 Before we call the meeting in order, I'd like to read the quotation by Madam Clerk Sue Richards today. Quotation for the week. Leaders are the ones who keep faith with the past, keep step with the present, and keep the promise to posterity. Thank you. Welcome. Also tonight, we have a record that has been said by this common counsel, one which you should be proud of, because it illustrates our commitment to responsive government. That is that for the first time, we've hit over 100 documents. That means that over 100 items of business will be conducted by committees for the council to come back, 111 to be precise. That is a record. It's never been done before. That illustrates your responsiveness to the people of Sheboygan. Thank you. I'll call the 15th regular meeting of the common counsel to order. Madam Clerk, would you please call the roll? Bowman? Here. Dberg? Here. Eberg? Here. Serta? Here. Davis? Here. Graf? Here. Kittleson? Here. Manny? Here. Meyer? Here. Montemayor? Here. Ratke? Here. Sagali? Here. Steffen? Here. Sousha? Here. Van Ackeren? Here. And Vanderweel? Here. 16 present. Quarms present. Approval of the minutes. Alderman Graf? Thank you, Your Honor. I would move that the minutes of the previous common counsel meeting be approved as entered on the record. Motion to the second. Any discussion? There will be a non. Owls in favor of State Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Minutes stand approved. Pledge of Allegiance. I'd ask Alderman Steffen to please lead us. 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. Thank you, Alderman Steffen. Confirmation of Mayor's appointments. Attorney McLean? Thank you, Your Honor. First, the packet was dated October 17th. I hereby submit the following appointments for your consideration. Halpern Water Feature Advisory Committee, Alderman Jeff Ratke, term expiring 4-1706, Joshua Decker, Dustin Havens, Bernard Markovich, Jay Morris, Brian Poitz, and William Wood, terms expiring 4-30-06, signed by the mayor. I'd ask for a motion to confirm. No. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor, State Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Appointments stand confirmed. And the last is Dustin Havens to be considered for appointment to the Housing Rehabilitation Committee to fill the unexpired term of Susan Gadsinski, whose term expires 4-30-06, signed by the mayor. I'd ask for a motion to confirm also. Second. All those in favor, State Aye. Any opposed? Confirmation stands approved. Thank you. Public forum. Madam Clerk. Excuse me. First on the list is Don Cook, is it? If you could step up to the mic. And I need your home address, please. 923 Dillingham. 923 Dillingham. Dillingham? Yes. And you will have five minutes. I would like to thank Mayor Perez and the members of the council for this opportunity to speak. I would like to take this time to express my concerns over future city borrowing. Why is it so easy to borrow money to add features to our parks, but so very difficult to borrow money for a needed police station? The capital improvement five-year budget shows the city borrowing over $1 million to spend on park improvements. That is in addition to spending $700,000 in grants over the next two years on park improvements. We have all heard about the cost of borrowing the needed funds to build a police station. Has there been a discussion on the cost of borrowing money for these new park features? There have also been discussions on the cost of operating and maintaining the new police station. What about the added cost of maintaining and operating these new park features? In the future, are these new features going to be sitting in disrepair because the city does not have the money in the budget to maintain them? The fountain by the library is a reminder that this could happen. The city has over 30 great parks. The focus should be on the upkeep of the features we already have in these parks. The city may want additional features in our parks, but more importantly, we need a new police station built. If the budget is indeed so tight, now is not the time to borrow money for park improvements. Thank you. Thank you, Dawn. Next on the list is Dimple Adams. Dimple, if you could step up to the mic and give me your home address, please. Thank you. 1424 Virginia Avenue. And you will have five minutes, Dimple. Thank you. Also, I would like to thank Mayor Perez and City Clerk and city attorney and the council members for the privilege of being able to speak tonight. I, too, am here to talk about the police department and the upcoming budget. I'm just in a state of shock all over again. Every time I think we've got it solved, I kind of sit back and go home. And then all of a sudden, it just jolts me that I don't really think that this police station is ever going to get built. I really believe that. And you can say, oh, Dimple, why would you say that? Well, prove it to me. Prove it to me. We have talked about this for years. And here we are. We have done 49, 50, 51, 52, three site studies now on this police station. And we have wound up being at where the police station is already. So OK, so for all the money that we spent on site studies, I guess we could have saved that. And then there was the urgency after we had decided not to build it at Sheridan Park. Oh, we've got to get all these sites in a big hurry and have all these meetings and get all these site studies done. They paid $25,000 to Zimmerman to study these four or five sites, which we did. And here we are. We're at the city hall again. OK, then we think, OK, now we've got this site. Everybody has finally agreed on the site. Not everyone is happy with it, but we've got a site. Now we can't build it because we don't have the money. But we can start a new tourism department and spend $207,000 on that. And you say, oh, but wait a minute. That was $207,000 that we were already spending. But we weren't spending that for salary. Over $107,000 of that $207,000 for tourism is going to go for salaries. It wasn't going for salaries before. But meanwhile, we can cut budgets. We can cut people. We can't give the police department the replacements that they need. We voted on giving them tasers. Now we're going to take that away. We're going to take away other things from the police budget. And I just don't get it. It's like, well, we can do this. We can spend $6,000 to protect our logo, which thank God we didn't do that. But that was peanuts. But we can cut $16,000 out of the budget and take away the tasers. People, I don't get it. Please make me understand. Please make the other citizens understand why protection and safety is not the main priority of this council and this administration. And you say, well, you got it all wrong. It really is a priority. Well, I don't get it. I heard Mr. Graves say when we were approving the fire department that night that it's really makes good sense to go ahead and build it this year because prices are going to go up. I heard our mayor, when he was president of the school board, say to us, it's really important that we get those school things done to the tune of $33 million. And you say, but that's a different bill, not on my bill. It all comes in on the same bill. My school taxes and my property taxes come in on the same bill. So it's the same bill for me. And I don't understand why we need to put off to 2007 or maybe 2008 or maybe 2020 to build a police station. Please make it clear to me. Thank you. Thank you, Dimple. Next on the list is Ben Coonert. Ben, if you could give me your home address, please. 1427 North 10th Street. And you will have five minutes. Thank you. Thank you for giving me some time to address you. And I can tell it's budget time again because everybody says we got to cut this, we got to cut that. And you know one of the first things that ever has heard is we got to cut transit. Not that many people use transit, but you know what? Everybody could. Be honest, it's a very good service. Granted, it could be better. But with the budget restraints and stuff, unless the city is willing to take a rest and put some money into it so we can increase the routes, change directions, and in fact, according to last transit meeting I was in, they were looking at changing a lot of these routes. You know, you get a lot of people sitting there saying that the people that ride the bus are, how should I put it, it's put in different terms according to some radio stations, but basically we're second-class citizens. But be honest with you, for a lot of those people that ride the bus, a lot of them are low-wage workers. And I just wonder, the houses their bosses live in, I wonder if they could afford the nice houses they have if these workers didn't work so cheap. You know, these workers need to get to their jobs. And you know what, if you really realize it, you know, on a minimum wage job, you don't have a lot of money for transportation, which means you use the bus. You don't use a $4 taxi when you're making $6 an hour, and a lot of times you're working a four-hour shift. You don't use things like a car when you're basically taking home, you know, three or $400 every two weeks when two or $300 of that is at least for rent. And especially it gets harder if you have a child and have daycare. You know, people don't realize how this bus and this transit system is needed by these people. Some of these people, you know, they have better paying jobs, but