 I'd like to call to order the ninth meeting of the 2015-2016 Common Council. Would the clerk please read the quote for the day? Thank you, Mayor. When the day is over, let it go. And I don't have children to watch that movie, so don't kid me about it. Don't dwell on what should have or could have happened. Tomorrow is another day and another chance. Thank you very much. Would the clerk please call the roll? There are 12 present. Alderman Carlson, Alderman Herman, and Alderman Damro are excused. Next, we'll go on to the Pledge of Allegiance. Please stand and join me. Pledge of 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. Next, we'll go on to approval of the minutes from our last meeting. Alderman Hammond. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I move to approve. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. Those minutes are before us for any discussion. Seeing none, would all those in favor please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion is approved. Item 4.1 is resignations. City attorneys. Yes, there is one resignation addressed to Mayor Van der Steen from Sean and Nishik. It says it's with sincere regret and careful consideration that I'm submitting my resignation from the Building Use Committee, and she explains her reasons and thanks the council for the opportunity to serve. Thank you very much. Alderman Hammond. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I move to accept and file. Second. Thank you for that support. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Item 5.1 is appointments. City attorney. And there are several of those as well. First one to the common council. I hereby submit the following appointment for your consideration. Scott Greenke to be considered for appointment to the business improvement district to fill the unexpired position of Tom Brickley, whose term expires on December 31, 2015, signed by the mayor. Second, I hereby submit the following appointment for your consideration. Jake Toman to be considered for appointment to fill the newly created position as a business owner on the business improvement district. His term will expire 12-31-16, signed by the mayor. And then finally submitting the following appointment for your consideration. Michael Langan to be considered for appointment to the Building Use Committee to fill the unexpired position of Sean and Nishik, whose term expires 4-25-16, again signed by the mayor. All those appointments will lie over. Next, we'll move on to an election of Alderperson for district number two. Alderman Hammond. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I move that nominations be received from the floor voting to be done by open ballot. And if more than two candidates are nominated, the candidate with the lowest number of votes be dropped from the list and balloting to continue until one candidate receives a majority. Second. Thank you for that motion. Second. Alderman Hammond. Thank you again. I would like to place a nomination. Roman Droughton and Tammy Rob. Second. Thank you for that support. Are there any other nominations? Are there any other nominations? Are there any other nominations? Alderman Hammond. Thank you again, Mr. Mayor. I move that nominations be closed. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. All those in favor of clothing nominations, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Nominations are closed. Would the city clerk and the city attorney please hand out the ballots? Okay. Next, we'd like to invite the candidates up to say a few words about their past history and their reason for their candidacy tonight. And first, I'd like to call up Tammy Rob. Hi. Good evening. My name is Tammy Rob. If some of you don't know me already, I would like to be considered for the district to Alderman position as what some of my neighbors and family members have said. This best kind of describes me. I'm a responsible homeowner and I'm raising a daughter. I'm very articulate and a confident woman, very professional. I'm a great public speaker and presenter, strong communicator, extremely organized. I apply problem-solving skills as well as resolve complex situations, and I'm honest and hardworking. Some of the things that if you haven't seen my resume in the last few days, some kind of an overview of who I am, but passionate sales and marketing person, possessing exceptional strategic organizational analysis and leadership capabilities. In the past, I've done consultative selling through business to consumer as well as business to business and international sales channels and worked with some of the largest food manufacturers in the world and abroad and some of those food creations have come to fruition here locally where we've built many plants not only in Wisconsin but also in Canada. I have a demonstrated track record of success developing, implementing and managing innovative integrated traditional mobile and social campaigns. I've conducted market identification and research with creative concepting and media expertise. I have in the past consistently met corporate goals through strategic planning, program development, project execution and delivery of exceptional customer service. Professionally, some of the people locally or even in central Wisconsin and abroad have said about me that I provide very strong market strategy, market research, social media marketing, SEO, search optimization, mobile banking, social networking, media networking, advertising, media planning, buying TV commercials with some of the biggest players here in Sheboygan County, graphic design, communications, public relations, budgeting, strategic planning, financial planning with multi-million dollar budgets, event planning with over 250 local events for Sheboygan County, leadership, new business development, compliance and very strong organizational skills. One of the things that we have been, or I kind of brought to Community Bank when I worked there, was we piloted a children's reading program for Money Smart Week. And Sheboygan County was recognized by the Federal Reserve in Chicago and that is now going to be one of the standards that we've been working on over the past few years. So if anybody would like a copy of my resume, I'd be more than happy to share that. Thank you so much, Tammy. Great. Next I ask Roman Drion to please step up to the podium. I'd like to thank everybody for the opportunity to be here. I've known some of you from various boards and positions, big brothers, big sisters for nine years. I'm serving again. I got pulled in from Tim Kaker to do another round for that, but we'll help him out. It's a good cause for Sheboygan. The reason I'm running for the position, I've been in Sheboygan about 15 years now. I came up from Milwaukee. And the one thing about Sheboygan that instantly shows is how passionate people are about the community, about how much they've invested from their history of family, of hard work. And you know, I see a lot of forward progress that's happening. Anybody that drives down A Street can see the things that are starting to happen. You start to see some of these positive things in motion and that happens because of the hard work of what goes on right here in this room, among other things and other people. I'd like to be part of that. I think that we can really keep things moving in Sheboygan. I know we've been through some hard times. I know there's been some delicate things to talk about right now, but you know, I think that the hard decisions have been made and there's a reason for that. And I hope that we can work together and move forward to really make stuff happen in this town. I too, with my background, I'm also, it's kind of interesting hearing everything that you do. I'm the creative director at Dufort Advertising and part owner. When Tim Dufort passed away, we purchased the company as a group and we now still have the office building right downtown on A Street. And you know, it's been an interesting course for this last 15 years being in Sheboygan. And the one thing I'd like to say is that if anything, I'd like to serve because I'm ready to roll up my sleeves and really get into this and do what we need to do. I'd like to thank you for your time. I do have my resume if anybody has any questions or any further input on that. Thank you very much, Roman. Okay, I'd ask the alderman to fill out their ballots and then pass them down to the city attorney. Alderman, if you could print your last name so we can read it. That'd be great. Our new alderman is Roman Draun. Congratulations. And Tammy, thank you very much for your interest in the job. Roman, you're welcome to step on the other side of the railing there and take that open seat in the back row. And you want to pass them an agenda? The next item on the agenda is public forum. City Attorney, City Clerk. First this evening would be Delcey Johnson. Delcey, if you could come up please. And Delcey, I'll need your home address. 