City Council - public_hearing

That's great. I couldn't tell the attendance compared to last year.

Last year, it was really busy, but it was outside.

So I couldn't tell, with everybody being inside, if there was the same amount of attendance or not. So what's the difference with June, July, September? Yeah.

Have you been introducing to them each other?

We started on July 6th. Yeah. Really? Good. So we walked away. I wish I was leaving. Thank you.

Well this is, this is Jonah's stuff. The wisdom sent the link out for it.

But I don't know if it's going to be archived so that we can go back and watch it. It really should be great. It should be very good.

So we have a tutorial watch party at this project tonight on the 6th page, and it should be packed. So I imagine a lot of people probably will go to attend that, maybe.

There's so many dual opposing things every night. For me, this always comes first, obviously.

It's public policy. Yes.

If you do city council, that's what it looks like, right?

Major type of action. It's a passion. Make sure you get in touch with me later. ... ... ... ... ... Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

This is Star, right? Oh, really? Okay. All right.

I'm just hoping that there's some .

It's not enough for . Thank you. Thank you. I emailed them this morning. Well, right.

i'm the only question

He's wiring the air conditioner. All right. Bloody Mary. All right. Well, we're glad you're there. I agree on everything. That's very smart. Very, very nice. What's his name? True. Yeah. Yeah. That's why I gave her my number five. I got to read her right now. Thank you. Thank you. but i know It's hard. It's hard. But that's why I send your name. I understand you have a sister name. So that they have her. Also, they have a sister. And that's why I run it. I've been a representative to send your name for 10 years. Thank you. you are No. They have to be shown already. Thank you. I'm sure it's just... Wow. Thank you. Yeah.

Yeah.

Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I saw that. Yeah. Thank you. We'll catch up.

This meeting of the Eau Claire City Council will come to order. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

City Clerk, please call the roll.

Here here Here All right, thank you everyone for being here welcome to the

Monday, June 22nd, meeting of the Eau Claire City Council. Tonight we have two public discussion items, and then we'll follow that up with a public comment period. And so the way it'll work for each of those two items is that we'll have a staff presentation on each of them, and then council will have opportunities to ask questions, And then we'll open it up for public comment. We'll prioritize folks that signed up in the sheets in the back of the room. And you'll also find agendas in the back of the room if you need them. And then we'll open it up to anyone who maybe didn't get a chance to sign up and just wants to speak after those who have signed up. You'll have up to four minutes to speak. And there's a light system up by the microphone. So the light will be green for the first three minutes, and then it'll turn yellow when you have one minute left. And then it'll start flashing red at four minutes, which means you should wrap up your speaking. But please stay at the podium maybe a second or two after you're finished speaking in case there's any council questions for you. In addition to the opportunity to speak during the public discussion tonight, there are blue comment forms in the back of the room that you can complete and leave at the back table. So that's one way to reach us and those will be sent to all the council members after the meeting. You can also find all the city council member emails on our website and you can email us. There is electronic comment form on the website as well. And that is an easy way to reach us too. Our website is EauClaireWI.gov. I will explain our public comment period later in terms of those details. So the two items we have for public discussion tonight, I will read the first one and we'll get started. Public discussion on an ordinance amending table eight entitled parking prohibited of the code of ordinances of the city of Eau Claire to add parking restrictions on North Star Drive and Bobby Street for increased traffic safety. And we have our engineering director, Leah Ness, to present on that item. Thank you.