I don't know if I'd want a blind person driving down the street. I don't know if I'd want a person that's restricted to a wheelchair and has cerebral palsy or whatnot and can't control their movements to be driving down the street. These people need to get to work. These people need to have a life. You know, there was some suggestions that, well, why don't we just run transit like the times are busy? Well, tell you what, how often do you make three or four trips during the course of a day? Do you work just nine to five? Do you think everybody works from nine to five? If there is, it'd be hard to get to the store because, you know, if everybody works from nine to five, there wouldn't be anybody at the store after five o'clock when you get off. You know, it's kind of easy to sit there and tap transit. You know, it's one of the lowest things on the budget. And actually, if you look at the budget, you see a lot of things. One thing is $7 million, actually close to $8 million for healthcare costs for our workers. I'm not saying we should cut it, but I'm just saying there may be a better way. The state AFL-CIO has a plan that would cut, and from what I understand from companies that have implemented this plan, it's got their healthcare costs by up to 33 to half of what it was, or 33% to up to half. I can't understand how we can spend 16% of that $8 million, which actually comes out to $1.2 million to accompany and administer these programs. It seems kind of odd when the U.S. government, which is supposed to be the most inefficient, you know, you think government is so inefficient, can run Medicare and Medicaid, which basically is the same thing, paying healthcare costs at about three to five percent. So you just figure, if we did it ourselves, you know, you could hire 24 people and still be less than $1.2 million per, for this cost. You know, you go through the list. We're sitting there struggling, thinking, should we borrow money for a police station? And yes, we should, because that is our, you know, an accident waiting to happen. But you know what? If we did that building right, maybe we could lower our costs, eliminate a lot of these different office buildings. We're sitting there renting office space for $40,000 or more per year. You go, why in the world aren't we planning this building to not only expand the police station, but to eliminate a lot of these offices and what now we have around? And you know what? We probably could cut a little bit of the cost because instead of cleaning half a dozen buildings, we'd be cleaning one. And it'd be a little bit bigger, but it'd be just one. That's all I have to say. Thanks. Thank you, Ben. And last on the list is John Burner. John, if you could go up to the mic and give me your home address, please. 1919 Broadway. And you will have five minutes. Okay, thank you. Good evening, mayor, common council members. This gentleman had a good point. We do need some kind of a transit system, but I think our transit system today is a little outdated for the needs of the city. It's kind of back in the 50s when everybody was riding buses. And I believe with all the people, with all the degrees can come up with something better than having people stand on a corner and waiting for a bus. I really do. And the other persons with the police station, they're right on too. When you're going to buy a house, the first thing you do is go to the bank, ask them how much you can borrow, they tell you. Then you go see somebody and buy some land. Then you see an architect, show them how much you can spend and you build around it. And the city has done this once. There was a common council. They picked a site, though it's basically free. And now we have a site that it's gonna have to take a lot of renovation to build a police station, which is gonna cost more money, which the city doesn't even know if they can borrow that much. They don't even know if they can really put it there. I don't know, it's just kind of confusing that there once was a common council that picked a site. And I'm not saying they were right or wrong, but they went with the needs of the city, the needs of the police station, and financially, what the city could afford on that site and what the site would cost. And I always hear this stuff about shaboying as a tourist town. And I sit at home and I say, to see what? The fountain, that's a big tourist attraction. I don't think so. Like Michigan, you can walk to Lake Michigan. Say you're staying a week, you walk Lake Michigan, it takes you how long? If you get past the Semelanoors side, you come back to the south side. If you go too far south, you can't even walk because if it gets too late, it's kind of a bad district to walk. So where's all this tourism? There was somebody that stopped at Kmart and asked a friend of mine that worked there that was staying here in shaboying. I wanted to know where all their little shops were. He saw the lake, but he's looking for these little shops like I guess in Door County, I've never been in Door County. Evidently I have a bunch of little shops you go to. And they make a folder, two days, going to different shops. And you kind of compare shaboying with Kohler, Kohler built that town. Mr. Kohler, Planet, all the shops there and everything tourists need. You can walk to streets at night, anytime at night. How many of these streets can you walk at night? They have ample police, their police have everything, same way with Elkhart Lake. It's hard to compare shaboying with smaller communities when you have things that people kind of don't see. They don't want to see it. Drugs are a big problem in the city and the police are doing a wonderful job with what they have. But there are some people I've heard that say, well, the police are doing a good job and as long as they're doing a good job, maybe we can hang on before they get a little bigger. Sooner or later you're going to have people really getting hurt here. You have gangs here. I mean, until you have so many people getting killed over these drugs, gangs, members, fighting and they already do fight, how long are you going to wait for this? That's all I have to say. Good evening. Thank you. Thanks, John. That's it. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Next we have a proclamation for the Shaboygan Police Department's NAD program for being a finalist for the Herman Goldstein Award. At the International Problem-Oriented Policing Conference. Now notice I said international, that's pretty big stuff. This time I'd ask Dr. Brandon Coy, Lieutenant Jeff Johnson and Officer Todd Previo to please step up. I'm missing one. You take it. Before I make the presentation, I'd like to note also that it's important we thank Chief Kirk and the department for the wonderful job that they're doing. This type of accomplishment would not happen with a perfect, almost perfect police department and the leadership of Chief Kirk. Chief Kirk and I and his deputy chiefs meet regularly and we talk about a lot of the problems that we have in our community and we're hoping that we can come together and address a lot of these issues. It's one of those issues I'll address during the mayor's report. Also, I think important players, very important players are the NAD neighbors, our citizens who have the heart, the courage to stand up and fight crime. I thank you. I am one to really detest drug trafficking, illegal drug trafficking and illegal drug users. So thank you for the good work that you do and I hope that we will always have your kind of volunteers in our community. On the occasion of being runner up for the International Herman Goldstein Award for Excellence in Problem Oriented Police and Efforts, I urge all citizens to recognize and thank Officer Todd Previo and Lieutenant Jeff Johnson of the Sheboygan Police Department, Dr. Brandon Coy from Lakeland College and all of the citizens volunteers who have made this program a huge success in our community. Coy, thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Do you mind to say a few words, please? Would you like to say a few words? When we were at the conference, there was a number of the volunteers that came and actually made the trip which I'm sure you're all well aware of and the credit really belongs to them. Herman Goldstein, who the award was named after had commented to both Todd and I of what just a fantastic representation of the overall problem-oriented policing and community-oriented policing philosophies that the Sheboygan community displayed. So we really should all be proud as community members of Sheboygan that the volunteers have come through and really made an enormous difference. That was gonna be tough to match. I do know what he says, but I wanna emphasize the volunteers. They spent an awful lot of their own personal time, some of their own money, and they are die-hards and they're always there for me. And they're there for the neighbors. And when the neighbors asked for us, we respond. And it's because of them and those red shirts back there and I'm awfully proud of them. And I don't think they get enough recognition that this is for you guys too. Thank you, gentlemen. Next on the agenda, we have Mayor's comments. Like, just make some quick comments on the citizens budget process and update. We've completed, as you know, we've completed the 16 listening sessions and we actually did nine more additional informal, what I