Following cuts in funding for the Alcohol Policy Coordinator from the University of Wisconsin, Mayor Paul Soglin said the role would likely face a revamping in the scope of its focus in the near future.
The coordinator’s role is expected to expand to address the growing drug concerns in the city, particularly with the increased frequency of heroin-related incidents over the past several months in Madison, he said.
“Since it’s going to be a full-time city position, there are no constraints on how the position is utilized,” he said. “The alcohol policy coordinator is going to be working on all substance abuse – not just alcohol … it will include the rising problem with opiates and heroin.”
The position was previously funded equally by the UW and the city, but now will be entirely shouldered by the city, Soglin said. This will allow more freedom in determining what the coordinator can do, he said.
There have been a growing number of burglaries and armed robberies linked to the use of heroin, and Dane County has already proposed the creation of the Opiates Task Force to combat these issues. The alcohol policy coordinator will now be able to address these issues as well, Soglin said.
He also said there would be an added neighborhood component to the position, allowing the coordinator to look at specific neighborhoods experiencing drug-related problems.
For the first half of the year, the position will continue to be funded by the grant between the city and the university, Soglin said. After June 30, the city plans to take up the full cost.
Mark Woulf, the current alcohol policy coordinator, said he was optimistic for the expansion of the position but regrets the loss of a direct link to policies on the UW campus.
“I think the position was good for the campus in that it highlighted a lot of issues related to alcohol on campus,” Woulf said. “I was in a position just being fresh out of the university to really understand the students’ perspective.”
He said UW would likely use the funding for other alcohol-related policies and he is interested to see what these plans would entail.
“It’s our understanding that they felt they could better use the money for alcohol issues,” he said.
Woulf also noted UW made the decision to stop funding the position independently and informed the city afterward.
While he said he ultimately feels the expansion of his role would have a positive impact in the city he hoped it would not change much for students.
“Everything that I do now as far as it relates to liquor licensing processing … will not change,” he said. “The only thing that will change will be that [the alcohol policy coordinator] will be doing much less within the university,” Woulf said.
Woulf said he was unsure about the extent to which the city and UW would remain actively in collaboration with one another, although he did not expect their relationship to change significantly.
Members of the Board of Estimates offered generally positive feedback for the policy change on Tuesday. Woulf said alders seemed willing to make up the difference in funding for his position.
The City Council will make a final decision regarding the position in a future meeting. Full funding for the position is still currently included in the mayor’s capital budget, but council members will have a chance to discuss or negotiate the terms of the position at a later date.
