Business Improvement District Board #5 (westown Area) - Regular Meeting

Good afternoon, everyone. Good afternoon. Good afternoon. Welcome to the Community and Economic Development Committee. I'm the chairman, Alderman Russell Stanford II. To my right is my vice chair, Alderwoman Marina Dimitrievich. To my furthest left is Alderman DeAndre Jackson. And to his right is Alderwoman Charlene Moore. We are joined today by the president. I think we're joined. He's in and out, but that's the president of the Common Council, Jose Perez, who will be joining us today, and Alderman Chambers is excused. Item number one. Yes, sir. You want to skip first one? We're going to skip the first one? Okay. Alderman Jackson moves to hold this at the call of the chair. There ain't no objections, so ordered. Moving to number two, item 260569. This is the appointment of Dr. Monique Liston to the Emerging Youth Achievement Advisory Council. Dr. Monique Liston, are you here today?

She's online.

I'm here. Hey, how are you?

Doing well. Good to see everyone.

Good to see you and thank you for your interest in joining our Emerging Youth Achievement Council. Let us know why you would like to serve and how you're going to help us engage and help our youth be successful.

well i am just excited for the invitation to join the council i've been actively working on one of the subcommittees related to data and evaluation over the last few months because of my research on what does it mean to protect the dignity of our most vulnerable populations in our city i've been able to apply that experience into how this committee is thinking about data for youth in the city so I'm excited to continue that work and to connect with other committee members to further that lens.

Excellent. I serve on that committee, so I'm looking forward to working with you. It'll be an awesome addition. Let me see if we have any questions by the committee. Anybody have any questions?

or any comments or the woman more no necessary question but just you know to i'm so honored that dr liston um is using her talents and her skills and her time we appreciate you um for just providing that expertise to the um to the council so thank you so much

thank you dr liston i agree we all agree and we're so moved yes all the woman charlotte moore moves for your confirmation hearing no objections so order thank you and i'll see you at the meeting thank you thank you all right all right next we have number three two six zero five nine three appointment of dr richard lagman to the business improvement district number 13 by the mayor dr richard lagerman are you available Are you available, Mr. Dr. Leggerman? He's not here. City Clerk, any information?

I send him the information.

All right. We're going to hold this at the call of the chair. Alderwoman Dimitrievich moves to hold this at the call of the chair. Hearing no objections, so ordered. Number 4-260-594, appointment of Dean Rain to the business improvement petition number 13. Mr. Dean Rain, are you available? Please come up, Mr. Rain. How are you today? I'm doing very well. How about yourself? I'm excellent. This is an appointment, so thank you for your willingness to serve. Let us know why you would like to serve and how you're going to help us improve this district.

Well, I own Lisa's Pizza on Oakland Avenue. I'm trying to be a good member of the street and clean things up. We previously hosted earlier this year the Oak and Loke pickup to try and get uh... some of the street trash and things picked up around oakland uh... this is kinda next move get more involved try and get some more business events happening on the street and uh... bring all the business together excellent so we constantly contemplate what pizza we're going to eat twice a month and lisa's always in the conversation particularly my uh...

Wives, niece, dad. You always bring Lisa through, so you got great pizza.

Thank you for the support and love.

Yes, sir. Any questions or comments for Mr. Rain? Hearing none, Alderwoman Dimitrovich moves for your confirmation. Hearing no objections to order, thank you for your willingness to serve and have a great day. Yeah, you too. Thank you. All right. Next, we have number 5, 260691, appointment of Sophia Osmond to the Bell R. Phillips Center.

trailblazer awards selection committee miss sophia are you available mr chair yes um sophie is a high school student oh um just like and she's also a youth council member excellent um so sophia is in school um i can definitely speak on her behalf as a um Safi is going into her, I want to say this is probably her third year. I think she started as a freshman in the youth council and is a current, served previously as the vice chair of the youth council. And when I tell you she's a firecracker, she is smart, very outspoken. I could not have had a better leader on the youth council. So her, being appointed for the Vell Phillips Trailblazer Award, I couldn't think about somebody that has earned it more than Safiya Azam. So yes, I would love to move confirmation for that as well.

From my recollection, did she go to D.C. with us? She did. She did.

And we're looking forward to another year.

She is excellent. Yes. oh yes yes all the woman more moves for the confirmation for uh sophia osmond hearing no objection so order thank you so much congratulate her for us and uh we will do our best to be there are they are they back they're back Okay, we have a reconsideration for number 1, 2, 5, 2, 1, 6, 9. Alderman Jackson moves for reconsideration. Appointment of Maritza Ugarte to the Emerging Youth Achievement Advisory Council by the Mayor. Please come up, Ms. Oh, okay. Hi. Hello?

Good afternoon, sorry that I'm online. I'm at a staff retreat, so I wasn't able to step away and be in person, but I would have loved to have been in the room, so thank you for having me.

Well, thank you for attending virtually. This is an appointment for you. We welcome you to the Emergency Youth Achievement Advisory Council. Please let us know why you would like to serve.

Sure. So I sent my resume over, but I was given the opportunity, offered the opportunity as a major appointee. I'm very excited. I did some, I used to be a Qazi youth. I always say Qazi, but it's really the Milwaukee Christian Center when I was a Christian center over at Qazi location. So I'm very familiar with some of the youth related work that goes on there and youth development in general has always been a thing of passion of mine. I've obviously stepped into different community-oriented roles since then, but youth have always been a big focus of mine, and any which way that I can help with furthering their, you know, any kind of furthering their needs, I'm happy to be a part of that conversation.

