 Good evening everyone and welcome to tonight's council meeting welcome all that are here present with us today and welcome all who are watching. Before we start our meeting I'd ask Madam City Clerk Sue Richards to read the quotation for the week. Thank you Mayor. Challenge yourself to make your life a masterpiece. Challenge yourself to join the ranks of those people who live according to their beliefs who walk their talk. Thank you Madam City Clerk. I'll call a third regular meeting of the Common Council order. Madam City Clerk would you please call the roll. Bowman. Excuse. Bourne. Berg. Serda. Davis. Graf. Hannah. Kittleson. Excuse. Clayunas. Manny. Meyer. Montemayor. Radke. Ryan. Sushia. And Vanderwheel. 14 present. Corm is present. It is time now to pledge your allegiance to this wonderful country we live in. Alderman Bourne would you please lead us sir. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Thank you Alderman Bourne. Approval of the minutes. President Berg. Yes thank you Your Honor. I move to dispense with the reading of the minutes and ask for approval as they are entered on the record. There's a motion to the second under discussion. There being none all those in favor state aye. Aye. Any opposed. Motion carries. Minutes stand to prove. Resignations. Attorney McLean. Thank you Your Honor. The letter dated April 25 to the mayor from Alderman Dennis Bauman advising that he's resigning his position as Alderperson and along with that he's resigning a citizen member of the International Committee. Thank you Attorney McLean. Before I ask for a motion to accept and file. As you know there's been quite a bit of talk of an interest shown on several individuals in the community that the council should consider calling a special election in instances where there's a vacancy. The statute has been amended. A statute governed in this particular issue has been amended at some point at the state level where it now allows the city council to either call for a special election or simply appoint an individual citizen a qualified citizen to hold that position until the unexpired term. The choice is a council's choice. What we've done in the past traditionally is just simply a point. For the reason that there's cost involved, there's time involved and in this instance there's also not a lot of time left. And it's a particular position goes up for election in April again. Those are things that you need to consider. What I was going to do unless the council wishes to do otherwise is to ask interested parties to submit their names in the form of a letter of interest that they are interested in being considered by this common council for the appointment to fill that unexpired term. Those people who are interested according to tradition would then come before the council on the 15th. They would each have three minutes in which to present their case. And then the council would take a vote and appoint one individual to serve the unexpired term. That individual would not take office until the first Monday of June, which I believe is the fourth. And that's when the individual would be sworn in and actually take office and conduct himself or herself as an alderman. Are there any questions regarding that before we accept and follow the resignation? President Berg. Yes, thank you. I'm just a question on the new law that enabled elections. My understanding is that as soon as the election could be held, as with the gubernatorial election in November, is that correct? That the seat would then be vacant really until November and then in December, individuals could file for the next election. Right. Thank you. Attorney McPhee. Thank you, President Berg. Attorney McPhee. Thank you, Your Honor. Clarify that. I've got the statute here. And this just became effective April 12th, so it's very new. Section 17.231A reads in cities of the second class, which we are, by appointment, excuse me, that's for the office of mayor, for the residue. The common council may, if a vacancy occurs before June 1 in the year preceding expiration of the term of office, order a special election to fill a vacancy to be held on Tuesday after the first Monday of November following the date of the order. A person so elected shall serve for the residue of the unexpired term. I guess when I first read, there's another part that says appointment by the council for the residue of the unexpired term unless a special election is ordered, in which case the person appointed shall serve until the successor is elected and qualified, which kind of sounds like you could do both. You could appoint and then elect. But I misread that earlier today. That was in the office of mayor. I think you've got the option either of appointing the fill the unexpired term or ordering a special election. And so there would be a vacancy until that time, I think. Which would deprive the particular district of representation, Hallerman Meyer. Thank you, Your Honor. I just wanted to ask what would it cost to have a separate election for this unexpired seat? Mayor, I did do a little bit of research as we said this is very new. It does have to happen at the November election, so we were already having an election, so there is no added cost as far as that goes. However, if there would be a required primary, two or more people were to vie for this position, we would be forced into a September primary. And the issue with a September primary, even though we are already having one, is that it is a nonpartisan office going on a partisan ballot. And that is going to be a challenging issue. I foresee that we would have to have two ballots. So the added cost will really be the second ballot with an all-demand position on it for just District 3. So the cost is certainly not as huge as we would think if we were having a special election six weeks from now, for instance, then we would have to be hiring all of our poll workers. It is in conjunction with either the September and or the November election, I foresee the cost being just the ballot that we would have to produce separately because you can't have a nonpartisan position on a partisan ballot, especially in September. So that's what my judgment is on that, is that that's where the cost will come in. No, so keep in mind that the time between now and November was about six months that the district would be without representation. Halton-Born. Thank you, Your Honor. I checked with Sue Richards on Friday for some facts about the third district. There's 2,889 people in the district and in the April election, 925 people voted. It was about 32%, which I thought was a pretty good percent for kind of, you might say, an off-main-time election. Being that this is a rather new law that just went into effect April 12th, I think it would be important to try to get some input from the people of the third district. After all, this person is going to be representing them, get some input from them, whether they would like to have a special election or do it, as it's been done in the past, with just taking interests in parties and then having the council select that person. Thank you. Thank you, Alderman Boren. Alderman Ratke. Thank you, Your Honor. I'm trying to establish a timeline in my mind. If we would go with a special election, which would be the November election, that would put us swearing this party in the third Monday in November, which would be the last council meeting of that month. Following that last council meeting, of course we've got the budget, which is a special meeting, but then right after that, maybe by two weeks or so, we'd have that same person, if they wanted to keep the office, would have to take out nomination papers. Am I not correct in that? That's correct. Yes, so