1306 North Third Street, Sheboygan. And you will have five minutes. Mayor Van Dristien, City Clerk Richard, City Attorney Adams, Alderman and Citizens. The information I will share with you is based on data received in an FOIA request to Nancy Busse for expenses and revenues related to the operation of the Ambulance Service in 2014. As you know, the ambulance budget only includes salaries and benefits for the four newest hires, but operating three ambulances 24-7 requires 21 firefighters. Salaries and benefits for the four firefighters was $297,123. Salaries and benefits for 17 additional firefighters would be $1,262,777. EMS calls accounted for more than 75% of the incidents that the department responded to. 75% of $1,262,777 is $947,083. Bringing total personnel expenses to $1,244,206. Adding other budgeted expenses brings total expenses to $1,537,850. This includes $87,030 for leasing the ambulances and $108,045 for contracted billing services. Total billings were $2,782,880. Actual collections were $1,195,999 or 43% of billings. Adjustments or billings that were not collected were 57% of billings. Subtracting expenses from actual collections results in a loss of $341,851, which is almost twice the loss in 2013. But that's not the whole story. The amount calculated for personnel expenses is based on the salary and benefits of $74,281 for each of the four newest hires. The average salary and benefits of the 17 additional firefighters would be higher than that base figure. Also, the figures I cited do not include any administrative costs. The department does not figure $1 of the salaries and benefits of any of the administrative personnel as part of the operating cost of the ambulance service. Deputy Chief Butler was hired late in 2007 to run the ambulance service when the department took it over in 2008. And as identified in the 2013 and 2014 annual report says Deputy Chief EMS slash Health and Safety Emergency Management. Based in my first-hand experience in seeking information about ambulance calls, I can tell you that it takes more than one person to provide simple information, clearly indicating that several department employees other than firefighters are involved in running the ambulance service. I did not seek salary or benefit figures for any administrative personnel, but if administrative costs were added, the actual cost to providing the ambulance service would be much higher and the loss much greater. Fond du Lac, however, which operates three fire stations, includes administrative costs when figuring the cost of their ambulance service. Their department is organized a bit differently than the Sheboygan fire department, but they include 50% of the salaries for their fire chief, three assistant fire chiefs, an administrative assistant and a records clerk, and 75% of the salaries for their paramedics. At the time the city decided to take over the ambulance service, a story in the Sheboygan press on May 30th, 2007 noted, and I quote, If the service loses money, city fire officials will cut the department's budget to make up for that loss, end of quote. Of course, it's easier to avoid that situation if you don't count all expenses. Last year when I presented information about the cost of the ambulance service in 2013, Chief Romus wrote a letter to the press in which he stated that I had presented wrong information. When I met with him to discuss this, he told me that all my figures were correct, but that I had the wrong perspective. I stand by my figures and I stand by my perspective, as do a great many of your constituents who believe, as I do, that governments should not do what the private sector can do. In 2014 the department responded to 48 building fires, which is only 1% of the total incidents the department responded to, with five stations that's less than one call per station per month. Of course, having so few fires is a positive, but it begs the question of how the department should be staffed. When organizational changes are suggested, the firefighters object with the argument that minutes count. Yet 40 to 50% of the department's firefighters live outside the city and depend on volunteer fire services to protect their family and properties. And that apparently is okay with them. Evidently minutes don't matter if you are a fireman and live outside the city. I have learned that the department has the possibility of six retirees this year. Perhaps this could present an opportunity for changes in the department. You need to ask if the city needs five fire stations and if the city needs to operate three ambulances 24-7. Next on our list will be Mike Brunette. Mike, could you come to the front, please? And Mike, I need your home address. 1925 South 26th Street. We will have five minutes. All right. What woke me up is 7.1 in ordinance by Alderman Blanger, mending various sections of chapter two, the municipal code to provide for direct referral of communications, resolutions and ordinances to committees and eliminate the requirement of a second reading, except where otherwise required by law, committee of the whole. And unlike Dulcy, I have no facts, knowledge, and don't even fully understand what I'm talking about. Right yet, I'm thinking what this does is short circuit the process where things could actually come up. And I understand there's a 72-hour deal where if you get it in and there's part of in here about where if it's going to cost money, which who knows what really costs money and doesn't, as Dulcy might attest to. But it sounds like a way of short circuiting a lot of what's going on and public discussion. It's hard enough to get information out of here the way it is. I mean, it really is. If you go on by the city site and try to find stuff, it's a little painful. And when you do go to meetings, like you go to the finance meeting and you want to hear what's going on with the budget and the new TID district, you're kind of in the dark, can't really hear, and you don't know what's going on. So every chance there is for word to get out and things to go through different committees helps. I mean, I might be completely wrong on this, and maybe this doesn't short circuit anything, but from a lot of the dealings from the quarry to the armory and all other things, there's often a slow up, hurry up. This needs to get done. This doesn't need to get done and timing. And if you can fire things through and like have a joint committee meeting where you have two committees fire through really quickly, things can just go through like a rocket and nobody really knows they existed. This seems like that would speed things up like that. And I don't think that can be good for anybody. What's the hurry? And on another note, I happen to stop by the armory on my way over here, and I understand that somehow the citizens needed to sell all the history in there, even though I don't recall anybody from council approving it or anybody at any level approving it, but I'm looking at their stuff that I can't believe anybody actually bought would be gone, like the thing in there telling how many people are in there for wrestling or whatever things you would call history that are just gone. And then the other thing I noticed is there's a hole on the side of the armory that wasn't there a couple months ago on the corner. That's about the size that you could bury me in. And it's like, I hope it's a coincidence, but it's kind of like, why is it there? How is it there? It's just an odd thing. I mean, I understand you don't want the armory, but it's like the building wasn't pretty darn good shaped last I was in. That's all I got. Thanks, Mike. That's it for this evening. Thank you very much. Next, we'll move on to a presentation on the 2016 budget. Alderman Hammond has prepared this for the Strategic Fiscal Planning Committee, and we asked him to also present it to the council. Don, the floor is yours. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Jim and Nancy to join me for this portion of the show. All right, so last Wednesday we presented the budget to the Strategic Fiscal Planning Committee with the objective of looking at how we laid out the budget to give you an understanding of what our goals and objectives were with the budget. Now, of course, after tonight, this is going to go to all the standing committees for the review, but we wanted to give you the highlight. So, do I have a clicker or do you got it for me? Go ahead. Be there momentarily. There we go. All right. Got to love technology. So our goals with the budget as they've been over the last several years is one, to reduce debt, to continue to fund capital, zero increase to the levy, and four, as you guys found out a couple of weeks ago, to maintain the city's favorable bond rate, which was just reaffirmed by Moody's at AA2. So from a highlight standpoint, first, it's a balanced budget. As you guys get into it, again, the full budget I believe was emailed out to everybody, it's a balanced budget. No reduction in staff, 2% pay increase for non-rep employees, two and a half for police and fire by contract. One of the things that I'm pretty excited about is we may have the opportunity to pay for combined dispatch out of general fund instead of having to bond for it. And what I'm extremely excited about is our estimated debt level. You can see in 2010 we were somewhere around the 60-ish million dollar range from a debt standpoint. And by the end of this year, we projected to be at about 32 million, so we've cut the debt in half. The savings in real dollars is obviously interest expense as much less as a lesser drag on the general fund. Our levy, what we levy for, still only supports between right around 24, 27 million dollars of debt levy. So we still have a little ways to go to get that down. Nancy's going to take us real quickly through the 2016 revenue and expense numbers. I see that the taxes is up a bit, and most of that is from the water utility, the in-luif tax that they pay us. The permits are pretty stable. Intergovernmental is up a little bit, and that is from some grants that we're going to be getting and additional road aides that we get. Charges and other services. That is permits that the building inspection department will be giving or releasing this year. And you'll see later on that that's going to affect the levy also. And then the other financing is pretty stagnant. The expense budget general is pretty much the same. Police and fire is up a bit, which police and fire is up. It's up because of the wages increase, but it's down because we're transferring the levy from the... Yes, please. We're transferring the levy from the Camel, which is about $700,000 to the county. So police and fire is going down $700,000, but it's also going up for salaries and benefits. Public works is pretty stable. Development is down a little bit, and other is pretty stable. Technology is not our friend today. We're going to forge ahead as she gets us back up and running. First, next slide would have been some future challenges. We've talked about this last year, and it still holds true. The Motor Vehicle Fund has about two to three years of balance left. The current balance is about $1.2 million, and DPW alone has a request for $1 million and for $2016 alone. If that fund goes to zero, that's about a $225,000 hit to the general fund. So that's something that we need to look at and we need to deal with over the next year or so. Special Assessments Fund and the Debt Service Fund. There's about four to five years left in that particular fund. The Net Fund is really used. The Special Assessments Fund has been used to cover some of the shortfall in the debt levy fund. So again, reducing our debt, there's the budget appropriations. There we are. We'll come back to the budget appropriations in a moment. So let's just go ahead. Next slide, hopefully. There we go. So estimated 15 debt, as I mentioned, roughly about $32 million. Optimal would be about $24 million by year 2018, and that would allow for our levy to completely cover, our debt levy to completely cover the amount of debt we have. The current fund balance, as I mentioned, is about $1.5 billion. Or excuse me, million. I wish it was billion. Next slide, please. A couple of future challenges, of course, combined dispatch, about $2.5 million cut are not the crack, and that should be end of 2016, early 2017, depending on when the county is ready to open. As Nancy indicated, we will be transferring bodies in levy starting January 1 to the county. And that's, again, because it's a clean break. So that's why you'll see the amount of revenue that we have go down a little bit, that levy is going to the county for that. So if we bonded for it, there really wouldn't be much in that particular year for capital improvements. That's why our hope is that we have the ability to take it out of the general fund so we can still bond for capital. Expenditure restraint. We have to deal with this every year. That's the cap that's put on us for expenditures or increase in expenditures. That's about $525,000 for 2016. And, of course, City Hall renovations. This building is getting older and older, Alderman Bellinger, and others have been on a committee to look at alternative uses for City Hall and alternative placements if necessary. But that could be somewhere in the $7 million range to renovate this building. Next slide, please. Some future deficits. When we look at our projections in the 17 and 18, 17 is probably the bleakest at about $635,000. In 2018, things start to look a lot better with a lot of the net new construction coming online. Certainly, the 800-pound grill is the acuity project. As those things start coming online, we start recognizing revenue or tax revenue from those. The nut gets a lot better. But keeping in mind that 2018, of course, is also a contract year for our police and fire. And, of course, the limitations of Act 10 and the current garbage fee is grandfathered, but it expires at the end of 2016. And any new fee would reduce our levy, so we can't just go out there and fee for things that reduces our levy appropriately with the exception of a wheel tax. So where are some future opportunities? Again, I'm very excited about where our budget is for 2016. I'm sure there'll be some tweaks and some conversation around it. But it's a balanced budget and I believe it's a good budget, but that means we have to start planning a little bit further ahead, in this case into 17 and 18. So where are some opportunities? Again, we mentioned the increase in tax revenue due to the net new construction. If everything goes kind of as planned, that could be very significant in 17 and 18. Again, one of the thoughts is to possibly roll the motor vehicle fund into the general fund as long as we are okay with the expenditure restraints by adding that expense back into the general fund. Combined dispatch, again, could possibly fund all or a portion of that from our general fund reserve, so we wouldn't have to necessarily bond for that and we could use that bonding for capital. The benefit package, as many of you guys are aware this year, we went to an HSA along with our traditional plan, maybe an opportunity to look at going to an HSA-only plan for our employees. That'll be something that I'm sure will be discussed as part of the salaries and grievances. And also, of course, increasing the employee cost here. Currently employees cover about 15% of their health-related costs, provided that they do the health risk assessment and those types of things. As many of you may or may not know, our assessor has decided to retire and so one of the opportunities out there may be to outsource that office. We had some unsolicited bids come in for that, estimated to be about 100,000 a year that we could save in outsourcing. Again, a little more