Awesome, well, we welcome you to the Advisory Council. We've been making a lot of progress with our youth groups, and we're happy to have you. Let me see if the President has any comments. Yeah, thank you, Mr.

Chair. Thank you. As you know, this is an appointment by the Mayor, and it is, one of the appointments is representing the Police Department, but I just wanted to say that I've had a long history working with Marita in District 2 on the near south side. Okay. She was very instrumental with some of the efforts there dealing with nuisance properties and community events and community efforts. So we welcome all of that work and lived experience here on the Emerging Youth Achievement Advisory Council and look forward to working with her. So there's some good history there and some good energy.

Alright, we'll see you at the next meeting. What's the date? You know the next one? It's coming up. We'll see you soon, alright? With that, Alderman Jackson moves for your confirmation. Hearing no objections to order. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Alright, alright. Next, we have number six, 260589, reappointment of Steve Metch to the Business Improvement District number two by the mayor. He has perfect attendance, so he does not need to attend. So with that, Alderman Moore moves for confirmation. Hearing no objections, so ordered. Number seven. Who's on the board? Oh, Izzy, I'm sorry. Are you there? Let me go back. Alderman Moore moves for reconsideration. Mr. Steve Metch, are you here? I am here. Man, I guess that perfect attendance is accurate, huh?

Sorry, my camera's not working.

All right. Well, thank you so much for your dedication to this city. Let us know why you would like to continue to serve. I see this is a reappointment for you.

It's a privilege to serve. Thank you.

All right. Any questions or comments by the committee?

No.

All right. With that, all the women, more moves for confirmation. Hearing no objections to order. Thank you so much. Number 7, 260590, reappointment of John Hennessy to the Business Improvement Edition Number 5 by the Mayor. Mr. Hennessy, are you available? He also has perfect attendance. I understand it's super good. Mr. Hennessy will be approved. Alderman Jackson moves for confirmation. Hearing no objections, so ordered. Number 8260591, reappointment of Lisa Kurzeski to the Business Improvement District number 5. Ms. Lisa, are you available?

Yes, I'm here. How are you doing?

How are you today?

I'm great. How are you?

Excellent. Excellent. Thank you for your service over the years. This is a reappointment for you. Please let us know why you would like to continue.

Well, I've been a member of the Bid 5 in Westtown Association for 10 years now. Okay. As well as a part of Zilber for 25 years now. So I'm just really excited to continue to represent Zilber and be a part of everything that Bid 5 in Westtown does downtown just to further our mission statement and just enhance downtown for the businesses and residents.

Excellent. Excellent. We have any questions by the committee? Hearing none, Alderwoman Dimitrievich moves for your confirmation. Hearing no, objections to order. Thank you, Lisa. Have a great day. Thank you. All right. Number 9-260-592, reappointment of Melissa Lukey to the Business Improvement District Number 5. Melissa, are you available?

I am.

How are you today?

I'm great. I'm impressed you got the Serbian little chip of my last name. You did well.

Well, I've been hanging with the Serbs lately. That would be my husband.

Oh, yeah.

I've been hanging. I've been hanging. So thank you for your willingness to serve over the years. I am next to my Serbian colleague right here. So let's see if she has any comments, questions. Zubali, anything?

We're serves are a few words through words.

All right. All right. So Melissa, what, why would you like to continue serving on the business improvement district board?

Sure. Absolutely. So this is a reappointment. Um, I am the director of rooms at the Hilton Milwaukee. Uh, we have completed a $43 million renovation and it really has brought life back to this building, uh, which in turn increases, um, occupancy at the hotel, uh, And when our guests stay here, they don't just stay at the hotel. They really go out and really use and utilize the city and all the businesses and find things we have to offer. And I really feel that it's my duty as in my role to be an ambassador to the city. And I've lived here my whole life. And I really just want to continue to do the work and support Westtown and their mission.

Excellent. Excellent. Well, we welcome you. Any questions by the committee? With that, Alderman Demetriavich moves for your confirmation. Thank you so much. Hearing no objections, so ordered. Have a wonderful day.

Thank you.

I will see you soon. Number 10, 260-595, reappointment of Tracy Hebert to the Business Improvement District number 26. Tracy has perfect attendance, but is she available?

I am here.

Hey, Tracy, thanks for attending. Thank you for your perfect attendance to the bid. Let us know why you would like to continue to serve.

Yeah, going into my 10th year, I've been chair for the last three years, and I'm just excited to keep connecting companies that are in the Valley as well as bringing more employees.

Awesome. Well, thank you for your dedication to Milwaukee. With that, Alderman Jackson moves for your confirmation. Hearing no objections, so ordered. Have an excellent day. Thank you. Thanks. So 260596 reappointment of Larry Stern to the business improvement edition number 22 by the mayor. This is a reappointment. Larry Stern, are you available?

I don't see him there.

Larry, Larry. All right, we'll hold this.

Maybe he'll come back.

All right, so we're going to Alderwoman Dimitrievich moves to hold this at the call of the chair. There ain't no objection. So order number 12-260-514. Mr.

Chair?

Yes, yes, Alderwoman.

Is it possible, and I know that the city clerk is here, so come on up. Is it possible that we can take 12, 13, 14, and 15 together as they're all youth council members?

I have no issue with that. Committee, are you guys okay with that? Yes. I know Alderman Jackson is. Thank you for that proposal. Jim, is that okay if you put them all together and let us know about each and every young person that's going to be a leader on the Youth Council?

Mr. Chairman and members, Jim Wazarski, city clerk, it is a pleasure to be with you. All right, all right. This is a little, as much as one can get in what we do for a living government, this is exciting. Yes.

