 Good evening, and welcome to tonight's candidate forum sponsored by the American Association of University Women dedicated to empowering the lives of women and girls. Tonight's moderator is Emily Verbinski. Emily is currently serving as the membership chair for the League of Women Voters of Sheboygan County. Originally from Metro Detroit, she has lived in Sheboygan for nearly three years, working as a polymer engineer for Seiko AEI Polymers. She is joining us today because of her passion for voter access and voter education in the community. Please welcome Emily. Okay, so we're gonna start with introductions by, from each candidate. So we can start with Betty, if you have your introduction. Hello everyone, my name is Betty, actually I am the district for, sorry, sure, hello, my name is Betty Ackley, I'm the district for Alderperson. I joined Common Council in March of 2019. I am here representing my neighbors and I am hoping that I can continue to do so as we move into the next two years. I am really excited to be here, so thank you. And Betty is running against Debra Yocas and she is not here today. So next we'll let Dean introduce himself. Okay, there we go, okay. Hi, first of all, I would like to thank the American Association of University Women for hosting this forum. I'd also like to thank those in attendance and those watching at home. My name is Dean Decker, I am married to my wife Debra and I have three grown children, two sons and a daughter. I'm a lifelong resident of Sheboygan and I employed as a head custodian at James Madison Elementary School. I'm the current Alderperson for the sixth district and in that role I serve as the committee of the whole chairperson, being humbly elected by my peers. Can you speak, Bob? I'm sorry, okay. You're there to speak. Okay, I'm sorry, you're a little closer here there. How's this, better? You hear, okay, okay. I am the chairman of the Public Works Committee and serve on the law and licensing and public hearings, Marina Parks and Forestry and the Transit Committee. I also serve as president of the Indiana Corridor Neighborhood Association and I'm a past president of the Sheboygan Area School District Support Staff Union. I'm running because I like to be a part of the decision-making process of our city govern and enjoy serving my community. I feel my experience and leadership make me the best candidate for this position. I've been attentive to the needs of the residents of the sixth district and my lifelong and I have respect for the history of the city while balancing the needs for change when necessary. Some of the things that have occurred during my tenure, the remodeling of this city hall right here, the space, several streets including Georgia Avenue, Union Avenue, North Avenue, Superior Avenue, sections of Taylor Drive, the Oscar Apartments, the Kingsbury Development and the acquisition of the building that the senior center will be in. We just recently broke ground for the remodeling of that on Monday and I look forward to serving this district. And Dean is running against Mark Herman who is also not here today. So next we'll have Andre introduce himself. Thank you. Good evening everyone. I wanna start by thanking the AAUW for hosting this forum and inviting all the candidates to participate. It is so important to have a nonpartisan, it is so important to have nonpartisan forums during this nonpartisan elections. Citizens need to have a good opportunity to learn the real facts about candidates before the election. Sheboygan is an amazing city. Since moving to Sheboygan, I have quickly found that this city has so much to offer. It's a great place to raise a family. The lake shore is amazing and the people are some of the nicest that you'll meet in the Midwest. These are the reasons that I have fallen in love with the city of Sheboygan. And when you love something that takes care and passion to ensure the future of it, my love for Sheboygan is what got me involved. I bring a fresh new perspective to the city council. I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater with a degree in business management. I'm an executive director of Wisconsin nonprofit. I currently serve on the Public Works Committee, ME Public Library Board and Housing Rehabilitation Committee. All of these experiences have taught me the importance of working with others to get things done. Working with communities and boards isn't always an easy task, but I have always found the best way to bring everyone together is to focus on shared goals. I know this city is special, but in order to sustain this city, more young people like myself need to choose to stay and move to this city to ensure its future. The city's population has slightly increased over the years, over the past few years. However, it is not enough to have a tangible effect on the city's budget. Right now, we are struggling to deal with a housing shortage. We must understand not tackling this issue can lead to disruptions and labor pool, city services, road funding, and overall health and safety of the city. Taking a proactive stance to address these issues is how we'll continue to strengthen the city of Sheboygan. I'm happy to say as soon as I was appointed to the council seat, I hit the ground running. I met with the department heads to get a clear understanding of the challenges we face and immediately took action. One of my first committee votes was to approve the Enterprise Asset Management System, which will help us more efficiently attend to our road maintenance. Making improvements like this will help improve city services while also saving taxpayer money down the road. Going back to the old ways of thinking, we'll only stunt the progress we are making. There have been too many past years where previous councils neglected our roads as a result of cars and safety. Cars and our safety are paying those mistakes to this day. I know Sheboygan is ready for a fresh new perspective, a perspective that offers solutions to the problems that we face. We cannot keep kicking the problems down the road for the future councils to solve. The time for action is now. I hope at the end of this forum that I will have the people of the tents to districts vote. Thank you. And Andrea's opponent is Joseph Heidemann, who also couldn't be here, but he did prepare a statement and thought I'm going to read. Good evening. I am Joe Heidemann and I'm running for Alderman in the 10th district. I am a veteran of the United States Air Force, a family man and I am a Christian. I have a lot of experience in city government in both Sheboygan and Sheboygan Falls. This experience provides me with a good background in decision making, ensuring the residents of the 10th district that I have qualifications necessary to be on the Common Council. Why should experience mean so much to the taxpayers in this district? Currently I feel the council is being directed by outside sources rather than being encouraged to reason together as an elected group and share independent viewpoints. Prior to moving to Sheboygan, I served as Alderman and also as mayor of Sheboygan Falls. In Sheboygan as Alderman, I served under four mayors, Juan Perez, Bob Ryan, Terry Van Akron and Mike Vandersen. I've been appointed to positions on every standing committee within city government many times as chairman or vice chair. I was also elected by my fellow councilman to vice chairman of the Common Council and committee of the whole chairman. These added responsibilities increase the workload that I very willingly made and what again make the extra effort for the good of our citizens. I have the ability to communicate with both individual department heads and council members. I believe good communication enabled many projects that were in the best interest of my district and this city to be completed. One such project was the passage of an ordinance to deal with sex offenders. The state was placing these individuals within the city without proper notification and with little regard to child