I’m guessing 45 minutes, an hour tops. They only spent 50 minutes rubber stamping the magical mystery deal at Personnel and Finance and since them I think some more deals were made . . . so . . . speeches about how hard they work and patting themselves on the back and get out of here quick to go get a drink . . . that’s my prediction. Done by 8:00.
ROLL CALL
Veldran, Miles and Solberg are gone.
PRAYER AND INSPIRATION
Leland Pan asks for a moment of silence for the recent tragedies. Pan says this is the last inspirational message he will give. He does a song by a rapper. How much a dollar costs. by Kendrick Lamar He says he cleaned it up – I cut and paste off the internets
How much a dollar really cost?
The question is detrimental, paralyzin’ my thoughts
Parasites in my stomach keep me with a gut feeling, y’all
Gotta see how I’m chillin’ once I park this luxury car
Hopping out feeling big as Mutombo
20 on pump six dirty Marcellus called me Dumbo
20 years ago, can’t forget
Now I can lend ’em a ear or two how to stack these residuals
Tenfold, the liberal concept of what men’ll do
20 on 6, he didn’t hear me
Indigenous African only spoke Zulu
My American tongue was slurry
Walked out the gas station
A homeless man with a silly tan complexion
Asked me for ten grand
Stressin’ about dry land
Deep water, powder blue skies that crack open
A piece of crack that he wanted, I knew he was smokin’
He begged and pleaded
Asked me to feed him twice, I didn’t believe it
Told him, “Beat it”
Contributin’ money just for his pipe, I couldn’t see it
He said, “My son, temptation is one thing that I’ve defeated
Listen to me, I want a single bill from you
Nothin’ less, nothin’ more
I told him I ain’t have it and closed my door
Tell me how much a dollar costIt’s more to feed your mind
Water, sun and love, the one you love
All you need, the air you breatheHe’s starin’ at me in disbelief
My temper is buildin’, he’s starin’ at me, I grab my key
He’s starin’ at me, I started the car and tried to leave
And somethin’ told me to keep it in park until I could see
A reason why he was mad at a stranger like I was supposed to save him
Like I’m the reason he’s homeless and askin’ me for a favor
He’s starin’ at me, his eyes followed me with no laser
He’s starin’ at me, I notice that his stare is contagious
Cause now I’m starin’ back at him, feelin’ some type of disrespect
If I could throw a bat at him, it’d be aimin’ at his neck
I never understood someone beggin’ for goods
Askin’ for handouts, takin’ it if they could
And this particular person just had it down pat
Starin’ at me for the longest until he finally asked
Have you ever opened to Exodus 14?
A humble man is all that we ever need
Tell me how much a dollar costIt’s more to feed your mind
Water, sun and love, the one you love
All you need, the air you breatheGuilt trippin’ and feelin’ resentment
I never met a transient that demanded attention
They got me frustrated, indecisive and power trippin’
Sour emotions got me lookin’ at the universe different
I should distance myself, I should keep it relentless
My selfishness is what got me here, who the fuck I’m kiddin’?
So I’ma tell you like I told the last bum, crumbs and pennies
I need all of mines, and I recognize this type of panhandlin’ all the time
I got better judgement, I know when nigga’s hustlin’
Keep in mind, when I was strugglin’, I did compromise
Now I comprehend, I smell grandpa’s old medicine
Reekin’ from your skin, moonshine and gin
Nigga your babblin’, your words ain’t flatterin’, I’m imaginin’
Denzel be lookin’ at O’Neal
Cause now I’m in sad thrills, your gimmick is mediocre, the jig is up
I seen you from a mile away losin’ focus
And I’m insensitive, and I lack empathy
You looked at me and said, “Your potential is bittersweet”
I looked at him and said, “Every nickel is mines to keep”
He looked at me and said, “Know the truth, it’ll set you free
You’re lookin’ at the Messiah, the son of Jehova, the higher power
The choir that spoke the word, the Holy Spirit, the nerve
Of Nazareth, and I’ll tell you just how much a dollar cost
The price of having a spot in Heaven, embrace your loss, I am God”
They do the pledge of allegiance.
