Monday Round Up – April 20

By
Brenda Konkel
-
round up

Konkel’s random musings, council elects new leadership at tonight’s meeting, or not? Alder updates, WHEDA looking for affordable housing input and more.

Konkel’s Random Musings

  • Dane Co. has invested more than $1.8 million in homeless services since start of COVID-19 – What if that money was just spent on rent instead.  It’s only about a month they have been providing hotels rooms and it took a while to get everyone moved in.  That would be 2,250 payments for $800/month apartments.  Of course, you’d have to have open apartments and landlords willing to rent to people, but there seems to ample money to just be paying for people to be in apartments at this point.
  • Dane County adopts first community-wide climate action plan – how did they adopt something when they haven’t met?
  • See the Emergency Operations Center report
    • It wasn’t til this week that the City decided to incorporate equity (RESJI) into their decision making?  A little late don’t you think?
    • The city spent $145,000 on a respite center for law enforcement officers, firefighters and EMS staff that wasn’t used?
  • It isn’t reassuring attorney starts his opinion with “As far as I know,”  It’s doesn’t inspire confidence.  Especially when it is followed up with “I need to update the previous advice that I provided.”  Electing Officers and Limited Term 042020 OCA Memo (002)

WEEKLY ALDER UPDATE FROM THE EMERGENCY OPERATIONS CENTER

MEMO
4/20/2020

To: City of Madison Common Council
From: City of Madison Emergency Operations Center COVID-19
RE: EOC Weekly Update

The Emergency Operations Center (EOC) has scaled back meetings starting this week 4/20/2020. The group will be meeting Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Below are some of the upcoming activities for the week.

Planning:
Planning is working on a plans to build equity (RESJI) into decision and processes as we move forward. DCR Director Norm Davis is taking the lead with a team to incorporate a fast track decision matrix.

We continue to meet to develop guidance and planning surrounding worse case scenarios. Plans are coming together regarding natural or people made disasters during the COVID-19 events.

Operations:
The homeless shelter at Warner Park averages about 80 guests per night. The respite facility at the Quality Inn, now has medical care on sight. UW Health has agreed to provide testing for those residents, and those details are being worked on this week.

The drive through testing sight has a goal to be up and running by next week. This sight is a cooperative effort between local health care providers, the National Guard, Dane County EM, Dane Sherriff, and PHMDC. The city will most likely have limited involvement. This will be for symptomatic people to drive through and have a test administered. At this point they will not need a medical referral. This could always change. Exact Sciences stepped up to produce the test kits.

The policy for City of Madison employees to wear face coverings while working will be implemented this week.

Logistics:
Continue to hunt for PPE such as masks, face coverings, gowns, gloves, face shields, and hand sanitizer. The logistics section is currently creating a “burn” rate per agency on the use of PPE.

Logistics is also providing PPE for as many support teams as the possibly can. They have been working hard to ensure the care takers at our shelters have adequate PPE.

Finance:
$2.7 million spent through 4/17

  • $1.8 million personnel ($1.65 million straight-time; $150,000 OT) — 67%
  • ​$898,000 non-personnel — 33%

Non-personnel costs are primarily hand sanitizer, PPE, UV disinfectant robots to clean masks, and a contract to lease a convalescence facility for MFD and MPD (contract terminated due to lack of need — $145,000 paid).

Graph on expenditures attached.

ALDER UPDATES 4/20/20

For Alder Blogs:

From the Public Health Department:

COVID-19 Information Update 4/20/20

Today, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and Governor Tony Evers released a plan for reopening Wisconsin, called the Badger Bounce Back: https://bit.ly/2XPTzVO.

By continuing to follow Safer at Home orders, we can all work together to achieve the gated criteria  sooner, so we can begin the phased reopening of Wisconsin as soon as possible.

From the Governor:

Gov. Tony Evers today announced that the state of Wisconsin is taking big steps to increase COVID-19 testing capacity throughout the state. Working with the Wisconsin Clinical Lab Network, the state has grown the number of labs performing COVID-19 tests from just eight labs one month ago to 36 labs as of today.

