Common Council - Regular Meeting

good evening ladies and gentlemen we will call the july 21st meeting of the common council to order and i will ask our clerk to take a role to determine a quorum alderperson hoss here halverson here keen she is excused novak here nolene here wrote here turner here weigel here grisham here grobe here nine present one excused we have a quorum if you are able please rise and join us in the pledge of allegiance which will be led this evening by alderman haas Thank you. Going on to item D, we have no public hearing, so we are going to go right into public participation. This is when the Common Council can receive information from members of the public during this 30 minute period. We ask that each speaker approach the podium, turn on the microphone and please give us your name and address for our official record. We also ask that you keep your comments to one or two statements, no more than five minutes because we only have a 30 minute session allotted for this. And please know that the council cannot act on topics or discuss the topics with the speakers because the items are not Properly agendized and we cannot violate open meetings laws. So anybody wishing to address the council under public participation, please I think some people have signed in I'm not sure if you all know what order you're in but Anyone can start I guess Good evening

My name is Cindy Radke. I live at 8519 West Beecher Street. I'm here tonight because they have a proposed, at Mount Hope they have a proposed to have a warming shelter there from Thanksgiving, the day after Thanksgiving to the end of March. I know it's not on your agenda today. I understand that, but I think that we need to get this out there before it gets too late. They had a meeting on June 23rd at mount hope they said the warming center would be from seven to seven so it's the wrong location it's in residential area they have two schools they have franklin and they have central within a block of this area if something happens it's too late they they have a place to sleep there but they have no wraparound services no direct transportation that area No, they leave at seven. The library does not open till nine. So if they're gonna go to the library, they have to wait two hours. They have no public bathrooms in that area and no morning food program that they're mentioning. The Historical Society has already had problems at their place with people living there. They have human feces and they have drug paraphernalia. I just don't think this is the right neighborhood to have it in. Franklin already has to lock their dumpsters because of this. They have to check their bushes because of drug paraphernalia. This is not the right location. It should be in a location so they can get help to better themselves. I feel as a citizen of West Allis, our concerns and our voices should be heard and taken into consideration as this decision is made. Thank you.

Thank you for your comments, Ms. Radke. Does anybody else wish to address the council under public comment?

Hi, my name is Katie Gast. I live at 2031 South 86th Street. I'm also here to speak tonight about the warming shelter at Mount Lutheran Church, and I also know it's not on tonight's agenda. However, that's precisely why some of us are here today. By the time the proposal reaches a formal vote, many of the decisions may already be well underway. We are trying to be proactive by voicing our concerns early so that they can be thoughtfully considered throughout the process rather than after the fact. I also want to address a misconception that has surfaced during email communication with neighbors and common council members. We are not against helping people experiencing homelessness, despite what some of you have suggested. Concern for the safety of children, elderly residents, and our neighbors should not be confused with fear of the poor or the unhoused. Those are two very different things. Many of us believe homelessness is a serious social issue that deserves compassionate solutions, but compassion also requires placing services where they can be most effective. A residential neighborhood located directly near two schools, Kitty Corner from Franklin and one block north of Central High School is not, in our opinion, the appropriate location. That is a legitimate safety concern for the kids, not a statement about the worth or the dignity of those in need. This location also lacks many resources that help people succeed. There are limited wraparound services nearby, few employment opportunities, and limited access to food and other essential support systems. If our goal is to help individuals move towards stability, then we should have access, then they should have access to the services that best support that goal. west dallas has areas that may be better suited for a warming shelter than a residential neighborhood located next to two schools locations in commercial or mixed-use areas that provide easier access to public transportation and employment opportunities health care providers food resources and existing social service agencies should be carefully considered Placing a shelter where individuals can more readily access these essential services not only provides better support for those experiencing homelessness, but also allows the shelter to operate in an environment that is more compatible with its surrounding land uses. As you continue to evaluate this proposal, I respectfully ask that you carefully consider the concerns raised by those in the surrounding neighborhood, the unique location of this property, and the impact it could have on nearby schools, families, and residents. When this proposal eventually comes before you for a vote, I ask that you weigh whether it is truly the right location to achieve that mission safely and effectively. Thank you for your time and listening to the voices of your constituents.

Thank you for your comments, Ms. Gast. Are there any other, anyone else in the audience that wishes to address the council under public comment?

