Monona Public Library on Kathleen Dunn

While driving Up North on Monday (September 13) I tuned into Kathleen Dunn's excellent show on Wisconsin Public Radio and caught a program about libraries. One of the guests was 'Eric'....hey, wait a minute, that's not Eric, that's Erick as in Erick Plumb, Interim Director of our very own best library in the entire cheese-eating state of Wisconsin. You can listen to the show here.

DaneCom Details

I get a headache even thinking about the DaneCom proposal. For some background go here.

Sunny Schubert relates a conversation she had with County Board Super Robin Schmidt about funding for DaneCom wherein Robin argues that requiring the county to pay 100% of the operating and maintenance costs (O/M) would actually cost Monona taxpayers more because we would be subsidizing Madison's usage.

Well, maybe so, maybe not. Using a $1.6M/year O/M cost, each household in Dane County would pay $9.22 if the County paid 100% of the cost. If the costs were assigned based on user fees, and using the information available to her at the time, Robin calculated a cost per Monona household of $6.50. That assumed $2.91 per radio and 65 radios and about 2900 households. However, the city actually has 100 radios, which increases the cost to about $10.03/household.

More importantly, if the county does not pay 100% of the O/M costs, they will not get 100% participation and probably not close to 100%. A reduction in participation will increase the costs for the remaining participants because the O/M costs will be the same - $1.6M/year. The cost per radio/household would increase, possibly dramatically. Thus, the user fee introduces costs volatility for municipalities. Moreover, less than full participation undercuts the whole point of having an interoperable system.

The argument is also made that if the cities, village, and towns do not pay for part of the cost, then they will have no incentive to hold down radio use. That sounds like a plausible argument but ignores the way the radios are actually used. First of all, the radios are quite expensive, so we are not going to buy anymore than we really need. Second, the 'end user', i.e. the officer on patrol, uses the radio because he or she needs to use the radio. They won't use the radio more because it is 'free'. Beside, it is already 'free' to them, i.e. they don't pay to use it directly.

***

By the way, according to the US Census Quickfacts, Dane County has 173,484 households and Monona had 3768 households in the 2000 census. Using 3768 households  would drop my $10.03 figure above to $7.73.

Monona city council report

Here's are the outcomes from the Monona City Council Preview - February 1, 2010

Resolution Approving Participation in a County-Wide Radio System with Conditions. Tabled. Did not really understand why we tabled it. The resolution supports the county-wide system, but call on the county to pay the operating and maintenance costs.

Contract Building Inspection Services with the Village of McFarland. Replaces Independent Inspections. Passed after yet more discusssion

Authorization to Proceed with a Water Rate Increase and Authorization to Change Public Fire Protection Ranges. Both passed with referral back to the Public Works Committee. We also directed staff to evaluate instituting an inclining rate structure for residential users that use price incentives to reward the conservation of water.   

An Ordinance 2-10-612, Updating Section 6-1-4 of the Code of Ordinances Regarding Sidewalks was briefly discussed and referred to Public Works Committee (where it received narrow 4-3 approval). 

 

The committee expressed some frustration that the city council did not follow its previous recommendation on this and other items. I have heard this refrain from the Public Safety Commission among others. The thought seems to be that if the council does not follow a committee recommendation that we did not listen to their advice. Not true. The council values and does listen - I know I do - to recommendations of of volunteer committees. Sometimes we simply do not agree. Sometimes there is simply a difference of views on policy grounds, at other times the council may be taking the broader picture into account, but I don't think we ever ignore the committee recommendation.

 

Monona City Council Report

The Monona city council met Monday, January 4, 2010 and:

Approved a 2009/2010 “Class A” Liquor and Class “A” Fermented Malt Beverage Application For Walgreen Co.
Amended and approved "Resolution 09-12-1669 Declaring Redevelopment Project Area No. 8 A Blighted Area" and sent it back to the Community Development Authority (CDA) to consider expanding the boundaries. The council w2ants to include parcels 5-9 in addition to 1-4 that CDA approved. MAP 1: Redevelopment Project Area #8 

Discussed Resolution 10-01-1673 Approving Participation in a County-Wide Radio System with Conditions.

Discussed Resolution 09-12-1671 Approval of 2010 and 2011 Capital Budget and 2010-2014 Capital Improvements Program. I expect to see a number of amendments reducing the size of the borrowing.

Discussed Resolution 10-01-1674 Permitting Joint Driveway and Related Access at Lottes Park Subject to CDA, Park and Recreation Board, and Council Approval of Redevelopment of the Hickory Hills Mobile Home Park.
 
Approved (potential) appointment of Thomas Stolper to the Regional Transit Authority.
 

Cities and Villages and Towns Agree - Oh My!

