City-County Building
Common Council

City Meetings and Updates Week of April 7

posted 
  • City Meetings:
    • Finance Committee 4/7
    • Plan Commission 4/7
    • Transportation Commission 4/9
  • Metro Transit Enacting New Safety Measures to Protect Drivers and Passengers
  • April’s East District MPD Coffee With a Cop Scheduled for 4/22
  • Madison Public Library Celebrates National Library Week 4/6-4/12, Invites Visitors to Advocate for Libraries
  • Events & Announcements

City Meetings

Finance Committee

The Finance Committee meeting will take place on Monday, April 7, at 4:30 p.m. in virtual format. Agenda items include setting the rates for Sewer Utility and Stormwater Utility, which according to Finance’s estimated customer analysis document, means a monthly increase to the average residential customer of $3.86 for sanitary sewer, $0.18 for stormwater, and $0 for landfill fees. The Finance Committee meeting will also include an update on federal executive orders and directives to pause federal grants.

Plan Commission

The Plan Commission meeting will take place on Monday, April 7, at 5:30 p.m. in virtual format. Agenda items include allowing hotels to rent fifty percent of their rooms for stays of thirty consecutive days or more, as well as development-related requests. There is a development proposal in District 16 (but near District 3) for a new, two-story Summit Credit Union branch at 6501 Kilpatrick Lane. It will use a driveway shared with the Kwik Trip on Kilpatrick Lane. My understanding is that they have outgrown their nearby current location on the other side of Sprecher Road.

Here is the Legistar item. The zoning on this parcel already allows for this; theproposed approval is for a Conditional Use Permit for the building’s drive-through service window. Here's a link to their project plans and here's a link to Planning staff's comments on the proposal with a recommendation of approval. Staff are recommending a condition of approval for "thicker, more year-round landscaping" for a barrier to prevent headlights from cars in the drive-through shining off the property. The staff report also includes a number of recommended conditions of approval from Traffic Engineering that require stop signs on their shared driveway with Kwik Trip along with public signage and pavement markings as required by traffic engineers.

Transportation Commission

The Transportation Commission meeting will take place on Wednesday, April 9, at 5:00 p.m. in virtual format. Agenda items include providing Metro staff the authority to issue citations for nonpayment of bus fare and updating the Rules of Conduct and Inappropriate Conduct Transit Exclusion Procedure. See the below section about Metro transit’s safety measures for more context about the reason for these proposed changes.

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

Metro Transit Enacting New Safety Measures to Protect Drivers, Passengers

In response to a series of recent incidents, Metro Transit and the City of Madison are examining current policies and procedures and putting together a set of initiatives to enhance employee safety.  

Ensuring the safety and well-being of all drivers and passengers continues to be Metro’s number one priority and concern. City officials from the Mayor’s Office and the Madison Police Department look forward to working with Metro employees and worker representatives to ensure a safe workplace for operators.

Measures include:

  • Assembling an Incident Review Board of drivers, supervisors, and union reps
  • Updating driver training and procedures, including de-escalation training
  • Citations for non-fare payment (this will require the Common Council to change to the relevant Madison General Ordinances, see this explanatory memo from Metro Transit)
  • Assembling an interagency safety group that includes MPD
  • Increasing the penalty for disorderly conduct toward drivers, similar to that in place to protect election workers (this will require the Common Council to change to the relevant Madison General Ordinances)
  • Driver safety barriers in new busses and exploring retrofitting the rest of the fleet (I expect we’ll see City Capital Budget requests related to this once they have a plan)
  • Expanding public messaging and education regarding driver and passenger safety

More information is available in Metro’s statement.

April’s East District MPD Coffee With a Cop Scheduled for April 22nd

From East District Police Captain Ed Marshall:

“We will have Coffee With a Cop at the East District Station on Tuesday April 22, at 2PM!

Special guests for this event will be our East District Mental Health Team.  Mental Health Officer Haley Massey and Crisis Worker Hope Edgren will discuss their roles in the Mental Health Unit, as well as how the MHU came to be.

Mental Health awareness and informed response are a key facet of the training that all of our Officers receive both in the Academy and during Professional Development.  Fun fact: MPD is one of fifteen "learning sites" designated by the U.S. DOJ's Bureau of Justice Assistance, which means that other Police Departments and mental health entities interested in working jointly in their jurisdictions will visit us to learn our process.

https://www.cityofmadison.com/police/community/mentalhealth/

Come join Team East on 4/22!

-Captain Ed”

Madison Public Library Celebrates National Library Week April 6th-12th, Invites Visitors to Advocate for Libraries

From the Madison Public Library’s news release: “From April 6-12, Madison Public Library is celebrating National Library Week online and at all library locations with a variety of activities including a “share your story” advocacy postcard campaign. 

Flyer with National Library Week's theme of Drawn to the Library
Image credit: American Library Association

The theme for National Library Week 2025,  Drawn to the Library, highlights that millions of people visit the library each week across the country. The draw is that young families can stop in for play and storytime, students can sketch out their next creative project in a makerspace, while seniors can get tech help or connect with their neighbors through wellness activities. Libraries of all kinds help connect the dots from one part of life’s journey to the next.

[…] Madison Public Library is inviting library users to visit one of its nine locations (or the Dream Bus) during National Library Week and fill out a Share Your Story postcard detailing how library services, resources, collections, and spaces have impacted them. Library funding nationwide is currently facing challenges at the federal level as the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is being dismantled by an executive order issued on March 14, 2025.

“The recent decision to put all 75 staff at IMLS on administrative leave for up to 90 days has essentially ensured that federal grant funding to libraries will be frozen, if not canceled entirely, during that time,” said Madison Public Library Director Tana Elias. “That funding freeze could significantly affect library budgets at the local, system and regional level and reduce or eliminate important services such as shared research databases and online collections, outerlibrary loan, access to internet and technology, and more.””

Events & Announcements

Was this page helpful to you?

District 3 - Alder Field

Alder Derek Field

Alder Derek Field

District 3
Contact Alder Field

Categories