 regular meeting of the 2021 Council to order. Would the clerk please read the quote for the day. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. What you do has far greater impact than what you say. Thank you very much. Would the clerk then please call the role? All the person born? Here. All the person down at you? Here. All the person Feldy? Here. All the person Ackley? Here. All the person Phillips? Here. All the person Decker? Here. All the person Sorensen? Here. All the person Savaglio? Present. All the person Felicky Paneski? All the person Felicky Paneski? No. Okay. All the person Mitchell? Here. There are nine present. All the person Felicky Paneski is excused. Hopefully, we'll see her in a few minutes. Next item is the Pledge of Allegiance. If those in the Council chambers would please recite that. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Next we'll go on to approval of the minutes from our 15th regular Council meeting which was held on November 2nd. All the person Sorensen? Thank you, Mayor. I move to approve the minutes from our previous meeting. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. Is there any discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor please signify by saying aye. Aye. Motion passes. City Clerk, do we have anyone for public forum tonight? There is no one this evening. Okay. Next we'll go on with Mayor's announcements. I'd like to ask Jane Davis-Wood to come to the podium and Todd Wolf, if you could join her there. I've got a proclamation to read and Todd will then present it to her. The proclamation is whereas the government of Sheboygan, Wisconsin celebrates our local small businesses and the contributions that they make to our local economy and our community. And according to the United States Small Business Administration, there are currently 28.8 million small businesses in the United States. They represent 99.7 of all the businesses with employees in the United States and are responsible for 63% of the net new jobs created over the past 20 years. And whereas small businesses employ over 49% of all businesses with employees in the United States and whereas 89% of the customers in the United States agree that small businesses contribute positively to the local economy by supplying jobs and generating tax revenue. And whereas 93% of the consumers in the United States agree that small businesses are critical to the overall economic health of our country. And whereas Sheboygan supports our local businesses that create jobs, boost our local economy and preserve our neighborhoods. And whereas advocacy groups as well as public and private organizations across the country have endorsed the Saturday after Thanksgiving as Small Business Saturday. Now, therefore, I, Mike Van der Steen, Mayor of the City of Sheboygan do hereby proclaim November 28th, the Small Business Saturday and urge our residents to in our communities across the country to support small businesses and merchants on Small Business Saturday throughout the year. And I'd like to offer Jane Davis Wood, who's here representing the Heart of the Hometown Small Business Group, as well as our Business Improvement District in our downtown and Harbor Center. Jane, do you have a few words you'd like to say? Yes, Mayor. Thank you. First of all, thank you for the proclamation. It's really exciting. And thank you very much. We are the Heart of the Hometown. This is Jody from Board and Brush. And Jody and a few other of the leading store owners downtown got together to form this group to encourage people to stay local this year, especially on Small Business Saturday. So we've banded together and our group is called Heart of the Hometown. And we are doing ads and we'd like to formally thank the Harbor Center bid for help funding this project. And the city, thank you for your support for the additional advertising and mentioning of us in your newsletters and getting people more interested in staying downtown. There is a saying out there. It's buy local, B-U-Y, or buy buy local. So we would really like everyone to come and support us. We have, it's very important that you do the dollar stay here. We are the ones who are supporting most of the walk-in charities of the city, baseball teams, and various fundraisers for health and wellness. And if we aren't here, that money goes away. You know, so also the every dollar you spend in our store stays in the city of Sheboygan or the area for at least five rounds of people touching it before it leaves. So we are community constantly creating revenue for our area. So thank you for considering and tell all you friends that you can go to our website, Heart of the Home, Heart of the Hometown, and come on down and see us. There'll be a lot of activities, fun things, giveaways, goodie bags, and it's worth your time. Do you have anything to say? I think you covered it all. Okay, thank you again. Thank you. And we also want to advise everyone that Sheboygan Metro Transit is providing free bus rides all day on Black Friday, and then there's free parking in downtown on both Black