So real quick, city clerk, do I have to read them all first or can we let them? I want to read them. Okay, let me read these and then it'll be your turn, Jim. 12-260-5142, nomination of Ms. Kayle Phillips as the 6th District Representative. Okay, 6th District. Number 13, 260-537, nomination of Ms. Jaslyn Tovar to the 8th District. Congratulations to the 8th. 14, 260603, nomination of Santiago Perez to the 13th district representative. Congratulations to the 13th. And number 15, 260625, nomination of Allen Mendoza to the fourth district representative to the Milwaukee County Youth Council. Excellent. Jim, you have the floor.

Thank you, sir.

I'm sorry, I missed one, Jim. Sorry about that. Number 16, 26066, 680 nomination of Chaim Wise as the at-large member of the Milwaukee Youth Council.

Now, Jim, you have the floor. Again, Mr. Chair, it is as close as we can get to exciting. We actually had a meeting, a get-together last night, a group starting to get them acclimated in anticipation. This is the 21st year for the City of Milwaukee Youth Council, going all the way back to 2005. And we have another great mix, I think, between returning members and brand new members. I know you have a full agenda, so let me just introduce them very, very briefly. In the sixth district, I have absolutely no bias with Ms. Phillips, even though I have known her since she and my son attended daycare together. And she is a senior. They're not rising anymore. She was rising when I interviewed her. She is a senior at Reagan, is deeply politically active, and hopes one day to attend a particular HBCU, namely Morgan State, and work in the area of business and development. In the 8th Aldermanic District, Alderperson Zamarripa, we have another rising senior. This one from Divine Savior Holy Angels. It does surprise me a little bit and gives me a lot of hope that these individuals are interested in policy and in politics and trying to improve it. She hopes one day to have a practice in family law. and is hoping to pursue that. In addition, she has participated in her class's mock trial club and has done very, very well in that. So again, has a deep interest in policy, politics, and practice. In the 13th Districts, I did make the inquiry. It is no relation to the current Common Council President, at least that he could discern. He is a sophomore at Bradley Tech. has a deep interest in physics, and he is involved closely in the RAICES, I hope I pronounced that correctly, organization within UMOS, which is their roots organization, which is a youth serving entity. He is passionately involved in, I guess, no terrible surprise given his background, in working to inform the community about its rights given that in the area of immigration and trying to make sure individuals are protected from the depredations of government. We have in the fourth district and in this one as Alderwoman Moore will tell you gets me a little emotional. We have never, never had a full year serving member in the fourth aldermanic district. It's a strange, I think it's just coincidence. We've had a couple of members here and there, but never strange serving. Mr. Mendoza is the one interesting thing that left out for me. By the way, he is a sophomore at Bradley Tech also, just like Mr. Perez. Probably the most interesting thing, he can speak Turkish. which he picked up also at, he learned it while he was at RAICES at UMOS. His particular interest is in pollution and drug abatement. Unfortunately, he finds too much of it in the neighborhood where he lives. And he wants to step up and see the city do more about that. I'm sure his voice will be heard on that. And finally, there is Chaim Weiss. He is our member at large. He would have come from the 10th district, but that seat was already taken. And I'm very, very excited to have him. He is a senior. He, however, he hopes one day to be an author. And he wants to pursue a career in creative writing. But he still believes that he owes a debt to the community that he lives in and that raised him and he's particularly interested in the area of youth mental health. We are still continuing to recruit and we're excited to see a few more members join us down the line but right now we are at 11 of our 17 which is excellent and we are definitely looking forward to moving forward. So I offer all of them to you for confirmation.

Thank you Jim. In that 11 are you considering the 15th?

That'll be the 12th. The 15th. The 15th right to have one would be 12.

Gotcha. All right. So I will take the responsibility and follow up with you and Alderman Moore and get us 12 youth councils for the moment. So with that, any questions? Alderman Moore, you're on the floor. I will move that. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. See, see, see, see. And authorizing the acceptance and expenditure of contributions for that purpose. Alderman Perez.

No, thank you. Working very closely with the 16th Street Business Improvement District, they are entering this year their third year of the Viva Nuestra Herencia event, which celebrates very much some of the commercial vibrancy on 16th Street. It also draws a lot of attention to the need that we have several parcels on that street that need development, and so bringing people to the street, not only to celebrate what's there, celebrate culture, there's lots of ethnic um events going on whether it's dancing whether it's poetry whether it's a bunch of cultural events that just represent the community uh wanted to make this an official city event the packet is in your uh is in the file okay and i'm very pleased to uh bring it before the committee for your consideration they put a lot of work into this and um We're hoping to join the list of other city events to celebrate the diversity in the city and on the south side.

Excellent. President, when is the next event? What's the date?

The next one is Sunday, September 20th from 1 to 6 p.m., and it's right on 16th Street between National and Greenfield.

Would you invite your fellow colleagues? Oh, I definitely will. Thank you. Do we have any questions for the president? Hearing none, Alderwoman Dimitrievich moves for adoption. Hearing no objections, so ordered. Congratulations and tell them we are looking forward to the next event. It better be there if I invite you. Please do. Please do. 18260452, Substitute Resolution Creating Business Improvement District Number 57, Lincoln Village. Approving its initial operating plan and authorizing expenditures in the 8th and 12th Automatic District. This is sponsored by the President, Alderman Perez. You have the floor.

