Common Council - Regular Meeting

I will call this meeting to order of the committee of the whole on November 4th, 2025 at 700 p.m. Can I have a roll call, please? Chris here, here. Neighbor here, Scotty here. Hill here. Sen here.

Thank you. On to number three, which is general public comments. Uh, we have one. Rebecca, if you want to come up to the podium, you will have three minutes. I'll give you a heads up at [clears throat] And then if you can just state your name and your address, please. My name is Rebecca Element. I live at 450 Morris Street, Berlin, Wisconsin 54923. I'm here today to speak about the SNAP and the Affordable Care Act tax credits. For many in our community, the simple act of putting food on the table is a daily struggle. Economic hardships and rising costs have meant that more of our neighbors, including families and children with children and elderly, disabled, and veterans are facing food insecurities. We are encountering some very serious challenges. Everyone deserves to eat food. Imagine being a parent of a hungry child who's crying inconsolable for food, but you don't have any to give or an elderly person who can't get the food they so desperately need to be healthy. That's just sad. We think of this happening in other countries and but not in Berlin. With the shutdown now in the second month, federal workers have not been paid. As of November 1st, no SNAP SNAP benefits have been given. Food pantries have had cuts to their budgets and experiencing high demand from the most vulnerable in our community. We have a full food emergency right here in Ireland. The Trump administration has said that it will pay 50% of the benefits for November staff and that it will take time for the people to receive those food dollars. The people who rely on this money cannot survive on half or just wait. That's just insane. I also heard Trump is considering not complying with the judge's ruling and completely withholding SNAP benefits. [snorts] We are also approaching a full health care

crisis with the cuts to the ACA premium tax credits. People cannot afford double and even triple healthcare premium increases on top of all of the high food prices. Heating assistance is the next to be defunded, especially with winter here. I would urge you to call your representatives and tell them to fully fund SNAP, extend the ACA tax credits. The Republicans and Trump seem to be able to find money to give tax credits for the wealthy, $20 billion to Argentina, the great Gatsky party and the golfing. It's sickening. Then the government has the money to fully fund SNAP and extend the ACA tax credits. Please have empathy and compassion and understanding for the people who rely on these programs. And how is Berlin prepared to help these people? Imagine is 50 years from now kids in America are studying history. Where do you fit in this story? What specific actions did you take when the country started deteriorating into authoritarian? If you were the narrator, how would you describe your role? Poverty exists not because we cannot feed the poor, but we but because we cannot satisfy the rich. house. Thank you for your time. Thank you.

Okay. On to number four, the approval of minutes from October 7th, 2025's committee of the whole meeting. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from October 7, 2025. I'll second that. Motion by Victoria, second by Terry. All in favor say I. Any opposed? Carried. Number five, introduction of the senior center and recreation facilities director, Susan Kenir. Susan, you up. Good evening. I do speak into the line, please.

Thank you very much for this welcome. I do appreciate it. Um, I am very excited to start my position which I'll be starting on Thursday. Uh, I have so many ideas that I want to put in action at the senior center and also with the recreation facilities. So, I am looking forward to both sides of the position. And the really great news is that I have had people come up to me already with ideas or wanting to teach a class or get more involved. So, I'm just enjoying all of that. I haven't even started yet. Um, so I appreciate your welcome. Thank you very much. And um, come out and see me at senior center. [laughter] Great. Congratulations.

Welcome. Thank you. We're excited. I know I'm excited to see you roll into this new role. So, we can't wait to see what's what things come from. So, good luck. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Number six is um letter of support for Berlin Community Development Corporation application to the Thrive Rural Wisconsin program. The recommendation is authorize the mayor to sign on behalf of the common council and planning and development director Tim Ludok um to submit a letter of support for the DCDC's application to the Thrive Rural Wisconsin program. Tim, what do you have?

Yeah, I'm just here to answer any questions and just providing background here. Um, the BCDC is just trying to look for any opportunity it can to enhance the downtown and the community in general. So, we're looking at this as an exciting program to get some technical assistance and well, build some bridges with the state. Not really. She was asking how we went from rural to urban. Is that what you're referring to?

Something in my brain said that we discussed that and so I was wondering if that had any impact here, but I couldn't remember. So I didn't want to speak a term. [clears throat] They're urban for roads specifically.

Specifically for roads. Okay. [laughter] So hopefully Tim has clipped through what the requirements are for this and BCDC is making their applications. This is just a letter of support from the council um in favor of them program. Does anybody else have any other questions? I'll recommend that the mayor I'll recommend to authorize the mayor sign on behalf of the common council and planning and development director Ludolf to submit a letter of support to the BCDC application to the thrive rural Wisconsin program. Second motion and a second. All in favor say I.

I.

