and it didn’t happen and the trade off between the splash pad and the expansion, they could have just asked for more money. We will get more say in this, Parks has work to do, it will get its due difference, they want to plan to expansion not the splash pad.
DeMarb says there is a process to come before BOE, you’ve known about it since April, and no one from your community showed up to say this is important. She supports them speaking up, there is a process that should be followed and if it isn’t in the budget is sounds like parks will change it and is behind it. This is the first anyone heard about it and that is something, it is a matter of changing money from one project to another and to hear from the community is important and process wasn’t followed.
Rummel says that the last few amendments were vetted by anyone. Hearing the concerns and since its not til 2019, its goofy in a way. She would suggest that you might direct staff to engage parks in the study of the idea. This could be ignored next year and you might get more traction if you let staff put it in next year.
Kemble did try to follow process but her meetings with the mayor got pushed back several times and didn’t happen til after the amendments were due.
Palm says he hopes they are taking a break soon. This is part of the process. We are hashing out our collective plan. Not everyone can be on BOE and not everyone comes to BOE. Look at operating amendment 1, that could have been at BOE. This is part of the process, we have the right as council members to make amendments. Vote it down if you don’t think it is sufficient, but this is part of the process.
McKinney says Warner Park is a strong anchor in the neighborhood, her question is about this is that she would want to support it but this is the first time hearing about it. Is there any way to make this more acceptable, she recognizes this is an anchor and wishes she had that on the southwest side. How can we support this and say it is a strong vetting process.
Mayor says that its time for a discussion about democracy. He feels compelled to say something about this becasue we have heard so much about process and we heard it alot over the last several months. This isn’t about process, its the substance. The city does a good job on process, if we want to be absolute about it, we could do everything the 6th district wants because they are active and have professional skills and unlimited time on their hands, that other districts don’t have. Pluralism is not the majority, but the intensity of the minority. Sometimes we have to think about what the folks who are not here have to say because they can’t afford it, or understand it, etc. If there were 50 items like this, he’s be simmering, but this is for 2019 and there is no major earthquakes in parks before 2019 when it comes to Warner Park and splash pads, other than Wild Warner and the Swimming Pool. This is one item by someone on the council for the first time, part of the process is people can make amendments. We are making and incredible big deal, the point has been made, but if we are going to measure this splash pad against 73 other projects, there is not on person who can rank them and then rank them against the rest of the budget. At some point, enough with the data, make a decision, go with what you feel and what you learned.
Phair passes.
King says if this isn’t the process, someone should have explained it to him before. He says he voted to invest in Warner Park, if the priorities change, fine. This could be done next year, he ranted, and he agrees with everything the mayor says which never happens.
DeMarb says that if she has ever regretted pushing a button it is now. This is not about not liking splashpads.
McKinney says we apply process when it is convenient and she thinks they should be consistent. This was not about Warner Park.
Passes on a voice vote.
14 – Parks Park Land Improvements- Brittingham & Law Park Planning takes money form Olin Park Gateway – Alder Eskrich Alder Verveer
$0
Passes without discussion.
15 – Parks Garver at Olbrich Botanical Center Cold Storage Building – Alder Rummel Alder Clear
Borrowing 140,000
TOAH 0.18
Passes without discussion.
17 – Traffic Engineering Sign Bridge Inspection Added/Wayfinding Signage Cut Alder Skidmore Mayor Soglin
$0
Passes without discussion.
Total Capital Budget
Schmidicke says on amendment 1 the fiscal effect is -$2,013,784 of GO debt and other funding -$4,250,000, that reflects the metro reductions.
Cheeks asks for a total of where we are at. G.O. $138,989,174 total borrowing.
No discussion on the budget. The capital budget passes.
OPERATING BUDGET AMENDMENTS
Mayor reads off the registrations supporting
6, 24 & 20 (boe amendments), allied drive store (several), 7, 5, 10,
They take a 10 minute recess.
They come back and move the operating budget as amended at BOE.
1 – Miscellaneous Appropriations My Brother’s Keeper Implementation – Alder DeMarb, Mayor Soglin, Alder Carter, Alder Baldeh,
Alder Bidar-Sielaff, Alder Cheeks
25,000
TOAH 0.28
Passes without discussion.
2 – Community Development Division Vera Court-Milestones Program – Alder Kemble, Alder Ahrens, Alder Phair, Alder Zellers, Alder Rummel
40,000
TOAH 0.44
DeMarb is pleased to vote yes and would like to spend money like this every day where there are public private partnerships where we do good things for the neighborhood.
