 As is customary our city clerk Sue Richards Will read her quote of the evening. Thank you, Mayor Ryan I hope our achievements in life shall be these that we will have fought for what was right and fair That we will have risked for that which mattered that we will have given help to those who were in need That we will have left the earth a better place for what we've done and who we've been Thank You Sue We will now have the roll call Born here Bulk here Bowers Decker Gisha here Hanna here Heidemann here Koth here Kittlesen here Clayunas here Montemayor Rindflash siric here Vanderweel and wangaman here 15 present Thank You If everybody can please stand now we will have the presentation of the colors By our police department You will now have the invocation By Father Jim Connell of holy name and st. Clements churches Please now let your hearts come to silence Recognize that we are in the presence of Almighty God and let us pray Almighty God Once again, we give you thanks for life and all its blessings We thank you in a special way this evening for the gift of our freedom a gift that we may not take for granted We thank you that we have the opportunity to select those persons community who will govern our city Moreover, we thank you for the city of Sheboygan Yet, although this is a wonderful city We know Sheboygan is not a perfect community and in fact much remains to be accomplished for the good of our citizens And so we ask your blessing upon our newly elected mayor our common council both newly elected members and members who continue in office and all other elected city officials Indeed we pray that under their leadership the city of Sheboygan May stand tall as a community that is based on justice May be motivated by a true love of neighbor and may be committed to the common good of all its citizens And so Almighty God as we respond to your divine inspiration May you always be pleased with the city of Sheboygan Amen Now if my lovely wife Mary will join me, we will do the swearing in of the mayor elect Would you raise your right hand and repeat after me? I Bob Ryan I Bob Ryan swear that I will support swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the state of Wisconsin The Constitution of the state of Wisconsin and will faithfully and impartially and will faithfully and impartially Discharge the duties discharge the duties of the office of mayor of the office of mayor to the best of my ability To the best of my ability. So help me God. So help me God Congratulations. Thank you everybody Glad that didn't take too long. We still have a party this evening, so We will now have the swearing in of our municipal court judge elect Catherine Delahunt Katie would you raise your right hand and repeat after me I Catherine Q. Delahunt I Catherine Q. Delahunt who has been elected to the office of your municipal judge Who has been elected to the office of municipal judge of the joint municipal court of the joint municipal court of the city of Sheboygan of the city of Sheboygan and the village of Kohler and the village of Kohler But have not yet entered upon the duties thereof But have not yet entered upon the duties thereof do solemnly swear do solemnly swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the state of Wisconsin and the Constitution of the state of Wisconsin and will faithfully and impartially and will faithfully and and impartially discharge the duties of said office to the best of my ability so help me God. Congratulations. Thank you very much. We will now have the swearing in of the alder person's elect. If everybody can join us up here. Do you want to kind of come down just a little bit? If you would all raise your right hand and repeat after me, I, please state your name. Swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Wisconsin and will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of said office of alder person to the best of my ability so help me God. Congratulations all of you. Thank you everybody. We will now adopt the rules of the Common Council. President Hanna. Mayor Ryan. I move that the rules which govern the proceeding council be accepted and adopted as the rules of this Common Council. Second. We have a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Now we will have the election of the president and vice president of the Common Council. First we will do the president. Mayor Ryan. I move that nominations be received from the floor and voting be done by closed ballot if more than two candidates are nominated and the candidate with the lowest number of votes being dropped from the list and ballot continued to one candidate receives the majority. So second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. We will now accept nominations from the floor. Alderman Hederman. Thank you Mayor. It is my honor and privilege to nominate Jim Bourne as president of the council. Second. We have a motion and a second for Jim Bourne. Are there any other nominations? Mayor Ryan. I move that the nominations be closed. Do we have a second? Mayor Ryan. I move that the city clerk be instructed to cast the unanimous ballot for Alder person Bourne for president of the Common Council. We have a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Congratulations President Bourne. We will now have the election of the vice president of the council. Mayor Ryan. I move that nominations be received from the floor and that voting to be done by closed ballot if more than two candidates are nominated. The candidate with the lowest number of votes be dropped from the list and the ballot to continue to one candidate receives the majority. Sir second. Second. We have a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. We will now accept nominations from the floor. Alderman Hanna. It would be a great privilege to