The state plans to continue public-private partnerships to add more labs and more testing capacity in the days and weeks ahead. However, in order to sustain the existing and expanded clinical lab network’s efforts, the state will need federal partnership to ensure availability of reagent and other critical supplies in Wisconsin.

Testing is key to Wisconsin turning the dial on COVID-19 and reopening the state. With increased testing, Wisconsin gets a more accurate sense of the spread of the virus. More testing also means improved contact tracing efforts, which help identify possible exposures to COVID-19.

Information for Alders:

Momentarily, I will be sending out an email outlining the process and instructions for determining Council Leadership tomorrow with guidance from the City Attorney’s Office.

The City is positioning itself to ensure compliance with the moratorium on evictions. If you receive complaints from tenants regarding violations of the moratorium, please attempt to obtain from them:  (1) the eviction notice (digital copy is fine), (2) the reason for the eviction,  or (3) at a minimum, the landlord’s information and the property address.

Once you furnish me with the complaint and the documents, I will work with the City Attorney’s office to address the matter with the landlords.

The Council Office received a few emails regarding businesses that are not in compliance with social distancing rules. Public Health has a compliance team that provides information on best practices for businesses during COVID-19. Public Health will help brainstorm about how to address issues and provide materials for businesses.  If I am provided with the business name and address and the concerns raised, I can reach out to the compliance team of Public Health.

It appears several alders received the following article and asked the city to look into it: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2020/04/15/milwaukee-could-mail-absentee-ballot-forms-all-registered-voters/5138190002/ or residents requesting that absentee ballots be mailed out automatically to everyone. The City Attorney is looking into whether ballots have to be requested to be legally sent out.

Please see below the response from our City Clerk:

The biggest obstacle to obtaining an absentee ballot is getting a copy of your voter ID on file with the Clerk’s Office, not figuring out how to ask for a ballot.  You don’t even need to use a form in order to request an absentee; you can send an e-mail message, write a note, or use https://MyVote.wi.gov.​  MyVote would be the ideal way for someone to request an absentee because it makes sure the voter is registered, determines whether they already have an ID on file with the Clerk’s Office, and eliminates the need for the Clerk’s Office to try to decipher poor handwriting.

Paper requests require a lot of follow-up work for the Clerk’s Office because people don’t read the instructions, think they can update their registration via the absentee request form, and do not include a copy of their voter ID.

There already are groups that send out absentee request forms in mass mailings.  The area where more help is needed,​ is with voter ID.

After we take some time for Clerk’s Office social distancing, we will be conducting an equity analysis to determine what would be most helpful for voters who were disenfranchised by the last election.

There are stories about Whitefish Bay mailing out absentee request forms, but Whitefish Bay primarily consists of white homeowners with internet access.  Rather than copying other municipalities, let’s take some time to identify the real issues and then address them.

Additionally, just because Milwaukee is doing something does not mean it’s the right thing to do.  They just reduced their polling locations by 97% for what should have been a high turnout election. It would be incredibly helpful, once neighborhood associations are once again able to meet, if Alders would help their constituents get copies of their ID on file with the Clerk’s Office, just in case.

In the news today, 04/20:

COUNCIL PRESIDENT AND VP TO SERVE ANOTHER 3 MONTHS?

From email to alders:

Dear Colleagues,

Given that many of you have asked, we wanted you to know that we both would be honored to serve for (and only for) the next 3 months as Council President and Vice President if that is the will of the body.  We are willing to do so given the challenging and uncertain times we are facing as a city and the fact that we are in the midst of some important conversations about the structures and processes we want to put in place to best elevate the role of the council in policy making. Our only intent is to offer experienced leadership as an asset for our collective work as we move through the next few uncertain months.

We have asked Alder Furman to make one single nomination motion for our 3 month leadership election so we can take one single vote on it.