exploration needs to be done on that, but that's an opportunity that could come up in the very near future. From a review standpoint, again, this is the very preliminary portion of the budget show. It'll be reviewed by all outstanding committees in August. The full budget will come back to finance, hopefully early September. After some rigorous review and conversation. And it'll be reviewed by finance in its entirety and referred to council in the October-November timeframe for review and vote. Can you go back to the appropriations one? So as Nancy was indicating, these are the appropriations or expenses, if you will. Nancy, if you want to just chat briefly about that now that they can all see the slides. The general is basically flat. That's administration. Police and fire shows that it's down 151, but the salary and benefits with the increases that we have and other increases in there are about 500,000. So there is an increase, because of the levy transfer to the county for the combined dispatch. That's why it's showing a negative. Public works is pretty flat. Development is flat and other is flat. So not a lot of changes other than police and fire. So at this point, at this point from the council, any questions, comments, concerns, bribes? I shouldn't say that here, sorry. For our friends at the press, as Jason's got his hands in his head, no. Just say that alone. Questions? Again, this will be going to all the standing committees, but I wanted to give you kind of an idea of what we were thinking when we started to put this together at a very high level. Obviously, each department is going to have things that they need, they need to move the coconuts around, if you will. Alderman Boren. Thank you, Mayor. Don, with that thing that just came up, the 800,000 thing that we have hanging around our neck, I would imagine that would have a bearing on whether we would be able to fund the dispatch from the reserves? It could. Assuming that kind of goes through as it currently is, that would be about a $275,000 nut to us and then the other taxing entities would make up the remaining 800,000. Obviously, as a group, we haven't decided what our strategy is and will, but that's going to be a challenge. Alderman Heidemann. Thank you, Mayor. Don, what's the difference between bonding for capital improvements versus bonding for combined dispatch? Just more. We've been maintaining roughly a $2 to $3 million bonding every year to pay for capital. We wanted to maintain that and allow our debt to continue to come down. If we decided to bond for both capital and combined dispatch, we'd have to bond for about $4.5 to $5.5 million, which now we're going the opposite way. Again, that's the council's decision. If they want to do that, I'd prefer to stay where we're at, so we're reducing our debt. Seeing no other discussion, I'd like to thank Alderman Heidemann for the presentation and also Finance Director Nancy Bus and Administrator Motio for a great job in the teamwork they did in putting this budget together. Thank you. Next is Mayor's announcements and I have some proclamations to present tonight. I'd like Annie Bagnell, the administrator at St. Nicholas Hospital, to join me up here. They're celebrating a very significant anniversary. Proclamation, whereas the HSHS St. Nicholas Hospital is in its 125th year of serving the healthcare needs of Sheboygan, and whereas the HSHS St. Nicholas Hospital is a not-for-profit hospital sponsored by the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis, whose mission and vision is to provide family-centered, compassionate care without regard to race, creed, or ability to pay, and whereas this is achieved through their core values of respect, care, competence, and joy, and whereas the Hospital Sisters' health system mission is to reveal and embody Christ's healing love for all through their high-quality Franciscan healthcare ministry, and whereas sponsored by the Hospital Sisters of St. Francis, HSHS provides a state-of-the-art healthcare to their patients and is dedicated to serving all people especially the most vulnerable. And now, therefore, I, Mike Van der Steen, Mayor of the City of Sheboygan, do hereby congratulate St. Nicholas Hospital on the occasion of its 125th anniversary. And I urge the citizens of Sheboygan to celebrate and consider making a gift to this meaningful, as meaningful them in support of their 125th anniversary campaign. Thank you to HSHS St. Nicholas Hospital for the steps that they are taking to fully renovate the operating rooms in ICU in an effort to improve patient safety, security, increase privacy, improve efficiency, and enhance patients' experience. We congratulate them on this anniversary. Thank you. On behalf of HSHS St. Nicholas Hospital and Hospital Sisters' health system, I'd like to thank Mayor Van der Steen and the Council for your support over the many, many years of service that we've provided to the community of Sheboygan. Many of you aren't unaware, but when we started our hospital journey in 1890, we were actually invited to serve this community's health care needs back then from the then Bishop. Four sisters from Springfield, Illinois made the track from Springfield, Illinois's mother house at HSHS to begin our health care ministry in Sheboygan. And today we are going very strong and we look forward to serving the community for 125 more years. Thank you. And next I'd like to ask Penny Weber to join me. Whereas the National Association of Town Watch is sponsoring a unique nationwide crime and drug violence prevention program on August 4th of 2015 entitled National Night Out. And whereas the 32nd annual National Night Out provides a unique opportunity for Sheboygan to join forces with thousands of other communities across the country and promoting cooperative police community crime prevention efforts. And whereas Sheboygan Countywide Crime Stoppers plays a vital role in assisting all law enforcement agencies in Sheboygan through joint crime, drug, and violence prevention efforts in Sheboygan County and is supporting National Night Out 2015 locally. It is essential that all citizens of Sheboygan be aware of the importance of crime prevention programs and the impact their participation can have on reducing crime, drugs, and violence in Sheboygan. And whereas the police community partnerships, neighborhood safety, awareness, and cooperation are important themes of National Night Out program. Now, therefore, I, Mayor Mike Van der Steen, and the Common Council, do hereby call upon all citizens of the city of Sheboygan to join the Sheboygan Countywide Crime Stoppers and the National Association of Town Watch in supporting the 32nd National Night Out on August 4th. And this year, they're moving the event to an area on the southern part of the city. Veterans Park will be the center for this this year. So I'll present this to Penny Weber from Crime Stoppers. She's done a great job of working with this program for many years. Thank you, everyone. National Night Out is something that Sheboygan has really embraced and we're really hoping that a lot of people come out and celebrate with us. Neighborhoods and people in those neighborhoods can make such a difference if they talk to one another and work together, because there's so many good people out in the community, not as many bad. So if the good people are out on the watch and seeing what doesn't belong in their neighborhood, use their neighborhood officers to report that. We have a win-win situation. Now, for those of you not familiar with Sheboygan County and White Crime Stoppers, what we really do is provide an anonymous method to give crime information. It can be done with your computer, your smartphone, you can text, you can call our tip line, and you remain anonymous. So if you've got information about a crime and you're just not wanting to give it for fear or for any other reason, please use our tipping methods. Thank you very much. Next on the agenda, we'll conduct a hearing. It's item 2.1, a hearing pursuant to a notice published and personal notices sent out by the city clerk. There's a hearing scheduled for this evening to amend the text of the city of Sheboygan official zoning ordinance relating to a supermajority requirement of the amendment to zoning regulations and the official zoning ordinance. Is there anyone wishing to be heard? Please come forward. Can we have your name and address again? Mike Burnett, 1925 South 26th Street. And I know it traditionally. Nobody speaks on any of these things. It's usually because nobody knows what's going on. Same as me, once again. 