within two weeks of taking office, they'd have to take out papers to rerun. So I mean, I think it's just total foolishness to have a separate election. Thank you, Alderman Ratke. Is there a strong consensus that we not appoint? Otherwise, we will proceed with the traditional method, who there are. Then I will announce that we will ask interested parties to submit their names to the mayor's office or the city clerk's office, anyone who is interested in running for that district, and I believe it's district three. District three. And if there's a doubt as to the boundaries of that district, please call the city clerk, and she or one of her staff will inform you what those boundaries are. And on the 15th, we will ask for those interested parties to address the council for up to three minutes, and the council will vote. I'd ask for motion to accept and file. There's a motion second to accept and file the resignation. Any discussion? There being none, all those in favor, state aye. Aye. Any opposed? One nay, motion carries. Resignation accepted. Mayor's appointments. Attorney McLean. Thank you, Your Honor. As stated, may first hear by submit the following appointment for your consideration. Alderman Richard Manny to be considered for appointment to the Charter Communications Re-Franchising Advisory Committee to fill the unexpired term of Alderman Dennis Bauman, whose term expires for 1607, signed by the mayor. And I'd ask for President Berks suspension of the rules if there's no objection. Right. Yes. I've moved to accept and adopt the recommendation. I'm asking for suspension. Is there any objection to suspension? There being none, okay, there's a motion to confirm. And the reason we need to confirm and suspend the rules is because there's a meeting scheduled for tomorrow that had been posted already. Alderman Bauman, former Alderman Bauman was the chairman, and we need to have an Aldermanic representative there. And Alderman Manny is the representative. Okay. I'd ask for motion to confirm the appointment. So confirmation? There's a motion to second. Any discussion on that? All those in favor, state aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Appointments confirmed. And Dieter Helm to be considered for appointment to the mayor's international committee to fill the unexpired term of Dennis Bauman, whose term expires for 13007, signed by the mayor. And that will lie over. Thank you, Attorney McLean. Oh, I'm sorry. Alderman Graf. Thank you, Your Honor. With the appointment of Dieter Helm, I believe he lives outside of the city. And that was a reason he stepped down from the from the international committee. I think it was two years ago. So I don't believe the rules allow us to appoint someone to the international committee who lives outside the city. Okay. I believe you're correct. I wasn't aware that he lives outside the city. He had shown an interest to do that. Yes, Attorney McLean. Your Honor, kind of wing it, but I do recall when he moved outside the city, there was an amendment to the ordinance to permit somebody on the international committee who resides within the Sporganary School District to be a member. I'd have to check that tomorrow, but you know, he may be eligible under that provision if he still got the same address or whatever. It's a matter of just checking. If he's not eligible, he's not eligible. Okay. Thank you, Alderman Graf. Next on the agenda was a proclamation recognizing Municipal Clerks Week. And please accept my apologies. My administrative secretary is on leave right now and the proclamation was prepared, but we can't find it. So we know where it's at. We just can't find it. Sounds like a Yogi Berra, right? But not having the proclamation, I still feel that we owe Adam City Clerk through Richards some gratitude, extensive gratitude for the tremendous job that she does for the city of Sheboygan and for the people of Sheboygan and for this common council. Madam City Clerk, thank you for your hard work and dedication, and we look forward to working with you for many, many years. Thank you. Thank you very much. That was better than the proclamation. Okay, we will now have the public forum. Madam City Clerk. Okay, first on the list is Dan Verhasselt. Dan, if you could step up to the mic here, please. Dan, can you give me your home address? 705 Airway Drive. And you will have five minutes, sir. Thank you, your honor. Alder persons for allowing me to speak here tonight. I'm here tonight to speak to you as chairman of the Parks and Forestry Commission. It's a post I've held for the last nine months since the Park and Forestry Commission was reinstated. My goals are two fold. Basically, I want to give an activity report to the council of what we've been up to for the last nine months since we've been reinstated, but also to inform new council members who've just been recently elected of our activity and our existence, the framework of which we exist. On the topic of activity and progress, the O506 year has been fun, interesting, and it's been a big learning experience for most of us on the commission. It's a first time for a lot of us. And the commission hasn't been around a while. We've been dealing with many issues that affect the citizens here in the city of Sheboygan. Right out of the gate, we were hit with the dogs in the parks issue. Following that, the dogs on the beach issue. We touched a little bit on the seagull feeding issue, and we were heavily involved in the park preservation ordinance, which makes it very difficult to destroy a city park in the city of Sheboygan, which is an excellent, excellent revision and passage. We started discussions on it building a new master park plan. And for those of you not knowing what that is, it's the Bible of which how the parks department operates, and it's a crucial element in getting federal grant money. So it's a very important piece of information. Currently, ours is 17 years old. A lot of information is missing. We've drafted a list of areas in need, which is designed to help encourage citizen involvement in park beautification. Small items like flower beds and so on. We started a subcommittee with the Qanus Park users groups, the JC's and so on, to investigate how we can improve the park. It needs a little bit of work. And finally, we've been very supportive of various park improvements around the city, some of which have been 30 to 40 years coming, namely Cole Park, Sheridan Park and Park and Moose Parks. They're finally being made to a point where truly usable. Looking into the future a little bit, I really do believe we need to do something with the dogs in the city of Sheboygan, but we shouldn't just do anything. Okay. I'm glad the issue is coming back to Park and Forestry, believe it or not. It'll be coming back to us after it's spent quite a bit of time with us. It gives us a chance as a 10 member commission to relook and I guess and look at some possibilities that we touched on lightly the first time, but we could probably look at a little bit tougher. And two of those possibilities could be fencing off the ash pits up on New Jersey Avenue. That's where I personally think we should go. I think we should fence it off. It's an area that can't be used. A lot of other cities have followed suit. They've taken old landfills, old dumps, old ash pits. They can't be built on. They're capped and dog parks don't require any building on them, generally speaking. So it's a perfect marriage. I think that's what we should do. Number two, I think we need to spend the money and budget it for a new master park plan. It's not an expensive option, so it's something that needs to be planned for. I think you'll realize once you see the grant money that we received