Thank you. Good evening. The general area that we're looking at tonight is located just north of the North Crossing and east of North Hastings Way. It's northeast of North Star Middle School. We had a safety concern come in from a resident along North Star Drive and Bobby Street. You can see the aerial and picture on the screen and it's located within the council packet indicating the area of concern along a curve between Bobby Street and North Star Drive. Just with visibility issues with parking, there is a soccer field located just west of Bobby Street that's a part of North Star Middle School. When there's events held there, people park on street, and they were parking on both sides of the street. By restricting the parking on the inside of the curve, we'd eliminate that vision issue related to traffic traveling in both directions. The street is 34 feet in width, so having one eight-foot parking lane and then two travel lanes of 13 feet. A 12 foot lane is a typical lane width. That allows for a lane in each direction to keep traveling through there and around that corner, not having that site restriction with the parking located inside. We worked with PD, they were in support of posting the parking restriction on the inside of this corner. And if there's any questions related to the issue I can try to address those now.

Thank you Director Nesser. Are there any questions from council. So I kind of have a question just about since since North Star Middle School is located across that field and there's a bike trail connection from the street at that intersection kind of that curve like are there vehicles that use that? Are there people that like drop off kids in that area or is it mostly just What kind of traffic do we see, I guess, during school drop-off and pick-up times?

So there is not connecting sidewalk up to Terry Lane at this location. I think, you know, the probably elementary or middle school students, students within the neighborhood may use that trail, but otherwise... maybe activities that are going on at the fields in that location. Just the closest place to park and access the soccer fields is from on street from the residential neighborhood. So I think that's where most of the concerns were coming. We didn't have any feedback related to drop off or pick up times with the school.

Okay. Thank you. Is there like just kind of slightly related, but is there a, a plan to connect a sidewalk to the trail from the north?

Well, looking at this, that was one of the items that we identified when we were looking at the area and restricting of parking and just the connectivity of travel throughout the city. So that is something that we've noted within our sidewalk gap areas map.

Okay. Okay. Thank you. Those are my questions. So yeah, thank you, Director Ness. I don't see any other questions from council. Appreciate it. So this is a public discussion item. Is there anyone who has signed up to speak?

I'll do this item.

OK. Thank you, Director Berg. And this is, OK, thank you. All right. So, and there's no one from the gallery that wants to speak to agenda item number one. Okay, we'll move on to agenda item number two, public discussion on the 2027 to 2031 proposed capital improvement plan. And we have our finance director, Kitsie Winters. to present on the sitem. Thanks for joining us.