nominate Alder person Guesha to be vice president. Second. We have a nomination and a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Okay. We have Alderman Rindfleisch. Thank you, Your Honor. It would be a privilege to nominate Gene Kittleson who has been at every committee that I've seen recently who would make an excellent vice president as well. Thank you. We have a motion and a second for Gene Kittleson. Are there any other nominations? Mayor Ryan, I move that the nominations be closed. Is there a second? Nominations are closed. Alderman, I would ask when you do this ballot it does say to print your last name first. That would be very important. Not that some of you, I can't read your writing, but some of you I can't read your writing. So please print your last name. If you have your ballot, just send it back to the end here. Two more coming in. Very suspenseful. And that's my phone ringing. We do have a new vice president of the council. Congratulations. Alderman Gisha. I have the election of representatives on the city plan commission, a representative on the board of contractors examiners, and two representatives on the capital improvements commission. Mayor Ryan, I move that nominations be received from the floor and voting be done by open ballot. If more than two candidates are nominated, the candidate with the lowest number of votes be dropped from the list and balloting continue until candidates receive a majority. Is there a second? We have a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Your Honor. We will now accept nominations from the floor for the representative on the city plan commission. Please. I am. The statement, we do actually have to allow two representatives of the capital improvements commission. So the statement that we eliminate down to one for that particular office would be false. In that case, we eliminate until we have two final ones. Right. The motion would be amended to clarify that. I would amend the motion. Very well. Thank you. Thanks, sir. President Bourne. Thank you, Mayor Ryan. I would like to nominate Alderman Mark Hanna for the city plan commission. Do we have a second? Second. Are there any other nominations? Alderman Lindflesch. Thank you, your Honor. I nominate Marilyn Montemayor for city plan. We have a nomination and a second for Alderperson Montemayor. Are there any other nominations? I move that the nominations be closed. Thank you very much. We will now have the ballots. We have a new representative on the city plan commission. Congratulations, Alderman Hanna. We will now accept nominations from the floor for the representative on the board of contractors examiners, Alderman Gisha, Vice President Gisha. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I nominate Alderperson Eric Rineflesh for the position. We have a nomination and a second. Are there any other nominations? There are not. Mayor Ryan, I move that the nominations be closed. Second. There is a second. Nominations are closed. Mayor Ryan, I move that the city clerk be instructed to cast the unanimous ballot for Alderperson Rineflesh for the representative on the board of contractors examiners. Second. We have a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Congratulations, Alderman Rineflesh. We will now accept nominations from the floor for two representatives on the Capital Improvements Commission. Alderperson Montemayor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor Ryan. I would like to nominate Alderman Gene Kittleson. Second. We have a nomination and a second. Are there any other nominations on the floor? We are looking for two representatives on the Capital Improvements Commission. Anybody feel like they were shorted on committees? Now's your chance. I'll bow the guy next to you. We have a nomination and a second. Are there any other nominations? Mayor Ryan, I move that the nominations be closed. Second. Thank you. Mayor Ryan, I move that the city clerk be instructed to cast the unanimous ballot for Alderperson Kittleson and Rineflesh as representatives on the Capital Improvements Commission. Is there a second? Second. We have a second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. We will now elect the Committee of the Whole Chairman. Mayor Ryan, I move that the council recess in order to elect the chairperson of the Committee of the Whole. Is there a second? Second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. And then when I wanted to talk to you, I think they did that on purpose. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'd like to nominate Eric Rineflesh for Committee of the Whole. Unusual as this is, I'd like to nominate Gene Kittleson for Committee of the Whole. Thank you, Alderperson Hanna. Just to clarify, we're under the same rules previously where the low total will be limited to this final two. Very good. Thank you. All the person Kittleson, we have to vote between the two of them. Those congratulate the new Committee of the Whole chairperson, Alderperson Clioness. I move to reconvene the Common Council. All in favor say aye. Aye. The chair votes aye. And we need the results. Congratulations Alderperson Clioness. We will now have a message from the new president of the council, President Jim Boren. Mayor Ryan. Clean. City Clerk Sue Richards. My fellow council members, guests in the council chambers and the citizens watching television at home. Sue, I just have to ask you something. I've carried down my acceptance speech to about an hour. Would you let me know when there's a half hour left in case we have to take a break? Okay. First of all, I want to congratulate Mayor Ryan on his election to mayor of the city of Sheboygan. I am proud to have been an early, pre-primary supporter of your campaign for mayor, and I look forward to working with you. Next