We are in a climate emergency and we are running out of time. With Republicans seeking to phase out electric cars to protect the fossil fuel industry, we inch closer to the brink of overheating the planet. The flooding events in 2018 created huge costs for the city and residents. We need to strengthen our efforts to build labor and community power to survive the looming ecological collapse and transform a capitalist economic system that impoverishes, exploits, and murders so many people and plunders and despoils the planet.  

Green New Deal City.  We must mitigate the effects of the climate emergency and reduce the inequities for the most vulnerable. We need to accelerate the transition towards renewable energy, move to net zero emissions, and improve health through environmental and labor justice. We need to drastically alter our consumption and production practices based on fossil fuels before there is planet wide ecological collapse.

Decarbonize, retrofit, and invest in alternative energy technologies like heat pumps and continue to invest in a green fleet using electric buses and trucks and ensure the rollout of Metro redesign and bus rapid transit serves residents. I support the city program - Efficiency Navigator - to give grants to small to medium-sized multi-family housing that meet naturally occurring affordable housing standards - at or below 80% AMI- to become more energy efficient and resilient, which reduces operating costs and utility bills for residents.

Continue the clean-up of PFAS/PFOS and other drinking water contaminants. Demand the WI Air National Guard clean up its contamination of Starkweather Creek, reach out to affected communities who rely on subsistence fishing, and pay to install filters for Well 15.

Lobby against the F35s. I will work with north and east side alders to continue lobbying our federal reps to oppose the jets. The expected adverse health impacts from the noise pollution cannot be effectively mitigated. I will continue to demand the USAF change the mission of the 115th Fighter Wing to a medical mission.

MY ACCOMPLISHMENTS

As Council President, I initiated a process to collect public comments and information to submit to the Air National Guard Environmental Impact Statement preliminary review of siting F-35s fighter jets at Truax Field. Our report included data about affected low-income neighborhoods and the toxic contamination of ground and surface water from PFAS at Truax Field. Once Madison was selected, I worked with east and north side Alders to pass a Council resolution opposed to F-35 fighter jets based on significant environmental impacts including harmful noise levels, adverse effect on children, and disproportionate impacts on communities of color and low-income residents.

I worked to address the east side's industrial legacy of toxic contamination of our groundwater, air, and soil. I dealt with MGE's transition away from coal, removal of underground storage tanks in the east rail corridor, and Madison Kipp Corporation's cleanup from a PCE spill and the threat the spill has posed to Well 8.  

I also worked with my county colleagues to address PFAS and as a member of the Water Utility Board to ensure that Well 15 remained closed until better standards were established and the city could install a filter. Neither the city, county, or Air National Guard wanted to take responsibility for cleanup at Truax but we pushed hard for accountability and information sharing about the risks. When Governor Evers issued Executive Order #40 in 2019 to establish an interagency PFAS Coordinating Council and direct DNR to create a public information website and an action plan,  I continued to work with my county colleagues and Public Health Madison Dane County to educate the public. 

I sponsored the City’s application for US EPA Brownfields grants in several sites in the district in order to remediate contaminated soil and ready these parcels for reinvestment and development. I have worked with City Engineering and the WDNR to propose strategies to repair eroded shorelines along Lake Monona. With the Madison Water Utility, I participated in citizen advisory panels to address well closings due to chemical contamination, studied future drinking water needs, and determined strategies to protect drinking water from contaminants in existing wells.

I sponsored the city’s 2020 update to our stormwater regulations to better prepare for climate change. I have argued for the transition to renewable energy sources like solar and supported the current city investment in a green fleet using electric buses and trucks and planning for bus rapid transit.

I sponsored a tree protection ordinance to protect public and private street trees during street construction projects that won an award from the DNR in 2011. In response to my neighborhood’s initiative to protect our urban tree canopy and my budget amendments to try partial undergrounding of utilities, the city went through a process to adopt an Urban Forestry plan in.

I changed city ordinances to expand urban agriculture opportunities for chicken coops,  beekeeping, terrace food planting, and urban fruit tree planting, and I continue to work on building a Public Market in Madison to expand our regional food economy.