Hello, President Craker, Council. Here tonight to talk about our CIP, but I believe the paperwork was loaded a bit differently, so we're... Different agenda item was on the screen. So we're here for our second CIP public discussion. I tried to change the information a bit to focus, to deliver a different message. Again, our CIP is, helps us plan on assets. So at home, those are items you're getting a mortgage, you're getting a loan on, it could be a new vehicle, it could be a new home, it could be a new roof. So that's it. The items are over $5,000 in value. They'll extend the useful life of that asset. So we start that process early in February. Our department directors submit requests. They send those to the finance department. They have meetings with our city manager and finance team. We evaluate and prioritize funding. So if something's broken or something's emergent, we look at that first, and we look at what we have to do, our legal mandates, our infrastructure condition, but primarily the focus over the last few years has just been on safety and replacement. We work on financing and how we're gonna pay for this at the least. or the minimum tax impact to the taxpayers. So that's our primary focus on accomplishing the goals of our departments and meeting the city's safety needs. Right now we're at step six where we're having our second of our three public discussions. We look at around an average of $40 million a year in spending. You'll notice that we have four larger years. Those are four larger projects that we're investing in. So some of those items are aging out. We have a fire station from 1941. We have a couple other buildings from 1946. So we do have to address some of those departmental needs, but next year the investment's $63 million. Of that, you can see sewer. I mean, a couple years ago, it was water. Now we're focusing on sewer. That's a $26 million investment with one large $22 million project. Otherwise, the spending's average or around our average without that large item in there. Other investments are water, transportation or streets, it's another community priority. Land building and equipment, so that's safety equipment for the police department, fire department, it can be anything land or building related, down to even replacing our fuel pumps that our machines use. Those are our four primary areas of investment for our taxpayers this year. And I'm always focusing on diversifying revenue sources. So I'm gonna start in the orange operating income. The sewer and water users pay for those projects. So the rate payers or the users are paying for the investment in those items. Federal aid, you can see, is at 3%. I have around 37% of DNR loans that'll help assist with our larger water and sewer projects. Those are half the interest rate of the average prime rate, so those come in around 2.5%. The market's currently at around 5%, but we'll get a more fine-tuned amount this week. Beginning balance means we have other grant funds for that. General funds, about 2%. That's cash on hand or our unassigned fund balance. Local vehicle registration fee is 2% of our 2027 projects. But again, that's helped with an additional mile of road each year. So in 2022, we had an impact on 12 miles of road. We're up to 15 miles of road that has had the useful life extended. by the four different operational ways to extend that, whether it's resurfacing, mill and overlay. We've been able to use those funds to make a larger impact within our capital improvement plan. Again, focusing on the users paying for those. Then we're down to promissory notes is 31%. So again, that's where you're issuing that loan. And that's a great tool that the state of Wisconsin allows us to use. So we don't have any others in our toolbox, but we'll definitely continue to use that one. I spoke a little bit about the sewer project. And again, we'll have our directors here tomorrow evening to really go in depth. It's a $22 million project. We... did not go through with the $8.5 million project this year. We're saving that all up for next year. It's part of a 10-year plan. That's our 1946 building. But again, it's addressing the sewer plant from the sewage on the way in to the way out to how it's treated. It's not the most luxurious item, but it's one we definitely enjoy that that continues to work. Fire Station 2 is a 1941 building. I'm only funding $12 million of that within the capital improvement plan. We're really hoping to count on a CDS funding or legislative support for $10 million of that. You can imagine our equipment's gotten bigger, our safety standards have gotten better, ADA compliance... just code compliance. We have a lot of items surrounding this building. The station 10 was at $200 a square foot. We're looking at station two being around $450 a square foot, just in that time period. Works we would be having three additional bays over station 10 and that would kind of be your central headquarters So administrative offices mechanic services that we could look at assisting other mechanic municipalities with But again, we don't have the funding for that. This is one year of our targeted borrowing and So we're focusing on $12 million investment, hoping for some additional help. If not, we'll have to really reevaluate 2028 and see where we can go for the least possible tax impact. just a couple i'm sorry i forgot to mention too i i spoke about that protractor but why do we want to address this facility as we expand our response time you know put that protractor down you do that circle around it we have to respond within so many minutes so this will actually decrease the response time kind of in the northern northeast region or up towards Mayo Clinic, Madison Street. So that is the desired location that would have the best impact on those response times for the citizens. TID 17, again with diversified revenue sources, we look at our TIDs to assist with paying for those projects. We don't have to put that right on the general obligation tax bill. We're hoping for the multimodal piece of that. Again, we're working with the DOT and Director Ness will be here tomorrow evening to kind of talk a little bit about that if you have any questions. Railroad safety improvements, we've been talking about that, even it looks like before my time a little bit, but we do have those grant funds. There is still a desire from our railroad. to assist with that, and the price has increased, but we're looking at a potential TID district down Galloway that will be coming before you within 2026 here, so that we can look at that for matching funds as well. Gateway Drive improvements, this one's exciting. I know that's planned for 2030, but that's looking at from Target to Sam's Club, so just some of the road enhancements needed within that area. And again, that's contingent on STP or state grant funding from the DOT. Downtown parking, we can talk a little bit more about that tomorrow, but with diversification of those revenue sources, again, looking at paid parking. We have a million dollar investment proposed just to extend the useful life. Five million dollars to just demolish that. I'm imagining those costs will go up by 2030. Parking is at $40,000 per stall. So just to replace what we have there is an estimated about $31 million. That's about a year and a half of our projects that we do. So about a year and a half of our targeted borrowing. So without having a direct impact, On that tax bill, we're looking at paid parking to assist with a portion of this, because the parking utility itself can't sustain all of that investment. So we'll take a look at all that downtown parking replacement and where we can get over the next five years. I left this placeholder in. We have no amendments from council at this point. You still can give those to me up to the time on the floor. We're approving that in July. The capital improvement plan has been through the respective commissions and we'll have one more, we'll have a work session tomorrow evening where we can talk about any more proposed amendments or any that you would have. We'll have one more public discussion on Monday the 13th to discuss any changes that might have came forward in that time period and then we'll adopt that on Tuesday, July 14th. You can find our budget online at that link as well. So with that, if anyone has any more questions.

