 We can have a good time. I'm sure they're very happy to be back in public with us. Yeah, I'm sure we'll be right to have some. Oh, that's cool. Yeah. I used to be there. You guys will always be picked up quickly. We're throwing out. We're throwing out. All of that. Unfortunately for me, I don't know. Why is that? All of the tranches, you're right on the finish. I look forward to growing the trees. Yeah. Call to order. This is the first regular meeting of the 2010-2011 Common Council. And as is customary, our city clerk, Sue Richards, will read us the quote of the evening. Thank you, mayor. I hope our achievements in life shall be these, that we will have fought for what was right and fair, that we will have risk for that, which mattered, that we will have given help to those who are in need, that we will have left the earth a better place for what we've done and who we've been. I noticed that doesn't have a signature. Did you write that one tonight, Sue? No, I did not. Okay. Very nice. Roll call, please. Boren. Here. Bauch. Excuse. Bowers. Here. Decker. Here. Yesha. Here. Hammond. Here. Hanna. Here. Heidemann. Here. Kott. Here. Kittleson. Here. Montemayor. Here. We have a quorum. If everybody can please rise for the presentation of the colors by the Sheboygan Police Department Honor Guard. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. 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. And now this evening our invocation will be by the Reverend Greg Weldon. I would invite you to join me in a moment of prayer. Sovereign Lord, whose very presence brings order to the universe, hear us tonight as we pray for those who govern. By your word, you brought order to the world. You are the source of all wisdom and the wellspring of all knowledge. You have given us leaders and rulers so that our lives may be guided by order. Be with those upon whom you have placed this burden and responsibility, O Lord, to those whose words and actions affect the well-being of this land, give the gift of wisdom and integrity so the people may fear and honor you rightly. Move those who govern to exercise justice and mercy in all they do. Guide them into the paths of righteousness when the decisions they are asked to make seem greater than any person can handle. Protect these leaders from the temptations of greed, self-indulgence, and pride. These things we beseech of you, O Lord, for the sake of your Son, Jesus Christ, that his example of service and self-sacrifice may stand as the model for all who rule. Pour out your spirit upon all who govern and upon all who are governed that together we might seek to show love and justice, resist oppression, and live in peace. Thank you, Reverend Gregg. We now can have all older persons who have been elected and re-elected. Please come up to the podium. Raise your right hand and repeat after me. I, please state your name. I, Dean Johnson, swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States. I swear 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 impartially discharge the duties of the office of older person of the office of older person to the best of my ability to the best of my ability. So help me God. Congratulations. Okay, now we will adopt the rules of the Common Council with the exception of the General Rules of Order Procedure and Conduct booklet which was adopted back on March 6, 2006. So moved. Second. We have a motion and a second under discussion. If there is no discussion, all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Rules are adopted. The election of the president and vice president of the Common Council. President Gisha. Your Honor, I move that the nominations be received from the floor voting to be done by closed 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. I need a second. Second. We have a motion and a second. I will now take nominations from the floor. Vice President. We need a vote to ballot. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Ballots are open. I will now take nominations from the floor. Vice President Heidemann. I would like to nominate Alderman Jim Gisha for president of the Common Council. Second. We have a motion and a second for president of the Common Council. Do we have any other nominations from the floor? Do we have any other nominations from the floor? Do we have any more nominations from the floor? Former and future president Gisha. Your honor, I move the nominations be closed. Second. Second. And that the clerk be instructed to cast a unanimous ballot for me. A little awkward. For president of the Common Council. I think this is what they call the changing of the guard or something. Awkward. Thank you. Very good. Okay. We need to take a vote. All in favor of closing the, of casting a unanimous ballot for Alderman Gisha as president of the council. Say aye. Aye. Opposed? Congratulations, President Gisha. That was a tough race. It was a tough race. We will now move on to election of vice president of the Common Council. Nominations from, Your honor, I move that nominations be received from the floor voting to be done by closed 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. I need a second. Second. We have a motion and a second. I will now take nominations from the floor. Alderperson Montemayor. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I would like to nominate Alderman Jean Kittleson to be the vice president of our Common Council. Do we have a second? Second. We have a motion and a second for Alderperson Kittleson to be vice president of the Common Council. Do we have any nominations from the floor? Vice president Heidemann. I would like to nominate Alderman Jeremy Decker for vice president of the Common Council. Do we have a second? Second. We have a motion and a second for Alderman Jeremy Decker for vice president of the Common Council. Do we have any further nominations? Do we have any further nominations? And for the last time, do we have any further nominations? If we do not, President Kisha. Your Honor, I move that nominations be closed. Second. We have a motion and a second to close nominations. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Nominations are closed. We will now go to ballot. Alderman, you'll be getting your ballot and it says on there, print your last name and then sign it and then write who your vote is for and it will be a closed ballot. So when you're done, just pass it back to Attorney McLean. Before you pass your ballots back down the road, if you can simply fold them in half and pass them back down the road. So no side betting allowed. We know it's not a tie vote at least. Cut and death out. She had to cut and death out. Last year on the county board, I think it was four before they got their ballot. We have a new Vice President of the Common Council. Congratulations Vice President Kittleson. You're very fortunate you didn't have to prepare your speech because there is no speech for the Vice President tonight. Moving on, we will have the election of a representative of the City Plan Commission, a representative of the Board of Contractors, Examiners and two representatives on the Capital Improvement Commission. President Kisha. Thank you, Your Honor. 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. Okay. First, we will be looking for nominations. Oh, do I have a second on President Kisha's motion? We have a second. Sure, I did. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Nominations are open. I am looking for nominations at this point for a representative for the City Plan Commission. President or Alderman Hanna. Excuse me. I would like Marilyn Montemure. Second. We have a motion and a second for Alderperson Marilyn Montemure for the City Plan Commission. Do we have any further nominations? Do we have any further nominations? And for the third time, do we have any further nominations from the floor for City Plan Commission? President Kisha. Your Honor, I move that the nominations be closed and that the city clerk be instructed to cast a unanimous ballot for Alderperson Marilyn Montemure for the City Planning Commission. Second. We have a motion and a second for a unanimous ballot for Alderperson Marilyn Montemure for the City Plan Commission. In favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Congratulations, Alderman Montemure. Moving on, we will look next to elect a representative on the Board of Contractors Examiners. Okay, we've already established the rules, so we will take nominations from the floor. Alderman Hanna. Thank you, Mayor. I'll nominate Alderman Purser. Second. We have a nomination and a second for Alderman Rindfleisch. Do we have any further nominations from the floor? This is for the Board of Contractors Examiners. Do we have any nominations from the floor? And for the third time, do we have any other nominations from the floor? President Kisha. Your Honor, I move that nominations be closed and that the city clerk be instructed to cast a unanimous ballot for Alderperson Rindfleisch for the Board of Contractors Examiners. Second. We have a motion and a second to cast a unanimous ballot for Alderman Rindfleisch for the Board of Contractors Examiners. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Congratulations, Alderman Rindfleisch. Next, we will nominate two representatives on the Capital Improvements Commission. Alderman Heidemann. Thank you, Mayor. I'd like to nominate my colleague in the fourth, Jim Bourne. Second. We have a motion and a second for Alderman Bourne to be on the Capital Improvements Commission. Do we have any other nominations from the floor? President Kisha. Your Honor, I'd like to nominate Alderperson Mark Hanna for the position. Second. We have a motion and a second for Alderman Hanna to be on the Capital Improvements Commission. Do we have any other nominations from the floor? Do we have any other nominations from the floor? Do we have any other any other nominations from the floor for the Capital Improvements Commission. We do not, President Gisha. Your Honor, I move that nominations be closed if the city clerk be instructed to cast unanimous ballots for Alderperson's Jim Bourne and Mark Hanna for the two positions on the City Planning Commission. Second. We have a motion and a second to cast unanimous ballots for Alderman Bourne and Alderman Hanna on the Capital Improvements Commission. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Congratulations both Alderman Bourne and Hanna. Now the mayor will recess and the president of the council will take over I believe to elect the chairman of the committee of the whole. I'll break time for me. If I could ask Vice President Kittleson to come up and help with things that I'm no good at. As everybody knows, committee the whole chairman runs our committee the whole at their pleasure and it is an important representative of us. And at this time we will take nominations from the floor for committee the whole chairman. Alderman Hanna. Thank you President Gisha. I would nominate Eric Wehring-Flesch. Second. We have a nomination for Alderperson Rindflesch and a second. Any additional nominations from the floor? Any additional nominations from the floor? Any additional nominations from the floor? Vice President Kittleson. Yes. A motion to close the. All right. We'd ask for a motion to close the nominations for committee of the whole. So moved. All right. Second. The motion to close and cast a unanimous ballot for Alderperson Rindflesch. Rindflesch. Is that acceptable? And we have a second. Was that all right with your second? All those in favor? Aye. Vote is unanimous. Congratulations Alderperson