Monona City Council Report - January 3, 2011

The Monona city council met for the first time in 2011 last night sans the mayor who was attending the inaugural doings. As a result, I chaired the Finance meeting based on seniority and alder Wiswell chaired the council meeting as council president.

Here's the full agenda.

Here's the full packet.

Dane County Supervisor Robin Schmidt provided a very informative update on the county budget and a number of policy items. I will do a separate post on her report.


In regular business:

The council approved Resolution 10-12-1744 Amendment to Independent Contractor Agreement with Foth Infrastructure and Environment for Engineering Services for Monona Drive Phase II (Ad Hoc Monona Drive Advisory Committee). The costs will be split 50% Dane County, 25% Madison, 25% Monona. We will also pick up 100% the design costs related to Monona's water & sewer utility work.

We suspended the rules and voted on two non-controversial items:

The council approved Resolution 11-1-1746 Authorizing Right-of-Way Acquisition for Phase II of the Monona Drive Improvements (Ad Hoc Monona Drive Advisory Committee). This approval was needed so that real estate appraisals and acquisitions can commence for phase 2.

The council approved Ordinance 1-11-622 Amending Section 2-3-6 of the Code of Ordinances Concerning Municipal Court (City Clerk). The changes bring the ordiances into line with changes in state law.

We did not suspend the rules on a Resolution 11-1-1747 Approving a Renewal and Amendment to the Employment Agreement with the City Administrator (Mayor Kahl, City Attorney). The council discussed a two-year contract extension and pay raise for the city administrator in closed session. His pay would increase from $87,944 to $91,000 in 2011 and to $94,000 in 2012. Percentage-wise the raises are 3.47% and 3.2%, respectively. For the next meeting, I asked that we receive a copy of a salary survey done in the last year that covered this position and other department heads.

The council also heard a report from the city administrator of his performance reviews of the department heads.

The council approved appointments to the Sustainability Committee. Now that the committee is no longer ad hoc we needed to appoint members to the standing committee. With two exceptions, the current members were appointed to staggered 1-, 2-, and 3-year terms. George Kinsler decided not to stay on the committee because of time demands from business matters. Alder Mike Veserat indicated he could not make Thursday meetings (the committee chose the third Thursday of the month as its regular meeting date). Leslie Busse will take George's spot and alder Jim Busse will fill in for Mike at least through April.

a. Heather Gates (May 1, 2011 – April 30, 2014)

b. Jim Keck (May 1, 2011 – April 30, 2014)

c. Suzanne Wade (May 1, 2011 – April 30, 2014)

d. Nancy Moore (May 1, 2011 – April 30, 2014)

e. Nichole Hester (May 1, 2011 – April 30, 2013

f. Peter McKeever (May 1, 2011 – April 30, 2013)

g. Bert Slinde (May 1, 2011 – April 30, 2013)

h. Bob Miller (May 1, 2011 – April 30, 2012)

i. Pat Howell (May 1, 2011 – April 30, 2012)

j. Leslie Busse (effective immediately – April 30, 2012)

k. Alderman Jim Busse (effective immediately through April 18, 2011).