City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everyone. I'd like to call to order this meeting of the Fond du Lac City Council. The first item of business on our agenda tonight is a roll call. And with us here, I will declare a quorum present. Next item on the agenda is a Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silent reflection. Please rise. 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. Thanks everyone. Next on our agenda is going to be the consent agenda. The consent agenda finalizes the proposed actions for the meeting, which is A, August 12th, 2026 minutes, and B, a list of claims dated August 20th, 2026. Any discussion or corrections to the consent agenda? Seeing done, I just wanna make a brief housekeeping announcement before we begin our voting tonight. Just remember to wait to push your button for a motion until I call for it, because otherwise it messes up the system for the clerk. And when Maggie's not happy, we're not happy. That's how that works. All right, with that said, I'll entertain a motion. We've got a motion for Mr. Mullin and a second by Ms. Mayweather. Thank you both. Any further discussion? Seeing none, please proceed to vote on the consent agenda. And that passes unanimously, thanks everyone. Now we'll move on to our action items. I'm sorry, we're gonna move on to audience comments first and we're gonna limit speaking time to non-agenda items tonight to two minutes and items noticed on the agenda to five minutes. Ms. Hector, do we have anyone wishing to speak? We have one person, a familiar person in these chambers, our pal Antonio Godfrey is here from Fifth Street. Antonio is speaking on e-bikes and scooters tonight. And let me just say, it's great to see you.

Thank you. Good evening, everyone. I was not gonna make this a big ordeal. First of all, like Chief, I wanna apologize. I should have emailed you ahead of time. But over the summer, There has been multiple incidents with myself. And then I've talked to multiple people throughout the community with the e-bikes and the e-scooters. So I decided to just put a little post on my own personal page. And boy, did it explode in my inbox. This is not to attack anybody by the use of them. This is not to attack people that are riding and using them safely. Someone is going to get seriously hurt. I have personally dodged multiple of them. I have locked up my vehicle on a multiple of occasions. I do not want to be responsible for hitting one of these children. If you stop and ask them to say anything to one of them, it is a problem. I think we need to get a little bit reactive instead of being proactive. Our neighbors over in Sheboygan have already had two fatalities with these e-bikes and people being negligent. There are some real cautious riders here in this community on these e-bikes. But unfortunately, there are some people that are just going to break the rules. These are children. These are adults. It's a multitude of everybody that are being disrespectful on these bikes, on these things. There needs to be some type of rules and regulations for these equipment. Years ago, we had the e-scooters rentals. That was an epic fail. We got rid of those. Those were gone within less than a year. Unfortunately, this needs to be addressed, and it needs to be addressed quickly before we have someone, a child laying on the side of the road being scraped up and put into a body bag.

Thank you, Mr. Godfrey. Your time is up. Appreciate your time. And with that, I believe that concludes our audience comments for tonight. Thank you. And so we're going to move on to our action items. Action item A is resolution number 9257, which is a resolution authorizing the issuance and establishing the parameters for the sale of not to exceed 17,835,000 general obligation promissory notes series 2026. And I believe Ms. Davey and our special guest had that introduction for us.

Good evening, everyone. Thank you, Mr. President. It's great to see everyone here tonight. So it's that time of the year where typically you see me come and present the plan of finance. It takes a lot of work on everyone's time and work for preparing the capital improvement projects. You've seen the capital projects, and then we go through the process of issuing the debt for those capital projects. So tonight what I'm going to go through AS A QUICK LITTLE MUNICIPAL MARKET UPDATE, WE'LL GO THEN THROUGH THE FINANCING SUMMARY AND TIMELINE, AND THEN HIT ON THE DETAILED GENERAL OBLIGATION FINANCING ILLUSTRATIONS, BORROWING CAPACITY, AND AS WELL AS THE WATER WORK SYSTEM REVENUE BOND FINANCING ILLUSTRATIONS. IF WE TALK ABOUT THE MUNICIPAL MARKET UPDATE REAL QUICK, WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON? YOU SEE IT EVERY DAY. IT'S THE CONFLICT OVERSEAS. WHEN IS THAT GOING TO BE RESOLVED? NO ONE REALLY KNOWS. THEY POTENTIALLY HAVE 60-DAY AGREEMENTS AND THEN THOSE FALL APART AND THE FINANCIAL MARKETS KIND OF REACT ACCORDINGLY. AT THIS POINT IN TIME, THERE'S NO REAL RESOLUTION IN SIGHT. SO WE'VE SEEN, YOU KNOW, THE INTEREST RATE MARKET KIND OF SLOWLY BE RISING OVER THE LAST SEVERAL, YOU KNOW, OVER THE LAST SIX MONTHS, AND IT POTENTIALLY IS GOING TO CONTINUE AS WE CONTINUE TO SEE INFLATION A LITTLE BIT HIGHER THAN I THINK WHERE EVERYONE WANTS TO SEE IT. AND SO, YOU KNOW, AT THIS POINT, IT'S KIND OF MORE OF THE SAME UNTIL there's some kind of resolution overseas and oil kind of gets under control and inflation. So fortunately for the city of Fond du Lac, you continue to maintain a very good bond credit rating. When we go out to the bond market, you receive attractive interest rates. And because of that, you're not seeing like the mortgage rates you're seeing in the world. You're typically receiving much better interest rates because of how financially sound you are as a community. So if we jump into the presentation, page two of the presentation, the first financing is gonna be in the amount of $17,835,000. This is gonna be general obligation promissory note series 2026 to fund the 2026 CIP. The structure of this is gonna be a 10 year financing. So very similar to what the city has done in years past for their capital projects from maturing March 1, 2027 to 2036 with the first interest being March 1 of 2027. It'll be callable September 1, 2033 or any date thereafter. So that's when you can take a look at refinancing or paying it off. with the estimated interest rate of a 4.25% and a not to exceed parameter rate of 4.75%. Again, the parameter rate is if for whatever reason between now and the time we go out to the market, if interest rates spike for whatever reason, you know, unforeseen, then I would probably want to get back in front of you and say, here's what's going on in the municipal bond world. You know, maybe we wait a little bit longer before we jump into the market. There might be some event that happened. I don't foresee that happening as we're in good position to be jumping in the market in the next week. So yeah, we're in good shape and I fully anticipate we're going to be receiving less than likely a 4.25%. Because again, what we do is try to be conservative in our planning, but you never know until it's actually finalized. The second financing is the estimated size of $4,715,000 water work system revenue bonds, series 2026 to fund the 2026 water projects. This is gonna be a 15 year financing, maturing September 1, 2027 to 2041, first interest March 1, 2027 and callable September 1, 2034 or any date thereafter with an estimated interest rate of 4.75% and a not to exceed 5.25%. Now the resolution you see is a little bit higher, 4.9 million, because ultimately when you do revenue bonds versus general obligation, you're securing that with strictly utility revenues from the water system. So when you do that, you don't have an unlimited taxing authority like you do for the general obligation debt, which with the revenue bonds, you have a set aside, what's called the debt service reserve fund. That reserve fund is set aside in case you, for whatever reason, can't make the debt service payment, you would tap into that to make the debt service payment. And that's all dependent on the interest rate you receive. So the higher the interest rate, the more is going to have to go to the reserve because your debt payments will be higher. So the 4.9 just gives a little cushion, but I don't anticipate it going above the $4,715,000 based on current market conditions. So going to page three, the tentative timeline. So preparations are made for the issuance. So myself, Tricia, and her entire team have been working on this over the past couple of months. We're in really good shape. We went through the bond rating call and good news, was received the other day where we were affirmed the AA minus for the general obligation. So that was excellent to hear that. And then the water revenue bonds, they had a negative outlook on them in the past, but they changed that negative outlook to a stable outlook going forward because of all the prudent work of the city staff and council to get that utility in good position going forward. So that's excellent news. So council considers the plan of finance and adopts the parameters resolution tonight, ultimately giving authority to lock in the interest rates when we're ready, which we're in really good shape, like I said, and giving authority to the director of administration or city manager. So same process as what we've used in the past. Tentative sale would be to target the week of September 1st, and then the closing would occur on October 1st of 2026. So that's when you'll receive the funds to pay, to reimburse yourself for the capital projects. So if we go to page four of the presentation, this is the detailed financing illustration. This is something that you've seen in the past. I'll lay it out from left side of the page to the right side. The left side of the page, this is the net existing debt service payments, so levy supported. This does not include any utility or TID type debt service. This is strictly levy supported debt service on an annual basis. And what you wanna see is a declining DEBT SERVICE ON A YEAR-TO-YEAR BASIS BECAUSE ULTIMATELY YOU CONTINUE TO HAVE CAPITAL INVESTMENTS THAT YOU'RE MAKING EVERY YEAR AND WE NEED TO MAKE SURE WE ARE ACCOUNTING FOR THAT ON AN ANNUAL BASIS. THE MIDDLE OF THE PAGE, THAT'S THE FINANCING WE'RE TALKING ABOUT TONIGHT AND THEN THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE PAGE IS WHAT THE ESTIMATED DEBT SERVICE WILL LOOK LIKE AFTER THE FINANCING IS COMPLETED. We go to page five of the presentation. So this one, this bar graph is really what this is showing you is the general obligation borrowing capacity for the city. So municipalities are allowed to borrow up to 5% of your equalized valuation. VALUATION FOR THE CITY IS NOW ABOVE FIVE BILLION, SO YOU'VE BEEN GROWING AT A PRETTY SUBSTANTIAL PACE FROM YEAR TO YEAR. AND WHAT THIS IS SHOWING YOU IN THE BLACK BAR IS THAT'S YOUR EXISTING PRINCIPLE OUTSTANDING ON AN ANNUAL BASIS, SO IT'S DECLINING EVERY YEAR AS YOU'RE PAYING DOWN YOUR DEBTS. THE BLUE IS THE FINANCING WE'RE TALKING ABOUT TONIGHT, SO THAT'S STACKED ON TOP, AND THEN KIND OF THAT LIGHT gray, bluish color is the remaining borrowing capacity year over year going forward, assuming you continue to grow at a pretty minimal rate. Now, if you continue to grow more than you have, or then projected like you have, this is just gonna show you have more capacity at any time. But what this is really showing is you got 57 plus percent remaining capacity after this financing. So you're in really good shape looking long-term. We go to the last page of the presentation. This is gonna be the detailed water work system revenue bond financing. And so again, left side of the page, that's your existing debt service payments on all your outstanding revenue bond water related debt. And then the middle of the page, that's the financing we're talking about tonight. And then when we go to the right side of the page, what we're trying to make sure that we're seeing is that you have coverage that's sufficient to be able to pay the debt service payments. So working with Tricia and her team, you can see that the coverage in 2026 was around 1.9 times and then 2027, 1.68 and et cetera. But again, kind of thinking through and factoring in those future potential capital projects. So we're thinking about all the different puzzle pieces going through this. And as you can see, you got a really nice drop in the debt service in 2030 to make room for additional capital items or just have the debt service drop at that particular point in time. So again, showing that you're in good position longer term in the analysis. That's all I have.

