City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, it is 6 o'clock, so we're going to get started. I'm calling the Tuesday, June 2nd, 2026 Council meeting to order. We'll start with roll call Christine here.

Everett Wignerson, Piper, Van Trieste, Wells, Manion, Moulton, Witeska, Anderson, Huggastead, Matthews, Mclitz, Lemke,

Here.

Camacho.

Yep, here.

Excellent. Everyone's here and we do have a quorum. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, All right, next up we have public comment. We will start with Annette Kuglich. Hope I said that right. And if you would like to come up to the microphone up here, you'll have three minutes. If you could please say your name and your address. Is Annette here? She's coming.

Annette Kugelich, 316 East Wabash Avenue. I am here tonight in person as a one-person No Queens protest. What am I protesting? As our new mayor's first public act, she thought it was best to put forth a proclamation that divides this city instead of one that would promote unity. Why not instead issue a proclamation that celebrates the 250 years of America's independence? America is unlike at least 67 other countries that have national laws criminalizing same-sex relations between consenting adults. Can't we instead put forth a proclamation that celebrates this great nation and all of the men and women that gave their lives to protect the liberties of us all? I'm here tonight to protest a proclamation that honors and celebrates a small minority of people in this community based on their sexuality and life choices. A celebration that lasts an entire month when we only have one day set aside to honor the lives of those who died to establish and protect our liberties, and only one day to honor those who put it all on the line to fight for those liberties. I am here tonight to protest because I find the wording of the proclamation to be offensive and assumes that the majority of people in this community need to be lectured to not bully, discriminate, or to be nonviolent with other people within our community. Finally, I am here tonight to protest the authoritarian proclamation that doesn't require a community consensus or even a vote by the common council or even at the very least a discussion between council members to proclaim pride month to a community of seventy one thousand taxpaying citizens. All it takes is one person our mayor to proclaim to the entire community that we will recognize and celebrate one group of people over all others. Will the mayor also proclaim a month of this year as Arkansas has proclaimed? Fidelity Month, which is an observance aimed at encouraging residents to renew their commitment to God, family, community, and country? Or will the mayor proclaim a month of this year as Indiana has to Nuclear Family Month? emphasizing the importance of strong families to the future of this nation. Will the mayor be inclusive to all residents so they feel valued, safe, empowered, and supported by community leaders? Thank you for your attention to this matter. Thank you.

Next up, we have Elizabeth Bruters. And again, please say your name and your address, and you'll have three minutes.

Elizabeth Bruters, 123 Hinman Avenue. I would also like to protest the proclamation that you're putting forth. You put in the bottom of it that it's for equality, but this is actually not showing equality to the people of this community, but just showing special privileges to a small part of it. I'm also concerned about whether you are going to be having taxpayer funds used for any part of this celebration or the Pride Month that you've put forth. And I'm also concerned about the fact that there has not been able to be any discussion or voting from other members of this council. So I just think you should have input from others before you create a proclamation like this. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up we have Kathy Briggs.

Thank you. My name is Kathy Briggs. I live at 3022 Rolling Ridge Drive. I'm a longtime Waukesha resident, and I would like to address the agenda item regarding the proclamation of June to be Pride Month, and I'm not sure, Ms. Mayor, why you're choosing to spend precious time on this issue as June has been Pride Month for a long, long time. Anyone born this century has known about it their entire life and is well acquainted with the ideas of tolerance. So I do not support adoption of this proclamation and I didn't know until right now that it was just a unilateral decision. I don't understand why we single out a group of people for formal recognition based mainly on their sexual preferences, which in my view is something that's very personal and should not be shouted from the rooftops. And also it diminishes. uh... the honors that should be bestowed to those whose contributions and sacrifices are selfless acts not personal and private matters i believe that such recognition by governments should be doled out sparingly and reserved for the real heroes among us therefore i would suggest to the mayor and the council that rather than jumping on this bandwagon that waukesha for a change lead the bandwagon And designate a month, I think July would be suitable to be military, veterans, fallen soldiers, law enforcement, firefighters, and all our beloved first responders month. If you want to have a separate month for each person or each of the aforementioned groups, I'm open to discussion on that. But these are the men and women who are the real heroes. And of our community and truly deserve a full month, not a mere 24 hours of recognition as they are the ones that enable the rest of us. And I mean all of us, not just a small portion of us, all of us to pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up we have Lisa Salt.

