Eli Judge

The first Common Council meeting quickly approaches and, as promised, the first of the elijudge.org blogs is born. The campaign has been a long one, filled with passion on both sides. As I did at our campaign gathering on April 3rd, I just wanted to thank Lauren for working with me to raise the debate on the things the 8th district cares about most. Continuing on that note, I'm also excited to get to work in the chair of Austin King. Surely, following in the footsteps of a man who put countless hours into the functions of Madison will be a difficult task.

With that said, we look to the new crew on City Council. There are nine of us, a huge number if you are any Madison history buff. During the numerous "alder classes," I expect I'll get to know all of them closely.

So, starting the tradition of transparent decision-making, I wanted to explain a conclusion I've been coming to for some time now:

One of the first thing a municipal officer does is get sworn into office. Look closely at the hyperlink and you can see that, here in Madison, we have the added option of attaching a supplemental "Statement to the Oath" which is directly tied to protesting the ban on civil unions and marriage.

To set the stage for the rest of this post, a little background is necessary. During the 2006 campaign, I had the privilege and honor of serving as the chair of Students for a Fair Wisconsin on the UW-Madison campus. The SFW campaign worked tirelessly to defeat the ban, working hand in hand with the College Democrats, hundreds of other organizations and thousands of different students. Although the rest of the state came up a little short on voting "No," the Madison campus voted in record-breaking midterm election numbers against the ban.

With all that said, I will not be taking the supplemental statement to the oath.

I have told this to a couple students and future-fellow alders and many are relatively surprised. Given my past record and the fact that I publicly identify as "gay", I am usually considered a sure-fire "statement-er". I can assure you, my decision has nothing to do with a change in heart over the ban and its effects. I will continue to fight the ban, prejudice, or hate against any community until the day I die. I simply do not feel the need to declare that truth in the same breath by which I am put into public office.

On a personal note, I also have reservations about tagging things to an oath of office. I fear that, in 20 years, as I watch my children tear down this hateful, worthless excuse for a constitutional addition, some other city or town may decide to follow our precedent and, in the event that we pass an amendment that allows same-sex marriage, establishes a statement against gay marriage. Admittedly, my long-sighted view of the matter is broadly applied, but I fear for the child sitting in a conservative town or village, questioning his or her own sexuality only to find that the individuals who administer his or her town have "stated" that he doesn't deserve equal rights.

With that said, there are some advantages to our city having the statement. Dan Ross, a former appointee to the Equal Opportunities Commission and fellow activist with Fair Wisconsin, left his position on the EOC in light of the ban's passage. His position is more than understandable and, in my eyes, commendable. I believe that, if having the statement can act as a deterrent to loosing such qualified and dedicated public servants as Dan, it serves a good purpose.

It’s a mixed bag. I won’t be taking the statement, but I completely understand why the City and those utilizing the addition would.

Changing gears a bit, the agenda of this week's CC meeting can be found online. Shifting through the 70 page PDF can be a pain, but I'd like to point out one item of impact for the 8th district.

Item 116 aims to "establish regulations for the sale of secondhand textbooks." Alder King, as he explained it to me, got this ordinance started in light of the increase in textbook theft and the frequency by which those stolen items were being sold for quick cash. The change that 116 would create is an additional step in the sellback process. The bookstore would need to record the books and manage the transaction in the same manner as a pawnshop. This would allow for greater tracking and grater aid in theft investigations.

The reason I am inclined to vote in favor of the ordinance is because it is in the students’ interests to do so. A student who has his/her books stolen can sometimes not afford to replace them. Even though the university tends to keep many textbooks on reserve, the student's grades will suffer. If the perception of this ordinance alone can help to curtail the growing trend of textbook theft than I feel it is my responsibility to vote for item 116.

I am running short on time for this post. Please comment on anything in this post and I will do my best to reply, should the post be soliciting one.