safety. The ordinance was passed, that was the first step. The second was to implement. The public protection and safety committee held that responsibility. I was part of that committee along with Alderman, Mike Hanna. Implementation was difficult at times because no situation was ever the same. We were successful because we could share ideas and we agreed that our utmost concern was protecting the children of Sheboygan. This was done in every case. I was also on the committee to explore the city administrator position along with individual citizens not on the council. This was a well thought out process. We wanted what was best for the city of Sheboygan, not merely a replica of what other communities had done. This also took communication and respect for every opinion on the committee. The work put in by the committee helped that Common Council establish the position. An ambulance service was put in place while I was on the council. This was to be part of the fire department. I did my research. I contacted individuals within the district for opinions and weighed them carefully. The service has been a success. I have been part of many of the city's recent developments. These projects don't get done without a lot of discussion and study. Current staffing on both the fire and police departments are for most concern of mine. Public safety of the citizens of Sheboygan is a top priority. We are currently in a building surge, which means the added responsibilities for these two departments needs to be addressed. I will work to make sure that not only those offices but all departments within the city are adequately staffed. The continuous repair of streets and infrastructure will also be a major concern. For many years on the Public Works Committee, many years on the Public Works Committee has prepared me for addressing those areas. The creation of parks for both individuals living in our developments along with their pets is a must. The maintaining of our number one asset, our lovely lakeshore, is something I seek to achieve. There is little that I haven't done or wouldn't do to help Sheboygan thrive. I have served on the transit commission and the senior center commission. These services and the quality of these services is important to me. The lights need to stay on, garbage needs to be picked up, streets plowed, sewer and water service should be second to none. Police and fire protection should be more than just adequate. Good services will attract good businesses with the potential to help Sheboygan grow. These are what the concerns of the local government should mainly be about. I can assure the citizens of the 10th district that they will be represented by, well represented by Joe Heidemann. Okay, and now we'll move on to the questions. I'm gonna go mix up the orders so no one has to be first every time. So here we go. The first question is, why are you running for city council and what is one of the best contributions that you will bring to the council? And we'll start with Betty on this one. Okay, so I am running because I would like to continue to represent my, sorry, I keep doing that. I'm sorry about leaving my mask on. I would like to continue to represent the neighbors in my district. I feel like my background in finance and human resources allows me the opportunity to make some positive decisions. We are facing a housing crisis here. These are issues that I've had experience with over the past three years serving as the elder person here. I feel like I listened to my constituents. I listened to everybody's concerns. No matter how big or small the issue might be, if I can't resolve that problem or I can't give them the answers that they're looking for, I will find the person that is responsible within the city that can do so. So, you know, but the real reason why I'm running is I feel like I need to contribute to our community. I need to continue to be active and I need to be continuing to help my neighbors in any way that I can. So that is my purpose for running. And I do believe that I am a good candidate, not only from my experience, but some of the things that we have done as a council. I feel like I can continue to do so in any way that people need me. So I like to listen to what the constituents have to say. I feel like if I am making decisions that are supposed to be best for the city, the only way that I can do that is by having residents tell me what their opinion is because I think it's important that we come as a group collective and we are all responsible for this wonderful city we live in. So that is why I feel like I want to be the representative of the people and not be making decisions to myself personally. This is a nonpartisan position and I have always respectfully kept it as such. So, thank you. Okay, and next we'll have Dean. Okay, why am I running? I always liked, I like to serve the community. I like to serve the community that I'm in. I feel I've done a good job in the past doing serving the community. I've actually, public service has been kind of part of my life for quite a long time as being a custodian in the Schrodinger School District. It's also serving the community. I think that one of the, what I bring to the table to this is my leadership. I've been the leader of the committee the whole. I bring a lot of experience to public works. I'm very familiar with how a lot of the things go through down there. I bring a passion that I guess would be the best one to put it. I guess that's the model I have right now, sorry. Okay, and then Andre. Thank you. Yeah, so first and foremost, I love the city and I love the district that I live in. As a person who loves their community, I've always saw ways to impact the community and prove where I see needed. This is why I got involved in the local government, but I'm running for this seat because I believe we need someone to uplift the voices of all the people of the detention district. If you've ever been to the 10th district, we have a very, very diverse community. There's homeowners, there's renters, and then there's a growing minority population. I believe the person who gets this seat should be able to uplift all the voices of the 10th district and not just those, not just one segment of the district. So for me, it's about uplifting everyone's voice, whether they're homeowners or renters. And it's clear from knocking on doors that people want a very proactive older person. I'm not sitting around waiting on people to come to me, I'm going to doors, I'm knocking doors and I'm having genuine conversations. And from those conversations, they like to see somebody young and proactive seeking out their voices. I've knocked on some doors where people haven't seen the older in years. So I'm changing that up and actually going to constituents and getting their concerns reflected to the city council. So I bring that to the table. But yeah, I believe I'm ready for the job. I have the experience with my nonprofit work and also my work on the me public library board gives me the right experience to step right into this, continuing this role. And I hope to have the 10th district's vote as a result. So thank you. Okay, and our next question is, what are the three most important challenges facing city council? And we'll start with the dean on this one. The three most, what is it, excuse me? The three most important challenges facing city council. The three most important challenges facing city council. I would say we've got the three most important challenges that are currently housing, affordable housing. And that's one of the probably, that's the number one key right now. I think that's one of the largest issues we have. To, we need the housing for, to attract young people coming to this area to attract for the industry, bring in through, there's a tremendous later shortage at this time. And without having that, we were behind the eight ball on that. The other thing I would say that's another challenge that's coming up is replacing revenue from the closing of the