by using that document, you'll agree that's money well worth spending. Number three, I think we need to study the expansion of our recreational park areas. It's true. We do have about 700 acres of parkland here in the city of Sheboygan. However, upon the last few months, we looked a little closer at that and we don't have a lot of areas for what we have for sporting teams, whether it's softball, baseball, flag football, regular football, youth football. Our park space for that is regular, roughly tight and it's causing a lot of parks to get wore out. So I think we need to long-term what's over the next five or seven years study how we can expand park area for that type of activity. And lastly, number four, I think we need to work on neighborhood caretaking program. And this is again, it's kind of a lighter weight program that how neighbors around parks can get involved with cleanliness, safety, and just generally reporting maintenance issues that need to be done on their neighborhood park. With park acreage being steady in the city and the number of park employees following year after year over the years, we need to get citizens more involved. So I think this is a good idea. In summation, I hope that I've met my two goals of giving you a progress report and letting you know how we exist and what our activity has been. I think it's a great commission. It's citizen-based and it provides input. It's critical in that it provides input to a standing committee of alderman on public works. Okay, so if you've recently campaigned or if you feel strongly about citizen input on park-related matters, please use this commission as much as possible on those type of issues. You'll find no better group to get a spirited input from than our group of 10 park commissioners. Thank you. Thank you, Dan. Next on the list is Bob Holland. Bob, can you give me your home address, please? 638 Pine Tree Road. Is that in Sheboygan? It's Kolar. Kolar. Okay. And you will have five minutes, sir. Okay. It's with great pleasure that I address the council this evening to speak about Sheboygan County Interfaith's organization's longest running program. SCIO has been offering the farmers market to our community since 1993. From its humble beginnings of just a handful of farmers from 14 years ago, the market has steadily grown each year to include over 50 vendors just this past year. From its inception, the primary reason the market was begun was to assist the family farmers in our area to sell their products to members of our community in an open-air marketplace. As the market grew, so did its scope of programming. Consistent with our mission of helping those in need, SCIO has partnered with the WIC program to establish a voucher program to get coupons to our society's most vulnerable, the poor. Women, infants, and children may redeem their vouchers at the farmers market so they may improve their nutrition. Sheboygan County enjoys the second highest WIC coupon redemption rate in the entire state of Wisconsin. Over 60 percent of the vouchers distributed last year were redeemed compared to a state average of a mere 50 percent. In addition, through a separate partnership program with the state's Department of Agriculture, the Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program was begun to offer vouchers to the elderly in Sheboygan County. Last year vouchers were given to 215 of our county's elderly, all of which were redeemed at the market. The success of these two voucher programs can be attributed in large measure to the central location of our market at Fountain Park. The WIC office is located just across the street on 8th Street from the park and across 9th Street are several senior living units with an easy walking distance to the park. Fountain Park is the ideal location as it is the gateway to downtown Sheboygan, the riverfront, and the lakefront area. Downtown residents, business people, and the elderly can simply walk over to the market. It is also easily accessible for the tourist looking for something to do in downtown Sheboygan and the park is conveniently located along a bus route making it easy for local residents. In many ways the farmers market offers the best of what our community has to offer. Not only is there a wide variety of products available for purchase but look closely at the diversity of our vendors, lifetime residents, Hmong families, young and old alike, all working side by side. Look at the many people that frequent the market, locals, tourists, WIC families, elderly, and downtown business people. It could be said that Fountain Park, the farmers market at Fountain Park, is a melting pot for our community. What better location than the park to showcase Sheboygan's embrace of the diversity that exists within our community. The plaza area next to me library and the water feature has been suggested as an alternative location. While this location has some visual appeal, it is woefully lacking in three key areas. One, adequate space for the 50 plus vendors that set up in the market. There isn't even enough space to accommodate half of our vendors at the library plaza. Lack of available parking, there's only four parking slots on 8th street right in front of sunlight books. And lastly, and most importantly, there's no place for the farmers to load or unload, no staging area. There's been close enough proximity to the market. To replenish their tables, they'd have to park on the west side, walk over, back and forth all day long, making it very difficult for them to set up their business. It's a nice location for the customer, but it presents problems for the farmers, the very people for whom the market was first established. In the spirit of cooperation, we were willing to move the market to the parking lot behind yonkers, even though we knew this location was less than ideal itself. The site, however, was quickly dismissed for other reasons. In that same spirit of cooperation, we have met with city employees and members of the Public Works Committee to brainstorm ideas how to keep the market in Fountain Park, many of which will be discussed this Thursday at the Public Works Meeting. As an interfaith organization, SCIO is committed to building our community rather than dividing it. In an effort to foster a sense of community building, I would like to publicly offer any business owner in the downtown area the opportunity to promote their business at the farmers market. We would be happy to put out flyers on the tables. So look at the farmers market as a great marketing opportunity with the hundreds of visitors that walk through the park each week rather than a nuisance. In closing, the Common Council will soon have the opportunity to vote on a resolution that would keep the farmers market in Fountain Park. I hope you'll give it your full support. Thank you. Thank you, Bob. And last on the list is Ernest Kepler. Mr. Kepler, can I get your home address, please? 