Eli Judge

Like many of my peers, I have fallen down the dark pit of midterms over the past two weeks. That, along with the time demands of the ongoing budget process, are what I present as excuses for my extended hiatus from blogging. With that said, let’s touch on a few topics of interest to the campus area.

At the Sept. 25 council meeting, I designed and introduced a new tool to enhance tenants’ rights, which I am calling the Photo Ordinance. This new provision would “require landlords to obtain, maintain, and provide or make available, upon request, photographic evidence of damage, waste or neglect being charged against a tenant’s security deposit.” Since I took my chair as the 8th district representative, I have seen several cases in which unscrupulous landlords have charged tenants for items that don’t fit the scale of the damage or never existed in the first place. The end result is that tenants lose a portion -- or in some cases all -- of their security deposit. This ordinance ensures that some degree of accountability will be placed on these unfair charges which often fall on the backs of low-income, check-to-check students and families.

The proposal also stands to help landlords in the long run. Landlords can find themselves in court with a fraudulent tenant claiming that the charges pressed against them were false. This ordinance will make sure that landlords have the proof necessary to make sure that dishonest tenants (claiming innocence when they did, in fact, do harm to their unit) will themselves be held accountable for damage they caused. Earlier last week, the Daily Cardinal brought up the important question of the possible burden this could place on landlords with regards to the cost of cameras/storage systems. I take this point very seriously due to the large group of good operators we have in our city. I believe that the savings of court cases deterred by this ordinance will, in the long run, more than cover the costs of the tools needed for its enforcement.

To address the concern that very little time would be provided to take and document the needed pictures, I provide the case of the massive, twelve story Embassy Apartment building on University Avenue. In a recent conversation I had with Mr. Orosz, the owner of the property, he described his system of documenting damage done to his units. He is, as far as I can tell, already in full compliance with the Photo Ordinance. He also brought up a case in which the photos he took of a damaged property actually saved him from going to court. If a twelve-story apartment building can implement this procedure during the 48-hours of move-out and move-in, any landlord can.

The ordinance should appear on the Housing Committee’s agenda for November 7th. I’m planning to meet with representatives of various student, apartment, neighborhood, and landlord associations before then. I hope that any suggestions, be it from my constituents or colleagues on the council, be sent to me so we can make amendments if necessary.

Moving on. Several major 8th district construction projects have grabbed the media’s attention recently. Whether it is the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery near Union South or the Hillel redevelopment on Langdon St. (both of which are phenomenal projects),
our area will see a bunch of cranes over the next three years. While these projects, once they begin construction, may provide headaches in the form of traffic and noise, both developments will be great assets for years to come.

Students may have noticed the addition of some wonderfully-bright pedestrian scale lighting in Concrete Park (the space between Statesider and Towers). I hope that the dramatically increased visibility afforded by the lights will help residents get home safely and deter street-level crime. If you know of an area that you think could benefit from increased lighting, please let me know! My advocating for our lighting to alders and traffic engineering will only be effective if I know where you think it needs to be aimed!

That’s it for now. As usual, feel free to stop by my “Alder Hours” (every Monday from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. and every first Thursday from 5 to 6:15 p.m. at Lakefront on Langdon), e-mail at district8@cityofmadison.com, or call (608) 322-6358 (use area code) to have a chat.

Since some attention has been recently paid to the upcoming photo ordinance, I felt it proper to give a quick update regarding its progress. I appreciate Kate Maternowski’s thoughtful comments on this issue in Friday's Badger Herald.

Over the past couple weeks, I have discussed the language and potential effects of the ordinance with people on both sides of the debate. I am pleased that students, tenants, advocates, and several alders have shown great enthusiasm for the new law. Understanding that the best suggestions for altering a proposal often come from its strongest opponents, I asked for a meeting with Nancy Jensen, the president of the Apartment Association of South Central Wisconsin, to discuss what I expected to be grave concerns about the ordinance.

The result was very surprising. Ms. Jensen revealed to me that she, along with her organization, believes the ordinance is a good idea. She spoke to the point that it was unfortunate that the government needed to coerce landlords into following a "great business practice," but understood the necessity of writing it into law. Unless there are drastic changes to the language of the ordinance, Ms. Jensen will be actively urging the Common Council to support its adoption.

I am grateful for her bold leadership on this issue; her willingness to disagree with some of her colleagues demonstrates her sincere concern for tenants’ rights, honorable business practices, and the student population at large. While there are hundreds of great landlords, both downtown and elsewhere, some have developed the tendency to generate exaggerated and, in several cases, bogus charges against the tenants with whom they should be serving with honesty and integrity. I echo Ms. Jensen in her regret that government is necessary here but am confident that the tenant-friendly housing providers will understand the need and potential benefits of this ordinance.

As the link at the beginning of this post reminds, the ordinance will see its next attention at the Housing Committee meeting on Nov. 7. I strongly encourage students and my colleagues on the Common Council to join in our discussion next Wednesday evening.

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.

(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.