Rindflesch. We will now have a report by the council president on the election of the committee of the whole chairman. President Gisha. Your Honor I am proud to report that the common council voted unanimously for Alderperson Rindflesch to be the chairman of the committee of the whole. Congratulations Alderman Rindflesch. Moving along very quickly here tonight we now have a message from the president of the council. President Gisha. A brief message we hope. It will be brief. First I'd like to thank my fellow common council members for their support in electing me president. I take it very seriously and I know that you all did your personal deliberation on that and I'm quite honored by it. And humble thank you very much. This past common council should be rightfully proud of the accomplishments and the dignified way they handled many important issues facing the citizens of the city of Sheboygan. I believe over the previous year our single biggest accomplishment was our proactive recognition and action in facing the new normal of government economics. Tonight however is officially a new council year and I welcome our new council members along with a highly motivated and engaged group of returning council members. I would also like to stress and remind everyone that the new normal of government economics is still alive and necessary and I hope this becomes a theme of this upcoming council year. So what is this new normal. It is government recognizing that it is not immune to the struggles facing our citizens. It is being a statewide leader in right sizing of pay and services. It is a taxpayer first philosophy where government is nimble and responsive in ways it's never had to be before. The new normal deals head on with facts and eliminates personal allegiances and myths. This new normal also means that we may need to look at new opportunities in a different way that the city has never looked at before and encourage each other to move beyond actions to do what is best for the city overall. That being said the new normal is tough versus the old normal of the past. The old days simply raised taxes and took that quiet little bump and appreciation of value of real estate which is a nice little quiet double dip. But the old normal supplied us with an unsustainable spending level and gave false security to our citizens and to our employees. As your elected common council president I'm here to serve this council and its members in representing your thoughts and interests. I will continue to work closely with the mayor, county representatives and surrounding community officials. This is not a responsibility I take lightly. I would also like to take a moment to remind our citizens that here in view and read about the work we do in this very important chamber that this body participates in aggressive discussions on important issues and it's appropriate. However these appropriate and occasionally emotional disagreements in this chamber should not be misconstrued as disrespect among us ourselves. It is healthy. We are a diverse group of individuals with diverse backgrounds and all those views are welcome and necessary. I believe council watchers should be far more concerned if we did not have dissenting opinions or aggressive debate. Moving forward we must never forget that Shavuigan is the shining star of Wisconsin and beyond. Our future is bright. Our welcome mat is out for visitors, business investment and new neighbors. Perhaps tonight we can all begin anew with always holding our heads up high, embracing our exciting future and puffing out our chests a little once in a while when we say I'm from Shavuigan, Wisconsin. That will go a long way in keeping civility in our room here tonight and moving forward and civility out in our community. I thank you again for this honor and for electing me your common council president this evening. Thank you. Thank you President Gisha. We will now have a message from the committee of the whole chairman Alderman Flesch. I too will keep this short. I just have to believe I know for many of you are used to hearing me in this council. I tend to get verbose. Good evening Mayor Ryan, Madame City Court of Districts, City Attorney Steve McLean and all my fellow older persons as well as my family and all residents of the city of Shavuigan. First off I'd like to say to the members of the common council thank you for your trust in me and your support in choosing me for chairperson of the committee of the whole. I pledge to partner with our leadership Mayor Ryan, President Gisha and Vice President Kittleson and to work with all of you to provide the information necessary to have this council operate efficiently and openly. We may not agree on all issues we will be facing in this coming year but I know that we all have the best interest of the city of Shavuigan at heart. As such I promise to assist each and every one of you in any way I can. The work we do is not easy and often goes unrecognized but I'm sure all you're returning older persons feel as I do that the experience shows that our efforts are ultimately worth it in the long run. I welcome the new members of the common council, older persons Radke, Hammond and Versey and ask all the members of the council to help them as much as you are able so that they can accomplish the policy items that they would like to pursue. The issues we face are serious. The debates we will have may get heated so I ask that we were always remember that we are not doing this work for our own benefit but for the good of the residents and taxpayers of the city of Shavuigan. To accomplish good things during these difficult times we must find ways of working together. As your committee of the whole chairperson I intend to have more frequent meetings so the important policy decisions can be made