I would like to welcome our two newest members to the council, Alderperson's Tom Bowers and Julie Kath. Before I thank anyone else, I need to thank my wife, Marilyn, for her ongoing encouragement and support in first running for Alderman in 2006 and again in 2008, and now with this new challenge as council president. Marilyn, would you stand up, please? Thank you, Mrs. B. I also want to thank the citizens of the Forest District, Ward 7 and 8, on Sheboygan's beautiful south side for electing me as your Alderman in 2006 and again in 2008. It is truly an honor to represent your interest on the council. Please keep calling me with your ideas and concerns. I also want to mention that it's been a real pleasure having Joe Heidemann as a teammate in the Forest District. Congratulations on your reelection, Joe, and I look forward to another, at least a year, teaming up with you for the Forest District. I also want to thank Alderman Marcanna for his two years as serving as council president. It was a pleasure serving as your vice president, Mark, and why don't we meet for coffee tomorrow and we can consider starting our book. I also want to thank my fellow council members for the confidence you have placed in me tonight by electing me as your new council president. It is quite an honor on my 62nd birthday. I intend to work hard with you as your new leader. I am excited and ready for this new challenge. My fellow council members have made excellent choices in electing Alderman Gisha as vice president and Alderperson Clayunas as chairman of the Committee of the Whole. They are both immensely talented individuals and I know they will work hard in their new roles and I look forward to working closely with them. A little bit of background about myself, I'm a retired businessman with 33 and a half years in business in the city of Sheboygan. I look forward to using that experience in my new role as council president. I have served in leadership positions on many local non-profit boards of directors. I have served governors on both sides of the aisle, Governor Thompson and Governor Doyle on state boards in Madison. I also served as board president of my state professional association, the Wisconsin Alliance of Hearing Professionals. You will find that my leadership style to be well prepared, no nonsense, fair and consensus building. As your new council president, I will strive to keep the lines of communication open between the mayor's office and all council members and I want to stress all council members. Vice president Gisha and I will meet formally with Mayor Ryan initially on a weekly basis. Vice president Gisha and I will need input from all council members as we move forward in this challenging council year. This input is most welcome with contacting the mayor directly or through your council leadership. We need to be a sounding board for each other's ideas. I look forward to working with our talented department heads and all of our dedicated city employees and what will be a very challenging council year. Vice president Gisha and I intend to continue the twice monthly meetings with the mayor and county administrator Adam Payne and county board chairman Mike Van der Steen. The committee of the whole will soon be hearing the report from the government structure committee on the concept of a mayor city administrator form of government for the city of Sheboygan. As we go forward in this council year, it will be a year of many challenges, dealing with a $1.7 to $2.2 million budget deficit for 2010, negotiating new labor contracts that are sustainable long term, looking at creative cost effective ways of providing quality healthcare to our city employees at a sustainable cost long term, creating a sustainable new pay plan for our nonrepresented employees, implementing the star program for savings in the 2009 budget and use those savings towards the 2010 budget deficit. Details will follow shortly on the star program. Also prioritizing all services provided by the city with a formula similar to that used by Sheboygan County. And last but not least, continuing to provide city services in the most cost effective manner without raising property taxes, understanding the difficult times our citizens are going through. The challenges are many, but we have a great team in place. I am excited and confident that if we all work together and get our fiscal house in order, we can maintain the quality city services we provide and the quality of life we have come to expect as citizens of Sheboygan. Let's roll up our sleeves and get to work. Thank you very much. And happy birthday, Jim. We will now have a message from our new committee of the whole, Chairperson or the person Jean Clionis. Mayor Ryan and council and friends, I didn't have as much time as Jim, I'm not as prepared as Jim. That's hard to beat, to be more prepared than Jim Boren. I'd like to address you though, saying that I look forward to this as a veteran teacher. I see the committee of the whole as a union of colleagues, people who study together important issues that we looked at together where we need to get input from the city leaders, also from professionals or from business leaders so that we study the important issues in front of us before we come to a vote. I think that's very important in these times. And as Alderman Boren or President Boren mentioned, we have a number of issues now, the budget crunch, looking at the stimulus plan and how it might affect us in our budget and our operations in the city. I'm looking forward to some sort of priority listing of city services. I think that's a very important thing that we need to do in order to set our sights and our goals clearly. And I also think we have to study the government structure. As Alderman Boren mentioned, it's coming up and