County Board - Regular Meeting

Please rise for the pledge of

allegiance. I aliance 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. All right, there are 21 supervisors present. Supervisors Gent and Morrisy are excused. Moving on to citizens comments. Are there any citizens wishing to speak? Feel free to come up to the podium. Please state your name and address for the record.

My name is Jim Kennedy, 7819 Fth Avenue in Kenosha. In January, a 287G contract agreement was finalized between sheriff's earner and the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE. A decision that has been seriously questioned by Kenosha County residents who object to ISIS's current mission and tactics regarding immigrants. This agreement obligates Kenosha County to provide at county expense staff in our detention facilities to work as deputized ICE agents under ICE authority and supervision to carry out custody and administrative tasks related to county detainees who are immigrants in order to facilitate their transfer from county custody to ICE custody. The sheriff has explained that his only purpose is public safety and that our ICE deputies will facilitate custody transfers only for violent criminal offenders. Unfortunately, ICE's mission is radically different from this. According to top administration officials, the ICE mission is to carry out quote the largest mass deportation operation in US history," unquote, which means sweeping up ICE into ICE custody as many immigrants as possible and putting them into the deportation pipeline. ISIS's aggressive and indiscriminate approach has thus far resulted in around 75% of immigrants in ICE detention having absolutely no record of any prior criminal convictions at all and only about 5% with violent criminal histories. Because of this very large disconnect between the sheriff's stated intention and ISIS's actual mission, I believe the Kenosha County Board should

monitor closely how this agreement gets implemented. Accordingly, I submitted three recommendations to the judiciary and law committee at their last meeting and I'm now requesting that committee, the finance committee, and the board as a whole to use these recommendations as a basis for putting in place a strict oversight process that is transparent to the public. First, the board can let the sheriff know that county government does support his commitment to public safety, but requests him to limit custody transfer activities only to undocumented immigrants with clear and recent histories of criminal violence. My second and third recommendations are that the appropriate committees require regular public reports in open session from the sheriff regarding immigrant detainees being transferred into ICE custody and regarding the costs to Kenosha County taxpayers of the work his ICE deputies carry out under this agreement. Finally, I should add that this 287g agreement not only puts the full personnel and operating cost of these ICE deputies squarely on the county, it also opens the county up to potential legal litigation and liability costs as it clearly states that all costs of litigation in the event of lawsuits related to the work these county employee ICE deputies perform are the responsibility of Kenosha County. The vulner this vulnerability is something I believe corp council and possibly other legal advisers to the county should look at carefully. Thank you. My name is Marita Huff. I live at 793934th

Avenue in District 9. I was here last fall um when you were working on the budget and asked you to give more money to Shalom Center or KHDS or or do something uh because there were so many people without housing. What are you going to do? Rents are high and jobs are few. No increases were made in the budget. My church, Emanuel United Methodist, has opened up five different times this winter for zero or near zero degree weather, totaling 5.5 weeks of nights open. We're actually open tonight and have been the last two nights. Remember Sunday night when it was raining, cats and dogs, and it turned to snow? Well, we decided to open kind of the last minute about 2:00 in the afternoon, we made the decision. Almost everyone who came in at 6:00 was wet and some were soaked from top to bottom to the skin. How long do you think that they would have avoided hypothermia when the temperatures dropped into the teens? It dropped to 8° last night. These folks, these folks right over here, my friends who don't have a place to live, um they felt lucky to be lying on the floor in a church basement. I have spoken with five men who've gotten frostbite, gang green, and amputations in the last 15 months during cold spells. What? And these happened during times when Emanuel decided to be open, but they didn't know it. It wasn't published. And now they're maimed for life. There will be no more motel vouchers from KHDS. their whole $30,000 of share money that came from the county plus $5,000 more was used up by midFebruary. That's horrifying, isn't