Mayor says this comes back to one of our first and very effective neighborhood resource teams.
Motion passes.
3 – Community Development Division Emerging Opportunities Single Funding Process – Alder Bidar-Sielaff, Alder Phair, Alder Cheeks, Alder Eskrich
$0
Motion passes, no discussion.
4 – Community Development Division Creation of Community Service Specialist Position – Alder Phair Alder Bidar-Sielaff, Alder
DeMarb, Alder Kemble, Alder Baldeh, Alder Cheeks, Alder Eskrich, Alder Rummel
35,000
TOAH 0.39
Motion passes no discussion.
5 – Community Development Division Tenant Resource Center Alder McKinney Alder Ahrens
50,000
TOAH 0.55
Palm says this is too broad. We heard testimony from the executive director and I am wondering what services we are supporting and would it be useful for him to add language to be more specific. I would imagine I would imagine this is for City of Madison residents.
O’Keefe says that they currently support a number of services, housing mediation and housing counseling, outreeach to chronically homeless persons, bilingual housing specialist, what I have heard the most acute need is for their core mission of housing counseling services, she described the backlog of housing counseling and I would assume that is what this is for. Palm says that would be language in a contract with them, O’Keefe says yes. So we wouldn’t need to make an amendment here. O’Keefe says in the absence of further amendment that is the direction he would go.
Eskrich asks O’Keefe about accountability metrics or evaluation. Their housing couseling contract speaks to number of clients served (tv cutting out!) it is a little bit difficult to quantify the impact, we look at caseload and number of people served. Eskrich asks about a city funding process and when would it come up in the future. O’Keefe says there is. The last time this went out was in the summer of 2014, that process made commitments for 2015 and 2016, looking ahead, the disruption that exists is by the ongoing evaluation of the processes and it is uncertain when the next process will be. If none of that had happened, the 2014 process was 2015 and 2016. The 2016 is unrelated to disruptions in our process. (cutting out again – grrrrr)
Phair urges them to vote no. Its the process discussion. He just supported a few amendments jumping out fo the process but that was unique – this is a person who we all know and respect and advocates loudly and often and jumped the process. There are others who are in the two year cycle.
DeMarb – when Ms. Konkel was here, they were talking about not being awarded in an RFP process the county money, and so I guess if the county has given the contract to someone else someone else is doing the services. What are we paying for. O’Keefe says that the point you just made is what brought this forward. What changed is that they lost a significant portion of their funding. You’re right that the expectation that the funds provided for that to another organization is intended to support housing counseling services and I don’t want to speak for her, but what Brenda Konkel might suggest to you that the need is greater and greater in Madison due to the state law changes that undermined supports to renter and that change has placed an added burden on the system of which they are a part, to compensate for funds previously supplied by the county. Whether the organization who will receive those funds can provide the full range of services is somewhat of an open question.
DeMarb asks if the contract was awarded to replace those services. O’Keefe says the county contract was a comprehensive one providing a broad range of housing services, including housing counseling, they will not finalize that contract until the budget is passed at the county. It was intended to provide a broad range of services, including some this amendment is intended to cover. With the added demand for housing counseling in general, will the funds that the county provides to Community Action Coalition be sufficient to meet the demand for those services, and you would get a different answer depending upon who you ask. DeMarb says she is not sure if it is fair to ask, but were those needs being met. Is additional funding needed in general. She doesn’t think we should vote on this amendment if the services are being provided. But if the services are not to the extent needed, then that is a different situation. O’Keefe says it is fair to assume that the demand for housing counseling services has increased, in the past couple of years due to the erosion of supports for renters that was provided by local ordinances that were preempted by state law, a greater demand on the system. The question about the county contract being adequate, it remains to be seen until that contract is finalized.
Schmidt says Phair brought up his concerns and givent he process issue we discussed a few moments ago it seems silly to bring it up again, but we have ways of dealing with this. This is a demonstration about the influence in Madison. Would we even be talking about this if it didn’t come from a former alder. I went to college with the president of the board, its not like I don’t have any connections to this. He doesn’t know if this is the right thing to do because it isn’t his area of expertise and he doesn’t know that it is one of our priorities. He appreciates the bind they are in, try living off federal money, but he can’t support this.
