It’s brief . . . cuz I’m sick. And watching from home on my couch.
Roll call, I believe they were all there. They suspend the rules.
Early Public Testimony on Operating Budget
Doug Strub from Future Wisconsin speaks in support of an amendment to do an addition to Vera Court Community Center. They will pay for the amendment if the city pays for the programming. They are busting at the seams, they don’t have enough room for kids age 12 – 16. They have paid an architect, and can expand it by 3500 sq ft, doubling the size of the center and they will pay the $500,000 in costs. They are asking for $40,000 for middle and high school age programs at the center. The don’t want to build the space if they aren’t funds to run the programs.
Tom Solyst speaks on the same issue, says it a great opportunity, its a partnership with Future WI. They have offered programs there for 15 years and want to expand the middle school and high school programming, but it will impact adult and pre-school programming as well. They are particularly interested in transition years 5th grade, 8th grade and high school graduation. They are excited about the partnership, not just financially, but they are supportive of the staff and continue to make the neighborhood better.
CAPITAL BUDGET PUBLIC TESTIMONY
40 registrants, there are about 20 that want to speak.
C8, C16, C1, C35 have people registering in support – mayor reads them off.
Ken Rafa (sp?) speaking for Sunset Village Association, he is president. They want the midtown station to be kept on a prompt timeline. No one is opposed in his neighborhood. You all know the growth in numbers. He says the police have been proactive, there will be lengthy response times in future years. He says the police have partnered with the neighborhood. They work with them on traffic noise and design on traffic issues. They invite them to be on committees to work things out.
David Glomp in support of the Mid-town Police Station. He applauds fiscal restraint, but he wants the police station prioritized. Public safety and quality of life should be priority number one. Police need facilites staff and tools to do the best job they can. Don’t delay it 5 – 6 years. The land is purchased, realigning the districts will cut response times. This project also helps North, South and East because they won’t have to take officers from other areas to cover the West side. The annexation of the Town of Madison will make this problem worse. Our average of police per 1,000 is below the national average. Meadowood, Orchard Ridge, Prairie Hills and Green Tree (8,500 people) passed resolutions to support this resolution. In order for him and his wife to enjoy their golden years, they are willing to pay more to have police properly funded.
David Endowski(sp?) – In support of Mid-town Station. He is High Pointe Estates President. Crime is real to their residents, its not a dot on a point. His neighbors have been robbed, they are fearful and the other crimes are real. They have a private security firm that patrols their neighborhood. It is disillusioning that his residents want to move to Middleton to live in a good neighborhood. They have a good relationship with the police, they get the data every month. There are not enough police to cover the west district.
Jarusha (sp?) Daniels – supports the public market, she is an urban planner (sadly, my tv is cutting in and out and I don’t know why, so I can’t hear much of what she is saying – this is going to be long night if things don’t get better.)
People clap. Mayor chastises people for doing so. Mayor announces more people are coming in and he will allow it unless the council tells him something different.
Susan Schmitz is concerned about amendment 5 and 2, they seem to conflict, she is representing DMI. She hopes this (Judge Doyle Square) won’t be set back
Megan Blakehorst is in support of the public market. She wants them to think of something bigger than the public market and what can grow and connect to it. It will be art, culture and wealth building jobs. She says it can bring $22M back into our economy from the public market district. It will start 265 jobs in the market alone. It will also create construction jobs. She talks about a kid that comes and talks to Farmer Joe every week and how he could bring someone green tomatoes and how kids from Darbo found out that they could sell vegetables and the business they could start. A public market and create young future entrepreneurs. They could have been getting into trouble but they chose to come to the market instead. This is the heart of what a market is.
Harbor Blakehorst is a child speaking in faor of the public market. She said it is for everyone, everyone can get involved. It is jobs and artwork and you can get great local things. She has been to Mad City Bizarre and its fun. When you go there you get paid equally if you are a girl or a boy. She thinks this is a good idea.
Larry Fass is there to speak in support of eliminating funding for Jeffy Trail. He wants it eliminated from all future budgets until there are other roads that are improved. Once other improvements are made, if it is still needed to be extended, then the neighborhood would work with the city to consider this. He says htye should wait and see how these other roads impact traffic.
Carrie Mulke (sp?) – Hawks Creek neighborhood resident in opposition of Jeffy TRail. Neighborhood is asking for people not to spend money, that is a gift you don’t get every day. Her one year old son has a seizure and within 5 minutes the EMT was there, they were so impressed with the immediate response. The extension of the road is not a priority for neighborhood response. They have plenty of entry and exit places in their neighborhood. This area is beautiful and she wants to keep it the way it is.
Mark Clear wants people to know that the amendment on Jeffy Trail passed at Board of Estimates, but there is no motion to fund Jeffy Trail. It has been taken out of the budget and there is no amendment before them to put it back in. Steve King wants to finish hearing the testimony after the mayor makes it clear.
Rod Hagen (?) – also against funding Jeffy Trail, was very brief.
Joe Mulke – also against Jeffy Trail, says that was news to them. There was no communication that this had been taken out already, he thanks Alder McKinney and thanks them.
Barbara McKinney says she thanks the Mayor for allowing them to continue to speak.