2533 Lakeshore Drive. Good evening. My name is Ernest Kepler and I am the president of the Schwoing County Taxpayers Alliance. Before I begin, the Schwoing County Taxpayers Alliance would like to publicly and officially thank Mayor Juan Perez for a strong stance of listening to the people and taxpayers of Schwoigand as expressed in a State of the City address of April 18, 2006. Without a doubt, the door to the mayor's office was open and more people than before are expressing their opinions, including here at the council chamber. Most important is the mayor's recognition of the strong voice of the people. Mayor Perez emphatically stated at least six times during his State of the City, no more, no more taxes. This is a direct reference to no more increase in property taxes. With that strong stance solidly in mind and with the kind forthcoming efforts of this new common council, we look forward to a 2007 city budget without any increase over 2006 and hopefully a decrease. The Schwoing County Taxpayers Alliance would like to take a positive stand and therefore we are proposing the following. To the honorable mayor and common council of the city of Schwoigand and pursue the fiscal responsibility with accountability, the Schwoing County Taxpayers Alliance is pleased requesting the common council of the city of Schwoigand to demonstrate execution of improved efficiency while reducing costs and maintaining an acceptable level of city services for that reason we submit the following to you for your consideration and appropriate action. Committee of the Hall, please reinstate the committee of the hall as a standing committee to meet regularly during each month. Shared services and costs. The shared services committee to start meeting monthly with the mission to target savings by combining services daily operations functions and items purchased with Schwoigand County examples police and sheriff dispatch vehicle maintenance employee health care and selected purchasing. Outsourcing of services. Outsourced services when and where possible this generates an economic advantage for the city. Suggested initial target areas include tree trimming garbage collection upkeep of city parks and other city owned properties and parking meters enforcement. Staffing issues. This should be considered a top priority. Review and institute appropriate cost saving action on the following. Number one review and adjust all city wages and salaries job classifications and benefits to be in line with the private sector. Reduce and eliminate city jobs positions. Combine duties into remaining jobs at no increase in pay or upgrading job classification. We suggest establishing a special study and recommendation commission that includes both older persons and private sector human resource directors and managers. Please note that the private sector has been going through this process for at least the last six years and continues to do so. Number two it is felt city employees should be should live within the city limits. No grandfather clause. Give two years for employees who live outside of the city limits to relocate into the city. Number three replace current legal advisory system basically eliminating the office of city attorney and evolve it into a corporate council. Private law firm system similar to that of Sheboygan County for substantial savings and improved efficiency. Last but not least eliminate the stormwater fees now. Out of the 1.5 million dollars paid by the taxpayers for the purpose it was created to address are understanding only $478,000 was spent for the storm sewers and laterals. In addition $70,000 is paid to the water department to have the charge printed on the individual bills. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Madam City Clerk and thank you to the citizens who addressed the council tonight. Next I'd like to make some some comments regarding the city code listening sessions the small idea regarding small business conference city project update and just a few thoughts for the new council year. The city code listening sessions we had five meetings that were scheduled two in the evening one in the afternoon and two in the morning and those were held between the month of April 11th and April 27th. We had it wasn't a huge turnout. I take that to mean we're doing a good job. There were 26 citizens that attended five different alderman and six staff that attended and I did I do want to thank the police department the fire department and city inspections department for their participation in these listening sessions. Their presence there was very very key. There were several valid issues brought forth most dealt with issues involved in building inspection. You normally don't hear about a particular code or anything that the alderman passes legislation until somebody gets a ticket and somebody gets a ticket and it comes forth and those are mainly some of the issues that we dealt with we dealt with the issues of the house numbers the reflective numbers that are new people understand that now and they accept that and they understand the value as a safety measure to the community also. What I will do nonetheless is prepare a comprehensive report as comprehensive as it can be and submit that to the council for your review and consideration and it would probably if you'd like refer it to a committee and that committee can look at it and consider whether there's any amendments or changes that need to be made to the city code. One of the things that came out during this listening sessions is that the city code reflects the values the interest and the concerns of the citizens. All that's in there is what people want for this community and the council throughout the years including this year responds to their needs and concerns and brings forth legislation to deal with those concerns so all that city code is is what the people want for a better Shaboygan and for themselves and their children and that was important because a lot of people felt that this book all of a sudden magically appeared and people are getting pounded with it. It doesn't happen anyway the control of that code lies exclusively in this council. The next item I'd like to talk a little bit about would be the small businesses conference. I am putting together the conceptual framework for either one or two conferences that will invite local small business owners to these conferences so that we can address issues and concerns that they have. One of the most frustrating things for small business owners is to feel that they're being left out. There's a lot of economic development occurring in the community. For the most part the big Walmarts, the Best Buys, the Home Depots, all these big businesses get a lot of attention. We're hoping that we can come up with ideas where the small businesses who have been the blood of Sheboygan for many many years that they're able to come forth to us and talk to us about how can what is it that we can do to help them be successful in our community and I invite all business owners small business owners to to attend those and the information will be forthcoming. City projects update. I wanted to talk to you a little bit in particular when it deals with city projects streets because a lot of concern is being expressed that we have some pretty horrible streets and quite frankly I agree. It's time that we start addressing this. The problem with not addressing the street maintenance and repair is that the further they fall behind the worse they get and the more money is going to cost you because trying to play catch up on the street repair and improvement just just about costs twice as much money and twice as much time so that's not something we want to fall back on and then try to catch up. What I wanted to do last year and follow through this year is to put together a plan that we can keep it consistent and consistently keep moving so that all our streets get the attention that they need. One of the complaints that I get from citizens is that we tend to repair the streets that are in the more fluent neighborhoods. Well that's going to stop if that's the case. We're going to address the streets that need repair. It doesn't matter who lives there. If the street needs repair it's going to get repaired and we're going to put it on schedule. I do want Mr. Dave Bebel, the Assistant Director of Public Works to address this issue because he put together a really nice mammal outlining all the things that we're doing now and some of the things that we