There we go. All right. That button wasn't working for me, Justin. Sorry about that. No problem. You do such a great job explaining all that complex stuff. And this is my last one of these, which is kind of a bummer, which means it's the last time I get to read all those big numbers and feel really important. Thank you so much for that great presentation. And Ms. Davey, just a clarifying question, because I know we've got the two resolutions tonight. Do you guys want to reintroduce the next piece after we take a vote on this one? How do you want to proceed?

No, you can just read the next one and then just proceed with the vote if that's what you wish to do.

Okay, sounds good. Well, then in that case, we'll begin with resolution number 9257. And with Mr. Fisher's presentation complete, if there's no questions from council, I would entertain a motion at this time. You might have to refresh screens because of... Oh, Mr. Beiber has a question. Thank you very much.

President Heisler. Justin, thank you for the presentation. I just had a clarification just to know. You were saying that the general fund, because it has more taxing source ability, that the rates are lower versus with a specialty utility. I'll get that right. The revenue funds, the debt service only, so it's only basically one service.

That's correct.

Okay. Thank you. That's all I had a question on.

Great clarification. Thank you, sir. Any other questions from council at this time? Seeing no questions at this time, I'll entertain a motion. Got a motion by Ms. Brault. And I've got a second by Mr. Mullin. Thank you both. Any further discussion? Seeing no further discussion, please proceed to vote at this time. And that passes unanimously, thanks everyone. And we've heard about the resolution that we're gonna discuss now, which is 9258, that is the authoring and issuance of the establishment of the parameters for the sale not to exceed of 4,900,000 Water Works Systems Revenue Bonds Series 2026 and providing for the payments of such bonds thereto and their covenants respect thereto as well. Resolution 9258 is where we're at on the agenda right now. And because we don't need an introduction from Ms. Davey or Mr. Fisher, I'll take questions from council on this resolution at this time. If there are none, I'll take a motion at this time. We got a motion by Mr. Mullin. And I've got a second by Ms. Brown. Thank you both. Any further discussion on this 9258? Seeing no further discussions, please proceed to vote. And that passes unanimously. Thank you, Justin. Thank you, Tricia.

Thank you, everyone.

And with that, we'll move on to action item C, which is resolution 9259. That's a resolution waiving the prohibition against possession of alcoholic beverages on specified public ways for Big Brothers Big Sisters, a Fond du Lac County's Halloweeny 0.5K event that is taking place on October the 30th, 2026. Ms. Hefter has that introduction for us.

Thank you, President Heisler. Big Brothers Big Sisters of Fond du Lac County is requesting the city to waive the prohibition against possession of alcoholic beverages on public ways for their annual Halloweeny .5K event on October 30th, 2026. This event is only for participants over 21 and no glass containers or carry-ins are permitted in the designated area and city staff recommends approval.

Thank you very much, Ms. Hefter. Any questions for Ms. Hefter on this? Seeing no questions from council in the queue, I'll entertain a motion at this time. We've got a motion by Mr. Biber and a second by Ms. Lurie. No other questions or discussion. Let's proceed to vote. Thank you both. That passes unanimously. And now we'll move on to ordinance number 3832. That's an ordinance amending chapter 65-8, the room tax and our assistant city attorney. John, the introduction is yours.

All right. Thank you, Mr. President. This ordinance was brought before the council last month on July 22nd as an input item. City staff proposed an amendment to the existing room tax ordinance. The amendment will make the tax more equitable so that all innkeepers will pay their fair share of the tax. The additional provision will allow the city to remove their permit, or excuse me, revoke the permit and not allow them to operate until they file the necessary reports and pay the room tax to be collected from the city. We have not received any negative comments from the proposed ordinance and staff recommends approval. And I'm happy to answer any additional questions you might have.

Excellent. Thank you, sir. So just one point of clarification for me, and then I'll take other questions from council if there are some. No changes, correct, to what we saw last month?

No.

Everything's the same?

Same as last month.

Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Any other questions from council? Seeing no questions, I would entertain a motion at this time. Mr. Biber has a motion on the floor. I need a second for that. Mr. Mullin has a second on that. Thank you both. Any further discussion? Seeing none, please proceed to vote. And that passes unanimously. Thank you, Mr. Zordani. Appreciate it. And now we're gonna move on to resolution number 9260, which is a resolution authorizing the option and possible sale of the land in the Fox Ridge Business Park. And Ms. Stowes has that introduction for us.

