News

Former alder candidate appointed to ALRC

Mark Woulf given non-voting position on alcohol committee; doesn’t attend non-renewal meeting due to “family reasons”

Mark Woulf was appointed to the new  student position on the Alcohol License Review Committee by former Associated Students of Madison chair Brittany Wiegand, according to current ASM chair Tyler Junger.  

Junger said Wiegand made the appointment to the non-voting position with consultation with former Shared Governance Committee Chair Adam Sheka in late April. The position, which is created for either the chair of ASM Student Council or that person’s designee, was recently created by the City Council in late March.

Woulf ran for the District 8 alder seat in the 2009 spring elections, but was defeated by UW junior Bryon Eagon. 

Junger said there were seven applicants to the position, and he personally reviewed all of them after the appointment was made. The other candidates did not have experience with student government, he added.  

“I’ve personally reviewed all of the ALRC applications and feel Mark Woulf was the best-qualified candidate for the position,” Junger said in an email to the Badger Herald. ”His application was better thought-out than the others and displayed a strong knowledge of the issues pertinent to the position.” 

Junger added this was a unique situation for ASM; no current policy exists for appointing students to city committees. 

He also said making this policy would likely require a bylaw change to the main set of by laws governing all of ASM , which requires passage at two consecutive meetings. 

“…[I]t’s clear that a process to care for appointments such as this must be created - this process would likely include applications put through the Nominations Board and later approved by the full [Student] Council,” Junger said. 

Despite his appointment, Woulf was absent from last Tuesday’s ALRC meeting concerning the non-renewal complaints against University Avenue bars Madison Avenure and Johnny O’s, as well as Henry Street bar Ram Head. 

Woulf said he would have liked to attend this meeting, but was out of town for family reasons. He will attend the meetings starting in June after some training with alcohol policy coordinator Katherine Plominski.