County Board - Regular Meeting

The time being 7:30, I'll call the meeting to order. Please rise 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.

Roll call of supervisors, please. Oh no, guys. There are 20 supervisors present. Uh, supervisors Carol, Morrisy, and Nez are excused. Citizens comments. Are there any citizens wishing to speak? Any citizens wishing to speak? Please state your name and address for the record. [music]

Uh, this is Chad Tater. I'm from uh the town of Wheatland. I live at 6414400th Avenue, Burlington, Wisconsin. [snorts] Um I'm here tonight to uh kind of get your guys' attention on a matter that's pretty close and dear to home here. Um [laughter] I'm here to talk about the issues uh proposed in the township of Wheatland uh where a battery for storage facility was set to be placed less than one mile from my front door. We were never told about this and we've been hearing that there's been meetings between the battery storage company and the town for almost 2 years. I was not sent a letter because I was not a property owner within 300 ft which is a variance that they tell us they only have to send out a notice to. The town knows these majority products projects are being placed in places where they are going to bring the inflated town budget for one year to help with nothing. We were told that these meetings with Robin Energy were supposed to be held with an open house in September of 2025, which was the first time we heard about it. The town gave very vague outlines as to what was going to be entailed, and we were mostly excited to be told we were getting a cool payment of $1 million and $400,000 for the next 19 years. After reading and breaking down their 248 page document that they submitted with this plan, we came up with five ways that they were going to be able to um release them from being held accountable. Copenhaging um infrastructure partners is a Denmark-based company which is an

investment firm who has been investing in a lot of these large scale energy products since early 2022. They are also funding Robin Energy who is a shell company formed out of at least 14 LLC's that we have found on the 14th floor of a building in New York City. They have five major clauses in this document that they will allowed will be allowed to pull out for unsatisfactory or low production. This document has been posted on the Wheatland Town website and is there for everybody to print and read. I highly encourage it because there's a lot of lingo buried in there. Uh with rising concerns from multiple communities, we the people of Wheatland are urging more legislation to protect the rural farmland and help us preserve what beautiful c communities we have left and not turn them into solar deserts for the quick buck they will generate for short-term energy production. These projects projects are like the new drug in town. We need to stand united as a community and stop the influx of all these bad business deals and NDAs signed by local town administrators. The town administrators have been failing to do the minimal research it takes to educate themselves and provide the knowledge to the rest of us township people. These battery sites give no employment value to the communities as all the workers are hauled in, housed and and owned or paid by the developers who subcontract to do the dirty work of securing the land by whatever means possible. They get their foot in the door and then they prey on the elderly people in the community who aren't able to understand the lucrative lies and then sell them out for little to nothing. The energy stored and used in in these facilities

is less than 10% of residential businesses, 90% commercial. This company has contingency plans to protect themselves in investments and we the town residents have no [clears throat] plan to protect ourselves in case something were to happen. Some did you know with these facilities they come with a threemile mandatory evacuation. That's for one battery. In that 248 page document they stated at that time there was going to be 61 of these batteries. When we held our community meeting on January 13th they held up a paper and said now there will be 197 of them. Almost three times what they published. So how many more lies are they telling us? We were being sold out for $1 million for our first year and 400,000 for 19 consecutive after that. Inflation shows that's not enough. So with my closing statement tonight, [clears throat] I want to be aggressive and diligent on these matters and they are not the way of the future but the way of greed. We need to ask ourselves now how to make these power needs met for future demands with proven methods we currently have. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other citizens wishing to speak?

Hi, excuse me. Hi everyone. My name's Ellen Shut and I actually live in Clinton, Wisconsin. I came out tonight to introduce myself as I'm running for the 11th state senate district which does cover portions of Kenosha County. Um, Senator Nas is the current state senator, but he has announced that he is retiring at the end of the year. I'm originally from Warwick County. I grew up in Darienne, Wisconsin on my family's farm, where my husband and I are still involved to this day with our young son, but we live in Clinton. Um, I had the honor of representing the 31st assembly district in the state assembly, covering portions of both Rock and Walworth County from 2023 to 2025. uh legislative maps did change as you all may know and I was paired with another representative and so I did not run and I'm currently the executive director of the Wisconsin FFA Foundation raising funds for agricultural education across the state and FFA programming and I just came out tonight because I believe our elected officials in the state should be a strong voice for our local communities and I'm here to learn more about what's going on in Kenosha County. So thank you.