have in mind and I didn't want to take that credit because that's just not me but I wanted Mr. Bebel who prepared it to to inform the council so if you would sir please step up. Better yet I need a motion to open the floor to a non There's a motion to second all those in favor state aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay Mr. Bebel please sir. Thank you Mr. Mayor and the common council for allowing me to address you real quickly on basically our our projects coming up for this this construction season this year. I couldn't agree more with what the mayor was saying by delaying maintenance of our facilities all we're doing is is deferring the maintenance which is actually increasing our our long-term costs on our reconstruction. However I can say that has changed this summer we have a very aggressive program starting today we started work on A Street which is going to occur between Ontario Avenue and Michigan Avenue this project will match basically what has been done in A Street and that cost of that project is one point five million dollars starting in June we will be reconstructing commerce street between Pennsylvania Avenue and Indiana Avenue they'll completely reconstruct that section and that cost of that project is one point five million dollars to be completed in October later this year. Also starting in June is the concrete paving extension of Gateway Drive and Concord Drive in our Sheboygan Business Center in the south side of Sheboygan that estimated cost on that project is seven hundred and seventy five thousand dollars. One area that we will have this this year which we haven't had for probably the past four years is our asphalt paving program beginning in July asphalt paving should begin on the residential streets. Union Avenue will be resurfaced with black top from self-business drive to 11th Street the cost of that section will be one hundred and twenty six thousand dollars approximately. New Jersey Avenue will also be resurfaced between 15th Street and New Jersey Avenue Bridge at a cost of one hundred thousand dollars. High Avenue from 7th Street to 12th Street will also be resurfaced at a cost of two hundred and ten thousand dollars. Thirteen Street from Illinois Avenue to Wisconsin Avenue will be resurfaced with asphalt repaired Kerman gutter and street lighting for a total cost of four hundred and sixty three thousand dollars. Self-business drive will be resurfaced from Washington Avenue to Carmen Avenue and that will include the bridge deck over over the Union Pacific Railroad in that location as well as Washington Avenue from self-business drive westward to just west of 32nd Street. We're going to rubberize that pavement which is concrete right now and resurface it with black top. It's what we did with Taylor Drive at say around six seven years ago. That cost of that project is one a little over one million dollars. The grand total for all these projects this summer is five point five million dollars. Now that's not all city resources we're using some federal block grant monies. Local road improvement from the state as well as some TIF district financing where some of these projects are occurring. Also a major reconstruction will be occurring at the intersection of Taylor Drive and Washington Avenue as part of the Walmart reconstruction. That whole section out there is funded totally by the Walmart Corporation. I guess lastly I just like to finish this that this summer we have a very aggressive street repair program. We ask for your cooperation and understanding during this this season. The department understands their concerns wants to keep any disruptions during this construction season to a minimum. Lastly we ask you for your cooperation to please obey the traffic signs and the speed limit size within these construction zone because there are a very dangerous place for our workers and we just want everyone to be safe. Thank you for your time. Hold on Oliver do you have a question? Yes thank you your honor and thank you for the updates streets are not very glamorous but I think we will all agree it's something that we need to stick money into. I did receive a couple of calls recently in regards to 8th Street and 7th Street being closed simultaneously in the downtown area. I was reassured that 7th Street will open up again on Wednesday. Is that correct? That's correct yeah that was a little unfortunate it just happened to be that with that new condo project for the retirement home it just simultaneously secured the same day that A Street was starting. Thank you and then the other question I have I don't have the answer to at the intersection of 8th and Erie the stoplights have come out and stop signs have temporarily gone up. Will stoplights be going back up or are you going to try to turn that into a four-way stop? At this point the project calls for a four-way stop similar to what we have at at Penn Avenue where we have the flashing red lights that's what we're planning on at Erie however there will be conduit and everything and ready to go for signals if they're warranted. Right now the way the traffic is that traffic signal there was a very borderline suspect intersection to be signalized hopefully we're thinking that a four-way stop should be able to accommodate that. Thank you. Any other questions? Mr. Bebel thank you very much sir and again just want to reassure the council and the public that there is a lot of work that needs to be done we're putting plans in place to do that and eventually there's a difference will be pretty visible we'll be able to see that. I wanted to share a few thoughts with you for the new council year the first one would be regarding the citizen's budget process every one of you received an executive summary including the media received an executive summary and the reason we gave you a copy of the executive summary is because the entire report is 210 pages long so it's it's not a document that that I would want to copy right off the bat but if any alderman wants a copy you by all means are entitled to that of the entire report if some of you would like to share with each other it'll save some some money if not your your wishes will be will be honored but in the meantime you do have a copy of the executive summary and that gives you pretty much a synopsis a summary of the entire survey as you recall we did 16 listening sessions and then additional sessions throughout the community we did one in each ward two in each district and then the second step was to put together a survey and go out and ask the people what they thought about the input that that was provided what was driving what was driving this whole citizen budget process were two things if you would turn to page three the driving force is the city at this time has been spending more money than we get and we have a budget deficit when your expenditures are higher than your revenues you have a gap and that's called a deficit and we need to address at deficit we've addressed it in many many ingenious ways but the ingenuity is going to run out pretty soon and we're just not going to have the money to address those gaps we're going to have to get really serious about how we conduct business here the other driving force was the second chart there illustration and that is that the city debt is very near the city debt limit we cannot borrow any more money we're locked into that three percent that the council establishes the limit for itself and rightfully so we're allowed to borrow five percent of our equalized value at some point somewhere the council made a wonderful decision to limit themselves to three percent and I believe that was the smartest decision they could have made now council we need to live within