in the open and with as much information as possible. The good news is this will also mean the meetings can be shorter as there will be less on each agenda. Furthermore on the issues that our shirts require a lot of debate in the common council I ask of the chairpersons of the standing committees to forward directly to the committee of the whole a report of committee or report of officer regarding the issue so that we can then discuss it. This will allow sharing of information and for free flowing debate before the issue comes to a final vote in the common council. Ultimately the committee of the whole is your committee, older persons and we can work together to make it the important tool that it can be for us. I look forward to working with all of you in this coming year. There will be challenges but working together I know that we can accomplish great things for the city of Shavuigan. Thank you again. Thank you chairman Rindflesch. First of all I would like to thank my family. I'd like to thank my wife Mary, my two children Blake and Abigail that are here this evening for all the support that they've given me over the last four years and especially over the last year as mayor of this city. Traditionally mayors have used this time to congratulate themselves in the common council on the past year's accomplishments and although we've not been standing idly by this past year in my opinion we've not even scratched the surface of the potential of our city and of our citizens. Rather than taking this time to pat ourselves on the back I challenge you the common council and the citizens of this city to come together this council year and enact positive change, positive change that will make a long term difference in the future of our city and our citizens. Over this past year we set forth several initiatives. First of all my table of organization that was worked on diligently by myself, many department heads of this city and many members of this council. However it was shot down on an eight to seven vote in the common council. I have no intention on giving up on it. I intend to meet with all alderman if I have to compromise on it if I have to tweak it. I'm willing to do so. No organization is better than its structure and its people. We have the people. We have a common council here that is intelligent, resourceful, can think outside the box. We have department heads and employees in this city that are willing to do whatever it takes to improve their departments and to improve this city. But we have to have the organization to allow them to do that. And I ask for your help. I'm not trying to jam an agenda down anybody's throat in this common council. I ask for your help in making this happen. We need to move this city forward. When I ran for office I said that we would run this city like a business. However any changes we've tried to make in that direction have not succeeded. So I'm asking that we start anew this council year. We need to improve our neighborhoods. We have made progress in that respect. We have a new chief of police, Chris Domigalski. I don't know if you folks have noticed but I've had many citizens tell me and I've noticed myself. There is a lot more police presence in our community. You see a lot more squads on the street. You see bicycles. They now have an ATV for the beaches that they've repainted. They're doing community policing. They're doing proactive policing. This did not come by my order because I am in no means a law enforcement expert. This was done by our chief. This is the start. We have Sheboygan neighborhood pride in the Love Your City group and faith organizations and volunteers coming together along with the NARSA grant that we got for the Gateway neighborhood to help revitalize and rebuild this neighborhood. This is a start. This weekend we had the rebuilding together group and I know Alderman Hannah and Alderman Hammond. We should put you guys next to each other. That way I could just use one word. They are on this organization and I intend to help them out myself this Saturday. We need to rebuild our neighborhoods. We've only just begun. We have a new initiative between the police department, fire inspection, building inspection, our city development to get into some of these properties and to encourage landowners and landlords to improve their properties. We've only just begun but we need to move forward. I asked that Alderman this coming year to your conscience and listen to the majority of your constituents. As I look back on the past year, it's occurred to me that the efforts in this city that have fallen short and the efforts that continue to reoccur in the same discussions on issues seem to be driven not by the majority of our constituents, not by the majority of our citizens, but by a very small, a minuscule amount of our citizens and special interest groups. I asked that Alderman, keep a log. As you get emails on an issue, write down the name, the email address, if it's an email address, the address of that individual. If you get a phone call, I used to do this in private business. I did it as an Alderman and I do it as mayor. If I get a phone call and that person will not identify themselves, obviously they're not calling to solve a problem. They're calling to voice an opinion. Keep record of who calls you. If there's an issue out there and 10 people call 16 Alderman, that's 160 people against any subject. However, if it's only 10 people calling 16 Alderman, it's 10 people. What's happened is on most of our issues in this city, we have a very small amount of the population that is steering the policy of this city. If Alderman are going to be intimidated and not have the courage to make the decisions for the majority of their constituents, the majority being the greater number of your