we need to study that well for the sake of the city. So I invite all citizens to come to us with their ideas. We'll be forming agendas. We will meet regularly as agendas come to the fore as we see the important topics developing. And I hope that we can communicate to the city in any means that we can through any media possible. I know it's televised, but I know a lot of people don't receive a television feed. So I'm looking into ways in which we can communicate how we've studied together as colleagues in the Committee of the Whole. So thanks for your confidence. And I look forward to working with all of us. Thank you, Jean. Now it is my turn to talk. Gisha was looking forward to this. Thank you everybody for coming tonight. This is our first meeting with myself as mayor and many more to come, I hope. I would like, first of all, to thank my wife, Mary, and my children, Blake and Abigail for putting up with the last four months of running a campaign. My wife is my organization. She, without her, I guarantee you I would not have been successful because I am not the, I'm not good at details. Let's put it that way. So thank you, Mary, for taking care of all of that. We have a tough road ahead of us in this city. We have a looming $2 million deficit and we need to keep the city moving forward along with solving the deficit. With the help of the Alderman on the Council and our city department heads and city employees, I hope by August to have accomplished a couple of items. First of all, we have to revamp our entire health insurance plan. We have to make it more affordable for the city without making it too expensive for our employees and without making it where it is not as thorough as it is right now. My goal is also to research an affordable catastrophic life insurance plan for people that are close to retirement. We have a lot of people that have 35 years plus of service that are staying working mainly because of health insurance. And if the city can put something together that is affordable for those folks, hopefully we can have some folks retiring that we are not in the position of laying off our younger workers because it's normally last and first out. So there would be nothing worse in my opinion than laying somebody off with a wife and a couple of children at home. We have to negotiate all of our labor contracts. And I also hope to have that complete by August. We are going to start studying our labor contracts on Thursday. I have a style of sitting down with labor leaders ahead of time and hopefully we can lay the groundwork that when we go into negotiations we already have an agreement in principle and we're working out the details. It's going to be give and take but we cannot keep operating the way we have been. If we do, we will be insolvent as a city within a year. So everybody knows. I believe that if we can do the next two years, we're looking for pay freezes. We are looking for more affordable health insurance and we are looking for every department to save a certain percentage on top of that. If we can do that, we can solve our deficit and we can move forward. We are in the process of developing a strategic long-term plan for the city. The city's never had one. I said when I got elected at least now we have a clue but we really need a plan. So we need to do that. We need to look to the future and not just worry about what we're going to do from year to year. We have to have a sustainable long-term plan for the city. We are in the process of establishing an economic development team. I've had a couple of meetings already. This will be with city employees, with the mayor and also with a lot of people from the private sector. A lot of people that have ties in the business community that can help with developing new businesses in town and providing jobs and increasing our tax base. The city also owns a lot of land on the riverfront and south pier. The properties themselves, the buildings are owned by individuals or corporations but the land is still owned by the city and we are a terrible landlord. We never review the leases. We never increase the lease payments. It's valuable property and anybody that has a large investment, in my opinion, would probably consider buying that property under their building. For long-term value, it would be wise to do. We can sell off that land and a lot of those funds would be returned to community development block grants which is where the money came from originally. We can add several million dollars to our block grants and then use that money to rebuild some of our aging neighborhoods and possibly to start a new business park that we can entice some business into our city. I found that our department heads, which we have a lot of new department heads that have come in the last few years, are phenomenal people. They think out of the box, they're leaders and they need to be given the latitude to be able to lead their employees and we need to figure out a mechanism that the employees of the city are working for their department heads. There's a bit of a disconnect right now between department heads and a lot of our labor employees where they're not actually working for the department heads so we need to get together on that and come to a consensus that will be better for the city overall. I gave all of our council members their committee appointments yesterday. Normally it's never done until tonight that it's a surprise and everybody looks at them and goes, ooh, I gave it to everybody yesterday and I tried to be fair, I tried to spread it out evenly that we can utilize people's talents and that everybody has some power in the city rather than it being in the hands of a couple people and a lot of other people with one or two committees. I think I did a fairly good job because I only had to