Sarah Grogan with her daughter, they were happy to find out they didn’t need to be here. (Missed a bunch more cuz of glitchy tv – is it always this way>!) The neighborhood doesn’t want this. Upcoming construction on M this would increase traffic in their neighborhood. This was delayed last year to get more input, that promise was not fulfilled. She says the project should be laid to rest forever.
Grace says she begged her parents to let her speak, she loves the Jeffy Path. She thinks that the path won’t be safe if the road is put there. She thinks other kids feel the same way. She doesn’t want the neighborhood to be more noisy and have more strangers there. She says that she is just one 11 year old girl trying to save a trail, but she wanted to try.
Another neighbor speaks – Susan ? – they are happy the item was removed, but wants it removed long term. Two more speakers speak very quickly, they want it permanently stopped. Spend the money elsewhere on other priorities. There is no need for this, there is no problem. Just cuz this was put in the plan they don’t need to go forward with this. Another speaker says they checked with the clerks office and got bad information, he apologizes for taking up their time.
Joe Mingle, speaks in support of the public market. He is an urban farmer, helped found Mad City Bazaar and other projects. He says that with Judge Doyle Square and Oscar Mayer closing, the public market can give people hope and address racial disparities. He says there can be jobs for people who are shut out of traditional jobs. He talks about how hard it is to get jobs with a criminal record and how kids think they have to go to college or they will be a failure. This provides an opportunity for those who won’t succeed in other ways. Millions of dollars are spent at the farmers market, its almost all white people. We stand on their shoulders tonight, but the public market will be able to address other community concerns that he knows they are all worried about – homeless, people coming out of corrections etc. He says that real people are impacted who have business plans and want to know when it will happen. He supports the mid-town police station but they putting more money into policing but not economic development which is what people like Young Gifted and Black.
Ben ? Supports C2, from Urban Land Interests. He says this will be good underground parking for downtown and it will change the skyline for 100 years. It’s a complicated project, the requirements will be adjustd and they and other developers will tweak their proposals, but they should keep their options flexible. Building parking without the developer with make them reassess. Support C2 because that is the one that will support flexibility.
A group of people from Dungeon Monroe speaks together on Monroe Street. 4 of them. Tyler Leaper is the president of the neighborhood. He says this needs to be more than a reconstruction, it needs to be a redevelopment, he asks them to keep the money for planning and the road in the budget. Friends of Wingra Creek is also in support of C7. It is important for placemaking, pedestrian improvements and improvements for the lake. It will be good for business and make it a better place to live. They are speaking together to show how they work together. The road needs to be repaired, but they should build a complete street to make this a better destination. The area needs re-invigoration, he was hit by a car on the way here, this will make the street more safe, the street needs to be designed as in the amendment.
More Jeffy Trail people say thanks.
Gloria Mayer from Priarie Hills speaks in support of Mid-town. She says we need to address long term issues like housing, employment etc. But they have an immediate need right now. There is an increase in violence and police activity in the last 15 years. Calls for service and violent crime and property crime all went up. We need to do something now for the responsiveness, but we also need the long term solutions.
Tom Ferin – also Jeffy Trail. He says when he moved in it was a cul-de-sac that served 4 houses, now it serves a whole neighborhood. The hill makes it a dangerous stretch of road, take this permanently out of the budget.
Another person supporting the Monroe St. amendments. He talks about the Greening of Monroe St. festival and all the people involved in that effort. He says they need infrastructure to support that. He says the robust planning process will be important to build something that will last the next 50 years and be a model for green urbanism in Madison.
Diane Morganthaler speaks against amendment 5 on Judge Doyle Square. They (Monona Terrace) is looking forward to the hotel with 250 rooms and the city needs to be positions to meet that goal. They ask that they carefully consider this to move it forward.
Jeffrey Frey was a Madison police officer for 30 years, 15 years ago. Lives on west side and supports the Mid-Town station. Was a captain in several positions. He worked with the chiefs and retired in 2000 as captain on the west side. Since he was an administrator and spent 1000s of hours on the streets he thinks he understands the challenges. He says he was involved in planning for the west district and they didn’t do a great job, they underplanned. It’s a large area and there are challenges. The station is busting at the seams and its twice as large as they planned for. There is also complex calls with a lot of travel time. It takes 12 -15 minutes to drive across it. This doesn’t serve the citizens well to go miles to get to a call.
Paul Jayden is a former mayor and understands guns and butter decisions. The Region Economic Partnership submitted 30 projects and he thinks the public market is one of the top proposals. He says this is important with the news of the last week. He says the agriculture density is an opportunity to be a center of excellent, he wants it to be funded by the state and local government. He thinks this will yield significant dividends. He is looking for ways for the federal government to participate in incubation and acceleration of this facility. They stand ready to be a partner to bring more dollars to the project.
There are more registrants not wishing to speak.
Oppose 16
Support 1, 5, 7, 6, 35, 8, 16
OPERATING BUDGET TESTIMONY
Only one speaker, Selina Pettigrew, and she went home.
QUESTIONS ON CAPITAL BUDGET
Mayor says screen is flashing on and off and that might be a problem tonight.
Alder Palm asks Mr. Jayden about federal funding. Is there an issue with timing, are there funds available now, would there be more funds available if they wait. He says they would like to get going as soon as possible, they want to get ready for grants.
