Questions for Madison alderperson candidates

Madison Common Council: District 2

Brenda Konkel
District 2 incumbant

1. I'm encouraged by the promise of having more diverse hiring panels, but we have to dig deeper than that. We need to examine our recruiting practices and figure out how to recruit more diverse candidates, we need to utilize newer technology to recruit candidates, we need to review our job descriptions and hiring materials to see if there are additional things we can do to recruit more diverse staff, and we need to figure out if there are reasons why women, in particular, might find employment with the City of Madison less desirable than private sector or other government jobs.  We need to find ways to encourage a more diverse workforce and make it a top priority in hiring.    

2. I'm in the process of exploring why we don't use the state certification process for minority-owned businesses to make it easier for minority-owned businesses to do business with the City of Madison. I also think that our TIF policies should have stronger requirement to use minority-owned businesses.

3. When those meetings are held, there needs to be special care taken to get all members of the community to the meetings or not hold the meetings until that can be accomplished.  Perhaps a series of smaller meetings might make it less intimidating. We may need to look at other venues, different times for the meeting to be held or we might need to have a focus group.    The meetings need to be facilitated to encourage all members of the community to speak up and when negative things are said that stereotype people, we need to stop the conversation and address those perceptions. Bottom line is, we all want a safe community and we need to talk about what that means.   

4. I have appreciated working with Communities United over the years, sometimes working together and sometimes being challenged to do better.  The work the group does is important.

Bridget Maniaci 
District 2 challenger

1. The city should put full effort into recruiting qualified candidates, without resorting to quotas, through existing civic, business, and neighborhood networks and organizations who come from diverse backgrounds and proportionately match the diversity of the city. Paul Soglin worked hard under his term as Mayor to successfully achieve this, so I have full faith that positive change can occur and improve our current situation.

2. In order to substantially award part of the city's contracts to minority-owned businesses, the city needs to foster development and ensure attention is being turned to incubating minority-owned small businesses in the first place. Madison has a notorious reputation for being a difficult place for business owners to open and opperate. The city needs to work harder to encourage small business growth, and especially turn their attention to greater creation of quality minority-owned businesses. With a greater quantity of quality minority-owned businesses there will come a natural increase in city contracts, since there is a committment to use minority businesses when available.

3. In situations as stated in your question, I believe that every measure possible should be taken to include members of such marginalized communities into the discussion. If they do not feel comfortable to appear at a large meeting, I would encourage additional, smaller meetings with concerned individuals, and work out a way to bring their concerns into the larger meeting and discussion on issues of public safety. Additionally, I believe it would be beneficial to set up smaller one-on-one and small group discussions that include different groups of neighbors so that they may discuss directly with one another their concerns and ideas.

4. I believe that Madison has a lot of work to accomplish when it comes to issues of civil rights and social justice, and I will fight hard on the council to ensure that the city takes steps forwards and not backwards in its policies and practices. I think there is a lot of improvements that need to be made, and I'm ready to spend my energy and great love for public policy to make Madison a more inviting home for all.
Madison Common Council: District 5

Hamilton Arendsen
District 5

1. The City should be concerned about the results of the survey and take steps to improve its efforts at increasing diversity in its hiring and appointment processes, as well as in its purchasing and contracting.  Madison considers itself one of America's most progressive cities.  In many ways, however, actions speak louder than words.  This applies not only in the context of improving diversity in our city, but also in our approach to attracting businesses and generating economic growth. If elected alder, I would work with the Affirmative Action office to develop an action plan with specific benchmarks and deadlines for the City to follow in remedying this problem. This is not about quotas; it is about giving everyone who wants to participate an equal opportunity to compete in the marketplace.

2. The City should make equal treatment of qualified contractors a priority when allocating city contracts.  The City needs to work with minority-owned businesses to ensure their awareness of these contracting opportunities and develop programs to assist these businesses so that they are in a position to be considered as a qualified contractor.  We should also be mindful that many of these businesses are locally owned and that the economic generator of "buying Local" should be a key strategy for sustaining our City's economic stability.

3. While Madison, as with any growing city, must always remain vigilant in its efforts to improve race relations, I am optimistic that our community does not scapegoat members of communities of color during such meetings.  In fact, the recent community-wide events addressing crime near Allied Drive and the Southwest side were great examples of how Madison residents of all races and ethnicities can work together to tackle difficult city issues.  Still, if this is truly a perception among our residents, it proves every bit as important as the reality, and the City must be proactive in improving minority participation in this dialogue. The City must make every effort to educate the public so that our citizens understand that rising crime rates affect all of our citizens and that it takes the wisdom and perspective of a diverse range of residents to develop effective crime prevention solutions.  If elected alder, I would work with the police department to make sure that these meetings are held in a manner such that all Madison residents are included in the process and that the resulting policy initiates would serve all members of our community.