switch one committee today and I told everybody that if you would like a different committee or you don't like what you see, please call me and I only changed one committee today which was great. That is the way I plan to lead in the future. I plan to be transparent, I don't plan to surprise people. I would rather have everybody's input and have everybody working together than I would try to force policy on the council. The council actually makes all the decisions anyway. We all know that. As a mayor, I have to work with the council because ultimately it's their decision. We have a lot of great people on this council. We have a lot of great leaders on this council. We have a lot of intelligent people on this council. We all need to work together, especially over the next two years to solve the problems that we have in our city. But we can do it. I mean, it's the way I see it. We're coming close to the bottom right now so it's all up from here. We have a great city here. I love living here and obviously everybody on this council floor does also because they're all city residents. And we just need to do what we can to make our city a better place for everybody to live in. And we need to be honest with each other, trust each other. We can't tell somebody one thing and then come on the council floor and say another. We just need to work together, be open, be honest, empower our department heads to make decisions, don't micromanage them, and appreciate our city employees. Don't treat them as payroll numbers. Don't treat them as liabilities, they're assets. They're the people that do the work. They're the people that provide the services to our customers, which is all the citizens of our city. We're in the service business. Right now, we're in a service business that is not exactly, could be called Solven, but it will be very shortly. Thank you very much. We will now have the mayor's appointments. Thank you, Mayor Ryan. To the honorable members of the Common Council, I hereby submit the following appointments for your confirmation. The Finance Committee, James Gisha Chairman, Jean Cliunas Vice Chairman, Alderman Bourne, Montemire, and Heidemann. Public Protection and Safety Committee, Mark Hanna Chairman, Eric Rinfleis Vice Chairman, William Wangeman, Thomas Bowlers, and Ed Surich. Public Works Committee, Jean Kittleson Chairman, Jeremy Decker Vice Chairman, Mark Hanna, Jody Van Der Wiel, and Eric Rinfleis. Salaries and Grievances Committee, Corey Bauch Chairman, Jean Kittleson Vice Chairman, Julie Koth, Jim Gisha, and Joseph Heidemann. Law and Licensing Committee, James Bourne Chairman, Ed Surich Vice Chairman, Jody Van Der Wiel, Julie Koth, and to be announced, the new Alderman from the Second District, signed by the mayor. And that lies over till our next meeting. And again, hereby submit the following appointments for your consideration. Dan Dawn to be considered for appointment to the Architectural Review Board to fill the unexpired term of Andrew Hopman, expires four, 25, 2011. Kathleen Hoffman to be considered for appointment to the Board of Review to fill the unexpired term of Gloria Blizzard, whose term expires four, 30, 2011. William Gottsecker to be considered for appointment to the Board of Police and Fire Commissioners to fill the unexpired term of Lloyd Turner, whose term expires four, 18, 2011. And the new Second District Alder Person to be considered for appointment to the Industrial Development Commission to fill the unexpired term of Alderman Ryan, whose term expires four, 12, 2010, signed by the mayor. And that lies over also. Thank you, Steve. And then there is a listing, in fact nine pages worth of various appointments to the various boards, committees, commissions, authorities, so forth of the council that I believe all the Aldermen have in front of them. Be happy to read them all if you'd like. No, that's okay, Steve. Thank you. That lies over also. If you folks notice today, we have a vacant chair. That was my Aldermanic seat for the last three years. It is now open in the Second District. I had one more year left on my term. And if anybody would like to be an Alderman that lives in the Second District, along with Alderman Balk here, it's the easiest campaign you'll ever run. You need to send a letter of intent to our city clerk and have a small speech on May 4th in the council elects, whoever is going to fill that seat. So please, anybody who lives in the Second District, please get your letters into, through our city clerk and you have a free year on the council before you have to run for election. Thank you. We will now have public forum. There is none. There is none. Okay. Onto resolutions introduced. One dash one by Alderman Hannah, requesting the mayor to reactivate various special committees for the 2009, 2010 council year. Alderman Hannah. I'm assuming I can move that the resolution upon its passage. Second. We have a motion and a second. We do roll call. You have an amendment. Oh, I'm sorry. And we have to amend the resolution to remove charter communication re-franchising advisory committee and add the sustainable task force. Do we have a second? Second. We have a motion on the amendment. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Now on the amended resolution. Resolution as amended. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Well, looking at my list here, it says adjourn. But before we do, anybody in the chambers this evening, I have a small get together, actually large if everybody shows up. At my house this evening, it's on the corner of 6th and Michigan. Look for the spinning disco balls up on the top of the house. Everybody is invited, please come. Do we have a motion to adjourn? Second. Motion and second. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion carries. Thank you.