Mayor interrupts to see if the temperature of the room is too cold.
Jayden says that some of their funds expire July of 17 for concierge points, they need to beat that window. Palm asks about the competition, why do we need concierge points? He says he thinks they will get 5% bonus points, they could probably get the points without it, but they have a point of contact with USDA and with the state to help with dairy or agriculture applications. He says that if they forestall this a couple years, he can’t say you will be disadvantaged, but the next two years will be very important and we will be advantaged. Palm asks what else they are working on. Center for Dairy Research could be a Center for Excellence as well. Palm asks how many applications they are making. He says they ahve 83 members of the coalition and they will vet the projects to decide what goes before the federal government but this is one of the top, if not the top applications.
Marsha Rummel asks if they talked about Oscar Mayer with the feds. They gave us an idea for funding areas, he will share those with the mayor tomorrow. Rummel asks about the public market district and what opportunities would come out of the flames with Oscar Mayer. He says that if the building is not resold for a compatible use, it might be an adaptive reuse for processing and redistribution and a compatible link to the market. He thinks the region could be a significant part of the public market. EDA thinks that was significant.
Mayor closes the public hearing. They take a “5 minute” break before they start on the motion. It’s only 7:00.
7:05 and they are back from break.
CAPITAL BUDGET AMENDMENTS
1 – Fleet, Economic Development Division, Metro Fleet Relocation, Public Market, Metro Satelite Facility – Alder Rummel, Mayor Soglin, Baldeh, Kemble, Palm
Cut Borrowing 1,262,782
TOAH (Taxes on Average Home) (1.64)
Rummel says this is a complicated amendments. She has been involved in the public market since 2008. It has been scheduled for 3 different locations. She says this addressed what years things happen, it addresses Fleet, She got started on this when they didn’t get the TIGR grant. Mr. Schmidicke wanted to keep this in the CIP, she hopes people support it.
Denise DeMarb is in the chair.
Larry Palm asks for their support, there as some challenges, but there is a growing support for the public market. They talk alot about jobs and eocnomic development and food, especially on the north side (FEED kitchen, River Food Pantry, Troy Gardens, breweries and Oscar Mayer – and the public market brings that all together. This is something everyone can get involved in. THis is a broad economic development base. He says this will move it to the second level. There are opportunities for us to raise more revenue for the structure and it doesn’t have to be G.O. Borrowing. Fleet services is a challenge, but it helps so much of our services in the city, so that shouldn’t get lost. Our residents are excited about that, if we are growing the police department then we have more vehicle for the fleet. We add more housing and people and then we need more services and we need to pay for that.
Mark Clear has questions for staff. How real are some of the other sources of funding in the budget. Is this real enough for people to count on it, is it a done deal or is it dependent on things out of our control. Dan Kennelly says UDAG we already have and it is what we have been using, the city capital budget. STate and federal grant support is a projection, we haven’t received grants, but we do have a federal designation as a priority and the public market was front and center of that. WE can have confidence there. New Market Tax Credits is complicated but they are in a census tract that qualifies and they are working with a group that has had success and we should be in a good position. They have had private foundations reach out to them and the local individual donors they have confidence in. The short answer is that except UDAG and Capital funding its not a done deal but they have a high level of confidence.
Clear asks who gets the New Market Tax Credits, FCI? FCI can apply, and if they get the tax credits it is a tax shelter and they can sell them to an equity investor and turn tax credits into cash. This is a $14M project, but the tax credits are worth only 40% of the project. Investors can take $6M over 7 years and it is worth 3.25. Clear asks about the timing. Does the timing work with the amendment with design and construction and opening in 2018. Kennelly says the clock is ticking with the MadRep designation for federal grants. applications for New Market TAx Credits go in December, they won’t get word about it until October 2016. If FCI or other groups get them,then they put together a package for a project at the end of 2016 and beginning of 2017 and that aligns with the amendment. Clear asks about State support, we were surprised by the governor today. Kennelly says that over the last few days people are seeing the food connections of the 20th and 21st century and we need to look at the changes. This is a discussion taking place and its motivating to have the state seeing the bigger picture too.
David Ahrens wants to ask David Schmidicke a question but he isn’t in the room.
Shiva Bidar asks about moving Fleet up a year. How pressing is that. Vandebrook says this is so the public market can move forward. They will also be able to service vehicles better when they can move. They can’t service much of the equipment at their satellite shops because it was too big. THis building was built in 1954 for a smaller fleet and different size vehicles. They are bursting at the seems. Bidar asks what the original years were that they requested. Schmiedicke says construction was 2019.
Ahrens asks about the $35M for the facility. Schmiedicke says it was splits in 2016, 2017 and 2018 and split between the federal grant money and the G.O. debt. Ahrens says we haven’t made a proposal for that funding right? We did but it wasn’t included, but there is another opportunity in the spring of 2016. He asks about revenue being in the budget if we haven’t made an application yet, has that been done in the past? Schmiedicke says that they always have that in the out years, there has been a practice, but it is a question with this federal funding. Ahrens asks if that should be detailed. Schmiedicke says the New Market Tax Credits for the library didn’t come through. Ahrens says it looks as if this is certain funding, not potential.
