Weekly Local News Round Up

My “round ups” have seen various formats and content over the years.  Here’s what I hope to become a weekly round up of local government news from the past week.  Things I don’t have time to blog about, but that should be on your radar screen.

City

• Cap Times – New Development RFP for city-owned S. park St. site focused on attracting grocery store. “The original RFP listed multiple goals for a project on the site, like connecting Cedar Street to Fish Hatchery Road, increasing the area’s tax base, developing workforce housing and keeping a grocery store in the area.

The new RFP slims this down to just three “minimum requirements”:

• • • Construct a grocery store.
    • Extend Cedar Street.
    • Meet the recommendations of related neighborhood and city plans.

It notes that housing, including affordable housing, office or retail space would be a welcome addition to the site, but are not a requirement.”

• Isthmus – Roadside Assistance – “The deal struck by Rhodes-Conway calls for the city to pay $1.7 million for the Buckeye Road project and the county to contribute $1.5 million. The city would pay an additional $1.9 million for water and sewer improvements. The mayor also agreed that starting in late 2020 the city would take over snow plowing, but not other future maintenance, on the section of Buckeye Road that runs from Monona Drive to Stoughton Road — a deal Parisi says was “offered but rejected” by Soglin.”
• Channel 3000 – Ooops.  City of Madison digs bus stop out of woman’s yard – without telling her first.  “Hannah Mohelnitzky, a spokeswoman for the engineering division for the city, said somehow, they didn’t tell her they were putting this in, though they did tell her about construction on her street.  Because of the confusion, the division has altered the project, opting to cut the square footage for a sidewalk and taking care of that cost themselves. “At this point we are committed to making sure that we’re working with her,” Mohelnitzky said. “We want to do right by this, and we want to take this moment to reflect and think, ‘How can we do this better?’” Metro transit is in charge of the bus stop and pad placements. Officials said they are talking with Johnson and will decide if they can move it on Monday.”
• Wis. State Journal  – Developer drops housing project for the homeless on South Side – “In a setback for city efforts to house the homeless, a developer is abandoning plans for a controversial, $11 million, four-story project with 58 units of permanent housing with support services for homeless individual adults and some couples on the South Side.But the city and developer, nonprofit Heartland Housing of Chicago, say they remain committed to providing permanent housing with support services for the homeless.”
• Wis. State Journal – Madison Police cranking up the PR machine for next year’s budget.  increased police workload blamed for drop in Madison speeding enforcement.  Me thinks no one wants to be a traffic cop and they need to figure out how to schedule the police better.   Also, this is silly given they just had a blog post about addition traffic enforcement in May.   “Speeding tickets issued last year by Madison police dropped by more than 40% after the department cut back on the number of officers dedicated to traffic control and amid a reported uptick in the times when police workload is too heavy to respond immediately to all but the most serious calls.”
• Wis. State Journal – Madison, SSM Health commit to food access during redevelopment on South Side “As of late March, SSM had been moving to acquire a 2.3-acre site that holds a 1960s-era Pick ‘n Save at 1312 S. Park St., with the intent of demolishing the store as soon as late this year and immediately building a $75 million, five-story, 175,000-square-foot clinic on that property. When that building is completed, the existing 175,000-square-foot clinic on Fish Hatchery Road — 35,000 of which is already unoccupied — would be demolished. SSM has not closed on the Pick ‘n Save site.”
• Wis. State Journal – Madison City Council extends deadline to pay parking tickets. “The move means people will now have 14 days to pay citations before the $10 fee is assessed. …In addition, those who fail to pay off their tickets within 14 days will not get a second $10 fee added to their total if they pay what they owe within 25 days from the date the ticket was issued. Previously, that additional late fee was assessed after 21 days.”
• Cap Times – To divert wasted food, the city looks into digesters, returns to composting. “This summer the city is going to try again, starting in July in a to-be-determined neighborhood of single family homes on the far west side. This time, they’re calling it “food scrap recycling” instead of organics. The bins will clearly say “food scraps only.””
• Cap Times – Explained:  Madison, Taco Bell reach tentative agreement over alcohol license. “In September 2017, Taco Bell announced it would open between 300 and 350 Taco Bell Cantina locations that would sell beer, wine, sangria and alcoholic slushies. Madison’s City Council approved a beer and wine license for the State Street location in December 2017.  The license would have allowed the Taco Bell Cantina to serve wine and beer until 10 p.m., Sunday through Thursday each week, and until 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays. The applicant originally requested a full liquor license and the ability to serve alcohol later.  Soglin vetoed the license Dec. 12, 2017, saying that allowing the Taco Bell to serve alcohol would have “little public value.” He raised mounting concerns over downtown alcohol density and police department pressures. The City Council attempted to overturn Soglin’s veto twice but failed. In April 2018, the franchise owners sued the city over the alcohol license. At the end of December 2018, the court ruled in Taco Bell’s favor and ordered the city to issue the license. However, in January of this year, the city filed a notice of appeal with the Wisconsin Court of Appeals. That litigation is still pending.”