2.1, a hearing pursuant to a notice published and personal notices sent by the city clerk. La, la, la. Zoning ordinance related to the supermajority requirement amended to zoning regulations and official zoning ordinance. And I can only assume that this is in response to what was to me a very fun night in Uganda following the tweets of Jason Smathers and a moment where all of a sudden everything kind of came to a little stop because they realized there was no supermajority. And I understand that that's just an isolated weirdness and I'm sure this has nothing to do with that. But why would you be moving this supermajority? Of what reason? Where did it come from? Basically, if that is the case, it seems that it kind of was working in doing what it needed to do. It added for a lot of discussion in the city, gave people more time to talk about things, ended up the same results. But once again, to me, this is basically a sister move to 8.1. And it's basically just reducing the ability to do things. And it's like when things are that close, it seems to me there's a reason for it. And what will happen will happen, but that's all I got. Thank you very much. Is anyone else wishing to be heard? Please come up. Do you just need your name and address, please? I think that was an ordinance that helped the people be able to be heard and I think what the city is about is to have people be represented. And I think this is in response to the zoning ordinance that we wanted to protect because we wanted to protect our homes and our home values and the character of our neighborhood. And so we gathered together enough signatures to be able to make it be a supermajority. And if it's reduced to not needing the full council, then I don't know what the quorum is. I think it's about 11 people, but that would make only needing eight council members to vote against the people's desire for the zoning to stay the same. So that means only half the council members would need to vote against the people's wishes. So I really think this is a bad move and I think it's a move to take away the democratic rights of the citizens of Sheboygan. And since I think the alderman are supposed to be representing the citizens of Sheboygan, that ordinance needs to stay in place because I can't see how it would be helpful to give people less voice unless we're changing the government and not making it democratic anymore. But I thought the alderman are supposed to be representing the people. So I think if the people go to all the work to get a petition signed, that's their strong testimony to keep things the way they are. And so I think that should be listened to. I mean, because otherwise all everyone's neighborhoods are in danger of being rezoned and zoning ordinances are there for a reason. It's to safeguard people's neighborhoods because people's property, it's about location, location, location. And it's not the house, it's where it's located that determines the price. Anyway, thank you. Thank you very much for those comments. Is there anyone else who wishes to be heard? Please come forward. Can we use Alderman Herman's sign? Maybe that would be better. Yep. Let's grab the microphone there on that desk and then just name and address. My name is Alize Demuna and I reside at 1704 North 35th Street. Can everyone hear me? No. All right, is this better? Yeah, as close as you can. All right. So I'm speaking today on behalf of the zoning change regulation and because I would like, I would strongly urge you to vote no to this zoning change regulation. It appears to me as though it's changing what was formerly a democratic process into a dictatorship and honestly it may seem really nice when you're in the power position to have a dictatorship but let's say the tables get turned at some point and you're not in the power position anymore then at what point will it seem not so great anymore? It reminds me of a story that we had once where it was in some type of dictatorship and they said, you know, when they came for the Jews I didn't care because I wasn't Jewish and when they came for the gays I didn't care either because I wasn't gay. When they came for the blacks I didn't care either but then when they came for me there was nobody else to stand up for me and say that this wasn't right. So it may sound good right now maybe your neighborhoods are not in danger of being changed in any way and that's wonderful but let's say that gets changed what will you have to fall back on? What will you have to change? Do you like the idea that eight people on this council get to decide how your neighborhood is being changed and what if you're not on the council anymore what will that give you as a way out? You won't have these options anymore and if you don't have the law on your side you don't have anything else either because people's wills are very fickle so you're only going to have eight people deciding how everything's going to change and a multi-billion dollar business that is not going to care either. Believe me I've been there I mean my father worked for a multi-million dollar business and let me tell you when push comes to shove they don't care it may seem like they do but honestly they don't care at all the bottom line is all that matters to them and therefore this whole scheme may have sounded great now their promises sound great of course they do I mean honestly it's marketing they've probably even gotten degrees in it lies etc but when it comes down to it what's going to happen when it all falls through they're not going to care what are you going to hold them to? Honestly if you don't have laws etc like zoning regulations to protect your neighborhood you won't have anything else so please consider this if not for our neighborhood which it might be too late for at least for your own sake don't do this thank you thank you for those comments is there anyone else wishing to be heard? is there anyone else wishing to be heard? is there anyone else wishing to be heard? Alderman Hammond thank you Mr. Mayor I move to close the hearing second thank you for that motion and support all those in favor of closing the hearing signify by saying aye aye opposed motion passes next we'll move on to the consent agenda the consent agenda is items 3.2 through 3.26 item 3.21 will be referred to city planning commission rather than voted on tonight Alderman Hammond thank you Mr. Mayor I move to accept and file all RO's accept and adopt all reports of committee and put all resolutions and ordinances upon this passage second thank you for that motion and support Alderman Heidemann under discussion under discussion I'd like to bring item 3.22 for a separate vote is there any objection to separating 3.22? yep seeing no objection the items on the floor for discussion please go ahead thank you obviously having spent almost my entire career on the council on DPW within that committee and working with the various department heads a task force on our city streets quite honestly I don't know what they're going to find other than the fact that we don't have the money to pay for the streets I believe Dave Bebel and his staff do a fine job and the committee members that I have have always made that a priority we know the responsibility that we have at that committee and David knows his responsibility along with his staff I don't believe another committee is warranted thank you for those comments is there any discussion on the motion Alderman Donahue thank you mayor just as an initial matter this really has no reflection at all on the department of public works or director Bebel in terms of his ability and his department's ability to analyze the problem and also to analyze the resources that are available to us in no way shape or form is this meant to be a suggestion that somehow director Bebel and the department of public works is not aware of the problem and has not thought through the various issues that are