Thank you. [snorts] Could we have your address, please? 429 Arthur Drive, Clinton, Wisconsin.

Thank you. Any other citizens wishing to speak? Any other citizens wishing to speak? Any other citizens wishing to speak? Seeing none, citizens comments are closed. Moving on to announcements of the chair. I do not have any tonight. Tonight for our youth and governance in attendance, we have Jessica Kamacho and Ruby Dorado. Very nice to see both of you here. Thank you for coming this evening. And we'll move on to supervisor reports. Supervisor Brown. Okay, first I want to thank Sorry, sounds really loud. Uh first I want to thank Chair UAS for allowing me to attend the NO conference. So, I learned a lot, a lot, and I'm not going to lie, I explored DC a lot. Supervisor Kirby and I deliberately attended different sessions so that we could bring back a multitude of information. We both attended sessions related to our committee memberships. One of the hottest issues both locally and nationally is the sighting of data centers. We all know that Kenosha County is an ideal location for data centers due to our location on Lake Michigan and are being relatively protected from weather incidents and changes. We need to stay ahead of this issue. And doing that means that information for voters is key for potential data center growth. It's easy to think that a medium center data I'm sorry, a medium-siz data center uses a lot of water. It does. It uses between 300,000 to 5 million gallons a day. That is a lot. But did you know that a typical golf course uses anywhere from 312,000 to a million gallons a day? I don't think I'm surprising anyone when I say that numbers aren't really my forte, but even I can see the impact in comparisons and that level of

information and transparency is necessary. Going handinhand with location information on data centers is this critical point. Konosha County has done a phenomenal job of getting in front of renewable energy policies. Our moratorium allowed us to write a good policy and that policy is now being used across Wisconsin. Other counties and other states would also do well to replicate it. And data centers are a bit of a nimi issue. We all need what they provide. In fact, anytime we use AI to search using a few words, we're using the amount of about a bottle of water. Yet, we don't necessarily want them near us. AI and data centers are here to stay. We need to be prepared, which includes renewable energy. Other sessions I attended focused on homelessness and behavioral health, two issues that again go hand in hand. The bottom line is that we need a better understanding and a better safety net in our community for homelessness. And the biggest takeaway is that the federal government isn't the best source of information for what counties need. This is a theme that repeated when we met with staff from Congressman Brian Styles and Senator Ron Johnson's offices, as well as when we met with Senator Tammy Baldwin and her staff. In meeting with our representatives, we also addressed the need to remove CO protocols from our nursing homes. Senator Baldwin said she believed that Health and Human Services could make this changed absence of Congress. And this information was shared with Brookside administrator Linda Bodala and she is following up with a letter to um Senator Baldwin about that. The last workshop I want to address is about arts in our communities which was timely because Carthage College had presented a similar workshop that supervisors Gashki Gearson and I attended the day before the conference began. Both sessions explained how arts and culture aren't just amenities. that are essential to our economic infrastructure. And both sessions gave

case studies on how the arts have a measurable economic impact. Again, I want to thank Chair UAS for this opportunity and I hope that the board finds value in the document and links to more information that I've just sent to you. I scheduled my send for 7:40. So, there you go. Thank you so much.

