Homeless Issues Committee - Regular Meeting

I'm going to call the executive committee to order. Lisa, please call the roll.

Supervisor Yang? Yang here. Supervisor Fries?

Fries here.

Supervisor Welsh? Welsh here. Supervisor Postler?

Postler here.

Supervisor Boettcher? Here. Supervisor Chavla is running late. Supervisor Miles?

Miles here.

We have a quorum.

Okay, the quorum being present, we shall move on to consideration of minutes we have before us the June 25th meeting minutes. Is there a motion? Motion to approve. Moved by Butcher. Any discussion, questions, corrections to the minutes?

None. All in favor of approval, say aye.

Aye. Opposed, say no. With that, motion carries. The minutes are approved. On to referrals of resolutions and ordinance amendments. First item up is 2026 resolution 47, urging the state of Wisconsin to require adoption and implementation of severe weather emergency service plans and improve safety measures for mobile and manufactured home communities. Sir, do we want to first hear from the sponsor and then entertain a motion? Did you want to manufactured homes, manufactured homes? Emergency plans?

Thank you, colleagues. This resolution came out of an email that I received from a resident who lives in my district in the Oak Park Terrace mobile home community. And it was during that time, I can't remember dates, but remember when we had tornado warnings about every fourth minute? It came out of that. She was very, very concerned about the safety of her community. It ended up being a gigantic meeting that Oak Park Terrace Management sponsored. It was like a big picnic. All of the owners were there, the managers were there, lots and lots of residents. I listened, I took notes, I worked with the main resident who contacted me, and that's how this resolution came about. I did pass it through Chief Tubbs, and he added to it, and he fully supports it. But basically, I was appalled to learn that there are no, mandatory guidelines for protecting folks who live in mobile home communities from severe weather. And so we don't have the power to make those mandates ourselves, but this resolution is to encourage those who do have the power to do something about it. So I'm hoping to raise awareness and advocacy for it. And one very compelling story that came out of the meeting, there was one woman who spoke, it was her and her husband, and I believe that they had a young child as well. Her question to the owners of Oak Park Terrace was, you know, like, okay, I have the means I can buy, I don't know if it was like off of Amazon or some like, you know, mail order company, I can order a personal storm safety unit myself, you know, like some kind of like a pod that I would put up in my yard, I would pay for it. Would that be allowed under our current code? You mean it would be no cost to the community at all? And the answer was no, because it wouldn't fit. And so even if you have the means to purchase something to save yourself and your family, that would not be allowed at least in this community and that the owners felt very very bad but they said like within the current structures that couldn't happen and the only thing that you can do basically there was a list of a couple of places i know that warner park was one of them that people could go to for storm shelter i mean i live in a house with a basement i follow the weather and when those tornado sirens go off i don't want to figure out my car, my kids, my transportation, my dog, and drive through the storm. You know, I don't know if it's like a half a mile away or whatever to Warner Park, park my car, run through the parking lot with my family, my dog again, and then hope that the doors are actually open. Like there's nothing that makes sense to help these folks. And so again, it's for advocacy and increased awareness of storm management safety for folks who live in these communities.

Thank you. All right. Any questions for Supervisor Ritt?

Go ahead. You gave one great example of options that were discussed. Were there other options that were brought up that could be pursued on a more statewide level?

Well, I'm not sure about a statewide level. I hope that this brings the attention so that more conversations happen. I am working side by side with Alder Carmela Glenn, and I don't have the details on this. It was a city project, but a few years ago, they... came across like i don't know if it was grant funding like magical money somehow and they were going to build a storm shelter inside the community but somehow that all fell apart and she's working very hard to get that up and going and my hope is that she you know does a sibling resolution in the city as well so alder you know alder glenn is working on it as well um but so far there are no mandates that exist thanks for your work

Thank you. Anyone else? Motion.

Approval.

Welsh moves recommendation of approval.

Any discussion regarding Resolution 47?

All in favor of the recommendation of approval say aye.

Aye.

Opposed say no. Motion carries. And it is recommended on to item two. Supervisor Ritt, why did you even leave? On to item two, 2026 resolution 70 calling on Wisconsin to advance human relevant non animal methods.

Come on, Supervisor Witt.