OPERATING BUDGET
Sharon Corrigan explains the obvious about what they are voting on. She says they can do amendments from the floor. They go through each department.
Health and Human Needs
Sheila Stubbs has an amendment CB1, CB2 and CB3. These are being handed out, but were not available to the public. She says that this is the expansion of diversaion programs and re-entry services. She says we need case management and transition services. The person doing this job will do case management. She wants support and found lines for the $27,000 – she will start the clerk typist position later and reduce outreach education and recruitment line by $3300. The dollars go directly to Genesis social services.
Discussion?
Of course not.
Veteran’s Service
None.
Public Works and Transportation
None.
Solid Waste
None.
Facilities
None.
Alliant
None.
Airport
None.
Henry Vilas Zoo
None.
Corp Counsel
None.
Clerk of Courts
None.
Criminal Justice Law Clerks
None.
FAmily Court Services
None.
Medical Examiners.
Dave deFelice – They hand out another amendment (PP&J 0-7)that has no copies for the public, but it doesn’t matter cuz we can’t comment on it anyways. He says he has issues with adding costs that are not overseen by the county board, the expansion to serve other counties was supposed to save money, but now we are building a $13M building and positions have gone from 10 to 15 and expenses have gone up ($750,000?) He wants to cut a position at $147,000 which is more than the county executive makes. Morgue revenue has been less than projected, but they have increasing caseloads. He says that is contradictory. He wants to eliminate the two positions for $189,300.
Paul Rusk says that they got an analysis of all the position changes and there was a reduction in Dane County GPR in $33,000 reflected in the growth of the Medical Examiners office. The positions are Dane County positions. There is a hard working medical examiner office and they need the positions. During the budget process they decided they needed to reverse the laundry contract and had a difficult time finding the dollars to reverse it due to the levy cap. They went to the medical examiner, they found $15,000 to keep the budget in the black. He says this is critical to law enforcement, they are doing a regional approach. They have been through this issue time and time again, there was no expansion that was not approved by the county board. deFelice wasn’t able to be at the meeting where they discussed this and they flatly turned it down. There is a shortage of pathologists all over the United States, there was an article that talked about this, you can get away with murder in Utah because they don’t have any pathologists. The finances are working fine, they had $45,000 extra for tonight’s budget and if you talk to anyone in law enforcement and the DA’s office they will talk about how great it is to have them there and it is a training opportunity for law enforcement. Everyone is gaining through the expansion of the office, yes we are building a building and borrowing money for that. He urges them to vote no.
Carousel Bayrd says the motion failed 6 – 0 in PP&J.
deFElice says that he was at his meeting at the Alliant Center at the same time they were meeting. This has been repeated over and over because it is a concern that hasn’t been addressed. The $30,000 on the books was made in exchange for GPR and its just a guess, I could put down $100,000 or $20,000 its just a guess. The pathologists are great to work with, but we are talking about money and its important to bring up. What we haven’t been told by the medical examiner is that taking on the extra counties would cost us, there has been no coverage of this issue. This is not an issue because it was never made an issue. As long as this continues he will continue because he thinks it is notable.
Dorothy Krause says that there has been discussion at length in PP&J many times, the writer of the amendment might want to attend more of their meetings if this is a big issue to him. For guessing revenue, since it is based on how many people die and how many need autopsies it is not surprising that this isn’t predictable.
Motion fails.
District Attorney
None.
Sheriff
P&F 22 and 23 – Mike Willett wants them to say that they were not presented to the committee. Corrigan and Willett discuss how the records should be reflected. McDonell says this wouldn’t go in the minutes but they will correct it in the county board office.
