Reconsideration of sending police to Milwaukee DNC has been requested by Alder Paul Skidmore and Attorney May has directed staff not to sign the agreement.
I wrote about this just 5 days ago, but it seem like forever. How does Madison function with 20% of our police at Milwaukee DNC? This is the item that was on the agenda. It now has the actual agreement attached, which was not available when the Finance Committee and Public Safety Review Committee made their recommendation.
REQUEST FROM ALDER SKIDMORE
From: Skidmore, Paul
Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2020 1:58 PM
To: May, Michael <MMay@cityofmadison.com>
Cc: Kemble, Rebecca <district18@cityofmadison.com>
Subject: Fw: tonight’s meeting
Greetings Mike,
I hope that you are doing well today. I understand that you are working from home today – so am I.
After further consideration, and rereading alder Kemble’s email, I would like to reconsider item #47 from yesterday’s Common Council meeting, if that is possible. This item was approved on a voice vote. I share alder Kemble’s concern and I would like to have Council discussion, ask questions of MPD (AC Wahl and possibly AC Patterson and/or AC Valenta, and to possibly offer a substitute. Given the lack of staff and singleness of purpose of the Council meeting I did not speak up.
Please let me know if my request is in order, and if I need to do anything further. Thank you for your consideration.
Paul Skidmore, 9th District Alder
ATTORNEY MAY RESPONSE
From: May, Michael
Sent: Wednesday, March 18, 2020 2:01 PM
To: Skidmore, Paul
Cc: Kemble, Rebecca; Bidar, Shiva; Veldran, Lisa
Subject: RE: tonight’s meeting
You will need to request of Alder Bidar that this be on the next agenda for the Council for reconsideration. I have directed staff not to sign the agreement in the interim.
MPMay – City Attorney
EMAIL FROM ALDER REBECCA KEMBLE
Sent: Tuesday, March 17, 2020 4:33 PM
To: All Alders
Subject: tonight’s meeting
Dear Colleagues –
I regret that I will not be present at this evening’s CCEC and Common Council meetings. I was in Albuquerque, NM for the past 4 days. While there are very few cases and no reported community spread in that city and I took precautions, I did fly in and out of the Dallas/Ft Worth airport where many college students were passing through from their study abroad programs in Europe. Therefore I will be self-quarantined for the next 2 weeks.
There are two items on this evening’s agenda that I had hoped to discuss and debate with you all.
Item #11, “Creating subdivision (c) of 33.01(10) of the Madison General Ordinances to prohibit meetings during an officially declared emergency or at the direction of the Director of Public Health Madison and Dane County unless authorized by the Mayor and Common Council President.”
I helped write some alternative language to this proposal that I had hoped to explain in person. Here are the changes I support if the ordinance is to go through:
Item #47, “Authorizing the Mayor, Police Chief and the City Clerk to sign an intergovernmental agreement with the City of Milwaukee to provide law enforcement services during the 2020 Democratic National Convention for a 10 day term, beginning July 10, 2020 through July 20, 2020.“
For the past 5 years MPD has reported problems with staffing, overtime and low morale of officers due to inability to take vacations. These issues seem to be exacerbated in the summer when calls for service are at their peak. At Finance Committee last week I voted against this proposal to send up to 100 of our officers to serve on special duty for the DNC. Should the DNC not be cancelled, Madison will also be handling many convention visitors and there will be added pressure in our community. I don’t see how we can responsibly manage the absence of 100 officers given the public safety pressures in our own community.
Thanks for considering the points I raise and I’ll see you all in 2 weeks!
Rebecca Kemble – District 18 Alder