it? All that money gone. KHDS sheltered 75 people in motel rooms during that fivew week long super cold spell. Motel rooms are very inefficient. They don't provide food and they don't provide case management. But who do we perhaps maybe all those people didn't deserve to be in a motel room? How about those families with children? There were 27 children among those 75 people. Um how about the persons that are over 60 years old or someone disabled or the rail thin youth? Do they need to be in a motel room? How do we pick who stays outside? On a night in January, the point in time count um included these 75 plus 10 at the whole pub and 15 that were at Emanuel and six that were found outside and a total 106 people that had no place to be of their own. These people will be outside again tomorrow when Emanuel closes our emergency warming center. The number of homeless people has quadrupled since Shalom moved into its new building and they haven't in been able to increase their capacity. If Kenosha County had an emergency weather declaration and warming center plan in place, those 106 people could have been cared for in one place by staff from the agencies that do that type of thing, and volunteers, the same people that have helped Emanuel, for a whole lot less money. There are buildings that could serve this purpose far better than my little ancient church is doing. An emergency weather declaration could set aside a cert certain zoning regulations during emergencies, allowing existing buildings to be used as warming centers. Having a warming cooling center list

published every year with no night or holiday hours is an embarrassment to this c county. Does weather follow human timing? If there is a will, county and city leadership can work together to plan for an emergency weather declaration and emergency warming centers for next winter to protect our most vulnerable cities and save the county money. Please, this is important. We don't need more people getting frostbite and amputations and dying of exposure. Help this to happen. Thank you. Thank you. Any other citizens wishing to speak?

Thank you. My name is Mary Zorn. I live at 9237th Street. I'm here to speak about homelessness as well. Um, just to follow to piggyback onto what Marita said, and I do want you to know that this woman spent 25 consecutive nights sleeping on the floor for about 4 hours while there were volunteers there so that she could get a little bit of sleep. 25 nights consecutively plus the other nights that she did in order that people did not freeze to death. And it is the only reason people did not freeze to death. I want you to be completely aware of that. because that is a fact. Shalom Center's Hope Hub houses 10 people at this point and they have to wait in line and only 10 people can get in. That number should increase to 16. But tonight, Marita, how many people are there tonight? Maybe.

Well, last night we had 28.

28 last night. And that includes there's 10 people already at Hopeub. So, that's a lot of people that are going to be on the call. And how do you choose? Do I look at the people here and say, "Nope, you don't get a place tonight." So, I want you to know that hypothermic deaths can occur even at temperatures between 30 and 50°. That is to us. We think I can go home to my warm bed, but people can't go home to their warm bed. This winter, December to February, has had five weeks of near zero temperatures. The warming shelters are not adequate. They close too early. And if people can't get into the warming shelters, there's no place for them to go even during the day because the libraries close for various reasons. There are some places that open to have people come in, but they're inadequate for the task. Shalom Center is always at full capacity. We are not complaining that they're not doing their job. They're doing what they are designed to do. We have, as she said, frost frostbite. There are buildings, there's sufficient places here. There are sufficient funds here that we can change this. The other cities, Racine, Ascension's Hospital is open and declared a severe weather emergency. Milwaukee has opened senior citizen buildings for this. Rock Keegan opened the train station for this. And those places again, they're not adequate for this this sort of emergency in that way. But we can find a solution. We're smart and I think we're compassionate at our cores. We can find a way to prevent this. Thank you very much.

Any other citizens wishing to speak? Hello, my name is Aaron Price. Um, I'm a citizen. I'm homeless currently. So, I have to deal with this after being housed within a housing authority for 5 years with without the stability that I needed to build with my life. I was actually doing it from scratch. So this right here, having to spend this year outside, especially with this dying winter, like they said, amput amputations, hypothermia, and all of that is very um serious, a serious matter to consider like any type of funds that could help. Um it's a lot of things that could be done that is not being done. And it's kind of disheartening to having to lose something that I've worked so hard to build by myself. I didn't have no family, no nothing. But to also not have the support from the um county and all of that, it's it makes it even harder with these jobs and you know, not to get you like not to get you wrong, like the immigrants, I'm fine with them being here. I don't have an argument for that neither. this panel, my argument is for the balance estate. I was actually a youth advisory for the balance of estate who's giving them information for homelessness. Um, but what rubs me the wrong way was them targeting the youth only. Um, I feel like more people with a higher statue, like older, like they were saying older people with disabilities could utilize any housing st um stabilizations rather than the youth. I understand that Gen Z is something that we should focus on, but not too much to give them