our means those are the two driving forces behind we spend more money than we get and we can't borrow anymore so we are in a tough situation financially because there's any questions regarding any of this tomorrow I have scheduled a press conference at 1 30 p.m. in my office and then if not people come we'll have it here in city council chambers the media has been invited to attend Dr. Westfall the person responsible for this massive study will be here to answer questions and so will some of the volunteers that were part of that team will be here to answer questions for the media the alderman the public anyone who wishes to to ask any questions I did share the executive summary briefly with the staff during our staff meeting today I wanted to do that before before it goes out and I wanted to share this report with the council before it goes out to the media this is why you're getting it tonight obviously the media can get a hold of it tonight I believe you got a copy of that tonight and that's where we're at now the next step is going to be anytime you collect valuable information what in the world do you do with it and that's going to be the next step that I'm going to take I will I will probably ask the council to either appoint a committee or to designate some aldermanic representation and a committee that we can sit down and address this this results I will also be meeting with the staff individually and with my administrative assistant and going over some of these findings some of these findings may be interpreted as being negative I quite frankly interpret them as positive because there are things in here that are perceptions there are things in here that tell us there's something wrong with the city well in reality there isn't they're just perceived to be wrong with the city and it may require some orientation and some informational sessions on our part on my part to go into the community and connect with the community and explain what it is exactly we do the budget for the longest time has been a secret and not only a secret intentionally kept away from someone it was just something that just happened magically and it just moved along and money got spent money got brought in you can just kept going in a cycle I don't like that I'd like for people to understand that a little better and this is why I go out in the community and explain what this budget is all about so again if you have any questions please feel free to write them tomorrow the press conference if you're unable to attend let me know we can still make hopefully we'll ask Dr. Westfall and some of the volunteers to make themselves available to answer your questions individually or as a group also there's also plans being prepared by my administrative assistant Susan Hart to to have either one or two or however many or necessary orientation sessions for the council for those new members a new alderman and the the ones that came back it'll give you an opportunity to get to meet the staff on a one-to-one basis ask questions last year we prepared I had prepared a big binder with all the department heads and the information is pertinent to each of the departments and what they do how much money they spend how many how many staff members they have just a little bit about everything pertaining to each department I think the alderman that came back still have it so those that don't just call my office and we'll prepare one for you so that you can have that ready when you do the orientations the orientation sessions are not mandatory they're strictly optional you can attend or not attend it'll be up to you but we will make them available and we'd be glad to have you attend and again if you don't then that's your discretion we will move along president berg next consent agenda yeah the consent agenda would move to accept and file all our roles and accept and adopt all our things there's a motion and second to accept consent agenda under discussion there being none madam city clerk please call the roll boron berg surda davis gruff hannah clayunas mani meyer montemayor rackey ryan susha and vander wheel 14 ayes motion carries communications and petitions 311 to be referred report of officers 2 312 by the city attorney submitting a report on the status of their request for a legal opinion from the attorney general's office concerning the legality of the employment contract between the city city's library board and the library director sharon winkel president burr sir thank you and i move to accept and file the communication there's a motion and second to accept and file under discussion there being none all those in favor state i any opposed motion carries 313 by the city attorney submitted as a matter of record a copy of the decision of the state of wisconsin court of appeals in the matter of english manner bed and breakfast at all versus city of sheboygan and determining that all the city's uses of room tax dollars imported with the requirements of the room tax state statute oh president burr yes i'd also move to accept and file that communication there's a motion and a second under discussion there being none all those in favor state i any opposed motion carries thank you 314 by the city clerk submitted a legal opinion from city attorney mclean regarding the hiring of miss yolanda groff spouse of all the person james groff for the city's tourism coordinator position president burr ah yes thank you your honor i'd also move to accept and file that communication there's a motion and a second to accept and file under discussion president burr yes thank you your honor just as a point of clarification i believe that previously you noted that this would be referred to the district attorney for action and just to to clarify how that changed to the city attorney offering his opinion please yes sir thank you i had i had spoken to the council before that i was going to put together a chronological order of all of the sequence of events that occurred in the process of hiring miss yolanda groff and i i did so and i asked attorney mclean to review that before it went to the district attorney attorney mclean suggested that perhaps he be allowed to give the opinion instead of the the district attorney being the district attorney is a very busy office for a lot of reasons and we wouldn't want to get into the practice of every time there's a discrepancy or a concern of this nature that everything goes to the district attorney and that's where it stands i agreed with that i agree with attorney mclean that he is in a very good position as our legal counsel to provide the counsel with a legal opinion regarding the hiring of miss yolanda groff and as you can see attorney mclean's finding was that there's absolutely nothing improper in the process is that suffice president burr thank you okay then i will ask uh to vote all those in favor state i any opposed motion carries 315 by the city clerk submitted a communication from the wisconsin department of justice public integrity unit review and allegations made by alderman sushi regarding the closing of a public road north 21st street in exchange for 5 000 donation made by michael mooth and stating that there was no indication that a crime was committed and that they will be discontinuing the preliminary investigation regarding alderman sushi's accusations president burr yes thank you and i also moved to accept and file that document there's a motion and second to accept and file under discussion there being none all those in favor state i any opposed motion carries 316 to 336 to be referred resolutions introduce 3 337 by alderman groff authorizing an application to the wisconsin department of natural resources for financial aid under the stewardship