Thank you, Director Winters. Any questions from Council? Council Member Brewster.

Thank you, Council President. And maybe this might be a question tomorrow for some of the people at the sewage plant. But I know that since we... process Altoona's sewage also. What is the process like? Does us putting that kind of money into the sewage system also increase the cost for them as well? Or how does that work? If you have an easy way to explain it, if not, I'd be happy to talk four hours about it some other time.

Director Berg is here, but I'll give you a 10,000 feet overview. So they do, Altoona at this point under their current contract contributes into our equipment replacement fund. They also pay the rates for, depending on where that equipment is and what type of that equipment is, and then based off of their percentage of capacity. So right now that's at a set percentage that they're contributing. On a project of this scale, we do issue debt or that Wisconsin DNR Clean Drinking Water Fund loan. So that debt would be amortized over the life of at least 20 years, I would say. So that will have a set steady increase to their budget like the other projects.

Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions from council before we move to public comment? We will have a work session tomorrow on this, and department directors will be there, so there'll be a lot of time for discussion among the council at that time. Great, thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, so we'll move to the... public discussion here. So I'll just go through the list of the people that have signed up already. And then if anyone else in the gallery would like to speak, that'd be welcome. So the first to call up to the front would be Susan Wolfgram.

Welcome.

I'm glad to see we have four minutes. I can talk a little slower, that's good. Good evening, Council President Greger and members of the City Council. My name is Susan Wolfgram. I live at 550 Graham Avenue, downtown Eau Claire. I'm the co-chair of the Jonah Affordable Housing Task Force and in the spirit of transparency, I sit on the plan commission. My comments represent the core team perspective of the task force this evening. I'm speaking this evening on the capital improvement plan to increase the flexible housing initiative LBE 434-029. Please refer to my extended comments that I initially sent to you on June 11th and I sent them again this morning. Our asks, number one, that the flexible housing fund be increased to $1 million each of the five years to a total of $5 million. This increase represents 1.6% of the total CIP budget of $305 million. Number two, that the flexible housing initiative be reassigned to a level one from a level two priority. The initiative directly reflects the City of Eau Claire's strategic plan goal number one, to support economic prosperity for all with diverse creative economic development and inclusive housing options. In January 2020 after our task force advocated with two council champions for over a year, the Housing Opportunities Commission was institutionalized. this was a very bold step since then we have taken additional bold steps including the establishment of this fund now it is time to take the next bold step Our county median income hovers at $70,000 per year. Housing that is affordable to almost 40% of our community members who earn less than 80% of the county median income, 24% earning 60% and under, and 25% of this group that live on less than $25,000 per year is critical economic development infrastructure. many of these households are paying fifty percent or more of their income on rent we have over seven hundred households on our housing authority waiting list and growing three hundred children according to the eau claire area school district who are homeless each year and wages continue to grossly laid behind grants A healthy community with a healthy economy cannot sustain this high percentage who struggle to meet basic needs. For those of you who are not familiar with the United Way Alice Report, please make friends with Alice. There are four key pillars that make the case for affordable housing being critical economic development infrastructure. Please see my extended comments for more detail. The first one is workforce and economic stability. Number two, return on investment and leveraged funds. Number three, expanding the tax base. And number four, reduced municipal burdens. light tech projects are only one tool in this toolbox however it is important to note that prairie heights and the eddy would never have made it over the finish line without gap financing from the city this is an urgent matter it requires a collective will on your part to think about deeply affordable housing as critical economic development infrastructure As important as street and sidewalk improvements, for instance, funded at 25 million in the current CIP, I urge you to take the next bold step and thank you very much for consideration of our comments. Thank you.