All right. Thank you, colleagues, for having me here today for the second time in five minutes. Okay, so this resolution is very near and very dear to my heart, and I can kind of speak from... Okay, I'm not a scientist. As you know, I'm a retired teacher, but there are scientists here who will speak and who can answer those technical questions. When I was in the fifth grade... nuns very mean nuns stood over my desk at school I was crying and like I could cry now thinking about it they attempted to force me to cut up a dead animal on my desk and there was a dead animal on like every every pair of desks I think that's when well that's certainly when it started for me my road to animal activism, my road to vegetarianism, to being an animal advocate. So the other side is that I know somebody's going to bring up is cancer research. I can date back four generations in my family. Most of the folks on my mom's side of the family have died from breast cancer. 100% of the people, men and women, on my dad's side of the family have died from cancer. So cancer is huge, huge, huge in my family. I get that we need research. We need scientific advancement, but I'm not in sixth grade anymore. We don't need to be killing, you know, cows and bunnies and kittens and even frogs. Um, this resolution, again, it is advisory. Dane County does not have the power to stop animal testing. Science has advanced. Medicine has advanced and we no longer need to do all the animal testing. that is currently happening. So this resolution urges the folks in power to minimize that to the point of hopeful extinction. And then being a teacher, it also works toward bringing up young people throughout their educations to be career ready for a science career where animal testing is not needed because other other methods exist that are at least as good if not better. And so again, it's you encouraging folks to stop animal testing and then building up the framework so that we can get the research that we need to help people to help animals but without harming animals in the meantime.

Any questions for supervisor? All right.

We have public speak.

Oh, thank you. All right. We have some registrants wishing to speak. Can you announce? I don't have the spreadsheet up.

We had 25 registrants on this agenda item, all in support of the agenda item. We have five wishing to speak. Some are in the room and others are online. So I'm just going to go down Amy Van Artsen was the first. Okay.

Hey, welcome.

Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Thank you for the opportunity to speak before the committee. My name is Amy Van Aertsen, and I'm a Dane County resident and serve as the executive director of the Marty Project, a local-based nonprofit organization working to advance non-animal methods to end the use of dogs in experimentation. First and foremost, I want to sincerely thank each and every one of you for your tremendous leadership to continually work towards improving Dane County. I've been so grateful for and encouraged by my interactions with the Dane County Board since I first reached out to you a year ago. I remain grateful for your efforts to enforce animal welfare regulations and your willingness to take a stand on issues affecting our community. Tonight, I'm here to enthusiastically speak in support of Resolution 70, calling on Wisconsin to advance human-relevant non-animal methods. As a scientist, this resolution means the world to me as it's aligned with my values and where I believe the future of science should go. This resolution is also consistent with the announcements at the federal level that have come from the NIH, EPA, and FDA in the last year. To give some background, I moved to Dane County right before high school and I'm a proud alum of Middleton High School. I was fortunate to be able to stay in Wisconsin for college and I'm also a triple alum from UW-Madison with an undergraduate degree in biochemistry and graduate degrees in chemistry and public health. While I'm not speaking on behalf of the university, I currently work at UW-Madison as a researcher with my primary expertise in stem cell research, a non-animal method. I want to first share some about the outstanding public education and experiences I had in Dane County, because I believe my experience is illustrative of the types of education and opportunities we can advance here in Wisconsin to benefit Wisconsinites and society as a whole. As a high school student in Middleton, I had the incredible opportunity to take a course on non-animal methods called Introduction to Biotechnology, which was developed and designed by my biology teacher, Ms. Eilert, through a grant that she received from the state. In this course, not only did I have the unique experience developing my molecular biology skills as a high school student, but I also learned about incredible scientists doing research at UW-Madison, including Dr. Jamie Thompson, who is an emeritus UW-Madison professor. Dr. Thompson is credited with two of the most significant breakthroughs in modern biology, including co-developing human-induced pluripotent stem cells from adult skin cells. This technology is how we're able to derive patient-derived stem cell lines, meaning it's possible for any of us to have our own stem cells utilized in research through very simple procedures, such as a simple blood draw. When I matriculated at UW for my undergraduate degree, I landed the experience of a lifetime by having the privilege of being in Dr. Jamie Thompson's lab as a research assistant. My experience as a high school student directly led to this amazing opportunity to be in a world-renowned lab in stem cell research, which underpins much of the non-animal methods research. Since I've graduated, I've spent most of the last few years working in stem cell research to study cardiovascular diseases. Using patient-derived disease cell lines, we're able to take stem cells and differentiate or direct those cells into more mature cell types, such as cardiomyocytes, which are the beating cells in the heart, which can then be used for electrophysiology studies. The best part for me, I really enjoy that once the cells have successfully differentiated into cardiomyocytes, they actually beat in the dish. It never gets old for me in the lab. I just think it's really fun. And these are just some of the examples of what non-animal methods are. So there's so much more I'd love to share about the scientific innovation happening right here in Dane County that I hope we can support further to advance and revolutionize medicine. I also want to talk about the impact that advancing NAMs would have for my own personal health. When I moved to Wisconsin, I was involved in a surgical accident shortly after and unfortunately became quite ill. So in high school, I actually missed about 90% of my classes the first two years. And since then, I've had more surgeries and hospitalizations than I care to count. Of particular note, I had transplant surgery four years ago, and I've had sepsis now, a life-threatening blood infection, three times.

