 12th regular meeting of the common council order 23 Pat would you call the roll please? Bowman, Byrd, Boney, Doyle, Groff, Manny, Montemayor, Moody, Perez, Rinflaich, Stefan, Van Akring, Van Der Wiel, Wangeman, Warner, Weninger, 15, President. Corms, President, Alderman Groff. Thank you, Your Honor. I would move that the minutes of our last common council be approved as entered on the record. Move to the second and minutes of our last common council be approved. Under discussion, Alderman Press. Thank you, Your Honor. I just wanted to point out an error in the publication of the minutes and then the Sheboygan Press and the ordinance that deals with the residents that filed a complaint against the city for the sewage backup. The minutes state that the vote was three nays. The printed on the press states that 15 nays. So just an error. What ordinance number is that? Pardon me? What ordinance was that? I mean what document number? This is document number 2730304. Okay, I'll check into that tomorrow. Thank you. Okay. All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. Pledge allegiance, ma'am. Praise. Alderman Press, would you listen to the question? Thank you. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation and a god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, before we get into the public forum, Chief, would you like to step up to the microphone, please? Chief has a letter he would like to read. Thank you, Honorable Mayor. Members of the Common Council. There are many times in my career I've come before you, feeling pretty good and proud about our department. And here's another great reason why I feel proud about our members of our Sheboygan Fire Department. Firefighters across this nation and in the city of Sheboygan not only work 24 hours a day when they're on duty, but in the community when they're off duty they respond. Not only do they respond when they're in their communities, but when they're vacationing and moving across this country, it's natural when there's something wrong or a disaster is ready to occur that firefighters respond without thinking because that's what they've been trained to do. They have that makeup in them. That's why they became a firefighter. I'm proud before you tonight to bring to you something about Firefighter Scott Poth. This is the second time I've come to you before this council on Scott Poth. As I remember last year, Scott was honored by the American Heart Association for saving him a life by doing CPR to a member in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, to a citizen in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin. Just recently I received this following letter. It was carbon copy to the mayor. It comes from the Illinois State Senate, Peter G. Roscombe, who is a Senate Republican whip. He's the state senator of the 48th district of the state of Illinois. To the Honorable Gene's Mayor, Shram. Commendation of Shabuagan Firefighter Scott Poth. Dear Mayor Shram, I am ready to bring to your attention Shabuagan Firefighter Scott Poth and his rescue of my eight-year-old son from almost certain injury. Our family was skiing in the Upper Peninsula on December 30th. My wife and son were attempting to get on a chairlift together, but my son did not become securely seated. The chairlift began to advance up the slope, and my wife was desperately holding on to my son, who was now dangling 15 feet above the ground before the lift stopped. My wife immediately prayed for help. Firefighter Poth was on vacation with his family, too. He was in line and took immediate action. He reassured my wife, kicked off his skis, and had the presence of mind to rally assistance and secure a nearby ladder, which was very rickety. He climbed in his ski boots and carried my son's skis and all to safety. Without his quick thinking and prompt response, my son would have visited the emergency room with a fractured leg or worse. Please accept my sincere thanks for Firefighter Poth. His excellence and professionalism was a wonderful reflection on the city of Shabuagan. Very truly yours, Peter Roscombe, State Republican Whip, State Senator 48th District. I present to you Firefighter Scott Poth. I didn't expect to be up here tonight, but I just want to let everybody know that I've always been proud to be a firefighter for the city of Shabuagan. And when we are off duty, like the chief said, we are always ready to respond. And on behalf of all of the other men of our great department, they've also done other things on their days off as well. And maybe haven't been accommodated or have been in the limelight. But we are all proud to be employees of the city of Shabuagan and proud to be firefighters of our great city. Thank you. Thank you, Scott. Employees like you, Scott, are what makes Shabuagan shine like it does today. I thank you. You're excused. Public forum, Pat. I don't see you. Susan Hansley? Okay. Public forum. Consent agenda, Alderman Graf. Thank you, Your Honor. The consent agenda is items 21 through 2032. And I would move that all our O's be accepted and filed along with communications. All our C's be accepted and adopted. And that we pass all resolutions. Move to the second. All our O's be accepted and filed. All our C's be accepted and adopted. Resolutions be put upon their passage under discussion. Alderman Reinflesch. Thank you, Your Honor. I thank Rich Gebhardt for the letter of explanation regarding 2015. And I hope that, I don't really need a separate vote on that, but if you'd be willing to speak