Any oppos? Carry. Thanks Tim. Oh, this is the one. Yeah. Uh number seven, consider recommendation of the parks and rec commission to amend city ordinances to include city- owned parks for no smoking or vaping. Recommendation is discussion and action is appropriate. Um this did go before parks and wreck. Um, and I kind of briefly discussed with Jesse about a possible conflict with their motion. Um, and how it was their minutes had not been approved yet. However, um, the newspaper reported a um that it was the wording of the motion that it was to direct I think all city properties. All city property. I went back and I listened to the YouTube video just to make sure. Um, and I think he just kind of stumbled on his words. I think he went from all city property to parks. Um, but my concern was that it was reported to the paper that it was all city property and obviously parks and recck department doesn't have authorization to speak for the all the city property. So that was my only concern. But um

yeah, the motion was for city-owned parks and I think that's what the minutes say. Yeah. Yep. But minutes have not been approved yet and that was my only concern because I had people come forward from the Burland Journal um article because it said all city properties. Um so that was my only concern. Yeah. They say they entertained amending the ordinance. So you just want to see that these are approved before we approve that. Is that what you're saying? like table this for the next I guess it doesn't matter if there's any other thought or if um

I did there's discussion constituents um opposition to this um thinking it might be overstepping on the city to ban this um so I did receive a couple comments of that I was actually hoping chief would be here because there's really no way to enforce this to do

so having another ordinance that we're not even enforcing is useless. They'll pick and choose who they're enforcing. I don't think that they can't be in every shark at all times. I just I I don't see it working. [clears throat] I personally can't stand tobacco smoke, but I also don't like the idea of taking freedoms away from people who just want to take a walk in the park and have a smoke. Um, and I I would be curious to have more input from parks like Scott or somebody asking how much are they cleaning up cigarette butts, cigarette packages, like if that's a truly a cleanup piece that that's requiring a lot of work. I feel like there's a few more questions we have about this.

Well, it's not just smoking. They're also vaping. Like the two and the same. So, they're not really cleaning up too much baking. the cleanup was mentioned in the discussion which is the only reason I it came up to my mind like how much cleanup are we talking about is is you know cigarette butts laying all over the parks you know like that kind of thing that that's where my questioning kind of went towards and I realized we're talking about vaping too um I just kind of lean more towards the side of personal freedoms and usually in a great big park space you can get away from somebody who's smoking and find your fresh We do have a lot of park space, but there's a lot of the community getting involved in personal freedoms and especially in the outdoor spaces. I don't know if that's something we want to have our police officers utilize their resources on as well. I would say the feedback especially after the the journal's um report was pretty across the board for me that from smokers and non-smokers who reached out um that the police issue was one of them. How do we plan on enforcing it? And I think looking back at the YouTube video that that was one of the parts and rec commissioners um um reference was the worry of how [clears throat] they're going to police it. Then is there are there tickets involved? Um I just it opens up a lot.

Did they provide you with example ordinance? We've seen it. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. They talk about 50 bucks per incident and kicking him out of the park and things like that. But again, then you have to have somebody basically standing watch in a park watching to see if somebody whips out a vote, a vape or a smoke. [laughter] Put those two words together, a vote. But um yeah, I'm not against I'm not against the idea of it. And I want you to welcome whether it was signage, you know, you think of our big events in town, whether it's the farmers market or I know that the new mall fast was discussed. Um, you know, signage or education, you know, I don't know what that signage looks like, but I'm picturing please be courteous. You know, I know for our vendors, for example, at the farmers market, that is one of the requirements is that they have to step back to the street. um if they were going to smoke, but we're not policing um spectators that are coming through. Um so we do try, I guess, on that end. Um but I just really worry that that's a lot on our PD to what does it look like? What does enforcement look like? And I guess we could we could table and ask for either something from the chief and Scott um I guess on their input.

Well questions that you had Victoria. Yeah and I wonder if it couldn't be more like event specific as opposed to a straight ban just a blanket. We just have such a huge park system that I can't So somebody you see one person in a park smoking on their own is a if it's part of our ordinance does that really mean that the police department has that's right breaking our law now we have to go make contact and when I say event specific I mean like if you have like a dry event dry just for for product like that

and I can I have walked obviously you know in crowds like at the fourth of July event and been behind a smoker and that's not very comfortable when you're in a crowd and you can't avoid it. You can't really move around. But um so so maybe one of the things that they could look at is instead of making it like a parkw or citywide ban is just doing event bans and just saying you know during the fourth of July um events it'll be a smokefree event or you know smoke and vape free event. Don't bring your cigarettes. But I don't know how many people would come to drink and and be under the would that be up to the parks and wreck or the event coordinators? Event coordinators. Yeah.

So it's up to them if they wanted to implement it. Right. So I would say that would be my you know preference to doing a citywide thing like for the farmers market. It's something you guys ask the event holders. There wouldn't be a way to enforce it though if somebody wanted to smoke. Regardless, the event coordinator would be able to probably too busy to be chasing smokers down.