Thank you, Supervisor Brown. Supervisor Kirby. [clears throat] Um I would like to reiterate what Supervisor Brown said and say thank you to uh Chair UA or Chairman Uass for sending us to the NACO conference. Um I found it incredibly informative. It was an excellent opportunity to learn a lot. Um I everybody will see a handout on their desks. Um believe it or not, this is significantly paired down. If anybody would like all of my notes, I'm more than happy to send it. Um so on the first page um I attended the finance uh pensions and inter intergovernmental affairs policy steering committee. Um a lot of this isformational. Um I think one of the one of the most relevant things um on here is that uh the treasury recently published a notice about using ARPA data for improper payments um and recouping payments. So they will be using all data all suble data. I'm not concerned that Kenosha County is going to get any funds clawed back. Um but that is something maybe to be aware of that um that more information may be requested. Um uh this the second point down is talking about the federal fiscal cliff um and how that could potentially impact our counties. Um our our federal debt is at 100% of GDP which means there is potential for increased interest rates in the future which could increase the cost of our capital borrowing. um we could always it's not really within our control but it's something we can hopefully plan for. Um and then the third one is on rising risk and credit ratings. So they had a representative from Fitch actually come and speak to us and they're now using an AI tool called Juniper to help do some predictive modeling on climate change and and risks related to that. They are currently not using that in in actually calculating the ratings that counties receive, but they are using it to look closer um when

they see something that looks concerning. And I I can easily see in the future that that might be, you know, might be something that um that could impact our ratings. Um fortunately, things like risk mitigation, um emergency planning can all help offset those risks. And I think we are we we do the right things in Kenosha County to make sure that that that won't um cause us any harm. Um if you flip it over to the the second side, um this largely deals with the HR1 Medicaid and SNAP implementation. Um that that's obviously coming up for us. Um I want to say one of the big takeaways on this is that we are going to be doubling our administrative work and therefore our administrative cost on implementation. Um we will have to do Medicaid um we'll have to uh sorry verify Medicaid eligibility twice a year instead of once a year. Um we will also have to to verify work requirements. Um along with that um same with SNAP. We're going to have to verify that twice a year along with work requirements. Um we are still awaiting guidance from the federal government. They are supposed to provide that guidance by June 1st of this year. Um, and there will be some funding that's provided to the states, um, which in our case would have to be then passed down to the counties. Um, it will likely not be enough to cover all of our costs. Um, so something to be aware of. Um, there are three reports on here that I would highly recommend um, if you want to learn more about what could potentially impact us. um the Niko reports Medicaid and counties the big shift and then there's a Niko county explorer tool um and then one of the questions I asked in almost every session related to this that I went to was are there any tools for us to estimate what the potential financial impact could be? Um because we are going

to still have mandated services that we have to provide and we will no longer be able to receive Medicaid funding for some of those services. Um, unfortunately, nobody seems to have anything yet. Um, the Kaiser Family Foundation is working on modeling that out and providing a tool um, for states and hopefully for counties as well. Um, in the meantime, we could take a look at our own data just to get an idea of what our potential exposure might be. And if anybody would like my notes, again, I'd like to offer I I will send you all five pages. Thank you, Supervisor Kirby. Vice Chair Gi.

Thank you, Chair UAS. Just a brief update on last week's joint services board uh monthly meeting. Um joint services continues to operate steadily across all their divisions. Um I'll just touch on a couple of brief highlights. Um staffing remains pretty stable overall um in administration, fleet, and evidence. Um, communications does currently have seven vacancies, but my understanding is that later this week, uh, three new telecommunicators are going to be starting and, uh, there are a couple of other candidates in process. So, even the, uh, communications, uh, staffing is, uh, in pretty good shape. Um, speaking of communications, uh, they continue to to handle calls uh, with excellent results. uh 95% of the calls under 10 seconds, 98% of the calls within 15 seconds. And so even with uh being slightly under staff, they continue to do a great job for our community. Um the the fleet uh department continues to uh complete work orders and uh continues to upfit uh patrol vehicles, kind of alternating with the sheriff's department and the uh police department as needed based on needs. Um the new automatic car wash is fully operational. It's uh it's working well and uh being used uh uh frequently. IT projects remain on track um with cyber security and Office 365 migration and planning as well as other infrastructure upgrades. And then finally, uh we had some year-end 2025 budget transfers uh that we approved as well as uh entering into an agreement with um Sikitch for financial review services uh for the next 3 years. Uh so that's just a brief update on the joint services board. If you have any other questions, feel free to follow up with me, uh Chair UAS, Supervisor Moresy, or uh Executive Kirkman. All of us serve on

that board. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Chair Gashki. Any other supervisor reports? Seeing none, supervisor reports are closed. New business, resolution 172 from the legislative committee, a resolution in support of lowering costs while improving health outcomes for incarcerated individuals with substance use disorders. This passed unanimously at committee. Vice Chair Gashki. I move resolution 172. Moved by Vice Chair Gashki, seconded by Supervisor Garcia, Vice Chair Gashki.