Thank you so much. Any questions from council?

Oh, I'm sorry. I'm running away.

Just checking. Thank you so much.

Can I run away? Okay. Yeah, appreciate it.

Next on my list is Mara Landrick. Hi there.

I'm Mara Landrick. And I am a co-founder of Leave of Eau Claire, which is a lived experience advisory board. I support the comments submitted by Jonah Affordable Housing Task Force regarding the Flexible Housing Fund initiative. But I'd like to speak not from a planning perspective, but from a lived experience perspective. We talk about affordable housing, we are talking about people. We are talking about workers, families, seniors, and individuals who are doing everything they can to survive while housing costs continue to rise faster than our incomes. We are also talking about people who have already lost their housing. I know what it feels like to experience homelessness. I know what it feels like to wonder where you're gonna sleep, where you're gonna shower, how you'll get to work, and if anybody thinks that you're human. Too often, our community's response to homelessness is to move people from one place to another. An encampment is cleared, people relocate somewhere else, and then they're moved again. The problem does not disappear because people disappear from view. Moving people from campsite to campsite is not a housing strategy. Housing is a housing strategy. When people have stable housing, everything else becomes possible. Employment becomes easier, healthcare becomes easier, recovery becomes easier, and family stability becomes easier. Without housing, every challenge becomes harder. I hear concerns about costs, and I understand that city budgets require difficult decisions. But I would ask you consider the cost of doing nothing, the cost of emergency services, the cost of crisis response, the cost of instability, and most importantly, the human cost. The Flexible Housing Fund initiative is an opportunity to invest in solutions rather than reactions. It's not simply about buildings. It's about whether we are willing to create a community where working people and low-income families and those experiencing homelessness have a realistic path to stability. This community deserves that investment. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. I don't think there are any questions. Thanks so much, Mara.

Good.

Appreciate your time. Thanks for coming. Next on my list is Amanda Babb.

Good evening, President Gragert and members of the City Council. My name is Amanda Babb. My address is 862 East Grand Avenue. I work every day with the Eau Claire residents who are struggling to find and keep housing, and I'm here to ask you for two things, to increase the flexible housing fund to $1 million annually for the next five years, and move this to a level one priority in the capital improvement plan. When we talk about infrastructure, we often think about roads, sidewalks, water systems, and public buildings. Those investments matter, but none of them function as intended if people cannot afford a safe place to live. Housing is infrastructure. The Matthew Desmond quote, without stable shelter, everything else falls apart, doesn't just apply to individual households. It applies to entire communities. In Eau Claire, hundreds of households are spending more than half of their income on rent, more than 700 households are on the Housing Authority waiting list, and our schools report hundreds of students experiencing homelessness each year. These issues affect our workforce, businesses, schools, and healthcare system. We often hear concerns from employers about finding and retaining workers, but workers need somewhere affordable to live. The job market is challenging in the best times. and we have all seen how challenging it can be for those who have no safe place to sleep, no reliable place to bathe or wash their clothes, no place to store their clothes or their food, and no consistent means of communication. In Wisconsin, the estimated annual cost of homelessness per individual ranges from $30,000 to $50,000 due to emergency healthcare calls, hospital stays, law enforcement calls, arrests and incarceration, business disruption, and other expenses to the city. Whether in response or prevention, the city is already spending this money either way. The flexible housing fund is one of the few tools the city has to address the challenges in increasing access to affordable housing. It provides local investment that can help leverage state and federal funding, fill financing gaps, and make projects possible that otherwise would never get built. The proposed increase to $5 million over five years represents only a small fraction of the city's $305 million capital improvement plan, yet it has the potential to create lasting benefits for residents, employers, and taxpayers alike. In conclusion, if we truly believe in the city's strategic plan goal of supporting economic prosperity for all through inclusive housing options, then our budget should reflect that commitment. Please increase the flexible housing funds to $1 million annually and move it to a level one priority. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you, Amanda. All right. Anyone else from anyone in the gallery would like to speak to the agenda item on the proposed capital improvement plan?