I'm with you. I think it's a good idea in principle, but not practically manageable and also takes away too much personal freedoms. Anybody else or anybody want to make a motion or um table or is everybody just I think based on what I've heard it's just kind of dead in the water. Do we need a motion on anything? The staff is just looking for guidance as to what you're what you hope the next step in the process is. If there's no next step at this at this venture, then I think that's

come up and give like a little educational speech because I thought you guys were going to get like that someone from parks and was going to be here. Otherwise, I would have filled out a form to speak.

Um, give me just a minute to read how we have it. So, we watched the park and wreck. We read the minutes and we have all of the um material that was passed out to park and rec. So, that was all given to us ahead of time. We've had a chance to read and review that. So, it's not that we don't understand that it helps children breathe easier, that it keeps kids safe, but when we were talking about things like reduced cost, that's where I was like, how much are they actually how much is it actually causing our park costing our parks department to pick up whatever needs to be picked up and things like that. So maybe we need more input from parks and recck maybe. But

or it could provide another city that in Wisconsin that has passed an ordinance too. Washurn Wisconsin has passed a similar I guess I would be more curious as to their enforcement because just because you passed an ordinance has been great with these ordinance with law enforcement has not even need to be involved. It's as long as you have a sign to reference and say hey it says no smoking the person either leaves or they put it up. especially in a large group, you know, it's it's only it's [snorts] not picking up. Yeah. Well, it is not picking up, but I don't have her on the agenda to have this discussion unless you

I'm fine tableling it. I'll make a motion to table. Okay. Second. Sorry. Go ahead, Terry. So, motion to table by Sam. Um, second by Terry. Um, let's have a little more input from Scott and if we can have a recommendation from I literally just made a motion to table. I'm not bringing it back. I'm making a motion to table. Okay. All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion carries. All right, on to number eight, which is update regarding publication of meeting minutes summaries. Recommendation, discussion, and action is appropriate. So, um, per state statute, the city needs to put a summary of the meeting minutes in the paper, a reasonable time period following the meetings from the common council. So um in the past of course we have done that but if you read the state statute it specifically says that we need to have the motions that were made and the vote um who voted which way on each of those motions. And since it you know is a cost by how much space you use um we are planning to be a bit more brief in our summaries. Now, at the end of all of the summaries, we do state that the [clears throat] full set of minutes is of course available on our website, available at city hall, and um that they can also view the meetings on YouTube. So, we will continue of course to get that information to the paper so that people are aware there was a meeting um and they will have the absolute um necessary information of what motions were made and so the actions hang out in the council. But um the rest of the year [cough] we will ask people to um do a little bit of digging if they're if they are in need of that.

Speaking of the digging, I very much appreciate this um summarized format. [clears throat] Just wondering sometimes people do kind of complain that it's hard to find things on our city website as far as like when they're looking for specific readings or whatever. Would it be possible? [cough] [clears throat] Tell me if this is a ridiculous request because you have to post however many different minutes, but it's right here where you have ww.c cityoferland.net to have like the backslash and then the actual page that they're located on. Oh, okay. To go to agendas. Yeah. Yeah. So that they can like follow that link and actually find that. Yeah.

It doesn't have to be that specific minute, but maybe the list of minutes. Yeah. That would be my one upgrade request. Yeah, I certainly think we can do that. Yeah, that's going to be better for help people. Absolutely. That's only a couple of words. This will be posted on their Facebook. [clears throat] I'm sorry. What would be this would be posted on the Facebook page, too? Like the minute summary, cuz if you put the minute summary on the city of Rome Facebook page, then they could actually hit the link. If you had it in the paper, they can't actually hit the link. I would have to type it in and [clears throat] that's a lot to type,

but it's the um agenda. It's not that long. city.net/aggendas-m [clears throat] just to take you to that page. I get what she's saying. Just because it is so hard to find stuff that at least would take them to that page. Yeah, I get it. I get what you're saying. So I'm suggesting posting the a like you have an announcement about this that just stays pinned to the top and just have like summary of minutes will be here.

Oh okay. So not actually post the summary of minutes every meeting just put on there that to get to the summary of minutes or to get it would just be get to the minutes at that point because the the summary would be in the paper it would be a link and then it would um it can be pinned to the top and I can even do that. Yeah, great. I mean the more easier it is for people to get to it. Okay. So we do we need action on that? No, we just wanted to let you guys know.