Friday and Small Business Saturday. So hopefully you can take advantage of that. Our curbside leaf collection continues through this Friday, November 20th, and residents are allowed to rake leaves into the street gutters. And there'll be one day each week that they go through different areas of the city to finish up the leaf cleaning. I want to wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. Please note that City Hall offices will be closed both Thursday and Friday, November 26th and 27th. And we also want to invite people who are looking for a Thanksgiving dinner to consider going. There's a free traditional holiday meal that'll be served from 11 o'clock till 2 o'clock on Thanksgiving. It'll be curbside pickup only. No reservations are required. It's a non-denominational event. Just pull up and tell them how many meals you need and they'll be brought to your car. And you want to go to the Immaculate Conception Church and Christ Child Academy building on 2722 Henry Street. I also want to make people aware that the city is having a public input session on the JC Park Master Plan that's being drawn up. That'll take place on Tuesday, November 17th. The meeting starts at 4.30. It'll be broadcast on WSES Live. And if you'd like to participate in the meeting, see the meeting notice so that you can get the link to the go-to-meeting link for that. And I also want to let people know that our Visit Sheboygan office is now open. It's in a new space on A Street. Just before you go across the Sheboygan Bridge, just on the north side of the Sheboygan River. And we have a new retail area that features a lot of Sheboygan merchandise. You may want to look at some of that for your gift giving during the holiday season. At this time, I'd also like to give a COVID update. Sheboygan County will continue to have community testing through the Wisconsin National Guard on Wednesdays and Fridays at the Sheboygan County Aging and Disability Resource parking lot in Sheboygan Falls through December 9th. There will be no testing, however, on Friday, November 27th for the Thanksgiving holiday. It's strongly recommended that you register ahead of time via the COVID-19 Wisconsin Connect website. Registration does not give you an appointment time, but it speeds up the process at the testing site and prevents potential data entry error. Testing is on a first-come, first-served basis and is limited to 450 individuals for the day. And usually we haven't reached that amount. I just want to update some of the numbers today over the weekend. Our positive case count grew by 110. It's now at 7,225. We have 2,199 active cases, and that's down from Friday. It's down 262 cases. Over 4,983 people have recovered. That's up 372 over the weekend. And the deaths remained at 43 over the weekend. And we have 32 individuals that are currently hospitalized, and our negative case count is up to 33,783. Governor Evers recently issued the executive order number 94 that urged that Wisconsin residents should take precautionary measures during the surge of COVID-19 cases in the state of Wisconsin. Sheboygan currently has experienced a very high level of COVID-19 and significant spread throughout our county. In the last few weeks, we were regularly seeing 100 to 200 new cases per day and are now over 40 deaths. Disorder is in alignment with the recommendations of the Sheboygan County Public Health Department, and it stresses the importance to stay at home as much as possible, only make trips when necessary, such as going to work and picking up groceries or filling prescriptions. Only leave your homes for essential activities, also like school grocery shopping, and do not hold gatherings with anyone outside your immediate household and avoid all in a nonessential travel and do not gather in person with friends and extended family members on holidays such as the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. Standing local recommendations include the physically distance at least six feet from the people whom you do not live with to wear a cloth, a mask, wash your hands frequently with soap and water, or use hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol. Stay home as much as possible, especially if you're sick or symptomatic, get tested and stay home while waiting results. Cooperate with public health officials if you've tested positive and had a close contact. Businesses and community organizations should use the WEDC guidelines when possible and encourage remote work opportunities to support physical distancing. Retail, hospitality and restaurant bars need to encourage curbside pickup and delivery option, require mask face coverings of staff and customers, limit capacity within nonessential business bars and restaurants to 25%. Community and large gatherings are not recommended at this time as such sporting events, weddings, reunions, or celebrations that bring large numbers of people together. Avoid unnecessary activities and travel within the community that puts you in contact with others. Cheboygan has really reached a critical point in the surge of the