 2013-14 Common Council to order. Would the clerk please read the quote for the day? Thank you, Mayor. A positive attitude causes a chain reaction of positive thoughts, events, and outcomes. It is a catalyst and it sparks extraordinary results. Thank you. Would the clerk please call the roll for the meeting? 16 present. Thank you. Would you please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance? Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and into the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Next is approval of the minutes from our last council meeting. Alderman Hammond. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I move to approve the minutes of the previous council meeting. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. The minutes are before us. Is there any discussion on those minutes? 16 none. Will the clerk call the roll? 15 ayes, 1 no. Motion passes. We'll skip over resignations and council appointments. And next I'd like to call forward Detective Remington and Chief of Police Domigalski for a special presentation. Good evening. If you're not familiar with Detective Remington, she started her law enforcement career in 1995 in the city of San Jose. And then she moved to Sheboygan in 2004 at which time she was hired by the Sheboygan Police Department. She worked in the patrol division and then in 2009 she was assigned to South High School as the SRO where she received lots of accolades and really made herself part of the school there. In 2012 she got promoted to detective. The reason that we're here today is that on October 11th she was recognized by the Wisconsin Association of Women Police as a co-recipient of their police officer of the year along with officer Jennifer Sabina from Wauwatosa. So I'll just read the certificate that she got. It says Wisconsin Association of Women Police present the award for officer of the year to Tamara Remington for superior service, exceptional performance and dedication to duty. I just wanted to say a quick thank you. It's an honor to work for Sheboygan Police Department led by Chief Domigalski and an honor to serve this community of Sheboygan. It really is about teamwork and I just thank all of the department for the great teamwork. So thank you. Thank you very much and we appreciate you letting us do this in front of the community. Thank you. Next we'll go on to Public Forum. City Clerk. Yes, first on our list this evening is Maeve Quinn. Maeve, if you could come up please. And Maeve, your home address? Maeve Quinn, 310 St. Clair Avenue, Sheboygan, 53081. And you will have five minutes. Great. Thank you very much. Good evening Mayor Vandersen, Chief Administrative Officer Jim Amodio, all the persons and the citizens of Sheboygan. As I already just said, my name is Maeve Quinn and I am the President of Meade Public Library Board of Trustees. The mission of Meade Public Library is to inform, educate, enlighten and inspire. Tonight I would like to share some good news. Last weekend, the fourth annual Sheboygan Children's Book Festival resulted in over 3,000 visits to our library. In addition to our citizens, there were many visitors to Sheboygan. They came from all over the state of Wisconsin and surrounding states. This event, the only children's book festival in the Midwest, is organized by Meade Public Library, Bookworm Gardens and the John Michael Kolarite Center. The visitors extolled the beauty of our city, the wonderful restaurants and the shops that were located downtown. And of course the friendly people. Some of our visitors even wrote about Sheboygan in a blog. I've heard it's been more than one blog and it's been all positive news so that's something I definitely wanted to share with all of you tonight. We of course already know that Sheboygan is a wonderful city. The citizens of Sheboygan greatly value the services of Meade Public Library. The numbers clearly demonstrate this. Over 32,000 of our citizens hold an active library card. Over 750,000 items were checked out this past year, of which 73% of those items were checked out to Sheboygan's city residents. There were over 300,000 visits to our library this past year. And I just need to say that number again. Over 300,000 visits. This basically translates to over 100 visits each hour we are open. This is quite extraordinary for a city of our size. The citizens are truly using this valuable city service. The economy has made the city budget process rather challenging these last few years. In February of this year, the city council decided to reduce the 2014 library budget by 3%. For a historical perspective, at a joint finance committee meeting last year, the library board shared that the continued reduction for the library just these past five years has resulted in our 2014 budget allocation being less than what was appropriated to the library in 2001. In 2001, the city funding was 2,575,540. In 2014, the city funding will be 2,305,741. So we've been reducing expenses in a variety of ways. We've been utilizing technology to be more efficient. We've been reducing our