The Dane County Cities & Villages Association and the Dane County Towns Association held a joint meeting in Verona tonight (December 16) to hear presentations and discuss the matter. It was decided to give the respective executive boards the authority to respond to the county executive's attempt to force a quick decision on her take-it-or-leave-it proposal. Falk demands a local government decision by January 15, 2010. Her letter, sent to all local elected officials, was border-line rude.

The technical issues have been largely resolved (a process which took several years), but who would run the radio system and how it would be paid for were not resolved - or even raised until very recently. Nearly everyone from the cities, villages, towns at the meeting agreed that a county-wide interoperable system, as proposed, is desirable. That alone is pretty amazing.

The County proposes to pay for capital costs of $30 million, but they also propose to shift some of the operating and maintenance costs to local governments that have never paid those costs before. That shift simply moves the taxes from the county levy to the local levy (and in a way that is partially based on how wealthy the communities are.)

Unfortunately, I don't have easy access to the documents that really describe this plan or how it would work. And it is complicated.)

Here is reasonably good summary of the County Communications Interoperability Governance Steering Committee's proposal on cost sharing. However, the cost-sharing has changed since that time.

A madison.com story:

Cost-sharing plan supported for county emergency radios September 2, 2009 (I would note that the "support" referred to came from the county's own "911 Board").

A Channel3000 story from October 6, 2009.

One hopes that we can all get it figured out to implement a system that will make everyone in Dane County safer for a long time to come, particularly in a large-scale emergency.

PSC Brief - December 15

The Monona Public Safety Commission took action on several items last evening (December 15), including a recommendation the proposed DaneCom interoperable radio system. Here is an earlier post that included a discussion of DaneCom. More on that in the next post.

PSC Agenda 12-15-09

The commission recommended approval of a revised Monona Residential Traffic Management Program (RTMP), which basically establishes process and a framework for consideration of residential traffic issues. (Earlier post with links to an earlier version:Monona PSC Brief - Traffic).

The commission recommended approval of a Contract with the Village of McFarland for Building Inspection Services. PSC 12-15-09 Item 6a. The current contract with Independent Inspections would be terminated.

The commission recommended partial approval of the installation of sidewalks for the north side of Winnequah Road west of Healy Lane to the lagoon and the south side of Winnequah Road from the lagoon east to the end of city property. The commission approved a sidewalk on the ball diamond side of the street, but not the other side.

The commission reviewed of Fire Chief Job Announcement/Description. One item of discussion was whether to require the residency. Chief Van Etten made a compelling case that residency should not be required. The commission recommended residency within a 10 mile radius (same as the police chief). PSC 12-15-09 Item 6c

The commission recommended approval of participation in the County’s Interoperable Voice Radio Communication System provided that a new governance system is established and that Dane County pays the operating and maintenance costs. PSC 12-15-09 Item 6e.

See the next post.

Monona Council Review - December 7, 2009

Dane County Supervisor Robin Schmidt attended the Monona city council on December 7 and gave an update on four items: the county budget, the RTA, water body classification project/shoreland zoning, and the county's proposed radio narrow-banding and interoperability proposal (DaneCom). She brought along staffers John Dejung - Director of the Dane County Public Safety Communications Center and Todd Violante, Director of Dane County Planning & Development Department.


Dane County Regional Transit Authority

An RTA-supporter group has its own YouTube page and Facebook page. I still say: a. we need the details (and those will be provided only once the RTA is appointed, convenes, and develops a proposal the sales tax for which will go to referendum) and b. Monona has as much to gain from an RTA as any community in the area and more than most.

By the way, when Robin used the term MPO she was referring to the Madison Area Metropolitan Planning Organization. Urban areas are required to have an MPO by federal law to oversee the allocation of federal transportation funds. Alder Veserat used the term MPO in a different way, but it was unclear to me (and to Robin) what exactly he meant.

The folks who oppose the RTA seemingly just can't wait for the details of an actual proposal from the RTA board (which still needs a couple of appointments). They want to oppose it now, gosh darn it!

The appointments so far. More RTA stories from the Daily Reporter. "The Daily Reporter Publishing Company is Wisconsin’s leading provider of construction news and data and offers a host of products to help keep contractors and suppliers ahead of the competition."


Dane County Waterbody Classification Plan

The also controversial waterbody classification plan has also attracted opposition, including the realtors association. Waterbody Classification: Shoreland and Riparian Management Plan, Public Hearing Draft 11-5-09. In this case, however, we do have a draft staff report to review and comment on. There is no proposed ordinance yet.

Here are the Dane County staff recommendations: Recommendations and Timeline.

Among the recommendations:

If recommended by the Lakes and Watershed Commission, amend the Stormwater and Erosion Control Ordinance (Chapter 14, Dane County Code) to:

Require that, within 12 months, cities and villages amend their erosion control ordinances to meet or exceed the standards described in s. 11.05, Dane County Code.

Require or recommend that cities and villages follow the violations and enforcement procedures and penalties described in ss. 14.73 and 14.80, Dane County Code.