Alliant Power Plant. That's, they've already closed shutdown unit four, which was a significant decrease in revenue for the city from that. And now they've, now they're going to be shutting down unit five in the next year. When that, when those things occur, that's it, we have to find ways to replace that revenue. I think part of that challenge would be to bring it, bringing it, which actually would be a third proportion is is bringing industry into this city. We have a tremendous industrial park now or our business center that we just, built and I think finding and retaining businesses for that is another big challenge that we need to address and we need to work on. Also, I guess another thing that we is continuing to work on our roads. I mean, that's, if you ask any constituent, that's one of the biggest concerns is roads. And I think we've got a good program going on as we just as Andre alluded to that we have a new programmer implementing to help us address, kind of keep things so that we're doing it financially and fiscally, responsibly, but we're able to keep on with those, with that. So I guess that's about all I have right now with that. And next we'll have Andre. Yeah, thank you. I'm definitely in agreement with all their decor on those issues that we face. I'll just add a few things to that. So one of the biggest challenge we face and probably will always face is the budget. So while we've done a good job at balancing the budget, we continue to face reductions and shared revenue from the state. Since 2018, we've seen a reduction of nearly $800,000 from Madison. This makes it more difficult to provide essential services to the city citizens. So that's gonna be a huge issue that we have to have elders that are ready to tackle that issue. We also, like many other cities, we are facing a worker shortage. There are a number of reasons why the city and many businesses are facing this issue, but it stems from before the pandemic. But in order to address the worker shortage issue at its core, I believe we must address a few things. And it stems with addressing our ongoing childcare crisis. There are over 300 parents who have children on waiting lists. And this is an issue that has to go to be addressing correlation with the worker shortage. And we also have to continue to address affordable housing. Obviously that's in direct correlation with how workers are gonna come to the city, whether they're gonna be able to live in the city. So that's gonna directly tie into the worker shortage. I also believe we have to have a council that is focused on solutions today for a better tomorrow. We've had councils that have not invested in the city, which is why we've had so many crumbling roads today. More recent councils have understood their responsibility to maintain our roads. So again, I'm in grievance with Alderdecker, but the roads are obviously the biggest issue that taxpayers wanna see addressed. So balancing the budget and while also making sure we attain our roads are the most important. Yep, and Betty. Okay, so something that I have done is I have focused on speaking with constituents, trying to find out some of our biggest issues. And I will echo Alderdecker and Alder Walton in saying that we definitely have a affordable housing crisis here. We have families that are really struggling to find safe places and having landlords that will repair their properties and keep it safe for their families. So to me, I think that's something that's very important is locating a way to provide affordable housing, especially with families. One of the other issues that we have is attracting businesses here. When our kids are growing up, they're graduating from high school and they're going somewhere else because there's nothing great to keep them here. So I am hopeful that we can continue to be a place that is attractive to business. I think that it's very important that we find businesses that are not gonna record environment, but businesses that will bring good jobs here. So our kids, instead of moving away to a bigger city or better opportunities, will actually choose to stay in Sheboygan. Another issue that I've been hearing quite a bit from people is their concerns about loose dogs and dog biting and some problems with pets. And as the chairperson of the mayor's pet friendly task group, this has come to my attention, we've got to do something because people feel like this is an out of control issue. It doesn't affect everybody, but it does affect us as a community. We cannot have a bad reputation as being a terrible place to live. So all of these smaller issues that may not seem hugely important to me are still very important. So I'm trying to make sure that I keep a well-rounded view of all of our problems. And hopefully we can attract business here, have a safe place for families to live, great places to work, all while being fiscally responsible. Thanks. All right. So question three is what do you envision as the most appropriate development of the former armory site? And we'll start with Andre on this one. Yeah, I think the armory was a good thing that we had here for a long time, but there have been a number of suggestions that I've heard about that we can use it to repurpose something that's useful. So for example, we've used some ARPA funds to redevelop the old Save a Lot building to make the, or to renovate it into the new senior center, which is also known as Uptown Social. So I think we have to have a conversation with our department here. Our department has the mayor and see what best benefit the community as a whole. As of right now, I'm not exactly sure what we should put there, but I think we should have an ongoing conversation similar to what we had with repurposing the old Save a Lot building. And Betty. I'm going to echo what Alder Walton said here. So I think that it's very important that we think about the future and future generations. We can't just be selfish and think of ourselves. So we definitely need to have a communication, you know, with the mayor's office, with the department heads and figure out what is the best way to develop that property so that it benefits all residents, not just a select few. I think that there are plenty of wonderful ideas. I know that the Armory is a very contentious issue and everybody was quite upset to lose something so important to the community. So what we need to do is we need to find something else that we can create there, that would be a space for people to feel a strong attachment to. What that is, I don't know yet, but I think that it's definitely a conversation that we need to continue to have to figure out what is going to be best for everyone, not just us, but also future generations. Andine. Yeah, I also echo what Betty and Andre said about working together to find the best fit. I mean, personally, I've thought about this a little bit with different things. I would like to possibly see something like a hotel, a restaurant, community type of thing where people can do, but that was one of the original thoughts when the Armory itself existed, something where I think that's gonna be, that's gonna attract people to Sheboygan, take advantage of the iconic view from there, the lakefront and everything like that. I think that it should still also be that where the community members will be, so like a restaurant or something that would be incorporated with, that's a thought. I mean, that's just, I mean, I'm open to all different ideas and I look forward to hearing suggestions in the future. All right, question four. The city is increasingly diverse ethnically, religiously and in gender and in many other ways. We see this reflected in our neighborhoods and school classrooms, but it is not yet reflected in government and civic leadership positions. How would you include and encourage citizens from these groups to serve on committees and participate in city government? And we'll start with Betty on this one. Okay, so that is something that I have done. I have asked friends to