Good evening. My name is Carlos Gonzalez, 2501 South 92nd Street, President Heights. My wife, Natisi, and I own NKG Barbershop, a small business located on the southwest corner of 88th Street and Greenfield Avenue. We understand and appreciate the city's goal of improving safety, especially for children and pedestrians. However, from the perspective of a business owner, we have serious concerns about the proposed ordinance to make the 1,400 blocks of 87th and 88th one-way streets. because of our parking lot is designed the main entrance is located on 88th street just south of greenfield customers rely on being able to access our parking lot from that direction changing the traffic to one way north would make entering and exiting our property much more difficult and less convenient especially exiting since the only option would be to exit onto greenfield Even under the current traffic pattern, exiting our parking lot onto Greenfield Avenue is already challenging. During the Wisconsin State Fair, traffic on Greenfield becomes extremely, extremely congested, making it even harder to safely pull out. Because of this, many of our customers and visitors choose to drive south on 88th Street down to Orchard, then head west to 92nd Street, where they can safely use the traffic signal at 92nd and Greenfield to head west. This is a safer and more practical route than attempting to turn directly onto Greenfield. The proposed one-way northbound traffic pattern would eliminate that option. Instead, drivers may feel pressured to make difficult turns onto Greenfield or take other roads that could increase confusion, congestion, and a potential for accidents. Additionally, the businesses on 87th Street are in a different situation. Their parking lots are located behind their buildings and connect to the alleyways, giving them multiple options for entering and exiting their properties. Our business does not have that flexibility, so the impact on us would be much greater. We ask the committee and all those involved to consider looking into other alternative measures that would better accommodate the existing traffic patterns, allow customers to continue accessing the business more safely, and still address safety concerns. We respectfully ask the committee to consider how this proposal will affect the businesses that serve this community every day. We support improving safety, but we believe there is a solution that can protect children while also preserving safe access for customers and reducing the risk of future traffic accidents.

thank you thanks for your comments mr gonzalez anybody else wish to address the council under public participation hi council my name is elizabeth montgomery 2345 south 77th street i am also here to address the warming shelter directly across from franklin elementary at mount hope I first and foremost as a healthcare professional want to address that I do fully support a warming shelter for the homeless in our community however the location is not the best as because I have two young children at Franklin Elementary and it is directly across the street from there and then the high school is also right by Mount Hope and also in the community of long-term West Dallas members that live in that neighborhood. Again, I fully support the warming shelter, just not the location and the safety of these children is what's important to me. In the past year, last year, there were actually incidents that I have witnessed myself with someone that was homeless Don't want to accuse, but was heavily under the influence of drugs, and they're directly on the property of Franklin Elementary last year as I was dropping my children off at the school. He was trying to get into the school. He was trying to get into people's cars as I witnessed that. That is my concern with this warming shelter that would happen. I know that there are plans in place on what can happen to try to keep the neighborhood safe, but my concern is just the location and the safety of the children. I thank you for your time.

Thank you for your comments. I'll give you each five minutes. I won't make you crunch into one as three.

We're all here for the same thing. Okay. I'm Jennifer Eugenhammer. I'm at 2140 South 87th Street. Also here about the concerns about the Warming Shelter. My biggest concern is just the fact that it's located right next to that elementary school and right next to that high school. It's a very good idea. I do like their idea, but the location is very bad for this whole setting with being so close to that elementary school and that high school.

in this residential neighborhood i just don't think it's the best setting for that thank you hi my name is ivy messinio i live at 2105 south 89th street i'm only two blocks away from the church and the school i have two kids that will be going there to the school this coming school year My concern is also the location. I have nothing against warming shelters. I have no problem with people helping the homeless. I think they need the help and I'm happy to help, but the location is not good. It's too close to schools. We've had too many problems with the school having homeless on grounds. We've had too many problems with them in causing unsafe situations, just like Elizabeth had said. We've had people try to break into the school, and when that didn't work, they attempted to open car doors of parents at drop-off time. And it took a while for the police to get there. It's not a diss. They're busy. I get it. My other point, not only is just to echo whatever's already been said, my other point is that the way that the church is handling it is not appropriate. They have no problem not being honest. They've been fairly rude to people who have asked questions, and nobody is telling them that we hate homeless people. Nobody is telling them that we don't want a homeless shelter or a warming shelter, anything like that. you know, at all. We just don't think it's appropriate across the street from the school. And instead of getting any type of conversation going, they're telling people when they go in, well, you should just try being homeless. And the honesty is not there. The pastor has already said that he talked to the principals at both schools and that they gave him the go ahead, that they're on board, and they are not. I talked to the principal of Franklin. He absolutely is not on board. He called the pastor himself and told him that you need to stop telling people that I said I agree with it because I don't. So I don't like that he's not willing to be honest with everybody. And so if the vote goes through for the congregation, my concern is he's going to continue to not be honest. And if we want things to move forward, we need to be able to have an open, honest conversation. And that's it. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else wish to address the Council under public participation?