Best,

Shiva and Barbara

ANONYMOUS VOTING FOR COUNCIL PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT

Sent Sunday night:

Dear colleagues,

Attorney May, Kwasi, council staff, city clerk and city IT have worked on a process to ensure anonymous votes for council election using SurveyMonkey. Kwasi will be emailing the details to all tomorrow after they test it one more time.

Shiva

ELECTION PROCESS FOR VOTING FOR COUNCIL PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT

There may be a motion to limit the term of the nominated Common Council President and Common Council Vice-President.  Such a motion is an incidental motion under Robert’s Rules, and must be voted upon so the public may see the vote.  It requires a majority vote.  Regardless of whether the motion is approved or not, the actual ballots for president and vice-president are secret.  Please see the memo attached from the City Attorney’s Office. Electing Officers and Limited Term 042020 OCA Memo (002)

Voting for Common Council President and Common Council Vice-President

  1. A motion is made, seconded and voted on to convene as the Committee Of The Whole.

2.. The Committee Of The Whole chooses a chair of the Committee Of The Whole.  This is traditionally the current President of the Council, but may be another alder.  The Mayor normally does not participate.

  1. The Chair will ask for nominations for President.  A nomination must be seconded. After asking for more nominations, at some point the chair will see that there are no more nominations, and will close nominations for the office.  Closing of nominations may also be by motion.  Then the body proceeds to hear statements and debate, remembering the rule about only speaking twice on a topic.  When debate is concluded, voting begins by SurveyMonkey ballot. The City Clerk announces the results of the balloting, which continues until one member gets a majority (11 votes) for the office. Between ballots, a candidate may drop out and the Council may nominate a new candidate.

4..  The same procedure is used for Vice President of the Council.

  1. Once the elections are completed, the Council comes out of the Committee Of The Whole and reports its result to the entire Council (“Rising and Reporting” in Robert’s Rules of Order), which votes to accept the report, finalizing the election of officers.​

Ballots for Common Council President and Common Council Vice-President have been created in SurveyMonkey.

A link to each ballot will be emailed by the City Clerk.  This will require alders accessing their city email accounts during the meeting in order to open the SurveyMonkey invitation for each ballot.  Please note that during testing, staff experienced a possible 5-7 minute delay in receiving notifications from SurveyMonkey.

The responses will go directly to the City Clerk and will be anonymous.  Once the clerk receives all 20  responses the Clerk will announce the results of each ballot. The ballot will contain the option of not voting for any person.

Election of President

  1. Eric Christianson, City Clerk’s Office Staff, will send an email to alders with the link to the SurveyMonkey ballot for Common Council President.
  2. After 20 alders have voted,  Eric Christianson will announce the results.
  3. In the event of a tie, a second email would be sent to all alders with a new link to the SurveyMonkey ballot for Common Council President
  4. After 20 alders have voted, Eric Christianson will announce the results.

Election of Vice-President

  1. Eric Christianson, City Clerk’s Office Staff, will send an email to alders with the link to the SurveyMonkey ballot for Common Council Vice-President.
  2. After 20 alders have voted, Eric Christianson will announce the results.
  3. In the event of a tie, a second email would be sent to all alders with a new link to the SurveyMonkey ballot for Common Council Vice-President
  4. After 20 alders have voted, Eric Christianson will announce the results.

