City Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening everyone. I'd like to call to order the November 12th, 2025 meeting of the FondeLeak City Council. The first item of business is roll call, which is done electronically, and I will declare a quorum present. The next item on our agenda is a pledge of allegiance, which is followed by a moment of silent reflection. Please rise to the stands. One nation. Next on our agenda, we have a proclamation congratulating the Salvation Army of FondeLac for 135 years of service to the Fondelac community. So, if you'd like to join me down in the front, I will meet you down there. All right. Whereas the Salvation Army is an international organization motivated by the love of God and a concern for the needs of all humanity. And whereas the Salvation Army began serving Fondelac in 1890 and serves today as a trusted partner in community resilience, an ally offering transformational services that stabilize families, empower individuals,

and build a stronger community. From housing retention and addiction recovery to youth support and food security, their work goes far beyond seasonal assistance. It's a daily commitment to doing the most good. And whereas the Salvation Army of Fondelac doesn't just serve the community, it invites the community to serve with them. And from this combined kindness, a hub for transformational services that addresses root causes and build lasting change has emerged. And whereas the Salvation Army of FondeLac celebrates its 135th anniversary of service in FondeLac with a kindness and kettle campaign to lift up kindness and those doing kind deeds as co-creators of transformational train change. Now therefore, I Tiffany Bralt, president of the Fondelac City Council, by my signature affix, do hereby congratulate the Salvation Army of FondeLac for fulfilling its mission of meeting human need for 135 years and designates FondeLac as the city of kindness during the months of November and December, encouraging all citizens of FondeLac to join the Salvation Army and Fondi famous in engaging in acts of kindness that change hearts and lives. Would you like to say a few words?

Okay. I just want to thank uh the city for um this proclamation and we hope that it just endeavors others to um break out random acts of kindness uh because our world could use it right now. Um so let's make it a kinder community this season. Thank you. [applause] picture. Yeah, I just asked get a picture for you. [laughter]

Right now, I'll actually invite city manager Joe Moore up for a recognition. So, thank you so much.

Thanks, Luis, could you come forward? Tonight's a special night because we get to pay tribute to Luis Gudex. So, the Salvation Army was has been here 135 years. [laughter] And I I did if I did the math, you've got 46. So, that's that's quite something. But, you know, a tribute can be something like thanks for all you've done for the city. You've been great for the city. I want to make it more personal than that. Thanks for all that you've done for the people of the city. Louise started in 1979. President Jimmy Carter was president. It's a long time ago and you've helped a lot of people since then. If you drive through our neighborhoods in the city of Fondelac, I challenge you to figure out which which homes that Louise has procured, managed and and essentially assigned to people all these years and those are thousands of people. And I think that the city council members who've served on the housing association board uh know that it's a real special it's a real special job that you've done. And so for all of those reasons and many that I hope that you when I give you this microphone will list, we want to give you a key to the city. It's pretty rare we do this for somebody who's not an employee who's retiring, but because of what you've done for the city, we wanted to do this for you. It's a small token for 46 years, but Louise, thank you for all that you've done. We all owe you a lot and so do the people who've lived in your homes. [applause]

I'd like to thank everybody. It's really been an honor and a privilege to work for the housing authority and serve as the third executive director for the city housing authority and the two second executive director for the county housing authority. If people don't realize we have a large impact on our community are we brought in about $7 million last year in revenue for the housing authority between the two of them and that's about 2 to three million just in payments to landlords to help people pay the rent. Um, I'm leaving the housing authority in the middle of a big project. And I'm sure that John Gaderski, who's uh the new executive director, and Dave Lef Fever, who's the new maintenance supervisor, are going to be capable of taking care of that project. It's a $1.4 million project we're doing at Rosland Apartments. We're redoing the plumbing, bathrooms, and stuff, and that cost a lot of money. It's been a good experience, and it's never been dull, never been boring. It's always been challenging. That's what's kept me there. And it's always been good working for the people and helping people out. Thank you. [applause]

Thank you. All right. Next on our agenda is public hearings and we have a public hearing on the Fondelac Waterworks Water Supply Service Area Plan. So if there's anyone here who wishes to speak for the public hearing on the Fondelac waterworks water supply service area plan, you could please step up to the podium right now. I will ask for a second time if there's anyone who wishes to speak during the public hearing. And for a third and final time, is there anyone who wishes to speak on the public hearing? Seeing none, I will declare the public hearing closed. So, we will move on to our consent agenda. The consent agenda finalizes the proposed actions for the meeting. A. October 22nd, 2025 regular council minutes. B. list of claims dated November 5th, 2025 and C, denial of claim claimant Danielle Rickmeer. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, I will entertain a motion.

