 I'd like to call to order the 13th meeting of the 2014-2015 Common Council. Would the clerk please call the roll for the meeting? There are 15 present. Alderman Joe Heidemann is excused. Tonight we have some students from the civics class of Sharon Abel at LTC. I'd like to ask them to come forward in the front here and lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. 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. Thank you very much for coming tonight. Next item on the agenda is approval of the minutes from our last meeting. Alderman Hammond. Thank you Mr. Mayor. I move to approve the minutes. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. Is there any discussion on the minutes? Seeing none, all those in favor please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? No. Any other questions? No. Motion passes. Next would be resignations. City attorney. There's an email from Alderman Carlson to the mayor advising that he's resigning from the sustainable Shepoia task force due to conflict with his schedule. Alderman Hammond. Thank you. Move to accept and file. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. discussion. I do need another volunteer from the Alderman group so please keep that in mind if you're interested. You're welcome. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion passes. There are no council appointments this evening. Next will be a presentation. This is a presentation of our 2015 Employee Health Plan options by Sandy Rourke Director of Human Services. Welcome Sandy. I should say that there's been a lot of work done by the Finance Committee, the Finance Staff, the Salary and Grievances Committee, and Sandy's Department on this so I appreciate all the work that's gone in for our options to be considered. Good evening. This is one of the largest expenses health insurance in the city so this does get a lot of attention. Insured employees for the city of Sheboygan have done a great job at containing cost resulting in no increase in the cost of health insurance for the past four years. This trend is not projected to continue as our experience has escalated every year. In addition we have medical inflation of 11% and we have additional cost to our plan because of the Affordable Care Act. In an effort to continue to contain to provide our employees with affordable valuable coverage we need to develop a strategy towards consumerism. Basically consumerism is when people spend their own money they make better choices. A couple examples of consumerism if your doctor says that you need an MRI you can ask your doctor if you can go to the smart choice clinic on Taylor Drive and the cost of that MRI will be $600 instead of $2,900. Another example generic medication you can ask your pharmacist if your medication is available in generic format or you don't have to use your insurance card simply pay the $4 were available. In 2015 nonrep city employees will have a choice in plan designs. Option one will be 750 or 1500 first dollar deductible or the second option will be a high deductible plan 1500 or 3000 for family. Option one unlike the 2014 plan this is a first dollar deductible plan so that 750 needs to be met first before office visit copays apply this does not apply to pharmacy copays. Any single employee in this plan has a 750 single deductible and any family has a 1500 deductible by two or more people in the plan. Coinsurance will continue to be covered at 100% after deductible. Copays will now have an out-of-pocket limit. The employee premium share will increase from 12% minimum to 15% if the employee continues to participate in the health risk assessment. If they don't participate they'll have to pay 18%. Sposal surcharge will increase from $50 a month to $100 per month. These changes will reduce the city's cost for health insurance. In 2014 we currently pay 649 per month for single or $1524 for family. In 2015 that cost will be 620 to the city and 1456 for the family. Keeping the same city contribution amounts the Salary and Grievance Committee decided to explore a high deductible plan with consumerism in mind. Many options were reviewed the 1500-3000 plan was decided upon. Under this plan the most most employees have the biggest challenge with finding that $3000 in the deductible. And with this plan any one person or more people have to hit the $3000. That's a big shift from our current plan. There are some good points to this program. All preventative appointments continue to be covered at 100%. Some preventative medicines are also exempt from that deductible but most pharmacy costs have to be applied towards deductible first. The county clinic will continue to be available at no charge and coinsurance is covered after that deductible is met. Like option one there's an out-of-pocket expense that is now applied to office visits so there's a cap on co-pays. Many public and private employers in the area have moved to this consumerism model but we recognize that moving to a high deductible is not easy for employees and their families. In an effort to assist the Salary and Grievance Committee has decided to go with a couple recommendations. First continue the same funding level as the 750 plan. Employees who choose this plan will benefit from a reduced premium contribution. In 2015 if they choose option one they'll pay $109 per month or $257 for the family plan if they participate in the health risk. If they choose option two they will have a $55 per month cost or $129 for the family. That's a savings of $54 a month for the single or $128 per month for family. The spousal surcharge does apply to this option as well. The second thing that the committee has decided is that we would help fund a health savings account. A health savings account is an account that belongs to the employee and it's created for the purpose of paying medical expenses. The HSA is only available with a qualified high deductible plan and it belongs to the employee. If the employee leaves employment their account goes with them. It's portable. In 2015 the city will help fund the employees at HSA with a contribution. For single the contribution will be 750 and for family it's 1500 so basically 50% of the deductible. Our goal is to contain current and future costs associated with providing medical insurance and the benefit for employees in this new option if the employee takes the savings from the reduced premium and puts that into their HSA account they will almost meet or exceed their deductible amount in 2015. For single that would be $13.98 and for family that's $3,036. And the best part for employees if they don't use the funds in their HSA this year they don't lose it. The account continues to grow. Any questions? Go ahead Alderman Van Akron. Thank you Sandy. Can you elaborate on the city's contribution to the HSA account is that a one-time thing? Is that going to be a yearly contribution? You said that if they don't use it it grows. If they don't use it and it carries over then does the city then apply funds as well that next year how does that work? What we're looking at this year is that the reserve fund is substantial enough that we can help fund that account through the reserves. Next year it's a whole new ballgame if we have the funds available if the program is working based on feedback we will take a look at that next year. It's a yearly decision. Alderman Hammond. Thank you just to add on to that a little bit keep in mind that the employee has the ability to put money away into this as well. Although our deductible is 1,500 and 3,000 depending on single versus family employees each year can contribute roughly up to about 6,600 for a family and 30 or about 3,300 for a single. So again they've got the ability and that's all on a pre-tax basis you know that they can use for you know ongoing expenses so there's that savings component isn't just the cities putting the money away the employee also has the ability to do that as well thanks. We have about 30% of our employees