local assistance programs alderman groff thank you your honor and i i'd ask for suspension is there any objection to suspension please proceed and with that your honor i would move that the resolution be put upon its passage there's a motion to second to put 337 upon its passage under discussion there being none and clerk please call the roll berg serda davis groff hannah clonus mani mayer montanera ratki ryan sushi vander wheel and boron 14 eyes motion carries 338 by alderman groff authorizing the city of shabuigan office of the mayor to submit an application to the u.s. department of housing and urban development for lead based paint hazard control grant funds alderman groff thank you your honor i would ask for suspension on this document is there any objection to suspension please proceed then your honor i would move that this resolution be also put upon its passage there's a motion to second resolution upon its passage under discussion there being none madam city clerk please call the roll serda davis groff hannah clonus mani mayer montanera ratki ryan sushi vander wheel boron and berg 14 eyes motion carries 339 by alderman clay junez authorizing the mayor to graciously accept an offer from the mayor of eslendon stating that the city of eslendon desires to pay the hotel bill for of mayor peres and his wife for their night spent in eslendon alderman clay junez adult person your honor i ask for suspension of rules for resolution 339 is there any objection to suspension there is none and you made a motion i move that that the resolution number 339 be put upon its passage there's a motion to second under discussion president burr did you want to say something yes your honor just as a point of clarification i believe from reading the minutes of the international committee that this was addressed in the international committee i did uh contact deeter helm who's arranging uh for the tour to uh ensure that this donation was costed in if you would as a revenue and that the subsequent costs would be equalized uh given that this was a contribution and that would be offset uh if you would on the on the uh side of the cost and that that money would be a pass through then to the international committee mr. helm did not return my call but uh it would appear that this comes was addressed in the international committee with their recommendation thank you and yes it was it was addressed by the uh mayor's international committee alderman vanderloaf did you have coming no any more discussion there being on please call the rule davis graph hannah clayunas mani meyer montemayor ratki ryan susha vanderwheel boron berg and serda 14 eyes motion carries 340 by alderman susha authorizing contracting with outside legal counsel to represent alderman susha against potential criminal defamation charges filed by police chief kurt alderman susha thank you your honor i have motion to uh suspend the rules is there any objection to suspension of the rules there being on please proceed i move the resolution be put upon its passage the motion is second put the resolution upon its passage under discussion vice president serda thank you your honor um i had spoken with steve um a city attorney steve mclean today concerning um lofskansen state statutes in this matter and steve if you would please give your interpretation attorney mclean thank you your honor yes i looked at this uh today um number one the resolution talks about potential criminal defamation charges uh there are no charges pending the uh there's two statutes that address this subject basically of indemnification of city employees and city officers the first is 895.46 that's state and political subdivisions thereof to pay judgments taken against officers subsection one thereof says if the defendant in any action is a public officer and proceeded against in an official capacity or proceeded against as an individual because of acts committed while carrying out duties as an officer or employee and the jury or the court finds that the defendant was acting with the scope of employment the judgment is the damages and costs entered against the officer or employee in excess of any insurance applicable shall be paid by the state or political subdivision which the defendant's an officer or employee and then skips down regardless of the results of the litigation the governmental unit if it does not provide legal counsel to the defendant officer or employee shall pay reasonable attorney fees and costs of defending the action unless it is found by the court or jury that the defendant officer or employee did not act within the scope of employment the duty of a governmental unit provide or pay for the provision of legal representation does not apply to the extent the applicable insurance provides that representation then there's some mechanisms here for the officer or employee to provide notice to the governmental entity failure to provide the notice is a bar to recovery from the political subdivision of reasonable attorney fees and costs the attorney fees and expenses shall not be recoverable if the state or political subdivision offers the officer or employee legal counsel and the office offer is refused so that's that's the basic gist of that section however that's statute's been interpreted by the courts to only refer to civil proceedings and forfeitures the case of babelich and babelich versus lincoln county in 1978 it was held not to apply to a sheriff who was charged with a criminal offense there's there's one case that applied it to a forfeiture against the police officer it's the famous seagull shooting case in ashland where a deputy sheriff shot a seagull who was charged with a city or charged with a state forfeiture a dnr violation the court in that case held that the city of ashland there did not provide a defense but the court found that the officer involved wasn't titled to attorney fees and costs for representation in that case however that case made it clear that that did not overrule the babelich case which made which states again that this this indemnification provisions does not apply if it's a criminal charge so in my view there would be no entitlement to legal representation or defense costs in the event that an alder person was charged with a crime again this this the other important thing to note is there has to be an action or special proceeding pending as opposed to some potential so i think it's rather premature to be even raising the issue but the statute as applied by the courts would not authorize reimbursement of legal fees or require representation by the city there's another statute at 895.35 expenses and actions against municipal and other officers this is a discretionary statute and says whenever in any city I'll try to cut it short whenever in any city charges of any kind or filed or an action is brought against any officer thereof the officer's official capacity and such charges or such action is discontinued or dismissed or such matter is determined favorably to such officer or such officer is reinstated or in the case such officer without fault of the officer's part is subject to a personal liability such city may pay all reasonable expenses which such officer necessarily expended by reason thereof so that's statute uses the term may such expenses may likewise be paid even though decided adversely to such officer where it appears from the certificate of the trial judge that the action involved the constitutionality of a statute not there to foreconstrued relating to the performance of the official duties of said officer that same babelish and babelish versus Lincoln County case from 1978 also address that statute and held that Lincoln County had the option to refuse payment of its