constituents, then I don't believe that we belong making those decisions. I also call on the citizens of this city. It's evident that people that are against any given subject are the people that are the most vocal. And people that are for something generally don't voice their opinion. It's just like when somebody has a bad experience. If you have a good experience, you might tell one person, if you have a bad experience, you tell 10. It's no different. I ask that citizens that feel strongly about issues call your Alderman and voice your opinion, whether you feel strongly against it or you feel strongly for it because it is always the negative that are the most vocal. I ask that Alderman when people call you, remember what majority of your voters are these calls from? And are they the same people all the time? Are these special interest groups that don't even live in the city? We have people steering policy in this city that do not live in the city nor own property in the city. I think we need to recognize that in this coming year and make decisions for the majority of our citizens and make decisions that will benefit the long term sustainability of our city and the future of our city, the prosperity of our city and the success of our citizens. So I look forward to the next year. I don't plan on changing my style of leadership. Some people call it a lack of style of leadership, but I do plan on being more active this year than I was even last year. I plan on attending more committee meetings. I plan on being much more involved this year than last year. Don't get me wrong. I'm not going to be turning into a tyrant and trying to control the whole city. That's not my job. My job is to give guidance. My job is to give direction. My job is to be a facilitator and a coordinator for the good of the city. And I hope to do that. I have the utmost respect for everybody in this council chamber. You folks have stuck your neck out. You folks have taken the step to do what we need to do for the future of our city and for the greater good of the public. It's easy for anybody to sit on the sideline and send off nasty emails and to get on blogs and call people dirty names. Those aren't leaders. Those are obstructionists. You folks are the leaders of the city and I pray that this year you will make the right decisions. You will listen to the majority of your constituents and you will work with me as I want to work with you to move this city forward to our future. Thank you. And now the reason we're really here is for the mayor's appointments also. Attorney McLean. Thank you, Your Honor. To the honorable members of the Common Council, I hereby submit the following appointments for your consideration. These are the standing committees. The Finance Committee, James Gisha, Chairman, Corey Bauch, Vice Chairman, James Boren, Dennis Radke, and Don Hammond. The Public Protection and Safety Committee, Gene Kittleson, Chairman, Marilyn Montemayor, Vice Chairman, Joseph Heidemann, Jeremy Decker, and Scott Versi. Public Works Committee, James Boren, Chairman, Joseph Heidemann, Vice Chairman, Marilyn Montemayor, Jeremy Decker, and Scott Versi. Sowering Grievances Committee, Mark Hanna, Chairman, Gene Kittleson, Vice Chairman, James Gisha, Jody Vanderweel, Dennis Radke, Law and Licensing Committee, Eric Rinfleisch, Chairman, Jody Vanderweel, Vice Chairman, William Wongammon, Thomas Bowers, and Julie Koth, signed by the mayor. And this lies over until the next council meeting. If I may say at this point, all of the committee appointments can be discussed. This is the this is not the final draft. If Alderman do not enjoy their committee appointments, if you'd like a committee that somebody else has, please communicate that with me. I plan on working with everybody as we did last year. Obviously, you know, my what I have proposed today did not come out of the blue. This is what I would like to see. But if if there are older persons out here that do not believe that they have the proper committee appointments, please give my office a call, we can discuss it. Next is Gerald Sauer Milch to be considered for appointment to the Board of Contractors examiners as an alternate to fill the unexpired term of Kevin Wiseman, whose term expires for 25 2011. Todd Thoney moves from alternate to full. And Toby Watson to be considered for appointment to the Housing Authority to fill the unexpired term of Charlene Dickey, whose term expires for 2013 signed by the mayor. This also lies over. The mayor has his appointments for the various boards, commissions and committees, comprising eight pages. I'd be happy to read them if you'd like, but practice has been in the past. Do we have a motion that the city attorney does not read them? Thank you, Steve. Okay, thank you, Attorney McLean. Public forum this evening? There is none. Okay, resolutions introduced three one dash one by President Gisha requesting the mayor to reactivate various special committees for the 2010 2011 Council year President Gisha. Your Honor, I move that the resolution be put upon its passage. Second, we have a motion and a second to put the resolution upon its passage under discussion. If there is none, all in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries. President Gisha, would you like to announce anything before we adjourn? Yes, Your Honor, I would like to invite and welcome members of the Common Council, their families, staff to join my wife, Debbie and I at City Streets this evening for some refreshments and hors d'oeuvres. We'd love to have friends and family there. Please, please join us. And we can celebrate the start of a new Council season. Thank you, President Gisha. Do we have a motion to adjourn? Second. Motion and a second to adjourn all in favor say aye. Opposed? Motion carries. Thank you, everybody.