It makes a lot of sense. gas and more cost savings where you can anywhere pennies

okay on to number nine then update regarding the request for proposals for professional audits services recommend recommendation is discussion and action as appropriate so we did receive a number of proposals and um Debbie myself and um older person study are going to review those tomorrow. So per our um our PS that was published um there's some criteria for reviewing and then after we've reviewed them we look at cost and then there's a total points. So after the three of us have gone through and figured out which one has the highest um rating. We'll bring that back to you next next week for your review. So that's how many had like total or

I was going to say there were like eight. I was surprised. Yeah, I think double check was seven. That's a lot of people. It was a It was a lot more than I anticipated. Yeah. Good. Yeah, it was a good turnout and you know a lot of firms that I'm sure you've heard of. So good. Yeah, we should be in good hands. Good. Okay. And so, no action for that one either.

Okay. On to number 10. Budget preparation update recommendation. Public hearing for the 2026 budget has been scheduled for November 11th, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. So, that's before our next meeting. Terry, [laughter] anticipated levy um 2,732,529. The anticipated city mill rate $6.19 per $1,000 value barring of $293,536 to be approved prior to the budget approval and included in so I just basically wanted to put what I think most people would consider to be the the highlights the big overarching um pieces the uh total budget itself is um larger than that it's about 6.7 million um this will be fresh budget in a number of years that is showing both expenditures and revenues of that amount. So um

good job we are making some strides. Um so if anybody has any questions we will of course be getting that pass out in the next couple of days should go by Thursday. Um, and then in there you'll have my proposed um, presentation, the actual budget sheets that you got last time updated with any, you know, of the adjustments that have come in since. And yeah, so and then if you notice on that um, that page with the budget preparation, it does have um, we I have asked one of the number one questions we always get is how much is this going to cost the taxpayers?

Yes. So, she does have it broke down um per $100,000 home, per $200,000 home, and $300,000 home. So, that is broke down. If you have a $200,000 home, um the increase is Oh, am I reading that correctly? Right. $126. Yes, it's a 63 cent increase to the mill rate over last year, which means for every thousand um for every $100,000 of home value is $63. We move all those decimals over. So, does anybody have any questions on this? Obviously, we'll go into more depth and it's nothing we haven't heard. We've heard it all several times. Um but next week I mean is that um annual budget hearing?

Yes. Any questions for Jessie? Not at this time. Good job. Thank you. Do you want your coffee? Yeah. Well, celebrate next week. Okay. So, we are um I will look for a motion to adjourn and then we going to take just a tiny break if that's okay before we roll into the next u meeting. So I will look for an adjournment now. I'll make a motion to adjurnn. Second. Motion by Josh, second by Missy. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Adjourned at 7:27. Um we're keeping two rolling.

What? Three minutes. Saturday. Well, why three? cuz then it would be my email number. Oh, well, let me see how fast I can get out. [laughter] That's the only reason we're taking a break is a four. Right. Just remember that we're live. Oh, mics are on. Unless you want to mute that. It's up to you. Go click on the microphone [clears throat] on the screen there. See it?

I will wait till 7:30 goes down. Thank you. I will call this special common council meeting to order at 7:30 on Tuesday, November 4th. And this is following the committee of the whole meeting that we just had. Can I have a roll call, please? [laughter] Neighbor here. Stevie here. White here. Hill here. Frisb here. Sen here. Six.

All here. Thank you. We don't have any virtual attendees. We don't have any public comments. Number four is resolution 25-12A. Resol [clears throat] a resolution authorizing the borrowing of $293,536 for the purpose of 2026 general operations. Recommendation is approve resolution 25-12 authorizing the borrowing of $293,536 for the purpose of [clears throat] the 2026 general operations which will be a general obligation to the city of of the city of Vermont. So um in anticipation of our borrowing here reached out to local banks and borrowers and merchants has offered us an interest rate of 2.75%. Um the terms of the loan are for one year and one day um as is necessary statute for for this type of borrowing. There is no penalty for prepayment. So if we want to get that done earlier, we certainly can. This will we have to obligate the funds before we can put them on the levy. So that's why we need to do this resolution prior to the public hearing and adoption of the budget. Um, so you have in front of you the draft agreement for the the loan and then of course the the resolution. Are there any questions or concerns or thoughts? I was just going to say thank you to our local banks, specifically farmers and merchants on this one. Um, it's always great when they can support our own. So thank you to farmers and merchants for helping us out on this one.

And for also was very willing to help the community. So we are very very fortunate here. Okay. Does anybody want to make that motion? I'll make a motion to approve resolution 25-12 authorizing the borrowing of $293,536 for the purpose of the 2026 general operations which will be a general obligation of the city of Berlin. Second. Motion by Terry, second by Missy. Can I have a roll call, please? I stubby. Hi, Sen.

Hi, Neighbor. Hi, boy. Hi. And that pass. Thank you. On to old business. Does anybody have anything for old business? Anybody have anything for new business? The number seven. Okay, just checking. I thought you were going to do business and I was like, oh, I was going to say I'll make a motion to adjourn. Victoria and second by second by Josh. I get it enough. All in favor say I. I.

Any opposed? Motion adjourned at 7:33 p.m.