contribute to a flexible spending account which is a use it or lose it. If they modify that and make it their contribution to the HSA then they won't lose it. Any other questions? Alderman Bourne. Thank you Mayor. Sandy would you explain to the audience what the spousal surcharges and what the changes from last year? If an employee has a spouse on the plan and their spouse is employed and eligible for insurance but continues to take our insurance they have to pay an additional fee and so last year the fee was $50 per month this year it will be $100 per month. Seeing no other questions Sandy thank you very much for the presentation and thanks to everyone who worked on and putting this plan together. For our next presentation I'd like to ask UW Dean Jacqueline Joseph Silverstein to come forward. The University of Wisconsin-Shaboygan is celebrating a significant anniversary it's their 50th year in operation and I have a special proclamation to present to Jackie today in honor of this. From the office of Mayor City of Shaboygan proclamation whereas UW-Shaboygan has educated thousands of students since it's opened in the fall of 1964 in its current location as provided quality liberal arts education to area citizens more than 50 years and whereas UW-Shaboygan facility and staff have dedicated their careers to the campus and the success of the students while conducting scholarly research that furthers understanding and their disciplines with some spending more than 40 years on the campus educating young minds and preparing them for future careers and whereas UW-Shaboygan has entered into a collaborative degree partnerships with four-year institutions to offer students baccalaureate opportunities in such in-demand fields as nursing, organizational administration, engineering, human services leadership, special education and elementary education giving these residents access to higher education without having to leave Shaboygan and whereas due to the commitment of the Shaboygan County government and local private donors the campus has expanded over the last 50 years to offer new learning environments for students in the fields of fine art, science, technology, engineering through the construction of the learning resources building, the fine arts building, the physical education building, the Frank G. and Frida K. Bratz science building, the acuity technology center and the new plastics engineering company center for engineering studies which is slated for construction and completion in 2015 whereas today is the start of the next 50 years for UW-Shaboygan educating our local community and preparing them for new careers higher learning and leadership. I now therefore, Mike van der Steen by virtue of the office vested in me as mayor of the city of Shaboygan to hereby proclaim Thursday October 9th of 2014 to be UW-Shaboygan Day in honor of the campus's 50th anniversary. Congratulations Jack and would you like to say a few words first? Thank you. On behalf of the campus I want to thank you for this honor and recognition for UW-Shaboygan's 50th anniversary. While the history of UW's presence in Shaboygan goes back almost 80 years to when a couple of courses were offered by circuit riders out of Madison it's the opening of our current campus in 1964 that provided a true home for higher education within our community a home that provides access to a higher education for those who might not be able to otherwise avail themselves to it and a welcoming physical environment that facilitates student learning. It's thanks to your support the support of our community and its leaders and your commitment to higher education that our students are able to begin their journey towards their educational and career goals right here in Shaboygan. We are proud to be part of a partnership with our community that makes this possible. Thank you. Next we'll go on to the public forum. This evening we have one gentleman Bennett Coonert. Ben would you come on up and Ben I need your home address please. 1427 North 10th Street Shaboygan. Okay and you will have five minutes sir. Thank you. Thank you ladies and gentlemen for giving me opportunity to speak to you on what I feel is a very important matter. Evidently I'm not sure if it's just Shaboygan Metro's policy or if it's a city policy but evidently one can be punished for doing the right thing. I'm referring to an incident where it involved a driver that he responded to and came upon an accident and he assisted and as a result he got a three-day suspension and I'm sorry but when you have a person that's in dire need of help they may be lying on the ground but suffering from a heart attack they might be need having that diabetic low sugar thing where all they need is a piece of candy to save their lives. I'm sorry but when you're talking a city employee being punished for doing the right thing for being a good citizen I'm sorry that's as a citizen of this city I cannot stand by and watch that happen. So I'm requesting I sent a letter to Shaboygan Transit and they have it on the agenda to file. Granted they said they would bring it back up at a later date but I'm a little bit old school when you say you're gonna file something that means it's dead it's dead in the water. That means someday there might be your loved one sitting laying on the road and basically the Shaboygan Transit or I'm sorry Shaboygan Metro would basically drive by they won't call their supervisors to call 9-1-1 but basically they'll just wave although that driver could have gotten off the bus and perform CPR or whatever might be needed to save that person's life. We're talking a light. Seconds means everything in the case of an emergency and I'm sorry but it should be city policy and I would request that this city you're the councilman here because you guys are in charge of this city to pass a policy or make a policy that no city employee should ever worry about losing their job or be disciplined for being a good citizen for saving somebody's life. That's all I need. Thank you. Thank you Ben. Next we'll go on to the mayor's announcements. Tonight I'd like to recognize some individuals who've been assisting us for the last year. Sometime last spring we decided to close some of the entrances to city hall and I have everyone come in the front door which has handicap access access as well as regular access and we decided that it would be a good idea to ask some volunteers to assist us in greeting the people that that come into city hall and we put together a desk and a work station for that purpose and then we went to the senior center and some others and asked for volunteers and there's four people that are regularly volunteering right now in this role and putting a lot of time and effort in to make everyone's visit to city hall a little bit more pleasant. So at this time I'd like to call those people forward and give them a certificate of appreciation. Give them a little thank you for this effort and then Chad Pellechik's going to come up and he has some additional comments. So first of all I'd like to call up Marge Matter. Marge works every week on Friday morning. Marge please come forward. I really appreciate it. Thank you Mayor. You're welcome. Next I'd like to call up Mary Nwaki. Mary works Tuesday afternoons and some other times as needed. You're welcome. Next is Mary Turk and Mary works Monday mornings pretty regularly and a few other times as well. Mary and last but not least is Harold Bebel the father of our Director Public Works David Bebel and he works Monday Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday mornings. Harold please come forward. Thank you Mayor and thank you to our volunteers. I just want to use this as a public service announcement for those of you that are out in the audience watching the council meeting we do have openings available in city hall. So if anybody is interested in donating some time we have Friday mornings open Monday p.m. Wednesday p.m. and Thursday p.m. so if