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D6 Items of Interest Week of January 20, 2025

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Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Inauguration Day, a rare combination that has only happened twice since 1986. I hope we take it as an opportunity to reflect on the radical vision of Dr. King and give us fuel for the struggles ahead. In his "Beyond Vietnam” address given on April 4, 1967, at Riverside Church in New York City, Dr. King's identification of the systemic roots of racism, poverty, and war still resonate:

"I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."

Dr. King went on to talk about the role giant multinational corporations play, especially in the Global South:

"A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say: “This is not just.”

Those of us who want justice, have our work cut out for us on a local, national, global scale.

City Offices are closed on Monday, January 20, 2025: Administrative offices are closed on Monday, January 20, for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. All emergency services will be open; please call 911.

  • Emergency Water Issue: Call Madison Water Utility at 608-266-4665, 24/7.
  • Sanitary Sewer Back-up: Call 608-266-4430. An emergency crew will respond to your call.
  • Report a Problem: Report non-emergencies that can wait until the next City working day.

Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Awards, Monday, January 20: The program will also feature the MLK Community Choir and presentation of the 2025 MLK Humanitarian Awards by Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway and Dane County Executive Melissa Agard.

Subzero Temperatures May Delay Trash Pickup on January 21 Due to the subzero temperatures expected for the morning on January 21, 2025, some residents may experience a delay in their trash and recycling pickup. The Streets Division will be come back on Wednesday, January 22 to finish any areas they could not collect on Tuesday.

Public Input Meeting - Madison LakeWay Schematic Design, Thursday, January 23: As part of the Madison LakeWay development initiative, Madison Parks is seeking your comments on the proposed lakeshore and path features along the John Nolen Drive causeway. The area under consideration spans 0.6 miles of public lakeshore and is the first phase of implementation for the Madison LakeWay.

Boards, Commissions, and Committee Meetings

Note: This is not a complete list of meetings for this upcoming week. All meetings and their details can be found at the Meeting Schedule page.

  • Finance Committee: The Finance Committee meeting will take place on Tuesday, January 21, at 4:30 p.m. in virtual format. Agenda items include increasing the threshold requiring competitive selection of service contracts from $50,000 to $75,000.

    2. 86622 Submitting the appointment of Justin Stuehrenberg for confirmation of a one-year extension term as the Transit General Manager.

    I want to find out why the Metro/Transit General Manager is not seeking another 5-year contract.

    5. 86652 Amending Section 4.26, City Purchasing, of the Madison General Ordinances to increase the threshold requiring competitive selection of service contracts from $50,000 to $75,000 and make other clarifications.

    The idea is that it is a more efficient use of staff time if the threshold is changed. This was part of the Mayor’s 2025 Operating budget:

    “Finally, the executive budget recommends that staff pursue a policy and ordinance change in 2025 to raise the minimum thresholds for various procurement activities. This includes 1) changing the threshold for formal bids and Requests for Proposal (RFPs) from $50,000 to $75,000; 2) changing the threshold for purchase of service contracts from $10,000 to $20,000; and 3) changing the noncompetitive selection threshold from $50,000 to $75,000. Affirmative action thresholds for contracts may also need to be adjusted. These changes are expected to reduce the number of formal proposals by 10%. While these policy changes do not have a direct fiscal impact, it is expected that these changes will save staff time in the Finance Department and for all agencies that issue RFPs. This will create operational efficiencies and allow agencies to reallocate staff time to other priorities.”

    8. 86614 Providing Silk Road Restaurant or its assigns a $117,500 loan to purchase a commercial property at 1920 South Park Street through the Commercial Ownership Assistance program funded by the TID 51 Small Business Development programs using TID #51 incremental revenue as authorized in the TID #51 Project Plan (RES-23-00208) adopted by the Common Council on March 7, 2023). (District 14)

    10. 86533 Amending the 2025 Adopted Operating Budget for the Planning Division to apply for and accept a $30,000 grant from the Certified Local Government Program and authorizing the Planning Division to retain a consultant to undertake the work pursuant to the terms of the grant.

    I am a sponsor. The CLG grant will be used to support gathering an accurate and current inventory of known archaeological sites located in the City of Madison.

    12. 86630 Approving Plans and Specifications for Hermina Pedestrian Bridge and Amending the 2025 Engineering Major Streets Capital Budget. (District 15)

    Map showing location of new pedestrian bridge at Hermina and Clyde Gallagher.

    15. 86505 Amending the Police Department operating budget; and authorizing the Mayor to sign Wisconsin Department of Health Services Opioid Abatement Efforts by Law Enforcement grant award contracts in the additional amounts of $15,000 and $153,939 to support the Madison Area Resource Initiative (MARI)

    16. 86599 Amending the Metro Transit Operating Budget to provide additional contracted service for the City of Verona and incorporation of federal planning funds.

    Fiscal Note:  The proposed resolution amends Metro Transit’s 2025 Operating Budget to appropriate revenues and costs associated with contracted service to the City of Verona and to appropriate additional federal funds.

    Annual revenues from the Verona contract are $587,268 with a partial year amount in 2025 of $295,740. To implement the service, the proposed resolution would increase Metro’s authorized position count by 5.5 FTE and provide an increase to other non-personnel costs including parts, fuel, and contracted paratransit service. The annual cost of these changes is $586,000 with an expected 2025 cost of $287,187. The net increase of 5.5 FTE comes from both the creation of new positions and removing an existing Data Analyst position and two LTE Marketing positions.

    The resolution also appropriates Federal Transit Administration section 5304 funds to conduct long range transit planning activities. The total award is $640,000. This resolution appropriates $320,000 of that amount in the 2025 budget.

    In total, the proposed resolution increases Metro’s 2025 budgeted revenues by $615,740 and increase budgeted expenses by $607,187. Any revenues in excess of expenses would go to Metro fund balance.

  • Transportation Commission meeting will take place on Wednesday January 22 at 5p in a virtual format. Agenda highlights include 2025 Comp Plan Progress Report, Update on Transit Equity for People with Disabilities, and West Washington & Southwest Commuter Path Review and Feedback (presentation)

If you would like more information about becoming a member of a City board, commission, or committee, please visit the page linked here.

Public Information Meetings (PIM’s)

  • Sauk Creek Greenway, Wednesday, January 22: Join the City for the fifth public meeting to learn about what is proposed in the Final Sauk Creek Corridor Plan! The virtual public meeting will take place on January 22 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Registration prior to the meeting is required.
  • Public Input Meeting - Madison LakeWay Schematic Design, Thursday, January 23: As part of the Madison LakeWay development initiative, Madison Parks is seeking your comments on the proposed lakeshore and path features along the John Nolen Drive causeway. The area under consideration spans 0.6 miles of public lakeshore and is the first phase of implementation for the Madison LakeWay.

Announcements and News Releases

Please visit the City news webpage to find additional news and announcements and to subscribe to receive notification of news releases as they are posted.

Events

Additional upcoming events can also be found on the City events calendar.

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District 6 - Alder Rummel

Alder Marsha Rummel

Alder Marsha A. Rummel

District 6
Contact Alder Rummel