collections, reducing the number of days and hours that we are open, and reducing the number of our employees. Prior to 1989, we had 67.5 full-time equivalent employees, and now we are at 43.2 full-time equivalencies. This year, the Board of Trustees of Mid-Public Library worked closely with our new library director, Garrett Erickson, back there, to put together a budget that continues to offer strong library services for our citizens with a reduced budget. One highlight that I'd like to share with you that in 2014, there will be no furlough days, which will result in improved access to Mid-Public Library for all of the citizens. I will end my comments with some inspiring thoughts for the future. Recently, there's been an analysis regarding the downtown of Sheboygan. What are the top three reasons why people come downtown? One, restaurants. Number two, shopping. And number three, Mid-Public Library. One of the recommendations is for the future of downtown should really focus on a trifecta of the John Michael Koller Art Center, the Wild Center Children's Museum, and the library, essentially focusing on the arts and the culture and the food district of our downtown. Mid-Public Library is truly one of the gems of the city of Sheboygan, refreshing to see this opinion be supported by the data collected by this most recent downtown development plan. Tonight, I leave you with the mission of Mid-Public Library. Inform, educate, enlighten, and inspire. Thank you. Thank you, Maeve. Next this evening will be Delcey Johnson. Delcey, could you come up please? Delcey, can I have your home address? 1306 North 3rd Street, Sheboygan. We'll have five minutes. Christine City Clerk Richard, City Attorney McLean, Alderman, and Citizens. Tonight, the council will be voting on the 2014 budget. As always, there are winners and losers. Early on in the process, the Strategic Fiscal Committee voted to reduce the library budget by 3%. The library board was told that all other city budgets would be held to a 0% increase. It didn't quite work out that way. Several budgets were increased for various reasons. The assessor's budget was increased by 4%, probably because of the required reassessment. Streets, understandably, by 3.75%, and the fire department budget was increased by 1.32% to site a fuel. I don't know the reason for the fire department budget increase, but I hope it's not for increased fuel for the ambulances. I will explain. On August 15th, as I was walking south on the lakeside of Broughton Drive, at 2.15pm, I met an ambulance heading north on Broughton Drive. It was a beautiful sunny day, 80 degrees, and they were just tooling along. No lights, no sirens, two men in the cab. The ambulance continued on toward North Point. When Chief Herman was asked about this, the answer was that Broughton Drive is the shortest way to Memorial Hospital. The shortest way from where? Ninth in New York? No lights, no sirens, two men in the cab. Obviously, there was no emergency. This past Wednesday morning, I went to the fire department office and asked to see the log of ambulance calls for three specific dates. Chief Herman explained that names would have to be redacted from the records. I told him I was not interested in names, but rather in times of ambulance calls, one of them specifically between 1 and 3pm on August 15th. I had presumed that there was a simple log of calls, but evidently that is not the case. The department secretary referenced information on her computer, and Chief Herman referenced a notebook of information. I was told that on August 15th, there was an ambulance call at 3pm from a street on the south side, and a call at 4pm on a street which I believe would be in the vicinity of the North 25th or North 15th Street station. There was also a transport for a dialysis treatment out of the city. So what was an ambulance doing, tooling along Broughton Drive at 2.15pm? No lights, no sirens, two men in the cab heading towards North Point. Chief Herman explained that in non-emergencies, ambulances sometimes operate without lights and sirens. But there was no ambulance call until 3 o'clock. He also said ambulances do fire inspections. When I pointed out to Chief Herman that there were no buildings between the north side beach house and North Point only sand, Chief Herman turned and walked away from me and went back into his office. This is not the first time I've observed an ambulance taking a drive along the lake. At another time I was at 6th and Penn. As it happened there was an ambulance at the same intersection heading east down Penn. That was my route home, and I was driving behind the ambulance. The ambulance turned north at the armory past the Y, the north side beach house towards North Point, which I thought was curious. So instead of turning off at the triangle as I normally would, I followed the ambulance to North Point, up the hill, west on Lincoln to 3rd Street, south on 3rd to Superior, west on Superior to 8th, and south on 8th Street to the downtown fire station. The point is, if I have observed such folly, others have too. Maybe others