Motion by Mr. Godfrey, second by Mr. Heistler. Is there any other discussion? Seeing none, please proceed to vote. And that passes unanimously. Next on our agenda is audience comments, agenda and non-aggenda items. The presiding officer will limit speaking time for non-aggenda items to one minute and items noticed on the agenda to five minutes. And we do have one individual who signed up to speak. We have Donna Richards who wishes to speak on the budget. I feel like I made this into a into a tradition. So, I want to continue that tradition. I It'll just take a minute or two this time because you've heard it all before. [laughter]

Excuse me. Donna, could you speak up a little bit? We're having trouble hearing you up here. Sorry. [laughter]

Um, so just a few things. Um, things I'm happy about. I'm happy that the abatement of lead pipes continues in a in a regular and accelerated fashion. I'm very pleased at the properties that the city has picked up over the years to to begin to redevelop, which is a really key piece of of housing and redevelopment. And um I'm uh pleased at the uh extra emphasis on on uh new construction of single family homes. Um, obviously we've been through this housing crisis that we're in and it continues and it is getting cold out and there's an awful lot of people out there that are going to be cold this winter and we still haven't dealt with the issue of the unhoused or even the shortterm um tragedies that could occur with some cold snaps. So, um, I've actually put together a few, um, notes. It's in the form of a draft, and I'll hand that out to each of you to just begin to look at to think about systematic approaches to the crisis that we're in, and hope that you will consider them seriously. The last thing I wanted to to show you was a a chart. I don't know how many of you have ever gone to the Wisconsin policy forums forums municipal data tool. Have any of you done that? Sounds like not. Yes. No. No. Okay. It's worth looking at. What you can do is you can put cities side by side and see their budget allocations compared to other communities. [snorts]

And so this is quite visual. Um I'll put this into the record. There is a record and uh basically of the 10 communities that are the closest in population to us that are cities, we are the absolutely lowest in terms of expenditures for what they call general government, which is general government is is legal, planning, community development, IT, all of that. Um on a per capita basis we're at about maybe 7577 per capita for those expenditures and um the highest is the city of Lacrosse at close to 150. So we're about half of that and of course on the bottom. So that's when I keep saying that we really are low on staff for the functions that we need, which my typical remarks are grant writing, uh, communications, community development, parks activities director. Um, I'm sure you've can come up with some more yourself. Um, we're still sadly sorely lacking in that area, which is why we don't have as much activity going. Um, the best city I ever worked at was De Moine. And whenever we created a new project, we would do an analysis of how much staff time was needed to complete that project. And people were hired for that purpose. And I uh hope that that can be a practice that continues because if you keep piling on to existing staff, you're not going to get done what you need or they're going to be huge delays in time frames. And we really want to see North Main move. We really want to see some action on on housing and homelessness and infill and light

removal. And I'm looking forward to all of that with a new director coming on as well. But without an increase in staff capacity, it's going to be pretty hard for that person. It may even be impossible because Diane was probably doing three jobs. But um I'll leave you with that and uh wish you the best. Thanks.

All right. [snorts] Thank you. And that ends our audience comments. So we will move on to our action items. Action item A is resolution number 9207, a resolution adopting the final 2026 city budget levying a tax and establishing fees. Our introduction is by our director of administration, Miss Davey. Thank you. So this is probably my favorite council meeting uh of the year because we wrap up six week or six months rather worth of work on the budget. So, I'd like to thank Tessa, all the departments, and then the council as well for all the work that we've all put into this over uh the summer since we started this process. So, first up tonight is the resolution to do uh exactly what Miss Balt explained is to set the city budget for 2026. It authorizes our tax levy and uh we establish the fees. So, happy to answer any questions.

All right. Thank you. Are there any questions from council? I am not seeing any, so I will entertain a motion. Oh, sorry. We have some questions over there. Okay, we'll start with um or Mr. Schistler, did you have some questions or was comment want to say thank you for all the hard work? Thank you. And then Miss Larry, I just I have something to say before we Oh, could you Oh, yeah. Oh, just the cord. Yeah, I just I just have something um I want to say before we adopt the budget.