Helping Lapham/Marquette families affected by teh COVID-19 pandemic

Dear Tenney Lapham Neighbors,

I am writing on behalf of the Lapham/Marquette Parent Teacher Group (LMPTG). My apologies if you’ve already received this message through another email list.  I hope you and your loved ones are doing alright during these unusual and difficult times we find ourselves in.  Obviously, some members of our communities are being hit harder than others by the COVID-19 pandemic and we want to do everything we can to help them.
As you may recall, last Fall the LMPTG set up an Acute Needs Fund (ANF) to help provide support to Lapham/Marquette students and families that are experiencing crises or particularly difficult circumstances. Since establishing the fund, we have been able to use it to help multiple families with different needs and situations.  Most recently, the school social workers are using money from the ANF to purchase grocery cards and provide transportation to food banks for families experiencing food insecurity, and a portion of the ANF has been set aside to help families with housing issues. Members of the LMPTG and the social workers at Lapham and Marquette have been discussing the best ways we can utilize the ANF funds to help our families during these trying times, as well as going forward as we come out of the current restrictions.  The ANF has been very helpful in allowing us to support the school social workers in the best way possible.
We know that some folks have been less financially impacted by the current situation than others, and that they might be looking for a way that they can help.  If you are interested in making a financial contribution to the  LMPTG’s Acute Needs Fund, we will make certain that your contribution goes to help students and families in the Lapham/Marquette community that are experiencing food/housing insecurity or other critical needs arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.  Between now and the end of April, any donations that you make to the Lapham/Marquette PTG will be be placed in the Acute Needs Fund and will be used for the purposes discussed above.  Contributions can be made using the ‘Donate‘ button on the PTG website: https://laphammarquette.wixsite.com/lmptg
We certainly understand that now isn’t the right time for many to contribute. As always, we want to thank you for all that you do to make our communities and schools great places for kids to learn and grow.
Another way we can support the families in our community is by patronizing their businesses during this time, either through curbside pick up, buying gift cards (to use once they have their feet back under them) or contributing to their virtual tip jars. The LMPTG is currently looking into ways to partner with neighborhood business to help support them in helping families in need in our community. Please stay tuned for more on that initiative, and feel free to reach out if you know of a business that would be interested in such a partnership.
We look froward to the time when the kids are back in the schools and we are allowed to congregate freely as a neighborhood again.  Until then, stay safe and well.  Thank you, we are all in this together.
Best,
David Staple and the Lapham/Marquette PTG