for those in attendance who did not get the letter, as well as those at home, just explaining what we're looking at doing here with this document. Rich? Thank you, Your Honor. Yes, I'll briefly go over the memo before you, and then we can go on any other discussion that you'd like. The policy that is before you would apply only to the general fund. It would not apply to the other funds in the city. And this is on policy on the undesignated fund balance. The fund balance for the general fund is the equity in the net assets. And the portion that is fund balance that is not reserved for receivables or advances to other funds is classified as the undesignated portion of the fund balance. The general fund's undesignated fund balance has been approximately 18% of the general fund budget in recent years. And from a study that was compiled by Moody's, the rating agency, the median for AA rated cities is 21% and the lowest quartile is 14%. So the policy before you is to establish that we would maintain an undesignated fund balance of 18% in the future years of 18% of the budget in the undesignated fund balance. And some of the concerns that brought this, I guess, to the service to make it official. This is generally, as I said, we were running around that area before. But then during this past year, which was a very difficult budget year, we applied additional fund balance. We went up to about 1,280,000, I believe. And at that point, the rating agencies, which of course they have other concerns too. They have concerns about the state of Wisconsin and what the impact is going to be on local governments. So when they see a change like that, they expressed it in a form of concern, a simple warning within their rating system. And their statement was, Moody's view of the city's future ability to consistently align projected expenditures with anticipated receipts is an important credit factor in future credit reviews. So this is one that we want to work with them. We want to address it. It's not only working with the rating agencies, it's working with all our bondholders. Right now, we have people, bondholders that are invested $50 million into the city in general obligation debt. If they're, they bought that as double A credit rating. If they were to, we were to lose our rating, go down lower. Their investments would not be worth as much as what they originally purchased. If they were to sell it on the secondary market. And so, you know, I give it, there's a tax sheet that you have, probably a review that you see some of the history has been on our fund balance. And generally it's been around the 17 to 19% area in the last few years. What we're projecting this year at the end of this year, and we probably won't know if you're at early March exactly what we'll have. We're looking around the 15% area at the end of all three. And so, if there is, you know, an implication here just as before, you know, we accepted the concessions from the unions in a non-rep, and we knew that was one time situation. If we put this in place, who means that the fund balance applied as a one time situation, and it'll be basically brought back to a level that it was for about, for the 2003 budget, probably for 2005. And so I guess at that point, if there's any questions further on that? Go ahead. Just to clarify then, by enacting this policy for our budget process for next year, we're providing assurances to our bond holders as well as our credit agencies that will continue to have a good rating. Correct. Did it be a major factor in there? There are many factors in there, but this is one that expresses concern, so it's one we do want to address. Alderman Wieninger. Thank you, Your Honor. I would like to make a comment on RC 2026. Oh, hang on. Hang on, Ingrid. We're on this one yet. Do you want to speak on this one? No. Okay, hang on. Okay. Does anyone want to speak on this issue? Okay. Thank you, Rich. Okay, Ingrid. Okay. I'll start all over again. Go ahead. Thank you, Your Honor. I'd like to make a comment on RC 2026, entering into a contract for the Camelot Boulevard Storm Sewer Construction. I'd like to thank Mayor Schrum, Tom Holden, and the Public Works Committee for addressing our flooding problem on Camelot Boulevard. We, the people of the flooding area, can close a chapter that has been a big problem for the city of Sheboygan. Again, it shows that our storm water fee, making projects like Camelot Boulevard possible. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ingrid. Alderman Bauman. Thank you, Your Honor. I'm 2026. Also, please, I'd like to ask our Director of Public Works for clarification on the resume of bids. If I could, please. Sure. Thank you, Alderman Bauman. I just wanted to let the Council know on this document, 2026, that the low bid of approximately $700,000 is one of the contractors that's been alleged for bid rigging and wire fraud. And with discussions with Steve McClain and the U.S. Attorney involved in the case, and I've talked to their municipalities, they're still awarding bids to this contractor. The next bid was $140,000 higher. One employee from that firm was involved with this. The third bid was about $250,000 higher. So I just want to let you know that we're still recommending passage of this contract to this contractor. They have to supply a performance bond. So for any problem that they go under, we still have that bond that we can get or go after to find another contractor to finish the job. I just want to let the Council be aware of that because