anybody is interested please call the senior center at four five nine three one nine eight. We would love to have a full schedule. It's only a three hour stint so if you're interested you can either stop by and talk to one of our gracious volunteers and ask them how it's been going. We've been trying to keep them busy with scanning and and file sorting for the building inspection department but we've always got something to do and it's a good experience so if anybody out there is interested please contact the senior center. Thanks. Thank you Chad. The superintendent of parks Joe Kerlin is scheduling a meeting tomorrow evening at six o'clock at Cleveland Park for anyone who's concerned about a proposed playground layout. There's going to be some new playgrounds installed there and he wants to get some feedback. If there's a chance of bad weather they might be meeting at the DPW offices on New Jersey Avenue in place but right now they're planning it at Cleveland Park in the playground area. Our planning department is conducting a five-year community needs study to include in our five-year consolidated HUD plan and there's a link on the front page of the city website to take a short survey so we're hoping people will consider taking that survey and help us to put the best plan together for that HUD plan. Thank you. Next we'll go on to a hearing notice pursuant to chapter 65.90 of the laws in Wisconsin is hereby given that the annual budget hearing will be held in the common council chambers of city hall in the city of Sheboygan on Monday October 6th of 2014 at 6 p.m. at which time any taxpayer resident of the governmental unit will have the opportunity to be heard on the proposed budget. Is there anyone that would like to speak? Is there anyone that would like to speak? One last time is there anyone who would like to speak on the city budget? Alderman Hammond. Thank you Mr. Mayor. I move to close. Thank you for that motion. Support? Any discussion? Seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye. Opposed? Motion passes. Next we'll move on to the consent agenda items 3 that'll include items 3.2 through 3.12. Alderman Hammond. Thank you Mr. Mayor. I move to accept and file all ROs accept and adopt all reports of the committee and put all resolutions and ordinances upon their passage. Thank you for that that motion. Is there any discussion on anything on the consent agenda? Alderman Lissard. Yes I'd like to pull 3.5 and refer it to I'm not sure what the appropriate committee would be. The committee just had that on their agenda tonight they held it in closed session so they have dealt with that matter this evening. Does that affect your motion? Yes. Okay is there any other discussion on the consent agenda? Seeing none will the clerk please call the roll for passage. It's not going to come up on my screen. Shall I mark it? That would be a aye. Okay it'll be 15 ayes. Motion passes. Moving on to reports of officers items 4.1 through 4.6 will be referred to various committees under resolutions items 5.1 through 5.3 will also be referred to various committees under reports of committees. Item 6.1 is an RC by finance to whom was referred resolution 72 of 1415 authorizing a transfer of the appropriations in the 2014 budget and recommends that the resolution be passed. Alderman Hammond. Thank you Mr. Mayor I move to accept and adopt and put the resolution upon its passage. Second. Thank you for the motion and support. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing none will the clerk please call the roll for passage. Old school. 15 ayes. Motion passes. Item 6.2 is an RC by law and licensing pursuant to RO number 119 of 1415 recommends that the beverage operators license application 0545 be denied based on its failure to accurate reveal all his relevant convictions on his application and his record of violations related to the license activity and his record as a repeat law offender. Alderman Vanderweel. Thank you I move that the RC be accepted and adopted. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. Other discussion. Is Jared Romanoski here this evening? He is here. Yes. For his record that we learned about at our meeting was he had a 2005 disorderly conduct, a 2011 disorderly conduct, a 2013 misdemeanor disorderly conduct, a 2013 building called violation and a 2013 disorderly conduct. The police department was concerned because the disorderly conducts did occur mostly at taverns and rickies walkabout. So we did get a negative recommendation from the police department. Three alderman voted. One abstained. We had a denial of two to one for the three that were able to vote. Thank you very much. Mr. Romanoski would you like to make any comment or statement? If you do just please step to the front at the podium. Like I said I'm not a perfect person at all. I'm not trying to say that I am. I think that everyone's gone through a rough spot in their life and that happened to be my personal rough spot in my life dealing with family job and other issues. Though I don't think I always maybe did the right thing all the time. I always tried to. Again I went to a lot of personal expense. The most recent convictions were all because of my personal interaction with two police officers and I think both of us were in the wrong and I've never had disdain for the police or the sheriff. So in fact a lot of my families are and after trial where I went through a lot of personal expense the judge talked to the police officers themselves as well as I did offering my apology for any part in it even though I was already proven innocent. As far as not listing the stuff that was on there again like I said even though it did say list everything I CCAPed myself and put everything that was on the CCAP on the application. Again I'm not a perfect person. I think if you could talk to most people that know me they know that I'm a good person and I do excellent work at wherever I go. Now I just ask for it is reconsideration and try me if it doesn't work and if it happens again. Obviously we know it doesn't work but I can give you my promise and my heartfelt I guess plea to you to do so. Thank you for that statement. Alderman Boren. Thank you. Mayor I have some questions for the gentleman. Sure. Thank you. If this license is granted where will you be working? Sushas. Has your employer mentioned that if you do not have the license that you will not be able to work because if you do not have the license I believe you can still work but you can't be alone or you can't close so if you don't get the license will you still be able to work there? Not really just because the volume of people doesn't really make business sense to have two people there at any given point with the exception of tournaments and things like that. Do you have any other employment? I know that's currently what I do. Thank you. Alderman Hammond. Thank you Mr. Mayor. Two quick points. The owner or the general manager agent of the place did send out an email in the last couple days to all of the council. You know it was a very excuse me very compelling on your behalf Jared. You went through some personal things over the last couple years made some mistakes. What have you done to rectify so this stuff doesn't happen again? Again I try to make my presence anywhere in Sheboygan limited to three places. I go well I go to home a gas station get gas and then I go to Sushas or Wachbow where the average age of the patrons probably about 70 so a lot of my altercations have involved people that have known me from the past and younger to put it bluntly so I try to limit myself to see anyone let just my friends who I consider my family that are there and stay at those places where there's never an altercation ever. Go ahead. How long have you been working at Sushas? I just I just applied for it before I came back here for a job and that didn't work out otherwise I hadn't moved out of the state beforehand. Any other discussion? Very good you can step down. Okay if there's no other discussion the motion on the floor is to deny the license will the clerk please call the roll on that motion to deny the license. 