Public Safety Communications
PP&J-0-6 – Willett wants to add it back in. They all try to figure out where it is. Willett says that they need to make a minor change – they need to add words “in 2015”, its about position 8, 9 and 20 something. They are taking out position 8 since position 9 was taken already. He says that this passed unanimously in the committee. It was unanimous, we don’t see that often overturned by Personnel and Finance. He thinks there are issues in the 911 center, turnover – they lose one person a month, 20%, why. They do mandatory overtime, he thinks that is one of the reasons they lose people. The other issue is overtime. $550,000 is the budget for overtime and they overspent it by $450,000. We should pay attention to that half a million dollars. They did better this year, but there is still more that needs to be fixed. This is from teh study they did in 2008. Personal safety is our number one issue. This is only for half a year, it doesn’t change the levy limit. (He calls for a roll call)
Rusk says that the director of 9-1-1 center is doing exit interviews with everyone who leaves. The number of poeple leaving is on the decline, but they can see if there are additional internal changes that need to be made. He says people take the jobs to get into county government, but this is stressful work and they move on.
Bayrd says that it passed unanimously, they wanted to change the pre-hires to 8, which is what the head of the department wanted, this has just started and we haven’t seen the results yet. There was no department request for the 9th pre-hire. This is last year’s conversation, 8 pre-hires is working. 9 is not necessary. We were flexible with the 9th pre-hire and we thought it was good, but this is not the same.
Willett says the 8 prehires were there all year. They used 5 in October and they had 5 openings. The number of hours spent is broken down and if you look at this year and look at the short staff and vacation, the pay period is 108, they have plenty of hours for this person to fill. This was a 2008 study, exit interviews is good, but we have an overtime issues right now.
Roll call: yes = Ripp, Salov, Schauer, Willett, Clausius, deFelice, Downing, Dye, Ferrell, Gillis, Kiefer, McCarville, O’Loughlin
Solberg absent
13 – 23 fails
Emergency Management
Bob Salov offers P&F 21 for an clerk-typist in emergency management, ti was defunded in 2011. It has been filled by an LTE and the last few years, the position will cost $22 – 23,000. The work was detailed by the department, its a 5 page listing of duties including that the protocol book for the EMTs is worked on by them. They also publish the annual certifications for 1200 people that is needed for licensure. He says that we have a regional system, its Dane County with a little Sauk, Green and Jefferson. This makes sure that when someone calls 911, they will get the same set of protocols. There is a mutual aid system that kicks in. He apologizes that he was not at PP&J, he thought it was in the executive’s budget, and it didn’t make it. He missed his opportunity to go to PP&J so he is asking for it to be funded July 1 and he has it down to $27,000, staff think they can make it to June, the professional staff are currently doing this work.
Rusk says there is nothing more important than emergency services, they made sure this didn’t get merged with anything else and they make sure the professional staff is in place. There is no offset for what Salov is trying to do. It’s difficult to talk about personnel on the board, but when there are family medical leave issues there is a real challenge to get the work done. He is confident that they will be using an LTE the best they can and that is the way it will have to be for right now.
Salov asks them to work on this, he withdraws the motion and hopes that in the coming months if there are funds available they should look at this. He says its hard to get someone up to speed and do the work. They lost 2 or more excellent LTEs that would be perfect for the position but they had to leave due to the limitation on LTE hours.
OK, I WAS WRONG
This will be 2 hours . . .