Good evening, Mayor and Council. My name is Jim Accurso. I'm a Public Affairs Specialist with the Small Business Administration Office of Disaster Recovery. And I am here in Milwaukee County because Milwaukee is one of 19 counties that were that are eligible for our long-term, low-interest disaster loans. We are here accompanying FEMA on the recent rain event of April 13th to the 23rd. We may have been here last year for the flood event, but all of your residents here in West Allis are eligible for either our business physical damage loans of up to $2 million, and those are for businesses to repair or replace disaster-damaged property, real estate, inventory, supplies, and machinery, homeowners and renters can get help homeowners can get help up to the 2 up to $500,000 to repair replace damage real estate disaster damage real estate, including fences and driveways and renters and homeowners can get up to a $100,000 for the contents of their home, including Personal property including automobiles in addition to that we offer your businesses economic injury disaster loans So if there was no physical damage, but they had an economic loss loss of working capital they could apply now They have until August 31st to apply for these loans. There is no fee to apply for the loans There's no obligation to take them. These are not bank loans. These are funds from the US Treasury And like I said, there's no obligation to take them So if a loan is offered to someone after they work with their loan officer and things change, they can walk away free and clear. These are not meant to replace funding or other sources like insurance. This is in addition to insurance. So if anyone had any damage or they may have already buttoned up their homes or corrected the damage, because the storm was so long ago, but if they have a bill say on their credit card where they made some repairs and they're paying like 19%, they could take our home loan, home disaster loan at 2.8% and pay that off and again they don't have to pay us back for a full year interest-free folks can apply at s b a dot got s b a dot gov forward slash disaster uh... we have centers around milwaukee county and and and the state they'll likely be open for another at least another month but again those locations uh... change but we do have information on our website uh... it's spelled out on the fact sheets that left all of you i'm really some materials on the and the uh... table for folks to have, and I appreciate the opportunity to work with the city, maybe post some stuff on your socials and on the website. But we're here to help. On top of those loans that we do offer, we offer mitigation coverage. So if anyone puts in place measures to keep future disasters from happening, they can get an increase in their loan of up to 20 percent of the damages for up to two years so we encourage folks to look into it you know we're another source like i say we're the federal government we're here to help and appreciate the opportunity thank you very much mr russell anybody else looking to address the council under public participation

Good evening, everybody. My name is Neil Stefik, 6552 Revere Place. Everybody knows me. Everybody knows why I'm here most of the time. I was gonna bring this up last month, but something else happened in the city that you'd have to sit here to complain about. We won't go over that. But I'm here for something new that happened. In the last month, month and a half, I got a phone call from the state of Wisconsin. And they're very curious about something. They're curious why the city of West Allis did not issue me my license yet. I explained why. And the state was very upset with the Common Council in West Allis. They said, you're telling me there's a commercial building in West Allis that has not paid taxes in two years because your city won't let you. Yep, that's 100% correct. They said, well, why is this? Tell us. I said, well, I explained everything. And they said, all right, well, we're pretty upset because no taxes have been paid in two years. I can understand that. Neil, how about if we do what you want to do two years ago? You said you would pay all these back taxes for the original seller's permit minus interest, penalties, and late fees. Do you still want to do that? If you do that, we'll make the original seller's permit valid, good to go again. Will the city be OK with that then? I said, well. I can't guarantee it, that's not my decision. I thought two years ago, when you gave me a new seller's permit, that would fix everything. That was not the case. So, everybody's complaining what's else, your taxes are going up, your taxes are going up, your taxes are going up. We're seeing that happening more and more and more. I'm not saying it's your fault, but the big thing is this. I can have the state clear up my original seller's permit within a week if that is what you actually want. If you still feel that you took my liquor license away because of a drunk girl's online review about me, that's fine. But let me ask you this. What's going to happen when the court cases are 100% done and I'm found that I said online everything is correct and there's evidence that she was wrong? Well, now what happens? You took away my liquor license over absolutely nothing from the drunk girl's online review. Mmm, that's not good, is it? Now here's the thing. I'm born and raised myself, I love my community, I love the people in it. The last thing I wanna do is sue City Hall for X amount of dollars because you guys screwed up so bad. I don't wanna do that. What I will recommend is this. I would appreciate somebody from up here to get ahold of me within a week. We can sit down with a city attorney. Cale's been very helpful in the last year or two. We can sit this out in private, get it figured out. With my original seller's permit, it's a balance of zero, and get it all figured out. It won't cost the taxpayers much of anything. I have some easy solutions. You know how to get ahold of me? Appreciate your time, thank you.