I just want to say that I appreciate the business owners being very diligent about this. This has been a long time coming. At least this was proposed probably three times in the last 10 years, and I think that the perseverance of the stakeholders on Lincoln Avenue, the need for a bid, and frankly, we've seen... New businesses come in that want to see the bid happen and we've seen a change of guard in some areas and I just want to commend them for their hard work. I will go on the record now to say that in getting this done and getting, as you know, the process of getting the operating plan and the timing of the notices um there's just a couple improvements that after this gets through uh gets done we have to make a couple tweaks we'll be back to amend the operating plan especially when it impacts uh one or two property owners that have several properties on the street so we want to we want to fix that i want to be on the record as being very public about that The leadership on Lincoln Avenue is very supportive of that. So with that said, I just want to turn it over to them. They have a lot to talk about, but I wanted to be out there knowing that once we get this through, we'll be back to tweak those things that I think just couldn't happen in the timing of it, and we want to get it done.

Excellent. All right, cool. Hey, everybody. Matt, would you like to start? Sure, thank you very much. Thank you.

Matt Rejic, Department of City Development. Just wanted to sort of roll through. You know, it's not all that often that we have a bid, and especially at this meeting, a NID creation as well as the next item. Just wanted to roll through a little bit of what usually goes into that and what is required to go into that. and some of the things that we've already done. So as President Perez had mentioned, there's been a lot of outreach by the people here at this table to reach out to the business owners, to the property owners, and really get a sense of what the need is. And they'll go into that. And that really goes into the consensus building and education. They developed an operating plan, which is required by state statute. That plan has been reviewed by the city attorney's office. They've received petitions from property owners to create the bid. And they held a public hearing on August 17th at the city plan commission. And there was a letter that was uploaded into the file summarizing, but there was a lot of support given at that public hearing. So the next stage is Common Council, CED committee approval, and that's where we wanted to present this item here and just sort of discuss a little bit more. All right.

So I'm improving my awareness of different parts of the south side. Would you let me know the boundaries, please? Generally, Lincoln Avenue from 5th to 25th.

Gotcha. Yep. Who wants to go first?

Good morning. Good morning. Well, good afternoon.

I'm sorry. Sorry about that.

My name is Maribel. I am president of the Lincoln Village Business Association. I'm here with the rest of the members of the association, and I'm also a resident and a business owner on Lincoln Avenue. I have been in the South Side my entire life, so I've seen a lot of what goes on, especially on Lincoln.

What's your business?

Yeah, so I own a lash salon. I decided to open up on 12th and Lincoln. I grew up on 10th and Oklahoma. And I think it's something that really was needed on Lincoln. Somewhere for girls to get ready, feel beautiful. Like eyelashes? Just eyelashes, yeah. And I also like to train girls as well to possibly get a career out of it and just push them to opening up their own business as well.

It's a phenomenal space, too. The way she's redeveloped it is really nice. Oh, awesome, awesome.

Yeah, I'm very focused along. My mother, as well, owns a business on Lincoln Avenue right next to me on the beautification of it for the community to enjoy.

Awesome.

All right, so I have a couple notes here. Why we decided to bid is because in 2024, as an association, that's when I joined, we noticed that there was a huge decline as far as safety, lighting, a lot of different things that business owners were concerned for. And we talked about it and we met with Jessica and Matt and they suggested a bid. So if we wanna go into the next slide, please. So, thank you.

Where do I click?

Just here.

Perfect. So what a bid does for us, well it's a locally controlled investment and I do think that the community is very excited for this. So since we have the support now, we want to start the bid. Okay. Things that were done, so a requirement for the bid was that we did surveys for all of the business owners and even talked to a couple of the neighbors around. And a huge list of things was the main thing, which was safety, and I think that is something that is very crucial in a community, whether it's schools, churches, and a beautiful park that we have. There was like litter, graffiti, there's also I do think a lack of community for, or coordinated resources for the corridor. So we're building on an existing monument. So I do believe that we have everything that a community would possibly need. We have the culture, we have the entrepreneurs. We have seen a huge momentum since we started being more active in the community. So we've had holiday markets in the winter. We've had Lincoln Fest that just happened during the summer. We've also been communicating with a lot of the business owners and neighbors about the different resources. And we noticed a lack of communication as well that we have amongst just neighbors in the corridor. And as a business association and just volunteer work, I think we have plateaued on how much work we can do without a proper scale and funding for the community. So with us having this, we will obviously create a stronger more tenants to stay for like safety, we would reduce vacancies, we would attract higher quality tenants, which would mean a more diverse, different type of business on Lincoln Avenue. And then, To destination, sorry, foot traffic, yes. So I think what has paused and stopped a lot of foot traffic again on Lincoln Avenue and stopped just visitors and tourists from visiting our neighborhood is the safety. So that is on the top of our list. Oops. Now with the structure that we have I think that will also create bigger opportunities not just for the association but again for the business owners and for the neighborhood surrounding us. And then the assessment is a tax deductible so I think a lot of the business owners were very okay with that as they are enjoying a lot of the works that we've been doing in the neighborhood. Let me go to the next one. So why we want to do this now is because we've seen so much momentum and so much progress with what we have been doing. And I do think Lincoln does not lack, it doesn't lack potential. What it is mainly lacking is just a official structure for us to actually continue to support everyone as far as, again, business owners, and for us to work better as an association to actually meet those needs that people are going to expect from us in the neighborhood and, again, community. The support is there. I think we can have a lot more effort and results once this bid gets approved. And I do think that, again, as someone who was growing up on Lincoln Avenue, this is like, again, also very exciting and emotional for me and along with the people who are residing on Lincoln Avenue.

Let me get to the next slide.

I think I covered this already. So for the organization of the bid board, we already have a lot of people that are interested and we will have that for the next meeting. And majority of the members are business owners. We are welcoming as well, neighborings or occupants on Lincoln Avenue. And then terms, we have said three years,

Sorry, terms.