Mayor Paul Soglin says that as long as he can recall, we have always anticipated making grants and put them in the budget and if you don’t put it in the budget then you don’t have the required local match commitment. This is a long standing practice. Yes we will be applying for another TIGER grant. On the Public Market, he said that his original intent was to put items off for several years and then go into 2017 re-examine where we are in terms of debt service and impact on the levy and sequence projects. That didn’t succeed, Board of Estimates had some immediate projects. He says the combination of fleet services and public market is as important as everything and involves many agencies and can reduce operating expenses in several area and increase quality of service. Fleet is centrally located but you can’t expand there, it is as important as any basic service because without it here is garbage removal, snow plowing or police cars. With this time table for the public market, it doesn’t open until 2019. Having shovel ready projects are important and we have a window here, and we need to budget and make our commitment, and we have an eligible site for New Market Tax credits that makes this important. The loss of jobs at Oscar Mayer also makes this important. We’ve seen more producers in the last few years, with a food based economy, there is a role for everyone in this type of economy. This is not a boutique market, this is more like Detroit, focused on aggregation, a private sector commitment to processing and transportation and once its viable is probably running 20 hours a day. Its far bigger than 1st street, it extends down Sherman Ave, Hwy 113 and spills out beyond those boundaries if we are successful. 245 jobs for construction. 264 permanent jobs. $12M in sales, $22 in gross economic output. These jobs do not include off site jobs generated by the private sector. When we got involved in MadRep we were skeptical of what we had in common and they were skeptical of us that we would be interested in BioSciences which is a great niche for us, but it doesn’t create larger regional benefits. When the surrounding counties suggested agricultural with food and beverage they were surprised we embraced it. We were going back to what made us great. Some changes need to be made, some farmers can do more than grow calories in corn and soybeans. Its risky to do this. We need to be bringing in local foods to schools, not freeze dried packages. Schools are opening up their kitchens again. Kids are making healthy choices on their own. He says that with Oscar Mayer closing, you can see the value of worker cooperatives. We have locally owned companies with local commitments. And there is the surprising news that the Governor and Mayor agree – regional public markets are working – the governor is giving serious consideration to supporting regional public markets in Wisconsin. Imagine if the state moves forward and we don’t have a project ready. Whether we are talking jobs, opportunity, health or nutrition, every single element is there. The City of Madison built its reputation not just on the UW, but on food. We can do better than having someone from the outside close the plant and do better than making Fritos (some remember the trauma when that plant closed). Great cities were founded and created on aggragation, communication and transportation around food. That was the great motivation for explorers. Jerusalem was founded not based on religion, but where the camel paths of the traders intercepted. He talks about a woman selling 50 tomales a week in Minnesota and now she is selling 1.5M per year. There is no reason that can’t happen here, we can’t lose that opportunity.
Mo Cheeks asks staff what hey learned in the TIGER grant application process. Mayor says only 6% of the grants were awarded. When Milwaukee got awarded money we were out because a state our size wouldn’t get a second grant. Now that Milwaukee got their grant, we don’t have that obstruction and with that we were encouraged to re-apply in the spring and redouble our efforts. Cheeks asks what it means to redouble our efforts. Mayor says that he met with DOT officials and went over our needs. WE don’t have sexy rail, we have rubber tired vehicles. After discussion with them they wanted to see how the application brought equity to the people we serve and the administration of the bus system so they focused on that. They will have another conversation and ask them how it compared and look at what was successful.
Cheeks asks Chuck Kamp if he has anything to add. He says that our grant was competitive and the architecture money will let them move forward and be shovel ready.
Rebecca Kemble asks about MadREP’s 30 projects. Public Market is for $10M. Why is state and federal support at $3M? That is being conservative. Will they right a grant for less? It depends, its not specific to a specific grant, its just prefered. The City will be an applicant with MadREP being a partner. It puts us further down the field, but we still need to find the grants. Have you identified them? Yes, a few will be coming out early 2016. EDA would be at the top of the list, but there are others. The important thing to show is match. Almost every grant application requires a match.
Rummel asks if they have UDAG and Capital funds for match, or just Capital funds. It depends upon the grant says Kennelly, money already spent doesn’t count. Any other money we spend could and should be leveraged. Rummel asks about the reallocation, is that already spent. UDAG was used to hire consultants and the spent about 1/4 of that and anticipate using the rest for pre-development costs.
Rummel asks Chuck Kamp about if having more than one facility helps the application. Kamp says the feds won’t weigh in on that, the local community needs to determine that.
Mark Clear supports it with caveats. Not yellow or red flags, but orange. 4 years ago he toured Fleet and Fire Maintenance and they were inadequate for our needs then and it has only gotten worse, so he supports moving it up. It’s the opposite of sexy. He is cautious on the public market but encouraged by other funding, but cautious because the funding is not guaranteed. He doesn’t want to set it up to be considered a done deal, it is far from that and he doesn’t want to make up that funding with GO borrowing. He considered an amendment, but wouldn’t want to send a signal to funding sources that we aren’t committed. He is setting aside how it came to us. (oh, I think I missed a snappy line, but the tv cut out)
Rebecca Kemble supports it. This is about jobs. REal jobs in a real economy based on actually demand. We have a farmers market every day. The northside is the most racially and economically diverse. The businesses incubated in the FEED kitchen is bursting at the seems. There is demand not only for 7 day a week public market but for building other services to serve vendors. The northside development community has been meting to talk about building out businesses in a public market district. They are working on vendors to be ready for a public market, that work is ongoing whether this passes or not. We were going to give a business $12M, give them $12M, and this is a more realistic investment, its less money, we have more partners, and she thinks it would be a shame not to pass this.