please, please, please get involved. The local government is not a very difficult task and we do need to have opinions from everyone. So I felt like when getting out into the community and speaking with friends and trying to encourage others, I think that diversity is extremely important. I think it comes through education, my involvement with different groups and also being a person of color myself, most people don't realize that, that I am half Japanese. I feel like it's very important that everybody be represented in this community. I'm appreciative of everybody that sits on the council or has done so previously, but I think that it's very important that we encourage people, get out in the community and talk to them, make friends with people. It's not that hard to get people to become involved. You just have to show them that what they are doing is making a change for the future. So I think part of it is education, part of it is communication. We really got to communicate and especially with the younger folks, we have to get them interested in becoming involved and they need to see faces that are reflective of themselves in order to feel like they have a chance to have a voice. So. Great, next we'll have Andre. Yeah, yeah, this is a great question, something I continue to think about. So I think what's great about Sheboygan is we have a very, very growing diverse population in communities. There are over 40 different languages spoken in our schools, which is pretty amazing when you think about it. But first I think we have to start by building a sense of trust with the underrepresented communities. Yeah, we have to recognize that underserved communities or minority populations have a distrust in government for various amount of reasons. So I think we have to start by having communications with these communities and understand where they come from. Their ethnic beliefs. And I think once you start to build that trust, you can start having the transition of getting them involved to local government and understanding what we do and how, what purpose we serve. So I think it starts with communication and then we can move on to including them into our government programs and institutions. So as a person of color myself, I have felt very involved and very invited by the people. It just takes communication and that's where I think we have to start. And Dean. I guess I have to echo what Andre and Betty have both said. I mean, I think it does start with educational too. I mean, working with people and working with the schools, bringing some of the things like that, bringing the young people into it so that you do bring the diversity. And I will say one thing that this council is a great representation of it. This is probably the most diverse council that there ever has been. And I'm proud to be part of this. I mean, it's, we've got eight, I mean, we've got all ethnicities, ages, everything. I think in this, that the fact that we have this great diversity in this council, I think is a great reflection of our community. And I think that just this itself helps encourage people to, because they can look up at the council and say, hey, look at that. There's someone that looks like me up on that council. So I do think that the one population that probably has been underrepresented, and I would like to see encouraged more is the Hmong population. I don't believe, I think on the school board, there was one Hmong gentleman, but I think I would like to see more of that. Their population be represented. They're a vital part of our community. And I think that that's, but I am very happy to see some of the, what's going on in the city right now. And I hope we can continue it. Okay. Our next question. Milwaukee, West Bend, Racine, and Kauna, sorry. Are offering incentives to city employees if they live in the city. Would you support this plan for Sheboygan? And we'll start with Dean on this one. Oh, this is a tough one. They're offering incentives to state for people to live in the city rather than, for their employees to live in the city or for, I'm sorry. It says city employees. For city employees. I didn't write the question. Okay. I don't necessarily, I'm not really sure if I've really studied this on that all. I don't know if I would be necessarily in favor of that. I guess I would have to learn more about it and see what kind of effect it would have on our budgets. That's always the biggest thing is the budget. How do you bring through a program like that without affecting things like that? How do you address the people that are already currently living in the city? I mean, how that are already public employees. So I guess that's, I kind of have to punt on this one over the big gas. I will go to Betty next on this one. I'm going to say the same thing. I think that's a really tough question to answer because obviously the city has finite revenue streams and we have to be fiscally responsible with what we have. Although it would be very attractive to ask people to live here. I feel like I am not experienced in that area. I would have to look at the research. I would be interested in seeing how that would work in a city of our size. Although it would be very nice to do so, I really think we'd have to do our homework because we have to ensure that we are fiscally responsible with the funding that we receive and with federal and state funding getting smaller and smaller. The concern would be how are we supposed to budget this? How are we supposed to balance things and ensure that we are providing citizens with the services that they need and deserve? So if we're cutting more into resources who is going to pay that? Even though the taxpayers have to pay it, it is unfair to continue to raise taxes consistently because we want to do more things. So I think it would be something that we would all have to sit down and really do our homework before making such a comment like that or a decision like that. I think we would have to have some definite research about where we would bring in funding from. And Andre? Yeah, yeah. I think it's a very interesting idea and I'm definitely willing to learn more about it so we have to take in some of the realities of the city. We have over 3,000 positions unfilled in Sheboygan. So obviously the job market is extremely competitive but we have a severe worker shortage in the city of Sheboygan. So I wouldn't want to discriminate against any talented workers that currently live outside the city limits. Adding to this issue is that we would have, obviously we have a shortage of affordable housing so that also makes it a lot more competitive to deal with. So we need to address the affordable housing issue first and then we can discuss if it's necessary to even have incentives for employees to live in the city. So I think we have to take in some of the factors that go into our needs right now because if we say you have to live in the city and then you get these incentives then we're kind of discouraged in some people who might be extremely talented for the positions we're looking to fill and they might actually turn away and look for a different job in another city. So currently right now, I would have to learn more about it to see how that would even work out but yeah, I would say I'm not fully on board with it right now. So our next question, how can we maintain safe neighborhoods? And we'll start with Andre on this one. Yeah, yeah, thank you. So I actually wrote this down. So and I think in order to maintain safety in our neighborhoods, we have to take a multi-tiered approach. So I expressed this in one of my first votes on the council which was to increase the funding for the police budget which demonstrates my strong support for public safety. So it's a given that we must have a strong police department in the city but as I think we also have to go a little bit further in helping our police department out. So as members of the community, we all need to work together to ensure the safety of our neighborhoods. We