Thank you. Maggie, could you please go to the map of the property from the agenda materials? It's a different one than this one that was included with the agenda. It's the last one in the list. There we go. The City has received an offer on a property within the industrial park, Fox Ridge Business Park. This offer has come from BLD Acquisitions LLC, doing business as Bryan Building Corporation. This lot is for approximately 24.5 acres for a purchase price of $856,380, which is approximately $35,001 per acre. Bryan Building is a design-build contractor who has partnered with various municipalities in southeast Wisconsin, working on identifying suitable sites for industrial and manufacturing businesses to locate. Their business model entails purchasing properties, identifying the business that will locate on the property while going through the due diligence process, and working with the business to design the building to meet their specifications. to navigate the design approval and permitting process in partnership with city staff and to city standards. Then they will close on the property, construct the building, and in most instances, sell the property to the business that they have partnered with, or in a limited number of circumstances, lease the property to that particular business based off of the business's preferences. I've reached out to a number of the municipalities who have partnered with Bryan Building in the past, including reaching out to administrators in McWanago and East Troy, who spoke very highly of their working relationship with this potential buyer. They have partnered, not just on a single property, but in some cases on an entire industrial park to fill all vacant spaces, even beginning from the creation of the park itself. So they have a long history of collaboration with municipal partners. In meeting with them last week, we spoke about the various standards that the city has for the park. They are aware of the restrictive covenants and the standards that they would need to meet with any of these developments and based off of those conversations with other municipalities, they are good about collaboration and understanding what those standards are to make sure that the business that is ultimately occupying a property is a good fit for the community. Once a building, if the council authorizes approval for this purchase price and continuation for the negotiation process, then city staff will proceed to negotiate the finer terms of the offer and would work with the prospective buyer through the due diligence process. Once a business would be identified to occupy the property or multiple businesses, then we would have a subsequent update to Council that would share the standard information about the business name, their projected employment levels, and the proposed uses on the site, among other details. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have. Actually, Maggie, could you go back to that other presentation? This is an example of some materials they shared about some of the properties that they have helped to acquire and then identify the business for, in this case, the Mukwonago Industrial Park. And if you scroll down to the next, you can also see an example from East Troy. With that, I'll open it up for any questions.

Thank you. Questions from council, I'll take at this time. I'm going to go to Mr. Mullen first.

So it's my understanding that, in a sense, this is a spec project on their part. They don't have... tenants identified and signed up yet? Is that correct?

Not at this point in time, but based off of conversations, someone who has already been speaking with us is also in conversations with them. So this could move quickly depending on how those conversations evolve.

But that's the reason we don't have that information.

Exactly, yes. Correct. There is no other business that we are aware of that they have already pre-committed for this property.

Thank you, sir. Mr. Biber, you're next. Thank you. Yeah.

Ms. Stowe, we, Mrs. Stowe, is there, what kind of, is it going to be a flex space property and they have a size that they're going to put there or yet or?

There isn't a set size because they build to the specifications and the needs of the business once they identify them. For the particular property in question, they showed just an example concept that they could potentially fit two substantially sized buildings that would then have two different occupants on that property, but they could also have a user who wants to take advantage of that full 24.5 acres who would take up that entire site.

They'd have to go out and find the business for it. Yes. But it's gonna be like a flex space, basically, or factory or whatever.

It would be a warehousing space or manufacturing space, depending on the particular user. Okay, thank you. Of course.

Thank you, sir.

Any other questions from council before I jump in with mine? All right, thank you. With no one else in the queue, I'll go ahead and jump into mine. And if anybody else wants to jump in after, feel free. So as of now, we don't know number of buildings, correct?

Correct.

And do we have a general idea on size of buildings?

We do not at this point in time, but we would anticipate sharing that information once it would come available.

And based on your research from other communities, general idea of employment?

It can vary. I would say that is a key metric that we are concerned about knowing and confirming because we don't want to see a large space that is functioning primarily as storage. We want to see businesses located here who are going to provide jobs for the community.

Excellent.

And that was articulated in our conversation with the prospective buyer.

Got it. Are they paying over asking for this? Are they paying what the city asked for it? If I could just interject, Mr. President.

Thank you. So I do think that there are, there could be an opportunity to discuss some of these kind of competitive and bargaining questions in closed session, but to prevent, you know, A LOSS OF MAYBE BARGAINING POSITIONING. I WOULD RECOMMEND SOME OF THOSE QUESTIONS TO BE IN CLOSED SESSION.

GOT IT. OKAY, SO THEN MY QUESTION FOR YOU IS, AND I'LL POSE THIS AS THE LEGAL QUESTION, IF WE APPROVE THIS WITHOUT THOSE QUESTIONS BEING ANSWERED, THEN WE ARE, THEN THOSE QUESTIONS ARE KIND OF A MOOD POINT, AREN'T THEY?

WE COULD CERTAINLY ANSWER SOME OF THOSE QUESTIONS AND HAVE THAT DISCUSSION. prior to moving forward. I just would suggest that we have those conversations in a closed session.

So would it make, so in order to facilitate a closed session, making it the most appropriate way to answer those questions and that closed session, obviously not taking place tonight because it wasn't noticed on the agenda, which I totally understand. Does it make, would it then benefit the council to potentially postpone until those, until we can have a closed session?

if the council feels like they don't have enough information to make a adequate decision. Got it, got it. Okay.

And if I can add one more detail. Yeah, please. In our industrial park informational materials, we have a minimum floor posted that is what we would entertain as a minimum asking price. And so this exceeds that minimum floor.

Okay. Well, my struggle is my next question, and I think the most obvious question, at least for me, is why are they paying over asking? And I don't think we can answer that in open session. So I guess, I mean, I'll just throw it out there. I would like to make a motion at this time to postpone until the following meeting where we could notice to a closed session, have those questions answered and then come back and revote on this and approve it. So if that motion is on the floor, I would take a second for that and then we would vote on it. So Mr. Biber, you wanted to second that motion, is that correct? Okay, so I have the motion on the floor. I'm so sorry, I have to pull my voting software back up. I was looking at the documents. That's my fault, I'm sorry, Ms. Stills. Okay, so I would make a, Maggie, are you prepared for that? Okay, I would take a motion to postpone until next meeting so we can have a closed session and then revisit this topic. Motion on the floor by me, second by Mr. Biber, correct? Just reconfirming. Okay, so with that, we will now discuss the motion to postpone and Ms. Lurie, the floor is yours.

How does the postponement affect the sale like? How is it?

It would delay the offer acceptance. We could still have conversations about some of those finer details and continue to gather that information. But it's not going to negatively affect the sale, right? It would purely depend upon the prospective buyer's perception of the delay and any prospective timeline changes on their side.

Right, and we're looking to delay one meeting at this point.

Right, I don't anticipate. I know that sometimes it can. Right, I think that we want to make sure that there's clarity on all sides.

I appreciate that, thank you very much. Mr. Mullen, I'm so sorry, are you finished?

Yeah, the reason I asked was just because I know like sometimes with the county, things like if they get delayed or I don't know, it affects the sales. So I just wanna make sure we're not gonna.

I understand, thank you. Mr. Mullen, I'm gonna go to you next.

Okay, I just wanna say, looking at the project, at the company, I'm all in favor of this. I don't have any concerns about this. We do have a few questions and I corresponded with Ms. Hoffman about this, that there were a couple of questions that we had that are probably better handled in a closed session and you know, she decided not to put the closed session on here. I think you should relay to our buyer that, I haven't heard any opposition to this program at all. It's really questions on our procedures rather than the deal itself.

Correct. Correct. Absolutely. Well stated. Thank you, sir. Okay. With that, again, we have no one else in the queue to speak unless anyone else wants to jump in here. So at this point, we will vote on the motion to postpone. Okay, a motion on the floor by me, second by Mr. Viber. At this point, let's proceed to vote to postpone this to the next meeting. And the vote passes unanimously. Thank you, Ms. Stowes. We look forward to the closed session, further discussion, and passing this at the next meeting, potentially. Thank you very much.

Some places help you slow down. Is that fun?

If you wanted to go fishing, Maggie, we could have just ended it early. I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding. Okay, all right, well, with that, thank you all for a great discussion on that, by the way, I really appreciate it. I'm gonna go ahead and move on to input items. And we're gonna start with the library budget today. Ms. Fuller, it's yours.

Yes, good evening, council. Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak before you this evening. I'm excited to highlight some of the initiatives that the library has undertaken during the last year and the good work that staff.

Ms. Fuller, before you continue, can you pull your mic just a little closer for me?

