So, public testimony is over. The Personnel and Finance Committee is the last committee to see the budget before the County Board rubber stamps it on Monday, November 16th. Of the $1.6M of amendments in the operating budget, what will be in? What will be out? They only have $500,000 to spend (unless there is a miracle). So, when will we know? Wonder if this will be the year it just doesn’t get rubber stamped? Bet there is a lot of phone calling going on this weekend . . . now is the time to give your input . . . because I think now is when the decisions are actually being made!
Up until now their process was clear and transparent and very welcoming (compared to other years). But that is all about to change – we’re off into the great unknown. They originally scheduled two meetings for the committee on Monday and Tuesday next week. Then on Monday (11/2) they decided to meet on Wednesday instead. Then, Wednesday night (11/3) they decided they might possibly meet on Thursday instead. So, bottom line is, they haven’t decided and they could meet any time next week! (Now Scheduled for Thursday)
If you are still interested in giving public input about these amendments – all you can do is contact your supervisor or email the entire county board at county_board_recipients@countyofdane.com (make sure to include your address, they want to know if they should listen to you or not – i.e. are you a constituent? could you vote for them in the upcoming elections?)
I’ve heard lots of things about what happens next. The most accurate seems to be “anything can happen now!” I think they will try to work out a super-amendment that takes them as close to that $500,000 as they can without going over. That means $1,000,000 of amendments won’t or can’t pass. Unless they find a “miracle”. How and who decides all this is not really clear to me, but we do know that the 9 people that may or may not be at the meeting on whatever night they choose to meet are as follows:
erickson.chuck@countyofdane.com
solberg.cynda@countyofdane.com
oloughlin@countyofdane.com
gillis.george@countyofdane.com
pertl.jeff@countyofdane.com
hendrick@countyofdane.com
kolar.mary@countyofdane.com
corrigan@countyofdane.com
stubbs@countyofdane.com
(Names not obvious from the emails are Dennis O’Loughlin, John Hendrick, Sharon Corrigan and Sheila Stubbs)
They have the power to decide what is sent to the Board floor. And, the last several years, it just gets rubber stamped. They have record short meetings compared to the City Council, that allows public input at their meetings. (Now you can see why a short meeting isn’t really a sign of better work, but instead, less transparent work.)
It is kind of commonly known that funding priorities seem to be: Criminal Justice Initiatives, Homelessness Initiatives and COLA increase for nonprofits.
Here’s their menu of choices for the super-amendment. Remember, only 1/3 of these dollars will be available. (My understanding is that only amendments presented to Personnel and Finance are to be considered. So that is what I am listing here.)
OPERATING BUDGET
Presented Monday night Lots more details in the link. Votes in other committees, who’s sponsoring, better descriptions, etc.
EXEC-O-1 – $15,500 Dane County sister City – Kassel Germany cultural exchange
PPJ-O-1 – $101,260 Research Analyst for County Board for Criminal Justice Countil
EXEC-O-2 – $35,000 outreach and research on innovative policies and practices, starting with transit.
EXEC-O-3 – $0 – Office of Equity and Inclusion seek grants for training county employees on implicit bias, racial justice and trauma informed care.
EXEC-0-4 – $0 Office of Equity and Inclusion seek sgrants for expand reach of Community Restorative Court and youth restorative justice
EXEC-O-5 – $0 – Cut $8300 from audit services and reclassify county board staff to get more salary and beenfits of $8,300
EXEC-O-6 – $43,011 restore funding for membership fees to Wisconsin Association of Counties
P&F-O-2 – Change Office of Equity & Inclusion from County Executive Office to stand alone department under the County Board
P&F-O-3 – $0 transfers funds for Government Alliance for Racial Equity with the Office of Equity and Inclusion ($5,000)
P&F-O-4 – $0 transfers funds of $6,850 for Equity Initiatives to Office for Equity and Inclusion
P&F-O-5 – $18,530 for clerk typist for Office of Equity and Inclusion
P&F-O-6 – $0 Creates an Advisory Board for the Office of Equity and Inclusion
P&F-O-1 – $10,000 mathcing funds to Bayview Foundation for playground equipment
P&F-O-7 – $0 transfer $6,888 from Equity Initiatives to funds for the Criminal Justice County
ZLR-O-1 – $60,000 for BUILD (Better Urban Infill Land Development) planning grants
ZLR-O-2 – $50,000 to contract for countywide climate action plan
HHN-O-1 – Changes MSCR funds to Boys and Girls Club for Basketball and Recreation Services
HHN-O-2 – $55,000 Case management for seniors
HHN-O-3 – $22,014 for caregiver support for seniors
HHN-O-4 – $30,000 for Day Center funding – commonly understood to go to Bethel until the new center opens.