need better services for people struggling with mental health addictions and homelessness. And many of the challenges tend to lead to crime, that tend to lead to crime can be addressed by the city before the crime actually even happens. Our police department, while I think they're doing a great job, can't do it alone and I think they need all of us to play our part in ensuring the safety of the city. And I think that can range in a number of ways that we can help out from locking up our personal properties to installing security cameras around our homes and also working with the county to get more services that people need. I know one of the pilot programs that we're working on is having mental health workers drive along with police officers and I think that's an amazing idea that we can explore. But overall I think the best way to keep our neighborhoods safe revolves around our police department and citizens working together to create and maintain our city neighborhoods. And Dean. I think one of the things that we need to address for maintaining safe neighborhoods, we have to look at a multi-tier approach to this. I mean, lighting, neighborhood associations, which we currently are doing now, I think those are very helpful on being on one. I know how that does work. It helps to bring the neighbors together. I mean, it brings that sense of community. They're worried about more. If you know your neighbor, you care about your neighbor more. I mean, it just comes down to that. I think that the neighborhood officers, having the neighborhood officers that we have now, I think the more of that, so that the people get to know the police officers, they get to know them personally. The officers get to know the people in the neighborhood personally. That they can get to know them and that when there is problems, they feel comfortable reporting those problems and bringing those problems forward and bringing solutions to those problems, helping them through that. I think that you need to, people need to bring pride to the neighborhood, work through the different areas and I think that's my answer on that. And Betty. So one of the things that I think is super important is that as neighbors, we need to get out of our houses, we need to get off of our properties, we need to go meet our neighbors and get to know people. That way you have an ability to know who's living on your block, who's living across the street, who lives a little bit away. If people are communicating with one another and they're getting to know each other when there is a problem, hopefully somebody has eyes on their property. If it's a problem with the neighbor, if you have a problem with your neighbor, rather than calling the police right away, try and talk to your neighbor and work it out. I think that having that communication between neighbors is very helpful to keep what feels like a safe and secure neighborhood. Obviously, the police department has been an integral part of that. I think that the city developing the neighborhood associations has been a great thing for neighbors to get out to meet each other. Breaking the ice can be super awkward. I know when I moved into my neighborhood and nobody talked on my block. And the first thing I did was I tried to catch people outside and start talking to them because getting to know people, you feel a sense of responsibility that you need to take care of your neighbors, you need to watch out for your neighbors. So to build a secure neighborhood, it's a relationship between the police department and the residents. We all have to work together as a team and we need to come up with ideas to keep our neighborhoods safe. And just because we had the neighborhood associations and that's a great place to meet people, sometimes those associations aren't active. So we have to find a way to educate people to teach them that we had these fantastic opportunities. I think that having the police come into schools and help these children learn that they are a safe place to go. They're great people to talk to. There are ways to get help. I think that it's really also educational because we need to take care of each other and we also need to rely on ourselves and the police having a good working relationship to keep our neighborhoods safe. But really, we are responsible for watching out for one another and trying to take care of each other. All right, our next question. What ideas do you have for bringing more people and businesses to the downtown? How would you revitalize downtown Sheboygan? And we'll start with Betty. So I know that we've always relied on tourism. That's a great way to bring people in here. I think that one of the more unique things that we've have to do is we have to consider that there are all types of businesses. I know that when I was on the licensing hearings and public safety committee, we had the ax bar coming into town and everybody thought, oh my gosh, that sounds dangerous drinking and throwing axes. Oh boy, but it's not. It's a really popular activity in Milwaukee. And so we had to take a chance on doing something new to bring something fun and different to the community. And I think that if we attract new things, we will attract more visitors here. We will attract more folks that want to live here and spend more time here. I think that we need to invest in downtown and find ways that we can bring businesses here that are attractive and unique, that are more unique to Sheboygan, bring some interesting things here for people to enjoy. And Dean? Yes, I agree with Betty on that. I think that we've got some really good core things that are down there now. There's been some great additions in the last couple of years. The Game Board has a new facility down there that they actually were not new. They repurposed a beautiful building and it's great. There's been a few other places that have just recently, the three turtles, shopped in there. I think places like that, I think that we have to be open to new and great, better ideas for that. I think we need to encourage businesses to bring through. I think that the, again, the tourism, also the tourism aspect that we can bring people and the things that are going to be that unique variety of ideas. I'm always open to the different things and I think that we have to continue to go in that direction. And Andre? Yeah, thank you. So yeah, I think there's a couple of steps that we've already taken to revitalize our downtown. So I know we have gotten those electric scooters that not everyone likes, but I think it was something that really sparked some of the energy of downtown. I see more people down by the leg shore riding the scooters, so that's exciting. So that also sparks business. So if people are more, more people are spending time downtown and obviously they're going to spend more money, more money in the local areas around there. So I think we have to explore all the options that can bring more business downtown, but also just explore business ventures and opportunities. I know this is something I've talked with about a few people. I think we really need a Dave and Buster's. I really like Dave and Buster's. So if we can get that here, I would, I think that would bring a lot of business downtown. But yeah, I think we just have to continue to explore the options that are available to us to make the downtown exciting, make it more vibrant, and continue to work with business developers to ensure that they'll have business when they come here. How can the city repurpose the big box buildings that have been empty for years, such as the pick and save buildings on Calumet and South Business Drive? And we'll start with Dean on this one. The big box buildings. Well, it's a multi-tiered approach again also. The pick and save building is right now currently, it's owned by a separate entity, and pick and save is still paying the rent on that. So it's difficult to get anybody to move on that. You can't just say, well, you have to leave, they're gonna, but I like to see different