"Will Madison City Council Choose to Represent Us?"
Thursday, April 9th, the Madison City Council Common Council Executive Committee (CCEC) will meet to discuss one thing, and one thing only. Are they going to represent us, or leave it to the Mayor to make all the decisions? The Wisconsin State Journal reported the "exceptional powers" given to the Mayor. Progressive Dane Alders led the fight to curtail these powers, to no avail. According to the Wisconsin State Journal:
The Mayor, after consultation with the city attorney, can now issue orders to suspend, amend, create or adopt city policies, resolutions or ordinances, and suspend enforcement actions that don’t conflict with state or federal laws to mitigate effects of the pandemic. It includes the power to extend deadlines, waive penalties, issue permits or licenses, contract or waive contractual terms or take other actions to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the city and its residents.
Alder Rebecca Kemble explained:
“It is totally appropriate to give the Mayor, council, and emergency management coordinator extraordinary powers in a crisis like this,” Kemble said Thursday. “(But) this is an extremely broad scope of power that gives the Mayor all the powers of the City Council without being subject to open meetings law. It cuts the governing body of the city — the City Council — out of its critical policy-making role, and prohibits the public from participating in or even knowing about decisions being made.”
She and Grant Foster worked to craft an alternate resolution. That alternate resolution was co-sponsored by Progressive Dane Alders Tag Evers and Marsha Rummel plus non-ProDane Alders Sally Rohrer and Zachary Henak. The resolution would have not allowed the Mayor the authority to create policies, resolutions, and ordinances - a power that is held by the council and only 8 of the 12 Alders voted to retain. Twelve alders voted to give their powers and abdicate their responsibilities. Here was the vote:
Aye: Tag Evers (PD), Grant Foster (PD), Zachary Henak, Rebecca Kemble (PD), Marsha Rummel (PD), Paul Skidmore, Syed Abbas, Samba Baldeh (formerly PD)
No: Shiva Bidar, Sheri Carter, Keith Furman (formerly PD), Harrington-McKinney (formerly PD), Patrick Heck (PD), Lindsay Lemmer, Arvina Martin, Donna Moreland, Sally Rohrer (sponsor?), Michael Tierney, Mike Verveer (PD), Christian Albouras (PD)
The Mayor has issued 23 orders since she issued the order that was originally not reported to or in the press. She has spent over $1M, that we know of. We have not heard of any powers she has exercised since the vote. This is problematic because there is no mechanism for the public or the Alders to be notified of additional orders.
The Mayor has said publicly "we shouldn't waste a good crisis". This should be alarming to anyone listening. There are several areas of concern.
Creating policy, resolutions, and ordinances when the council is willing and able to meet.
Spending funds when the finance committee is willing and able to meet
Taking away the authority of boards, committees, and commissions (specifically Transit Committee and Transportation Planning and Policy Board, generally all committees)
The issues of Boards, Committees, and Commissions meeting were taken up at the March 17th meeting of the Common Council. Progressive Dane Alder Grant Foster fought valiantly to retain the ability of boards, committees, and commissions to meet or to have the committee chairs and Alders have a say in who could meet. He did not prevail.
Since the order and the discussion about the boards’ committees and commissions, more alders spoke up at the Common Council Executive Committee meeting on the 31st. The Mayor responded at the end of the Council meeting the next morning (see 5:32:40 of this meeting).
As a result, the Common Council Executive Committee will be meeting tomorrow at 6:00 pm. Their agenda has the following items:
Discuss Council's Role & Response during COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus) Emergency
1. Interface with Emergency Operations Center (EOC)
2. Constituent communication and engagement
3. Board, Committee and Commission meetingsDiscuss Council's role, processes, and structure in regards to the city's recovery from COVID-19 Emergency
To participate in the meeting you have several options:
1. WRITTEN COMMENTS: You can send comments on agenda items to allalders@cityofmadison.com
2. REGISTER BUT DO NOT SPEAK: You can register your support or opposition to an agenda item without speaking at https://www.cityofmadison.com/comment-ccec
3. REGISTER AND SPEAK: If you wish to speak at the virtual meeting on an agenda item, you MUST register. You can register at https://www.cityofmadison.com/comment-ccec. When you register to speak, you will be sent an email with the information you will need to join the virtual meeting.
4. WATCH THE MEETING: You can call-in or watch the Common Council Executive Committee meeting in several ways:
• Livestream on the Madison City Channel website: https://www.cityofmadison.com/information-technology/city-channel
• Livestream on the City of Madison YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/CityofMadison
• Television: Watch live on Spectrum channel 994 and AT&T U-Verse channel 99
• Listen to audio via phone: (877) 853 5257 (Toll-Free) Webinar ID: 563-608-269
YOU are PROGRESSIVE DANE, PROGRESSIVE DANE IS YOU. Our elected leaders need your support!
We need this meeting to be a successful meeting if we want our Alders to be able to represent us at the city level. Please consider supporting our Alders and making your concerns known by participating in any of the ways outlined above.