All right.

Well, thanks for coming to speak on this item. And feel free. We have our work session tomorrow, too. So that's a good opportunity where folks can observe the council discussion. I will move on to the public comment period. for residents to speak for up to three minutes on items that we haven't previously discussed on the agenda today. So items that could be on the agenda tomorrow or really any item of citywide application would be welcome. And the microphone up in the front of the room will be green for the first two minutes and then it'll go to yellow. And then it'll start flashing red to then complete comments. The council is not allowed to ask any questions or comment on any of the speakers during this public comment period. But we are listening. And we can always follow up later with you. And this time period is limited to 20 minutes, unless there's a two-thirds vote of the council. And this time is for those living, going to school, or own property, or place of business in the city of Eau Claire. And I do have one person who has signed up. And then I'll open it up to anyone else. And that is Kate Felton. Welcome.

Good evening, Council. Thanks for having me. I'm Kate Felton, Civic and Strategic Communications Coordinator for Ducky. I'm here today following a lively discussion last week at the South Barstow bid where concerns were shared about the changes to downtown parking. In last week's meeting and in our on the ground experience, we've heard a demoralizing dread about the future of downtown under this new policy at this particular moment in time. Downtown visitors have less money to spend with increasing grocery costs, costs of gas and housing. The cost for businesses to keep their doors open are also increasing and it's setting downtown up for disaster. We hear all the time that if changes to parking were made when the downtown economy was good in 2019, for example, maybe businesses could have weathered this storm. But this change in this moment has left businesses wondering whether they'll survive. Unintended consequences are bad for our local economy and our beloved downtown, of course. But accepting business closure as an unintended consequence and an unfortunate casualty is morally wrong because it is accepting the loss of livelihood of downtown workers, which make up 18% of the Eau Claire workforce, the vast majority of whom are living paycheck to paycheck. So this is all to say that we all have a lot on the line with the paid parking program, and if it's gonna happen, we all have a really big interest in seeing it go as well as possible. DECI has been working under contract with the city to share information about the upcoming changes to paid downtown parking on August 1st. We took on this contract because despite our skepticism, we know that if this program is going to happen, it's better for everyone if it's successful. We have found this work to be extremely important and productive in answering the questions and concerns of downtown businesses and visitors. We have also found that this contract has been challenging. While receiving some information just last week, key details about the program have come months after we expected. Information like where the kiosks will be placed, how many will there be, will they even be installed before the program starts, how will new parking resources for downtown employees be used, will they even happen? We're also waiting on some information four months into our contract. For example, where quick stops will be located won't actually be finalized by council until three days before the start of this program. To be clear, we don't blame staff for this delay of information. We see every single day how stretched they are, and we see that they're doing the best that they can with what they have. But it does cause us to wonder whether we're ready to do this program right. So we're here to ask the council to guarantee that the following are in place before August 1st. One, ensure payment kiosks are installed and ready to accept coin and credit card payments. Two, ensure all signage is installed. Three, finalize in writing new parking resources for downtown employees. We're asking that a postponement to paid parking be considered if these basic things are not in place by August 1st or before. Thank you to council for your consideration. We have also arranged a meeting with city staff next week to discuss these requests. Thank you.

Thank you so much, Kate. All right, anyone else from the gallery would like to speak at the public comment period? I don't have anyone else on my list. Well, thanks, everybody, for being here. Our next meeting will be the legislative session tomorrow at 4. So if there is no objection from council, this meeting is adjourned.

Oh, yeah. Thank you.