One minute left.

Thanks. I have the best medical team I could ask for, but with the current technology available in medicine, the goal of my treatment is to manage my condition, not to cure it. For me, this means that I infuse medication at home regularly into my central line, which is the long-term IV. And I also get treatment at the infusion center every few weeks, which takes the entire day. I believe that by advancing NAMs is how we can most effectively utilize resources and help find cures for patients just like me. Further, I believe that we can address the translational gap that currently exists trying to utilize data that has relied on animal research, which doesn't accurately predict human biology as well as human research does. Of course, my public comment wouldn't be complete without talking about my two sweet beagles, one of whom was freed from a life in animal experimentation. I got to share my sweet beagle, Maggie, with you at some previous meetings, and I'm so excited to share that back in May, alongside Supervisor Michelle Ritt, I got to welcome Daisy May into my family. Daisy was part of the original release, and I can't begin to describe to you how much my sweet little girl means to me. and to know that she was safe from experimentation. She is the most playful, joyful little pup I've ever met in my life, and so full of love. It saddens me greatly to think about all the animals that spend their lives in experimentation, but we can change that fate for so many animals by advancing non-animal methods. Thank you gratefully for your time, and I urge you to vote yes on Resolution 70. Thanks.

Thank you. Any questions for Amy? Thank you.

Thanks. Our next speaker is Jennifer Koberstein, and I believe that Ms. Koberstein is online. I've just promoted you to speak. If you can hear us. Jennifer, can you hear us?

I can hear you guys. I don't know if you can hear me. Can you hear me?

We can. Welcome you up to five minutes to address the committee.

I actually didn't want to speak tonight, but since I hit the wrong button, I will say a few words. I just want to thank you guys for taking up this resolution. The science is becoming more and more clear that we don't need to use animals in testing to produce good science. And this is a great way to advance that message. And as I think I heard Michelle say earlier, especially to start to think about how we do that with children. Shortly after the Ridgeland release, I had the opportunity to go and speak to fourth graders about the Ridgeland release. I was invited by their teacher. And the questions that they asked were amazing. And their excitement about using non-cruel methods to clean their houses or do laundry, they were all very educated about it. And I think this is an opportunity for the board to advance the ideas and the non-cruel ideas of... for our kids as they're growing up. I think Amy just highlighted that she was impression, you know, was Sorry, I'm not very well spoken. As I was getting on the phone, you guys, I'm capturing four little baby birds that are lost from their mom. So I'm going to end now. I'm going to go capture these birds. And I think you all understand what I'm saying. It's been a heck of a day. Thank you guys for taking up this resolution. And I urge you to support Yes on 70. Thank you so much. I'm going to go capture these babies.

All right. Thank you. Move on to the next.

Our next registrant is Don Eberhardt, who is also online. So, Don, I'm going to promote you to speaking just now. Go ahead.