Bidar moves to change the description – project will proceed if the 11.9M from other resources is secured. She will support this if that language passes. She is worried about the message that it sends without that language. People will read we made a commitment but if a year from now we say, sorry, look at the langauge. We do this all the time with other projects. (TV skipping out again . . . grrr)
Chris Schmidt says that he supports it for all the reasons that Bidar metioned (that got bleeped out by my tv signal)
DeMarb agrees with Schmidt and Bidar. She doesn’t want to get to next year and not have funding and then disappoint the public that worked to hard to push this forward. She thinks the sentence states clearly the expectation and everyone can work towards the same goal.
Mayor asks if they asks staff what the consequences of the motion are.
Ahrens passes. Schmidt passes. Clear asks what the implications are.
Dave Schmiedicke says the UDAG dollars are received, he wonders if it should be $8.75M. Mayor asks if there is an objection to change the amount.
Motion passes, now back to the main amendment.
Schmidt is cutting out . . . wow . . . he says the public market is new, police, metro and fleet are things we currently do. We spend a lot of time playing catch up. We do that alot and so he doesn’t want to add something new at the expense of our basic services. We don’t usually have people asking to move up road construction projects. He can support it because fleet is important. He has been reassured that we can swing it after all. We have an issue with borrowing, things may or may not turn out better than we expect, but we can pivot if we need to the way this is structured. The Metro piece is tricky too, he thinks they should have one facility instead of two. The only reason he didn’t raise it before is they already had it together. The feds might not fuss over 1 or 2 facilities but they do look at how they serve their constituents. He wants to know if we need to update our E. Washington site information. He says they need to have more discussion on this. The public market as an economic development tool is good, but it won’t water our food deserts. The grocery on Allied we need to look at more, and that would have a greater impact in the short term. He never said . . beep, blurp, blip . . . stupid signal . . . he can support this amendment.
Matt Phair says he has been stewing on this. Its hard to look at this in the big picture but is frustrated how this came to us, he was never against it, but it made sense we had to prioritize, we accepted the priorities in the executive budget. He knows what this means, its a good thing to pass this, for something else coming up tonight. (I think he just admitted to logrolling) He hopes people are clear about the reality of the public market moving forward.
Bidar will support this, but she wants to make sure they lose sight of how people of color will be involved in the public market. She sat through a 2 hour meeting with the Latino Support Network and didn’t see themselves playing a role. That doesn’t mean there wasn’t’ a lot of work done, but there is more to do. There are communities that don’t feel ownership in this. We need to make sure that we have a way for entrepreneurs to be successful. She isn’t totally gung ho but has high expectations. She also wants to talk about process, this isn’t about grudges, but at the same time it is difficult to be put in the position to only get something if people get something else. (Again, with the logrolling?) She hopes they get to the end having all the prirotiies taken care of and that we can be proud of the work they have done.
Sarah Eskrich can’t support this. Our Capital Improvement Plan has to represent what we can do. It has to be on a schedule that our taxpayers can afford. When she looks at the tradeoffs, her priorities still remain with public safety and basic city infrastructure and that is what she will be supporting – we can invest in economic development when we can afford them.
DeMarb says her thoughts won’t go in a straight line either. She spent many hours on the budget and took what the mayor had to say about borrowing seriously, never once over the summer or during the budget process did moving fleet come up as critical. Fire maintenance and others yes. She says the reason we are seeing this si to move the public market forward, we need to recognize it. What worries her is that is $19M moved early and in itself she doesn’t have an issue with that, as long as we put nothing in 2019. We have to take this seriously and look at the debt we are taking on. She does not believe the public market is the end all. It can be a great thing, she appreciates this isn’t botique items, this will not take care of the food deserts in the city and won’t emply the folks we talked about like with the Allied Drive grocery co-op. NOt to say there won’t be jobs, she wants that to be wildly successful, but it won’t solve the ills we have with food deserts. Its fair for us to think about this, we only have so much money, where will we spend it and what are out priorities.
Cheeks says people said what he wanted to say. He is extremely torn on the pros and cons of this, I love public markets, he goes out of his way to visit them and has dreamed of Madison having one, because of the energy it creates. They are melting pots in a community, Madison is just the type of city where something like this can survive. There was standing room only earlier, with people excited about what it would offer for the community, and to his observation there was little of that community here, the evidence is lacking that this is community driven. He worries when the community is spoken for. There will be new jobs, but if past is prologue, there is little evidence that this will go far to knock down the wall of the two Madisons. He cautions that this is transformative or will move the needle on equity for our community. There are a tremendous number of things that we invest in that have little to do with equity and he doesn’t want this to be another one of them. His priority will be to continue to try to make this impactful in creating jobs and opportunities.