Bidar is also not supporting the amendment. She appreciates the services and the work that needs to be done in that area. We vet every proposal, the process would have ended in 2016 anyways. Saying it is when the funding needed it would come up anyways. We have to be careful what we do, we have to be careful about what our role is to fill the gaps for county funding. We can’t fill the gaps of the county without understanding the county process and their RFP and we are making assumptions about what that is and we don’t have a full picture. It’s really important not to be pushed to cover gaps the county created. The citizens of Madison are county taxpayers too. (She agrees with the mayor on the last two points)
Palm doesn’t know if he will add much to the conversation but he will talk. His first instinct is to try to put together what Brenda Konkel told us and what he remembers. The county didn’t fund TRC, but we still do fund them. We are in a conflict about what those services are. She was very clear that because the county was giving them money they could cover their costs but when the county removed their funding it became more clear that the city services are more than we pay for. We don’t pay for 100% of the services we recieve, that isn’t enough to fund them more, there was some quesitons about phone calls and what was being returned when, they have a volunteer specialist who is was training volunteers but ended up doing the work. There are some things the city funds that the county funds. No one knows what CAC is contracted to provide services for. We have a lot of renters with a lot of issues and at least in 2016 they won’t know to call CAC, they know to call TRC. That is the number that is out there and on websites and available. We have a conflict hat they will serve people because they won’t just hang up the pone on them. They will try to figure out how to serve. We have to serve our residents well. I don’t want to have them give half hearted numbers, I don’t want to throw money at this, but we need a contract and maybe this should just be one time funding. Brenda has said a number of times about process. And then says processes are broken. His tendency might be to support this, its doubling what we are paying the provider, but not knowing what CAC will provide, and seeing what they did on homeless and I wasn’t like “oh my god this is the best” – he realizes the process issue and we make these decisions way ahead and if we had this information months ahead different decisions might be made. He thinks we should support them but understands there are legitimate reasons not to do so.
Ahrens says that it is disappointing to see personal references to the messenger, I think there are bigger issues than a particular personality. 50% of the people who live in the city are renters and renters living in a market where rentals are scarce and expensive and they are vulnerable and the agency that has traditionally gotten the calls on that and had to deal with that is Tenant Resource Center and regardless of what the county does in 2016, that is when CAC contract takes place, the crisis at hand is now. The crisis of renters, the scarcity, the fact that people need to wait 3 or 4 weeks and that is going in one direction, downhill and the legislature has gutted tenant rights. We have one advocate in the city, and regardless of your feelings about that advocate, TRC is an effective advocate. We could speculate about why the county cut their funding, that they serve the city for the most part and the county has been funding them to a great extent. But the important point is the crisis at hand for tenants, which is half of the people who live here. And have no other available advocate, they don’t have resources for private attorney’s and there are no pro bono attorneys and they have left this meger resource of the TRC. The crisis that has befallen them is not tied to funding cycles, it didn’t fall neatly in our city funding cycle. They don’t have a big partner like Vera Court and they have few other resources. I hope we can put aside the sense of the leader of TRC and the exceptionalism of the time and look at what is on the ground, renters are increasingly subject to very harsh circumstances that leads to homeless and other problems. See past these immediate things and look at the big picture.
McKinney says that she asks Brenda Konkel to send me an email it was forwarded to all the alders. Most specifically, I want to move the messenger, Brenda Konkel out of the picture and look at the service provided. When we begin to tie up that she was an alder, that makes no difference, she has seen the work at the Tenant Resource Center and has seen people line up at ABerg to talk to someone that can give them some hope. (cutting out) Low income people, predominantly people of color. This is for a program director. Over time we have paid for rent and one person for housing counseling and one person can’t provide housing counseling for the 4,500 individuals required under the contract, more importantly we use volunteers to fill the gaps and over time this has been subsidized by county and UW funding. Our current need is for a program director for $33,000 ($16/hr) and health insurance and taxes and $3500 in supplies for $50,000. That is the proposal. The program director recruits trains and supervises volunteers and this leverages 40 hours a week of housing counseling. We are talking about (cuts out) There is not a lot of agencies like the Tenant Resource Center that does not turn people away, for us to not provide this help, she asks them to reconsider that and look at being a positive contribution to a high need. We are looking at an agency that has been providing a significant amount of service to a community in dire need and we can support that with %50,000. Process is served when it is convenient, this is going to supporting a need that is so great to a population that is often turned aside to have someone sit down and help them through the issues.
Rummel asks O’Keefe about CAC services. What do they do for the city. They were supposed to do that 800 number, how is the stuff we have been funding going. O’Keefe says that is the coordinated intake system that they get money for, it is very much a work in progress and the CDBG commission was supposed to hear from them, to get an update but there wasn’t quorum. The best he can tell them is that it si work in progress but to the broader questions, they do provide housing counseling services, they are complementary to TRC services, the Tenant Resource Center has a committed group of volunteers they serve a very vulnerable population, they have a very avid following and some people believe they provide a superior service and a portion of the funding that supported that counseling service was provided by Dane County. The last RFP was winner take all, the county wanted a full range of services including but not limited to housing counseling and as a consequence of TRC failing to win that those funds will go to CAC and the county expects CAC to provide those services. That doesn’t speak to the . . . cuts out . . .