A little mic-averse.

Yeah, this deaf radio guy's having a hard time hearing you. You're fine.

No, no, no, it sounds good. Thank you for that. Council, thank you so much for the opportunity to speak before you tonight. It's my pleasure to talk about the initiatives that the library has undertaken over the past year and the good work that staff is doing every single day. Maggie, next slide. So I'd like to take a moment to highlight the mission of the library, which is the library strives to support a high quality of life in Fond du Lac through reading, lifelong learning, and community involvement. Strong communities have strong libraries. In short, the Fond du Lac Public Library has something for everyone. Next slide, Maggie. And I'd like to talk with you a little bit about where our funding comes from. Something for Everyone is possible because of the financial support and the teamwork of the city, city council, fellow department heads, the library board, the library friends, and again, that work of dedicated library team. You'll notice that the library's largest funder is the city, which comes in at 59% of the library's budget, and the county funding accounting for 32% of the budget. So between both the city and the county, 91 approximately, in an average year, 91% of the library's funding comes from either the city or the county. And then we have some miscellaneous grants and revenue, fines and fees, and then also reimbursement for library services to members of adjacent counties.

Next slide, Maggie.

And so you might wonder, what is it all that the library is doing with the funding that it so generously receives? And I'd like to take a moment, some of these things you certainly do know about already, but I do wanna take a moment to highlight them because often when I'm presenting in front of community groups, it's not uncommon for people to say, oh yeah, I know all about the library, the library's great. And then I go through a list of some of the things to highlight and people say, wait a minute, what does that mean? Or what is that about? And so I'd like to do that with you. Of course, the library has books and it's what people think of perhaps first. And we also have many other materials that we're very proud to offer to community members of Fond du Lac. Modern libraries include digital materials. So we offer eBooks, eAudiobooks, streaming and database access. We have five study rooms on our second floor, which are free for community members to use. We have a green thumb exchange. People are becoming accustomed to hearing about seed libraries in libraries, but something that Fond du Lac does that many libraries don't do is a green thumb exchange. And so what that means is people can bring in cuttings of their plants and exchange them with other members of the community, which is a great way for us to build community in a very modern era. We have things like a puzzle exchange, take one, leave one. Of course, you know about our local history and genealogy because you received a presentation from John Serrano. I'll talk a little bit more about that later, but we have an excellent local history and genealogy collection. We also offer reading programs for people of all ages, and we just finished a very successful summer reading program. We're also very proud to offer experience passes, and so you'll see a variety of logos on the right side of the page. Those are places that the library offers experience passes to. In many cases, this makes attending events or visiting these locations free for families, including covering the costs of parking according to what the institution will permit. We have experience passes to museums, planetariums, zoos, et cetera. And some of the cities included include Oshkosh, Menasha, Green Bay, Madison, Milwaukee, Sheboygan, and more. And of course, Fond du Lac, you'll see our children's museum is one of those listed. The picture of the two patrons is at the Manitowoc Maritime Museum. And then we also have our idea studio where people can come, learn, experiment, consider purchasing a tool for themselves at some point if they find that they do have a passion for a particular area. Next slide, Maggie. So let's talk 2025. 2025 by the numbers, I'm very proud to say that the library is perhaps the busiest public building that the city offers. We had over 228,000 visitors in 2025. That's an average of 625 visitors per day. We had a total of 347,000 plus items borrowed. That's both physical and digital materials. And we hosted over 880 programs with over 34,000 attendees. In addition to our programs and collections, we also offer access to information, and information comes from a variety of sources. We hosted over 94,000 internet sessions. That's both with folks accessing computers in our building or bringing their own device and accessing our Wi-Fi. And then we offered over 37,000 reference questions. And so that can range from in-depth reference queries, local history and genealogy research projects, to simple questions about, can you give me the phone number for this location? You'll see a variety of photos that are up there. So we did host a blue healer party for a very special blue dog who's very popular. And that's our center photo there in the middle. We also host Read to the Dogs, which is a beloved program for kids. You'll see that on the bottom left. We host escape rooms. Candyland is pictured. And our mascot browser will take the book bike out every now and again. And you'll see us at outreach events.

Next slide, Maggie.

So in addition to the services provided every day, there's always an initiative that's happening at the library and we are very pleased and perhaps you may have seen it either online or on TV that the library solar panel project was completed. We're very pleased to have over 240 solar panels active on the roof and bringing in a greener option for the library. We have a monitor in our south lobby which is demonstrating in real time the power that is being generated. We've got slides that demonstrate the daily power generated and money saved, monthly and annual as well. Of course, as I said before, you received that presentation from John Serrano regarding our local history collection and the portion of it that we've been able to make available online. That is a continuing endeavor, and we're continuing to partner with other institutions to increase capacity, whether that's working with an intern or looking at other collections that will resonate well with community members. I'm also pleased to share that the library launched the New York Times online. So if you are subscribing to the New York Times, get your library card instead. We'll offer it for you. And that's both in the building and also at home. And you can access through apps on your phone. And then lastly, our Idea Studio celebrated its 10th anniversary. And so I certainly want to highlight that. That's a decade of people coming down, exploring, trying out our machines, becoming inspired. And we still have more community members to reach because we know that there are members of our community who maybe aren't yet aware of that Idea Studio. And so I certainly wanted to highlight that tonight. Next slide, thank you. So you might ask, well, what does FY27 look like and upcoming years? What projects are you working on with the funding that's being received? So next in the pipeline, we are looking at doing a landscaping refresh. The library's landscaping will benefit from slightly different approach. We're looking to add plants with a low growth profile that are perennials, natives where possible, and pollinators where possible. And we're in the process of receiving proposals for that right now. In order to continue being responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars, we are also looking to develop a long-range facilities plan so that we can appropriately plan for capital improvement projects in the future. I'm thrilled to tell you that the library will celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2027. We will absolutely be celebrating the great work. We're standing on the shoulders of the people who came before us and we want to honor the work that they did and then also celebrate the work that's going on now and imagine what the future will hold. So more information about celebrations to come. And then sneak peek, you're getting it here first. The library is currently investigating making a library app available so that people could download it to their phones. It will make managing the loans that you have from the library much more intuitive and convenient so that you can manage that. You'll also be able to have your library card on your phone with you, see the events that we have going on, and so much more. One moment. Okay, so you've seen charts, numbers, and pictures tonight, but what I hope you've seen are what really all of those things represent. It's a child who's reading their very first book all by themselves for the very first time and unlocking the entire world, right? And figuring out what their passion is and exploring things. It's a community member discovering the rich local history and culture that was, is, and always will be Fond du Lac and perhaps considering voices that they hadn't considered before thanks to our local history collection. It's the exploration and the resulting spark of somebody going down to our idea studio and then deciding they want to start a new business, one that stays local. It's also parents and grandparents who are coming to our story times, participating in community, and building healthy and strong bonds with their children and their grandchildren. It's a recent retiree discovering new interests and hobbies through our Spice of the Month Club or the Puzzle Exchange as they figure out what their next chapter in life is gonna be. And it's a young couple learning about credit, loans, and financing as they begin their lives together. All of this is facilitated and brought to you by a staff that's dedicated to connecting people with the information resources they seek, whatever those might be, and that's made possible because of the funding that the library receives. So next slide, Maggie. So with that, I'd like to say thank you. Also a little shout out. This is also something people don't necessarily always know about. We have story walks that the library provides. We have two that are out at Lakeside Park and one that is at Hamilton Park. The three stories along the top were recently in our story walks and the three stories at the bottom are our current story walk titles. So thank you so much and I'm happy to answer any questions that you have.

Excellent presentation, Ms. Fuller, thank you. I'll take questions or comments from council at this time. I would have been disappointed if you weren't first, Ms. Perrault, go ahead.

Yeah, I mean, our library is okay, right? It's been my honor to be the city council rep on the library board and just seeing the work that's done at our library every day is just so incredible. I wanted to give a public shout out to the solar project finally being completed that started under your predecessor, John Mark Bolthouse. And there were lots of community members that were involved in that. And I know there was a lot of headaches along the way. It was a much longer process to get that solar project up and running, but I think it's such an asset to our library. So congratulations. on getting that finished.