businesses in these places. Some of it, sometimes some of the buildings can be repurposed, like we, the city, have repurposed the old save a lot into an hour, we're gonna be uptown social, which is I think a great asset, gonna be a great asset for the city. We need to look for other ventures like that, or other things that we can put into those, and try to find different things. Some of them are limited, sometimes some of them have to be taken down. I mean, it should not be allowed to deteriorate in front of our eyes. That's one thing that I am against, just letting these buildings sit and deteriorate in front of our eyes. I know there's been a lot of issues with that pick and save building as far as seagulls and things like that, and we have to continue to put pressure on the owners that are there, so that they do maintain those buildings, at least until we do find a repurpose for them. And I think we need to continue to just be open to different ideas on those things. Andre? Yeah, yeah, I think one of the things that we recently did that Alder Deckard talked about earlier is that we repurposed the save a lot building into the New Senior Center. So I think we have to explore what we can use as a community service building, but outside of that in the private sector, I think we have to, I know I'm gonna sound like a broken clock here, but I think we definitely have to address affordable housing and also transportation because obviously if you're gonna move to the city, you're gonna need workers and obviously we already have vacant, a lot of vacant jobs that aren't being addressed, so I think we have to first and foremost address our housing shortage and I think we also have to address transportation. We've seen a transportation shortage in our bus drivers, which means that we have to reduce our services, which means that people who do not have cars have a harder time getting around. So I think if we address some of the underlying issues that would drive businesses up, more businesses will be likely to enter into some of those vacant buildings. I know in our shop code, we have a hobby lobby coming in, so that's great, but I think if we want to make it more attractive, we have to address housing and transportation in the city. And Betty. And I agree with Dean and Andre both. I think that it's a multi-tiered issue, unfortunately because some of these buildings are privately held, we can't do a whole lot to force the owners to do something, but I would like to see some of these standing buildings be repurposed into something that would be beneficial for the residents here. And again, I think our biggest issue with housing being a problem, how are we supposed to address, well, what can we do with this building? We've got to have the people living here first. And as Andre said, with transportation, that's also important. We have to make sure that we have the facilities and the services that people would need in order to be able to do something or encourage the owners of these buildings to allow us to do something to improve them. How can Sheboygan attract and retain young talent and how can we retain and service companies that want to expand? And we'll start with Andre. You asked the right person. Yeah, yeah, I think, again, we, like I said, I'm gonna sound like a broken clock. We have to address affordable housing. But I think for me, the main reason why I moved to Sheboygan was that there was a very affordable living standards in housing. So it made it a very attractive place to live. But I think we also have to address some of the things that keep people here. So obviously not everyone wants to drive 45 minutes to an hour to Milwaukee. So I think we have to address some of the entertainment issues. I think we have to kinda explore different business ventures with bars and entertainment that young people would like and enjoy. And again, I think we have to address transportation. More and more people in my generation are, we enjoy taking public transportation, whether that's a taxi, that's Uber, or the bus services. So I think if we address housing, businesses, and transportation, more people like myself will come here and also stay here. But I think strategically, the city of Sheboygan is in a good place because we're not too far from Green Bay in Milwaukee. So I think that's attractive in itself. But also continue to develop our downtown as we talked about earlier, because our lake shore is an amazing place to hang out in the summer. So yeah, I think we have to address some of those issues, but also make sure we maintain the things that are great about the city right now. Buddy? I'm sorry, I keep shutting it off. I think that we have to consider the options that we have available now. We need to continue to grow businesses by enticing them here, by offering good wages, by offering great places to live. We have this affordable housing problem still. And I feel like I'm a broken record myself because I keep saying, we have to fix this affordable housing problem. If we're gonna try businesses here, we have to show them why Sheboygan is such a great place to live, work, and play. We have to stand behind what we're saying. We say it's so great. So we have to think about fiscally responsible ways to entice businesses here so that we can get the young folks to come here and stay here. So I just, I feel like I'm a broken record with this because I keep saying the kids are moving away, but it's partly because of affordable housing, partly because of wage issues. We don't have employers that are paying enough of a wage that these kids can stay with affordable housing. So it's just, which is first chicken or the egg. And Dean? This is why I hate being in the end because I really, Betty, and Henry, it is. It's affordable housing. It's good jobs. If they have good jobs and good attractive jobs, I think those are good entertainment venues that young people like to be able to go to dance clubs and things like that, and you have to have those kind of venues available. One thing that they didn't maybe admit is, when we are working on this, I think some of the people, this is a young and old thing, but I think a lot of it is the bike trails in that. We need to continue to extend what we have as far as bike trails. I think that's really important. I mean, I think the community likes them. And like I said, that's a young and old, but I think it is a young attractive thing too. You said, I think there are a lot more younger people are more inclined to bike than what my generation probably did in the past, but now a lot of people in my generation are. I think that retaining, bringing in new businesses, bringing in businesses into our business park is key to bringing in young, so bringing in those good jobs to bringing in those young people. How can the city reduce the number of people experiencing homelessness and what can be done to assist these people? And I'll start with Dean on this one. To reduce homelessness, I think we, that's one of the keys is the mental health services. I think that's a big portion of the homeless population is mental health services. I think we need to work, and this is somewhat not necessarily, I hate to kick it to the county, but I think it's kind of a county run thing a little bit because it really is. The county is kind of in charge of our mental health services. And I think we need to work with the county. It's not just, it's gotta be a partnership with the county, work with the county board and work with the county health and human services to address the needs of it. I think that's probably the best answer that I can give is that we need to partner more. I know that with the, we're looking at with like, with the police department having mental health services working with them because I think that's a big portion of what the homeless population comes from, I think. And Andre? Yeah, yeah, I would definitely reflect with Alder Decker said, we have to definitely address the mental health services in the city, but I