um a type of, you know, this high standard, you know what I mean? They have to finish high school. It's just giving them like it's not a sorority, you know what I mean? It's not a party. Like that's what they going to take it as. Giving them them opportunities. Not to say that they don't deserve it, but it's plenty of people that is out on the streets sleeping outside. like sleeping outside that time. They was talking about when it turned from rain to snow. I was out there and I actually it caught me by surprise actually. I didn't was not prepared. Um a lot of people are you know trying to survive. So I I didn't I understand how people are trying to get you know every warmth possible. So I wasn't really too bent up on people taking my covers. But I get it like I don't want to be out here as much as they don't want to be out here either. Um I guess I'm saying at the same um yeah I feel like it's a lot of things that could be utilized that church seven right thank you again that was um very nice of her to do like she said she didn't have to do that she almost literally lost her marriage because of it is very heartfilling that she is out here stepping up doing that piece that you know we can come together and make ways. My thing is um like when I was speaking about the youth only focus on the youth they really don't have the capacity to want to help others and then you take away opportunity from like myself. I could help a lot um if I was given the opportunity with my disability. Um so not to say they don't deserve it. the youth do deserve, but giving them a high standard like that, they just going to abuse it like they're doing now. You know, not really taking life seriously and they are in their 20s, like, you know what I mean? So, they're not really going to take the life seriously right now. But we have people that could be

inventors that's sleeping outside. We have a lot of people with strong minds and could invent things that could change the world for real. And we need to put the um perspective there and not more this perspective of just where could the income come from cuz I guess we focusing on the wrong things I guess is what I'm trying to say. But thank you for your time. That's all I have to say. Thank you for your comments. Good evening. Sandy Wenmire. I live um 7926 Williamsburg Court in Bristol, Wisconsin. Um as many of you know, I am a candidate for State Senate District 11. So, I wanted to come this evening to say thank you to each of you guys for your community service, serving in public office. Stepping forward to be a voice for your neighbors, it takes commitment and it takes dedication. For more than two decades, I've had the privilege of volunteering here in our community. From serving as a scout leader for my son's troop to helping serve spaghetti dinners, chaperoning field trips, laying flags for our veterans, and working alongside so many others who care deeply about this place that we call home. The spirit of service is something that I deeply value. I know each of you bring your own perspective and experiences to this board, and while we may not always agree on every issue, the willingness to step forward and serve your community is something that deserves respect. For those of you I've had the opportunity to get to know, I appreciate the conversations that we've had. And those I haven't yet met, I look forward to getting to know you and continuing to work together to strengthen our community. Tonight, I wanted to talk about an issue that I believe has been addressed at this board before. Um, there's a proposal by Dove Storage LLC. It's an independent power producer. I'll

refer to it as best moving forward to bring a 200 megawatt alternating current standalone battery energy storage system to Pleasant Prairie the proposed locations adjacent to the reclex. According to their proposal, Dove Storage intends to file for a certificate of public convenience and necessity based on the filing requirements for solar generation. If approved, the PCS's actions may potentially disregard the work that this board has already put in place to regulate zoning for battery storage facilities. I commend the county board and county executive Samantha Kirkman for putting a temporary moratorium on battery storage facilities last year while you work to craft a balanced ordinance that not only supports reasonable measures to use best to help meet growing community energy demands, but that also works to help keep the surrounding people, businesses, property, and the environment safe. I'm pleased to hear that County Executive Kirkman also expressed a willingness to work with this board to possibly revisit 2024 ordinance 13, the zoning ordinance that pertains to BEST in an attempt to address the very valid safety concerns that have been raised by residents most recently about a proposed BEST facility on Kirkman Farm property on Highway 50 in Wheatland. Thousands of people utilize the reclex in Prairie and Prairie Springs Park and Lake Andrea every year from daily fitness to youth sports to child care services to to volleyball, basketball, triathlons, hockey, swim meets and beyond. These resources are not only a strong center for our community to gather, but also a significant driver of tourism revenue for Kenosha County. While the village of Pleasant Prairie does their own zoning, the county's work on this issue has been pioneering for the state of Wisconsin. I'll be encouraging the village to look to the county's work on this issue so so far for guidance on what best meets the community's needs