(Wow, they bought it hook line and sinker with Judge Doyle Square, but now its an issue? I’m so confused.)
Barbara McKinney says she is uncomfortableness is about public safety vs a public market, and it sound like she doesn’t support a public market, it was successful in St. Louis and Cleveland, but supporting the public market does that mean I”m not supporting public safety. She doesn’t want to have to choose. She can’t support it, not because it isn’t important, but if she has to choose between moving the public market forward and struggling to address public safety and equity, and perception of not being safe in one community vs another, she would have to put public safety, public safety, public safety at the top of her list.
Palm says Cheeks had some good questions about the community. What you see before you tonight was a random group of people who knew about the amendment, there could have been a larger support, but we knew the debate was internal. WE could have had a line of people, but we thought it was more important to have these discussions. He wants staff to talk about the equity report and public outreach. Kennelly says that for the three years they have been working and meeting, they had a robust process with traditional public meetings, focus groups, surveys, and made sure to include a variety of people, they were online and street surveys. The workshops and public meetings have been more diverse than you usually see in city public meetings, but it is a valid point. The process probably isn’t reaching low income communitites as it could. We are creating an obligation to deliver on the promises. There is a detailed report using the equity tool, we laid out 10 very specific recommendations on how to continue to address this with the implementation of the process. They have met and exceeded Madison standards in a meaningful way, there was diversity, but we have more to do. There is a real interest in keeping the 10 recommendations front and center to make sure we are delivering on the ideal.
Amanda Hall (cuts out . . . gah!!!) She says there wee assumptions made – but I missed the context. She talks about food deserts and talks about opportunities this will afford. Is this a magic want, no and neither is any other amendment, but will it be a driver for economic opportunity unlike any other amendment, yes.
No – Ahrens, Carter, Eskrich, McKinney
passes 16-4
Sonya Lindquist wanted to speak on the operating budget, but went home.
2 – Economic Development Division TID 25-Judge Doyle Square – Alder Verveer Mayor Soglin
Cut Borrowing 10,000,000
Cut Other Funds 12,000,000
TOAH (13.00)
Verveer says the amendment is simple, it acknowledges the news that our action on September 30th will not come to fruition. This amendments the budget by deleting the $12M for the jobs TIF to Exact Sciences and the $10M of short term borrowing. The reality is that this amendment is simple and straightforward. (cutting out – annoyed) He says people probably have Judge Doyle Square fatigue and adoption of this amendment will provide flexibility to complete the project in as short of a time period as they can. He says the DMI, GMCVB and a developer spoke and this is their preferred amendment to provide flexibility . . . cutting out . . . he says it is hard to discuss this proposed amendment without looking 5, that would provide no flexibility. There would be no resources as we move forward, it would be the death knell for Judge Doyle Square. This would need a supermajority vote mid-year, could they meet all of our goals for the two blocks across the street, that is a tall order, and if amendment 5 is adopted, it will be a 15 vote majority item. That amendment gives the impression that Government East is a hazard to the community, he would beg to differ. We can ask the staff if they think this is so urgent. He will acknowledge that amendment 5 does call for the full plate solution with subterranean parking which is what BOE approved last night. Last night the Board of Estimates opened the maximum flexibility and competition for development plan. If we fail to approve a flexible budget that would all be for naught, we would not have competition if 5 passes. He says the choice is quite stark. They are at a crossroads, we can provide flexibility or say we are fatigued and take a pass and say parking is our priority and not the hotel. No matter how you feel about Judge Doyle Square . . . . . bleep, blip, blurp . . . don’t restrict ourselves. Urges support for #2 and reject #5.
Larry Palm asks city attorney and finance director to explain what happens if you adopt 2. Michael May says that the two are inconsistent. The one that passes last would be the last best action by the legislature. If you approve this and 5 then 5 is in the budget.
Schmidt says that the root of the debate can be had on #2. He sees things quite differently than Alder Verveer. Government East will not fall down. We started this off with building a garage and selling the air rights. That is where they started. He says he doesn’t think we should put a large placeholder in the budget for TIF, the project has to justify what they need. The negotiating team will have to show us why we need the money, good projects don’t fear the 15 votes. We don’t have an issue when we reach consensus. We haven’t put numbers in the budget to provide flexibility, if its what we need, then it won’t be hard to find the money. We don’t want TIF for the hotel, only parking. (cutting out) We’re unlikely to get another tenant with demands. He doesn’t want to have a number in the budget that they shoot for, we shouldn’t operate this way.
Ahrens says that Alder Verveer didn’t mention the part of the amendment of $35.4 in the TID to an unknown project. He characterizes $35.4M as flexibility. He thinks we need a greater handle on this kind of money. PUshing this kind of money across the transom before it begins is a poor form of negotiation. He will vote against it.
Rummel says the last two speakers said what she wanted. Flexibility is a euphemism for a land write down and a private accessory parking. The last deal was really a bad deal, please make the case if we are going to write down the land or subisdize parking. I can see why they want to keep their $34M but its bad policy.
Cheeks wants to hear from the mayor. He asks about the rationale for the $34.5M.