So yeah, we would meet quarterly. We were looking forward to having nine to 11 members on the bid board and I think we have a budget going next. Let me click to the next one. Yeah, so the assessment or the method of assessment is that we would have a rate of $2 per $1,000 of property value and with a minimum and a max, so 300 minimum and a $1,200 max per property assessment. So here is the proposed funds that we submitted. Here is a total expense of $57,424, and we have calculated that with previous events and previous activities that we were planning to do, again, prioritizing safety and just creating more opportunities for the community as well, like the events that we planned in the winter and summer. And I do want to see if anyone has any comments to add here.

Yes. Please introduce yourself, your business, and your relation to the pit.

Yeah, so my name is Don Rombat. I live and work on 10th and Lincoln. I'm a sculptor. I've got my studio there. I've been in the neighborhood for 10 years. Also a member of Lincoln Village Business Association. And yeah, just sort of following up with what Maribel was saying. When she referred to the work we've been doing, it's mostly been the business association. We're all volunteers. We had a little bit of money left over from 20 years ago or something that we've been kind of whittling through. trying to use it where we can. We bought, addressing some of the neighborhood concerns about trash was a big one, so we bought individual outdoor garbage cans that we supplied to the businesses. In exchange, they had to take care of opening them because we only have every five blocks or six blocks there's a city-owned garbage can. So that's one of the things we're hoping to remedy with this is just take this community effort that we have, because we have a lot of people buying in, and kind of take it to the next level. All right, excellent. Hi.

Hi there. I'm Jenny Bohr. I don't own a property on Lincoln Avenue, but I live, I rent on 7th and Lincoln. I'm a commercial photographer. Grew up on the south side. Grew up not too far from Lincoln Village in Layton Park. i've been living living in my space for about seven years now i'm active in the lincoln village business association the newly created kosciuszko park alliance so trying to do as much as i can in the neighborhood and with the community and run my business and yeah i think the bid is you know a necessity i think the south side lincoln village we deserve that i think a lot of neighborhoods deserve it but But we do, like Don had said, we're doing a lot volunteer-wise. And there's only so much resources and people power that we can go with that. So I really do think getting some sort of funds to help us will just grow the businesses, grow activity, but also provide safety. And I think that's a big concern for a lot of people that live around there and have businesses. you should be able to do what you wanna do and not be afraid of different things and sometimes that happens in the neighborhood. So I really am excited for this and I think it's something that the neighborhood and everybody is for and we need.

Excellent, excellent. Hi.

Hello there. My name is Colleen Genie-Travinsky, and I've been working in the area for about 10 years on various organizations. I'm a member of Lincoln Village Business Association and now involved in Cream City South Community Development Corporation. and have been involved in working with Lincoln Village to get the bid moving forward. As what everyone said, it's a wonderful community, very diverse, and certainly underserved, and we're doing our best to change that. Fabulous group of people along the corridor, very dedicated small businesses. And just in our community meetings, a lot of the needs have come forth. We're trying to address those needs. And I just think it's, to reiterate what everyone else said, a lot of volunteers, and now if we have a structure that we can rely on to put the operating plan into place, to really help the businesses, even in the marketing aspect as well, to have more people come into that community, it's essential. You know, we have the Basilica, which is right there in the street. I don't know if you're familiar with the community, which draws a number of people into that area, but it's time to get them comfortable going out along the community to really help the small businesses that are from 5th down to 25th. So it's an exciting time. We have a great group of people here, and I'm hoping this goes forward.

Excellent, excellent. I've just got one more quick thing to add, just following up on that, is I think, The biggest issue we have is perception of the Southside because it's a wonderful neighborhood. I've been there 10 years, I love it. I feel pretty good walking around, meeting neighbors, you get to know everybody and a lot of people just, oh, the Southside people, what they hear on the news or whatever and I think, with a little more effort and some more structure, we can show Milwaukee how great a neighborhood that is and hopefully help the community.

Awesome. Yeah, I got to get familiar with that area. The president hasn't taken me over there yet. He keeps me at Walker Point.

Can we get out of Walker Point, man?

We have more stuff than Walker's Point. Thank you. Okay, this is actually a nice group and diverse neighborhoods and mixture of business and expertise. So with that, do we have any questions or comments? Yes, Alderwoman Moore.

Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. For the record, I love this outside. You guys have some, there's some great neighborhoods on the south side. So let's make sure we start presenting that message. I think I have a technical question that probably goes back to our department. Just for my edification, I'm new to the council. I'm a little over two and a half years in. and I'm learning how these sorts of things sort of develop. When you did the budget, do bids typically have a framework as far as, well, you have up to X number of dollars? Talk to me a little bit the financial aspect of how that goes.

Yeah, so as part of DCD's role, we provide technical assistance to existing and forming bids. So when we met and talked about the sorts of things and activities that the bid would be trying to do, We took a look at and worked in partnership with the city assessor's office as well to pull a spreadsheet of properties that are within the boundaries of the bid and sort of ran through a few scenarios with the bid organizers of if we ran the assessments a certain way, this would be the total amount of dollars that would come out. Maribel had mentioned they landed on I think it was two dollars per thousand of assessed value You know if it were one dollar would have been you know less money the bid would have if it was three dollars it would have had been more but they found you know the sweet spot of having two with the maximum and minimum and and kind of going through a few different iterations, that's really where the bid organizers landed on that. And we're happy to kind of go through that exercise with any neighborhood groups who are interested in potentially making that leap into making a bid.

