Monona City Council Post-View

A quick report of a quick Monona city council meeting tonight.
Appearance by Chris James of Dane County Parks Regarding Dane County Open Space Plan and Yahara Recreational Trail. (Delayed until next time.)

Alder Kugle was excused from the meeting due to the passing of his father late Saturday night. Our condolences go out to Dennis and his family.

G. Council Action Items.
1. Unfinished Business (Approval Requested Unless Otherwise Noted).

a. Consideration of Resolution 11-02-1750 Approving a Redevelopment Plan for North Monona Drive – Redevelopment Project Area No. 7 (CDA). Map of Redevelopment Districts. Adopted 4-1 (Alder Veserat opposed.).


b. Consideration of Resolution 11-02-1752 A Preliminary Resolution Declaring Intent to Exercise Special Assessment Police Powers Under Section 66.0703, Wisconsin Statutes, in the City of Monona, Dane County, Wisconsin, for Street Improvements to Tecumseh Avenue, Neponset Trail, Nishishin Trail, Nishishin Trail NE, and Pocahontas Drive (City Administrator).

Adopted 5-0. However, the project estimate upon which we based our borrowing, incorrectly failed to include the installation of storm sewer. The estimated project cost is now about $1.7 million rather than the approximate $850,000 that we budgeted. The special assessment are based only on road costs and do not include the cost of the storm sewers (the storm water utility will pay that cost). At this point we are waiting for a staff analysis of borrowing options before deciding how to proceed. 

2. New Business.
a. Consideration of Resolution 11-02-1753, 2011 Pool Locker Room Flooring Project (Park & Recreation Board). Suspended the rules and adopted 5-0.



b. Consideration of Resolution 11-02-1754 Naming of Ahuska Park Football Field “Haukereid Field” (Park & Recreation Board). Suspended the rules and adopted 5-0.

***

Miscellaneous city bits and pieces. The city's labor contracts do not expire until at least the end of 2012 with the exception of the fire department contract and their contract is exempt from the governor's budget repair bill. Department heads and other nonreps, who are already paying 10% of their health insurance premium will have to pay 12% under the bill.

The new audio system for the Community Center has been installed. Attendees of functions such as the city's annual appreciation gathering will now be able to actually hear the speakers, which may or may not be a good thing.

The Monona Landmarks Commission is putting together an updated edition of the Monona Landmarks booklet that has been out-of-print and sold out for quite some time.

Watch a video about Monona's landmarks. "Learn about some of Monona's famous homes, and Native American heritage."

The Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission will hold its monthly meeting in Monona tomorrow (February 22) at 4 PM at the Monona Public Library.

CDA Member Responds

A few weeks ago I took the Monona CDA to task for excluding city council members from the CDA's closed sessions. Last week I received a thoughtful response from CDA member John Surdyk and am posting it below:

Hi Doug,

My apologies for the lagged reply! I've tried to map out some of the salient issues below, and your welcome to share this on your blog if helpful.

Our decision on the participants in closed sessions was made after a significant amount of discussion: we wanted to be respectful of people's interests and well as legal and other obligations for CDAs.

As a group, we felt the presence of alders not already on the CDA who seek to collect information ahead of a vote, while valuable, is insufficient in and of itself to invite them in to closed meetings. It may improve the efficiency of the City Council's review and voting procedure because they are better informed ahead of time, but it could undermine the process by:

1. Reducing the quality and duration of City Council discussion and debate on projects which the public should hear at their meetings.

2. Not explicitly adding value to the CDA deliberations on developer agreements, compromising the precedents established in law and in practice where only people -- and it could be anyone -- who has valuable knowledge on a project may participate in a closed session by invitation or petition.

The Mayor was invited to participate in the meeting you were excluded from because of his ability to provide critical information on prior developments efforts and because he had personal history with the parties involved in the Meriter Clinic proposal. The CDA felt that history was important for its decision-making and a very good use of outside participation in a closed session because his knowledge was necessary for deliberations.

It's important to note that the frequent closed sessions held in the past year are actually an indicator of the CDA's success: those meetings are closed because developments projects are on the table. The fact that many of the meetings have been closed reflects that they are, largely, about significant projects that because of their size and the amount of investment capital involved could place the companies at a competitive disadvantage if their interest in Monona is widely known before agreements are finalized and presented to the City Council. Projects like UW Health, the Princeton Club Express, and Meriter are well beyond the scope of dealing with national franchisors for typically smaller-scale projects.

It would be wonderful if you could remind your readers that the participation of the two current alders is a critical reason for the group's recent success, and that the design of the CDA with their inclusion is another institutional mechanism by which alders with deep knowledge on a project may convey important details on deal history and structure to other members without inviting all of them to take an active role in the CDA. The CDA also includes members of the Monona community, and we'd welcome your readership to please consider serving on the committee as their role is also valuable!

My very best wishes,

John