Thank you so very much. I have to confess, I skipped a little part of my presentation. We anticipate that these solar panels are going to produce approximately 25% of the library's energy needs and produce a savings of approximately $22,000 a year. Those solar panels are rated for 400 kilowatt hours, and we're pleased to say that they have already been outperforming those 400 hours. We have numbers that have reached as high as 675, and know that that's impacted by what the weather is doing.

But thank you, we're so excited. Yes, that is exciting. And I'm really glad that we were able to get the data that we can see in the main lobby of the library, because I think that will hopefully inspire people to think about how can we invest more in renewable energy. I also just want to give a shout out to the Idea Studio. As you said, many people still don't realize that the library has this asset. And so many libraries, many of them just have like a couple 3D printers or just a few things that people can use. But we have this full maker space that there's always people downstairs working. Just seeing the creativity that people come up with as they're working with some of the equipment down there is just incredible. So I just... I wanted just to add to what you said about it, because I think it's just one of the most amazing things we have in our community available for the public. Thank you, I agree. And then just one thing I was hoping you could touch on. So our school district recently had to go through some budget cuts. And one of the things that I'm most concerned about is that they cut most of the library and media specialists throughout our school district. So could you talk a little bit about how our library works with early literacy or just literacy in general and how it's helping our community?

Absolutely. So the library offers a variety of resources and our children's department does an excellent job of supporting early literacy in our community. And that includes youth literacy all the way through that K-12 experience and even into post-secondary. But in particular, with regards to early literacy, I would point to the library's 1000 Books Before Kindergarten program. This is a wonderful program that encourages parents to read with their children, model what regular reading practice looks like in the home. We know that it helps with early language acquisition and building vocabulary. We also have our Reading Dragons program, which is for our elementary school students, and then we have our 100 Books Before Graduation program. And so we are engaging as much as we can with folks and encouraging them to read, but also if you attend one of our programs, you'll see literacy woven throughout. So our story times will include other ways that can incorporate literacy, things like songs and movement, incorporated rhythms, those kinds of things. So we have what I would consider a very proactive approach to supporting literacy in the community. And in many instances, we're offering materials that can support even families that perhaps maybe won't have a regular reading practice together, whether that's our Tony boxes or our audio books or what have you. Wonderful. Thank you so much.

All right, Miss Mayweather, you're next in the queue.

First, thank you so much for your presentation. I just want to shout out to you and your staff. I mean, seeing where you guys were 15 years ago till now, it's amazing to see how much services has grown in the library. I mean, even coming across folks in the community and social media, they have the library in town as the central command of how to go about things, navigating, learning. So I just want to commend you and your staff. You guys are doing a very great job. Thank you so much. I'll pass that on to staff.

Thanks, Ms. Mayweather. Mr. Mullin, you're up.

Yes, thank you for your presentation. I just wanted to emphasize, really, to the rest of the community, how lucky we are to have a library of this quality in our community. My family has members that are flung all around the United States, and so they For the last 20 years, they've been sending their children and their grandchildren all meet here because we're centrally located. And we always take them to the library, and they borrow games. They borrow videos. They take out books. It's just fantastic. And these are people coming from all over the place and everywhere. You know, they like our library because our library is so cool. So good job. And also over, as you mentioned, over the years, it just keeps getting better. We just keep putting more things in and it's a resource in the community that, you know, maybe isn't as famous as some other things, but it's really special.

Thank you so much. I appreciate that. None of that would be possible without the tremendous support of the city, the county, and city council. So we appreciate that. Thank you. As well as the service of our library board and friends. None of this would be possible without all of those people at the table.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mullin. Once again, just real quick, great presentation, Ms. Fuller. Thank you so much. You did a great job on a couple things. Number one, Blue Heeler Party, way to avoid that mouse copyright. Good job. Number two, I don't think, the irony is not lost on me that we are here talking about your great presentation after the whole world's remembering Dolly Parton and Imagination Library. That's really, it's pretty interesting timing that way. We miss you, Dolly. And... And the other thing I wanted to mention is thank you for being so forward thinking on app development because the way that you guys have already been doing Libby app and all the other things, if the library ends up going the app route, I think it would just be a monster convenience for so many folks who enjoy all that you do.

Thank you. We'll do our best.

Excellent. Thank you very much. All right. With that, we'll move on to our next input item, which is a update from Envision Greater Fond du Lac. Floor is yours.

Thank you, President Heisler. I'm Sadie Howell, and I've had the honor of serving as the President and CEO at Envision Greater Fond du Lac for the last six years, so thank you for allowing me to present this evening. Next slide. Envision Greater Fond du Lac is two combined organizations. We are the Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development organization that serves Fond du Lac County. The Chamber side is what most people know us for, business advocacy, education and leadership training, networking, promotion, and being a policy voice for local business. The economic development side is where a lot of our behind-the-scenes work takes place, business recruitment and retention, site selection, market research, workforce development, and entrepreneur support.

But here's the thing.

Last year, we decided to really bring those two things together. And rather than saying our chamber does one and our economic development organization does another, we are one combined membership, which means our membership and investment tiers have been updated that when you are a member investor, you're investing in our strategic plan, not in one specific thing. which all rolls up into that shared community impact in the center. Talent, infrastructure, livability, and community. Next slide. Today we are 650 members and investors strong. Each year we host about 112 events. We helped 145 startups and new businesses, and we have a 90% member retention rate, which is really above industry standard and we're really proud of because it means that our members believe in our mission and vision as well. Next slide. As part of our combined membership, that was part of our five-year strategic plan, which there's a lot of text on that slide. Our five-year strategic plan is really centered around three goals, unifying our stakeholders, empowering entrepreneurs, and developing a future-ready workforce. Next slide. And three words tie our plan together that you're going to see throughout everything tonight. We connect, we inform, and we innovate. Next slide. Wanted to spend a little bit of time on economic development. And what is economic development? The word gets used a lot, but it's worth being clear on what we mean and what our board of directors defines economic development. We believe that it is three things working together. business, place, and people, helping businesses start, stay, and grow, creating a community where people and businesses want to invest, and helping residents participate and advance in the workforce and economy. Economic development is the work of creating the conditions for businesses to succeed, people to prosper, and communities to remain strong. Our job is to help connect these dots, business, place, and people. Next slide. So where does Envision fit? Our role touches all three of those areas. We keep businesses here and help them grow through 100 business retention expansion visits annually. We create the next generation of businesses by meeting with 150 entrepreneurs annually, giving them technical assistance. When a good business can't access traditional capital, we introduce them to the WRNC Revolving Loan Fund or Fond du Lac County Capital Resources, the county's revolving loan fund. We connect 3,000 young people to careers in high school. We introduce 200 students to local entry-level career opportunities through rock tours. We build future healthcare talent by hosting a healthcare expo at the Fond du Lac High School.

We help find tomorrow's workers through our Make My Move talent attraction program.

