Well, I got some sleep . . . but I feel like I have a hang over or something even tho I haven’t had a drop of alcohol since the Packer’s game . . . I’m calling it my Edgewater hang over. And I wasn’t even at Dusty’s party.
SCOTT MCDONELL SHOULD CHAIR CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS
Former Alder Robbie Webber and I watched the Edgewater debate from Media/Blogger Row in the Council Chambers. As we were sitting back there, we both noted that we thought the Mayor should take a more active roll in reigning in the council. Roberts Rules and the Council rules and a firmer hand likely could have shaved an hour or two off the council meeting the other night. Dane County Board Chair Scott McDonell is quick to reign in the county board members that stray. Particularly, when asking questions of speakers and staff, you should make sure they are really asking questions and not arguing through the questions asked of speakers. Additionally, we’re quite certain at least one alder went over his 10 minute limit. Also, that “I gave Bob Dunn 25 minutes to Fred Mohs and Gene Devitt get to go on longer, but the rest of you have to stick to 5 minutes” decision really sucked. Finally, I don’t know why people were told where they were on the list so they knew how long before they were going to speak, and then the people were called in a different order. All of the above just makes the council looks silly, and I think it could be better if the Mayor would actually chair the meeting up there instead of looking like he’d rather be any place by there. He could help rush the meeting along.
DID MAYOR DAVE HIT THE PANIC BUTTON
There was an unfortunate technology glitch when former city staffer Kitty Rankin went up to speak. City Channel has some automated system that cuts out soon after 11:30 and switches programming to something else. Luckily, Boyce was on the case and got it back up within a minute or two. However, it did cause those watching at home to wonder . . . Does Mayor Dave have a panic button up there . . .
GET ENOUGH BANDWIDTH ALREADY
City Channel got $70K from WYOU, maybe they can invest in some bandwidth so people don’t get error messages when they try to watch the Council meeting on line? I heard several complaints from folks about this issue. Along with other problems with watching the Council meeting. I still maintain, if you want to really see what is going on, you should suck it up and come on down and watch it live. You can see how often Bruer is out of his seat and who bops around the room talking to whom. You could also see . . .
SLEEPING STAFF
Several people asked me why the council doesn’t just recess their meeting and meet the next day. I think its fear of more people showing up to testify and a control issue so that votes don’t change during the break. What I was noticing the other night was that there were an awful lot of staff at the meeting, who really didn’t get asked any questions, but might have. I think I counted correctly and well after midnight there were the following staff there for the Edgewater debate: 2 city attorneys, 2 clerks, the City Engineer, the City Assessor, 4 planning staff, 2 economic development staff, 4 Mayor’s staff and the Comptroller. Unfortunately, at various points, several of them can be caught sleeping. The worst was when the Mayor was the only one awake in the front of the room as the City Attorney and Clerk were both sleeping. I don’t blame them. It’s just absurd, they really need to do something about these long meetings. I don’t know how any of them, or the alders, were expected to function at work the next day. And I can’t imagine how much money was spent for that meeting – I’d love to see the bottom line as that was 11 hours of 17 of some of our most highly paid staff. Council leadership and the Mayor really need to learn how to manage these meetings. I hope the next Council President will take an active role in managing the meetings, they have several tools at their disposal to make this happen beyond having the Mayor chair the meetings more tightly.
SOGLIN JOINS IN
OK, I really don’t get the argument that Mayor Dave and now former Mayor Paul Soglin are making. Do they really want ALL committee business to routinely get signed off on by the Council? Do they really, really, really want that? You could end up doubling the length of the City Council agenda. It’s not just the Landmarks Commission, but many others that do city business without elected officials signing off. Additionally, in the zoning code rewrite, we trying to let staff make more decisions, make things that currently require Plan Commission approval only (conditional uses) be permitted uses. And trying to make some things the Council signs off on be a conditional use. You see, all of that is in response to the development community wanting a streamlined process. Da Mayors seem to want to reverse that trend, and it doesn’t make sense. You can see here that any board, committee or commission that is listed as a “commission” or “board”, except the Board of Estimates has some of these powers to make decisions without the council. As Alder Rhodes-Conway noted, she doesn’t want to be determining what color someone can paint their house in certain neigbhorhoods. And I have to disagree, the system isn’t broken, in fact, it worked. The appeal process is there to provide relief when a commission or board makes a bad decision. I can’t imagine what changes folks are wanting to make, I’d love to see a specific proposal, as this could be a disaster. Finally, why is this only a problem with our current Mayor, I’ve been watching council meetings for 15 years and I haven’t see this be a problem, until now.
OTHER EDGEWATER HAND OVER NOTES
Joe Tarr at the Isthmus does a nice job on the highlights. Some more thoughts here.
Sconz asks why they didn’t refer? Here’s my answer. They want the Certificate to be overturned and not just delay the vote and they knew they had reconsideration in their back pocket. If they refer, the question remains open, if they get reconsideration, they will pass a major hurdle in moving the project forward and can move on the Zoning Board of Appeals who could also stop the project.
DO OVER?
Schumacher makes headlines. Compton takes a more reasonable choice, chosing to appeal only if the developer wants to. Really, do they want to go through this all over again? I sure hope Judy Compton makes up her mind, and quickly, and I hope Council leadership and the Mayor make sure they can get the rest of the butts in the seats. I would HATE to go through all this all over again and not end up with a different result. And, I am wondering if Dunn wants to go through this again. Mark your calendars for January 5th. (And, by the way, did someone give Clear the wrong talking points? Was he out of the loop? Is he that much out of touch?)
I thought there were no winners. I felt much like Rhodes-Conway. However, this person disagrees.
A GOOD COMPROMISE?
The Mayor often says that if both sides are unhappy, it must have been a good compromise. I disagree, a compromise is win-win. He usually uses that phase when the “compromise” goes in his favor. Since the other night, most people walked away unhappy, is that, then, a good compromise?
ON A LIGHTER NOTE
Every (other) year the rookie on the council are required to provide entertainment at the holiday party for their colleagues. This year, the skit involved some Holiday Caroling . . . I happen to have gotten a copy of the lyrics. Enjoy!
Ha! Done by 9:30, only a half hour late . . .