Juvenile Court
None
Land and Water Resources
None
Extension
None
Register of Deeds
None
Planning and Development
None
Board of Health
None
County Treasurer
None
Dept of Administration
None
Library
None
Land Information
None
Debt Service
None
Miscellaneous
None
Greater Madison Convention and Visitors
None
Personnel Savings Initiative
None
Dane County Historical
None
General County
None
County Board
None
County Executive
None
County Clerk
None
Discussion
None
Roll Call
No – Ripp, Willett, Ferrell
Absent – Solberg
passes 33 – 3
Capital Budget
Health and Human Needs
None
Veterans Service
None
Public Works Highway and Transportation
None
Solid Waste
None
Facilities Management
None
Alliant Energy Center
None
Airport
None
Henry Vilas Zoo
None
Corporation Council
None
Clerk of Courts
None
Criminal Justice Law Clerks
None
Family Court Services
None
Medical Examiner
None
District Attorney
None
Sheriff
None
Public Safety Communications
None
Emergency Management
None
Juvenile Court
None
Land and Water Resources
None
Extension
None
Register of Deeds
None
Planning and Development
None
Board of Health
None
County Treasurer
None
Dept of Admin
None
Library
None
Land Information
None
Debt Service
None
Miscellaneous
None
Great Madison Convention and Visitors
Personnel Savings
Historical ‘Society
General County
County Board
County Executive
County Clerk
No amendments. None.
John Hendrick says that he wants to speak in favor of something that passed and thank the sheriff and sheriff’s office for working with us to delete the funding for the jail laundry. He recognizes the sheriff office because they asked him to do a hard job and cooperate with us. IN this case the jail laundry is rightfully so being deleted and he wanted to thank the sheriff for his recommendations for inmate job training and employment readiness to reduce recidivism. The jail laundry didn’t serve that goal and it was an embarrassment to propose eliminating unionized jobs for latino and latina workers. Inmates would have been working essentially unpaid and they are mostly people of color – it is wise to cancel this. He also disagrees that people would be doing these jobs voluntary. He talks about “voluntary” indentured service which was an euphemism for slavery and we need to not call this voluntary. He thanks Pertl, Rusk and Corrigan and Personnel and Finance members.
Ronn Ferrell says this is his 8th budget and every year the debt goes up, $40M in principal and $9M in interest is what people will be spending. $135,373 a day, every day next year, including Febraury 29. In 2017 we are $131,000 if we don’t borrow a penny next year. $150,000 next year and 2018 is $160-170,000 per day. We front load our debt, pay it off in 3 years and the money comes out of taxpayer pockets. Borrowing is down this year, but we will have carry-forward. We were told we have to borrow to keep the economy afloat but this year in a good economy, we still borrow. It never ends, we are stealing from our children and grandchildren and it has to stop.
Jeff Pertl says that he has a different take, but appreciates his thoughts. He says they exercise a great deal of restraint, this is not bonding, these investments will have dividends in the future, these investments general value. We all worry about the debt load, as a government we have a small debt load and we are a small portion of the taxes.
deFelice says that that they will spend a half billion dollars, it goes up every year, he says he gets looked at strangely when he talks about cuts. He says this is a moral document, it keeps our priorities in order. WE need to look at our professed concern for the working man and woman – this year we are taking more money out of their pockets. He says it is important to keep in mind that this money is coming from somewhere. We just keep rolling the drum and we keep spending. It is irritating because it goes by unnoticed. Spending is never on of the debates we have. The County Executive sent this budget to our board and we divide it up and send it to committees and change things as we see fit. With all the amendments, some did reduce spending, but by and large they gave us $500,000 to spare, under the levy cap, and they spent it all. AS they are all going to vote yes, it is appropriate to keep in mind that if you care about the working man and woman and are voting for people into public office, ask them what do you think about spending, that money is real and coming out of their pockets.
Roll Call
no – Willett, Ferrell
absent – Solberg
34 – 2
budget passes.
Ordinance Amendments about fees in the budget
They pass
Levy Limit
Pertl talks about all the great investments they made. He says they heard about challenges where they couldn’t invest, we are a growing county, we have racial disparities, we are graying. We are one of the smaller shares of the tax levy and they have structural challenges from the state and federal government. The levy limit is designed to fail. They can’t decide how to fund transportation, those problems trickle down to us. There were $1M of amendments that didn’t pass, they didn’t give a big enough COLA to the nonprofits. We have to make sure a lean government is not a starving government. We did good work, but this is just a beginning.