have told me of such observations. Maybe we don't need to staff three ambulances. As a taxpayer, I object to city employees going for joy rides on duty and wasting high priced fuel. That is one issue. The other is why are taxpayers subsidizing transporting residents to medical appointments either in or out of the city? Does the ambulance wait while the patient has a dialysis treatment or consults with a doctor? I don't know if this is rare or routine, but I do not think that transport should be subsidized by taxpayers. No doubt some of you will label this micromanaging. I would submit that as a matter of taxpayer dollars and public policy. When the city took over the ambulance service, I asked that the council establish an oversight committee. Such was in place when Orange Cross operated the service. The idea was rejected. Those who ask questions are often rebuked and chastised. It seems to me that there is no accountability. Thank you. Thank you, Dulcy. And last evening would be, is it Ron Gussie? Yes, could you please come up? Ron, can I have your home address, please? Yes, it's 6933 Sunset Road, Kohler 53044. Okay, you have five minutes, sir. Thank you. I am the second year president. Our organization has been established since 1970. And the, I don't know if everybody has actually known about the softball program that long here in Schwagen. But I'm just here to give you some numbers on what we've done in the past. And we're hoping to continue to provide softball in Schwagen. And, and hope we can have people enjoy it for a long time to come. Perks improvements, not only to the Wildwood softball complex and to the Kiwanis in Roosevelt. We have donated over $500,000 in the 45 years that we've been associated with the city of Schwagen. We've given out $32,000 worth of scholarships over the last 25 years to area students in their senior year, mainly to the North and South High students. And now, because we have a broader span with Kiel students, Plymouth, Howard's Grove, Usberg, we have opened that up so that we can allow them to enjoy possibly a scholarship opportunity because they come and play softball down at our facility as well. Twice for Tots, we have donated $270,000 to Schwagen County, back for children who do not have a great deal at Christmas time so that they can enjoy their Christmas. We have had a cancer tournament now for the last five years and we've donated over $17,000 back to the Cancer Society to help out for people that are also misfortunate and can't provide for themselves. We've had quite a few people that have passed away due to cancer. So we've started this program five years ago to help take care of some of those bills. Also, we had the state tournament that's basically been from us since 1988, I believe. The ASA is the program of choice that we are associated with right now. And we also were awarded the state tournament again for this coming season. So if anybody has any questions, no questions. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next we'll go on to Mayor's Announcements. I'm not sure if you're aware of it, but Sheboygan was named a non-attainment area for ozone by the Wisconsin DNR. And there's a move afoot to try to set up another ozone monitor. The current one is located in Terry Andre Park and it receives a lot of prevailing winds and stuff from the south. There's many people that feel that a monitor that's located inland might give maybe better readings and maybe more true readings of what's really happening in the area. And there's going to be a public hearing conducted by the DNR on this question. And that'll be held Thursday, October 31st at 2 o'clock at the Sheboygan County Chamber of Commerce. Neighborhood meetings are set for the River Bend neighborhood, the River Watch neighborhood and Sheridan Park neighborhoods. And those are all going to be held together as one group on Saturday, October 26th at 2.30 at the Sheridan Elementary School Gym. The paving project update, Erie Avenue is finished and open to traffic. There's some lighting that still needs to be installed there, but it's great to have that road open again. The Taylor Drive and Union Avenue intersection is being resurfaced and that will be done this Friday. And this week the city crew will begin working on bridge deck resurfacing on both Pennsylvania Avenue and 14th Street bridges. So it'll begin this week and continue into next week. And I just want to remind people to fall leaf collection continues through November 22nd. Residents are allowed to rake their leaves into the street gutters. And you can see the schedule for those leaf pickups on the City Department of Public Works website. Next we'll go on to the consent agenda. Alderman Hammond. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I move to accept and file all our O's, accept and adopt all our C's and put all resolutions and ordinances upon their passage. Second. Alderman Boren. Thank you, Mayor. I would like to bring forward document number 2.10 for a separate vote I need to abstain. And then I also have a question on document number 2.12. Okay, well let's deal with 2.10. Is there a second to... Second. Second to separate that. Okay, 2.10 is before us. It's an RC by finance recommending denying the claim from Philo Toantelio for the alleged damages at 1128 Geely Avenue due to a tree falling on her property and damaging the rain gutter and directing the city attorney to send notice to disallowance. Call the roll on that. 15 ayes and one abstention. And what other question do you want to divide for Alderman Boren? I just on 2.12 I had a question for Mr. Amodio on that. I'm probably going to support filing of it. It doesn't have to be a necessary vote. I just a separate vote. I just have a question I'd like to ask Mr. Amodio. Mr. Amodio, I talked to you a week ago today. The document is the one where finance is recommending filing the document regarding a possible change in the EMS billing service contract renewal to bring the state of Wisconsin tax refund intercept trip in-house to maximize ambulance collections. I was unable to attend last week's finance meeting, but I talked to Mr. Amodio and he said that our billing service EMS has agreed to reduce their commission for trip for the trip accounts. And he said that he was waiting from 17% down to 10% and that he was awaiting a letter from our billing service that they were going to finally agree to that in writing. And my question is, has that letter been received from our billing service yet? So you're quite certain that that's going to come to fruition then, Mr. Amodio? Thank you. Are there any other questions or discussion on the consent agenda? Seeing none, would the clerk please call the roll? 16 ayes. Next, we'll go on to a report of officers. Items 3.1 through 3.5 will be referred to various committees under resolutions. Item 4.1 is a resolution by all the person Hammond authorizing the mayor to execute a conflict waiver. Alderman Hammond. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. First item moved to suspend the rules. Second. Moved and second to suspend the rules. Would the clerk call the roll? 16 ayes. Under suspension. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'd move to put the resolution upon its passage. Second. Thank you for that motion and second. Any discussion on the resolution? Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll? 16 ayes. Motion passes. Items 4.2 and 4.3 will lie over. And item 4.4 will be referred to the finance committee. Under reports of committees, we have a 5.1 as an RC by finance recommending authorizing a transfer of appropriations in the 2013 budget, establishing revenue and appropriations for a donation from the GECs for the fire department, chairs at the senior center, and for the Clean Water Fund program project. Alderman Hammond. Thank you again. I move to accept and adopt and put the resolution upon its passage. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. Under discussion, Alderman Bourne. I have nothing. Alderman Hammond. Thank you. Just real quick, I want to thank the GECs for their donation to the fire department. It's organizations like that who make contributions that really help the fire department, police department, and various other groups get the things that they need. So again, thank you to the GECs for their generous donation. Is there any other discussion? Clerk, please call the roll. 16 ayes. Motion passes. Going on to item 5.2 as an RC by finance recommending authorizing a transfer of appropriations in the 2013 budget and establishing revenue and appropriation donations from Walmart for smoke detectors, pretreatment at the water treatment plant, and book purchases from donations at Mead Public Library. Alderman Hammond. Thank you. I move to accept and adopt and put the resolution upon its passage. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. Alderman Hammond. Thank you again. Again, I want to thank Walmart. This is a program that's pretty vital inside the city for smoke detectors. A lot of our houses don't have them. And the fire department, and Chief Herman correct me if I'm wrong, has tried to make a policy if they go into a house. There's not a working smoke detector. They leave with one, so this donation will help to fund that effort. So thank you to Walmart. Thank you for those comments. Any other discussion? Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll. 16 ayes. Motion passes. Item 5.3 will be held for item 7.6. And then we'll go on to 5.4, which is an RC by law and licensing recommending denying taxi cab operators license 0116 based upon his failure to accurately reveal all convictions in his application, his record of violations related to the license activity and his failure to cooperate with the committee. Alderman Vanderweel. Thank you. I move that the RC be accepted and adopted. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. Alderman Vanderweel. Is Jeff Rothering here this evening? He's not. We invited him to our meeting on two separate occasions and he did not show either time. Thank you. Any other discussion? Will the clerk please call the roll. 16 ayes. Motion passes. Next we'll move on to ordinances. First one is item 6.1, which is ordinance by all the persons Donnie, Hugh Hammond, Dastler and Vanderweel suspending. Section 2975 of the 1975 Sheboygan Municipal Code is to the change in the job descriptions for the television program director and television program coordinator in the information technology department for the city of Sheboygan. Alderman Donnie, Hugh. Thank you, Mayor. As an initial matter, I move to suspend the rules. Second. It's been moved and seconded to suspend the rules. Will the clerk please call the roll. 16 ayes. Under suspension. Thank you. And then I would move to put this ordinance upon its passage. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. The ordinance is before us for discussion. Seeing no discussion. Will the clerk please call the roll. 16 ayes. Motion passes. Next is 6.2 through 6.4. Those will be referred to various committees. And under matters laid over. Item 7.1 is an RC number 193 of 1314 by public protection and safety submitting a GO 125 1314 by Alderperson Carlson amending various portions of chapter 26 of the municipal code relating to the establishment of new fees and permits issued by the building inspection division of the city of Sheboygan. Alderman Carlson. Thank you, Mayor. I move to accept and adopt and pass the substitute ordinance. Thank you for that motion. Is there a second? And we have a second. The ordinance is before us for discussion. Any discussion? Seeing none. Will the clerk please call the roll. 15 ayes. One no. Motion passes. Next is item 7.2 which is our RO number 132 of 1314 by the chief administrative officer as part of the budget process. The attached listing of the estimated unreserved balances at December 31st of 2013 and outstanding debt as of December 30th 2013 is submitted for your review. Alderman Hammond. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I move to accept and file. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. Any discussion on the motion? Seeing none. Will the clerk please call the roll. 15 ayes. One no. Motion passes. Next is item 7.3 RC number 162 of 1314 by finance committee recommending filing various documents. Alderman Hammond. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I move to accept and adopt. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. Motion is before us. Any discussion? Seeing none. Will the clerk please call the roll. 15 ayes. One no. Motion passes. Next is item 7.4 which is an RC number 163 of 1314 by finance committee submitting the summary of the 2014 budget request for the general fund, the special review funds, the debt service funds, and the capital project funds and recommends amending to increase the tax levy by 292,848. Alderman Hammond. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I move to accept and adopt. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. Any discussion on the motion? Alderman Boren. Thank you very much, Mayor. I'm not going to be supporting the 2014 budget as presented. This is the eighth budget that I've been through since I've been on the council. And I would have to say that the last two years have been particularly disappointing to me for the budget process in my opinion being not very open. I don't think it's necessary to be raising the tax levy by 292,848 dollars. I think there's opportunities in the executive summary that Mr. Ramodeo passed out on September 13th. It states in there that overall employee cost in the general fund is 79% of the budget, which is salary and benefits. I was glad to see that that came out in the executive summary, but I was also expecting after that, or even before that, for some recommendations from Mr. Ramodeo to how to deal with the fact that 79% of our budget is salary and benefits. There were no suggestions that came forward. One of the big items, of course, in the cost of benefits is that the City of Sheboygan for 2013, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, is paying 4,425 dollars per employee more than the private sector pays for insurance. That's for the family plan, and for a single plan, almost 3,000 dollars per employee more than the private sector. Our city employees currently pay 12% of their health insurance premiums or 15% if they're not on the wellness plan. Just for your information, if you didn't know it, Sheboygan County employees currently pay 15% and 17% if they're not on their wellness plan. Nationally, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation for 2013, the average person with insurance in the United States right now, all over the United States, the family plans are paying 29% for the family plan, and people that have single policies are paying 18%. I made these facts, brought these facts forward during a committee of the whole meeting. Mr. Ramodeo was not even at that meeting, and it seems that there was very, very little interest in addressing this. This type of difference between the private sector and the public sector is unsustainable. We currently, I understand, have a deficit of 1.7 million dollars going into 