while keeping us safe. In addition, I would like to encourage board members to support legislation at the state level that gives local communities and residents more say in the development and construction of solar, wind, battery, and any other energy production or storage technology such as 2025 Senate Bill 3, authored by Senator Marklin and Representative Trattle. Thank you so much for your time and consideration in these matters. Thank you. Any other citizens comments? Any other citizen comments? Good good evening everyone and uh I'm one of the homeless who is staying at the the church with uh Miss Marita.

Ma'am, could I have your name for the record, please? Katherine Robinson. Thank you.

Uh yeah, I just wanted to say that we're we're we're not all lazy. We're not all drunks. We're we're not all alcoholics. Some people have mental issues and that's why we end up on the street. And it's it it's very scary to know that it's easy to be homeless. Some people are a check or two away from being homeless. And I've done research and there's some people that only have $1,000 in their bank account. So, uh, I don't I don't know what else to say except for it's really scary that it's easy to be homeless with with like layoffs or I don't medical emergency or somebody's house burned down or something like that. So, I think uh a good thing for Kenosha County would be if we could have some lowincome housing. That would be very helpful. And that is all. Thank you. Anyone else wishing to speak? Any other citizens wishing to speak?

See, it's on the list. You miss Sandy. Okay.

Okay. Miguel Reyes. Okay. Hello. My name is Miguel Reyes. I'm 65 years old. I'm retired. I'm a veteran. Only reason why I'm homeless is because the rent was too much to afford. But the kicker is how much is a human value? You know what I'm saying? It could be your son. It could be your daughter. It could be your granddaughter. It could be your wife. It could be your whatever husband. So the the thing I'm saying is what's the human value? Really? You would see somebody freeze outside in the cold. Is that the human value? Nope. Okay, seriously, I laugh because it's true. Excuse me. So, the kicker is what I want to be done if I had the power is to have more shelters, of course, for the homeless. uh more stationary home or what they call it a porter pod because you don't want somebody pooping on your damn lawn or peeing behind your damn garage. Okay, that's number two. So, what can you solve? What problem can you do to solve this? Any questions?

Sir, we can't engage in conversation. Well, anywh who, well, like I said, I'm 65 years old. I'm a veteran. Can't afford rent. The only reason I got addicted is because I can't afford $700 a month, but only get 971 from social security. Do the math. So, what you want me to do? Sleep out on the street? Peace out. Yes, my name is Lear Matthysse. I'm currently homeless. Uh, I was born and raised here. It's uh very disheartening to see that it's come to police harassing the homeless more than pretty much doing their jobs. I mean, I'm out in the streets every day. I look for jobs. I try to survive. It's very hard. It's hard. I mean, I've been to the top. I've had a full-time job and did more than that. Went above and beyond. And people fall. You know, they trip, things happen. People are homeless for a thousand different reasons. But the thing is, like Miss Maria said, there's there's not enough shelters. There's just not there's more homeless people in Kenosha than you actually know. I mean, you might not see it on an everyday basis, but there's from senior citizens to, you know, the middle class people to the lower people to the, you know, the uh the young.

There's young people out here in these streets just bouncing everywhere. Nowhere to go. They have no incentive or anything to do better. I mean, Kenosha is a very quick advancing place, but it ain't that big. It's really not. I mean, these people have no trust in you guys. They They don't trust the system at all. And as long as I've been here in this city, there have been so many things that were great about it, but now it's just like fizzled out. So many ghost town buildings just have sat there for decades and nobody's done anything with them. And all these people are out here in these streets trying to survive. Everybody's in the melting pot and they're just like you guys are just letting them all melt. It would be nice to know that there's some type of spirit in this city that will stop the bleeding somehow. I mean, cuz we're bleeding. Thank you.

