Uncommon Council

Ben and Sam celebrate the efficiency of the in-person Common Council meetings by pulling in other local news happenings. Topics include CARES team expansion, birds, imaginary coal, disability pride month, bus rapid transit, affordable housing, batting practice, and shallow stepbacks.

Meeting Agenda

Consent Agenda - Items excluded from discussion

CARES team expansion announcement - Community Alternative Response Emergency Services team

CARES team article

City goals for carbon emissions, local-owned businesses, and women/BIPOC-owned businesses

W Washington zoning documents

Ben and Sam talk about the first in-person Common Council meeting since the start of the covid-19 pandemic. Main topics include a Common Council harassment policy, subcommittee self-evaluations, and new citywide lighting policy changes. Your intrepid correspondents also touch on pickle ball, curtain hangings, county reproductive health services, simmering public policy, LEDership, Robert's Rules, the merits of a 5-point scale, and Common Council recreational traditions. 

Meeting Agenda

Public Health Expanding Reproductive Services in Dane County

List of County Reproductive Health Services

Sample Subcommittee Self-Evaluation Form

International Dark Sky Association

Ben and Sam catch-up on the June Common Council meetings covering protest petition changes, metro redesign, and several rezoning proposals. They also touch on significant local government happenings, bookcases, Park street coffee destinations, state supreme court decisions, cat lactose tolerance, new alder appointments, naked bike rides, and malls in Singapore.

City Resources

6/7 Meeting Details  - Agenda and minutes.

6/21 Meeting Details - Agenda and minutes.

Protest Petition Proposal - Alder Bennett's proposal to change protest petition process for rezoning amendments. 

Metro Redesign Proposal Map - New routes as well as impacts to geographic areas in terms of wait times and walking distance to access.

City of Madison Zoning Ordinance - Differences between TR - U1 and TR - U2 zoning rules. TL;DR TR - U2 is denser.

Articles

WPR: The Highland Park shooting suspect considered a second attack in Wisconsin, police say

WPR: Open letter to UW-Madison leaders calls for action following attack on international student near campus

WPR: The Wisconsin Supreme Court says ballot drop boxes aren't allowed in the state

6 Ways to Advance Equity in Public Transportation

Ben and Sam cover the introduction of new alders, comment process changes, suggested lighting practices, Lake Mendota sidewalks, more special recovery charges, and historic preservation changes.

Meeting Agenda for 5/24

Comments from Smartgrowth on historic preservation changes

Blog post from Alder Figueroa Cole about Common Council process changes

Outdoor Lighting best practices

Ben and Sam welcome Reez Bailey to the Uncommon Council for an interview about his experience running to be alder in district 4. Reez shares tips on how to get involved in local politics and what it takes to get your message heard. We also talk PFAS, Pokemon cards, Dostoyevsky, stand-up cliches, and local cuisine. 

See more of Reez talking about police reform and surprisingly still relevant sports references here. 

Stuff from the episode:

Capital City Theatre website.

Spring brings a wave of new Common Council appointees and the approval of a host of new projects. The alders say yes to the address on Linden Ave for a new housing development and give a free hand to expand the previous landfill. Ben and Sam look at what all of the new faces and approved places mean for the city. 

Agenda - for Consent Agenda items and more links/resources

Alders Martin (11), Albouras (20), Abbas (11), and Lemmer (3) resigning. See this page for submitting and application to be appointed if you live in district 20 or district 11. The district 3 deadline has passed and district 11 has not been announced yet. 

Women's Medical Fund - accepting donations to help connect women with abortion resources

Police Quarterly Report  - overall downward trends in crime from last year

Artist renderings of the Linden Ave development proposal - including "Passive House" efficiency measures

Far East Sustainability Project - future option to expand old landfill and add more sustainable waste disposal options to keep tipping fees low

Well 15 PFAS Treatment - proposal for a contract to remove undesirable PFAS from well water

This latest Madison Common Council meeting must have been dry clean only because Ben and Sam shrank the content down from 9.5 hours to a cozy 1. We welcome a President and Vice President for the council and still have time for lively road resurfacing and body worn camera pilot debates. 

Meeting Agenda

Isaza, Gabrielle T., et al. "Evaluation of police use of force de‐escalation training: assessing the impact of the integrating Communications assessment, and tactics (ICAT) training program for the university of Cincinnati, oh police division." (2020).

Cap Times article about Lake Mendota road resurfacing

 Resource Recovery special charge (recycling)

Turner, Broderick L., et al. "Body camera footage leads to lower judgments of intent than dash camera footage." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 116.4 (2019): 1201-1206.

Ben and Sam don't always know what they've got til it's gone. But they do know how to volunteer for Earth Day, whether you can fire a fire chief, the size of the Vilas Zoo committee, how to wish they were Oscar Mayer wieners, and how to bring noise pollution down to zero. 

Get city-provided gloves, bags, and rakes by signing up for the Earth Day challenge on 4/23. 

Find current committee vacancies and apply. 

What's a PFAS?

Oscar Mayer Special Area Plan

Roadway Cafe Proposal Summary

Vision Zero Plan

Big Yellow Taxi (Joni Mitchell)

Ben and Sam celebrate 2sday's Uncommon Council by reviewing another marathon meeting. Major topics include a watershed rezoning debate about the morality of building new housing in F-35 zones and approval for accepting a federal police funding grant. People come for the parliamentary procedural changes but they stay for that sweet, sweet crackle sound. 

Agenda and Minutes

Trojan Horse Affair, This American Life podcast

Madison TIF Resources

The World Bank on Tax Increment Financing (TIF)

Jetline F-35 film project

US DOJ COPS Hiring Grant

Ben, Claire, and Sam are back together to talk through the 2/1/22 city of Madison Common Council meeting. We talk positive covid-19 trends, alcohol samples, Kiva (and Keva), Canadian business incursions, where ducks swim, and literally being exponential.

Read through the agenda or watch the video of the .

Know Your Alder with Gary Halverson of A.D. 17 by checking out his candidate website and this Q&A with Cap Times.

Get encouraged (right now) by positive trends on the Covid-19 dashboard.

Read about totaled dump trucks, entrepreneur grants for women, "artist at work" grants, and Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program grants.

Be reassured that our city has staff constantly work to line up with Disadvantaged Business Enterprise guidelines.