3 ayes 10 noes 2 abstentions. Motion is defeated. Anyone care to make a positive motion? I'll make a motion to approve the license. Thank you for that motion and support. We now have a motion on the floor to approve the license. I'm sorry who's seconded the motion? Kevin. Is there any other discussion on this motion? Seeing none will the clerk please call the roll for passage. 12 ayes 10 noes 2 abstentions. Motion passes. The next item is item 6.3 which is an RC by committee the whole to whom was referred resolution 67 of 1415 extending the special charge for residential garbage and refuse disposal services provided by the city of Sheboygan through December 31st of 2018 and recommends that the resolution be passed. Alderman Donahue. Thank you Mayor I would move that the report of the committee be accepted and adopted and that the resolution be put upon its passage. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. The the committee of the whole recommendation is before us. Is there any discussion? Alderman van Akron. Thank you Mr. Mayor I guess I'll start. I'm sure there'll be more. I'm not going to support extending the garbage fee as it's as it is explained in this document. I think it first important to remember how we got here approximately three years ago. Some of us were here. Some of us weren't. We stood in this chambers and we discussed a budget deficit of approximately 1.5 to 1.8 million dollars and at that time that was what was explained to us and that we had to do something to fill that hole and that was really where the garbage fee came from. At that time it was described to be a three year sunsetting fee in which it would give this council time to either grow our tax base or reduce our spending but get our house in order. Here we are three years later and we're having the same conversation. On your desks there should be a document that I requested a few months ago in reference to general fund balances. First I'd like to start by saying these are not my numbers. I requested this from the finance department. Nancy Buss graciously supplied this. So again these are not my figures. These are the ones that I requested and she was able to supply. If you go back to 2011, 2012, 2013 right in the middle of the page there's budget surplus numbers that explain surplus funds at the end of each year. Again in 2012 when we were coming into that budget year it was explained that we were going to have a 1.5, 1.8 million dollar hole and we had to do something. At the end of that year it turned out that we actually had a budget surplus of approximately 3.9 million dollars. So even if you took away the garbage fee we would have had millions of dollars left over. The same thing occurred in 2013 to the tune of 1.3 million dollars and in 2011 to 1.4 million dollars. Bringing that surplus funds of 11, 12 and 13 to approximately 6.8 million dollars of excess funds. Meaning we've overcharged our citizens to the tune of 6.8 million dollars in those budget years. And now we're standing here asking them to pay an extra five dollars for a garbage fee and to extend that fee. I guess I really can't stomach that. I think it's our job to settle the budget problems without asking them to pay an extra five dollars a month for their garbage fee. Especially since we've charged them an extra 6.8 million dollars. You know there's a lot of talk about being short-sighted, about looking into the future, about making sure that we you know take a big picture approach to this. And I understand that there's a lot of things that you know are out there forecasted that are certainly being brought up. Unfortunately one of the things that I've always learned being around politics for all of these years is that anytime there's excess funds somebody always has an idea on how to spend that money. I don't think that's the right approach. We obviously need to spend within our means. We need to spend the money that we have to spend and we need to make sure that we're charging our citizens the amount for their services. Right now as far as I see it we owe them 6.8 million dollars worth of services and to charge them another five dollars for a garbage fee just doesn't sit well with me. So as I see it I think we need to do a better job. We need to find ways to control our spending and control again the cost of doing businesses and services here in the city. So I won't support this going forward. I think the citizens have been charged enough and I think it's time that we do our part and either cut our services cut our spending or I guess take a more realistic approach to what our actual expenditures are. Alderman Boren. Thank you Mayor. I'm not going to be supporting this either. One thing that I didn't hear during the committee of the whole meeting was really any talk about and following up a little bit on what Alderman Van Ackman said about the taxpayers the people that are paying the freight and I want to just pass on a few statistics and as I pass these on I want you to think about your constituents. Middle-class income adjusted for inflation is the same as it was in 1999 and the last six years median income is down from about $55,000 to about $51,000. The U.S. unemployment rate dropped last week to 5.9 percent sounds like good news. The actual unemployment in Cheboygan is over 10 percent when you can when you consider that the labor participation rate is at the lowest point in this country since 1978. The labor participation rate is currently 62.7 percent of working adults in the United States. 92.6 million people have given up looking for work and are not currently in the workforce. Based on the above I think very few of our constituents when they got their paychecks last Friday night were so happy that they said let's pack up and take the kids to Disney World. Many of our constituents whether they're either retired or working are still hurting and that's why I'm not supporting the garbage fee and again I think there's really no hurry in passing this budget in two weeks. I'd like to see the strategic fiscal planning committee or the committee a whole again take another crack at this and see if we can cut some spending or I think Alderman Cotth had some pretty good ideas at the committee of the whole meeting but under the circumstances and the situation that our constituents are in they've already paid over almost 200 dollars in the first three years and if we kick the can down the road for another four years it's going to be six times seven four hundred and twenty dollars that our constituents are going to pay actually more than that because the first year the garbage fee was more. So we've kicked the can down the road for the last three years and I mentioned at the committee of the whole meeting that when I voted for this budget back in 2011 that that included the garbage fee that I was assured that the three years of 12, 13 and 14 were going to be ways to sunset this garbage fee and actually I was the alderman that made the motion to sunset this thing at the end of 2014 and I believe if I remember correctly it almost it passed almost unanimously if not unanimously to sunset it but we've kicked the can down the road for the last three years and I've been told at the committee of the whole meeting that we shouldn't look back and I don't know what some alderman have been told but I have very little confidence in the next four years that we're going to address this problem and cut the spending. Thank you. Thank you for those comments. Alderman Hammond. Thank you Mr. Mayor. I'd just like to kind of and I you know alderman Van Akron's assessment although I wish the chart would have maybe went back to 07 and 08 would have maybe told a little bit of a different story but I'd like to just consider for a moment the ramifications of taking dollars out of reserves and reducing funding sources. Everybody