Eli

Tuesday evening’s Common Council meeting, with 223 agenda items, will advance a variety of important initiatives, including a plan for Allied Drive redevelopment and the creation of a Regional Transit Authority. I co-sponsored the latter resolution because I believe that a commuter rail line will lead to economic development and provide exciting new transportation options for students. After our resolution passes, the ball will be in the state legislature’s court to provide similar authorization.

One agenda item that promises to attract a lot of attention is the resolution urging the U.S. House of Representatives to initiate impeachment proceedings against President Bush and Vice President Cheney. Let me be perfectly clear: I detest the current presidential administration and look with increasing longing toward January 20, 2009 and the hopeful inauguration of a progressive president. Further, I believe that President Bush demonstrates a cavalier disregard for the Constitution and basic civil liberties on issues ranging from domestic wiretapping to torture at Guantanamo Bay. I will not, however, support the impeachment resolution before Common Council.

My first reason is not terribly original but nonetheless deserves a few words. During the campaign, I made a promise to voters in my district that I would focus exclusively on local issues and devote my time as a Madison elected official to strengthening basic city services. The safety of our streets and sidewalks represents the most vital of these services for downtown and periphery residents alike. I do not feel that it is within my prerogative to legislate on issues of national import like impeachment of the president and vice president. I share the dismay of my sponsoring colleagues at the litany of presidential offenses listed in the resolution, but I feel that a measure urging impeachment falls squarely outside the purview of my locally-elected position.

An equally important rationale for my abstention derives from the wisdom of one of my political role models, Senator Russ Feingold. In an Aug. 19 column for the Appleton Post-Crescent, Feingold wrote:

“As I travel around Wisconsin holding listening sessions in every county, there is a common refrain when people talk about the misconduct of this administration: that the president and other administration officials must be held accountable for their wrongdoing. They have violated the trust of the American people by misleading this country into, and subsequently mismanaging, a disastrous war, and by undermining
the rule of law at home.

Some have coalesced around a call to impeach the president and the vice president for their wrongdoing. I believe that the president and the vice president may well have committed impeachable offenses.

That does not mean, however, that putting the country through two potentially lengthy impeachments in the House and trials in the Senate is required or the best thing for the country. Congress should exercise its discretion by not pursuing impeachment so that it can focus on fixing this nation's pressing problems.”

I trust Senator Feingold’s prediction that impeachment proceedings would hijack Congress’ agenda and stall meaningful work on issues of greater importance like expanding access to health care and ending the war in Iraq.

That’s it for now – expect a longer post in a few days to recap what happens at Tuesday evening’s meeting. On a closing note, my sister Casey moved to Ann Arbor last week to begin her freshman year at the University of Michigan. I sure hope she enjoyed her first college football game.

The bar called Madhatters, formerly in the University Square area, is going to the Alcohol License Review Committee to possibly be moved to where Fudruckers used to be on State St.

What are your thoughts on this move? Please send me emails or phone calls so I can get a general idea of what people’s ideas are.

district8@cityofmadison.com
(608) 322-6358 (please use the area code)

I figured it is a good time to cover a few happenings over the past month. This is a good time to let me share a few New Years resolutions that I have made as well.

The Photo Ordinance I authored is moving through committees with some healthy discussion. Recently, the Tenant Landlord Subcommittee made minor changes, including a small addition that says only damages subject to a photo or picture need to be documented. We felt damages like the smell from animals – obviously – cannot have a picture associated with the damage, so it was fair to add such an exemption.

The ordinance has been gaining support from the business community as well. Nancy Jensen, the representative of the Apartment Association that I blogged about in past posts, made an appearance at our meeting to tell the committee why she, and her organization, felt this ordinance both a good idea and better business practice. From there it moves to the Housing Committee, which will be meeting February 6th at 5pm. There will certainly be a few house cleaning amendments to it, so stay tuned for that blog post update.