there might be some questions later. The State has not notified us that we couldn't do that, correct? Right. Right now we're... We're fine. I don't know if Steve wanted to add anything. I just say it's a city project. It's basically a sewer project as opposed to primarily a road construction project, but there is some road reconstruction involved. So it's a city project. It's not tied up with, I understand, Friday, the DOT temporarily suspended Vinton and Strew from future state contracts on their highway projects. But there's no prohibition currently on municipalities contracting with these firms. You will keep in contact with the state, you or Tom, daily basis? So if there is some change, we're... I've always had a discussion with the state and I can certainly have them get ahold of me if there's any updates or anything I should know about. Okay. With that performance bond, there shouldn't be an issue. I would say also, as Tom said, I did talk to the Assistant U.S. Attorney that is involved in the case. He called me back last Thursday or Friday. And he advised that nothing in their affidavit that they filed in the case, there's nothing in there that addresses any current wrongdoing within the timeframe of our bidding process dealing with municipalities. So that's really all he could tell me. He couldn't talk about any details that weren't already in the complaint or in the affidavit. But I guess that's some assurance to me that there aren't any pending matters under investigation that he was able to disclose that involve this firm in any dealings with this particular project or any similar type of project. I've worked with this contractor for the 17 years I've been in the city and there's never ever been a question of the quality of workmanship. They're very good. So if anyone has any questions, if the constituent has any questions, have them call me and I can explain what I know. When will we start the project? They want to start February, early February. So it could be within two weeks. Good. They're ready to go. Good. Thank you. Thank you. If there's no other questions, Pat, would you call the roll please? Berg? Aye. Boonee? Aye. Doyle? Aye. Graf? Aye. Boonee? Aye. Moody? Aye. Perez? Aye. Grinfleisch? Aye. Steffen? Aye. Vanderwil? Aye. Wongerman? Aye. Warner? Aye. Winninger? Aye. Bauman? Aye. 15 Ayes. Motion carried. 2033 will lie over. 2034 to be referred to public protection safety. 2035 we will hold for 2051. 2052. 2037 lies over. 2038 through 50 to be referred, excluding 2042. Alderman Moody? Thank you, Your Honor. I was just going to make the motion on 2042 to file. Moved in second to file the communication on 2042 under discussion. I understand that this has already been dealt with. Okay. Thank you. Does no discussion all in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. 2051 along with 2035 will lie over. 2052 along with 2036 will lie over. 2053 by Alderman Warner, Doyle, Moody, Wongerman, and Vanderwil. Establishing a 75 cent per hour fee. $75. That'd be something. All right. $75 per hour fee for providing fire extinguisher training to outside agencies. Alderman Warner? Thank you, Your Honor. I would make a motion. The resolution be put upon its passage. Moved in second to resolution be put upon its passage. Under discussion. Under discussion, Your Honor. This is a resolution that establishes a $75 per hour fee for providing fire extinguisher training to outside agencies. Whereas approximately 15 requests of this type are received per year. And whereas the fire department currently conducts this type of training at request for no charge. Whereas this is a service which is also provided by the private sector for a fee. Now therefore be it resolved that a fee of $75 per hour is hereby established for the fire department to provide fire extinguisher training to outside agencies. The reason I read that so is everyone would understand clearly that the fire department was doing this training for fire extinguishers free at the expense of the general taxpayer. And our private companies out there that do do this. And we did contact a local Andre fire equipment company and their fees are $55 to $65 an hour. So the fire department is higher so that we don't want to be in competition with them at taxpayers expense in any way. So after talking about this, we had discussed this in strategic fiscal plan last year. And it went through to that committee, never came back. And this is a changed version from the one that was there. And we discussed the public protection and safety and felt we should get it going in this year. It was intended to be here. And somehow it slipped through the crack. So, thank you. Another discussion. Would you call her old please? Bonet. Doyle. Graff. Kamani. Montemare. Moody. Perez. Rinflech. Stefan. Vanderwill. Wongerman. Warner. Winniger. Bowman. Burr. T&I. Motion carries. By Alderman Bowman, authorizing the mayor special international committee to apply for and obtain a temporary restaurant permit for the taste of Sheboygan County event. Alderman Bowman. Thank you, Your Honor. I'd move that the resolution be put upon this passage. Second. Moved and seconded resolution be put upon this passage. Under discussion, Alderman Moody. Thank you, Your Honor. The committee has to get a restaurant permit. What about the individual restaurants? Don't they already have a permit? Okay. That's what I was going to give under discussion. As a matter of fact, the permit is a blanket permit. And this is something that the international committee has been doing for the last several years now. And the blanket permit then does cover those who do not have restaurants within the city. In turn, they do repay the international committee for their portion of the permit. Okay. And if I could, I'd like to expand on it just slightly. The taste of Sheboygan County is scheduled for March 7th and it will be held at the Sheboygan Armory. So far, a response has been just wonderful from vendors. And it sounds like it's going to be a great event. Okay. Okay. There's another discussion. All in favor of the passage? Opposed? Motion carried. 