call informal listening sessions, totaling 25 listening sessions. When I mentioned this to other mayors that I have been meeting throughout the seven months that I've been mayor, one of their first reactions is, why are you doing that too much? Nobody does that. Well, we're doing it because we care about the community. We care about the input the community has to give us. And that is very important to me. That was the first phase, is to go out into the community to different locations, different times of the day and gather the input from the citizens. Phase two will be to put together a survey using those comments that were made during those listening sessions. And that survey is in draft form right now. It's being reviewed by Dr. Jack Westfall, myself, Susan Hart and some other volunteers that have volunteered to help. When we finalize the survey, the survey will go out to the community, hopefully using the Sheboygan Press, our website, our city clerk's office, the mayor's office, and perhaps even the library. We'll have different locations where the people can have access to the survey. I encourage the public and I encourage all department heads to encourage their employees to participate. It's very important that we get your feedback. For the most part, a lot of times people find out about something and say, why wasn't I advised? Why didn't I know about this? Well, we're hoping that people will know that this is coming, that the survey is coming. It'll go to people's homes, it'll be at City Hall, and as I said, perhaps at the library. So it's very important that people take time to respond to that. The next item that I'd like to talk about is just a few brief comments on the budget. As you know, we have some important dates coming up. November 21st is our budget hearing. November 21st is our budget hearing, and I am inviting the public to attend. I ask that if you know anyone that would like to attend, please attend. They can speak or not. But if they would like to attend, we welcome them. I will be setting a parameter of three minutes per person if we get a lot of people. If we don't, it will make the adjustment there. And anyone wishing to speak will do so once. I would hope that we'd have some people here addressing the council on our budget. November 28th is the actual budget approval. The same rules will apply, and the public may also speak during that day. So again, November 21st budget hearing, November 28th is a budget approval. From the amounts requested by all the departments, as it stands now, as recommended by my office, we have cut about $2 million from the budget. That's from what was there last year, and the amounts recommended are requested by departments. We've cut almost $2 million. Now I know that some aldermen are looking to perhaps make recommendations for other cuts. That's your prerogative, you're entitled to do that, as well within your jurisdiction. And if that's what you choose to do, by all means. Expect a lot of lobbying. From this point on, there's gonna be a lot of lobbying from people who have an interest in the budget, people who will be affected by the budget. That happens perfectly all right. I just expected. Three comments on the tax levy for the 206 budget. The tax levy for last year was $19,675,661. The levy for this year, as it stands now, is $20,605,521. The budget is increasing by only 783,252 or 4%. Now when we think about the spiraling increase in rates and everything that we do, everything that we have and we represent 4% or a little over half a million dollars increase in the levy in the budget, it's not a lot. That to me is pretty responsible. That's provided that the council wants to deal with that increase in the levy when the time comes. The council has a choice not to increase the levy or increase it. In the general fund budget, this year's budget stands at $33,718,917. The majority of the general fund increase is going to police and fire departments. And we have charts that we can show you. We have numbers that we can show you. It's been mentioned perhaps here and there that we don't support police and fire protection. Yes, we do. History will attest to the fact, to the truth of that statement. We support police and fire protection that is critically important to our community, but we cannot ignore the other major departments either. I've made a statement to all my department heads that I can pick favorites. There's certain priorities that the community has and we'll look at those priorities. But as it stands now, the majority of the increase in our general fund will go to the police and fire. And that's the way it's been structured. And that amount is close to half a million dollars or 2.7% increase for police and fire protection. Thank you, moving along. We have three hearings today. Oh, I'm sorry, we've got one more. Mapping and Crime Analysis Program. This one you really wanna hear about. About two and a half months ago, I started talking to Deputy Chief Weiss, asking to perhaps if we could work together, put a matrix together where we could actually identify all the criminal activity that's going on in Sheboygan. There's certain specific criminal activity that's going on that comes into our police department that perhaps is not logged or documented for whatever reason. And I was hoping that we could show, at any point in time, that we could show a pattern or a trend or an image of what our criminal activity looks like at different times throughout our community. But we're not able to do that as it stands now, the police department just records major crimes like arson, robbery, rape, and crimes of that nature. So I wanted to make sure that we look at all the activity that's going on. There's a lot of activity, for example, car break-ins. You call for a car break-in that has a lower priority because of the bigger crime that's going on in our community. So what I wanted to do is put together this matrix. What I didn't know is there's already a program for it. So we said, we'll shell that idea and start looking at what kind of program we can get. And it's a mapping and crime analysis program that we'll be able to interface with our GIS program that we have in our engineering office. GIS stands for Geographic Information Systems. This program is already in place. The city owns it. We have it. All we need to do is interface the program that we're gonna be bringing together for the mapping and crime analysis. It's gonna be a very useful tool. I think Chief Kirk has agreed with me. It'll be a very useful tool for our police department and our quest, our major effort to tackle crime in our community. Now we will move on to hearings. We have three hearings. Number one, amend the zoning map for the vacant lot on North 37th Street and Erie Avenue from Class UR Urban Residential to Class SC Suburban Commercial. Number two, establish a zoning for recently NXC owned property located on the south side of Indiana Avenue, 500 feet east of Taylor Drive lot one. And number three, establish a zoning for recently NXC property located on the south side of Indiana, 500 feet east of Taylor Drive lot two. Is there anyone wishing to be heard on any of those hearings? Yes, sir, please step up. What's that? Yes, which one would you like to speak on? That's item three relating to the establishment of the zoning on the property lot two. Steve Lipowski with Rooterware Law Firm representing the applicant general parts. I don't have a lot of comments to share. We've taken the time. I've worked with city attorney McLean and others through the city, both through the annexation process as well as the zoning process for this property. I'd be happy to answer any questions that the council might have and just wanted to make you aware of my being here tonight and availability again to answer those questions. Steve, could you give me your last name, please? Lipowski, that's LIP is in Paul, OW SKI. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you, sir. Thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to be heard? Yes, ma'am. Which one? Good evening on number one. Number one? My name is Sue Breitbach-Fan and I am the one that is interested in purchasing that lot. It is in a commercial corridor now, that lot on 37th and Erie. It's behind the mall where Coles is, strucal photography and Dr. Schoes and I plan on running my insurance business for at least, God willing, the next 20 years in that location. So I, too, am here this evening just to represent myself and the interest of having that lot rezoned and it would be a nine to five office operation and the designs are such that it would be representing the residential feel of that area, but it already is in a commercial corridor so I am just here to represent that and I appreciate your time. Thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to address the council? Is there anyone else? Is there anyone else? Paul and Graf. Thank you, Your Honor. I had moved that the hearing has been closed. There's a motion? Second. Second. Any discussion on that? Not all those in favor, state aye. Aye. Motion carries. Yes. Hollerman, Montemayor. Thank you, Your Honor. I'd like to pull forward agenda item 1431. It applies to what we were just, to the hearings. Okay. Agenda item number 1431. I move to accept and file the report of officer and pass the ordinance. There's a motion and a second. Does that RO pertains to hearing number three? There's a motion and a second under discussion. There being none, would you please call the roll? D-Berg. E-Berg. Aye. Serta. Aye. Davis. Aye. Graf. Aye. Kittleson. Aye. Manny. Aye. Meyer. Aye. Montemayor. Aye. Radke. Aye. Segali. Aye. Sixteen ayes. Motion carries. Consent agenda, Alderman Graf. Thank you, Your Honor. I would move that documents 15-1 through 1534 that all ROs be accepted and filed. All RCs be accepted and adopted. We pass the resolutions and the general ordinances. There's a motion. Is there a second? Second. A motion and a second. Alderman Sousha, under discussion. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I have a question about documents 15-3 and 15-4. They're basically reports from building inspection and a report from the chief of police. And I'm just wondering if this is the usual protocol that they just go to the consent agenda without going to committee or is there a way to send them to public protection and safety before they get put on the consent agenda? That's a good question. Do you want me to answer? The procedure for monthly reports has always been to put them on the consent agenda, but we certainly can if you would request one of them. When it comes in, we would just refer it on to whatever committee you would like if you want that to happen. There's nothing saying it can't. So typically all human resources, all the different reports for monthly reports just get submitted to me and then get put on the consent agenda because it's a matter of record, but if you would like to have something, just let me know. And we can refer it on to you and then bring it back. Okay, then I would like to move to refer 15-3 and 4 to public protection. Public protection. There's a motion in a second to refer 15-3 and 15-4 to public protection and safety. There's a second under discussion. We're being on, all those in favor, state aye. Aye. Any opposed? Aye. Two opposed. Motion carries. We have a motion and a second. Then to approve 15-1 to 15-34, with the exception of those two items. Any discussion further on that? They're being on, please call the roll. Eberg, Serta, Davis, Graf, Kittleson, Manny, Meyer, Montemayor, Radke, Sagali, Steffen, Susha, Van Akron, Vanderweel, Bowman, and D. Berg. Aye. 16 ayes. Motion carries. Communications and petitions 15-35 to be referred to building use committee, instead of committee of the whole, Alderman Berg. Yes, thank you. And I'd like to file this directly from the floor. Reason is, move to file. There's, I'm sorry. There's a motion in the second to file, under discussion. Under discussion. This is essentially a communication that asks that the council use common sense. If I felt this body could legislate common sense, believe me, if we could legislate common sense and enforce it, we don't belong in Sheboygan. We belong in Madison or Washington. I doubt that we can. Tonight I'm gonna join Richard Giphart, who last Monday said that he was a pessimist. I doubt that we can enforce common sense upon ourselves or anybody else. That's why I'm moving to file. Thank you, Alderman Berg. Any other, Alderman? There's a motion in the second on the floor. You don't need a roll call. All those in favor, state aye. Aye. Any opposed? No. Two, no. Who did the other one on the side, Bonnie? Okay, thank you. Motion carries. Report of officers, 1536 and 1537. Alderman Manny. Thank you. If you have the library board, we move to accept and file documents 1536 and 1537. There's a motion in the second under discussion. There being none, all those in favor, state aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. 1538, 1539, lies over to November 28th meeting. 1540 to 1552 to be referred. Resolutions introduced three. 1553 by Alderman Bauman, consenting to the assignment of the dock side left ground lease at 739, rule of front drive, Alderman Bauman. Thank you, Your Honor. I'd move for suspension of the rules first, please. There's a motion in the second. All those in favor, state aye. Aye. Any opposed? Please proceed. Thank you, Your Honor. I'd move then that the resolution be put upon its passage. There's a motion in the second to put the resolution 1553 on its passage. Alderman Sousha. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just have a question. I just wanna make sure that that property by doing this of the previous occupant is up to date with their personal property taxes and their property taxes. I'm sorry, what was the question, Alderman Sousha? Just wanted to confirm that this parcel of land is up to date with their personal property taxes and also their property taxes before we enter into a new lease. My understanding is that it was, but Paulette, do you have any, okay. Yes, Attorney McLean. Alderman Sousha, I don't have specific knowledge as to whether it is or not, but I do know that that transaction closed last week. The assignment from Hickey Investments to Malt Scoup LLC, and that would be taken care of in the closing. They went ahead and closed, even though they had not requested the consent from the city to the assignment of the lease, which is required under the lease. They're now requesting the assignment. If you recall, I think it was either the last meeting or the one before that, they had requested an extension of 30 year timeframe for that lease, and that was the new owners were interested in buying it if the lease was longer. The council approved that, but they hadn't requested the consent. I guess they assumed that, so all they're doing now is they've closed and they're requesting the consent from the city, which is, as I say, required under the lease that the city consent to the assignment. I do know this is, they were in redevelopment authority, the Viglietti family, they're operating it now. They've got a good track record in the city and so. Alderman Sousha, if you'd like to have anyone who has their ground lease renewed, you may wanna make that request to Chairman Alderman Bauman when they deal with it in public works with other ground leases. You wish to speak? Alderman Sousha. Yes, thank you. I just wanna make sure that the old debt doesn't fall on the new owner. So if someone could just get back to me later this week and confirm that the previous owner actually did pay the taxes that were in arrears, I would appreciate it. Okay, thank you. Thank you. I'm sorry. I'll turn to the team. I guess I would say, I know the Malt Scoop LLC was represented by a local large law firm and if all that wasn't taken care of, I'd be very surprised. Thank you, Chairman Lane. Okay, anything else? Not, please call the roll. Serta. Davis. Graf. Kittleson. Manny. Meyer. Montemayor. Radke. Sagali. Stefan. Sousha. Van Akron. Vanderweel. Bauman. Dieberg. And Eberg. 16 ayes. Motion carries. 1554 by Alderman Graf accepting her grant from the Click-A-Noi Family Foundation and the amount of $6,000 to be used by the city clerk's office for the preservation of the early city of Sheboygan minutes books, Alderman Graf. Thank you, Your Honor. That resolution along with 1555, which is a resolution authorizing the filing of an application with the United States Department of Transportation and authorizing the executing of the contract pertaining to grants for calendar year 2006. I would move that both those resolutions be put upon their passage. There's motion to second. Put resolutions 1554 and 1555 upon their passage under discussion. They're being on, please call the roll. Davis. Graf. Kittleson. Manny. Meyer. Montemayor. Radke. Sagali. Stefan. Sousha. Van Akron. Vanderweel. Bauman. Dieberg. Eberg. And Serta. 16 ayes. Motion carries. 1556 by Alderman Radke brought the rights in the city attorney and board of examiners for building contractors to engage the services of special outside counsel with a common counsel in the matter of the hearing on the issue of suspension revocation of contractors license number 621. Alderman Radke. Thank you, Your Honor. I'd like to move for suspension of the rules. There's a motion to second to suspend the rules. And then move. Excuse me, we need to take a vote on that. Any discussion on that? All those in favor, state aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. And then move that the resolution be put upon its passage. There's a motion. There's a second. Put resolution 56 upon its passage under discussion. They're being on. Please call the roll. Graf. Aye. Kittleson. Aye. Manny. Meier. Aye. Montemayor. Aye. Radke. Aye. Sagali. Aye. Stefan. Aye. Sousha. Aye. Van Akron. Aye. Vanderweel. And Davis. Aye. 16 ayes. Motion carries. 1557 to 1560, lies over. 1561, 62, lies over to November 28th. 1563 to 1569, to be referred. Reported committees six, 1570 by law and licensing. Recommended denying beverage operator license number 1298 based on failure to cooperate with the committee in failure to reveal all violations. Alderman Manny. Thank you, your honor. I move on behalf of the committee to accept and adopt committee report. There's a motion and a second under discussion. Is the party here? Is Terry McDaniel here, please? Terry McDaniel. Your honor, she is not here. Thank you, Alderman Manny. Any discussion? Not, please call the roll. Kittleson. Manny. Aye. Meyer. Aye. Montemayor. Aye. Radke. Aye. Sagali. Aye. Steffen. Aye. Sousha. Aye. Van Akron. Aye. Vanderweel. Aye. Bauman. Aye. Dieberg. Aye. Eberg. Aye. Serda. Aye. Davis. Aye. And Graf. Aye. 16 ayes. Motion carries. 1571, 1575, lies over to November 28th. Alderman Sagali. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I would like to pull 15-81 and ask for suspension of rules. 1581, there's a motion and second to pull. Any discussion? Thank you. I would like to discuss the police department budget and all of the decreasing. And when it comes to the taser guns, from what I understand, the police department is going to have to and when it comes to the taser guns, from what I understand that we had originally approved the tasers and now the finance committee is recommending. Yes, sir. We didn't vote on the suspension. I don't think we voted on the suspension. But your honor, those are documents that we discuss at a public hearing on the 21st. And then they get moved to the 28th when we vote on it. Those two meetings are where we bring up discussions and changes to those two documents. That's the normal procedure that we follow. That's the explanation. Do you still want to take a vote on suspension? Alderman Sagali or not? Proper way would be to wait till the 28th, Alderman Sagali. If I may please ask why I wasn't as told before. Why, I mean, I wasn't aware of the fact that we have to have certain meetings that we can first bring these things up on. Well, it was on your agenda to lie over until the 28th. Right. Okay. If you will, we call maybe about two months ago or when we gave out a schedule of how the budget all works, that was when it came out that way. If you'd still like to suspend the rules and bring it forward. There's a motion and there was a second, I believe, to suspend the rules. We need two thirds of vote, three quarters of vote. I'm sorry. That would be how many people are here. So take the roll, please. This would be to suspend. Many. No. Meyer. No. Montemayor. No. Radke. No. Sagali. Aye. Stefan. Aye. Sushia. No. Vanakren. Aye. Vanderweel. Aye. Bauman. No. Dieberg. Aye. Eberg. Aye. Serta. Aye. Davis. Aye. Graf. No. Kittleson. Aye. 9 to 7. 16, you need 10. We need 12. We need 12. We need three quarters, Greg. We need 12. We need 12 people. What's the count? Nine. Eyes. Seven. No. Motion fails. For part of committees eight, 1587 by committee of the whole recommended accepting and adopting document approving the revised capital improvements program recommended by the capital improvements commission for the program period 206 through 210 and adopting the 206 program for the implementation and to amend the program to fund the police facility at $7 million in 207 and city hall remodeling at $3 million in 207 and passed the resolution. Alderman Graf. Thank you, Your Honor. For the committee of the whole document I would move that RC be accepted and adopted and then also the 1588 which is from the finance committee that is the same document and that also that I would move that they would be combined as one document and getting the approval of the council to accept and adopt that. There's a motion and a second. Is there a second? Second. Second. Under discussion, Alderman D. Berg. Thank you, Your Honor. Pushing this off now again to 207. That's all we've had ever since Sheridan Park. We've had nothing but delays. Any which way to find a way to delay this thing. Now they say it's money but all of a sudden there's a lot of money for parks and for statues and everything else but what do they do? Take away from the police and everybody here they say oh that's our top priority to police department. I don't see it. If we keep on delaying this 207 you're gonna come up with an excuse. 208's gonna be an excuse like Dimple said in the public forum. Show me that you're gonna do something and do it now. Alderman Serda. Thank you, Your Honor. I have a statement to make and then I'm gonna be making a motion. I had a constituent call me and he wanted me to share just some figures talking about delaying the spending and to take into consideration the inflation rate and he gave me the example that he wanted me to use tonight that he had purchased some waffle board at one of the local supply stores here prior to Katrina hitting and that waffle board was $6.99 and after Katrina had hit that increased to $13.99 and he's saying putting it off is just going to increase how much money we're gonna be spending. So and also listening to Mr. Savinash and giving an explanation about using the first schedule versus the second schedule he had said in the first schedule we would be building somewhere around December. The second schedule would be more advantageous because we would be building in January and February and as you all know I had questioned that there doesn't seem to be a real big difference in our weather in Wisconsin and anytime and I can understand him being the architect that he would like to have more time but again we're dealing with the citizens pocket books and I think by using a conservative schedule the first one will a lot for some of those things that could come up that might be problematic and that could extend into that same time. So I'll be voting no to delay spending but secondly I'm gonna be making a motion to suspend the borrowing amount of $125,000 allotted for park improvements for 2006. Alderman Sardar could you repeat that? I made a motion to suspend $125,000 for the borrowing tax levy for 2006 under park improvements. Do we need to vote on the first motion first? Do we want to vote on the first motion first? The main motion, there was a main motion to amend the motion was to amend? Correct, amend. Okay, there was a motion, was there a second? I'm sorry, second, to amend? Yes. Under discussion, Alderman Graf? Thank you, I have the amendment. On the amendment, I'm just wondering, I don't have my documents here. Is that $125,000 all tax levy money or is that part? Alderman Sardar. Thank you, Your Honor. How it's itemized, it's under the tax-loving, it's borrowing strictly for the parks, right? And just so the public is aware, we are still for the year 2006, we're still adding $400,000 in improvements in our parks. But to be borrowing money, I think that's a little excessive, giving our time frame, thank you. And Your Honor, if I could just ask Rich or Tom, or maybe David's here. Tom is not here. How much is the contribution that we're receiving on that particular project from the federal government? Or don't we get anything on that? Is there a contribution? Mr. Bebal? Is it considered a department head? Yes. Deputy. For 2006, the plan for borrowing was a total of $525,000, which $400,000 was coming from federal sources, $125,000 was coming from the borrowing of tax levy. Now, do we lose any of the $400,000 because we're not going to borrow that $125,000? Well, obviously, when you have a total project of $525,000 and you take out $125,000, it's going to affect the overall project. It may affect possibly building one or two pieces because of that lack of funding. Thank you. Thank you, Alderman Gruff. Alderman Steffen? Thank you, Your Honor. I just want to clarify. The motion was to take out $125,000. Is your intent then to move, typically when we approve the capital improvements, we approve a set amount, and we might, okay, we're taking that item out now. Are we moving something else up to spend $125,000 on? For example, the fire department, I know has a boiler issue, or is your plan just to reduce the capital improvements borrowing by the $125,000? Alderman Serratus? Thank you, Your Honor. I'm only speaking because he asked me a question. I'm only asking for a reduction, not to place it anywhere else, but if we'd like to get creative and later on when we're approaching the taser guns, we might want to think that there is some more, and this is actually borrowing, so that wouldn't come into play. So no, I'm not placing it anywhere else. Alderman E. Byrd? Yes, thank you, Your Honor. I think I'd like to steal a page from Alderman Serratus' playbook and ask Mr. Bebel if postponing what the improvements are, if not spending the $125,000 this year would burden us for more cost in the future for similar improvements, if you would have a comment on that, because I'm somewhat unfamiliar about what that $125,000 is specifically intended for outside of some improvements in the park buildings. Mr. Bebel? Correct, Alderman Byrd. Thank you. You're right. It's just prolonging delaying maintenance, and what we're looking at is a systematic plan that's been in place year after year. We try to improve some of our restroom facilities throughout the parks. I guess what I would ask the council to consider is that when we go through the process of capital improvements, we go through a commission, we submit our projects. They're reviewed, they're ranked on their own merits versus other projects. And I guess I understand the police station issue and the borrowing, but when we look at it as a whole, the capital improvements commission rated the projects, excuse me. And I guess if we're looking to cut borrowing, maybe we should start at the very bottom of that ranking list, not just pick the parks. I would look at what was rated the lowest out of the entire capital improvements ranking. But I just look at it, we have a 525,000 total project for all six, of which is 125,000 being borrowed from the tax levy. 400,000 were leveraging through federal funds, which could be jeopardized if not having the city share of that portion. Mr. Bebel, please stay there. You may have some more questions. All of them in segali. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. If I could ask Mr. Bebel, how much money was spent in repairs in the parks concerning some of these restrooms and all that to the damage and graffiti and all that, that has taken place? How much has the city spent in that alone? That's a tough figure, but on average, I would say anywhere from 10 to $20,000 annually are related to vandalism and damage in our parks that we have to repair on an annual basis. That comes out of our operations account. Please stay there. Paul and Ratke. Thank you, Your Honor. I'm going to vote against this, and this is getting to be ridiculous. We want to build a police station. We don't have plan in hand yet. They're still doing the studies in this thing. If we're going to push it to this point, then I'll make a motion when the budget comes up in the 28th to pull $125,000 on the police overtime budget, which is a little fat to begin with, and put the money back into swing sets. We're going to play these games where we're going to let Sabinash do what he's supposed to do and design and build us a police station. That's his job. We're not here to tell him how to do his job. Nobody tells me how to do my job. I mean, I do my job the way I'm supposed to. I'm not an expert at construction, but I do take his word because he is. Thank you. Mr. Bebel. I'll be right with you all in the sushi shop. Mr. Bebel is right. The commission's capital improvement commission has a rating system. It's been used for years. It's fair, and it applies fair rules to everybody. They all get rated to have an alderman to pick out one that they don't like without giving the process, the opportunity to work itself in my mind is incorrect. If that's going to happen, that's going to happen. But if there's a rank in order that if one is taken out, then the other one moves up. And what we're doing here is just simply ignoring all that work, all that time that was spent by the public capital improvements commission. And that's a shame. Alderman Susha. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Just to put things in perspective in regards to what you were saying, park improvements ranked 13th from the top and a new police facility ranked 23rd. Things that ranked very high from capital improvements would be the street paving and resurfacing, new police video system for all of the police cars. Those types of things ranked higher. And in regards to the park improvements, when we were in committee, I did vote against spending this money because we were looking at a time frame from 2006 to 2010. And my concern was I felt like we did not have enough information from contractors that would build these buildings and I felt the price tags on some of these bathroom structures were a little bit high. So I voted against it in committee more for the principle of the fact that we didn't have any informational estimates at hand. But when you look at the amount of money that is coming from the federal government, I don't think we can just give that money away to a different community. I mean, if they are willing to give us the money, then I think Sheboygan should take advantage of it. And when you look at the number of law abiding tax-paying citizens that would actually go to the park, I would have a feeling there are more people that would use the parks in the city than that would actually have to go through the process of being arrested in utilizing a new police station. I think it's time that we do something for the community, for the people that are paying taxes, something that they can enjoy in their own neighborhoods. When you look at the amount of tax dollars that have gone into the development of the self-peer and gone into the marina, which a lot of local people don't use on a regular basis, I think it's time that we do something for the taxpayer and give them something that they're going to be using, which is basically improving their neighborhood parks. Thank you. Okay, so sure. Okay, thank you, Mr. Evil. We will call the roll on the amendment. Would you please read it? Correct me if I'm wrong, Alderman Serta, but I believe the amendment is to suspend, I'm sorry, to not borrow the $125,000 tax levy for 2006 under park improvements, is that correct? And I vote would be to not borrow. Everybody clear? First is Manny. No. Meyer. No. Montemayor. No. Ratki. No. Segali. I. Stefan. No. Susha. Vanderweal. No. Bauman. No. Deberg. Aye. Eberg. No. Serta. Aye. Davis. Aye. Graf. No. And Kittleson. No. Five ayes, 11 noes. Motion fails. We have a motion on the floor then. Please read it, call the roll. The general motion is by Alderman Graf and Montemayor to accept and adopt the reports of committee and pass the resolution. That was the original motion. Please call the roll. Okay. Meyer. I. Montemayor. I. Ratki. I. Segali. No. Stefan. I. Susha. No. Van Akron. No. Vanderweal. I. Bauman. I. Deberg. No. Eberg. I. Serta. No. Davis. I. Graf. I. Kittleson. I. And Manny. I. Dysenforknows. Motion carries. Ordinance is introduced 1589 lies over. 1590 to 1594 to be referred. Matters laid over. Nine. 1428 RO. Number 340-506 by City Plan Commission recommended recognizing historic Michigan Avenue. Alderman Montemayor. Thank you, Your Honor. I would move to accept and file the report of Officer and pass the resolution. There's a motion to second under discussion. All in Cigali. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. If I could please ask Paulette Enders so that she could just clarify that Michigan Avenue is actually not a historical type of area, but that is why they are so naming it, the historical Michigan Avenue site. If Paulette could just please explain to the people. Ms. Enders. Thank you, Mayor and County Council. And I think it's clearly stated in the resolution that this isn't an attempt to designate a historic district by ordinance where there would be certain, what happens is if it's a true historic district by ordinance through the Historic Preservation Commission when any type of building permit is pulled on the building, there's a level of review by the Historic Preservation Commission. This is really just a naming similar to Heritage Square, the Riverfront, the Lakefront, South Pier District, and it's for naming purposes only. Thank you. We don't need a roll, but you want a roll? Please call the roll. Montemayor. Radke. Cigali. Stefan. Sushia. Van Akron. Van Der Wiel. Bauman. D. Berg. E. Berg. Serta. Davis. Graf. Kittleson. Manny. And Meyer. 16 ayes. Motion carries. 1429, R.O. number 3405-05-06 by the City Plan Commission, recommending amending the zoning map to change the used district classification with a corner lot on North 37th Street and Erie Avenue from Class UR Urban Residential to Class SC Suburban Commercial. Alderman Montemayor. Thank you, Your Honor. May I put agenda item 1430, or should we do them separately? Together would be fine. Together, all right. I move to accept and file the report of officer and pass the ordinances. There's a motion and a second. Under discussion. There being none, please call the roll. Radke. Cigali. Stefan. Sushia. Van Akron. Van Der Wiel. Bauman. D. Berg. E. Berg. Serta. Davis. Aye. Graf. Aye. Kittleson. Aye. Manny. Aye. Meyer. Aye. And Montemayor. Aye. I'm sorry, 69. 69's motion carries, 1431 has been acted on, 1450 resolution number 151-05-06 by Alderman Graf. Stefan and Montemayor authorizing a transfer of appropriations in the O5 budget, Alderman Graf. Thank you, Your Honor. I move that the resolution be put upon its passage. Motion and second. Alderman D. Berg. Thank you, Your Honor. What is this, 2810? What sculpture are you gonna? That's the sculpture down in the rotary. I thought that it wasn't gonna cost the city any money. It isn't. This is a donation. We received the revenue for it and set it up in the. Okay, we'll let Alderman Bauman clean there. Alderman Bauman. Great. Thank you, Your Honor. That definitely is donations that are being asked for by Dr. Graf and his group that have formed to keep the sculpture here in the city of Sheboygan. And I'm honored to say that I'm also a person that did contribute to this and part of my money is in this. Thank you. Thank you, Alderman Bauman. That's a resolution by Alderman Graf regarding Dr. Graf. Don't confuse that. Okay. Thank you. Okay, 1540, 1450, please call a roll. Sigali. Stefan. Susha. Vanakren. Vanderweel. Bauman. Dieberg. Eberg. Serta. Davis. Graf. Kittlesen. Manny. Meyer. Montemayor. And Radke. 16 eyes. Motion carries. 1480, resolution 152.506 by Alderman Berg, Graf, Berg, Serta, and Vanakren, authorizing the Civil Service Commission to review and recommend to the Common Council the salary for older persons for Council year 207.08 and thereafter Alderman E. Berg. Yes, thank you, Your Honor. I move for passage. Motion is second. Under discussion. Under discussion. This basically puts the review of salary for older persons in the hands of the Civil Service Commission and keeps it at that particular level. That does a couple of things, and I thank Alderman Serta for the suggestion. This really establishes an arm's length relationship with an independent body that will take a look at comparables of automatic salaries and then report that back to the Council. The tough job is still ours. How much do we value ourselves? Are we going to follow their recommendation or not? But this basically establishes a procedure that now annualizes it because for several years we've waited with fits and starts with this matter. So I would encourage you to work for approval. Any further discussion? Not, please call the roll. Stefan. Hi. Sushia. Hi. Vanakren. Hi. Vanderweel. Hi. Bauman. Hi. D. Berg. Hi. E. Berg. Hi. Serta. Hi. Davis. Hi. Graf. Montemayor. Hi. Radke. Hi. And Segale. Hi. 16 ayes. Okay. 1482 resolution number 1530506 by Alderman Stefan encouraging the use of local labor to perform construction projects in Sheboygan. Alderman Stefan. Thank you, Your Honor. I'll move the resolution we put upon its passage. There's a motion and a second. Under discussion. I think it's pretty much self-explanatory. It's just encouraging Walmart to be a good corporate citizen and use local labor wherever possible. Any further discussion? There are being non-holds in favor of State Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. 