faced here's what the resolution is about it's about asking this council through a special committee a task force in a more detailed as to ways that we might possibly solve a problem that I think all of our constituents would indicate is a pretty serious problem the condition of our roads and we are certainly not alone in the state of Wisconsin the condition of our roads is not good the resources that are currently available to ensure that our roads are kept up our resources are not available to us as matters stand right now for those of you who are present when Todd Berry the head of the Wisconsin taxpayer alliance spoke to the committee of the whole I believe in January Mr. Berry who's physically quite conservative I think did an excellent job of outlining the issues that are presented to municipalities in the light of either stable or shrinking revenues from the state for road repairs and maintenance we are as our budget presentation indicated we are strictly limited in the amount of the levy that we can assess our citizens in other words we can keep the status quo right now the amount of money that is available in the budget for road repair will stage us the same our roads will stay the same some will get repaired some won't our constituents however will also continue to be really unhappy about the state of the road so what is this task force proposed to do and I will tell you I come to this from the perspective that when you come to really large issues there's nothing wrong with asking citizens what they think about new and different ways to look at possible revenue sources or other ways of dealing with the problem now our building use committee is composed of older persons and members of the community particularly architects but also just members of the community no one is suggesting that Dave Bebel doesn't understand what's wrong with City Hall we agree that Dave knows what's going on at City Hall we agree that something needs to be done but it's not something that we just want to ram through as council members and not get more input from our citizens on these great big issues there's nothing wrong with asking citizens how they feel about something I have had the opportunity to observe in detail to citizen task force working on issues relating to the school district those citizens committees had I guess I would call a value and they had an integrity that came to them because they weren't part of the system they weren't council people, they weren't staff people Eldenburg and I talked about this and we thought that we could bring a similar model to the city council these folks will include a couple of older people we'll certainly have staff input from Dave Bebel but we'll be able to look at what other communities are doing because other communities are doing things a little bit different than we are perhaps assess whether this is something that citizens want to take to a referendum there are all sorts, there's a range of possibilities this citizens committee will have integrity and a respect, not respectability but the fact that it comes from citizens with input from elders and also from staff makes their recommendations to this council there's one particular word and it's just escaping me but in any event it gives the process more respectability I guess is what I'm going to call it I understand Alderman Heidemann is upset about this and truly Joe this has nothing to say about the DPW department we know they do a good job we know that their staff is extremely skilled frankly Dave Bebel's presentation to us on infrastructure issues is what got me originally thinking about this because he's the one who's been able to suggest to us that we've got big problems here and we don't have the resources available to us just now to really get a good grasp on how we solve it this task force meets it looks at some considerations it provides a report to the council the council can throw that report in the trash it can say hey we're interested in this or it might get us thinking about different ways to approach it what I said in strategic fiscal and I mean it here is we have nothing to lose by constituting the citizens task force along with elders and the staff people and I think we have if we don't do it we will lose it's okay involving citizens in these overarching processes on a limited basis it's a good thing and it's going to be good for our city so I would urge you to support it thanks thank you for those comments Aldermen Boren thank you mayor I appreciate all our President Donahue's bringing this forward but I think it could be solved a lot easier I think it would be a very good topic for a committee of the whole meeting Mayor you could advertise the topic the media could advertise the topic we could have Director Bebel give us a state of the streets we could maybe have Chief Administrative Officer Amorio give us some possible funding sources and I think we could probably if it was well publicized enough to invite the public in have a good lengthy discussion on it and if we come up with a scenario of a wheel tax or a half percent sales tax that would be designated just for roads I certainly would be willing to take a look at that but I really don't think we have to go through another committee to get that done so I'm going to make a motion I don't know if it's the appropriate time or later but I'm going to make a motion to refer to the committee of the whole motion okay a motion to refer takes precedence is there a second to that motion? second okay we have a motion all my bidders thank you is there any discussion on the referral? all my bidders thank you Mr. Mayor I share the sentiments of all the persons Boren and Heidemann we have so many committees what's being proposed tonight has no powers outside of the standing committees there's already an avenue for public input in the standing committees here in the common council chambers it's almost a duplicitous effort to say here's a new place where you can vent there is no one here in this chamber that doesn't know our roads need work there is no one here who hasn't heard from their constituents that the roads need work we get it we all get it piling on this extra layer it is nonsensical unless this new committee can find some new revenue source or some new technology that we don't know about I don't see a point to any of this so I'm against the creation of the new committee I'm in favor of at least referring it to the committee of the whole thank you thank you Mr. Mayor goes to the committee it doesn't matter to me but I wanted to make a comment upon when you for those that have actually read the document that all the person down here submitted there are six components to this the last two are probably the key and I apologize I'm going to read them for those that don't have it consideration of various funding mechanisms and opportunities including current practices and methods used in other municipalities and six recommendations regarding the desirability and feasibility of said funding mechanisms we all know the first bullet points that were laid out Dave Bebel has done a phenomenal job of letting us know what streets what the cost of repairing those streets are but getting some input from outside of this body as to whether or not something like a wheel tax a sales tax what have you would be viable I don't think is an onerous this committee is not going to be charged is not going to be charged with years of arduous study it's a short term committee just to look at whether there's an appetite for things like sales taxes, wheels taxes whether it's what have you there might be other options out there so the first four bullet points yes I can understand the last two I think are the key to this document I'll support going either way but I do think that having some sort of civilian input makes sense to me Alderman Heidemann thank you Mayor everything that has been mentioned about has to do with wheel tax funding if this is such a great idea why don't we have the state of our public protection why don't we have other committees helping our standing committees because if this is going to work for public works it should work for every standing committee and this is the road we're going down in my estimation so again we