We help those workers and families find places to live through our housing advocacy. We help advocate for policies making it easier to invest and grow in Fond du Lac County through our advocacy committee. And finally, we get everyone pulling in the same direction by convening the right people at the right table for the right conversations. I want to highlight two of these tonight, Make My Move and Our Housing Work. Next slide. Our county is facing a population decline and we can't wait for it to solve itself. Our employers need certainty that there's gonna be a workforce for them in the future and a customer base to support them. So we applied for a state grant through WEDC and received $346,000 along with $100,000 that the Envision Board of Directors matched in order to work with Make My Move. Every year, seven to 10 million people move across state lines in America. One million of those households use Make My Moves website to find their new place to call home. We help Make My Move by turning that interest into real workable leads and then turn those households into our new neighbors. Our shared goal is 32 new households to Fond du Lac County, each one supported with real programming and a genuine local connection. Next slide. And it's working. Right now we have 987 active applicants in our pipeline that want to move to Fond du Lac County. which can translate into just under $400,000 in annual economic impact, $1.6 million over five years, $56,000 in annual tax contribution, and 2.2 jobs created annually from this program alone. Next slide. We're seeing this interest from across the country. Of those 987, 14 people are in the final pipeline, meaning they have secured a local job and found housing. All of them are high household incomes and have obtained local employment with places like the Fond du Lac School District, Verve Accredit Union, and Mercury Marine. I'd like to tell you about the three families that we welcomed last week. Caroline and James moved from Washington State, driving their family and dog 30 hours to get here. They were very excited because even though moving here at the last minute, their boys were both able to enroll in football. And so when Caroline joined us for the picture and welcoming, the boys weren't there because they got to be at football practice. Rob moved from Connecticut and chose to live in Ripon, where he's already finding his favorite places to eat and shop. Andrew brought his remote job and is our first boomerang. He went to Campbell Sport High School and his family still lives in the area. When he decided to move back, he initially was looking at Madison, since he was used to moving around the country in larger metro areas. But his aunt, who is living in Colorado, saw the Make My Move incentive, sent it to Andrew, and Andrew told us that was the extra nudge he needed to choose Fond du Lac over Madison. Next month, a Marine veteran will begin a new career at Mercury Marine after retiring from his military career. Jonathan, Cindy and their six children chose Fond du Lac over other communities for their forever home because of the welcoming community and the Fond du Lac School District. Next slide. That effort is backed by our Find It in Fond du Lac County campaign, telling our story to the people who are already looking for exactly what we offer. And Maggie is going to play a commercial that we created for Make My Move.

Some places help you slow down. Other places are built for moving forward. Here, you find both. Find it in Fond du Lac County, a region on the rise.

Fond du Lac County is where communities connect, careers take shape, and everyday life just works. From lakeside towns to close-knit neighborhoods, you'll discover themed festivals, Friday night fish fries, and Wisconsin's famous old fashions all across the region.

Whether you're building a career, raising a family, or starting something new, you'll find it in Fond du Lac County.

Find adventure on the water, on the trails, and in all four seasons.

Find affordability where the cost of living is nearly 10% lower than the national average, allowing your income to stretch further and your life to feel lighter.

Find careers within manufacturing, healthcare, construction, logistics, agriculture, and more. There's stability with room to grow.

Find connection in communities that still wave hello and show up for one another. Fond du Lac County is home to more than 700 nonprofits and service clubs that strengthen community, culture, and care.

find schools, and lifelong learning. From early curiosity to technical skills and advanced degrees, Fond du Lac County features seven public school districts, 17 private schools, and four higher education pathways.

Find safety and enjoy peace of mind in an area with crime rates below the national average.

For families, professionals, remote workers, and dreamers. Find your people. Find your place. Find your purpose.

Find the life you're looking for in Fond du Lac County, a region on the rise.

This video is brought to you by Envato. If you've ever dreamed of modeling in 3D and creating an eye-catching That is not part of any of our commercials.

Well, we would love to welcome any international residents. Thank you, Maggie. The second thing I want to highlight is housing. And this sits squarely in the place category I talked about earlier. We're focused on housing affordability and availability, the missing middle and bringing partners together. Fond du Lac County employers consistently report that housing availability and affordability are limiting their ability to attract and retain workers. There was a lot of abilities in there. This isn't a low-income housing gap. It's a missing middle. Households earning solid wages still can't find homes to buy in the price range they can afford. Envision Greater Fond du Lac convened a housing committee, bringing together municipal partners, local builders, and community stakeholders to address this as a workforce infrastructure issue. The committee is working through a structured phased process, testing feasibility, engaging builders and building community support before bringing forward any specific proposals. Early builder engagement has been positive and initial financial modeling supports the concepts as workable. Workforce housing is economic development. It affects employer retention, tax-based growth, and the city's competitiveness for new business development. Next slide. At the end of the day, this work isn't about any one program or any one number on the slide. It's about building a Fond du Lac County where businesses can grow, where families can put down roots, and where the next generation has a reason to stay. We believe that's worth investing in together. Thank you for your time tonight. I'm happy to answer any questions. And I did want to just take a moment to introduce several of my team members who are here tonight as well. Raina Lyman handles our Business Retention Expansion Program. Joe Van Huizen handles our Membership and Investment Outreach. Zach Besom handles our Entrepreneurship and IGNITE Programming. Lisa McArthur handles, as the Vice President of Economic Development, our Business Attraction and Housing Committee. Emily Wisenin is our Workforce Programming Specialist, meaning she works with most of the K-12 school districts in the county. And Mike Rohde is our Membership Coordinator. He handles a lot of onboarding and bringing in new members and making sure that our retention rate stays high. So thank you for being here tonight.

Questions from council, Ms. Loring, I'll start with you.

I just wanna say thank you to everybody that came. It's nice that you brought everyone with you. And then the Chamber of Commerce, so Envision is our Chamber of Commerce. I just wanted to clarify that because I was in the building last week and someone was looking for a Chamber of Commerce and was told that we don't have one. And it wasn't anyone at the city desk, so just so you know. But I said, yes, we do. And then I directed them to Envision. So I just want the public to know that we do have a Chamber of Commerce.

Yes. Thank you for making that connection.

Thank you, Ms. Loring. Mr. Bieber, you're next. Thank you, President Heisler.

Sadie, you covered a few of the items here. Could you expound some of your success stories of it? You said like Ignite and certain programs that you do a little bit more, expound on a little bit from those different ones that you guys handle and some of the success stories you had with that.

Sure. I'd say if I picked maybe three categories, one is our advocacy we're incredibly proud of. We recognize at a statewide level for working with partners like the Wisconsin Manufacturers in Commerce, the Wisconsin Economic Development Association. I sit on the statewide Wisconsin Chambers of Commerce executives as well as the Business for Child Care Coalition statewide. And there are certain areas that we are incredibly active and vocal on, such as retaining the manufacturing and agriculture tax credit in the state of Wisconsin for our manufacturers, being pro-housing. So we spoke in testimony in favor at the state capitol for the tax credits and business development tax credits. So we're really proud of our advocacy work, both state and locally. Locally, I would say we have programs like the public office preparation to dispel a lot of the myths of what it's like to run for public office or maybe serve on something like the library board and really urge people to become involved more locally in their community. On our Chamber side, the Leadership Fond du Lac County program we're incredibly proud of that started back in the 90s. Actually on the slide earlier that Rachel Fuller showed of the bike book, That was a project that came out of Leadership Fond du Lac County and then it was donated to the library to use. So every year businesses and actually the city is a champion member and investor with Envision. And so every year, a person from the city goes through that leadership Fond du Lac County program, and it really introduces people of what everything is to know about Fond du Lac County. They learn from Mr. Gerritsen about the fire. They learn from Chief Goldstein about the police force and from our health care and all of our nonprofits. school districts and higher education. So it's really building that connection for folks. And then on our economic development, our absolute home run project has been Spark Ops. And they will actually be featured in a pretty cool publication coming up, not to be announced yet. And in the article, one of the quotes that I make is, this is every economic developer's dream is to land a project like this. And that started because of Emily Wiseman who took some high school students on a tour of Spark Ops and in an offhanded comment said to Emily, well, they were looking to expand but they were in talks with Sheboygan County. To which Emily came back to the office and said, I don't think that's probably great. Told Lisa, and Lisa MacArthur reached out to Sparks Ops, found out, yes, they are growing, they're spread out across several properties in the city of Fond du Lac, and they wanted to be in one central location. to grow. And so Lisa said, before you move to Sheboygan, would you give us a shot? And Lisa took them over to the Aeronautical Industrial Park, which had sat relatively vacant for over 10 years. and then worked with the county executive, Sam Kaufman, because the county board did have to sign off on any purchase, similar to what you had to do earlier tonight. And the county agreed to sell it at a reduced price, and Spark Ops then chose to remain here. And so they started with, I'm not even sure how many employees, and they are going to be growing up to 100 or more employees. They are broke ground over in the Aeronautical Industrial Park. They make products that are known throughout the country and are used by brands like Boeing, the NFL, Road America. And so most of their products don't even stay here. And the owners, Maria and Brian Pearl, are incredibly proud to tell people wherever they go, whenever they make a pitch for their product, that they are... made and grown here in Fond du Lac, and they are very, very proud and supportive of their community.