Rummel asks about work in progress, I translate that to not full operational and to some extent I would see this as an emergency request. She would like people to consider that. Maybe it would be worth considering it a one time grant and they can pop back into the funding cycle and see how it goes.
Bidar asks what the current amount of funding is. $143,000 for a variety of activities. That does not include another $22,000 as a fiscal agent for storage services. Bidar says the services are incredibly (cuts out), . . . so its not about that. It is about process. For any of you who have not sat through those meetings and the needed resources, of services we all would support, they come and fight through crumbs and they go through that process for months on end . . . (cuts out) . . . . the reason some things were pulled out of process was for specific issues. . . . cutting out still . . . . we are hand picking an agency and giving them $50,000 and we are RFPing the $25,000, we can’t ask for that level of scrutiny. She totally agrees that the nubmers of renters without support is alarming, I totally agree that the state destroying tenant protections it terrible and has created a crisis, but this is the first time this is here and we say this is an area of priority for us. We didn’t ask community services if we should support tenatns over other areas. If the message you are sending that agencies can come to the council we would have a room full of people and we made them go through the process so there would be a level playing field, not who can bring the most people to council. If she had $50,000 she would give it to Brenda Konkel, because it is not about Brenda Konkel, it about the services the agency provides, if we start this she promises she will parade every single agency that will need additional services and ask for $50,000 and see how that works for us.
Palm says makes an amendment that future budget decisions about be determined by the community services committee – trike these costs will be onging. He says that hey would fund it this year for extenuating circumstances. O’Keefe says this would be CDBG funds, not Community Services (I beg to differ) Palm says he revises the amendment.
No on the Palm Amendment passes 11 – 9 with the no votes being.
Skidmore, Bidar, Cheeks, Clear, DeMarb, Eskrich, Hall, Phair, Schmidt
Kemble says that she sits on the Committee on Aging and every committee that came to the Committee on Aging said that they were seeing increasing issues with housing and homelessness and the only resource they have is the Tenant Resource Center, they applied for funding. I agree this is emergency funding. They applied several different ways. They didn’t get funded through the Committee on Aging, they didn’t get the county funding and this situation raises serious questions about the funding process in general and how its not driven by an overall assessment of needs. Last year before she was elected we decided to update the funding process, there is a general recognition that there are issues and we haven’t gotten to that. It seems Tenant Resource Center fell through the cracks this time and having to cobble together bits and pieces of funding didn’t work for them and because of the testimony from TRC and the agencies that serve seniors testifying about how serious the issues are for their population and how they are the one go to agency, she is going to support this.
Schmidt was contemplating making Palm’s amendment, but didn’t think he could vote for it given Bidar’s comments. He raised the issue of the former alder because we had a discussion about influence in the city and it highlighted the point I made at the time. The TRC is important, it has a role in the city, it does a service that few if anyone else provides, but we don’t have enough money, we know that, we try very hard not to play favorites, we have shot them down before, we have had them come to them in tears to have help. This is why we have Emerging Opportunity funds. Its a hard choice. He can’t support line iteming.
Phair encourages people to do the right thing. TRC did not fall through the cracks, they do good work, at EOP he had to look a neighborhood center in the eye and say they can’t fund them because it is ongoing costs. We have to say no here. For all the reasons Bidar and Schmidt said here.
DeMarb has also sat on these committees and she sat on three and she remembers one night carving $1,000 from 5 programs to fund a $5,000 program and it took forever to do this to train moms in Brentwood on childcare. That was during a process and she saw so many people and still does see people turned away due to lack of funds. I know we were talking about process, but it is there and valid. The message we send to the rest of the communities that are turned away . . . she won’t be supporting it. It pains her to do that, just like every time they don’t have the funds. WE have $100,000 for $1M of funds. She understands the need is real, but there is a reason we have a process.
No – Skidmore, Wood, Bidar, Carter, Cheeks, Clear, DeMarb, Eskrich, Hall, Phair, Schmidt
Fails.
6 – Community Development Division Eliminate Non-Profit Capacity Building – Alder Eskrich Alder Bidar-Sielaff
Cut 25,000
TOAH – (0.28)
Passes no discussion.