Ferrell asks what the levy rate is so everyone hears it. Chuck Hicklin $3.15 per $1000, $161M is the levy and it is right at the limit. He says that before people stand up and pat themselves on the back, don’t break your arm. This budget has good things in it, what scares him is that they are just getting started, people need to hang on to their wallets. Other governments are going up, lets take the lead and stay even on year.
Tim Kiefer says that the County Executive should veto the $43,000 for County Associations money – because they don’t reflect our values. 17 year olds in criminal court is an issue that he feels strongly about, many Republicans agree 17 year olds shouldn’t be in adult court and the only organization in opposition is the Wisconsin Counties Association. 2nd example is Enbridge – they actually honored them at a breakfast. He says that they also want guns in schools. He says this should be vetoed, we don’t need the seat at the table. There is a sacrifice of not going to the convention – at least not on tax dollars. People won’t be able to be on committees, but if we are serious about our values, and reducing disparities, we need to take action about it. That action should be a veto by the county executive. He applauds him for taking it out. He has spoken out forcibly – but it got put back in by the committees.
Jenni Dye thanks people for supporting the COLA, even tho it is small it will make a difference and we haven’t done it in a while.
Hendrick says that he speaks in favor of the levy, his only objection is that it is not high enough, people in dane county are willing to pay more for services and for employees that plow snow, 911 center and elderly services. Taxpayers are willing to pay for that. Next year we need to levy more than the levy cap and he hopes that we take the steps to raise the levy cap. 3 examples of what we could do with that, we could have a 3% increase, they have had no increases for many years, I know they are grateful the small amount. We should pay another $1 per hour. The POS service workers should be paid $15 per hour, we can’t pay that under the levy cap. He is proud of what they have done, he does not diminish that, we need a higher levy next year.
Dennis O’Loughlin wants to talk about the County Association, he is on the board, a past president and a state representative. ON the issue of 17 year olds coming back to county jail, what he said was not correct. They support the legislation, but it is saying we need the revenue to come with that. They represent 72 counties and we are just trying to help the counties maintain the levy cap. They want the state to pay for it. Most recentlty there has been discussions that we are 70 – 80% of the way to funding it. WCA is working for the counties so they don’t go further in debt. ON Enbridge, are affiliate members of WCA, our dues are not raised for 13 years because we have corporate memberships. Enbridge supporting a breakfast that was done 6 months in advance, this wasn’t a quid pro quo. For guns in schools, they support a law enforcement officer with a weapon being in the school. That wasn’t a fair assessment. We get benefits, they get webinars and information. The services have increased and the dues have not. He hopes it does not come back in the form of a veto. If you’re not in the game you’re not in the game.
Heidi Wegleitner thanks leadership for the better process this year. I know there were exceptions later on, but hopefully we can build upon this. There is still a lot of work to do on process. We are looking at what we see as changes by the executive, 6 programs are lumped together and we have to get that broken down to understand it. We work hard to prioritize the $500,000, only 1/10th of 1% of the entire budget. She would like to see us make the whole budget easier to digest, understand and be more accessible and transparent. As we were reminded, these are tax dollars and we can do better. We have serious issues facing us, climate change, racial disparities, we are the worst county in the worst state. We have an important responsibility to look at how we impact those disparities. It was mentioned that we have challenges, we can only control what we can control. We can target our medicare money, it might be more clear if it were easier to understand. She hopes the office of equity and inclusion can help them in the effort, we need transparent budgets and people need to know how they can impact it. There are good things in the budget – affordable housing. We should be honest that there were cuts in the budget, cuts that disproportionately fall on people of color, women and children. I hope they were unintended and she hopes they are committed to tenant services and that they find a fix to this. She doesn’t think it is fair for the majority white, male homeowning people to cut services for people who can’t afford to hire attorneys. Services like TRC is very important. That is also true about the Ombudsman position, that won’t be covered by the mental health position. She hopes by next year they will have a tool to help us flag these decisions and they look at how RFPs work to exclude certain agencies. She says they continue to send large surpluses from Human Services, and we don’t have enough money to make sure no women or children are denied shelter or that people getting out of the hospital can get into shelter. She thinks this doesn’t reflect their values. She wants to address them going forward, we have a long way to go to reach racial equity and social justice and a big part of that is to make sure that people can participate and understand and engage in a meaningful way.