There's a variety. For instance, the 16th Street bid has a straight $500 per property, whether you own the El Rey grocery store or you have a very small property, it's just straight 500 bucks for everyone on the street. So that's a decision they made back in 2010, even before I got elected. But each bid really looks at their assessment, their median income, what people are paying in taxes, and tries to find that spot. And one of the things I want to say about why I think we're at this point or that the Lincoln bid will move forward is because you you have property owners that are on the street and are invested in their businesses and are and even if they rent to someone they're on the street working with them we have commercial quarters that want to become bids and because they're absentee landlords we can't get the first base and that's and that's an issue but on lincoln avenue you have you have the owners are invested either with the businesses or they're there every day or they're running their businesses out of the properties they own and that makes a huge difference

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Hands on.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you for that.

Oh, thank you. Okay. Any other questions?

Can I just... Of course.

I just want to... Close us out, President.

Thank you. You know, I like to brag about my district and Lincoln and the folks working on Lincoln Village, like I said earlier, have been at it a very long time. I have to give a shout out to Mr. Roska, who's here, who was part of those initial conversations and I think has always been the guy pushing the Lincoln Village Business Association to think bigger and harder and to get to the point where we're at now with this bid and we're at the finish line. And I just want to give him a shout out because he's been second generation, third generation, fourth generation on the street of, you know, and he hasn't left. So when I talk about... A lot. when i talk about you know property owners being invested um he's the perfect example of that and so i wanted to make sure he got a shout out but you know the folks you see here today i mean don's out every day at casillasco park with a team keeping it clean reporting things making sure um people are on it you know we have everything from art to Rohingya restaurants, to Latino restaurants, to even Ben's Cycle has been on the street. That's a second, third generation business. One of the largest retailers now in bikes. We have a knitting company that's one of like three left in the entire country on Lincoln Avenue, which adds to the diversity. So I'm just glad they're here. I'm glad they've got to where they're at. We continue to work together to keep the streets safe. These guys went up and down the street putting signs in every window, working with the police, working with our office, working with DNS, and their efforts, I think, have helped improve Lincoln Avenue's safety. It's not where we all want it to be, but the park's better, the street's better, there's less loitering, and it's really because of the leadership at this table you see here just representing, there's a lot more people on Lincoln Avenue that work really hard to make it what it is, so just want to say thanks to everyone.

Awesome. Awesome. Yeah, we also have a presence by Alderwoman Zamarripa. She would like to make some comments about the bid. Alderwoman?

Yeah, thank you, Mr. Chair. Can you guys hear me?

Yes. Yes, you have the floor.

I just wanted to point out that the bid, this does stretch into the 8th Aldermanic District where I represent, and I wanted to express my gratitude to Crim City South, especially Colleen. Initially, I remember when Matt Reschick first came to present to us on this, it was only going to be in the 12th. And it was really Colleen's leadership. She decided to stretch a little bit further west into my district and really include those business, those property owners, those business owners there. Just went out literally door canvassing to try to get their buy-in. And so I just wanted to thank she and Maribel and the whole team at Cream City South for doing that. We don't have any bid present really in the 8th Aldermanic District, other than the, of course, the Great Menominee Valley bid, but that includes several of our districts. So this is exciting for the 8th District. And Colleen has also made herself available to other organizations that serve the 8th District in hopes that they might start a bid in their neighborhoods. So thank you so much again to Colleen for making the 8th District part of this bid as well. And to everybody else who put work into this.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Colleen?

Oh, I have to say something? Thank you. I mean, it's really a team effort, you know, and thanks to the Alderman for working together with the various districts. Yeah, it's great. I'm just glad we're able to do it. It's exciting.

Yes, yes. Well, congratulations, you guys. Yep. i wish you much success much more success in your community and with that alderwoman charlotte moore moves for your confirmation is this a cover yeah adoption this is an adoption she moved for your adoption hearing no objection so order thank you so much congratulations thank you thank you presentation good presentation okay number nineteen two six zero four three seven substitute resolution creating neighborhood improvement district number thirteen in the powerful metcalf park approving its inter initial operating plan and authorizing expedition the 15th automatic district sponsored by yours truly um metcalf park has been working do we have purpose oh we have to nail here awesome my cat park has been working hard bringing together the neighbors and forming organizations and people to have people power. So I'm happy to see this need be formed. And we have our leader, Danelle Cross, online. Danelle, you have the floor.

Hi, everybody. Hey. And to my alderman, special hi. Hey, hey, hey. I don't think that I'm supposed to be starting this presentation.

Oh, okay.

Sally.

Okay. Well, I know you have no problem starting stuff. So maybe I just wanted to see if you wanted to start it off.

Well, I would like to just say hi to everybody. And I'm really happy that we've got to this point. The community has been really involved in making this happen. And so we also have Corinne here, which is a resident that has participated from the beginning. to speak so i'm here for support um and uh to answer any follow-up questions after they finish the presentation sure hey and melody is here too oh is she she don't miss nothing do she

I'm here briefly. Hey, y'all.

Hey, Bill. Okay, let's start with Sally, then we're going to go to Mel and Danelle and then Kareem. Hi, Sally. You have the floor.

Hello, committee members, and thank you for having us this afternoon. I wanted to start because you just heard about a bid creation, so I wanted to start giving... little overview of the differences between bids and nids, which you have on this slide in front of you. So the main difference in our view between bids and nids is that bids are only allowed to assess commercial properties or the commercial portions of mixed-use buildings, while nids are allowed to assess any property except for those that are exempt from paying property taxes. We will get into the assessment method that the Metcalfe Park Nid is proposing in a few slides.

Okay.