I strongly believe which ordinance balances the needs of tenants – many of whom are students – and landlords at the same time. This is a win-win for students and the Madison business community.

Aside from the Photo Ordinance, other activity has been happening around Madison. It does not take a meteorologist to notice that snow has hung around for a good part of the winter so far. It makes for great fun down Observatory Hill, but causes a few headaches on Madison’s roads and highways. In response, the downtown alders, along with Ald. Rhodes-Conway, met with several city division heads and staff to further clarify our plans for dealing with snow removal and emergency reaction in the case of a major storm.

As our conversations and meetings continue, I have been working with campus area alders in trying to find ways to reach out to students and keep them informed on the city efforts. One of the methods we came up with was the creation of a Facebook group that not only spells out the city’s policies towards snow, but also has the capacity to alert the members of the group when an emergency is declared. I also hope the student papers will continue to post emergency information on their respective websites. I have also begun to consult with the office of the Mayor and University staff to develop a plan for campus wide emails in order to get the message out as quick as possible.

Now as for those resolutions. With 2008 finally here, I thought it would be proper for me to end this long awaited blog post by sharing my newly formed Eli Judge Alder Resolutions. If you have any comment on my list (along the lines of suggestions as to how I might get things done/ what needs to be done), or anything else for that matter, always feel free to contact me at district8@cityofmadison.com or call me at (608) 322-6258 (please use the area code!).

1. Hold listening sessions, with the help of University and UH private housing, in each of the dorms in the district (Witte, Sellery, Statesider, Towers, and Carson's [for Adams, Tripp, and Slichter]). Further, I intend to hold listening sessions in the Union so students and residents not in University/UH housing can meet with me. In addition, I plan to meet with the executive boards of the UW-Madison Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Council to discuss the affairs of Langdon Street.
2. Assist the Neighborhood/Langdon Watch Programs in any way possible to ensure their success.
3. Pass the Photo Ordinance.
4. Maintain my current attendance record at council meetings. I am proud to serve the 8th District and I will continue my perfect attendance at Council meetings, along with my near-perfect attendance at committees.
5. Work with student tenants rights groups, the Tenant Resource Center, and the Apartment Association in the creation of the Ratemylandlord.com website.
6. Get a stop sign at the corner of Langdon and Francis near the Gamma Phi Beta sorority (east/west traffic).
7. Ensure that the 500/600 blocks of the State St. reconstruction goes smoothly for all parties involved (Students and businesses specifically).
8. Maintain this blog. I have received the suggestion of possibly making smaller posts, thus making fresh posts more common. Expect such a change soon.
9. Whatever you think I should do. Send me emails, call me, or Facebook me to tell me what I should do to make this city/district better.

Like always, I will continue to hold office hours. Given the new semester and a fresh list of classes, I will be scheduling new times that work with my schedule. When I get the times finalized, they will immediately go up on this blog. Stay tuned!

Two final notes to pass along:

First, from the Associated Students of Madison blog: help pick the new UW-Madison Chancellor. Two students will serve on the Search and Screen Committee and this is very important work. Besides picking the next leader of UW’s multi-billion dollar budget, this person will be enormously important in maintaining a successful city-UW relationship! You can find all of the details over at the ASM blog.

Second, if you would like to come chat with me, on Monday, February 11th, the Badger Herald will be sponsoring a debate between the College Democrats and College Republicans. Come find me there! The details can be found here and I am sure the parties involved will be promoting this ahead of time. It runs from 7:30 to 8:30pm and will be going down in the Great Hall in the Memorial Union. The turnout for this is expected to be huge. It should be both educational and a good time!

The photo ordinance will be considered at the Housing Committee tomorrow at 5pm in room LL-110 in the Madison Municipal Building (215 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.).