Okay. Can you hear me? Yes. Okay. Okay. Hi, my name is Dawn Eberhardt. I'm a Dane County resident and I first want to thank the board for everything you've done and are doing on behalf of the beagles in our county and also hopefully for more animals. Thank you also for giving me the opportunity to speak in support of Resolution 70, which advances the use of human relevant non-animal methods of research. Many of you have met our beagle, Gracie, and also her brother, Charlie. They've both been there before. Gracie is a rare survivor who spent four and a half years of her life used in lab research. I've spoken to the board before about the trauma she experienced and she still lives with. She came just very underweight. She was unable to eat. She would spin in circles repeatedly, and she had a pretty severe startle response when sleeping. I've also spoken about her resilience and her love for everyone that she meets. She is clearly a sentient being, able to experience profound trauma as well as genuine happiness. I've seen the excitement when she meets children, her whole body wags, not just her tail. And I've also seen the fear when she's picked up. She still tends to freeze in position. She's expecting something unpleasant to happen to her and it took her over four months to actually have her feel safe enough to make eye contact with me. What many of you may not know is that I'm also a pharmacist. I have more than 30 years of experience practicing. I went to UW pharmacy school here and during my career I have seen research methods evolve dramatically. Today we have innovative human relevant non-animal testing methods that are often more predictive of human outcomes than traditional animal models. In fact, the FDA Modernization Act 2.0 encourages the use of these modern approaches, recognizing that they can provide data that is more relevant to human health while reducing reliance on outdated animal testing. Members of the Board, you have an opportunity to position Dane County as a leader in modern, forward-thinking science. Supporting Resolution 70 sends a clear message that our county embraces innovation, encourages the growth of biotechnology companies who are developing cutting-edge non-animal research methods, as well as supporting scientific approaches that are both more humane and more relevant to human health. I'm asking you to vote in favor of Resolution 70, and I thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any questions for Don? Thank you, Don. Next.

Our next in line is Christina Newton. And Christina is in the room with us.

Good evening, everyone. Thank you for being here, serving Dane County, listening to my public comment. My name is Christina Kinjorski-Newton, and I go by Christina Kinjorski at work where I'm a professor in the Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics here at UW Madison. I've been at UW for over 25 years, and a large part of my work involves the analysis of data that we've collected from experiments on mouse and on humans. in an effort to improve human health. I also have extensive experience analyzing data from new approach methodologies, like the ones that are in this resolution. I'd like to be clear that the opinions I'm about to express are mine and mine alone. I'm not speaking for my department and I'm not speaking for the university. Having said that, I am here as a professor and as a scientist to express my strong support for Resolution 70 for a few reasons. The first one is that over the course of my career, I've repeatedly seen how difficult it is for results from mouse and other animal systems to translate to humans. I think we all have heard the grim statistic if we look at drugs that have made it all the way up to being candidates in a human clinical trial. They've passed all sorts of animal tests. Usually these drugs have taken 10 years to develop. millions and millions of dollars, upwards of $500 million. You get a drug. It's ready to go. It looks perfect in animal models. It fails 90% of the time. So as a result, overnight, as a result, we need new methods. The second reason is that the new approach methodologies, or NAMs, that are mentioned in Resolution 70 are proving to be quite effective in numerous areas. Although the term NAMs is relatively new, the actual scientific mechanisms underlying these approaches is not as new. What's changing now is the sophistication of these approaches, and with that sophistication, the relevance for human biology. So we can talk for a very long time. I just have five minutes. I know about all the ways in which NAMs are outperforming human human experiments. I'm sorry, animal experiments for human relevance. I'll give you just a few examples. NAMs using reconstructed human skin models and human cornea like tissue models are already accepted by the FDA as as valid replacements for toxicity studies. There's organ-on-chip systems that have shown to be remarkably effective at detecting serious toxicities, and patient-derived organoids are proving super successful in predicting response to treatment across a variety of diseases, including cancers. So super excited to see where NAMs are going and all the results. Finally, as the resolution details, a greater focus on NAMs is going to increase opportunities for us, I think, as an academic community, as a city, as a county, by improving the quality of scientific research here, by strengthening opportunities for innovation in terms of biomedical innovations, and by increasing our ability to improve human health. So in summary, three reasons. Results from animal studies are critically lacking almost everywhere. NAMs are proving extremely efficient, and I think a greater focus on them has lots of opportunities for Dane County in all sorts of areas. I find Resolution 70 to be timely, forward-thinking, scientifically inclusive in broadening our toolkit and well-positioned to strengthen Dane County's leadership in biomedical innovation. And for those reasons, I hope that you will support this resolution. Thank you for your time and for your consideration.

Any questions for the speaker? I'm trying to decide if I have one here.

What's up?

I was trying to decide if I had a question for you here.