1483, general ordinance number 440506 by Alderman Vanderweel. Sushia, Montemayor, Radke, and Meyer relating to stop signs so as to install four stop signs, two signs on Elm Street at the intersection of South 25th Street and two signs on Elm Street at the intersection of South 26th Street for both eastbound and westbound traffic. Alderman Vanderweel. Your Honor. I think, I believe you chair that meeting. I'll make a motion to put the general ordinance upon its passage. Alderman Vanderweel, would you like to take all the rest of them from the committee? Take all four. There's four of them. Okay, with that motion I'll take 1484 and 1485. And 86. And 86. There's a motion, there was a second. That'd be 1483, 84, 85, and 86. Under discussion. Alderman Segali. Thank you, Mr. Meyer. I just wanted to make a comment on 14-83. I'm sure the people on Elm Avenue on 25th and 26th Street are quite happy with their stop signs. I just feel that I need to mention that the people on 18th and Meade fought so hard and so long and had petitions. And the fire department was behind us to get a four-way stop on 18th and Meade. And at that time, when I went to the meeting of public protection and safety, Ryan Sasma, who was assistant engineer, had said that those were not, a criteria was not followed, could not be followed in the white book that he had pointed out. And that we weren't able to. So the people, as though they were disappointed, accepted that. Now, when I went to the meeting for the Elm Avenue on 25th and 26th Street, the gentleman made the comment, well, this doesn't follow the criteria in the white book, but we're gonna do it anyway. So I mean, he's had a precedence here. And I feel that the people on 18th and Meade deserve just as much as what the people here on 25th and 26th of Elm Avenue. And there were people at the meeting who also heard that comment. So I just wanna have it said that the people on 18th and Meade deserve that four-way stop, so I'm just as much as what was here. I thank you for that. Thank you. Thank you all, Mr. Golly. Okay, we'll call the roll. Sushia. Hi. Van Akron. Hi. Vanderweel. Hi. Bauman. Hi. D. Berg. Hi. E. Berg. Davis. Hi. Graf. Hi. Kittleson. Hi. Manny. Hi. Meyer. Hi. Montemayor. Hi. Radke. Hi. Sagali. Hi. And Stefan. Hi. 16 ayes. Motion carries. Other matters authorized by law, 1595 will go to finance. 1596 will go to finance. 1597 will go to special committee on risk management. I'm going too fast. No, that's correct. 1599, a resolution by Alderman Bauman, accepting the deed from Walmart Stores East LP for additional green wing and pond property. Alderman Bauman. I thank you, Your Honor. I'd move that the resolution, accepting the deed from Walmart for the green wing pond property, be put upon its passage. Second. There's a motion and a second under discussion. They're being on. Please call the roll. Van Akron. Hi. Vanderweel. Hi. Bauman. Hi. Berge. Hi. Serta. Hi. Davis. Hi. Roth. Hi. Kittleson. Hi. Manny. Hi. Meyer. Hi. Montemayor. Hi. Radke. Hi. Sagali. Hi. Stefan. Hi. And Sushia. Hi. 16 ayes. Motion carries. 15100 and an RO by the Board of Electrical Examiners Honorable Mayor, I'd like to make a motion to accept and file our rolls 15-115-101. There's a motion and a second. Any discussion? They're being on. All those in favor, state aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. 15102 will go to public protection and safety. 15103 a resolution by Alderman E. Berg, Ratke, Meyer and Sagali, established in a Blue Harbor Resort Convention Center Committee for the City of Sheboygan, Alderman Berg. Well, thank you. I move past resolution. Resolution in the second under discussion. All kinds of lights going on. Alderman Graf. Thank you, Your Honor. I guess I have a general question. After reading this over several times. I'm so, what is the goal or the purpose of this and what do you expect to gain from this? If somebody can answer that question for me. Yes, as it stands now, there's no oversight committee reviewing anything that has to do with our convention center at Blue Harbor. And what this resolution proposes to do is to establish a committee and there's a nice mix of committee members that will be appointed to that committee. They will be establishing the oversight standards and in agreement with the agreements already been signed by Great Lakes and the city and strengthening that relationship, that partnership that we have with them. It's a tool by which we can just keep our eyes on what's going on with the activity or our convention center. Alderman Cigali. Thank you, Your Honor. The reason I am happy concerning this resolution is that I was quite involved trying to find out the goings on of our convention center and in the process of doing so, I had found that at least seven conventions were denied access to the Blue Harbor Convention Center because of the fees of the rooms and they went elsewhere. And I feel that the city, since the convention center is, the taxpayers of Sheboygan had put so much money into this, they have the right to know what is going on with our convention center and just to oversee the goings on and to hopefully that the conventions that we lost in the past we can bring back because bottom line is, that's what's known as tourism. And when it comes to coming into the city, they can go back and say, hey, there's Blue Harbor Convention Center that we all can go visit or have another convention there. So I think this resolution to have a committee that oversees the goings on of the convention center is very important. Thank you. Thank you, Alderman Cigali. And this stands now a lot of the communication. This is a very good managerial tool also for the council and for the mayor's office, but as it stands now, when we get all financials, they actually go to the city development, they never make it anywhere further. And I think it's important that the council have some oversight over those financials and all the activity that occurs with the convention center. It's a useful tool. Alderman Stephan. Thank you, Your Honor. I'm concerned about this on a couple of different levels. I guess you respond to the oversight I think the two things we legitimately have a right to know are, you know, are they making their payments to pay off the convention center through room tax? We know they've done that for this year already, even though it's only November, they've made their payments for this year as required. I think we have a right to know that some people have mentioned that convention center is being properly advertised when they have conventions to all the different hotels, motels, bed and purposes. I think we have a right to know that they're doing what they said they would do in the contract. And I guess I'm just not sure that this is the right step to take. If we want that oversight, I think we've got a finance committee that you can make the argument they should do it. You've got a tourism committee that certainly could make the argument. Maybe you want more lodging people or citizens at large that they're on there. Heck, we've got a strategic fiscal planning committee that's never met all year. And that's the mayor and the chairs. And I understand that it's a decision where I think it's more works being done in the committees and that's fine. But I guess even if this has to be done, which I think is borderline, all this stuff, I don't want to get too involved in it. Because like I said, if it has to be done, I think we have the committees in place to do it. It just needs to be said, we're going to make sure you're in charge of it. Whichever the committee, the mayor decides or the council decides I don't have a problem with that. I was at the meeting with all the persons of Golly and I share her concerns. But on the other hand, we don't run a million dollar hotel. We can't tell them what to do. We can only tell them what our contract allows us to tell them. We can make sure they go through the correct procedures and we can make sure they give us the money. If they don't make the money, they give us from the guarantees. We can't tell them to have a $59 room rate. There is $69, $70, $89, whatever it is. We can't tell them that. We can't micromanage their business. And I think we legitimately have those two concerns. The room tax dollars that are coming into us and those are good. So I don't know why we'd want to look at it. We do have some legitimate concerns, I think, about how they're marketing it that I understand. But I just think we can, I don't see why we have to have a committee for that. One of the people on here, I can remember