2015. When the garbage fund, when the garbage fee was created three years ago, I was the alderman that put a sunset on it at the end of 2014. The most disappointing thing for me the last couple of years, actually the last three years, is when the garbage fee was created, the purpose of the garbage fee was to get our, to allow us a couple of years to get our financial house in order so that the garbage fee could be sunsetted after 2014. I'm very, very disappointed that over the last two years, three years actually, we're no further ahead than we were three years ago as far as not needing the garbage fee in 2015. We were supposed to wean ourselves off that thing, off the garbage fee, and I'm very disappointed where just like what's happening in Washington, D.C., we're simply kicking the can down the road again. Many of the departments have, their budgets have been scrutinized and scrutinized. I've got to commend Director Bebel. I'm a little bit closer to it because I'm on the Public Works Committee, but I think it's amazing what Director Bebel has done this past year with a smaller staff. He's done a tremendous job. The police department budget was scrutinized back when Chief Kirk retired, and I believe after he retired with changes in the table of organization there, we saved about 450 to $475,000. I was assured last year when I voted for this budget that 2013 was going to be the year that finally, finally, the fire department budget was going to be addressed and put under a microscope. Again, it didn't happen. So for those reasons and a few others that I won't go into, I'm not going to vote for this budget for 2014. I think with some effort we could have balanced the budget and it would have been unnecessary to tax the people of Sheboygan an additional almost $300,000. And let's not forget, the garbage fee is $869,000 that we're paying on a monthly basis. The Sheboygan press did a very poor job, I think, of reporting the fact that it's not a $292,000 deficit. The deficit for 2014 is actually $1.1 million. And the garbage fee is picking up $869,000 of that for 2014. And we have made almost no progress in weaning ourselves off of that garbage fee. Thank you. Thank you for those comments. Alderman Hammond. Thank you. Of course, we'll be supporting the budget as we go through. I think we've done quite a bit over the last three years. I think the budget process, those that chose to get involved with it, has been a very transparent. So let's just recap a little bit of what we've done over the last several years. Union negotiations, we were one of the first municipalities to renegotiate unions after Act 10. Fire and police both came to the table and contributed to WRS when they didn't have to for significant savings. They changed the benefit structure so that no longer can they retire at 55 and stay on health insurance all the way through. There's a sunset and eventually they'll be like the private sector and on Cobra at that point. We've done a review of all the departments, matching up with revenues and expenses based off of services. And that'll be rolling out shortly. As you can imagine, those types of projects don't happen overnight. They take some time to accomplish. We've decreased expenditures. Maeve Quinn from the library indicated that. And all the departments including the library commend them. They've tried to do more with less than they are accomplishing them. We've reduced the overall debt load, which reduces our interest expense over time. We're working on increasing the tax base. We have new development going on. We've got some of our major employers expanding. Again, all of those things add to the bottom line at some point. As far as the budget, we've had three reviews of the budget with the chief administrative officer by each department. It's been to each standing committee and to finance. So anybody that wanted to be part of that process could have showed up at any one of those meetings and had that conversation or been part of that process. Again, we still have a big nut to crack in 2015. I don't think there's any doubt about that. And that's why again, we asked all the departments to put together what they do with the expenditure expenditures and the related revenue that goes with it. Looking at increasing taxes, if you recall in 2013, we took a little bit of a tax decrease because TID 3 closed. We're going to be bringing back the tax levy to less than it was in 2012. In fact, as we look at years past, we haven't raised the levy in the city of Sheboygan significantly in a long time. And kudos again to department heads that we haven't had any significant cuts and services because of that. So could we do better? Sure. I think what we need to focus on is economic development. And again, as we go into 2014 determining, again, if we're going to solve this by cutting, which services do we want to cut? I've heard loud and clear from a lot of constituents that they don't want services cut. They don't want less police officers. They don't want less firefighters. They want their garbage picked up. And again, those are the things that they said. And many of them said, I'm willing to pay a few extra dollars more in taxes to do that. So I'm going to support this budget. Again, it took us 25, 30 years to get into this mess. It's going to take us time to get out of this mess. And I think some of the things we've put into place over time will eventually lead us to success. So again, I'm going to support this budget. Thank you. Thank you for those comments. Alderman Bourne. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to touch on one thing in particular that Alderman Hammond just mentioned. It would not be necessary for us to cut any employees, keep services at the current levels, if we get a handle on the benefit side of it. And that is health insurance. It is almost $2 million that we're, as I described, if you add it all together, we're paying almost $2 million more for health insurance than the private sector. And as I said, it's non-sustainable. And if we get a handle on that alone, we can maintain our police officers, our firefighters, our DPW workers, and all of the other services that we provide. I'm the first one that wants our city employees to have a good health insurance plan. But I don't think it should be any worse or any better than the people that are paying for it. And that are my constituents and the rest of us, the rest of our constituents. So I think we've got to get a handle on that. And I think we've got to get going on it right away. I know there's a lot of topsy-turvy with the health insurance right now because of Obamacare. But again, I've got to stress that's what we have to get the handle on. And we will not have to cut services if we get a handle on the benefits. Thank you. Thank you for those comments. Alderman Hammond. Thank you again, Mr. Mayor. And I'm all supportive of getting and dealing with the health insurance issue. When we look at various studies, I always kind of look at studies somewhat in a different light than others might because I also look at the fact that we have to recruit locally. We have to retain employees in our local area. So although the Kaiser study is a national study, we've also looked at data and salaries and grievances and in other venues that talked about what's happening locally, what's happening around Wisconsin, what's happening in the Midwest. And again, I would love to walk into our employees and say, hey, you're going to pay 30% for your health insurance. It may put us at a competitive disadvantage for employees. Now again, we've addressed some of the legacy costs, which are some of the largest costs that we have to deal with. It's a time that will work itself out. Again, as we start to renegotiate union contracts in 14 and 15, it would be an opportunity to have those conversations again. But again, to blow up this budget because of something in 2015 and beyond, it doesn't make any sense to me. I think it's a good budget. Again, the property tax levy is less than it was in 2012. And we can still continue with the same services we have. So thank you. Thank you for those comments. Any other discussion? Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll on item 7.4. 12 ayes, 4 noes. Motion passes. Moving on to item 7.5 is the resolution number 53 of 1314 by Alderman Hammond, Carlson, Bellinger, Heidemann, and Dastler ordering the 2014 budget appropriations for the city of Sheboygan funds. Alderman Hammond. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I move to put the resolution upon its passage. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll? 14 ayes, 2 noes. Next is item 7.6 along with 5.3. 7.6 is resolution number 54 of 1314 by Alderman Hammond, Carlson, Bellinger, Heidemann, and Dastler ordering the 2014 budget appropriations in the 2013 tax levy for use during calendar year 2014. And item 5.3 is an RC by finance recommending various changes to the general fund of 2014 budget based on the information from the state of Wisconsin. Alderman Hammond. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I move to accept and adopt 5.3 and put 7.6 upon its passage. Second. Thank you for that motion and support. Is there any discussion on the motion? Seeing none, will the clerk please call the roll? 13 ayes, 3 noes. Motion passes. We have a new budget for 2014. Next we'll go on to other matters. City Attorney. Thank you, Your Honor. 8.1 is an R.O. by the City Clerk submitting various license applications for the period ending June 30, 2014, and June 30, 2015. That will be referred to law and licensing. 8.2 is an ordinance repealing general ordinance number 66-95-96. That will be referred to public protection and safety. 8.3 is an R.O. by the City Clerk submitting a communication from Lakeshore Technical College District submitting their tax levy report. That will be referred to the finance committee. Alderman Hammond. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I move to adjourn. Second. I move to second it to adjourn. Will the clerk please call the roll? Thank you. I took care of that one for you. 14 ayes, 1 no, and 1 abstain. We stand adjourned.