would definitely be open to having a study about the underlying issues that are driving homelessness in the city. And then I would think we can work with our city planning commissions and development departments on how to get those services out. Cause I know we offer a lot of services through HUD that actually have services on how to get into housing, how to get into any shelters that they might see or any public services when it comes to budget, learning how to budget your finances. So yeah, I don't have too much to add there. I think we definitely have to address the underlying issues with mental health and also alcoholism or drug addiction. I think those are probably some of the driving forces why people are homeless. So I think if we address those, we can definitely reduce the homelessness issue, but definitely working with our department heads on making sure that the people know where to find the services and to find those services so that they're not still on the streets. And Betty? So I think that this is a multi-tiered approach. Obviously we do need to work with the county health and human services. We need to work with the county board supervisors, but in addition to that, we should also be looking at working with the nonprofits that are working in our city tirelessly to help with the mental health issues with addiction. All of those issues can be underlying factors for homelessness. So one of the things we need to do is instead of just looking at, okay, so what can the government do to help me? We need to get out. We need to educate people. We need to work with the nonprofits that are already in the trenches, find out how we can support them. What can we do to assist them? Because they're already there. They're already doing the work. So we need to find ways to build those relationships between the city, the county, and these nonprofits that are already doing this work to reduce the homelessness population problem. I do think that having a social worker that's coming along with the police department is a great first step. In addressing the mental health problems that we have in the community. So I think that this is a group effort, as everything is, we all have to work together to address how we can help people the most. But I do think that we should be supporting the nonprofits that already have the experience, that have the staff, that have the volunteers that are already doing the work. What are the greatest assets of the city of Sheboygan and how would you build upon them? And we will start with Betty. Grace, our greatest asset is our people. If we didn't have these wonderful folks that are already living here, we wouldn't have very much. We have a great base to start with. We just need to keep building upon what we've already started. We've got the momentum to keep making Sheboygan grow and making it a great place. But we've really got to focus on the issues of maintaining fiscal responsibility, public safety and affordable housing and employment that is appropriate for this area we need to continue to attract businesses here. It all boils down to those main points. So we just, we have to work together. And I think that one of the best ways that we can do that is by becoming involved. Dean? I think one of our greatest assets is, is the people of Sheboygan, the population itself, the people of Sheboygan. The also one of the greatest, is that Great Lake right there. That's one of our greatest assets and we need to continue to promote the tourism for the things that are there. I think that that's a key. I think that's, you know, we've got, I mean, I think a lot of people when they come to see Sheboygan for the first time and they come and look out on the lake and they just earn all a lot of times. And I think that we need to really promote that as much as we have, we can, we have in the past. And I think we need to continue that. I think the people of Sheboygan, I think, as Betty said, are also a great asset. I think the people of Sheboygan, we're a hardworking community, we're driven, but we're a friendly community. I believe we're a welcoming community. And I think that those are the two biggest assets that we have, we have many more, but I think those are the driving forces behind it. And Andre. Yeah, yeah, I think we're also sounding a little bit alike right here, the people. Yeah, I mean, it's what continued to make me want to stay in the city. I continue to be impressed with the community. They're embracing of new people and they definitely adopt newcomers very well. So I appreciate that. So to build upon that, I think we just have to continue to support the taxpayers and the citizens. Obviously we just, we're still in the middle of a pandemic and continue to support them. Through this pandemic is huge. I think also the second great asset we have is obviously the Lakeshore. It's beautiful all year round and a great place to take the family in the summer. It's also a really great tourist attraction. And I think some of the work we're doing to make sure we protect against Lakeshore erosion is a very important task that we need to continue to work on to make sure that we retain this important, important Lakeshore. And last I would have to say our smaller local businesses. We have some of the best family-owned businesses around and they provide excellent services and work opportunities in Shibuya. Yeah, and they have some really great food. So that's just a little add on there. So yeah, I would have to reflect what my colleagues have said, but I'll add those three points. Okay. The city is struggling and attracting businesses to the new business park on the south side. What would you do to bring new businesses to that park in Shibuya? Oh, sorry. That will start with Andre. Yeah, yeah. So I think it's a pretty simple issue. In order to bring more businesses to Shibuya we must take steps to support existing local businesses. Once you're supporting the businesses, obviously you're showing that you're willing to support their ongoing stay here. So right now we, obviously we've talked about the labor shortage. We have over 3,000 job openings in the city of Shibuya. So again, I feel like I'm sounding like a broken clock, but yeah, I think we have to address those issues of affordable housing. I've recently just had a conversation with some students and even though we have a pretty affordable, we have pretty affordable housing here in Shibuya, it's still not affordable for some people to actually sustain well. So I think we have to look more into the reasons why that is and address that issue first. And as far as the south side, I think we also have to address transportation. We're kind of at the tail end of the city. So that means we're kind of wedged in between the town of Wilson. So I think things kind of get a little bit murky about who should be maintaining in the roads. So I think we have to have an ongoing dialogue with the city of Wilson about how we address some of the issues that kind of are crossed between the town and the city. So I think we have to continue to work on those issues of addressing affordable housing, building our relationship with the towns and also addressing transportation. And I think more businesses will be likely to come. So yeah. Buddy? So I know that we have a reputation of being a manufacturing town, but I do think that as we address the issues with like Andrea said with the affordable housing problem, if we can make this place an attractive place, I think that more businesses will come as we have attracted, we have the shop code building is being used again. We're finding ways to bring businesses here. And I think that the more that we have some of these, not only just the unique small businesses, but also bringing some of the larger businesses here, it may attract more businesses to the business park. It's just, it's a real difficult issue. And I think that while we're navigating through a pandemic, businesses are a little bit hesitant to try out something new because they may