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 chairperson. Just want to say happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone. Today's a day where everyone's Irish. So, happy St. Patrick's Day. Tonight, we have in our youth and governance in attendance, we have Kendall L Grande and Olivia Gorgon. So, thank you both for being here. Moving on to supervisor reports. Are there any supervisor reports this evening? Supervisor Gray. Thank you, Madam Chair. Over the last several weeks, I've been able to attend water resource conferences with our county county conservationist Paul in support of the 10-year soil and water conservation plan that is being updated. We're Kenosha County where water is a valuable resource. The entire east side of our the entire east side of our county is bordered by Lake Michigan. It comes up when we talk about land development data centers. It supports our agriculture, powers industry, sustains wildlife. Clean water also protects public health and keeps our lakes, rivers, and wetlands usable for recreation. It is an economic bloodline for our county. When water quality or quantity declines, communities feel the impact quickly. March 22nd is World Water Day, an annual event established by the United Nations in 1993. The day was created to raise awareness about the importance of fresh water and to highlight the need for sustainable water management around the world. We will be hearing much more about water in the months ahead.

Thank you, Supervisor Gray. Supervisor P.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to comment on the NAKO report by two supervisors that attended the NATO meetings last month. I appreciate that Supervisor Kirby highlighted the federal fiscal cliff ahead of us. Federal debt is over 100% of gross domestic product, the highest level since the Civil War. 13 to 15% of the federal budget goes to debt service, which is more than we spend for national defense. This debt bomb will eventually lead to credit downgrade on US bonds which will cause the government to pay more for interest expense on that debt. Some expenses can no long be no longer be covered by the federal government. Let us remember this the next time that someone offers a program that can be covered by a federal grant. The federal government is broke and we should not be accepting any more federal grants. Fortunately, there is a solution. President Trump is opening federal lands out west for mineral exploration, and the income from those leases should help pay down the national debt. I have read numbers in excess of $150 trillion. That plus tariff income should help stabilize federal spending. Let's hope Congress uses that money to pay down our debt and not create new expenditures before our dollar becomes worth less. Thank you.

Thank you, Supervisor Pool. Any other supervisor reports? Seeing none, supervisor reports are closed. Old business, ordinance, second reading to required. Ordinance 37 from the Legislative Committee, an ordinance to amend municipal code of Kenosha County, chapter 2.02, 02 um sub3 related to the time of the county board meetings. This passed unanimously at committee. Vice Chair Gashki. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move ordinance 37.

Moved by Vice Chair Gashki, seconded by Supervisor Nordigan. Vice Chair Gashki. Uh thank you, Madam Chair. At this time, I'd like to invite our colleague, Supervisor Nudo, the ordinance to uh speak on its behalf, please. Supervisor Noodle.

Thank you. I brought this uh ordinance because when I was going around to obtain signatures for the nomination papers, I was asking uh the people in my district if they had any concerns, any questions, any suggestions on what we could do. And mostly the elderly, they asked if there was a way to kind of start the meetings a little bit earlier because it will be too late for them. So that's the reason why I brought this uh arguments and uh at committee there was a lot of discussions very lot of questions and everything and at the end it was pretty much compromised because at the beginning I'd uh put in for 6:30 but there was a motion to do it at 7:00 and unanimously everybody was uh okay with that. Also, at this time, I would like to move to amend the ordinance to add after the last sentence. This shall take effect beginning with the first meeting in May 2026. So, in that way, we're not going to disrupt anything with this board that will be when the new board starts. There's a motion made by Supervisor Nudo to amend, second by Supervisor Gashki. Any discussion on the amendment? Seeing none, all in favor? I opposed. Amendment passes. Voting on the ordinance 37 as amended. All in favor?

