Council Recap – Roving Bands of Gerbils and Hamsters.

30 minutes. Hard not to blog when it is this short . . .but I hope to start making this a regular habit again, cuz you can’t make this shit up.

ROLL CALL AND GETTING STARTED
Everyone present. Mayor calls meetings to order.

Shiva Bidar-Sielaff wishes everyone a belated Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Notes it is the 30th Anniversary of Roe v. Wade.

Moves suspension of the rules. Passes.

HONORING RESOLUTION
Commending Jesse Russell’s contributions to civic life – for starting Dane 101. He is moving out of town. Jesse says thank you, he is really touched. Bridget Maniaci shows pictures, says that you might not recognize his contributions unless you are in your 20s. Talks about all the events he has organized. Satya Rhodes-Conway asks for everyone to be added as a sponsor. Mayor thanks him as well for linking to his blog and for driving up readership. He says Madison is now in your blood and it is very possible that you will be back. Motion passes. Mayor hands him the registration slip and says they will deal with it if they get in trouble for destroying city records.

CONSENT AGENDA
Pass all the items on the agenda with their recommendations except the following:
Public Hearing Items – 2 – 9.
Item 7 is referred to Feb 5th for public hearing – it was on the agenda in error.
Item 27, 34, 35, 38, 67 are extramajority item and will have a unanimous vote.
Item 36 is back on the consent agenda.
41 is on the exclusion list.
Motion carries.

PUBLIC HEARINGS
He opens and closes all the hearings for items 2 – 9. No registrations. With the following exceptions:
4 is recessed.
7 is re-referred to Feb. 5th.
9 has a registration from the architect and is available to answer questions.
Motion to adopt all the recommendations. Motion carries.

ITEM 41 – SUGAR GLIDERS
Phair moves approval.
One public registrant supporting and available to answer questions.
Sue Ellingson urges them to vote against this. She started with native landscaping when she came to Madison and if you are not terrified by the number of invasive plants growing everywhere, you should be. Garlic mustard which is used in cooking in England is in the process of covering every inch of woodland, Japanese knowweed, purple loosestrife, the list goes on and on. And the exotic species are not limited to plants, there are pythons in the Everglads, rabbits in Austrailia, pigs in Hawaii, you take an animal that didn’t exist as part of the ecosystem and you don’t know what is going to happen. People who have pets, if they get tired of it aren’t going to kill it, they probably aren’t even going to give it to the animal shelter, they just let it go in the backyard. And have it fend for itself and then who knows what will happen. We don’t have any business allowing or encouraging exotic species in the City of Madison, it is a recipe for disaster. She urges them to vote against it.

Matt Phair asks health department staff to explain why the ordinance is being changed. The staff explains when the ordinance was passed it was just marsupials. He says that they did research and there was no risks and that much like ferrets, they thought an exemption would be ok under the exotic species ordinances.

Phair asks if other municipalities allow sugar gliders? Yes. Did you run across any concerns? Yes. And the county is doing this ordinance as well and we want this to line up. Yes, they are doing the same thing.

Mayor says that the registrant would now like to speak. She is allowed to speak.

Shiva Bidar-Siealff explains that people need to register before the itme.

Problems with the microphone. Mayor muttering about machines always being right.

Kimberly ? speaks. She says that if you set a sugar glider loose in Wisconsin, at 50 degrees they start shutting their bodies down and under 40 degrees they die. Their primary diet is bugs, berries and nectars and that is not available in Wisconsin. They do not hibernate, they die. They don’t get turned loose, they get turned over to the Humane Society. People who have them just want to have them as legal pets.

Lauren Cnare asks for if she has one, she shows it and there are lots of oohs and ahs. The mayor says to get the armed guards. Cnare asks how long they live. She says 12 – 15 years. Cnare asks about reproduction. She says that the males are neutered, the females can have up to 4 joeys. Its a 16 day gestation, they are about as big as a grain of rice and they stay in the pouch 9 – 10 weeks and they swell up and then they detach by nurse for 8 – 9 weeks. Cnare asks how they acquire them. She says from a breeder. She says there are mill breeders out there and are sold as impulse items at the mall. Microphone is fixed.

Chris Schmidt says he is in support, he doesn’t see roving bands of gerbils and hamsters which are much more prevalent then sugar gliders ever will be. They can’t survive in our climate.

Motion passes on voice vote, only one no, I think.

END
Introductions from the floor. Larry Palm introduce expansion of low-income bus pass program and refers to BOE and Transit and Parking.

Verveer introduces sole source architecture resolution for Monona Terrace.

Mayor reminds them that at the US Conference of Mayor’s awards were given in 2 population classes regarding best practices for dealing with opiates, but in 101,000 and larger category, Baltimore was second, Madison was first. Congratulation to the Department of Public Health and the private folks who worked on this. We saw some improvement in 2012. Government can work.

Adjourn.