in the room is exactly right when the garbage she was put out it was that or outsourcing garbage. In 2011 keep in mind this was a pre what happened down in Madison whether it's act 10 act 34 whatever act it is that changed the landscape pretty significantly and we can't let that you know kind of get swept under the rug because it does play a part in what we are looking to do so let me just talk about some points of taking out of reserves and getting rid of the revenue. First we have a deficit as many know at least those that were at the community the whole meeting of 536,000 projected in 16,430 and 17. The motor vehicle fund will add another 225,000 to the general fund in the next two to three years due to that's depletion because it was taken in 07 or somewhere in that ballpark to fund the pension liability. Special assessments fund that will be depleted in four to five years that's probably another three to four hundred thousand dollars on the general fund. We have two and a half million dollars to combine dispatch in 2016 and if we use that as many again those were here at the committee of the whole meeting if we bond for that we have no money for capital if we continue on our current borrowing rate. This surplus has been allocated if you recall the council passed resolution which many in this room voted for to move use our surpluses for a to build our reserves up to a meaningful and healthy number and the remainder was supposed to go to IT infrastructure improvements economic development wasn't to fund operations in fact it actually says in the unassigned that undesignated fund balance will not be used to cover shortfalls and operations and that was voted on by this body just a couple years ago. The the surplus we have had has brought our reserve funds back up it has helped redo some of the roads that sorely needed it redo some of the infrastructure that sorely needed it you know 750 000 is now currently going towards economic development in our downtown area. The remainder could possibly go for things like paying for combined dispatch or a portion of it so we wouldn't have to bond for as much and that money that we bond for could in turn go back into capital improvements. The other thing to keep in mind again we look at the surpluses in 2011 a lot changed in 2011-2012 that we weren't anticipating I don't think anybody in this room actually anticipated what happened in Madison would have happened and the benefit that our budget would have would have had for it so to say that that was planned is a little unfair. Furthermore I don't think if you look at the surpluses going forward that that's necessarily going to be sustained so if we start pulling money out of reserves and I agree with Alderman Van Akkeren if we if we're not going to continue the garbage tree we need to look at what services we're going to get rid of you know the word cutting expenses is somewhat nebulous. We've had many meetings on this both finance committee the whole this budget's been in the council since June and I haven't seen a expense reduction plan from any other other persons outside of the finance committee. After years we've finally put together a what I believe a financially healthy reserve plan whether it's work comp that was literally on its threads in 2010 and 2011 and again one of the things to keep in mind is once we get rid of this fee it's gone. The only other option at that point is a wheel tax so you know keep that in mind I know again it's it's it's great to look at these numbers and say yeah we can take it out of reserves but at the end of the day when 16-17 hit there's no other options other than raising taxes or cutting services. So if we do pull the money from reserves what's the answer to 2016 and beyond well we already talked about HSAs for the city and I think that's a great option. I would like to have gone to it sooner but as a compromise I think you know this upcoming year of traditional versus HSA let the employees make a decision but eventually that's where we're gonna have to go. Reducing staff and service you know again I don't believe that we're terribly fat and flush with a bunch of extra staff that are running around doing a whole lot of nothing. Pull more money from reserves and again we've seen how that ends in 07 and 08 again those weren't on here but 07 and 08 you can see in 09 where our um undesignated fund balances were they were low and you know S&P and Moody's didn't particularly appreciate that. We could take out additional debt you know everybody knows we've got additional levy under the debt but again as I've indicated many times once we start pulling out debt for operations it becomes a death spiral and keeping in mind that we've already reduced debt from 60 to 27 million over the last five years as interest rates start to creep up any new additional debt's just going to get that much more expensive for us in the general fund. Much of the concern I've seen has been about the water the garbage fee being on the water bill when constituents have called a lot of them are annoyed that it's on the water bill they'd rather see it on their tax rolls if there's going to be an increase so that they can at least if they do file a schedule A can at least take that as a deduction and I agree with them in community the whole I made the suggestion that we raise the levy up to its max or as far as we can go but keeping in mind you know yes I understand people's salaries and in many areas of the country have been flat but we've also kept the tax levy flat over the last five to seven years and everybody that was on the council this that time and this time can be proud of that. So I think one of the things we need to look at is if we're not going to keep the garbage fee we're not going to move it over to the levy. What services do we cut? I don't agree that I should go back to strategic fiscal planning everybody knows what the options are that are on the table and they if the community the whole or this body needs to make those decisions if it's if the garbage fee is not going to go back or not going to continue on. So I think there's spent some options I've heard options from closing fire stations to moving employee contributions for health insurance to 25 percent I've heard other ideas regarding capital and those are all good ideas some have merits some don't but none of them will entirely solve the problem in 16 17 and going forward and one of the things we've tried to do and it got a lot more difficult when our hands got kind of tied with taxes and fees and those types of things is look at a budget that makes sense going forward and not look at a council in 2017 and say we screwed you we want to make sure that whatever we do now make sense not just in 15 but going forward thanks thank you for those comments under other discussion Alderman Donahue following up on Alderman Van Akron's position here with regard to the undesignated fund balance I'm just looking at that document and just to reply there might be some sense that the city has been involved in runaway spending that we haven't been disciplined we haven't been looking at how we can cut budgets and so forth okay in 2009 actual expenditures 36 million 36.3 million 2010 34.4 million 2011 34.3 million 2012 32.5 million 2013 33.8 million so in essence the city I think has been doing pretty well in terms of reducing its expenditures it has come at a cost the city isn't you look around at our trees you look at our streets you know we've made these dramatic cuts to public works um if we get rid of the garbage fee those dramatic cuts really are going to have to start coming from other places and I I just keep thinking you know and Alderman Born said talked about the fact that incomes have been completely flat and we know that and it is a serious serious problem in this country our expenditures have been flat or going down as well when people get paid you're right they aren't talking about going to Disneyland on the other hand it