7 – Community Development Division Continuation of Crisis and Senior Service B List – Puts them it the base budget – Alder Bidar-Sielaff, Alder Phair, Alder Schmidt, Alder DeMarb
$0
Passes no discussion.
8 – Community Development Division Name Change: Achievement Gap Pilot changed to Multiagency Coordinated Service Delivery Pilot (Clarifying Language – Name Change: Achievement Gap Pilot changed to Multiagency Coordinated Service Delivery
Pilot ) – Alder Bidar-Sielaff, Alder Eskrich, Alder Phair
$0
Passes no discussion.
9 – Economic Development Division Downtown Retail Funding Study – Alder Verveer Alder Zellers
$40,000 paid for with TIF funds
Passes no discussion.
FINAL VOTE ON OPERATING BUDGET AS AMENDED
Schmidt says that his concern has been how we fund our basic services and not building structural deficits. That is why he didn’t bring an organics program amendment. A small investment could expand the pilot and have a citywide drop off. We talked about going citywide or a pay for service option, but it was unequal. He set that aside. He didn’t want to have to go to the mat for the police station. He will make sure that comes down if he has to take the sledge hammer himself. (cuts out) He says they cut the CIP heavily and hopefully we right sized it to what we can accomplish in the years. One final comment on the TRC, the statement about influence, the fact that I had to think about repercussions on a blog, and it makes him uncomfortable, but its not and we always find ourselves in that position. We add money and incrementally try to improve the situation. The problem is the federal government. It goes back to what the Mayor said about Norquist drowning government in a bathtub, its what we have been fighting everyday and long before that. Government has been struggling over scraps at the last minute and we have to talk about if we can afford basic services. All these arguments are about timing.
Verveer thanks . . . . .yeah, really . . . you knew it was coming. He congratulates rookies on surviving the process. He thanks the staff, they were under trying circumstances with the new software (munis), it was a lot of work, also the record amount of turnover in budget staff. Only two of the five were here ago (Dave and Betsy). For the first year as our budge manager Laura Larsen did a great job. Shout out to Kara, Emma and Laura who were new. He says we did a good job considering the major changes.
Palm says that he and Skidmore are on Board of Public Works and all the bids are higher than the estimate and he is worried about inflation in construction projects. He is worried about the challenge.
Bidar asks for the final budget numbers. The spending is $290.1M. The tax levy is $209.9M. The mill rate is $9.50 and the Taxes on the average value home is $2,336 a $79 increase or slightly less than 3.5%. Bidar echos the thanks, and a special thanks to President DeMarb.
Verveer asks about the room in the levy limit. Schmiedicke $987,000.
Mayor thanks everyone on staff, department heads and divisions. This works started last April and we’ll be back at this in less than 6 months. He thanks the council for changes that he wanted to make and he wants to look at basic services today, they are not the same as 20 or 40 years ago. It has changed and evolved. It you go back to the founding of Oscar Mayer when there was no fear of a company buying and merging and shutting it down. If you look 20 and 40 and 60 and 80 years ago we didn’t have the income disparity that has grown so rapidly and extensively. The minimum wage would be $11 if adjusted for inflation. We have to change how we think about basic services. We have to look at opportunities like public markets, the work of neighborhood resource teams, and look at community centers. Because if we go back 40 or 60 years ago no one wanted them. The school district wanted nothing to do with services after school hours. The City of Madison wanted no part of it. The creation of the south neighborhood center, they were all exceptions and as we go forward, if we are going to take on these challenges we have to make sure the wealth created stays in our community because Oscar Mayer won’t write checks to the United Way any more. As we go forward from this budget to future budget, he hopes they give that strong consideration. WE are one of the safest communities in the united states, we have some of the best schools. We have families who are middle class where their parents didn’t finish school. One of the gems in the budget is to increase summer employment. Its one thing to make sure a child is working, but the parents better have a greater income. He thanks everyone again. He will sign the budget in the morning. IN the next couple days Alderwoman deMarb, Alder Cheeks and at one point Alder Skidmore will be running the city, so have fun.
DeMarb asks what they have to vote on. Mayor says that they need to vote on the operating budget, the entire p=budget and the taxing resolutions.
Operating budget passes on a voice vote.
They then vote on the taxing resolution and adopt the entire budget as amended.
Schmiedicke reads the numbers one last time, including water and sewer utility bonds.
tax levy – $209,856,551
supplemental increase of $288,284
138,981,974 in general revenue bonds
28,955,000 water utility bonds
7,570.4540 sewer utility bonds
Move adjournment.