Uh, thank you. At this time, I would like to uh invite the author of this uh resolution, Supervisor Decker, to speak on its behalf. Thank you, Vice Chair Gashki. Um, the sheriff reached out to me re when he discovered this information and so I worked with the sheriff and Carrie Voss on writing the resolution and I would like uh the sheriff to speak on it if he would so kindly do so.

Good evening. Put me on the spot. Um, [snorts] like the legislative committee, uh, what I discussed, this is a phenomenal opportunity for us because, as everyone in this room knows, um, our detentions division has a an abundance of people with substance abuse disorders. And what this re-entry opportunity does, um, since April of 23, um, agencies can, the state agency, not us, the state agency can apply, uh, for this opportunity to get coverage for individuals that lose their Medicaid when they come into custody. So 90 days before they leave custody, they can reapply and get those benefits. And what that will do for them um not only better planning for the for when they leave uh facility, but continu excuse me, continuity of care. Um get the prescriptions that they're going to need once they get out. Uh they'll get a 30-day supply. This is all funded. um and they get the therapy and things that they're going to need and um uh a coordinator, a discharge planner and a coordinator for once they leave to be able to help them. Um this will offset some of those expenses for the county which is we're always trying to recoup money uh the expense is extremely expensive as you know with our healthcare providing system. So especially these are the most vulnerable individuals in our in our care and uh this is an opportunity um [clears throat] they don't have to give it to to counties. So uh it's one of the points I made at the committee level is to please uh any input that you may have any opportunity that uh our county board and our supervisors have to reach out to the state our Medicaid um the state Medicaid director his name is William Hannah please do so. Uh we really need to make sure that we capitalize this opportunity as this book proceeds. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions for me beyond that?

Any discussion on resolution 172? All right. Seeing none, all in favor? I oppose. Resolution 172 passes unanimously. Resolution 173 from the legislative committee, a resolution opposing proposed rule making relating to wireless deployments. This passed unanimously at committee. Vice Chair Gashki. Thank you, Chair UAS. I move resolution 173. Moved by Vice Chair Gashki, seconded by Supervisor Kirby. Vice Chair Gashki.

So, Supervisor Moresy uh and the legislative committee uh discussed this. Essentially [snorts] what it is is um the FCC is considering changing some rules that would uh essentially streamline putting in uh communication towers, cell towers, things along those lines. Uh and although that sounds like a good idea, it what it ends up doing is removing um input and local control. And uh so by by streamlining it from the federal level, it it bypasses and removes local communities ability to be able to control um and regulate where and how so on and so forth. So, Supervisor Moresy proposed this to the legislative committee

[snorts] um essentially to um send to uh Congressman Style, Senator Johnson, Senator Baldwin uh effectively to ask them to oppose the uh Federal Communications Commission rule changes uh in order to allow local communities to gain uh to to continue to retain control and have input um instead of streamlining things to the point of uh of of bypassing local communities. So that's uh essentially what this uh resolution before us is proposing.

Thank you, Vice Chair Gashki. Any discussion on resolution 173? Seeing none, all in favor? I opposed. I let the record show that Supervisor Pool voted nay. Resolution 173 passes. Resolution 174 from the public works and facilities committee. A resolution to approve the revision of rural functional classification system in Kenosha County. This passed unanimously at committee. Supervisor Decker was excused. Supervisor Grady.

Move resolution number 174.