Mayor Paul Soglin says that in the last 40 years, with the exception of years when a project came in after the budget was adopted, it has been the history of this body to get confidence of those who would grow the tax base, if that is a bad practice and it failed us, with a known generator in it, he’d like it explained to him, because it worked. On the 15 votes – California went to help after prop (13?), that wasn’t good enough for the right wing, then came Norquist and his decision, his premise to shrink government down to drown it in a bathtub you would have reached nirvana, and then you have the tea party. Over and over you have this thing that government isn’t good enough to have a majority. We have all these dreams, people want to spend money, we have been strangled by the legislature to spend money, the only way we made it work was the development, and yes capitalist developers make money and get rich, but if we don’t do the deal we don’t have a tax base. He was around when the triangle was leveled with the promise and glory of urban renewal and it sat there year after year and nothing happened. If we had given that land away we would have recouped that and more by now. That led to TIF in Wisconsin, It has been abused, it shouldn’t be done in cornfields, if we want to be sustainable and be competitive, we have to address the costs of going vertical in the efficient parts of the city, and that means subsidization as long as Middleton and Verona are handing out the dollars they are peddling. We’ve done the negotiation and just cuz its in there, then that is not what is available. If you have confidence in your leadership there is not issue. We are a public entity. Our books are open. Everyone knows what we’ve got. You have to learn how to negotiate and you don’t need to be an asshole like Donald Trump to do it right. (There are more people watching us than the debate) He is opposed to creating super-majorities, we have put dollars in for TIF for decades. The problem isn’t that our books are open, its that we sometimes make a mistake, setting up a TIF without a generator. This amendment is the way we should go, look what the TIF across the street did for us and everything it funded so we can provide services. (I agree, this is the way the city budgets)
Chris Schmidt says he agrees on everything except putting the number in the budget. He doesn’t see it being the end of the world if there is a $0 there, he thinks that this is the supermajority issue was have through statute. He talks about the referral on the library and how it passed unanimously, it was about the mod in the room. If we can reach cosensus we will be fine, its not the end of the world if we leave the number in there. Do I question how effectively we can negotiate, its not about staff or leadership, he says the TIF number never changed last time. He isn’t advocating against developing downtown.
Mark Clear agrees with everyone, says pass amendment 2, but make clear in the resolution what we want with the parking. He agrees with Schmidt with the parking about if the round 5 doesn’t come to fruition, and that #2 provides flexibility. After going back and forth, he is comfortable with amendment 2 and we can work language from amendment 5 into the resolution.
Verveer says that we have a long history of capital budgets envisioning TIF expenditures before be have a project – pretty green lines on the screen (I feel like I”m watching WYOU) – he says there have been placeholders in the budget for years. Its not fair to give the perception that this is unusual, this is not unorthidox.
No – Zellers, Ahrens, Baldeh, Bidar-Sielaff, Kemble, Rummel, Schmidt
Abstain – Harrington-McKinney.
Passes – 12 – 7 – 1
Schmidt moves to take number 5 out of order to place on file.
5 – Parking Utility – delete Block 88 and 105 Parking Structure – Alder Rummel Alder Schmidt
Cut Borrowing 10,000,000
Cut other funding 39,537,000
TOAH (13.00)
He says this is something that needs to be in the resolution. They used this amendment because it was what they had numbers for. 3 vs 4 decks is not a showstopper for him, we need to do the parking and do it a certain way and we can’t go back and redesign it to fit the whims of the developer. He was looking for council to say what we want the parking to be and ideally we own and run it all. We will get resistenace to that, that is a debate for next week. We weren’t trying to kill Judge Doyle Square, we need to get the parking done.
Rummel says that the parking utility reserve was also at issue here. They left money in reserves for other projects, she thinks that should be discussed next week two. The criteria says that we should own the parking, but we haven’t gotten that yet.
Motion to place on file passes unanimously.
3 – Economic Development Division TID 25, 32, 45 – Downtown Retail Study- Alder Verveer Alder Zellers
TIF Funds 40,000
TOAH 0
No discussion, passes.
4 – Economic Development Division TID 32 – Mansion Hill Street Signs – Alder Verveer Alder Zellers
TIF funds 4,700
TOAH 0
Clear asks why this is in the Capital Budget. They decide it is because it is TIF. Why is it a transfer? They decide its ok.
Passes.
6 – Engineering-Major Streets Neighborhood Traffic Management – Alder Ahrens, Alder DeMarb, Alder Eskrich, Alder Bidar-Sielaff
Borrowing 100,000
TOAH 0.13
Steve King has an alternated. He increases it from $100,000 to $200,000. This is now amendment 6a. This is his 7th year on the council and he never asked for anything for his district. $100,000 is not enough to do anything, we have a process and he wants more money to be available for the neighborhoods. The number one thing they can do is not speed through their own neighborhoods.
Ahrens supports it. He says at one time it was at that funding level. The base amendment restored it to last year’s funding. This is the number one issue in parts of his district and the traffic counts and other traffic calming is effective but because of their costs few are able to use them. This might be a few more streets, but not get tot he 20 and 30 qualified applicants we had over the last year.