may be that when people are getting paid they're not saying and now I've got to pay five dollars or two dollars and fifty cents for that you know to support my city if this had been a tax if this had been folded into the levy we wouldn't be talking about this it's just the odd thing about this having been pulled out as a standalone proposition we have done I just wanted to not all of us to acknowledge that we have done a very very good job in the city in the last five years in terms of being economically uh responsible feasible in terms of looking at our future that's what we've got to do tonight it's really nice to you know to read the newspaper and say Alderman so-and-so speaking for the taxpayers saving people five dollars a month but we have a bigger responsibility and it's to look you know talking about what Alderman Van Ackerman said about kicking the can down the road let's kick this can down the road let's kick this nine hundred thousand dollars worth of income to the city down the road and see what it looks like this is a beautiful city we love living here I walk around and I think that this is just really one of the most gorgeous places that I've ever lived in grew up here and and I have seen tremendous improvements over the years so we cut out nine hundred thousand dollars we're going to start cutting cops we have to we're going to have to start cutting firefighters we're going to have to there's going to be more crime we're going to have to cut library hours chief Donald Gossky said that one of the most effective ways of dealing with juvenile crime is the Mead Public Library that's where kids can go be supervised learn have a good time do all those things together so pretty soon Alderman Lissard's talking about the broken window window syndrome that's going to be a walk in the park because there's not going to be money to do anything because once this fee is gone it's gone we can't add it back in so in 2016 and 2017 we got rid of nine hundred thousand dollars in in revenue that we cannot recover it felt good at the time we could say to our constituents we've held the line we reduced that fee that five dollars a month that you have to pay you don't have to pay anymore but then we have a city that is hobbled by reduced fund balance that means increased interest rates because the the moody and other bond people don't like it when our reserves go down they don't like it we've reduced our police officers our police force we've reduced our firefighters our library isn't open as much the trees the trees in this community are in big trouble they're going to be in much bigger trouble in 2017 so you can see if you want to cut this fee tonight i want you in this council in 2016 and 2017 so that we together can try to work with the havoc that that will wreak on our city budget we we have done a fine job in the last five years at holding the line don't let anybody tell you any differently we have saved money we've reduced expenditures our our revenues are increasing because shabuigan is a really good place to live and more people are coming here because there are nice amenities there's good parks it feels safe the roads well some of the roads are in really good shape some some needs some work but we're going to become one of those cities that you remember what a nice place shabuigan used to be it used to be a nice city but you know that it just i guess they didn't have any money to keep their streets up they didn't have enough money to keep the police in in place to fight crime they didn't have enough money for the building inspector to help people you know to identify you know neighborhoods that are going down that's the legacy that we're looking at so it may feel good tonight to vote against the garbage fee but it's not going to feel good in 2015 2016 2017 if you vote against the fee tonight i really want you on this council in three or four years and i want your good ideas about how we try to save this city thank you for those comments alderman van Akron thank you mr. mayor i just wanted to i guess respond to some of those things i think alderman person donahue for bringing up the expenditure side because i do agree with her i think the city has done a good job controlling it its expenses however at the same time passing budgets that were almost identical year after year and charging the taxpayer the same amount of money and that's what's led to these surplus funds and i guess i want to respond a little bit as well i'm not advocating taking out of the undesignated reserve balance i simply i guess pointing out that the figures seem to show that the taxpayers have done their part and i think we need to do ours again looking at the document the unreserved funds from 2009 to 2013 have grown almost eight million dollars that's a significant growth in the last five years don't get me wrong i understand how that got there and i didn't agree with it then however i think we've done a good job filling that savings account and i think we need to do a better job of again controlling costs but also growing our tax base i think that's a place that we are moving in the right direction chief emotio while discussing the budget at public works indicated that he felt by 2016 and 2017 that we would be in a different place financially due to the new construction and millions of dollars of new tax base coming into the city i think we are growing in the right direction as far as growing that tax base so i do think it's a two-prong approach we need to grow our tax base as well as try to reduce our spending and do our best to be good stewards of taxpayer money again i'm simply pointing out that the numbers don't lie it it's clear that the taxpayers i feel have done their part they've given us more than enough money to cover expenditures for the last several years and i think we need to do a better job of trying to i guess take the burden off of them um you know in a room of mostly conservative minds i would say um you know i think we have the ability to not have the answer be let's charge the people more money and i and i guess i i won't support that always being the case thank you for those comments alderman carlsson thank you mayor i will be supporting this in the past i i haven't but i have for the past couple of years for for a couple good reasons with the with the surpluses we have been seeing it's been mentioned already between all the stuff going down in madison act 10 act 34 all that good stuff and just good management by our department heads we have been able to have surpluses and it's going to help us in the long run there's a lot of things that um it's going to benefit us and when it when it comes to bonding when it comes to our health insurance funds or all that stuff i don't think anyone can really truly debate that my issue is that i keep hearing about how this was supposed to sunset and people were promised this people were promised that but the reality is in the past three years there have been a lot of positive changes by certain members on the council certain members within the city however from the body itself there have been no true recommendations to actually come up with this shortfall there have been no real answers so you can be you can rail against us all you want but unless you actually have a way to solve the deficit you're just blowing hot air so unless someone can actually tell us how we're going to make up this deficit on this budget just voting against and to vote against it out of principle it's only going to get you so far and it's not going to get you very far at all in my opinion once again we have done great things in the city there's a lot of good things coming i don't think we need to be short-sighted and vote this down just because it's going to feel good as maryland donnie who has stated tonight yeah it would feel great personally i own two houses in this town i own my mother's house i own mine so i pay the five dollar fee on two different houses do i like it no but do i