Budget, Redistricting, PFAS pollution and helping our housing insecure neighbors
/Dear Neighbors,
The sun is going down earlier, the kids are back in school and we are entering fall which is budget time for Dane County. In this update, I will outline the budget process, provide details on redistricting, discuss how I am fighting for clean water and to regulate PFAS pollution as well as talk about an innovative resolution to help our housing insecure neighbors.
I am looking forward to seeing you all at the Willy Street Fair this weekend and I will be marching in the parade with my daughter. We invite you to join us!
Budget
I look forward to working with our neighbors in District 6 and the community on a budget that reflects our values of equity, social justice and opportunity for all of our neighbors. I will be releasing my budget initiatives after I review the department and administration’s proposed budget.
Here is the County Board meeting schedule for the budget, regular meetings and redistricting meetings. We will also be working on the budget in our standing committees and I will keep you up to date on that schedule as well:
September 13 at 6:00pm – Budget public hearing on departmental budget requests for departments reporting to the following committees: Environment, Agriculture, and Natural Resources; Public Works and Transportation; Zoning and Land Regulation; and Personnel and Finance
September 14 at 6:00pm – Budget public hearing on departmental budget requests for departments reporting to the following committees: Health and Human Needs, Public Protection and Judiciary, and Executive
September 23 at 7:00pm – Regular meeting
October 7 at 7:00pm – Regular meeting
October 14 at 6:00pm – Public hearing for redistricting
October 20 at 6:00pm – 2022 Budget public hearing on the County Executive’s proposed budget
October 21 at 7:00pm – Regular meeting
November 4 at 7:00pm – Regular meeting
November 8 at 7:00pm – 2022 Budget deliberations (November 10 and 11 are scheduled dates if budget deliberations extend past the first day)
November 18 at 7:00pm – Regular meeting
We have a budget simulation tool that you can use to help build a proposed budget. As always, I welcome your feedback!
https://board.countyofdane.com/budget/budget-simulation
Housing Solutions for People Experiencing Homelessness
I am happy to support a resolution that provides funding to create temporary and permanent housing opportunities for our neighbors experiencing homelessness. The resolution authorizes $7.5M in funding and designates an additional $2.25M to expand outreach to unsheltered persons, fund the installation and operations of another tiny house village, and provide additional funds for the purchase of a hotel and multi-unit buildings for permanent housing for people experiencing homelessness:
https://dane.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=5091155&GUID=637D78E8-CA2D-4D8D-A185-435723487EA4&Options=Advanced&Search=
It also creates a staff team to work on implementing lawful car-camping options and creates a temporary exception for burdensome campground ordinances for people experiencing homelessness and living in County campgrounds.
I want to give a huge thanks to Supervisor Heidi Wegleitner who authored this resolution as well as the description above that you just read about the resolution. The resolution has already been amended with feedback from the parks commission, health and human needs committee and Board of Health.
The resolution will need the full support of the community to succeed so please do what you can to spread the word and get your friends and neighbors in other districts to support it as well.
Redistricting
Following the federal census, County government creates new County Board supervisory district maps. Dane County has a non-partisan and independent redistricting commission. With the pandemic, there have been challenges with the federal census so we have a tight timeline to draw these new boundaries. The process must:
Be independent, impartial and fair
Be accountable and transparent
Meet all state statutory deadlines
Fully engage the public.
To further these goals, we encourage you to help us draw these maps. We have a tool to do so here:
https://www.danecountyplanning.com/Projects/Redistricting
Here are some important dates:
Oct 4—Committee of Whole on Redistricting:
The Redistricting Commission will present its redistricting map choices to the County Board at a Committee of the Whole. There will be opportunity for board members to ask questions, but no public comment at this meeting.
Oct 6—Executive Committee meeting, 5:00 p.m. start:
Executive Committee will take public comment on the map choices presented by the Redistricting Commission on October 4th.
Executive Committee will consider the Redistricting Commission map choices presented by the Redistricting Commission on October 4th with a possible decision on a single map recommendation to the County Board.
Oct 7—Executive Committee meeting, 5:00 p.m. start:
If not already decided at the October 6th meeting, the Executive Committee will finalize its recommendation to the County Board for selection of one redistricting map.
Oct 14—Special meeting of County Board to take up the redistricting map recommendation
PFAS Regulation and Public Information
In my last update, I provided a detailed update on a resolution to provide public information on PFAS testing at the airport along with legal opinions on how we can help protect our neighbors from PFAS solution. Since my last update, I reworked the resolution to focus on PFAS pollution and am happy to have 20 co-sponsors on the new resolution that can be read here:
https://dane.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=5091107&GUID=53E44BA0-87B3-4D50-890C-81711516E4E9&Options=Advanced&Search=
The next committee it will go to is the Public, Protection and Judiciary committee on September 28th. It passed the Environment, Agriculture and Natural Resources committee unanimously and I will be testifying in front of other committees as the resolution advances. Public information and transparency are critically important and I will continue to prioritize this in my tenure on the County Board.
Quick Updates and Neighborhood News
Cheers to all the volunteers, organizers, neighborhood association board members, vendors and community who made Orton-Front Festival 2021 a raging success. The logistics of coordinating a 4 day festival across 2 parks with multiple stages was unprecedented and very nicely done! Here is a picture of me volunteering at the beer tent on Saturday at the Fest.
I will be marching in the Willy Street Parade on Sunday September 19th and invite you to join me. We will meet in the parking lot of Heartland Credit Union at 10:45 AM. My daughter Goldie will be joining me and we encourage you and your family to join us as well!
The Dane CORE Emergency Rental Assistance program has processed over 14,000 applications and assisted households in paying over $13 million dollars in back-owed rent.
More details on the program can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c_CES_hc_XjqJz_ZNuB7AOvaJ2URkU-7/view
From Public Health Madison Dane County: Face Covering Emergency Order #2 is in effect. This Order continues to require face coverings among people ages two and older when in any enclosed space open to the public where other people, except for members of the person’s own household or living unit are present.
Face coverings are also required while driving or riding in any form of public transportation. Two exemptions were added pertaining to playing wind instruments and presenting or performing. In both cases, certain criteria must be met to remove masks.
Thanks for taking the time to read this update. I really appreciate all your feedback and support. The consistent dialogue and connections that we maintain with each other keep our community strong and united.