I

I opposed. Ordinance 37 passes unanimously. New business policy resolution first reading two required. Policy resolution four from the finance and administration committee. A resolution to approve a Kenosha County consolidated donation policy. Ordinance one reading. Ordinance 38 from the planning development and extension education committee. An ordinance regarding B&J Nelson Farms LLC owner Jean Burgal's agent requesting a resoning from A1 Agricultural Preservation District to A1 Agricultural Preservation District and A2 General Agricultural District in the town of Paris. This passed unanimously at committee. Supervisor Meadows was excused. Supervisor Brown. Move move ordinance 38.

Moved by Supervisor Brown, seconded by Supervisor Brook House. Supervisor Brown. Um, as the honorable clerk mentioned, this did get approved unanimously at the committee, the town of Paris also supported it. So, I ask for your support. And there is discussion on this item. Supervisor Nordigan. Uh, thank you, Chair. You asked. Quick question. Um A1 to A2 0.6 acreage is I thought we had to be over 10 acres to have any agricultural zoning. Um Paris is okay with doing it. Paris is okay with doing it. Really? Yeah.

Are we setting a precedence here of others wanting to do the same thing? cuz zoning egg is now I know down in the city there's not too much agricultural zoning but out by us it does open up to a lot of outuildings uh a lot of um this is less than a 1acre residential lot which is very common out by uh Randall and and and the like but if this is their own doing um I I guess I can't disagree with it that if they want to do it but it just seems to me we could be opening up for other parcels to do this and um that would be my concern. But thank you.

Thank you, Supervisor Nordigan. Supervisor Robinson. Um just I' I'd like to um have you focus on the map that was included because there is so much that is remaining A1 and they've already have the house that is A2. They are simply squaring things off. If you look at the house, the house is kind of cockeyed uh on the on the land. And so what they're doing is just squaring it off. So this is not something that is, you know, this is not something that is um going to be a new build. This is something that's already there and they're just fixing kind of the way that they are already using the property.

Supervisor Nordigan. Uh thank you, Chair UAS. Are there going to be two separate parcels or one parcel or two parcels combined into one? Because if the house is already zoned A2, they're just adding more to the house for zoning A2. Perfectly fine. End of the mic, please. No certified. There's Yeah, we don't have We don't have They're just reszoning. Okay. Thank you, Supervisor Carol.

Thank you. Um, chairman, you asked the um, at the meeting, the owner of the pro property was there at the meeting and did say that the reason for the um, parcel is to expand the existing parcel on the corner there that has the house on it so that they could do an out building on it. So, that was the reasoning for the the change in zoning.

Thank you, Supervisor Carol. Any other discussion on ordinance 38? Seeing none, all in favor. I opposed. Ordinance 38 passes unanimously. Communications 134, a communication from the public works and facilities committee. A resolution authorizing the highway commissioner to accept and expend 1384 $432,000 from developer of Paris solar farm project to be used for future Kenosha County roadway improvements. Refer to public works facilities and finance administration committees.

135. A communication from the Kenosha County Sheriff's Office. The resolution to accept the Sea Dog drug trafficking response grant funding.

Refer to Judiciary and Law Enforcement and Finance Administration committees. 136. A communication from the Human Services Committee. A resolution to modify Kenosha County's Division of Behavioral Health Services 2026 budget to create a community re-entry support specialist position for behavioral health services. refer to human services and finance administration committees. Claims 66 Margaret McGrath property damage referred to corporation councel. 67 Stephanie Price personal injury referred to corporation councel.

The approval of the March 3rd, 2026 minutes by Supervisor Kirby. Supervisor Kirby. I move approval of the March 3rd, 2026 County Board minutes. Motion by Supervisor Kirby, seconded by Supervisor Decker to move the March 3rd, 2026 minutes. All in favor? I opposed. Minutes pass unanimously. Motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn by Supervisor Decker. Seconded by Supervisor Nordigan. All in favor? I opposed. We are adjourned.