understand the importance of it absolutely thank you for those comments alderman bellinger thank you mayor i i too i'm going to support this and i share some of the same feelings that alderman carlson just reiterated to the the body i'm frustrated that you know people can you know grandstand and say i'm against the tax that they increase the fee the taxpayers have paid enough they've done their share yet not having any concrete way to solve the problem so it you know i would certainly say by now everybody's had enough time in enough of the documents in front of you you've had all the figures from every line item you could easily look to see uh what service you want to get rid of what people what departments you want to cut and and bring that forth and and let's have that discussion but to say that you're just going to you don't agree with it you're not going to support it without having any type of solution i find disingenuous there's been plenty of time to look at this i personally have not had one constituent of mine tell me you know alderman bellinger i want you to cut this service or i think that we don't we need we could get rid of this or that you know my constituents tell me that they want the services that they have they certainly want the city and this body to be prudent in the way they spend those tax dollars but nobody is telling me that they want services cut they want to keep the services that they have they like their parks they like the city they like the police protection the fire protection you know they think they've got a good thing going right now and frankly that's why they live in the city so um i'm gonna support it and you know until i hear a better solution which i'm not hearing tonight thank you for those comments alderman hammond thank you mr mayor you know i've been doing budgets for a better part of 22 years and i wish it wasn't exact science i really do i wish i could put together a budget in october and it would come out exactly as i had done it um on december 31st of the following year unfortunately that's a utopia we don't live in you know our department heads um some of us on the council have done a pretty good job over the last several years of of saving some money whether it's leveraging grant funds and matching dollars so that we can do things and and do bigger and better things um whether it's department heads controlling unemployment or excuse me uh over time um whether it's um taking some of those surpluses um and moving them into um other areas but you notice from the chart that um alderman vernacrian put is that our actual revenue you know over the last couple years has remained a little flat or even a little less than it was five years ago not significantly but the one area is the interfund transfers and those are transfers that we get from whether it's the ambulance fund or other things um again if we rely strictly on those to fulfill our budget gap i think that's making a huge mistake as well so again i wish budgeting was an exact science i wish we could sit here and say this is exactly to the penny what we're going to spend in 2015 and all of this would be a moot point unfortunately things happen things change things break things don't break things go our way and we just have to roll with what it is again a budget should be close it should be a good guideline um but i think you know we need to be conscious that this is just a budget it's a working document thank you for those comments alderman vernacrian thank you mr mayor um as i've expressed i'm not going to support the document um again and i respect everyone's opinion in this room and i think you know this lively debate is good and that's something that should continue um in that spirit i'd like to offer an amendment to the document um i'd like to change the date for the four years and make it a yearly review i think this is a discussion that should be had on a yearly basis it should be reviewed on a yearly basis you shouldn't just get a four-year rubber stamp put it in a drawer and forget about it um i think we should look at this on a yearly basis if the council decides to pass this i think it should be looked at every year whether it's needed or not um and again this isn't personal for me i just feel that um there's a lot of different opinions in the room and i respect those but again i i feel that i'm not going to support it but i would like to amend it to read uh december 31st 2015 second we have an amendment on the floor alderman hammond thank you mr mayor although i uh i appreciate alderman vernacrian's um comments i think you know looking at these things in a one-year cycle is what gets us into these problems in the first place um you know i could understand if people may think four years is too long i can live with that one but certainly one year is too short um i would much rather see if we were going to do something like this um where we're going to extend it it would be two years um and um instead of this kind of one-year circus that we continue to go through we know our problems exist in 16 17 if again going back to the budgets not exact science if things go right um from an economic development standpoint and some of the things that are going on there could be some additional revenue coming in in 17 and 18 and 19 and probably be dried up in 20 at our current rate but again uh we know 16 is going to be a challenge so again why would we you know cut ourselves off at the knees right away for 2016 so i wouldn't be supporting one year i could live with two thanks for those comments alderman donahue thank you um the reason i'll oppose the amendment is that it's two-fold one uh i just think we should spare ourselves this conversation each and every year to me it's it's not fruitful i think we need to start thinking about the garbage fee is not a separate standalone rescue for a municipal organization that's out of control it was it was used to fill this particular gap at a particular historical time but if we can reframe it and think this is just the way that in five years we haven't raised taxes except for this one small piece and that this is a key part of the revenues that we bring in because of the odd way that the legislature is working we can't be honest about it and just say we increase taxes this tiny amount we have to say we have this fee and now if we have this fee and we get rid of this fee then we can't do this fee again and we can't increase our municipal taxes and so on and so forth so we're getting these odd directions from madison they aren't very rational but for us to debate this year after year also is not very rational um i think i think we just need to move on and just consider this to be part of the income that our city has again we have done a very very very good job of stewarding our constituents funds of running a really nice city and we ought to just move on with it keep in mind that vision of the city that this beautiful city and on the lake and that in this room we have the ability to keep that vision and that reality going and i think we should just get on with it and just stop talking about this thank you for those comments okay we have an amendment on the floor to change the uh year uh january rather the end of 2015 any other further discussion seeing none will please call it i got a question alderman boring thanks mayor we'll be voting on just the amendment we're not going to be voting on the entire document is that correct that's correct just the amendment thank you all those with the court calls a roll for passage on the amendment to change the date to the end of 2015 i'm up and running now oh you are okay here's isn't no let me go to a different screen well one at a time okay sorry five eyes ten nose motion's defeated we're back to a discussion on the main motion alderman van akron thank you mr. mayor i guess if you first you don't succeed try again i will uh i guess amend it to uh 2016 then and again i'm just reiterating i think this discussion is good i i