Thank you very much, good presentation. I'm still intrigued by the word ignite, so can you expound a little bit of what that,

Yeah, IGNITE is our entrepreneurship programming. And so that is Zach on our team. Zach meets with those year to date. He's met with 86 different entrepreneurs and small businesses. And IGNITE is the network of those who support entrepreneurship. And then they receive services, maybe technical assistance, writing a business plan, introducing them to financials, and then going through maybe something like how to introduction to social media and really making sure that entrepreneurs have someone from the thought from the napkin all the way to making their first hire to taking out their first loan to build a building.

Thank you. That sounds good.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Biber. Ms. Brault, you're in the queue and you're up. Thank you.

Well, thank you for your presentation. I also want to thank you because you just briefly touched on your work on child care. And I want to thank you for continuing to bring attention to that issue because it's a major workforce issue, especially as we've seen some decline in our state investment in child care. And a lot of providers, I think, are really worried. So I appreciate that you continue to bring that issue forward. My question, I know you said you don't have a lot of specifics yet on your housing initiative, but I'm just interested if you could talk a little bit more about like what is Envision's direction or vision, if you will, because here at the city council, you know, we've talked a lot about housing. We understand there's a lot of need for more housing development and working to try to create more investment in housing, we have found that the best way is to invest in the infrastructure to use tax dollars to spur that development. So where does Envision fit into that?

A quick comment on the childcare. Thank you for saying that. I think you've heard me say this before, that in the last two years, childcare has not risen to the top of concerns for employers. And yet we have childcare providers in this county that continue to struggle. We lost one of the largest city's childcare facilities in November of 2024. and another facility is closing actually as of August 31st and so the struggle absolutely continues and there isn't an easy answer and it is a lot of explaining and educating and so I just want to say also thank you for bringing that up. Housing is a great question. So because we are the Chamber of Commerce and Economic Development Organization, what can Envision do? And this is where the board and the housing committee, which city manager Joe Moore does sit on the housing committee, talks about Envision needs to be held accountable for what it can own, so we're not the developer. We can't approve the zoning or the developer's agreement, but where we can play a role is educating the community on why we need housing and what this gap is. There's a lot of misconceptions when the word affordable is used and people get preconceived notions of what that family might look like or what that development might look like. And the reality is it's housing for people that are our neighbors, like the childcare providers, our teachers, our EMS workers, our CNAs. that are making a livable wage, but because of the inflation and the cost of housing, it just becomes unattainable for them to make the down payment and make the monthly mortgage payment. And so this is making sure that everyone in the community and in the county understands that there is a housing shortage And there needs to be something done, which everything that the city council has been doing in terms of that public-private partnership is the only way that housing development is happening now. It's because of investments that you have made through the city's investment into infrastructure or closing that gap for them that you're able to get these projects. And your numbers are absolutely speaking for themselves. The amount of single family housing and multifamily that is coming down the pipeline and the developments that the city is investing in is incredible because that is where our workforce is looking to move. Two of the make my move families actually purchased homes in the city of Fond du Lac.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Peralta. Any further questions from council? Seeing none, that closes out this input item. Thank you. We're gonna move on to input item C, budget summary for 2027. City Manager, Mr. Moore, and Director of Administration, Ms. Davey, the floor is yours.

Thank you and good evening, everyone. we figured that two presentations wasn't enough. And so now here's a third. So you heard throughout the summer from the department heads about what they're doing, what their departments have accomplished and what their aspirations are for 2027. The budget is aligned with those aspirations and those requirements, and that's what we're gonna talk about tonight. We're gonna talk about the what and the how. The how is how we align resources to the missions of the various departments and to the city overall. Next, please. So we have three strategic priorities. They guide what we do and how we resource it. So let's just briefly look at those three. For some of you, it'll be review. For some of you, it'll be new. Next, please, Maggie. So the first of the three is maximizing public safety. I've put five points below that that in my assessment are the five most important things that any municipality can and must do if they offer those services. They have to be high quality and uninterrupted. Next, please. Number two is community and economic development to drive prosperity. And we have talked about residential development in the past. You heard it again just a few minutes ago. I'm gonna talk about where I'm recommending some investments in our capital improvement plan to align with that. And then last is protecting and improving publicly owned infrastructure. And that means everything. That's providing high quality parks that are well equipped with new equipment, the things that the kids want and the adults want, and then adding more where we can. And then lastly, continuing investment in roads and bridges. And I'm gonna point out some of those as we go through the capital improvement plan as well. Now I'm gonna turn it over to Tricia Davey to give you a summary of what the 27 budget looks like.

Next slide, please.

Oh, I apologize, Tricia. I hung you out to dry. These five things are what we must do. So these are about performance. And we believe that we've adequately resourced the departments to be able to provide this performance. And then within that, the department heads outstanding leadership that I think you all really picked up on this summer as they were making their presentations will drive what would be good to great. And that's what this budget facilitates. Now, Tricia, it's all yours.

Next slide, please. So for the operating budget, next slide. So our budget is balanced. All missions are fully funded within our levy limit constraints and the requirements of our expenditure restraint program. Our fund balance is healthier than it's been this century. This was viewed very favorably during our recent debt rating calls with the standards and pours and helped with the ratings that Justin had mentioned earlier. The consumer price index exceeded the rate of net new construction by a factor of six times. So that means that our allowable levy increase did not keep up with the cost of inflation. Our general fund expenditures rose the same amount as CPI, and our personnel costs overall increased at 2.5%, which was slightly less than CPI. Next slide. For our nonrepresented employees, anyone that is eligible for a step increase will receive a pay increase between 4.4% and 5.4%, depending where they are on the scale. Our labor agreements with all five of our collective bargaining groups are in place and fully funded. And due to new features that we added to our health plan in 2025, which have helped control our costs, we can continue to keep our health insurance premiums unchanged for 2027. So that's been some very good news with those changes that we've put into place. And the budget that you receive, wait. Not yet. Next slide, please. There we go. The budget you will receive on Friday enables us to provide our high quality municipal services in line with our strategic priorities. Next slide. And I will turn it back over to Joe.