COVID-19 and this new advisory is a multifaceted comprehensive effort to stop the virus in its tracks. The gains that we've made in the past year have been the result of our willingness to work together. Even in this difficult time, we will continue tonight as unite as we always have for our city in order to help the rise that we're seeing. And let's shake out of the fatigue that we've been experiencing and make a critical difference in stopping the coronavirus. Thank you very much. Mayor, this is Alderman Bourne. Yes, Alderman Bourne. I didn't know if you were going to do it yet, but I wanted to just take a moment and thank Meredith De Bruun and the staff in her office, her team, and all of the poll workers that worked on election day. I want to thank Meredith and her team in the office for conducting this election in very trying circumstances and also thank the poll, again, thank the poll workers that came out. Join me and give Meredith and her hand, please. Very good. Thank you. Thank you, Alderman Bourne. Well, is that Meredith? I said, thank you. Thank you. Next, we'll move on the consent agenda. Alderperson Sarnsons. Thank you, Mayor. I move to receive all our O's, receive all our C's and adopt all resolutions and ordinances. Seconds. Thank you for that motion and support. That includes items two point through through two point six. Is there any discussion on those items? Alderperson. Is there any discussion? Roberta has a question. Please go ahead, Roberta. Thank you. Two point two and two point three are tax bills from the county and the Sheboygan area school district. Once again, are those millions of dollars their budget that shows up on our tax bills, but we don't make the budget. It just shows up on our tax bills. Yes, that's correct. They are following the notice that's necessary to give the taxpayers within their taxing jurisdiction notice that that they put their budget together just as we did at our last meeting. And, you know, this all this money is collected by the Sheboygan County treasure, and then it's dispersed to the different municipal entities after the taxes are all collected. So the county collects all the taxes for all the entities. And if I'm a city of Sheboygan homeowner, I get the tax bill, but it's not all my city tax. That's correct. Thank you. Is there any other discussion? Yeah, if you do want to raise your hand, just please speak up. Can't see anything tonight other than what's on the zoom. All those and we're going to have to call the roll on the consent agenda. All the person flicky ears, your name is not coming up. How do you vote? Thank you. There's 10 eyes. Motion passes. Next move on to report of officers that'll include items 3.1 and 3.2 and those will lie over under 3.3 and 3.5 will be referred to the finance and personnel committee under resolutions. Item 4.1 is resolution number 126 by Alderperson Sorenson, authorizing and entering into an employee leasing our agreement with Gov Temp, USA, LLC for finance consultant Alderperson Sorenson. Thanks, Mayor. I ask for the suspension of the rules. Is there any objection to suspension? Seeing none, please proceed. Thanks, Mayor. I move to adopt the resolution. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. Is there any discussion on the motion? I have a couple questions, Mayor. This is Alderman Sorenson. Please go ahead. Alderperson Sorenson. Thank you, Mayor. I hope I can direct these questions to our city administrator, Todd Wolfe. Todd, I had a chance to review the contract and I don't have any issues with the contract per se. It's pretty well laid out. I guess one thing that I possibly was looking for more on the contract or maybe you can explain to us is, first of all, what do you anticipate the duties of this person to be? And then second of all, with a person coming in from the outside, can you kind of cover what this person's authority will be as far as making changes in the department and also the employee, the existing city employees that we have that are working in the finance department? Are they going to know what, how this person is going to work with them, where the buck stops per se, that type of thing? Thank you. Well, thank you, Alderborn. Administrator Wolfe. Thank you, Alderborn. I will try to answer those questions. If I miss one, please let me know. First and foremost, Daniela will be working very closely with me and with our deputy, Tara. And we will be working to continue the goals and basically the plans that we've set forward for 2020 and 2021. Basically, Daniela will be overseeing the department and the functions and functionality to helping to assist us in making sure that we achieve the goals of our munis upgrade. We have our tax season coming up right now. And then we have our munis upgrade that will be completed by the end of February. And then we go into our actual tax audit. So we're anticipating that we will have quite a few months while we're doing a search for the replacement of this position. I will be taking the responsibility in the meantime with Tara as far as any approvals and responsibilities