The board of directors is slightly different as well for a bid. The board must be at least five members, a majority of which must owner occupy property and as you saw in previous items today, those board members are appointed by the mayor's office and serve three-year terms. With NIDS, there is still a five member minimum, but all board members must own or occupy property and board members serve just one year terms and are elected annually by, again, those NID members who own or occupy property. Both bids and nids require certified mailings to go out for the public hearing that did occur at the City Plan Commission back on August 18th. And they also require, the nids require a second mailing to go out for that final hearing. Common Council adoption, which is scheduled for September 22nd. Things go through today. All right, so the mid-creation process does mirror the bid creation process. I know Matt mentioned those steps, so I won't, you know, spend too much time on this slide. But right now we are within the public hearing process. And again, adopted today and then at Common Council, the NID will be officially created, submitting their first assessments towards November of this year to be added to the tax bills that will go out in January. In front of you are the proposed Metcalfe Park NID boundaries and I will at this point turn it over to folks from Metcalfe Park to explain the boundaries and then some additional information about the proposed NID.

Thank you, Sally. Hi, everyone. Can y'all hear me?

Yes, yes. Welcome.

I love that. Hey, Mr. Stamper.

Hey, how you doing?

I am excited to be here and talk about the NID. This is our second step. So as we talk, the NID and the bid has to go through the proper procedures. to be established, this is step number two. So this is an exciting time. The boundaries of our NID will match and align with the boundaries of our district. And so it'll be from the west side of 27th street to the east side of 38th street it will be the north side of north avenue to the south side of center street bids or maybe not sorry i mean i'm in a bid and a need and i just got out of my bid meeting and i don't talk about a need sorry NIDS do not always have to align with other drawn, like maps, other district map, but we decided that ours should. And just to kind of simplify that process. The objectives of our need are intentionally to beautify our neighborhood, prevent displacement, support with blight, encourage shared responsibility amongst our neighbors to keep our neighborhood and our neighbors healthy. We want to use the money that is pooled through our assessment to cultivate resources and, like I said, reduce vacancy. So when we talk about our assessment method, we can go to the next slide or maybe slide five is where I'm speaking at now, whomever might be controlling the screen. Our assessment method It's actually pretty complicated, but how we developed it was over a series of, I think it was six weeks. We were meeting weekly to develop our operation plan. And what that looked like to develop our operation plan was we were looking at the data of our neighborhood. Who owns? Who rents? How many commercial spaces are there? How many residential spaces are there? How many vacant lots are there? What are we looking at? And we also review the structure, the assessment structure of other existing needs to inform what we would have, how we would like to build our own. And on the screen, you'll be able to see that essentially we wanted to do approximately $50 per household. We didn't want the inclusion in the need to be burdensome to our neighbors because we already know what the um economic demographics of our particular neighborhood looks like is some of you know we didn't want to increase stress in any regard um and so what we came up with was approximately fifty dollars per household so single family residential is 50 bucks if the space is unoccupied because one of our goals is to reduce vacancy it's a hundred dollars for the um vacant The greatest distinction that we made was occupied and unoccupied. And we have defined that. And we are taking the responsibility as our neighbor to make sure that that is accurate. What we know right now about our records, they're spotty. Some things have been updated. Some things haven't been updated. And Metcalfe Park Community Bridges is supporting the logistical effort to, one, clarify exactly what units and parcels are vacant and un-vacant. I'm sorry y'all.

My day is going fast. Let me be cool. Take your time.

How are we determining what occupied and unoccupied is? It is by boards. Like, if it's boarded up, if it has a roof, you know what I mean? There are some critical repairs that make some spaces unlivable in that way. But if it has an address and a neighbor that enters and exits, it is occupied. If it's unoccupied, we are kind of using some... visual indicators to let us know if that home is occupied or not. And the fee is higher for unoccupied spaces because the data we looked at to inform this place said that a lot of owners of the vacant homes are out of state. So we are wanting to encourage a conversation behind this difference. What support do you need to get a resident in your home? Is there a repair that you might need to do in order to make your home livable to get someone in there? This starts a conversation. Or you just can afford to hold the house for years, then you can afford... a little fee every year is what we were thinking with due respect. You'll notice that for the larger commercial units higher than four homes, we capped it at $500 and $1,000 for completely vacant commercial spaces. I mean, that's multi-unit residential spaces. So that's what informed our assessment method. And we learned that using this method, we will be able to pool between 40,000 and $90,000 per year to be used to pour back into our neighborhood, which is an exciting number. Our outreach looks like, so I said that six-part series, we were meeting, I believe it was for two hours every Tuesday for six weeks, and community were invited and encouraged to come into that space to learn about the demographics of our neighborhood, but also to inform this. During that time is when I decided that I would be running for board candidacy, and it was super exciting kind of diving into this data and learning what ways that I can take control over the quality of the way that My neighborhood is ran there were also. 3 different opportunities where 600 doors were knocked on directly and neighbors were invited into 1 on 1 conversations about this. There were multiple community events that we outside series and just like, hella other barbecues and things going on where Metcalfe Park and other community members who were involved in the creation tables. We collected signatures from relevant community members and residents. We have the grapevine, which is an arm of the journal Sentinel, where we have some super cool folks who keep our broader community updated on what's going on. And a lot of the information as it was happening, was released through the grapevine. And those were hung on doors as well. Those are available digitally. Those are shared online with our neighbors. All of these, Strategies were a well-rounded way to kind of make sure folks were in the know of what's going on and the opportunity that they could have to become involved. And that's on top of the mandatory certified mailer pieces of information, which I can attest as a resident of Metcalf, I got what came out so far, which is exciting. We intend after this meeting, because, like I said, it was a 3 step approval process before we're able to hold elections. This is step number 2, and we were ambitious to hope that we were able to do our elections by the end of September. We might be looking at mid October, but that's okay. Right today is going to go well, and then I think our 3rd step is next week, which is excited and we are our board shape. That we're doing is going to be a minimum of 5, a maximum of 9, and we have 4 people currently already. But committed to running for board candidacy, which is exciting. And I think. Those are all my points are there any questions or anything that or Sally or melody might want to add. Okay. To my ramp.

