On August 4, 2026, I waited in the Common Council Zoom webinar for over five hours to give my public comment on Agenda Item 2 regarding the Police Civilian Oversight Board (PCOB). I promptly left after giving my comment to get some sleep. That meeting drew over six hours of public comment with one resounding demand: fully fund the Office of the Independent Police Monitor (OIM) and PCOB, to at least 1% of city funding that is allocated to the Madison Police Department (MPD); many in attendance specified that this amounts to about $1.3 million.
The next day, I check my phone and open a group chat to see that our efforts actually resulted in a small win: Alder Matthews introduced the following motion (seconded by Alder Glenn), calling for accounting of how much was spent on mutual aid & police costs from 7/22/26 (the day officer Kiel-Batinger Petersen killed Corey Ruiz) until 9/8/2026 (the next time Common Council was set to meet), and that this amount would be matched to fund the OIM. This means that the Common Council was forced to discuss this policy, and do a full analysis and consideration, not just listen and move on. I’ve provided the full transcript of Alder Matthews’s 8/4/2026 motion below:
- Between 7/22/2026-9/1/2026 [amended to 9/8/2026], the Council needs an accounting of all additional budget year 2026 police costs, mutual aid, and overtime related to response throughout 8/4/2026, for example,
- the amount identified in item 1, we would also authorize to be spent in 2026 by the OIM for needed investigation related to use of force throughout 8/4/2026, for example, or to study and put together policy recommendations related to the duty outlined in Madison General ordinance 5.19(7a): “Powers and Duties of the OIM and monitor, and that first duty is to monitor police compliance. The OIM shall actively and on an ongoing basis monitor the MPD’s compliance with its own SOPs, governing laws, and lawful orders from the Common Council, including compliance with, or progress towards meeting any recommendations or directives contained in the MPD policy and procedure review ad hoc committee report from 10/18/2019 and the independent policy oversight and review report (OIR report) to the extent they are adopted and approved by the Common Council as well as the MPD’s own stated goals and mission statement.”
I found out via group chat about this small win. Nothing on social media. Barely any of my friends knew about this outcome from the Common Council meeting. I wait another day, still nothing more.
Finally, on Friday August 8th, the Cap Times reported on the outcome, but only as an afterthought, at the very end of the article…