BAUMAN EXCLUDES MEDIA FROM MEETING WITH ACTIVISTS

Madison Mayor Sue Bauman asked a handful of reporters to leave a meeting
she held with activist groups Friday to discuss their intentions during the
upcoming U.S. Conference of Mayors.

City officials and activists call the meeting productive, but Norm
Stockwell, operations manager for listener-sponsored radio station WORT/FM
89.9, remains concerned about the slight to the four news organizations
covering the meeting.

"The mayor wanted the press to leave because she thought that people would
posture for the media rather than having an open, frank discussion,"
Stockwell said.

"But I think the media in Madison is responsible enough to cover the facts
of the story and provide important information about how the city and
demonstrators will be able to interact during the mayors conference."

The reporters waited in a hallway at the City-County Building for two hours
and were allowed back in to speak with Bauman for about 15 minutes afterward.

"She was very forthcoming with the media after the meeting," Stockwell said.

Matt Stoner, a member of the Creative People's Resistance, one of the
groups taking part in the meeting, was also troubled by the media shutout.
He, too, guessed the mayor's office was concerned about activists playing
to the media.

"I think it is problematic because it's symptomatic of a larger trend in
city government. It's less accessible, it's less transparent, and that can
be seen in the mayors conference itself," he said.

"The public citizenry needs to know what goes on. The mayor and the police
need to be accountable to the public and that's very difficult if the press
is not allowed access."

Most of Bauman's meetings are not open to the media or the public, said
mayoral aide Ryan Mulcahy.

"It's the mayor's standard practice to keep those meetings private.
Basically all of her meetings are private. We made that clear to any
reporter who asked beforehand that she would certainly be available
afterward to speak. We also allowed photographers in to take still shots at
the front end of the meeting," he said.

The addition of media could have affected the candor of the discussion,
Mulcahy said.

"It was not a public event. It was a private meeting."

About 15 people attended the meeting, including police, pro-marijuana
activist Ben Masel and representatives of two newly formed activist groups.

Alfonso Zepeda-Capistran, a spokesman for Cities for People!, doesn't blame
Bauman for shutting out the media.

"It was not necessarily a public meeting," he said. "They had all the
rights to close it to the people who were actually invited to be there."

Cities for People! did not put out a press release and the meeting was not
listed as a public meeting. Media likely learned about it at the group's
last meeting, through the group's e-mail list-serve or by word of mouth.

"More people came than we expected," Zepeda-Capistran said.

The mayor may have also shut out media because of the potential for
controversy or disputes between groups, he said.

Cities for People! wanted to lay out its plans before the mayor. The
Saturday of the conference it will hold its own day of panel discussions,
talks, workshops and music focusing on city-level activism at the Madison
Labor Temple. A parade from the Capitol to the UW Library Mall is set for
Sunday.

The group's mission centers on the sustainable growth of cities,
socioeconomic justice and crime reduction. It supports the redirection of
city government and services from increasing privatization and corporate
lobbying to public input and access. Its Web site is www.citiesforpeople.org.

The other group, Creative People's Resistance, is calling attention to the
corporate sponsorship of the U.S. Conference of Mayors June 14-18 at Monona
Terrace. It is concerned that cities pander to the interests of
corporations and the wealthy, and cites the Overture Project and the State
Street redesign project as local examples.

The conference is expected to attract more than 1,000 mayors and their
guests, federal officials, members of Congress, national media and possibly
President George W. Bush.

Because of the likelihood of large demonstrations and a heightened
post-Sept. 11 awareness, Madison police are estimating security costs at
$670,000, seven times the figure originally budgeted.

Like his colleague Zepeda-Capistran, Tom Running, also of Cities for
People!, agreed it was the mayor's discretion to close the meeting to the
media.

"She was hosting the meeting and it was her decision entirely. I would have
done it differently but it's not our meeting," he said.

Running called it a productive first meeting since it got a dialogue started.

"I hope it assuaged some of the worries of the Madison Police Department
and I think it succeeded in that," he said.

Meanwhile, Zepeda-Capistran said he had concerns that the confrontational
style of the other activist groups could make it difficult for his group.

The goal of Cities for People! was to lay out its plans for discussion with
the city, while other groups had specific demands.

"The way they do things is just totally, in my opinion, not very
appropriate," he said.

Zepeda-Capistran said Cities for People! wanted to continue discussing its
plans with city and police officials. "We don't want our events to be mixed
with anything else, like what Ben Masel or CPR people are planning," he said.

"If they are planning anything, they are not letting anybody know, which is
what I find ridiculous. They are asking the city for answers and they don't
have answers for the city."