Bidar asks how they got to the number they have. David Dryer says this si for 2 programs, traffic calming and ped enhancements. This was cut in half this year, it would be $300,000 now. They only get 3 -5 projects done a year, they cost abut $100,000 a piece. Some years we don’t spend all of it, this would be a significant increase and they will do their best to do double the projects, they are getting 3 new engineers and will be full staff and can provide the service. There is confusion about the numbers. Rob Phillips says that there were two funds combined into two, we had $100,000 in the budget now, Ahrens is proposing $100,000 more. Bidar asks how much was in the budget last year. Phillips says $100,000 in traffic management and $190,000 in ped improvements. In the executive budget it was $100,000. Mayor takes over and asks the finance director. They had $290,000. Now its $100,000. If adopted they will spend $10,000 more than this year’s budget.
They’re giddy and its only 9:30 . . .
Palm asks Dryer about the projects, that list seems long. Dryer says that they have to be projects on the arterials streets for ped enhancements, they would use about $100,000 for traffic management, with about 5 projects. Palm is trying to ask how much goes to traffic calming and how much to ped enhancements. Mayor says $100K for traffic management. The rest would go to ped enhancements. Dryer says it might go to bike enhancements. Palm asks why it was cut. Mayor says it was part of the slash and burn in August.
DeMarb says it is the number one concern from her neighborhood. Would there be capcity issues if there are the projects. Dryer says they would be fine.
Motion passes on a voice votes, it seems unanimously.
6 is placed on file.
7 – Engineering-Major Streets Monroe Street-Reconstruction and Pedestrian Improvements Moved to 2017-2018 – Alder Eskrich Alder DeMarb, Alder Bidar-Sielaff, Alder Schmidt, Alder Kemble, Alder Zellers
Cut Borrowing 450,000
TOAH 0.59
Schmidicke confirms it is $150,000 more than Board of Estimates.
Passes unanimously.
8 – Engineering-Major Streets Pleasant View Road Temporary Signal – Alder Skidmore Mayor Soglin
Borrowing 150,000
Other funds 50,000
TOAH 0.20
Passes without comment.
9 – Information Technology Residential Internet Access Assistance Alder Clear, Mayor Soglin, Alder Cheeks, Alder Baldeh Borrowing 165,000
TOAH 0.21
Clear explains it is similar to what was at Board of Estimates, it expands internet access pilot. There wasn’t enough data in the project so they are expanding it to some single family homes so they get data from an area as well. Additional funding is from the study that would analyze the impacts.
Eskrich says that it was differently worded at Board of Estimates.
Kronenberg says that there were two pilot areas, Kennedy Heights and Darbo, now it adds Allied and a single family home area but not Brentwood. They have additional funding for the request from the project coming in under budget. The total funding requests is reduced from 362,000 to 163,000 and they are repurposing the $200,000.
Hall asks to be added as a sponsor.
Eskrich asks if this is a one time cost. Kronenberger says yes. We will own the infrastructure.
Palm asks why Brentwood back in. He says it would be $198,000 to add Brentwood. $66,000 for Darbo, $34,000 for Kennedy Heights. $200,000 for Allied. Palm asks why Allied and Brentwood is more expensive. He says it depends up on the street layout. How much is single family. $198,000. He would like Brentwood to be the single family neighborhood.
McKinney says she is glad it came back before us, when it was before Board of Estimates this was the only thing we turned down, she was embarrassed by that. She urges people to support this. This is critically important for so many reasons.
DeMarb asks about how this differs for the single family homes. There is a Habitat neighborhood in her neighborhood, it is a modest income community and they would be a great candidate but she doesn’t know what kind of insfrstructure they have. Would they be out of the running due to their location. He says there would be costs and it varies, this would go back to the digital selection committee and they might be a candidate.
Palm adds $50,000 and adds Brentwood instead of single family homes. Quickly seconded by Kemble! 🙂 Palm says that this would be a good area since it has single family homes and 4-plexes. NOw that the finances have changed it seems they should honor that application.
Clear asks how many homes. About 100. Clear says the amendment is about the same to him since it is about the same amount of homes.
DeMarb asks how the neighborhoods were selected. Kronenberger says it was mostly the NRT neighborhoods. They did look at data and census and demographic data and voted to decide the highest ranking sites. That is how they came up with the original 4. DeMarb asks how close they are to the original amount. Mayor asks Schmidicke. $362,000 was at BOE, the initial amendment is $165,000 now and Palm adds $50,000 which is $215,000. Actually $415,000 since money is repurposed. Palm says Brentwood is an NRT.
McKinney asks what they are testing in the pilot. Kronenberger says that they want to test for 2 years but after 1 year they will learn enough to figure out where to expand to.
Mayor says that several years ago the state limited the role of municipalities in utilities, the only competition is the market without capacity to increase speed. What we have is very primitive compared to other cities. Several southern cities have their own utilities, and they have high speed access for everyone. We had two ways to go, try to fit in the state law or build infrastructure. If we build the infrastructure we can get the data to build the case. He says the AT&T bill destroyed WYOU community access television.
Clear says this is only a little bit about speed, but ti is about bridging the digital divide. The companies have no interest in providing low cost services.
Mayor agrees. Some areas of the country get basic services for $9.95 per month and that is even subsidized. Charter has flatly refused this in our community.
Palm asks about CDA and services for the residents.
Motion passes – and does the main amendment.
OK – jump to part two . . . this is getting too long . . . .