2055 through 59 will lie over. 2060 through 63 to be referred. 2064 by Public Protection and Safety, recommending the denying taxi cab driver's license 6273 based on public safety concerns and failure to fully reveal record. Alderman? Alderman Van Der Wil. Thank you, Your Honor. I'd like to make a motion to accept and deny the report of committee of the... Accept and adopt. I'm sorry. Accept and adopt. The report of committee of the license number 6273. Moved in second. Accept and adopt. The committee's report under discussion. Under discussion, is Terry Herman present tonight? He is not. Okay. Pat, would you call the roll? Doyle? Aye. Graf? Aye. Manny? Aye. Montemire? Aye. Moody? Aye. Perez? Aye. Rinflage? Aye. Steffen? Aye. Van Der Wil? Aye. Longerman? Aye. Warner? Aye. Wieninger? Aye. Manners laid over. 1910 RO by Industrial Development Corp. Recommending increasing the monthly lease rate for Morelle transfer. And that also goes along with 1928 by Alderman Bonet increasing the license fee for the license agreement between the city and Morelle transfer. Alderman Bonet. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I move the resolution be put upon as passage. Moved in second. The resolution be put upon as passage. Under discussion. And the RO be placed on the file? On the file. Thank you. Under discussion. Hearing none, would you call the roll? Groth? Aye. Manny? Aye. Montemire? Aye. Moody? Aye. Perez? Aye. Rinflage? I'm sorry? Aye. Steffen? Aye. Van Der Wil? Aye. Longerman? Aye. Warner? Wieninger? Aye. Baumann? Aye. Berg? No. Granted an encroachment to Allen Ells, Inc. for installing and maintaining and awning. Alderman Warner. I thank you, Your Honor. I make a motion that general ordinance be put upon as passage. Moved in second. The ordinance be put upon as passage. Under discussion. Under discussion, Your Honor. This is an ordinance rescinding general ordinance number 70304, which granted an encroachment to Allen Ells, Incorporated for the purpose of installing and maintaining and awning. This ordinance change will rescind their right to encroachment due to nonpayment of the fee. First section 2C of the city ordinance. This is a normal thing if they don't pay the fee. They can always reapply it. They would end up wanting to put up and on and in again. So, it basically takes it out of the ordinance book. There's another discussion. Would you call the roll? Manny? Aye. Montemayor? Aye. Moody? Aye. Perez? Aye. Rinflaige? Aye. Steffen? Aye. Van Der Wil? Aye. Boney? Aye. Doyle? Aye. Groff? Aye. 15 Ayes. Motion carried. 1937, general ordinance by Alderman Groff and Doyle amending documents relating to the payment of medical premiums by eligible retirees and surviving spouses. Alderman Groff? Your Honor, I move that the general ordinance be put upon its passage. Moved in second ordinance be put upon its passage. Under discussion. Your Honor, this sets in place a policy that the finance department will follow as far as payment of premiums. They didn't have or the one they had previous to this did not fully explain things and there was some confusion so this was reworded so that everyone was clear on what happens. Any discussion? Hearing none, would you call the roll? Montemayor? Aye. Moody? Aye. Perez? Aye. Rinflaige? Aye. Steffen? Aye. Van Der Wil? Aye. Manny? Aye. Doyle? Aye. Groff? Aye. Manny? Aye. 15 ayes. Motion carried. General Ordinance, 1938. General Ordinance by Alderman Warner, Doyle, Moody, Longerman and Van Der Wil relating to stop signs and to add stop signs at various intersections. Alderman Warner? I thank you, Your Honor. I would make a motion that general ordinance be put upon its passage. Moved in second ordinance be put upon its passage. Under discussion. Under discussion, Your Honor, this is a motion to stop signs so as to add to stop sign at various intersections in the south pier district. Some of those would be the westbound traffic on Illinois Avenue, traffic on Fisherman's Row, stopping at the south pier, intersection and Blue Harbor. Traffic on Blue Harbor Drive shall stop prior to entering, entering Fisherman's Row, Lakeview Drive and south pier drive. And traffic on Lakeview Drive shall stop prior to entering south pier drive and Blue Harbor. Not everybody is real familiar with these, but there is actually a map that shows them. I could pass it around if anybody wants to see where they are. But to me, what I find exciting about it is that it is actually putting names and signs on those streets and controlling traffic. And the public interest in Blue Harbor is amazing. So many people have been driving down there and driving around. It's exciting to see. And I think that by putting these signs there, hopefully they won't be having any accidents when they're looking at Blue Harbor while they're driving straight. So hopefully, stop and then take a look. But I guess it's really nice to see that kind of a progress at the site. And the community recommends pass it. Sergeant Tarkovsky, our traffic sergeant, brought it to us. Him and Ryan Sassma from Engineering and Public Works put this together after studying it and basing it on what they figured the traffic flows would be. If there are any changes or ever needed, they'll bring it back. Thank you. Any discussion? Hearing none, would you call the roll? Aye. Perez? Rind attach. Stefan? Aye. Vander wheel? Aye. Wo 수도.ern amongst us. Musiker? Aye. Braelmann? Aye. Sure. Booney? Aye. Doyle? Aye. Barx? Aye. Mannie? Aye. Montemayers? Aye. 15 Ayes. Motion carried. 