City Forbids Public Input at Meeting, Hears Thrift Committee Tap Dance

Last updated on 2014.01.16

Madison City Hall hosted a stirring sight for all fans of local democracy this evening. Eager, interested citizens filled every seat in the city commission meeting room, ready to participate in an open and frank discussion of community goals and the proper use of tax dollars.

Then Mayor Gene Hexom gaveled the meeting to order, and democracy went downhill from there... mostly. (Democracy did win tonight; I'll get to that.)

The meeting opened with Mayor Hexom asking the city's lawyer, David Jencks, to tell the gathered citizens, basically, to keep their mouths shut:

Well, the rules of order under which we should operate are that unless there is a motion and second on the floor, that there should be no further discussion or there shouldn't be public comment or public input. If the public wants to be able to offer their positions, their views, or discuss their topics, they are certainly welcome to request to be on the agenda. It's my understanding that Mr. Johnson and Mr. Sinclair are the ones that have asked to be on the agenda. It is my understanding they'll be giving an update with respect to their project. But unless this commission puts a motion and a second on the floor, other input or other discussion should not be allowed [David Jencks, city attorney, Madison City Commission meeting, 2012.07.09].

The cynical laughter you hear is Madison residents recognizing that they are being told what most people suspect about Madison government, that their input isn't really welcome.

Thrift store boosters Clark Sinclair and Jerry Johnson proceed to offer less of an update on the project and more of a tap dance. I'll put Clark's full transcript below. But me highlight the two most important things Clark Sinclair said, with what others in the room read as nervous near-contrition:

Instead of coming before you tonight and asking you to support our proposal, what we'd like to do is step back here and ask the city commission to appoint a task force that would develop a comprehensive plan for revitalizing downtown. That seems to be the thing that most everybody can agree upon. Even the most negative people feel that something needs to be done [Clark Sinclair, Madison City Commission meeting, 2012.07.09].

We the people were kept silent at tonight's city commission meeting, but the noise we made in our own forums over the past month evidently got to the thrift store organizers. Sinclair didn't admit that asking for a $150,000 subsidy from the city to build a million-dollar thrift store to compete with existing private secondhand stores was a bad idea. But neither did he resubmit the committee's request for public dollars. Like it or not, the thrift store boosters had to surrender to overwhelming public opposition and back off their money grab.

But don't think Sinclair and friends aren't still reaching for your wallet:

We're not here tonight to do anything but suggest that this task force be formed and let you know that our goal of having a thrift store built by this community for the benefit of this community is still our goal. We're not going to start the project tomorrow, but we're going to continue to educate the public and start raising funds privately and from businesses in the community to make this happen [Sinclair, 2012.07.09].

There's that word educate again. Sinclair isn't conceding a publicly subsidized thrift store is a bad idea. His request for a task force is a transparent stall, a diversion he hopes will simmer folks down and give his committee time to ramp up their marketing efforts. Sinclair's words tonight hint that the thrift store committee will come back to ask for your money after an effort to manufacture the appearance of consensus.

Let's look at the bright side: the general public has forced Madison's business elites to pause their grand schemes and acknowledge what people like Ashley Kenneth Allen, Jon Hunter, my wife and I, and darn near everyone you talk to in Madison has been saying for years: downtown is crumbling, and we need to do something about it.

The city took no action on Sinclair's request. But if the city does create a downtown task force, we must press the city to heed Ashley Allen's advice from last year and truly engage the public in open, participatory dialogue and policymaking. Look at that photo at the top again. That's what democracy looks like. Citizens want to talk. They want to share ideas. They want to make good things happen.

Madison has lots of good people who want to make a difference. If the city opens the proposed task force to all willing citizens, it will have a chance to identify real community needs and build consensus on a good plan. But if the downtown task force becomes just another handpicked crony club meeting behind closed doors, we'll get more echo-chamber flops like the million-dollar thrift store proposal.

Here's Clark Sinclair's full statement to the Madison City Commission tonight:

Transcript, Clark Sinclair, remarks to Madison City Commission, July 9, 2012:

Thank you, commission, for agreeing to have us on the agenda to give you an update. It's been over a month ago that we came in front of you to discuss the project that we've been working on for quite a few months. At that time, we asked you to include some monies to help prepare a site in downtown Madison for our proposed thrift store. As a result of that we've had some really good discussions. It certainly made people start talking about what's going on in the community. Quite frankly, I think, some really good ideas have come out of it.

We have listened carefully. I can guarantee you that our committee has listened carefully to people's ideas and their concerns and taken it seriously. We're not trying to make something happen that isn't good for the community. We really seriously are trying to come up with a project that we can get some very good community support for that'll have a lot of great things accomplished over a period of years in our community.

We want to be open-minded. We're not trying to force something that nobody wants. I can guarantee you that we have taken a lot of the ideas and comments seriously.

I think one of the things that there seems to be a consensus on is that something needs to be done downtown Madison. There's a lot of properties that could be improved. There's not only the Jensen site but other areas downtown. There were some very good suggestions from some of the people about what they would like to see as positive things downtown.

Instead of coming before you tonight and asking you to support our proposal, what we'd like to do is step back here and ask the city commission to appoint a task force that would develop a comprehensive plan for revitalizing downtown. That seems to be the thing that most everybody can agree upon. Even the most negative people feel that something needs to be done.

That's what we would like to see happen is that the city commission appoint a task force that will develop a comprehensive plan including the Jensen property what should be happening downtown Madison. I think if you look at a lot of other communities, there have been other communities that you could take lessons from about the efforts they've made to improve their downtown. While a thrift store is not a new concept, downtown improvement is not a new concept, either. A lot of communities have made some great progress in working together to develop a plan and figure out ways to help people who want to do things downtown. That's what we'd like to see.

As far as our committee's concerned, we fully believe that the program we are proposing is a very good program, it's an ambitious project. We're taking a look at the costs of our project, the location of our project, we're looking at all the different components of our proposal. We fully intend to move forward with having a thrift store of some type in this community, because we know how much good it can do.

We're not here tonight to do anything but suggest that this task force be formed and let you know that our goal of having a thrift store built by this community for the benefit of this community is still our goal. We're not going to start the project tomorrow, but we're going to continue to educate the public and start raising funds privately and from businesses in the community to make this happen.