Having so far failed to hire Madison’s first independent police monitor, Madison’s new Police Civilian Oversight Board voted Thursday to recommend that the City Council effectively use some of the money that had been budgeted for the monitor to provide the board’s leader with a onetime $20,000 honorarium — more than the salary for City Council members.
Board members have also discussed recommending that all “active” members of the 13-member board receive honorariums of either $3,000 or $5,000 but tabled that over concerns from the city attorney that doing so could run afoul of city ethics rules.
During sometimes contentious meetings of the board on Thursday and the board’s executive subcommittee on Nov. 10, chair Keetra Burnette and supporters of the honorarium portrayed it as payment for the many hours of work Burnette has spent getting the board up and running and preparing for the monitor’s hire, including staffing the board in the absence of the monitor. The honorariums were proposed by vice chair Shadayra Kilfoy-Flores.