It's not a question. and it's just um so I just want I just want you to know that I respect all the hard work that goes into creating the budget. Um however, I don't think that this budget addresses the many important issues face facing our community. We have a housing crisis and a need for entry level and all types um of housing here in our community. I'm happy to see that this is someone getting somewhat getting addressed in this budget with money for the new subdivisions. I just don't think that this is enough um money and um the crisis is just going to continue. Another important issue is the homeless, some who have nowhere to sleep at night. I think having the Advocac building is a positive and helps greatly, but it's for daytime use. The situation is getting worse and we need to get serious about addressing this issue, including looking at more housing first development as an option and maybe forming a committee to come up with ideas, but we need to get serious about this. The thieves property gets discussed, but there's no forward movement on that property. A really big issue is the former Sergeant property in the North Main Street area as nothing continues to happen with that area. I will hear something is in the works which is something the community seems to know prior to council knowing. I had requested that we were made aware of some of the ideas coming to council ahead of time. Council members and community members have requested information on this but have not been given any this year. I don't feel like we have moved forward on addressing any of the big issues facing our city. The city lacks a vision. We need a vision for the city which would also help grow this city. North Main Street could be that vision or the Riverwalk that gets mentioned. Either way, the city needs assets to bring people in to stay at our hotels, spend money in our businesses, and draw people to want to live here. The city is replicating services and business owners are expressing concerns

as they feel the city is not on their side. We need to encourage new and different businesses to want to do business here and encourage the ones that are here to enjoy doing business here. Our budget does not address these issues. So, I cannot support the budget.

Thank you. Um, Mr. Moore, if you don't mind, I I guess I'd like to see if you have anything that you could address in Miss Larry's statement there. I think that um the investments that the city's made in housing in in this year 2025 and proposes to make next year in 2026, those are substantial investments. I I sent you some photographs of of those developments that are underway throughout the city. And that's pretty innovative what we're doing. I mean the the city is actually making investments along with the private sector to create those those areas and the the progress made this summer uh in constructing was significant. The other area we have worked on is uh housing for people who need to afford housing. We talk about affordable housing. I think a lot of people people hear that and they they take a step back because they think that that's tax credit housing or or some some other term. Affordable means simply that you are in housing that cost you less than 30% of your gross income. That that applies to me and all of you too. And I think we've done a good job in making progress in that area as well. So, I respectfully disagree. I I believe this budget does address the the city's needs and one year is is not a solution for all time. This re this budget represents continued progress and continued improvement.

Thank you. I appreciate that perspective. Uh, I guess the other thing I'd like to add is, um, you know, also being somebody who's who's been concerned about affordable housing and and how we're working to address homelessness in our community, a a local government isn't necessarily going to be able to solve all those issues either. That we have to work with our partners both in private industry and in the nonprofit world. Um, because there's a lot of moving pieces all the time. Um, but I see Miss Miss Leing, you have some more you'd like to add. Oh, sorry. Go ahead. Okay. Um, yeah, I guess the one other thing I was going to say is also I I think we could consider a budget as a living document. You know, it's it's what we forecast we're going to need for the the year to come. But if there are opportunities that arise, that's something that we can always amend if we see need that we can address. So, but Miss Larry,

so respectfully, I do know that you're, you know, you're taking steps to address it. And I just with me, I just feel like there's there's these major issues going on that are not being addressed. And we didn't we didn't do we're not doing enough like fast enough to address them because I mean, I know this is for this upcoming year. I I remember talking about it in a meeting a while ago. Um partnering, you know, putting putting in things, infrastructure and partnering with developers in order to help start solving some of this housing crisis. But I just feel like and I and I I think that's excellent and I appreciate that and I think a lot of people appreciate that and it's a lot of hard work, but I just think we need to be doing more. I just we have to do something and we have to do it soon because it's I mean I was talking to um a retired lady who and this is just one example who um she is living on pension right with her social security and her rent went from $700 to $1,500 in her apartment and her pension's going to run out soon but where is she going to go? So all right thank you. Are there any other questions from council at this time? Otherwise, I will entertain a motion.

Motion to approve. Motion by Mr. Heisler, second by Mr. Godfrey. Is there any other discussion? Mr. Heistler. Thank you, President B. Just want to say thanks again to all the staff. It's a it's a really tough job to do to to make this document work. I'm very grateful for all the support. Very thankful that everybody was able to do everything that they were able to do. and I enthusiastically support this budget. It's easy to get up on a soap box and talk about all the things you want to do, but in all actuality, nothing else has been proposed. This is the best we've got and the best we've had in a very long time. I'm very happy with it and I'm very excited to support it.

Thank you. I just would like to echo Mr. Heistler's comments. Thank you to Mr. Moore, Miss Davey, to all the department heads for all the work that has gone on for six months at least. Um, thank you so much for presenting this this budget to us. Um, and with that, I'm not seeing any other comments, so please proceed to vote. And that passes with six in favor and Miss Learing voting nay. Item B is resolution number 9208, a resolution approving the proposed 2026 through 2030 capital improvement plan. Again, our introduction is by our director of administration, Miss Davey. Thank you. So, yes, this uh approves the 5-year capital improvement plan that we uh put together. The plan commission has reviewed this and done their work on the projects that are on uh related to city property and city buildings, and they also recommend approval or approval of the plan for the five years. So, happy to answer any questions.