There is a notable adjustment to the ordinance that I will be introducing tomorrow. A very fair concern was brought up by a notable Madison property owner that, given the language in the current version of the ordinance, landlords would not be able to deduct something from a security deposit on ANY damages unless they had photos for every single damage. The adjustment I am currently working with students, property owners, and the city attorney’s office to craft will shape the ordinance to make sure that landlords can claim deductions for the damages they have authentic photographic proof of, but not the things they have no proof of. The seemingly possible “All or nothing” language in the current ordinance, I found, was an unacceptable violation of basic fairness to property owners. If there are true-blue damages caused by a tenant, damages that a property owner should be compensated for, then it is fair to make sure that a property owner can be reimbursed for them. With that said, the ordinance still protects students and still accomplishes, completely, what I had originally intended with this ordinance.

I hope students who have an interest in this ordinance can find their way to the meeting and share their thoughts on it. If you have any questions, or would like to discuss anything about this ordinance, please feel free to call (6083226358, use area code) or email (district8@cityofmadison.com) and I would be happy to have a chat.

Expect some general thoughts on the process this ordinance has gone through over the past couple weeks.

Today is certainly not "business as usual" around campus. On my way home from class about an hour ago, I saw three very telling events. I watched a group of three people sledding down the stairs on observatory drive. Of course, these steps are meant for walking pedestrians. Continuing down the hill, I watched the 85 bus struggle to free itself from a mound of snow on the street, even though four or five people were shoveling sand at the tires and snow away from them. Upon taking a short cut through the Union to my apartment on Langdon, I noticed that the usually busy Rathskeller was almost completely empty.

Let my comments not be mistaken for criticism towards the university's efforts of street and sidewalk clearing. The reason I mention the state of pedestrian corridors on campus is that the university simply cannot keep up with the excessive amount of snow being dumped on the region.

If it is the case that people cannot move to and from work/class, because doing so risks their personal safety, it is the responsibility of the university to assess the value of keeping classrooms open, against the possible harm that it may cause upon students and staff. Whether it is a student slipping on the snow and ice, or a car sliding through crosswalks, it is only a matter of time until someone gets seriously hurt. If that happens, it will be a terrible day for the university. While we are all here to get an education, the university should not wait to cancel classes until after Madison metro announces a shut down in operations. This is not an appropriate standard. In addition, forcing faculty and staff to use holiday, vacation, or compensation time should they not show up, or leave early today, is irresponsible and shows a lack of respect for the service that those individuals provide to the student population.

I would love to continue into a discussion on how people with disabilities are expected to traverse to class, but I think I would end up getting far too upset to continue.

While the pursuit of truth is a truly honorable goal, if one must sift and winnow through blizzard conditions and impassable roads and sidewalks, one must wonder what harm waiting until tomorrow would do.

(For some background on this post, I suggest you consult some recent articles published in various campus and Madison papers. Some are listed below)

http://badgerherald.com/oped/2008/03/25/its_not_me_its_you.php
http://dailycardinal.com/article/2407
http://badgerherald.com/news/2008/03/12/langdon_plans_capito.php
http://dailycardinal.com/article/2401
http://www.madison.com/wsj/home/local/278040

Over the past couple months, there has been a growing feeling of discontent among the student population towards the group in the downtown area known as Capital Neighborhoods Inc (CNI). CNI, for those not privy to the neighborhood beat, is a conglomeration of several different smaller groups all around the capital square area. The recent catalyst of what could, at times, be described outright anger and rage on the part of most of campus was the “list of ideas” for the downtown that CNI’s Alcohol Issues Subcommittee released to the public in late January. These ideas or proposals included an increase on taxes on alcohol in the city and, more shockingly, the suggestion that all UW students should go through an alcohol issues screening program.

I touched on these issues in my letter addressed to the CNI executive committee (EC) which I am sure will find it’s way onto the internet in short order.

