Author Archives: dave cieslewicz

Why do local governments do business with Urban Triage? That question comes to mind now because the Madison nonprofit overspent a Dane County contract to provide homeless services. They overspent a $317,000 contract by $100,000. I ran two nonprofits. I have no idea how this is even possible. The organization’s executive director blames new accountingContinue reading “Time to Triage Urban Triage”

I’m often strongly critical of the Madison School Board. But when it was reported yesterday that the Board incinerated $100,000 of taxpayers’ money in their search for a new superintendent I couldn’t single it out as being especially wasteful. Pretty much every major public and private entity blows money on these search efforts. Of thatContinue reading “Exec Search Firms Waste Money”

This week’s quote comes to us from none other than a spokesperson for Top Trumps, a company that is producing a version of Monopoly built around Madison. The unfortunately named company is asking Madisonians to suggest street names and other details to replace the iconic items in the original game based on Atlantic City. InContinue reading “The Q&Q For 10/5/24”

As we head into the final month before the election — and while early voting has already started in some states — the leaves are turning brown for the Democrats. You always worry about an October surprise. But Donald Trump is immune from this sort of thing. Here’s a guy who was found liable forContinue reading “October Surprises”

Here are some observations on last night’s vice presidential debate. Nobody cares. People don’t vote for vice president and, anyway, a snap poll taken by CNN immediately afterwords called it a draw, which is what it felt like to me. But it was nice. It was nice to see two guys disagreeing agreeably. Despite J.D.Continue reading “Observations on the VEEP Debate”

The arrogance of the Madison school board is just epic. They’re asking taxpayers to approve the largest referendums — and highest tax increases — in Madison history this November. Yet, they won’t lift a finger to tighten their belts or even provide detail on how some of the money will be spent. In a secondContinue reading “The Arrogance of MMSD”

Good things are happening in big time college sports. Once the wall of the mythical “student-athlete” finally cracked, it has come tumbling down fast. Players are finally getting some of their share of the billions of dollars they produce for others. But when walls crash they leave a mess for a while. And that’s whereContinue reading “Sluka Points To the Next Step in College Sports”

This week’s quote and quiz comes to us from none other than Wausau Mayor Doug Diny, who, after personally removing a voting drop box from in front of city hall, said: “This is no different than the maintenance guy moving it out there.” A) He noticed that it was stuffed with so many early ballotsContinue reading “The Q&Q For 9/28/24”

From the moment Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race I started to feel better about the Democrats’ chances. That has been an unbroken melody. Until just about now. First, let’s review the chain of happy events. Biden finally succumbed to mounting pressure orchestrated by the real hero in all of this, Nancy Pelosi.Continue reading “Curb Your Enthusiasm”

To hear Republicans tell it, voting drop boxes will destroy American democracy. Democrats swear they’ll save it. Neither is true. There’s no evidence that drop boxes increase voter participation. We got along without them for 250 years or so and democracy survived all that time. But, on the other hand, there’s no evidence that dropContinue reading “Boxing Match”