Okay, I'll wait.

the reason i'm hesitating is we we got a letter the county board got a a letter from um from university relations today um stating that um ew has been long committed it's just one Key phrase I wanted to point out here, long been committed to the ethical principle and practice of the three R's as they apply to studies conducted with animals, replacement, reduction and refinement. But it goes on to basically describe that that there are cases, however, where these studies require validation in animal models, as researchers must be certain that alternative methods still yield human-relevant results. So it's sort of indicating to me that the position... Oops, sorry. Your time is up. Sorry. You know, what this letter is suggesting is that there... cases where um that that while there's these other approaches organoids computational models on so forth that that there still needs to be validation done through animal testing um yeah so i don't i'm a little surprised that that this was sent if if

Given that I assume UW Relations read the resolution in detail, nowhere in the resolution do we say we want to end animal experiments. We are going to end animal experiments. What it says is NAMs are proven to be really useful. They're proving to be highly effective. And so we want, you know, focus on them. to get them moving in the right direction. As they do, you know, if they prove to be more effective, scientists will move over. I mean, scientists will happily move over. For a number of situations, they aren't there yet. There's no doubt about that. So I don't see UW's statement and the resolution as in conflict at all.

I don't know if there's... I found it very interesting, your statistic about, you know, the... unreliability of testing with mice.

Right. I mean, you know, the previous speaker mentioned the FDA Modernization Act, which was passed in December 2022, right? And so even the government recognizes that animal systems are just not giving us the information that we want. And so what the Modernization Act says in particular is that while you can still test in animal models if you want to, you are no longer required to. And so many people doing toxicity tests use NAMs because they're just more effective. They're more sensitive and more specific. FDA Modernization 3.0 is going to push that even farther. So it's not that this movement in general or this resolution in particular is saying we have to end animal experiments. It's just saying, hey, look, animal experiments have critical limitations, and these NAMs have a lot of potential, a lot of opportunity, and the more we invest in them, the more we see payoff. So let's continue to do that and see where this goes. Thank you. Yeah.

Thank you much.

We have a final registrant wishing to speak, and that's Jack Ordman, who is online. I'm going to promote him to speak here. Jack, can you unmute yourself?

Yes, hello. So I actually was running late on work and didn't have as much time as I wanted to prepare what I wanted to say. So I'm just going to keep this very, very brief that I am here in strong support of Resolution 70. And that as I'm in the Hilldale area, I live here locally. And that I got a Beagle Cecil rescued from Ridgeland Farms, and it's just been a joy to watch him learn interact with the world around him learn what a toy even is and that it could be his without fear of retaliation or punishment or that he has to fight over resources and that when when he's in a cage full of dogs that are malnourished and desperate and potentially suffering from psychosis I just think As someone who is a, and always has been a staunch supporter of science. I love science. I love astronomy. It's been a lifelong joy of mine. I I'm not a scientist by trade and I don't claim to know all the technical details here, but I think it is something that we have to seriously consider. that in the practice of science, we fully understand the risks and costs and potential harm that we could do and that we must We cannot write a blank check in the name of progress when there are alternatives that exist. And I think that is a principle that most scientists would agree on, and we have to start pushing in this direction. So again, that was just literally off the top of my head. I didn't really have any time to prepare what I wanted. So thank you. I'm going to end here.

Thank you. All right, so that concludes our speakers. All right. So with that, is there a motion on Resolution 70? I'll move it. So, Supervisor Chavala moves recommendation of approval, discussion on Resolution 70. Okay, hearing no discussion, all in favor of the recommendation of approval, say aye. Aye. Opposed, say no. And with that, the motion carries. Resolution 70 is recommended for approval. We'll be on the board agenda next week.

In an hour.

So on to future meeting items and dates are, well, right now we have no referrals.

We don't. Okay.

There might be a couple of exec appointments, but even if we do get that, I don't, we can maybe let that wait to the following meeting, following meeting maybe.

Yeah. So.

I'm edging on that because it's the next meeting is is our offsite meeting, coming board meeting. So. So, so I think I think we'll probably not have a meeting that evening. Okay. So, but to be determined, but I don't think as of now, there are no referrals for so.

And if we don't have one on August, the next one will be the 10th of September.

Yep. So with that, motion to adjourn. There's no public comment, right? Okay, moved by Freeze to adjourn. All in favor of adjournment, say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? We are adjourned.