Robin Schmidt says that they have limited resources, the committees did their job. The lack of debate means the committees did their job. She also thanks county staff. This represents a balance. We can’t afford everything. There are good efforts being made toward racial disparities and opens the door to have the county work on transit and they work on sustainability and critical road work for our rural areas.
Sheila Stubbs thanks Corrigan, Pertl, Bayrd and everyone. She is proud of the budget. She thinks it does reflect our values, beliefs and priorities. She says the Center for Social Inclusion, we did a racial equity analysis and we have deep disparities across all indicators, this impacts quality of life for all. We need to be more inclusive and engaging, we have taken the steps necessary to end disparities and are working to make sure everyone has opportunities. She says this was an exciting process. For the first time, residents felt their voices were heard. We have a great effort to go on for. She is also looking forward to the equity work the new department will do in the future. She is looking forward to the process. She was on the WCA Board of Directors and she was in the room, she believes her voice made a difference, if she wasn’t there there would be policies we were not happy about. She says that they need to be in the room.
deFelice says that he disagrees that WCA is worth the money they invest in them. He had experience with them 20+ years and his experience led him to conclude they are not non-partisan. Its a retirement home for Republican legislatures, it was a fan club for Thompson, Doyle wasn’t on the cover of the magazine a faction fo the times. To argue the corporations paying to keep our dues down, this is the best reason not to fund them, he doesn’t want a local member of ALEC, a corporate shill. For us to pay dues to that is exactly the wrong message. THey are, in most cases, directly contrary to what we stand for. Keep in mind the drip, drip, drip of the erosion of local control, they stood by and were quiet on this. Its outrageous, he urges the county executive to veto it.
Bayrd is also proud of the budget and what it has done to address racial disparities, she says the recommendations of the work groups came out 2 months ago and more than a dozen are in this budget, she applauds the collaboration. She is proud of what has happened outside of this floor. Some of the recommendations were done by the County Executive, she worked with the sheriff, judges, etc. It was a huge success. Data analyst position was the top recommendation and its in there. When we get the data we can make decisions. She talks about the other items funded but is talking really fast . . . this is an excellent first step, a part of our promise to the community, so many people don’t believe in government and we are proving them wrong. She is excited to vote for this budget.
Matt Veldran thanks Pertl and Corrigan, $1.6M of requests, all valid, but we have caps. Budgets are our priorities, but they are a roadmap. This is a problem because of the dark cloud over us from down the street. This makes it hard to reflect our values. Two areas he is proud of is homelessness and racial disparities. He thanks Lynn Green for working so hard. (I’m gonna puke) The day center is hopefully done as a location and hopefully it will flourish and we can put more money into operating funds. We were able to squeeze some more money to get women and children off the street but he is hopeful with the partners in the community they can get that done. .7% of a COLA is small but it meant so much to them. We know it is not enough. He won’t go over the great points Bayrd made, thanks to Rusk, Stubb, Pan and Bayrd to address the dirty little secret, that there are two Madison. We’re on all those great lists, but there are two different Madisons. He went to the final part of the three workgroups, they were on a tight schedule and they did great work. He also was proud to hear from people all over the county, about transit. The amount the citizens pay is a great deal for their money.
Jeremy Levin thanks people. There is more we need to do, everyone gets where we are and how we have to make those difficult decisions. Seems like we are ending on veto or not veto WCA, he says don’t veto, he has known them personally and professionally, they work with all their members and we need to be a part of it. President Regan says if you are my friend 80% of the time and Lyndon Johnson says its better to be inside the tent, than outside pissing in.
One person voted no on the levy, I think Ripp.
No other business.
Adjourn