Moved by Supervisor Grady. Seconded by Supervisor Bellski. Supervisor Grady. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh 174 and 175 are somewhat related in the sense they both have ultimately a financial impact. 174 that's on our docket at the moment is a reclassification to basically look at the way Kenosha County is becoming more urbanized all the time. And more urbanized means more, shall we say, upgraded classifications of roads. and upgraded classifications of roads can lead to more um monetary availability for improving maintaining these roads. So, this is one of the items that passed unanimously in our committee and we'd ask your approval this evening and I will hasten to mention that our director of highways is here should you have any further questions. Thank you.

Thank you, Supervisor Grady. Any discussion on res resolution 140 174? Seeing none. All in favor? I opposed. Resolution 174 passes unanimously. Resolution 175 from the public works and facilities committee, a resolution respectfully requesting the governor of Wisconsin and state legislature enact a comprehensive sustainable [clears throat] transportation funding solution. This passed unanimously at committee. Supervisor Decker was excused. Supervisor Gravy. Move resolution number 175.

Moved by Supervisor Grady, seconded by Supervisor Franco. Supervisor Grady.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Again, kind of a companion piece and a certain way of looking at it where 175 is a little bit larger in its reach. It's asking the state to have some type of plan going forward for reimbursing local entities, funding, planning, that type of thing. Again, it passes our committee unanimously. We'd ask your approval this evening. Thank you, Supervisor Grady. Any discussion on resolution 175? Supervisor Bowski. Thank you, Madame Chair. I want to thank Chris Walton and Greg Bolt for taking the time to thoroughly answer my questions, which were many following the committee discussion. My takeaway is straightforward. Over the past 5 years, we committed we've committed significant bonding to transportation infrastructure and recent increases in the general transportation aid or GTA are tied to those higher spending years. All those years fall out of the state's for fall out of the state's formula. We are projecting a decrease beginning in 2028. While GTA does not directly affect bonding, it directly impacts our operational levy that creates long-term planning challenges at the county level. For that reason, I'm supporting this resolution. Counties need a comprehensive and sustainable transportation funding structure that provides greater predictability so we can responsibly manage infrastructure without creating future structural pressure. Thank you, Supervisor Bowski. Any further discussion on resolution 175? Seeing none, all in favor? I opposed. Resolution 175 passes unanimously.

Ordinance first reading to required ordinance 37 from the legislative committee. An ordinance to amend municipal code Kenosha County chapter 2.02. 02 sub3 related to the time of the county board meetings. Communications. Communication 128. Communication from the public works and facilities committee. A resolution to approve a grant submission to the DNR's recreational trails program. Refer to public works and facilities committee. [snorts]

Communication number 129. Communication from the public works and facilities committee. A resolution to maintain Wisconsin bird city status and recognize international migratory bird day proclamation. Refer to public works and facilities committee. Communication 130. Communication from the judiciary and law enforcement committee. A resolution to approve the probationary cabaret license for Packard Enterprises doing business as Great Lakes Dragway 18411 First Street in the town of Paris. Refer to Judiciary and Law Enforcement Committee.

Communications 131. Communication from the Finance and Administration Committee. County Consolidated Donation Policy. Refer to Finance and Administration Committee. Communication 132. Communication from Supervisor Franco and the Human Services Committee. A resolution recognizing April 27th through May 3rd, 2026 as Fair Housing Week. Refer to human services committee. Communication 133. Communication from supervisors Grady and Gearson. A resolution in support of maintaining Sheran Road as currently configured.

Refer to public works facilities committee. Claims. Claim number 64. Brian Massie. Property damage. Refer to corporation council. Claim 65. James Unuranu. Property damage. refer to corporation council. Approval of the February 18th, 2026 minutes by Supervisor Gray. Supervisor Gray. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move to approve the February 18th county board minutes. Second. Moved by Supervisor Gray, seconded by Supervisor Decker. Any corrections? Seeing none, all in favor? I opposed. Motion passes unanimously. Motion to adjurnn. Second.

Motion to adjurnn by supervisor decker. Seconded by supervisor meadows. All in favor? I opposed. We are journed.