Tonight, the State/Langdon representatives of CNI addressed the EC with the intention of announcing their succession from the central city neighborhood association. Several individuals, including Jess Pavlic (the president of State/Langdon), Josh Monisi, Mikeala Loui, Han Lee (all representatives from the State/Langdon group), and myself, presented a list of grievances to the EC relating to various policy differences, conflicts, and points of contention that the two neighborhoods have. While they didn’t speak, the two-dozen or so State/Langdon residents that attended the meeting listened attentively on the edges of the somewhat crowded room the meeting was held in. A lively, fortunately civil discussion ensued.

A point that was brought up by CNI’s EC centered on the potential lack of longevity that a new student neighborhood could attain. The transient nature of the student population, it was said, would lead to a potential failure of the concept of a campus area group. To that, State/Langdon representatives and I pointed to groups like ASM and the College Democrats/Republicans (all of whom seemed to have an interested representative at this meeting), which, over time, had become institutions of the campus. We felt that the potentially larger territory that a campus neighborhood would encompass would give us a greater pool of people to recruit from and potentially more success in the fight over membership numbers that State/Langdon has had problems with for many years.

A member of the EC pointed out that support from CNI in such an expansion could be beneficial for both our group and theirs. While that is potentially true, we disagreed in that most students familiar with neighborhood politics, even before the alcohol proposals of last January were released, had a very negative view of CNI as a whole. It had become clear to the State/Langdon representatives that recruiting was being hampered, if not made nearly impossible, by our direct association with CNI. The final straw, so to speak, that the January round of policies created led to the “tainting” of what chances State/Langdon had of growing the campus group effectively while maintaining our connection to CNI.

The discussion brought up an essential truth with regards to the interaction of both campus and CNI territory. It was said that some of the issues that the isthmus faces could be best tackled as a combined front, or united effort, of both neighborhood groups. Issues like safety, for example, could be universally addressed and improved by joint interaction. While this was the case, I was quick to bring up the fact that issues, like safety, do not operate within a bubble. One of the primary motivations behind alcohol policies, CNI’s or otherwise, is to control alcohol intake in order to promote public safety and order. It is my opinion that, while we may all agree that we want a safe, fun place to live, having fundamental differences on how we go about building that neighborhood (and the policies that form it) stands in the face of being effective in combating even the most fundamental of problems.

I fully understand the need, now more than ever, for our two communities to start a discussion about where the downtown is going and how our groups are going to interact with each other. The isthmus is a tiny place and neither of our to communities are going anywhere. State/Langdon and I understood that dynamic and considered, at great length, the possibility of remaining a part of CNI. In the end, though, we firmly felt that something new and separate from CNI would be needed should we hope to find anything resembling long-term success.

Even so, at the end of our meeting tonight, State/Langdon and the CNI EC formed an ad hoc committee that comprised of members of both bodies. This group will serve as a transition entity for State/Langdon into independence and also as the new first step into the improved communications between campus and CNI. This plan was met with approval on both sides of the debate and was given a unanimous vote in favor of its undertaking. While a timeline has not been immediately set for State/Langdon’s full independence, I have great faith that the move will be conducted expeditiously and with great concern for detail. I encourage any resident of the campus area to contact me should they desire to voice an opinion on the formation of the new group (contact info below).

All things considered, I believe this will give the campus area the opportunity it needs to truly make a successful neighborhood organization. State/Langdon will continue, and improve, the discourse it has been having with CNI and, hopefully, will also forge a new group capable of lasting for decades.

I had promised a recap of the meeting tonight, and I hope I have done something resembling that. If you have any questions, or just want a first hand account of what happened, feel free, as always, to call me (6083226358), send me and email (district8@cityofmadison.com), or visit my “alder hours” (Mondays at 11:30am in Lakefront on Langdon in the Memorial Union).

On a separate note, tomorrow's (now today's, the 26th) debate between the two candidates for Dane County Board in the 5th district will be held at Tripp Commons (in the Memorial Union) at 5pm. I strongly urge you to stop by if you haven't had a chance to see either (alphabetically) Manning or O'Hagan.