sheriff's criminal defense attorney fees so again that makes clear that that's a discretionary statute and that this one really comes into play sort of after the fact as to whether or not the municipality in this case may reimburse the officer for reasonable expenses incurred in the defense of the matter it primarily addresses the issue where the the matter is determined favorably towards such officer in other words found not guilty in a criminal context or again if even where it's decided adversely to the officer where it the case involved the constitutional constitutionality of a statute that hadn't previously been interpreted by the court so those are the two provisions I guess my advice my suggestion at this time is not to act on this number one it's premature in that there are no pending criminal defamation charges that I'm aware and number two there's no entitlement to legal counsel but as far as reimbursement of expenses that's discretionary on the part of the council thank you turn him clean Alderman Hanna thank you mayor I also feel it's premature for us to move ahead with this we don't know if there's going to be any criminal lawsuit or not and I think we should defer until the specifics of what's going on come to our attention at this juncture I don't think we have enough information to make that decision Alderman Ryan thank you mr. mayor I too agree with Alderman Hanna and with city attorney McLean there are no charges pending at this time there's been no charges filed there's been no actions taken does it premature to authorize funding for legal counsel when there are there's no charges pending so I would make a resolution at this time that this motion be filed I'm sorry you're making a motion to file it's a file yes sir and there was a second second under discussion on a motion to file Alderman Meyer no anybody else on the motion to file Alderman Manny thank you question from Mr. McLean just to clarify for me I believe I understand this is deemed a criminal charge if it comes well right I would say if there are criminal charges filed it would be obviously criminal nature I think it's premature to speculate what the DA might do with it but you know his only jurisdiction is really criminal offenses although you know they're I'm not sure if there's any sort of forfeiture that could be imposed and maybe that is what gets charged the forfeiture would be analogous to the the case that the seagull shooting case that I mentioned earlier that that was a forfeiture action the court analogized that more like a civil action than a criminal action but you know there are criminal forfeiture statutes but I would think that a criminal defamation if that's going to be the charge would be a crime as opposed to just a forfeiture thank you and then a comment given the commentary talk in the background of this meeting of this night's meeting that there might be charges coming I'm going to vote against the resolution to file and if that is defeated I will vote to move to hold this document thank you Alderman Meyer thank you your honor I would like to ask Attorney McLean what would be criminal that Alderman Shusha did I didn't hear any accusations I heard that she was uncomfortable as was I with a lot of the coincidence involved with closing this road there are a lot of details it's not just this anonymous five thousand dollars for tasers there were quite a few different things that went into this that was just one of them that put up this flag of being uncomfortable and I don't understand why that would be criminal I don't believe that anybody was accused of anything and as far as I know this is America and we have a thing called the constitution and in there it says freedom of speech and if we're not allowed to voice our opinions or to say our concerns about something then why are we here then we might as well just go home and let the department heads run the city Alderman Meyer I guess that's part of why I think it's premature at this point I'd be rather surprised that the district attorney would file any sort of criminal charges frankly you know it's conceivable it's within the realm of you know potential I suppose it's possible but I would be rather surprised at that that's why I'm saying one of the things that I'm saying is that this is premature you know if there are criminal charges filed that'd be another issue I think it's really putting the cart before the horse at this point to insinuate or to speculate that there are going to be criminal charges filed Alderman Recky thank you your honor there's one where as in this resolution I'd like answered if I could this is a city attorney Mayor Advice Chief Kirk that the issue was over and the case was closed could you elaborate on that because if that's the case why are we even arguing this well I didn't draft up this resolution Alderman Susha did I talked to Chief Kirk I number one I've never seen what went to the state for the investigation that apparently came back without any findings number two I haven't seen what went from the chief's office to the district attorney so I haven't seen any of that I suggested that the chief may want to just drop it and not pursue anything to the DA that's all I did I didn't say the case was closed or that the issue was over I suggested to the chief he may not want to pursue it any further he chose otherwise so that's I guess that's what the reference is that's that was my comment okay on the motion to file please call the roll Graf Hannah I'm sorry yes Clowness Manny Meyer Montemayor Radke Ryan Susha Vanderwheel Bourne Berg Serda and Davis all right nine eyes four nose one upstate motion carries three forties file 341 or 342 lies over 343 to 351 to be referred report of committee six 352 to 354 to be referred report of committees eight 355 by finance authorizing a transfer of appropriations and the 206 budget Alden Graf thank you your honor I would move that the resolution be put upon its passage and the RC be accepted and placed on file there's a motion in the second under discussion there being none please call the roll Clowness Manny Meyer Montemayor Radke Ryan Susha Vanderwheel Bourne Berg Serda Davis Graf and Hannah 14 eyes motion carries ordinances introduced 10 356 lies over 358 to be referred other matters authorized by law 359 and RO by the Board of Water Commissioners submitting their report on the water utility for the first quarter 206 President Byrne yes sir request that the report be accepted filed motion to accept the file 359 under discussion there being none all those in favor state aye any opposed motion carries 360 an RC by finance recommending repealing and recreating section 58-38 of the municipal code relating to audit of vouchers for library expenditures and passing the substitute ordinance Alderman Graf thank you your honor that along with 361 which is an RO by the library board president to whom was submitted a copy of RC 54020506 an RC number 49020506 by the finance and the general ordinance 103 I would move that the the RC 360 be accepted and adopted and the substitute resolution be put upon its passage and that the RO 361 be accepted and placed on file there's a motion is there a second second under discussion there being none please call the roll Manny Meyer Montemayor Ratke Ryan Sushia Vanderwheel Bourne Berg Serda Davis Graf Hannah and Clayunas 14 ayes motion carries we have other matters so we'll let you make that motion it's all I want attorney McLean 362 is by the finance director treasurer submitting the harbor center of marina balance sheet from operations stated March 31 submitted by Skipper marine that will be referred to marina and harbor commission is there a second second all those in favor say aye stand adjourned