Thank you. Is there anybody else that wishes to address the council under public participation this evening? All right, we will close public participation. Thank you everybody. And we will move on to part F. Our standing committees will be meeting during recess. The room number for those committee meetings are, the room numbers are listed on the bottom of page one on your agendas. If you are here for a specific item, be it a license or a permit or something specific on the agenda and you are not sure which room to go in when we break for recess, excuse me, Please ask one of us when we break and we'll get you in the right room. Item G is the mayor's report. I do not have a mayor's report this evening. Are there any reports from the members of the council?

Mayor Devine.

I'm gonna go Alderperson Grisham and then Alderperson DelVal.

Thank you. Just want to remind the community that we have our West Dallas night out coming up the 25th, and we have quite a bit of participation citywide. And I just want to thank the community for doing their part to work together, to come together, to celebrate, to look out for one another. And I hope you all have successful gatherings.

Thank you. Alderperson Novak.

on a similar note i wanted to give a special shout out to the mccarty park neighborhood i received a personal invite from one of their residents and after all of their flooding last year for them to come back they're having a very large block party my husband and i will be helping with some things and donating some things and one of the people running this one is katie thaken i think a lot of us up here know the damage she dealt with and She also, she gave me the okay on this, lost her husband shortly thereafter, so for her to step up and be doing this for the neighborhood that needs it so much, I think it's worth just a special note and shout out to them out there.

Thank you. Any other reports from the other persons?

Mayor Devine.

Alderman Weigel.

I just had to double check the calendar. I was maybe not shocked, but this is our last meeting before State Fair. Correct? yes it is yeah because there's an election in april in early early in august i just want to remind everybody state fair is coming to town again um let's be prepared be courteous uh be prepared to put up with our guests and all that and the traffic and all that um i think Most people here, most of the residents are familiar with it. I know that my time when I was in the second district, most of the issues I had was with tenants who don't live here. So if you have tenants who are people who have issues with the overnight parking or the traffic, all of those stuff, I mean, we're all pretty easy to get ahold of. And go to the fair and have a good time. Thanks.

Thank you, Alderman Weigel. Any other reports from the council?

All right. Mayor Devine. Alderman Haas. I move for approval of the June 16, 2026 Common Council Minutes.

Second.

We have a motion. We have a second. If there are no corrections or amendments, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Ayes have it. The minutes are approved. We have no standing committee reports under item J, so we will go right to item K. Mayor Devine.

Alderman Haas. Do any council members wish for separate action on any of the items contained in our consent agenda? Then seeing none, I move for approval of item K, our consent agenda.

Someone step in. Second. We have a motion and a second on the consent agenda. If there is no discussion, I will ask the clerk to call the roll.

Alderperson Haas. Aye. Halverson. Aye. Keene. She's not, wait, sorry, she's not here. No. Aye. Noling. Aye. Brote. Aye. Turner. Aye. Weigle. Aye. Grisham. Aye. Groh. Aye. Nine in favor, zero opposed.

That motion carries.

Mayor Devine. Alderman Haas. I move that the Common Council stand in recess until the conclusion of our committee meetings.

Second.

There's a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Anyone opposed?

We are in recess.