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Madison executive committee reviews 2024–25 accomplishments, outlines April transition steps
Summary
The Madison Common Council executive committee on March 25 reviewed its 2024–25 work, citing improved agenda processes, budget transparency tools and code-of-conduct updates, and staff briefed members on offboarding and April transition logistics for outgoing alder members.
MADISON, Wis. — The Madison Common Council executive committee reviewed its 2024–25 work and prepared administrative steps for outgoing members at a March 25 meeting, Council President Figueroa Cole said.
The committee emphasized process improvements and community-facing resources developed over the year, including standardized agenda review, new budget data tools and updates to the council code of conduct. Council staff also briefed members on offboarding steps, device and records responsibilities, and logistics for the April leadership election and laptop return.
President Figueroa Cole, chairing the meeting of the Madison Common Council executive committee, said the committee held 17 meetings over the year and handled roughly 10 council referrals that required recommendations back to the full Common Council. "It feels like it was such a heavy year... putting this together just gives you a sense of, like, wow, we really did a lot of things over the 12 months period," she said.
The committee highlighted several substantive items worked during the year: a boards-and-commissions ordinance that returned to the committee for final approval, additions to the council code of conduct that included a harassment appendix, and creation of a hearing process the presentation identified as developed "in accordance with Wisconsin statute 17.1616." The committee also received multiple staff presentations on language-access services, bilingual community connectors and older-adult services.
Members and staff said the committee focused on internal process improvements. Figueroa Cole described a standardized agenda-review process that reduced last-minute issues. The group also developed a standard operating procedure for the campaign-related "50-piece rule" as presented in the meeting materials; the transcript records that label as presented to the committee.
Staff and council leaders attributed progress to closer coordination with city departments. The committee credited Finance and other offices with delivering new online budget tools: a capital-projects dataset that now includes district numbers so members can filter projects by district, and an operating-budget dataset for the executive budget published as a downloadable spreadsheet. Those tools — paired with a finance-produced frequently asked questions document — were presented as ways to make budget information more accessible to alder members and constituents.
Karen, council staff, said the committee also launched Office 365 tools citywide to improve information sharing. "It's great to have the entire budget on PDF online and to be able to just, you know, find and search for words in there," she said, adding that the spreadsheet-format data allow members to generate reports and focus on district-level items.
On transition logistics, Karen told the committee that outgoing alder members will receive an offboarding survey and instructions for unlinking personal devices from city email accounts. Returning alder members should expect IT contact to arrange pickup of city laptops "sometime before the week of April 14," she said. Karen also asked members to RSVP for an incoming/outgoing alder brunch and noted the council leadership election will be held in person after the noon meeting using paper ballots.
Figueroa Cole thanked Deputy Mayor Christie Bommo and multiple city staff — named in the meeting as Isaac, Lorissa, David Fields, Liz Lehi Windsor and Eric Christiansen — for support on the council's budget engagement events and other work. She called the collaboration "massive support" and said it materially shortened the agenda-review timeline compared with prior years.
No members of the public registered to speak. The meeting approved the minutes from the prior meeting and then adjourned after a motion; no additional policy votes or formal actions on ordinances were taken during the session.
The committee said it will publish the slide deck and links to materials referenced during the meeting so members and the public can access the full list of referrals, presentations and embedded files.
The meeting ended with a unanimous approval of the minutes and a recorded adjournment at approximately 4:54 p.m.