HHN-O-5 – $93,475 for Ombudsman position
HHN-O-6b – Using funds that are left over in Human Services budget to fund Salvation Army family and single women
HHN-O-7- $93,700 Housing Development Specialist to administer Affordable Housing Development Fund
HHN-O-8 – $25,000 Dane County Community Fund to grant money to community-based groups addressing racial disparities
HHN-O-9 – $5,000 for the MOST (Madison Outside School Time) program
HHN-O-10 – $14,000 Rainbow Project Rapid Response Team
HHN-O-11 – $10,000 RSVP driver mileage reimbursement
HHN-O-12 – $38,773 Senior Nutrition Site Management
HHN-O-13 – $25,000 Farmers Market EBT
HHN-O-14 – $39,500 Case management services for inmates transitioning to the community from jail
HHN-O-15 – $12,500 Pathways to Prosperity
HHN-O=16a – $63,840 Family Overflow Shelter funds to Salvation Army to Staff 1st United Methodist Church (no families turned away)
HHN-O-16b – $60,633 to staff single women overflow shelter (no single women turned away)
HHN-O-17 – $307,295 Cost of Living (COLA) increase for noprofits that contract with the County
HHN-O-18 – $0 – Mental Health broker will work with JFF
P&F-O-8 – $50,000 Tenant Resource Center
Jeremy Levin mystery amendment number one
Jeremy Levin mystery amendment number two
Presented Wednesday night:
EANR-O-1 – $7000 Dane County Pollinator Task Force education materials, seeds and meeting expenses
EANR-O-2 – $3000 organic conversion program pilot – $250 per farm per year for 3 years
EANR-O-3 – $25,000 Community Garden Matching Grant Fund
EANR-O-4 – $23,000 transfer funds to Friends of Lakeview
EANR-O-5 – $33,000 to monitor chloride concentrations in stormwater runoff
PWT-O-1 – $145,200 two additional snowplow driver positions
PWT-O-2 – $20,000 moving 3 weeks earlier on county roadsides
PWT-O-3 – $1,000 tampons and napkins for free dispenses in Dane County facilities
PWT-O-4 – $112,312 $15 living wage for Alliant Energy Center
PWT-O-5 – $0 – changing source of revenue from real estate sales to tipping fees
PP&J-O-1 – $101,260 Research analyst to work with Criminal Justice Council
PP&J-O-2 – $30,000 $5,000 consultant fees to look at jail diversion programs and $25,000 in grants to address issues
PP&J-O-3 – $0 annual briefing on solitary confinement
PP&J-O-4 – $0 PP&J get a briefing on bail determination, signature bonds and initial appearances and alot more language
PP&J-O-5 – $115,500 overtime for 911 Center
PP&J-O-6 – $0 remove pre-hire position added by Parisi and adds a Communicator positions instead
PP&J-O-7 – saves $189,300 by removing medical examiner’s positions
PP&J-O-9 – $54,700 clerk typist position in Emergency Management instead of LTE (of $12,800)
P&F-O-21 – $27,400 Clerk typist position in Emergency Management
P&F-O-10 – save $35,000 by deleting pre-hire communicator position
P&F-O-11 – save $7,500 by cutting telephone lines and services from back and training facility at East District Campus
P&F-O-15 – $111,250 restore funding for and maintain laundry services contract
P&F-O-16 – save $29,900 for hardware and software maintenance
P&F-O-17 – save $17,000 from cable television, printing, stationary and office supplies from sheriff’s budget
P&F-O-18 – save $37,700 in LTE and social security from sheriff’s budget
P&F-O-19 – save $25,000 to remove security support specialist position added for DNA collection from sheriff’s budget
P&F-O-20 – $75,900 pay laundry inmate workers the living wage ($11.66 per hour), eliminate external laundry contract
and then a whole bunch more mystery amendments that there were copies of dealing with the laundry.
Mystery amendments are here:
New amendments
P&F-O-22 – $111,250 laundry service contract restored
P&F-O-23 – save $37,700 LTE and Social Security in Sheriff’s office
P&F-O-24 – save $15,619 Corp Counsel Permanency Planning
P&F-O-25 – more revenue ($15,000) in Morgue usage
P&F-O-26 – save $9,000 in electricity in Department of Administration
P&F-O-12 – if 16a is adopted, reverse $40,000 from Family Overflow to Homeless Voucher program
P&F-O-13 – $23,840 to add to $40,000 county exec took from homeless voucher program to fund family overflow
P&F-O-14 – $50,633 for single women overflow instead of $60K previously recommended by HHN due to typo
?????? – $54,700 for clerk-typist for emergency management
?????? – $27,400 for clerk typist in emergency management
CAPITAL BUDGET
From Monday
P&F-C-1 – $30,000 Office for Equity and Inclusion interactive directory for City County Building lobby
P&F-C-2 – $60,000 office renovation for Office of Equity and Inclusion
P&F-C-3 – Language about an office for “Office for Race and Equity staff, including the Director of the Office of Equity and Inclusion, the Director of Equal Opportunity, the Manager of Policy and Program Improvement, the Contract Compliance Officer, the ADA Coordinator, the Diversity Recruitment Specialist, and the Clerk-Typist III”
HHN-C-1 – $2M for affordable housing fund
HHN-C-2 – $200,000 software for Badger Prairie Health Care Center
From Wednesday
EANR-C-4 – $3,500 for Dane County Pollinator Protection Task Force brochure racks and signage
EANR-C-17 – $500,000 digester water treatment pilot
EANR-C-19 – delete spending $75,000 manure water treatment-Waunakee
EANR-C-24 – $5,000 Fish Monitoring/Removal/Bubble to hire commercial fisherman to remove carp from Cherokee Lake
EANR-C-25 – Changing form 2:1 to 1:1 match for Silverwood Park Development Fund
EANR-C-26 – $250,000 Legacy Fund for Yahara Clean Lakes Initiative for shoreline erosion, improve biodiversity of marshland and remove carp called the Restore Ecological Health and Aquatic Biodiversity (REHAB) Initiative.
PWT-C-1 – $5,700 purchase or repair tampon and napkin dispensers
PWT-C-2 – $1,500,000 or $2M (?) matching funds for Transit Grant Fund
PWT-C-3 – $1M for SMART Fund for energy efficiency/alternative energy
P&F-C-5 – $40,000 Stone House Welcome Center at Silverwood Park
P&F-C-4 – Remove $250,000 for borrowing and expenditures for In-House Laundry project in Sheriff’s Office