them saying three months ago, well, just so we need another stupid committee. We've got enough committees. That's how I feel about this one. If we do need to look at anything, I think we've got some committees that could do it. So I won't be supporting the creation of another one. Thank you, Alderman Stephan, Alderman Eberg. And so thank you, Your Honor. And this is sitting on my desk for about six months. And I think you and I have talked about the various mechanisms. And if there is a model, it's the Marina Commission. It's a very similar process in that the marina is owned by the municipality, yet managed by a private entity. The convention center is essentially in the process of being owned by the municipality and then managed by a private entity. What this does is, within the terms of the development agreement, I believe a shortfall in the development agreement, it didn't unify the oversight responsibility in one specific location. This doesn't change the development agreement, but it starts a process of a dialogue where if changes can be made, at least we have the ability to communicate directly with our vendor, the managers of Blue Harbor. I think the development agreement speaks very clearly and very narrowly in terms of the areas we have privilege to. When it does speak to the marketing plan, it does speak to ensuring that for any convention that Blue Harbor is required also to make available to any potential booker of a convention, all the other hospitality venues and inns and hotels that are in the community. So for me, for this purpose, I think we are well served to have a oversight commission because what it starts out to be this year will likely not, it will end up to be because I can almost guarantee you that it's very likely with the changes in interest rate that Blue Harbor at some time will come back and be interested in reopening the development agreement and that's the opportunity then for us to enter into a dialogue with them about any changes if you would in terms of the privilege of the committee in terms of oversight. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Anna. This will often be all willing to go, but just before when Alderman Cigali was speaking, she mentioned that they were denied access to the convention center. I don't believe, because I was at that same meeting, that they were denied access to the convention center. They chose not to have their convention there because of the room rates and the food costs. The convention center, they could have used if they so chose and stayed at another location but they wanted to stay in the same place. But there are certain guidelines that Blue Harbor is given saying you can't have a room rate this low or you can't have something this low. You can only go down this far with whatever you do. And there's also a rule that says if you're using the convention center, the food and beverages must be purchased from the Weissgerber group. So you have certain conditions that if you want to have a convention there, you have to use and we can't do anything about those but we have to be very careful how we interpret that and how we say that to the community out there. So I'm not really crazy about this committee either at this point in time but that's all I've got to say, thank you. Thank you Alderman Graf. Alderman Sousha. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I do agree with Alderman Graf that the city does not have the right to set the rates that the hotel is charging for their guest rooms. And I also agree with Alderman Eldenburg that there is a big concern in the lodging community that it clearly states in the development agreement that the Blue Harbor Conference Center must make available to anyone booking a conference all of the lodging in the city. And a few months ago, Alderman Radke and I went and visited the hotel and toured the conference center when we requested this information. I was handed a visitor's guide and when I asked if I could have 15 copies for the other Alderman, I was told I had to go to the Chamber of Commerce. So they are not readily making it available to the public. The reason that we do need another committee to look at this and I think all the Alderman will suddenly see the light is because if you give this to a city committee that's already standing, I would expect everybody on that committee to sit down and read the development agreement again from front to back cover, which is over 100 pages. And then you need to go to the city attorney's office where all the supplemental documents are, which total approximately a couple hundred more pages of supplemental attachments and things. I mean, there is a lot of reading to be done here and I think that this is probably a smart move because even if this calls for two Alderman to just dig in up to their elbows with what's in the development agreement, we need to keep people on this council that know what it says. We need to know what's in that development agreement to make sure that everybody's doing what they're supposed to be doing. For example, Alderman Steffen pointed out that, well, Great Lakes has paid their room tax for the year, they're doing great. Well, their annual payment was due in October. So they better be paid up to date because now we're in November and the majority of that money did come in three or four days before it was due. So I'm glad to say that they were able to pay that money. That's the step in the right direction. But we need some experts to really look at what that document says. It's been two years, I think, since it was signed off on and many of us weren't even here. So we haven't read it thoroughly. So I think that we should really support this. And I also wanted to point out, I think Alderman Sigali mentioned that property tax was, or the taxpayers paid for the conference center. And I just want to clarify that it was room tax paid, 100% for the conference center in the parking lot, that the property taxes that were used in the self-peer district went for other infrastructure projects. Property tax was not used at all for the building of the conference center. Thank you. Thank you, Alderman Susha. Just as a final point, the oversight committee will be setting the standards by which to have that oversight authority. I agree with all you Alderman have said, micromanagement is not our role. And I think every one of you knows how I feel about micromanagement. It's not a role, but that's part of the standards that can be established when that committee meets. Now committees, when we're in favor, when we support committees, we speak well of them. When we don't, we speak ill of them. Folks, there's nothing wrong with committees. They help you do the legwork. They help you do your job very effectively and very efficiently. Sometimes we use committees like it's a bad word. It's not a bad word. Don't let it become a bad word. We need assistance a lot of times. Our standing committees have their hands full. You heard me tonight, 111 documents, a record that has been said by any council here. You have your hands full. There's a lot of things that are happening right now with Blue Harbor that we need communication. We need information. Same thing happened with the chamber contract. Nobody knew who was supposed to have oversight. It went on and on and on. Nobody knew who was gonna do what. That's why a committee was formed. Said we can have that oversight. This is why we need a committee here. And I support Alderman Berg's resolution. So I would hope that Alderman would support it. Please call the roll if there's no more debate. Vanderweal. Bauman. Dieberg. Eberg. Serta. Davis. Graf. Kittleson. Manny. Meyer. Montemayor. Radke. Segali. Stefan. Sushia. And Van Akron. 15 ayes, one no. Motion carries. 15-104, we'll go to public works. 15-105, we'll go to room tax advisory committee. Other matters? Attorney McLean. Thank you, Your Honor. 5-106 is a communication received by the mayor from Eugene Clanky stating that when he was at the residential drop off site, he saw a man empty his full trailer into a waiting garbage truck and his concern that city employees may be getting free drop off privileges. And we'll go to public works. 5-107 is a communication from Susan Humley, mid-public library board member, stating that she has had some pleasant and definitely unprofessional experiences with a couple of the board members. We'll go to ethics board and library board. 5-108 is a communication from Sheila and Carla Matlin, guardians of the estate of Dina Matlin, respectfully requesting an extension of the date by when they must pay off the remaining 475,000 due pursuant to the stipulation entered into between the city and the estate of Dina Matlin. That will be referred to risk management. 5-109 is a communication received by the mayor from Jerry Isabelle of Orange Cross Ambulance stating the new Medicare fee schedule and the new office location. And that will be referred to finance. 5-110 is a proposal from Triad Engineering Incorporated to provide assistance for preparation and submittal of application to the US EPA for Brownfield's Revolving Loan Fund Grant. That will be referred to finance. 15-111 is a resolution to grant the proper city officials authority to execute agreement for third-party PECFA claim reimbursement. And that will also go to finance. The motion, second to adjourn. All those in favor, state aye. And adjourned.