don't want to see this discussion go away i think this is something we should be doing is having an oversight of our budget process and deciding again is this fee is our tax base is it actually necessary and i think a good healthy review of that a good healthy exchange of ideas is a good thing so i don't have a problem with having this discussion on a yearly basis or in this case on a bi yearly basis um i just feel that again by putting a sunset date on it for two years it doesn't stop any future council just like this one may do um from extending it further but i do think it should have a closer review um so i will make the amendment to change it to 2016 second you have a motion in second alderman hammond under discussion thank you mr. mayor um again i can live with this um i think one of the things that i've been trying to press upon people is to think further than the 12 month window that we budget for um every single year and try to look at what the ramifications of what we do and what we are going to do are on the budgets of future councils i think alderman donny who put it pretty well when she said i'd like to be those people that you vote against it to um you know be in this room when you got to try to figure it out in 16 and 17 um and beyond so i think um i can live with it for two years um i agree with alderman van akker to a point where it's a good healthy debate to have but we got to have everybody here to have that debate um and people have to be offering suggestions and solutions that are reasonable and achievable um and it has to be a longer term plan we've presented some things we've been working on health insurance we've been working on um knocking down interest expense we've been working on various other things over the last three or four years that have gotten us um at a much better spot from an expenditure standpoint but we also know there's some biggies coming um and we need to be prepared for them so i can live with the two years that gets us i'll think it a little bit further ahead um but uh again please keep thinking ahead thank you alderman hammond alderman bellinger thank you mayor um alderman hammond has made the state of the good case for the the upcoming liabilities or challenges that we're going to have in future years but one thing that he forgot to mention was according to director bebel we've got a five to six million dollar problem with this building here so on top of everything that alderman hammond mentioned before um in and challenges that we're going to have we're going to have that issue that we're going to have to deal with too so when you're voting think about you know that on top of the other issues that we've got coming up as well thank you for those comments okay i don't see any other calls for discussion the motion on the floor is to change the um the fee to end in the end of 2016 the clerk please call the roll for passage this is the amendment the amendment correct eight i seven no motion passes now go on to the final motion as amended is there any further discussion on the motion on 6.3 uh resolution number 67 you see none i'll ask the clerk to call the roll for the motion as amended 11 is for no motion passes next we'll move on to other matters item 7.1 is arrow by the city attorney submitting as a matter of record the original recorded warranty deed to the city of the former boston store property 727 north a street alderman hammond thank you mr mayor move to accept and file second is there any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye opposed motion passes next is item 7.2 which is an arrow by the city clerk recommending granting various licenses specifically bethleham lutheran alderman hammond or alderman van der wheel sorry okay i move that the arrow be accepted and placed on file thank you for that motion and support is there any discussion on the motion seeing none all those in favor please signify by saying aye opposed motion passes item 7.3 is an ordinance by alderman bellinger creating a shirland zoning ordinance for the city of shabuigan in conformance with section 62.23 and 62.233 of the wisconsin statutes that'll be referred to the planning commission item 7.4 is an ordinance by alderman donahue creating division 6 section 2 420 of article 4 of chapter 2 with the municipal code relating to the director of human resources and labor relations that all be referred to the salaried grievances committee 7.5 is an arrow by the city clerk submitting a notice of injury from at&t regarding an alleged incident with city employees mowing outside the right of way causing damage to a marked at&t buried telephone cable that'll be referred to the finance committee. Item 7.6 is an rc by salary and grievances to whom was referred resolution number 66 of 1415 by alderman donahue dasler borne hammond and van der wheel and recommends adopting certain changes to the city's medical benefit plan effective for calendar year 2015 coverage establishing the monthly premium equivalent rates effective for january of 2015 coverage and thereafter alderman donahue thank you mayor i would move that we accept adopt and pass the substitute resolution thank you for that motion and support under discussion alderman hammond thank you mr mayor again i want to thank the city staff health insurance is not unfortunately an easy thing anymore it's gotten quite complicated with plan designs costs all that type of stuff and i think the hsa is a way to go we had talked about a matching contribution and i suggested that we look at going to first dollar on january one so that employees have the ability if something comes up and they are in the hsa that they can they'll have money available to pay for those things i hope as employees be patient as we roll this out there'll be managed you know there'll be meetings outlining how the hsa works for those that want to get involved with it but i again i think this is going forward definitely the way that the city needs to go not only from a consumerism standpoint but candidly from a cost standpoint so again i just wanted to say thank you to staff and tell you i support this thank you for your comments alderman boring thank you mayor i also support this and i want to thank sandy and also our chairman of salary and grievances all our person donahue for the work that she's done on this we found out during our research that the city of appleton has had a high deductible plan for about four years now and they're up to 70 participation one of our neighboring counties which i don't have the statistics on but i know calumet county i believe has had one for three years and all our person donahue and our research also found that i believe plymouth and shabuigan falls are also going to high deductible plan so i i think it's the way to go i think it's a win-win for both the for the city and also the employees thank you any other discussion seeing none will the clerk please call the roll for passage 14 ayes 1 no motion passes next we'll go on to other other matters and received after the agenda was published city attorney thank you your honor 8.1 is an arrow by the city clerk submitting various license applications for the period ending december 31 2014 and june 30 2016 that'll be referred to law and licensing and 8.2 is an arrow by the city clerk submitting a communication from dan wagner requesting a waiver from the sex offender residency restrictions in order to live at 918 b michigan avenue that'll be referred to public protection and safety next is a motion to convene and close session alderman hamlin thank you mr mayor moved to convene and close session under the exemption in section 1985 1e for the purpose of discussion and formulation of negotiation strategies relative to the natural resource damage assessment process where bargaining reasons require a close session second the clerk please call the roll are we going to do voice on that that would be a oh is that a yes yeah 15 ayes we'll take a five minute recess and reconvened at 726