All right. Thank you. Are there any questions from councel? Seeing none, I will entertain a motion to approve. Motion by Mr. Mullen, second by Mr. Heistler. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, please proceed to vote. And that passes unanimously. Item C is resolution number 9209, a resolution adopting the 2026 Fondelac area transit budgets. Again, our introduction by our director of administration, Miss Davey. Thank you. So, the federal um uh transit or the federal transit administration, sorry. They uh provide funding for our transit department and they have certain language that they require as part of a budget resolution for adopting the budget. So, that's why we carve out this one and put it in separate. It it it does the same thing as the the main resolution. and it adopts the budget, adopts the fees, and provides the funding for transit for 2026.

All right. Thank you. Are there any questions on the transit budget? Seeing none, I will entertain. Oh, sorry. Okay. Mr. Heistler does have a question. Thank you. Sorry, Miss Davey. Just can you just do a a quick breakdown for me? And obviously, I don't get ask you to get into super specifics, but rough percentage-wise, like what's federally given to us and then what do we have to fund transit wise? It's a Do you know that? It's a It's a pretty significant portion, right? It's

While you're digging for that, I guess I'll ask you why I'm asking that question as a followup. Is there any concern about any of that allocation as things continue to be a little unsteady federal government wise at this time? No. Um, transit still has some of their CARES money left, some of their ARPA money. um they had different rules and regulations on theirs where it didn't expire like the money that did for um all of our other operations. So they still have that little bit of a pool too to tap into. Excellent. If needed. Okay, that's all I needed to know. No need to no need to dig any further. Sorry, Joe. So, well, to answer your question, Mr. Heisler, the transit operations, a little over two million annually. About a million and a half comes from the federal government.

Okay. There's also some that comes from fees, but it's very small for the uh what it costs to ride. And then there's some revenue that comes from the advertisement on the buses themselves. Got it. Thank you very much. Appreciate you both. All right. Thank you. That was a good question. Uh are there any other questions from council? Otherwise, seeing Oh. Oh, can we wait and get your Just on the last resolution, the 9208. Um that I I meant to say nay just so that you just want to change your and just so the public knows. Yeah, I did that by accident. Okay. So sorry about that. Yeah.

Yep. Thank you. All right. Did you have anything on the transit budget? Okay. All right. Well, with that, I will entertain a motion. Motion by Mr. Schistler, second by Mr. Godfrey. Is there any other discussion? Seeing none, please proceed to vote. And that passes unanimously. Item D is resolution number 9210, a resolution declaring official intent to reimburse expenditures from proceeds of borrowing. Introduction is by our director of administration, Miss Davey. Once again,

so the next three resolutions all accomplish the same thing. One is related to our general capital projects, one is for our water projects, and then the other one is for our wastewater treatment projects. So, um, what this does is, you know, that we just recently did our borrowing. We typically do that in the fall of the year. Uh, by passing these three resolutions, it gives us the ability to start these projects pretty much tomorrow if we wanted to get um all of our funding and stuff in place so that we could borrow next year. We get some benefits of that because we can get ahead of contractor schedules, kind of get on some of their schedules before they start filling up in the spring. And then it also allows us to dial in our borrowing to be more precise. So for example, if we have a $200,000 project that we think that's what it's going to cost and a bid comes in at 150,000, then I obviously don't need to borrow 200,000. I just need to borrow the 150. So it allows us to do that and like I said, get ahead on contractor schedules. So it's the same for all three resolutions. Uh the same concept behind them. So I'm happy to answer any questions.

All right. Thank you. Are there any questions from councel? Seeing none, I will entertain a motion.

Motion to Motion by Mr. Godfrey, second by Mr. Mullen. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, please proceed to vote. And that passes with six in favor and Miss Laring abstaining. Resolution number 9211, a resolution declaring official intent to reimburse expenditures from proceeds of borrowing for water. And we already had the introduction with the last resolution. Sir, are there any questions on this specific resolution? Seeing none, I will entertain a motion.

All right. Motion by Mr. Schistler, second by Mr. Mullen. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, please proceed to vote. And that passes unanimously. And resolution F is resolution number 9212, a resolution declaring official intent to reimburse expenditures from proceeds of borrowing wastewater treatment. Oh my gosh, I don't remember what all those stamp WTRRF. There you go. There you go. I thought I was going to say it, but [snorts] we'll just go there. Okay. Are there any questions on this resolution? [laughter] All right. Seeing none, I will entertain a motion.

Approval of 9212. Motion by Mr. Heisler, second by Mr. Godfrey. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, please proceed to vote. And that passes unanimously. That ends our action items and we do not have any input items. So I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. Motion to second. Motion by Mr. Zimmerman, second by Mr. Heistler. This is not debatable. Please proceed to vote. Yep. And that passes unanimously. We are adjoured.