can refer this to the committee of all which is fantastic get some more discussion about it but then at that time what we better be able we should be discussing about other task force committees for other portions of our city not just public works and what I've been hearing is the financing of it and DPW doesn't provide the financing finance does so I don't know how Dave is going to be able to put up any more stuff in his budget unless you get the approval from Jim Omori of this common council or some finance so again we'll need to take it on at the committee of the whole thank you is there any other discussion Alderman Bellinger thank you Mayor update the committee now if it does go to the committee of the whole what is going to the committee whole whether we have a task force or we don't or whether we right the document is what's being referred to okay thank you well I'm going to speak against this however as the document reads I would be on that committee because I'm the director of public works as well so whatever transpires and whatever happens I'm going to support the outcome either way I'm going to give you my reasons why I don't think that this is necessary ever since I've been on the council numerous years I've sat on the public works committee I've seen what goes on there I see the effort that goes through I see the dollars that are requested for capital every year and I see that get cut every year because quite frankly there isn't enough funding to do it and we all know that that's the game that we're playing the city administrator and Don have done an outstanding job as previously noted in reducing the city's debt and I think that's vitally important so we've got different scenarios that we can look at we can borrow and bond for more dollars for streets in infrastructure but again as Alderman Hammond mentioned earlier he doesn't think that's kind of the direction we should be going we could have a county sales tax you know we could petition the county to implement a sales tax and hope and pray that they would divvy out the revenue from that in an equitable fashion but those of you that were present for the combined dispatch you know I wouldn't put a lot of faith in that you know I think the chances of that being done are slim to none as far as an equitable disbursement so I wouldn't be in favor of that either we could eliminate all capital requests and just only fund roads that's an option we could do a wheels tax we could assess property owners and get more aggressive and do more streets and assess more property owners but I think we found out when we did Eisner Avenue that's not really a popular thing to do either or you know we could raise a tax levy by the limits that are established with net new construction so we could do that as well so we know what funding mechanisms are out there and I've been you know kind of surprised pleasantly surprised by the amount of constituent feedback that I've gotten on this issue so Jason they do read your articles I've been getting emails I've gotten phone calls I've gotten texts and I spent the weekend at the Gus Macker and I had people come up to me to discuss this issue with me at the Gus Macker too and every single one of them stated why would you need another committee to say everybody knows what's going on we know what the situation financially is with the city that's why we vote for you as an alderman is to make these decisions and that's the way it should be done to a person that's what they all said to me and you know so you know for those reasons you know I'm not gonna support it I am in favor of citizen input and a perfect example of that would be the building use committee on that committee we've got designers architects engineers and we've got a financial person that's gonna be joining the committee in our next meeting those are resources that we don't and expertise that we don't have at the city we have for the streets all the expertise we need David Bevel does an excellent job providing the detail of the data that we need and we've got resources in the finance department to address any of these funding mechanisms in any road we want to go down so you know I would be in favor of anybody bringing anything forward if somebody wants to have you know has an idea and wants me to bring it forward on a funding mechanism for something I will certainly author it and bring it forward as well and let it you know pass or fail on its own merits and thank you thank you for those comments is there any other discussion okay we're voting to refer resolution number 41 to the committee of the whole the court please call the roll for passage six eyes six nose I'll vote no then the main motion is back on the floor to set up this committee is there any further discussion on that motion Alderman item just so that I understand Mayor then this is whether or not this is a vote on again I'm not going to be in favor of this so I would think that it's going to come out about the same so this is a single vote whether or not we want to have this committee and this is a separate item from the consent agenda there's nothing to do with the rest of the consent agenda right correct is there any other discussion on the main motion or the consent who's actually making the motion I know you pulled it out but who's making the motion are we making the motion to accept and adopt and pass the resolution that's what's on the floor right now okay any other discussion seeing none will the court please call the roll for passage everybody know what they're voting on an aye vote is to an aye vote would be to form the committee correct and no vote would be not to form it okay motion is defeated okay now we're back to the consent agenda with item 3.21 and 3.22 eliminated is there any other discussion on the consent agenda Alderman Boren thank you mayor I need to have 3.7 a separate vote on that I need to abstain Mr. Kiel from H.C. Denison is our presidential advisor so I need to abstain okay 3.7 is an R.C. by finance who is referred R.O. number 51 of 1516 by the city clerk submitting a claim from Robert Kiel for alleged damages when he tripped outside the H.C. Denison building on the alley near U.S. bank parking lot and broke his iPhone glass and ruined his pants and recommends denying the claim and directing the city attorney to send notice of disallowance the motion is to accept and adopt Alderman Hammond vote for a separate vote I'll move to accept and adopt second thank you for that motion and support it's on the floor for discussion is there any discussion seeing none will the clerk please call the roll for passage eleven eyes and one abstention motion passes then we're back to the consent agenda motion with those three items eliminated is there any other discussion seeing none will the clerk please call for the consent agenda twelve eyes motion passes went on to reports of officers item 4.1 is an R.O. by the director of planning and development submitting a copy of the updated bylaws for the Sheboygan harbour center business improvement district which adds an additional board member Alderman Hammond thank you Mr. Mayor I think for those of us that have been around a while that's the longest consent agenda in history I think but I would first move to suspend the rules second thank you for that motion to suspend is there any objection to suspension seeing none please proceed thank you Mr. Mayor move to accept and file second thank you for that motion is there any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye motion passes items 4.2 through 4.6 will be referred to various committees item under resolutions items 5.1 items 5.1 through 5.3 will also be referred to various committees moving on to reports of committees item 6.1 is an R.C. by finance who has referred resolution number 57 of 1516 by Alderman Hammond authorizing a transfer of appropriations in the 2015 budget to establish appropriation for the city portion of the fiber optic network intergovernmental cooperative agreement Alderman Hammond thank you Mr. Mayor move to accept and adopt and put the resolution upon its passage second thank you for that motion under discussion seeing no discussion will the clerk please call the roll for passage 12 ayes motion passes item 6.2 is