Well, excellent presentation. We're going to keep going.

I'll just add that it's five folks running.

What'd you say?

It's five folks running out.

How many spots are available?

Between five and nine. Minimum of five, maximum of nine.

Okay. And we have five interesting community members?

Yes.

That's awesome.

Yes.

So five in addition to Kareem or five with Kareem?

Five including Kareem.

Oh, gotcha. Okay, go ahead, Danelle.

The only thing that I wanted to add is that this process has been really totally taken upon by residents. So Metcalfe Park Community Bridges is the support of this NID, not the drivers of the NID, but the support of the NID. So our role would be to support the residents that are elected to run this NID. We will be the support. And I'm really proud of the work that they've done. I know Sally can attest to them having some real serious in-depth conversations to create this plan. And the other thing I want to point out is that we are also a part of RON. And so we do a neighborhood survey of every property in Metcalfe Park. So we're able to do that identification process. and to share that with the city. What I've found is that the city might think some properties are vacant that are not vacant and might think that some properties that they think is occupied are vacant. So working closely with the city to get those things straightened out.

Okay. Excellent. Ms. Melanie McCurtis.

yeah um i'm i'm traveling y'all so i don't know if y'all can hear me i'm just gonna say that i'm super proud of metcalf park the communities all the candidates korean super appreciative of bcd uh sally and matt that's been like a part of the process from the beginning and supporting us through this journey and i'm excited

awesome thank you matt thank you sally for supporting the metcalf community i know this need is going to be powerful and make decisions on what's best for the residents so i i'm looking forward to the first meeting i can't wait to be there And I'd like to congratulate everybody. Let me see if anybody has any questions for the forming of the new NID. Anybody have any questions?

Mr. Chair.

Yes, Alderwoman Sharlyn Moore.

Just really briefly, definitely want to say congratulations to you all. I can tell that there was a lot of hard work. that went into this application process. And it's a testament because we want more neighborhoods to be driven by community and residents. And this is just a testament of that. So, you know, thank you, kudos, to those residents and our community partners that put in the work to bring this to fruition. The quick question that I had is, and again, extensive work with, you guys have done amazing with the Round Coalition, doing them doors. Listen, again, testament and kudos to you all for the immense education and work that has been put into this. The question that I have is the vacant properties that belong to the city, is and that might be something for dcd or whomever to answer this question because there was a monetary value put to that is that something the city would pay how does that work for a property that is owned by the city whether vacant or a vacant lot or a vacant building how does that work financially yeah they don't uh they don't contribute the city doesn't contribute

Sure.

So any city-owned property or tax-exempt property would not be included in the assessment.

Got it.

So the assessment only includes accessible properties. Right. So it's not included. Yep.

Thank you. Thank you for that. And, again, congratulations to the team.

Yeah. So, Corinne, I'm looking forward to your expanded leadership role. You guys are about three blocks out of my house. Otherwise, I would have voted for you. So congratulations, I'm very happy for you all, and I look forward to the first meeting. With that, Alderwoman Moore moves for adoption. Hearing no objections, so order. Safe travels, Mel, and represent down in Kenya, all right?

Work team.

I'm not going to Kenya.

I'm at home, Russell. I said Mel. Oh, Mel and Danielson.

I don't know, but you know...

I just told you. I know you at home.

On the next one.

All right. Thank you all so much. Have an excellent day. Next, we have number 20, 260697. This is a substitute resolution reallocating up to $3,666 in the Milwaukee Community Excellence Fund for MI Milwaukee to Hispanic Heritage Month. Alderwoman Zamarripa.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Of course, of course. How are you?

Good, thank you. I'm still here. Just wanted to brief you on this file. This is moving the $3,666 allocation from the Community Excellence Fund that we were going to use for a Me Milwaukee event. Alderman Dimitrievich was kind of taking the lead on that, but after conferring with her and just realizing what a tight timeline we have here to make sure to have a successful event, we decided perhaps allowing those funds to be used for the Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations in the city of Milwaukee. We have a couple of great city events. One of them is hosted by Avanzando, our very own employee resource group, city workers here in Milwaukee. So they'll be able to use some of the funds. And of course, as you know, this started under President Perez's tenure, that awesome Hispanic Heritage Month celebration hosted in the Deer District. So thank you to Aldermen, as well as Alderwoman Dimitrievich for agreeing to go ahead and move these funds over to Hispanic Heritage Month to be used by those various positive, wonderful celebratory events.

Excellent, excellent. Looking forward to it. Alderwoman Dimitrievich, did you have any comments?

No, I fully support this reallocation.

All right. Any questions or comments by the committee? Hearing none, Alderwoman Dimitrievich moves for adoption. Hearing no objections, so ordered. Congratulations. Thank you. Have a good day. Next 21, 260655. This is communication from the Department of City Development relating to the 2025 Healthy Neighborhoods Initiative accomplishments. We will hold this up to call of the chair. Alderman Jackson moves to hold it. Hearing no objections to order, everyone, thank you for today.

We got to go back? Do we just leave 11?

I'm sorry. Thank you, Alderman Moore. Never mind. Yeah, we did hold it. Okay, thank you. With that, today's meeting is adjourned. Y'all have an excellent day. Thanks, Matt.

Excellent.

Thank you.