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Update from Alder Cnare regarding redistricting and community budget conversations

Dear Residents:

REDISTRICTING UPDATE

As the state rushes through its redistricting following the 2010 census, I am happy to report that the city, following months of meetings and three open houses, will be starting to wrap up its redistricting process with a public hearing at Tuesday's Council meeting.

This link gives you all the background, maps and work:    http://www.cityofmadison.com/cityHall/redistricting/

This link is the draft final map: http://www.cityofmadison.com/cityHall/redistricting/meetings.cfm

The committee, of which I was a member, used these legal and self-developed criteria to draw the new boundaries:

1.    Contain an equal number of inhabitants

 2.   Be comprised of contiguous whole wards

3.    Be compact

4.    Enhance minority participation

5.    Contain within them communities of interest, such as neighborhood associations

6.    Use major arterials and other physical barriers as boundaries

7.    Increase the number of districts exposed to future growth on the periphery of the City of Madison

District 3, which has had tremendous population growth, needed to shrink geographically. To balance the population and keep areas rationally together, the north western corner of D3 is slated to join D15. It is essentially the Burke Heights neighborhood on the north side of Commercial Ave./Hwy 30, running up to Sycamore, and part of Hiestand neighborhood (west of Swanton Rd.)

First, I will miss the people in those areas, who I have enjoyed working with to accomplish parks, water, housing and traffic safety improvements, but I think they will enjoy the diversity and engagement of the residents of D15, and the current alder is great!

The second major change, which won't feel like much, is that our wards, the smaller building blocks of a district, have been re-numbered. You'll see you area on the map.

The third major change is that the East District Police Station will become the polling place for Ward 8, McClellan Park neighborhood. You used to vote at Door Creek Church, but now that you are a separate ward, you get a separate polling place, too. All other remaining D3 wards have new numbers (now 7, 9 10. 11 and 15) but same polling places.

The Council will use Tuesday's meeting to gather input from the public to create amendments to the plan, which we will vote on the finalize at our meeting on August 2. If you have any comments, please join us Tuesday night at Council or e-mail me your concerns or ideas, and we can talk about them further.

In terms of when these changes take effect, we are having a bit of a disagreement at the city level about whether or not they take effect when the plan passes or after the next aldermanic election, so stay tuned if you are in an area that's moving to D15. No matter when, I will work with Alder Larry Palm to make a smooth transition for everyone.

BUDGET UPDATE

Okay, you've heard elected officials for months now bemoaning the budget and we need your help! Please join us for in-depth work sessions on five different groupings of city government and services to clarify our values as a city, then align the services you pay for with your tax dollar with these values, and assess how well the city performs the services. The meetings are a workshop format where you will sit down at a table with other residents to discuss the topics to help guide the development and finalization of the 2012 budget. Staff members will be on hand to answer questions; alders will be on hand to listen.

If you can't make it to a meeting, the city's Web site will have a whole area devoted to the budget with education, graphics and surveys about these same topics. You can share your thoughts there, too.

One of the primary goals of this effort is to gather input from everyone. We welcome those who are already active in city government and issues, but we must add the voices of those who have so far been quiet or even silent. Please encourage everyone you know to participate. In this budget there isn't much grease anyway, so squeaky wheels won't be the only ones who get it. We need to be sure we are honoring our city values and our needs as individuals, neighborhoods and the city as a whole with our budget, This is a great chance to do so!

Please see the attached Save the Date postcard with meetings listed and the Web site address on it - then, make your plans to tell us what to do!

WEBSITE NOT UP UNTIL MONDAY!

LC

Lauren Cnare

Alder, District 3

608-226-0987 (cell)

district3@cityofmadison.com (e-mail)



Past Updates and information from Alder Cnare

Column from Dane County Executive Joe Parisi

Tornado Warning System & Emergency Contacts by County Supv. Dave de Felice

Local Contacts

*City of Madison Police Department - East District

Neighborhood Liason: Lieutenant Wayne Strong

809 South Thompson Drive

Madison WI 53718

Direct Phone: 261-9112

Fax: 224-7150

Email: wstrong@cityofmadison.com

Speeders Hot Line: 266-4624

You can sign up for electonic newsletters from the East District by going to www.cityofmadison.com and click on My Account.

**District 3 Alder

Lauren Cnare

608-226-0987 (cell)

district3@cityofmadison.com (e-mail)



**Dane County District 16

Supervisor: Dave de Felice (day full-LEE-chay)

Email: defelice@co.dane.wi.us

www.countyofdane.com