Again, this will be a review for some and new to others. And I wanted to go through just a few of the high level numbers to help help you as you look at the budget you will get on Friday, because this is the roadmap. If we all understand this page in the budget, everything else will be just fine. So I have put a blue rectangle around general fund to help orient the conversation. What that means is everything you heard this summer. So the general fund funds police, public works, fire, community development, et cetera, et cetera. We propose to spend almost $43 million in the general fund to support those missions. Below that, special revenue funds. There are some activities that we do in our operating budget that either have so many outside sources of funding or fee for services or some other uniqueness, like our allocation to the library, that we segregate those into separate funds. I'll give you an example of one that doesn't require tax revenue because I'm gonna talk about those that do. So the example is our solid waste collection. Everything we do with trash pickup, bulky waste, et cetera, et cetera, requires not $1 of property taxes. It's all funded by a fee for service. So that's a example of a special revenue fund that doesn't have any of property taxes flowing to it. If you look down below now, where it says the property tax levy for city purposes is summarized as follows. You see an allocation proposed of almost $19 million for the general fund. That's 19 million of the 42.8. And as you heard from Rachel, I think we all agree what's good for the library is good for the community. I think every community would agree with that. The challenge is some communities don't fund it that way. And so we propose bumping up the allocation to the budget a bit this year so that Rachel's missions are uninterrupted and she can operate at full capacity. Another special revenue fund that has grown over the years is for recycling. Used to be that the state of Wisconsin had a real emphasis on recycling and then backed up that emphasis with grant funding. That has been winding down and so our allocation to the recycling special revenue fund has grown to $700,000 and remains so for 27. And then we have the transit special revenue fund, and we propose to allocate 210,000. So I'll put that in perspective for you. Transit is about a $2.2 million annual operation. Take care of the buses, pay the drivers, et cetera, et cetera. 210,000 of that is all that's required from city property taxes to make that a break-even proposition and keep fares low. We also then have a capital projects fund, special revenue fund. And what that's for is to try to offset borrowing. We put as much of the levy in it that we can afford to put in it. So that, for example, we propose to keep that at the same levels it was in 26. And that's almost $300,000 we don't have to issue debt for. And that's a good thing. And then lastly, Mr. Biber, what Justin was referring to when he said that the interest rates were lower for general obligation debt because there's sort of an unlimited upside to the coverage, in the state of Wisconsin, We have to levy, we have to levy for our debt coverage. And so that pleases rating agencies greatly because they know that that's the law and that's where that final calculation comes in for the debt service fund. So we're gonna ask you to approve a levy of almost $37 million. Before we leave this page, I wanna turn back to the upper section. So I'm gonna show you in a moment that we propose over $21 million in capital improvement plan investments. You'll notice that to properly treat the water, the wastewater that we put back into Lake Winnebago every day will cost about $30 million a year, almost 31. to extract water from about 900 feet below the ground, treat it, and distribute it to all of our water customers costs about $23 million a year. No property taxes go into either of those activities. That's all supported by the rates we pay with our water bills. And then there are two other funds when you receive the budget. You might wonder, what's the internal service fund mean? A lot of organizations have internal accounting practices because of the way they fund internal operations. We provide health insurance to everybody who wants it, who works for the City of Fond du Lac. It applies across the departments, so we manage that in a central fund. And the same is true for information technology. It's just a way that... helps us to account for those two activities separately and also to make sure that we funded them adequately. So now let's go to the next page. I'm going to run through our capital projects in total but only highlight a few. Next please. So Here we begin the 21, almost $22 million of proposed investment in capital investments. Everything I've highlighted in yellow, I wanted to point out because you heard about it this summer about aspirations. Now we're putting prices to those aspirations. So the Macy and Portland parking ramps are assets worth millions of dollars. It's important to maintain those to a high level. So you see they're a bit over 400,000 proposed for that maintenance. Moving into the police department, a couple highlights. We always like to keep our squads modern and never to have squads on duty that are not dependable or that are consuming too much maintenance. And so you see almost a half a million dollars in investment for police squads. And then another one is the $1.1 million investment proposed to essentially finish off the police department's renovation that's been ongoing for a few years. This one will be pretty involved, but in the end, we'll have an essentially new police department inside and out. For fire rescue, I highlighted the ambulance because it wasn't but about five years ago that Chief Gerritsen and I would have told you the ambulance cost about $200,000. Now they cost $400,000. And so, you know, just to follow up on a conversation you had with Chief Gerritsen, I wanted to point that out. Next, please. Public Works has quite the buffet of investments every year, so I'm just going to point out a few. Where I've highlighted street reconstruction, within that is Division Street. So that's part of that million dollars of investment. Moving on down, I'm going to highlight Pioneer Road. Paul DeVries talked to you about that. The price we've put to that is a little over $2 million. That will be a great improvement, in part because it will get people off the street that are on foot or on a bicycle, where there's no room to do that now. And it will greatly enhance people's ability to turn on and off of Pioneer in that area. And then down below, housing facilitation, that is our phrasing for support to housing. You see here two different recommended investments of a half a million a piece. One of them is an expansion of what's going on near Holy Family in that new neighborhood. Another one is, and this will probably be of a lot of interest to people when it's underway because our partner is proposing with us to complete Park Avenue. If you've been out by Park Avenue and come in off of V, The new Park Avenue goes about halfway across that property as you're facing the water tower. This project will connect that end of Park Avenue all the way over to the water tower at Martin. And so Park Ave then will flow all the way through that part of the city. And it will give access to that property for homes to be built. Next, please. Stormwater, we talk about that often because we're investing quite a lot of money annually to mitigate flood threat. But I did highlight here three things. We are also doing some underground infrastructure in those two housing endeavors at 130,000 apiece is what I propose. And then we will continue our armoring areas of rivers and creeks where the banks have eroded a lot and we've allocated or at least requested $300,000 to do that. Parks in 2027, we proposed to invest about a million dollars. A couple of highlights here. The Lakeside Park West is really gonna get dressed up because a dirt parking lot by the bridge is gonna be paved. It's gonna be a major upgrade for people on that side of the river who wanna transit over to Lakeside Park perhaps. The other is the Franklin Park Pump Track. Paul DeVries talked to you about that. That allocation for 30,000 is to do preliminary designs and also to host public information meetings so that in 2027 we can get a lot of feedback about some designs we're gonna put before everybody and then figure out where we go from there. And then I highlight the brine maker, not because it's exciting, but because it's super important. And having our own with the proper capacity will allow us, you know, we pre-treat the streets in Fond du Lac. This will really up our game when we have our very own. And that's a little over 300 grand. Next, please. So this is the last one. Back to what's good for the libraries, good for the community. Rachel showed you one of her capital investments when she said landscaping and a couple of other things. One of those other things was a long range facilities plan. Great idea. And so we recommend that the city fund that. And that is the total proposal of capital expenditures for next year. All that adds up to that $21 million that you saw on the summary sheet. And we'll also see in your capital improvement details when we give you that book on Friday. I would also mention that there's many, many more millions of capital expenditures that you will find embedded in the wastewater budget and the water budget. But again, those capital expenditures are either funded by rate payers or the debt to purchase those capital expenditures is funded by rate payers. Next, please. So this is the next to last slide. We will bring all the budget books over to your homes on Friday. They're in the hands of the printer now. And we will have a special budget meeting on September 16th. That makes three meetings in September. The 16th will be the third Wednesday of September. And so that's the evening we'll get together. I would... urge you to send questions to Tricia, Tessa, me, or any of the department heads between now and then, because what we'll do with those, we'll answer you directly, but we'll also compile those questions and answer everybody when we get together on the 16th. That way, You know what other people have been curious about, how we answered those questions, and that'll help facilitate that conversation on the 16th. So love to hear from you on that. And we will also go live to the world on Friday by posting all of this on the webpage. So with that, next slide. Be glad to take any questions you have.

Thank you, Mr. Moore. You're welcome. Questions from counsel for Mr. Moore. Mr. Biber, you're up.

I'll have to look over the budget for a lot of things, but thank you for doing that and getting involved. I just had a question on page, I think it's eight, with the summary of outcomes. It's good for the increase for the employees, 4.4, but working for government and for big corporations that sometimes the raises always get eaten up by the insurance costs or the insurance kind of, Percentage is going up at all or no?

Mr. Viber, look at the first bullet and the third bullet. It unchanged.

It's not going to go up there.

I just want to make sure on that.

That's good. I'm glad for that. That was my only question.

Thank you, sir. Any other questions from counsel for Mr. Moore on that? Not seeing any. I know it's been a long meeting, but I just want to take just one second and just make a couple of general observations as a senior member of this council. This is going to be my last budget, which I'm excited about. But also, I just want to tell you, and she'll never say this to you, but there's not a question that Tricia Davey doesn't know the answer to. There just isn't. And whatever she doesn't know the answer to, Joe will make up. So that's pretty much how this is gonna work. So honestly, seriously though, I mean it's very seriously. Ask your questions ahead of time if you can. Please open up the budget book ahead of time. The other thing that Joe does an incredible job of is he takes the budget summary and puts all these numbers into really eloquent words that are easier for guys like me to understand. So read those and just be ready to go for what's gonna be a great budget meeting, our special budget session. I'm very excited to work with this council on what's gonna be a great budget. Thank you so much to all the staff who's put in all the work so far. With that, I think that input item is closed. So all we need to do now is refresh our screen so we can actually entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn by Mr. Zimmerman. If I can get there. Tiffany's got the second on it. We've got a motion and a second. This isn't debatable, please proceed to vote. And that passes unanimously, we're adjourned.