County

• Wis. State Journal – Four proposals for Dane County Jail rebuild cost twice the originally approved price. “A plan to consolidate Dane County’s three jail facilities was supposed to cost $76 million, but structural roadblocks have halted the original plan and likely doubled the cost, setting up a new round of opposition to the project.”
• Cap Times – Dane County Board mulling new jail options – Homeowners will pay $1,000 over 20 years for this new jail. “Dane County approved a $76 million plan in the 2018 budget that would have brought all jail operations into an expanded Public Safety Building. However, last October, the county learned that plan was not viable because the building could not support the additional weight from adding floors.”
• Wisconsin State Journal – Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney urges County Board approval of restructured jail. “Chuck Hicklin said that if the county pursued the tower addition — which some board members have signaled as the likely choice — and approved $148 million in borrowing over a 20-year period, the full amount paid with interest would be about $225 million.”
• Amazingly, Channel3000.com had this editorial done before the County Board even got the presentation on the options.  Just “swallow hard” . . .
• Wis. State Journal – Election on Tuesday!  Candidate Q&A: Dane County Board, 17th District “Three candidates are running in a special election for a seat on the Dane County Board in the 17th District, which covers parts of Madison’s East and Far East sides. Former Sup. Jeff Pertl left the board earlier this year when he was appointed deputy secretary of the state Department of Children and Families. The top two vote-getters in the May 7 primary will face off in a June 4 election.”
• Cap Times – Dane County Jail construction options prompt community meeting “Wegleitner said she is “not ready to accept that this is a done deal.” She wants to facilitate a broader discussion about the jail renovation project and consider community-based alternatives to incarceration.  “Such a big topic deserves open meetings, public engagement and a clearer understanding about how well this proposal connects to our other priorities,” Wegleitner said.”

Schools

• Wis. State Journal – Madison schools test limits of open government with private board member meetings. “Individually or in pairs, Madison School Board members spend hours each year in private “board briefings” with Superintendent Jennifer Cheatham, discussing matters soon to come before the full board for votes that must be held in public. … But recent guidance from the state attorney general’s office cautions that such small, private gatherings of public officials risk running afoul of the state open meetings law, a current board member and attorney called them “on the line” legally, and a former board member stopped participating in them because he believes the public and board members should be able to hear policy discussions involving members and administrators.”
• WKOW – New Madison school board members sworn in “The Madison Metropolitan School District’s Board of Education welcomed its three new members Monday night. They are now part of the city’s first all-female school board.  Cris Carusi, Ananda Mirilli and Ali Muldrow were sworn in at the meeting at Chavez Elementary School.”
• Cap Times – New School Board addresses recent string of reported sexual assaults at Madison high schools “Just over two weeks after two boys at East High School were arrested for allegedly raping another student inside a bathroom after school, the Madison School Board said in a statement on Monday that it remains committed to keeping schools safe and taking sexual violence seriously.”