an R.C. by law in licensing to be referred pursuant to RO number 54 of 1415 by the city clerk license applications for the period ending December 31st of 2016 and June 30th of 2017 and recommends that the beverage operators license number 0796 be denied based on her failure to accurately reveal of relevant convictions on her license application a record of violations related to the license to activity in her record as a repeat law offender failure to cooperate with the committee Alderman Vander wheel thank you Mr. Mayor move the R.C. be accepted and adopted second thank you for that motion and support please go ahead under discussion is Amy Grain here this evening she is not we did invite her to our meeting um two separate occasions and she did not show up is there any other discussion seeing none will the clerk please call the roll for passage 12 ayes motion passes item 6.3 is an R.C. by law in licensing who is referred pursuant to RO number 54 of 1516 by the city clerk license applications for the period ending December 31st of 2016 and June 30th of 2017 and recommends that the beverage operators license number 0808 be denied based on her failure accurate reveal all relevant convictions on her license application her record of violations related to the license activity her record as a repeat law offender and her failure to cooperate with the committee Alderman Vander wheel thank you move at the R.C. be accepted and adopted thank you for that motion and support under discussion is Lorena Calderon here she is here I would ask that we refer this back to the committee because then we will have representation by the police department as well as the city attorney with the correct notes that we need thank you for that motion to refer is there any discussion see none please call the roll for passage okay all those in favor please signify by saying aye aye opposed motion passes that'll be referred item 4.6 will be referred to the planning city planning commission item 6.5 is an R.C. by finance to whom is referred resolution number 56 of 1516 by Alderman Bellinger approving a territory amendment number one to the project plan of tax incremental financing district number six Alderman move to accept and adopt and put the resolution upon its passage second item 6.6 will be referred to various committees and their ordinances 7.1 through 7.3 will again be referred to the various committees moving on to matters laid over item 8.1 is RO number 61 of 1516 by finance to whom is referred to the planning commission by finance to whom is referred to the planning commission number 61 of 1516 by the city planning commission to whom is referred general ordinance number 8 of 1516 by Alderman Bellinger amending sections 15.902 and 15.903 of the city zoning ordinance relating to the super majority requirement for amendment to the zoning regulations in the official zoning map Alderman Bellinger thank you mayor I move to accept and pass the ordinance thank you for the motion and support any discussion on the motion Alderman Bellinger thank you mayor when we went through the process with Aurora in the field of dreams the neighborhood got together organized and put together a protest petition and it required a three quarter majority and when I became aware of this and looking into it I also became aware that our city ordinance does not match the state statute and all I'm doing with this motion or change in ordinance is to get our city ordinance to match the state statute we all know what happened this past spring we had an Alderman who had legal ethical and moral issues caused him to resign we had an Alderman who had to do the required immediate hospitalization and couldn't be here under the city ordinance the way it was written then their absence constituted a no vote so all I'm asking in this ordinance the change is and city attorney please correct me if I make any misstatements or misrepresent what this ordinance changes is to do is what it's going to do is it's going to still maintain the super majority the three quarter vote the only thing that's going to change is it's going to be of those members present it's not going to be the entire 16 people should we have extenuating circumstances like we did this spring so I'm not trying to change the democratic process I'm not trying to take these citizens that feel they don't have any recourse or any way to address zoning changes all that is still in place the three quarter majority is still in place and this isn't an attempt as said earlier to take over and become a dictator or have a dictatorial process in place in ramrod or run over neighbors or anybody when it comes to rezoning that's not the intent I purposely waited till after the whole field of dreams in aurora issue had subsided was over with and voted on before I brought this up this is in no way a vindictive or spiteful move on my part all it is is to get our ordinance to come in line with the state statue and in my discussion with the city attorney at the time that this process comes into place so infrequently that we just didn't realize that our city statute was different than the or our city ordinance was different than the state statute and that you know this years and years ago when the state changed the statute for whatever reason the city didn't comply or make the same changes so I hope I'm stating that correctly good thank you so that's the only change in the reason I'm doing it it's not anything vindictive I certainly want to keep a democratic process I want to keep the ability for anybody that wants to do a protest petition to be able to do it I just don't want people that are not present due to extenuating circumstances to count as a no vote thank you gentlemen born did you ring in he answered it thank you is there any other discussion parliament bidders from attorney Adams just some clarification thank you members present or members that have resigned is there a distinction between the two in terms of how this ordinance is written there's no distinction between the two and how this ordinance is written under the current city ordinance it requires three fourths of all 16 members even if they've resigned under the current ordinance it would be three fourths of those present you still have to have a quorum but it would require three fourths of those present and it's basically taking the language from sub 7 sub d sub 2 m sub a just taking the language straight from there and under the proposed revision now if a member resigned just prior to that vote that does that it changes the equation as it were for if someone were to resign from the council before a vote affected by this and as far as we can tell there's only ever been one in the history of the city that person's vote would no longer count as a no vote you would need to get three fourths of those present assumedly that would be some number of 15 or under since one older person would have resigned at that point all right thank you thank you for those questions any other discussion on the motion passes next is other matters city attorney 9.1 is a resolution to authorize a transfer of appropriations in the 2015 budget that would be referred to the finance committee 9.2 submitting a communication from melissa brush regarding information on the sale of the field of dreams and money shaboygan area school district the city of shaboygan for the sale of the field of dreams referred to the finance committee 9.3 submitting various license applications for the period ending December 31st 2015 and June 30th 2017 referred to the law and licensing committee next we've got a proposed closed session on the agenda and asked for all the thank you mr. mayor I move to convene closed session under exemption section 1985 1e wisconsin statutes for competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed session for purpose of deliberation related to possible development on the riverfront second you have a motion and a second to go into closed session would the clerk please call the roll 12 ayes motion passes for our viewers at home I'd just like to let you know that we will not be going into open session after the closed session so we won't be coming back until the next meeting with that we'll take a short recess and convene shortly