Here is the full current County ordinance Chapter 11: Chapter 11: Shoreland, Shoreland-Wetland and Inland- Wetland Regulations. Section 11.05 sets shoreland erosion requirements. Section 11.05 incorporates other ordinances such as 11.07, 11.08, 11.09 and 11.10.

One concern is the interplay between these recommendations and the new NR 115. The County will be required to amend its zoning laws to incorporate changes to NR 115. By law and by its own terms, NR 115 does not apply in cities or villages. The County could, however, choose to apply the requirements of NR 115 to incorporated areas.

The devils in the details, but we at least have some recommended details that we should start examining closely.

(Here's a summary of Proposed Improvements to the Shoreland Development Standards - WDNR under NR 115. "The state Natural Resources Board adopted revisions to the rules Nov. 13, 2009. The final, official rules are expected to be officially published in early 2010. County governments will have two years from that time to update their shoreland development rules to be consistent with or exceed the state’s rules.")


(Office of Lakes & Watersheds, Dane County Land and Water Resources Department is also on Facebook.)


Interoperable Voice Radio Communication System

A major issue with regard to the Interoperable Voice Radio Communication System replacement project (DaneCom) is who will run it, make policies, decide to buy, and who pays what. Right now, the County seems intent having the 911 Board make that choice. We need something more to ensure our interests are protected. The lack of governance structure or an intergovernmental agreement threaten to take down this proposal.

In my view, that would be unfortunate because we do have to make some radio communication changes required by the FCC narrowbanding rules and the proposal (or a variant of it) would also improve our ability to communicate among police, fire, EMS, and public works across the county. But a mutually agreed upon governance structure is essential. And Dane County's proposal does not have that yet.

A County Communications Interoperability Governance Steering Committee has been appointed. Its mission:

The Dane County Communications Interoperability Governance Steering Committee (THE COMMITTEE) is committed to cooperatively addressing the challenge of communication governance, cost sharing and ownership of the soon to be upgraded radio and data infrastructures. This document describes the purpose, authority, outcomes, scope, operating principles, membership, and management by which the Committee will achieve success.

The Committee exists to address the challenges facing interdisciplinary communications governance, cost sharing and ownership across jurisdictions. It was established to create and support a centralized governance process, explore cost sharing opportunities and stimulate ownership based communications planning and implementation capacity for Dane County. The Committee’s goals are:

To act as oversight to the consultants.
To aid in gathering input
from multiple disciplines and multiple jurisdictions.
To collect from and provide both direct and in-direct information to multi-disciplines and jurisdictions by keeping them informed of purpose, progress and timelines related to governance, cost sharing and ownership of communications and data infrastructures.

It is necessary for public safety organizations to communicate and share critical voice and/or data information with other jurisdictions in day-to-day operations, natural disasters, emergency response scenarios, and terrorist incidents. Failure to accomplish the mission in each situation can result in the loss of lives and property.

The Committee exists to establish a partnership among the disciplines, public and private entities that need interoperable communications and data access in order to enhance interoperable communications capabilities.

The Committee provides a forum for each jurisdiction or discipline to discuss related public safety communications initiatives that may or may not impact the work of the Committee. This helps ensure individual projects have an opportunity to align with the Statewide Communications Interoperability Plan (SCIP).

Lee Rayburn's New Web Page

You can find Lee Rayburn at http://www.leerayburn.com/.

The Mic 92.1 Spins in Circles

Monona resident and progressive left Madison's Progressive Talk - The Mic 92.1 shortly after the station gave the steel-toed boot to Thom Hartmann and replaced him with a conservative Christian financial talk show (Huh?).

Isthmus: Madison's The Mic 92.1 boots Thom Hartmann, and Lee Rayburn follows

But after local outrage, station management has returned Hartmann to our airwaves (yes, the radio airwaves belong to the public). Yeahh! Double but, management has now slotted the conservative (don't really care that he's Christian) into Lee's old time slot (5 a.m. to 8 a.m.). Boo!

Isthmus follow-up by Emily Mills: Madison progressive radio fans win again (well, sort of in a half-way kind of way).

What the H-E-double hockey sticks is going on around here?! (H-E Double Hockey Sticks - the movie version).

Is financial and personal advice from a conservative host a sensible lead in to The Stephanie Miller Show?

And Lee is looking for another gig:

"Rayburn discussed his desire to revisit Willy Street Media, a nonprofit news outlet featuring Madison-area activists and artists, something he’d launched in 2007 with business partner Joe Connelly. He reiterated some of what he’d told me in our phone interview from the previous day. Now, however, he sounded surer of himself and of his determination to find a new broadcast venue, giving voice to local issues, in the very near future."

My friend, as another radio guy used to say, "Good night, and good luck".

Monona's Radio Station

In case you missed it in the WSJ: Monona plans low-power radio station WSJ 8:13 pm

Nice story, I would only caution that as we are dealing an FCC in transition that it may take longer than the story suggests.