2066, a resolution by Alderman Warner, Doyle, Moody, Wo accompany. They can direct a license number 2205 held by Joseph Wagner Alderman Warner. I take your honor, may I take 2067 also? That you have to have a separate suspension. It should be separate, okay. That's right, never mind. So on that it would make a motion resolution be put upon its passage. That's it again. For it to be moved in 2066. Okay, moved to second resolution 2066 be put upon its passage under discussion. Under discussion your honor, this is based on a six month non-use policy and this license has not been used for six months and originally we're gonna bring this license in and turn it in voluntarily and for some reason they just decided they wanted to make us go through this process and we discovered that our last public protection and safety meeting. So that's what this is for and it's actually just a notice that there will be a public hearing on the issue. Can you recommend passage? Other discussion? All in favor? Aye. Opposed? Motion carried. 2067 by Alderman Warner, Doyle, Moody, Longman and Vanderweel authorizing engaging the service of the special outside council for the council in a matter of the hearing on the issue of revocation of Tavern license of Joseph Wagner license number 2205, Alderman Warner. I thank your honor. I would have to make a motion to suspend the rules. Is there any objections? Hearing none, proceed. Under discussion your honor, while at that time then I would make a motion to the resolution be put upon its passage. Move to the second resolution be put upon its passage. Under discussion. Under discussion your honor, we've only really had a deal with one of these in the past and we did the same thing where you have to hire an outside legal council to take care of this situation. In this case the funding floor is coming out of the city attorney's account for court legal judgment settlements account night. I don't see wishes that wasn't coming out of there but budget being the way they are. That's where it's being taken from. And hopefully there will be little or no cost involved but you have to pay for this in one way or another. And Steve, if you can explain the reasoning why we hire outside council for these situations, I think the council would appreciate that. Thank you all. There is a case that's a current legal precedent that's really binding on us. It's a Wisconsin Court of Appeals case from 1997 involved in the village of Sockville and it was a quasi-judicial hearing there on a licensed revocation and involved a group home but it was a matter of taking away somebody's license and the same principle applies when you do a revocation it's a quasi-judicial hearing. You've got to put on testimony as to why the revocation should take place. And in the Sockville case, the village attorney both acted as the prosecutor and then when it was done went up the seat, the council table and advised the village board and they went in a closed session and advised the village board on deliberations. And the court said you can't do that. That violates an individual's right to do process for either have to act as prosecutor or you advise the council but you can't do both. And unfortunately that's the case in these quasi-judicial hearings. Could be that this individual will change his mind before the hearing or will come to the meeting and surrender his license voluntarily but I guess the latest word is that he's not gonna voluntarily surrender the license so we're gonna have to go through a hearing process. I don't remember, I think we used Joe Volkner I was here, I believe last time from Olsen-Clowitt, Gunderson and Conway and I don't recall what the bill was on that. I don't think it was real substantial. There wasn't all that much to it. This might even be less of a proceeding. I think there's less facts and less time gonna be allowed. But I still think it's necessary if we're gonna go through that process to hire outside council. Any other discussion? If not all in favor? No, roll call. Roll call, okay, roll call. Perez, Rinflaesh, Stefan? Aye. Vanderwill? Aye. Vander, excuse me, one moment. Werner? Weininger? Aye. Bauman? Aye. Perg? Aye. Monique? Aye. Doyle? Aye. Grob? Aye. Manning? Aye. Montemire? Aye. Moody? Aye. 15 Ayes. Motion carried. Other matters, Steve? 2068 is an arrow by the city clerk submitting a judicial assignment order relative to replacing Judge Volgert with Judge Langehoff in the English manner versus City of Sheboygan at all case. Comedienne Rasmussen. 2069 is an arrow by the city clerk submitting a communication from Cindy Hare expressing concern about certain items. And that will go to the Ethics Board. 2070 is an arrow by the city clerk submitting final platypidgin Creek subdivision. And that will go to the Plan Commission. 2071 is a resolution approving the final platypidgin Creek subdivision. And that will go to the Plan Commission. Moved and seconded adjourned. Any discussion? All in favor? Both.