4. My family has a long history of community activism in Madison, particularly with regard to social justice issues.  My grandmother, Mary Louise Symon, was a tireless community activist and pioneer for social justice in Madison.  I have tried to follow in this tradition, and as President of the College Democrats organized extensive community service projects and helped elect public officials dedicated to furthering the cause of social justice both locally and nationally.  In law school, I served as an officer on the Public Interest Law Foundation and, after graduation, received the Outstanding Volunteer in Public Service Award from the San Francisco Bar Association in 2002.  In addition, I helped organize President Obama's Voter Protection Program here in Madison in the recent presidential election.  If elected alder, I look forward to carrying on my family's tradition of public service.  While our city continues to make great strides, Madison has only scratched the surface of the great city that it can be.  We need to focus on using our great diversity as a strength rather than a weakness, and call on all of our citizenry to assist in generating intelligent and creative policy solutions in the years ahead.

Shiva Bidar-Sielaff
District 5

    1. We should never accept what is as what shall be. The city should not accept this state of affairs or it will end up with shortages of skilled and qualified individuals as the workforce becomes more diverse. The city should re-evaluate how it recruits:
a. Does it take out advertisements in places where people of color are likely to read about the positions?
b. Are its current affirmative action processes being followed?
c. Has the city looked at which city departments are currently farthest behind in terms of recruiting and retaining a diverse staff and then developed recruitment initiatives focused on the needs of those departments? 
d. Similarly, has it looked at department that have had relative success and why?
e. Has city staff been given the strategic directive that it is a priority to reach communities of color and other under-represented communities?
In terms of recruiting a diverse group of citizens for city committees, many people of color volunteer through churches and other organizations that are oriented toward meeting our communities' needs. And many people are not aware of Madison's system of government and how the city's committees make crucial recommendations on the policies that affect everyone's lives. The mayor and citizens representing diverse communities who have served on city committees need to meet with organizations of color, organizations for people with disabilities and others and educate its membership about the importance of engagement at the city level, how the city committees affect their lives and the level of commitment required of each committee.
A crucial piece of effective staff and committee recruitment and retention is cultural competency. All city staff should be required to receive cultural competency training. 

2. Again, we have to evaluate how well we are currently doing with the existing system. How effective is the city in communicating business opportunities to businesses of color? Has it reached out to all of the vendors established in the Madison area that are on the Wis. Dept. of Commerce's certified minority business list? What kind of resources are being put into the effort to match MBEs with business opportunities and what kind of evaluation is done to ensure that city departments are making a good-faith effort to purchase goods and services from MBEs? How visible are the city's efforts in these areas? We need to answer these questions and then set about the business of gaining more city business for MBEs. The city should regularly report out to Communities United and other parties including media of color on the results of city purchasing in this area by department.

3. To talk with people who are affected by and concerned with crime, instead of holding special meetings, city officials need to go to places a were community members already come together. Community centers, schools, churches and neighborhood associations would be logical ways of reaching out to a more diverse group of citizens and having a discussion about emerging neighborhood issues and how to address them.  People will be much more comfortable and more people will participate than just those who self-select to participate in special meetings. 
In addition, the Madison Police Department needs to educate citizens on who is committing crimes in their neighborhoods. MPD needs to ensure that it is looking at the broad picture of crime in the different neighborhoods and not fueling misconceptions about who is committing the crimes. It also needs to compare the crime data with census data to show that the crimes are committed by a relatively few people in any neighborhood of the city so that those neighborhoods see that the vast majority of people of all races and ethnicities are law-abiding citizens.
 
4. The election of Barack Obama does not mean that we are now in a post-Affirmative Action environment. With the current recession continuing to decline into a depression, groups like Communities United need to be more vigilant than ever. In times of economic scarcity, it is usually communities of color and other vulnerable populations who have been scapegoated or victimized to "make things better' and to distract people from the real causes of the problem. It is only your vigilance and the vigilance of others that will prevent that from happening.
I have dedicated my personal and professional life to fighting for equality and social justice.  I deal with issues of equal access and civil rights on a daily basis. I feel fortunate to have worked and advocated along with members of CU and other community leaders in efforts to make Madison a great place to live for everyone. We have made much progress but we still have a long ways to go. I look forward to bringing our voices and perspectives to the City Council.