WHEDA PUBLIC COMMENT ON THEIR (UN) AFFORDABLE HOUSING PROGRAM

2021-22 affordable housing tax credits to support economic recovery
MADISON – The Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority is seeking public comment on proposed changes to its tax credit distribution plan, including changes that would increase the positive economic, social and environmental impact of affordable housing projects while improving the competitiveness of rural developments.
The proposed changes would affect scoring for the 2021-22 federal 9% and state 4% tax credit awards and reflect opportunities to further leverage affordable housing to stimulate economic recovery. The stakes are significant – for the current cycle, WHEDA will award approximately $16 million worth of 9% federal tax credits and $8 million worth of 4% state tax credits in the weeks ahead based on last year’s scoring criteria.
Comments on the proposed scoring for the 2021-22 awards are due April 27 and may be submitted via SurveyMonkey or by sending an email to publiccomments@wheda.com.
“As part of our continuing efforts to expand access to affordable housing and economic opportunity, WHEDA has been working with stakeholders to develop proposed changes that make our allocation of federal and state tax credits as effective as possible,” said Matt Childress, commercial lending project manager for WHEDA. “We’ve now compiled these proposed changes into a draft Qualified Allocation Plan and are seeking a final round of public comments before finalizing the plan.”
Among the proposed changes to the federal 9% awards:
  • A Wisconsin Green Built Home Standard score of 150 or more will be considered a requirement.
  • Projects that achieve a Green Built Home Standard score of 200 or more or that meet the Enterprise Green Communities Certification Plus will be eligible for a new scoring preference of about 7 percentage points.
  • Projects with supportive services, including services to meet the needs of veterans, will be eligible for additional points, increasing this category to an overall weight of about 7 percentage points.
  • Increased flexibility to provide any combination of units at levels that would be affordable on average for renters earning 60% or less of the county median income and rental subsidy assistance for the targeted units.
  • Establishment of a rural set-aside with a separate scoring scale that considers the smaller scale and values associated with affordable housing in rural communities.
  • A new scoring preference of about 3 percentage points if the project is in a rural county that has not received a 9% housing tax credit award in the past five years.
  • A new scoring preference of about 1 percentage point for applications that include a minority developer acting as a developer or co-developer with at least a 49% stake in all aspects of the development.
Among the proposed changes to the state 4% awards:
  • A 25% rural set-aside is being introduced into the State of Wisconsin 4% program and WHEDA is implementing this uniform minimum point scoring threshold for all applications.
  • Under current rural set-aside rules, developments must be in an area that meets USDA Rural Development’s property eligibility criteria for multifamily housing. In addition to this requirement, a second requirement will be introduced at the municipality level to require that the municipality be 25 miles or more from a population center and maintain 9,999 or fewer residents.
  • WHEDA will publish a list of municipalities that meet the second rural requirement.
  • To compete for credits under the supportive housing set-aside, developments must provide supportive services in at least 25% of the units for individuals and/or families who are chronically homeless or prone to homelessness and who require access to supportive services to maintain housing. The developer also must submit commitments for rental subsidies covering at least 25 percent of the units.
Other changes include prohibiting mid-lease rent increases and implementing an annual 2% cap on annual rent increases at WHEDA housing tax credit developments.
WHEDA has been the sole administrator for federal affordable housing tax credits in Wisconsin since the program began in 1986. The state tax credit program was introduced in 2018. The programs do not provide housing subsidies. Rather, tax credits encourage developers to create affordable housing by offering a dollar-for-dollar reduction of income taxes owed by owners/investors in qualified projects for tenants whose incomes are at or below 60% of county median income.
WHEDA awards tax credits to developers who then sell the credits to private investors to obtain funding. Once the housing project is available to tenants, investors can claim the tax credit as a dollar-for-dollar reduction of federal income taxes owed over a 10-year period. The affordable units are reserved for low- and moderate-income households for at least 30 years while other units in the developments may be available at market rates.
Demand for state and federal tax credits is highly competitive and WHEDA scores applications through the Qualified Allocation Plan. A complete list of the proposed changes to the 2021-22 plan may be found here.
The SurveyMonkey comment option offers an overview of the changes while practitioners with specific comments may wish to elaborate via email through publiccomments@WHEDA.com. Comments are due April 27. To keep up-to-date with WHEDA news and information, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

SAFE SKIES CLEAN WATERS ACTION

We are still working to get the Dane County Board of Supervisors to pass a resolution against the basing of F-35s at Truax Field. In the election on April 7th, eleven new people were elected to the County Board.

Some of our supporters did not run for re-election so we need most of the new county supervisors to vote in favor of the resolution. If you live in their districts, please contact them this week via phone or email and ask them if they will support the resolution against the F-35s. Ask them to co-sponsor 2019 Res. 548.

Find your supervisor here

These are the new county supervisors:

  • Elena Haasl, District 5, Madison
  • Alex Joers, District 9, Middleton, west Madison
  • Richelle Andrae, District 11, Madison, Dudgeon-Monroe
  • Anthony Gray, District 14, Madison, McKee Road
  • Blair Adkins, District 16, Blooming Grove, McFarland, south Madison
  • Teran Peterson, District 19, Sun Prairie
  • Sarah Smith, District 24, Monona, Madison
  • Holly Hatcher, District 26, Middleton
  • Michelle Doolan, District 28, Cross Plains, Mazomanie
  • Mike Bare, District 32, Verona, Madison
  • Kate McGinnity, District 37, Cambridge, Deerfield, Edgerton, Stoughton

If you live in the following incumbent county supervisor’s districts, we would like you to contact them and encourage them to vote in favor of the resolution.

  • Tim Kiefer, District 25, Waunakee
  • Patrick Downing, District 30, Blanchardville, Belleville, Mt. Horeb
  • Annaliese Eicher, District 3, Sun Prairie

The next County Board meeting is scheduled for next Tuesday, April 21 but this will be an organizational meeting only. The resolution will not be considered at this meeting. But it is important that we get the County Board to pass the resolution soon in order to go on record against the project and instruct Dane County to research potential legal strategies to prevent the proposed project.

Read Dane County Board 2019 Res 548

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