that the finance director had prior. And I will be working with Daniela on basically the processes and functionality of the department. And she will be overseeing the operation of it in the meantime. Does that help you? Yes, it does. But then if she has, as she's working with the employees in the finance department and making suggestions, will those suggestions go through you and Tara or will they go directly to the employees? And are the employees going to be made well aware of where she fits in the equation? Daniela and Tara will be working with me. And basically what will happen is Daniela will be overseeing with Tara the overall operations of the department. I will be working with Daniela and Tara on a day-to-day basis. But the employees are all already aware of the protocol as far as the daily operations. Thank you. That's helpful, Todd. Thank you, Mayor. Go ahead. All the person Sarnson. Thank you. I do just want to speak on this item as well, too. I do want to thank a minister to Wolf for putting this together. I know I think we all know that our finance department has had a lot of challenges over the last few years. While this is a difficult position we're in right now, I do think that this is a great step for us to move forward and address a lot of the challenges that our finance department has made. So I would encourage and I hope that all the other elders vote in favor of this and support this item as well. Thank you. Is there any other discussion? Seeing none, then I'd ask the clerk to please call the roll. Ten ayes. Motion passes. 4.2 through 4.9. Those items will all be referred to various committees. Under reports of committees, item 5.1 is RC number 187 of 2021 by the Public Works Committee. Tumor is referred, RO number 97 of 2021 by the city clerk's meeting. Communication from Michael Thomas, president of the Black American Community Outreach regarding the Juneteenth Day celebration. It recommends Common Council instructs staff to prepare the appropriate document to waive the park rental fee for the Juneteenth Day celebration. Alderperson Decker. Thank you, Mayor. I make a motion to send it back to Public Works Committee for additional information and clarification. Second. Lauren. Thank you for that motion and support. Is there any discussion on that motion? Seeing none, the clerk please call the roll for referring it back to committee. Who was the second on that? Is that Boren? Boren. Thank you. Ten ayes. Motion passes. Under general ordinances, item 6.1 and 2 will be referred to various committees and under matters laid over, item 7.1 is resolution number 115 of 2021 by Alderperson Phillips, officially recognizing the Franklin Park Neighborhood Association. Alderperson Phillips, need a motion to pass resolution 115. Move the resolutions. Second. Very good. Motion's on the floor and then there's an amendment needed. Alderperson Phillips, are you ready with that? Yeah, thank you, Mayor. I would like to move to amend the resolution. In the fifth letter as clause, so as to replace the word Georgia Avenue with the word Broadway Avenue. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Second. Very good. Is there any discussion on the amendment? Seeing none, all those in favor of the amendment is presented. Please signify by seeing aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Very good. The amendment passes. So now we're discussing the resolution as amended. Is there any further discussion on this? I would just like to take this opportunity to thank Cheboyga Neighborhood Pride and Penny Weber for their work in getting the Franklin Park Neighborhood Association to take this step to become a full association. And this is our 12th neighborhood association. And so we've come quite a long way and we're happy to bring them into the fold. With that, I'd ask the clerk to please call the roll. Ten ayes. Motion passes. Next we'll move on to other matters authorized by law. Call on city attorney Charles Adams. We have one other matter. 8.1 is an arrow by the city clerk submitting various license applications for the period ending December 31, 2021 and June 30, 2020. That'll be referred to the licensing hearings and public safety committee. Thank you. Next we have a contemplated closed session. All the person sorenson. Thank you, mayor. I move to convene in closed session under the exemption provided in Wisconsin State Statutes 19.851C considering employment promotion, compensation or performance evaluation data of any public employee which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility for and to discuss the regarding resignation of the director of finance and evaluation of his work as finance director. It impacts the future of the city. Second. Thank you for that motion and support with the clerk. Please call the roll for closed session. Ten ayes. Motion passes. We'll take a three minute recess to convene in closed session. And I'd advise the viewers tonight that this will end our transmission for this evening of the council meeting. We will be adjourning in closed session. Thank you very much.