risk failure. And so we're having to kind of wait this out, but we do need to find ways to show that we're really attractive. And one of those ways is by keeping businesses here. And Dean? Yes. I think that we've done a good job, but I think the pandemic really did put the brakes on a lot of projects that people were thinking about. I'm hopeful that some of those ideas come forward again. Again, it goes back to what Andre and Betty both said about the housing, the housing thing. I think we are, we as a city are just starting to address some of those things. The purchase of the large plot of land, just south of Shuligan, will be a great place for us to work forward to. We can, I think we will be able to, because the city does control that land, we control it, we can kind of determine what kind of housing is going into there. I think, because it's not only just getting affordable housing, it's getting a variety of affordable housing. You wanna be able to have, people be able to have single family houses, you wanna be able to have apartments, things like that. So you wanna be able to give them all those opportunities. And the fact that this plot of land is very close in proximity to the business park is I think a great asset to that because then people, it takes care of that transportation problem too. You're not far from work, you can go to work it. So the development of that will also, I think, encourage people, encourage businesses because they can look and say, hey, you can build your house right, you're only a couple, you're half a mile away from where you'll be working. And I think that that's one of the, I think we are heading in the right direction on that. The city, Marina has been a financial burden on the tax payers contrary to the predictions when it was being built. It is still two to $3 million in debt and many of the docks have never been leased. And ice damage is a big cost in severe winters. What is the future of the Marina as it continues to struggle? And we'll start with Dean on that. Well, I kind of disagree that it's struggling. I think it actually had been very exciting. I'm on the Marina Parks and Forestry and the reports from it have been very good. There have been some damage to ice damage. That's a yearly, you know, that occurs. But I think that our Marina, with the person that runs it, or the organization that runs it, now the company that's taking care of it has been a lot better than what we've had in the past. I think they've done a really good job of promoting it. And I think that they've done a good job of maintaining it. I think so, although it did not come out to be as what people had hoped for, I think the projections were a little bit lofty at the time that when they built the Marina. There's not something that we're gonna go, it's not something that we're not gonna go away, it's there, we're not gonna abandon it. I think it's something that we need to continue to support. It is an asset, it's part of that asset of, you know, when you ask about the asset of the lake, that's the, you know, it's one of our draws. And I think it's become more of a draw with our Marina than it was in the past. So I think the future is actually very bright with our Marina. Andre? Yeah, yeah, I think first and foremost, we have to take a look at what's been going wrong and have conversation with the people who run the Marina and see how can we improve and support what they're doing. I would like to see if the pandemic had any effect on what the Marina is trying to do. But we also have to work with our city administrator, Todd Wolf, who has been very involved with the city planning and economics issues. But we're also, as a city working on the strategic plan, I'm sure the Marina will be a part of that. So I would like to look more into the strategic plan to see how we can improve it and how we can support the Marina. Cause I think it is something that can be an asset to the city and the future. But I think we just have to see where the issues went wrong and how we can improve on them and how can we get it back on the trajectory we wanted to be in the first place. And Badi? Well, I feel like I'm going to be echoing what Dean and Andrew said here. I do feel like sometimes we can come up with a great idea. I think that the Marina is a wonderful place and I think that it should be supported. I think it is a valuable asset, even if we did fall short of what we originally planned, that's okay because we're going to still have it. We still support it. I think that the one thing that we can do is work together with the city to find the best ways and with the owners to find the best way to promote it, to get more people aware of this fantastic opportunity that's available for use. I think that communication seems to be like my big theme tonight. I keep saying we got to communicate. But I think that it's important that people understand what's available out there and maybe people don't realize. But I think that if we work together with city staff, we can continue to show that it's a fantastic resource and it was not money wasted, it's something that we can continue to grow once we figure out where we've had the losses. And how can the city generate revenue other than increasing property taxes? And we'll start with Betty. All right, so as I was saying, I do not believe that we need to keep breaking the backs of citizens by raising property tax. I think that we need to bring businesses here. We need to bring tourism here. We need to attract people here. We have to show them what a great place this is. By showing people what we have and increasing that tourism, we're increasing the dollars if we can attract people to live here through affordable housing. People will spend their money here rather than elsewhere. So we want to bring businesses here and have well-paying jobs here because that money gets returned into our community. So it's really, we've got to go back to the affordable housing, the employment issues that we have. Dean? Well, I would say not to increase tax, but to increase tax base, I think is the key to increasing our revenues. I think the, you know, the increasing tax base, which we have been doing with some of the apartment complexes that we've built in. I think, again, with that affordable housing also, those housing, even if they're lower dollar house, they're still going to be bringing in tax revenue. And we've increased the tax base will be increasing the tax revenue or we're increasing the revenue without increasing everyone else's taxes. So that's, I think that's a key. I think some of the new, you know, the new businesses that if we can attract, you know, factories and things like that. I mean, I'm very excited. And I just, because I believe the school board has approved the sale to freighter of the land over on Taylor Drive, that's going to be a huge tax generator for the city. And those kind of things like that are what we need to continue to attract to the city to bring our, to help us out. It's not necessarily increasing taxes. It's increasing tax base, I think, is what we need to be more focused on. And Andre? Yeah, yeah, I would have to agree with all their decor that we have to increase our tax base. And I think we can do that by the conversation we were having earlier about making our downtown more attractive. Make sure we support maintenance and services on the lake shore. Cause I think the more tourism we have, that's one avenue that we have. The more people who are coming here to visit the city, that's going to be, that's going to bring more people to visit the city of Sheboygan. That's going to increase the tax base. But also we just have to continue to support the services that are offered right now. So yeah, I don't have too much more to add to that, but yeah, I think we just have to make sure we support the services we have now and increase the tax base overall. That concludes our prepared questions. So thank you all for participating tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.