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Wienermobile
Just five words from Mike May saved the day.
After serving 16 years as city attorney, Mike May is retiring on June 1. He goes out as the second-longest serving city attorney in Madison history. Mike Haas takes over on that date.
I hired May back in 2004 and it was probably the smartest thing I did while in office. City attorney is unlike any other hire a mayor makes. That’s because the city’s top lawyer serves a kind of amorphous client. The city attorney doesn’t serve the mayor or the council but the city of Madison. And, with some frequency, the city’s elected stewards are inclined to do things that would likely run afoul of state or federal laws or constitutions or the city’s own ordinances.
At those times the city attorney has to stand up to his bosses — and the people who can renew or not renew his next contract — and tell them things they don’t want to hear. So, a city attorney, aside from needing to be an excellent lawyer, needs to command the respect of his colleagues and his superiors. Mike May has been both a great lawyer and a respected public servant. While I didn’t know him well before I hired him and while our relationship was professional while I was in office, since then I’ve been lucky to call him my friend.
So, as a sort of exit interview, I sent him some questions via email. Always an interesting guy, here are his responses.
Dave: If you’re the second-longest serving city attorney, who is the first?
Mike: Harold E. Hanson, who served from 1938 to 1961. Imagine the changes he saw during those 23 years, from the Depression to the Kennedy administration! Madison's population approximately doubled during his tenure, from around 65,000 to 130,000.
Do you know anything about him?
Only that he must have been revered; he ended his career as city attorney and served several months as acting mayor before we could elect Henry Reynolds as a replacement for Ivan Nestingen, who had resigned as mayor to work in the Kennedy Administration. Hanson's picture hangs with the other mayoral portraits in the City Clerk's Office.
Why didn’t you go for the gold?
Seven more years?!? Are you kidding me?
Aside from saving the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile [we’ll get to that in a bit], what are the things you’re most proud of in your years as city attorney?
It is hard to top the Wienermobile, although a close second was creating the "77 Square Miles Ordinance" where we park laws that are no longer effective but we are sure will come back when the state Legislature obtains the enlightenment of the Madison Common Council.
More seriously: keeping the interests of my client at the heart of what I did. Restoring purpose, morale and continuity to a very good office that had been drifting with five leaders in four years. Bringing some order to the city's byzantine committee structure, which needs more work. Providing legal service in a manner that was professional, but relaxed, and with a smile.
What was your most memorable city council meeting?
Probably the last one, when they said nice things about me. (But seriously), I can't remember if it was a budget meeting, the Edgewater debate, or the smoking ban, but I had to warn the council around 6 a.m. on a Wednesday that if they did not leave within the hour, the Municipal Court judge would find them all in contempt for occupying the courtroom. This was the morning I met some of my staff coming to work as I was heading home.
You left a rewarding career and a lucrative practice to become city attorney. You even had to sell your house in Maple Bluff to move into the city. What were you thinking?
I wanted to do public service; I wanted to give back to the city that had been so good to me and my family. It was the right time for a change in my career. And, yes, I left some money on the table over the last 16 years, but as you know, the reward of pursuing the common good is priceless.
What advice did you give to Mike Haas that you are willing to see in print?
He already knew this, but remember to keep your cool in public settings. You can rant at the craziness in the privacy of your office.
Assuming that college football will return at some point, will the Badgers win a national championship in your lifetime? No. Well, maybe if I live long enough that Russell Wilson has a talented son who plays quarterback at UW.
You love [wife] Briony Foy, the law, the city of Madison and Badgers hockey. Is that the correct order? What is it about Madison that you love?
Yes, that is the right order. What do I love about our special place? Everything, even the craziness that caused me to rant in the privacy of my office.
OK, about that Wienermobile story. Madison had an alder named Steve Holtzman who just hated advertising. Steve especially hated billboards. Well, there was this travelling billboard that would circle Camp Randall on football Saturdays. It was basically just a two-sided billboard attached to a flatbed truck, but Steve hated the thing.
So, he introduced an ordinance to ban traveling billboards. The city council started to debate Steve’s ordinance and they got themselves tied up in knots over it. The discussion was closing in on its second hour when Ald. Tim Bruer chimed in and said he had a question of the city attorney.
“Yes, Ald. Bruer,” said May.
“Mr. City Attorney,” said Bruer with a twinkle in his eye. “Would this ordinance ban the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile?”
Nobody had thought of that. Silence fell over the council. Alders leaned forward on their desks.
May considered the question for a few heartbeats. Then he uttered the immortal words, “Ya know, I don’t know.”
You could see the panic on 20 aldermanic faces. Morning headlines flashed before their eyes: “City Council Parks Weinermobile!” Five-year-olds crying in their breakfast cereal. Parents demanding answers. Recall petitions circulating.
Quickly a motion was made to place the ordinance on file (the council’s polite way of saying it would be placed in a file and never seen again) and it passed on a voice vote. The council went on to other business and the Wienermobile was saved thanks to five words from Mike May.
Now, that’s what I call serving a client that is higher than the mayor, higher than the city council. In matters large and small and even more profound than the Wienermobile, Mike May served the city of Madison for 16 years. That client has never had a better advocate.