Lisa South 434 Madison Street. Different topic. I had sent you all email in regards to the water utility property across the street. I hope you had a chance to look at that in that I included some photographs that I took. I don't know if any of you have had a chance to tour that property. But it has the beautiful land and stone wall. There's a grassy area with mature trees. There's stone buildings. And then, of course, there's the base of the water dome. I have a T-shirt that was from the Landmarks Commission from 40 years ago when they recognized that that was a historic site. And thank you to Carol Lombardi that she had a replica of that water dome put up in 2004. near Avalon so that's wonderful but in my email I just wanted you to consider what we could do for redevelopment of that property. I had heard that it has been said by staff that I am against development and that is not true. I'm all for redevelopment as long as it fits on the property that it's going into. And so we have this property there that I believe it was in 2016 that the city paid for a study on that. And that was by SGH. And that was for the utility garage and maintenance building. And I believe it says that we paid a half a million dollars to have that roof redone on that building. So I'm wondering, you know, that was quite an investment in less than 10 years ago. I'm wondering if we could possibly put the other four properties up for sale and maybe lease this property across the street. Now, we're in the Blair House. That property was leased for over 50 years before they sold it, so there's really not a rush. for us to redevelop that. I'm very concerned with the new zoning code that there may try to be something like the Flatiron building in Manhattan that's a triangle that's 20 stories tall. We really need to look at that neighborhood. The majority of the street frontage is on North Street. It's almost doubled of what's on Delafield Street. And what do we have there? It butts up to the Weber Brewery, which is now North Pillar. That is a historic site. Across the street is the motor building. That also, that's a local landmark. So we have still a historic area there. The Mandel development has not been settled in court. It has not been approved. You can't go over what might possibly be there in the future. What we have now is what you need to consider. Please consider leasing that site and take some time to figure out what could go there. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Is there anyone else that wishes to speak for public comment? All right. Moving right along. Approval of minutes. Alderperson Christine.

Thank you, Mayor. Just a quick note, when it comes down to our new selection of District 11 alder, the first vote has Mr. Nietzsche, who's in the audience. I probably said his name wrong. You have Anderson listed twice, just to note that I was the one vote for that, and Alder Mike Anderson was for Fedders. Just a small correction before we go to vote on that.

Is that a motion to approve the minutes with the correction?

I'll make a motion to make approve with the aforementioned changes, and I will email the clerk as well.

Alderperson Manion. I'll second that motion. Thank you. And Katie, if you could please make a note of the correction. Thank you. Please vote when it is before you. All right, that motion does pass. And again, that's going to be with the correction. So the minutes have been approved. Are there any items to be removed from consent agenda? All right. Seeing none, our consent agenda has passed. Under new business, we have review and possible action to declare five city-owned properties as surplus land. Jennifer, I will let you take it away.

Yes. When there's land that the city owns that they've determined they no longer have a use for, there's several steps that we go through as a process for disposing of that land. This is the very first step, and the very first step is to just simply declare it as surplus land. And this is a statutory process. It goes through the plan commission, and then it comes to the council to be declared surplus. So tonight what we're talking about is the water utility has identified these sites as sites they'll no longer need at some point in the future. And so they know that they're going to be decommissioning these sites. And so we put them all together for the plan commission to review and make a recommendation to the council to declare these surplus. Then as these sites are decommissioned and the water utility has fully exited the property, we'll bring them back one by one to have a discussion about how you actually want to dispose of them if you want to. lease them or sell them and what you're looking for on those properties, similar to what we've done down on West Avenue when the council decided to sell that property to Carmen de la Paz for the art studio. That was the same process. First, we declared it surplus, then it came back and we discussed how we wanted to dispose of the property. So tonight, the action is just declaring these properties listed here as surplus city property.

All right. Are there any comments, questions, motions? Alderperson Lemke.

I make a motion to list all four properties as surplus.

Four or five?

Five.

Thank you. All right, Alderperson Camacho.

I'll second.

Thank you. Are there any other questions? Alderperson Krasine, and then Steve, I've got you.

Thank you, Mayor. I know I was fortunate enough to be on the redevelopmental authority for a while. I didn't even know it was four years ago the city was still discussing some of the ideas for that property. So I know Rick is still an active member on that. I know there was plans and talk about some really neat items for that area. So I do support it and continue to talk about other good ideas for that property. Thank you.

Thanks. Alderperson Van Trieste.

Well, thank you. Jennifer, can you tell us what the address is for the piece of property, the last one located along Center Road, what the address is?

It doesn't have an address. I can show you a map of it if that would be helpful.

Yeah.

Okay, just a moment.

That'd be helpful, thank you.

Okay, so there's the corporate industrial Park South of the bypass there and this piece of property center is on center road kind of backs up to that corporate industrial Park. It's a piece of property that the water utility owns. We purchased it for their use, but they never did actually build a facility on there. So it is vacant, but what you can't see in this picture is there's quite a bit of grade, I believe, coming down from Center Road. So it's also not the easiest parcel to deal with, but that's the parcel.

Is this south of the bypass then? Yes. Okay, thank you.

Great. We do have a motion and a second. Are there any other comments before we vote? Alderperson Lemke.

I'm just against leasing any city property. I don't think that works best for us. So while I respect the opinion of the member in the lease assault, I don't think we should get into the leasing business. We should leave that for private enterprises. And I think the best use of this property is to find someone who can redevelop it to its possible greatness and get it back on the tax rolls. Thank you.

Great. And just as a note to what Jennifer said earlier, this is specifically a vote on declaring this surplus property, not what we're going to do with the property. So that comment we can remember for later. So are there any other comments before we vote? All right. Please vote when it is before you.

Other than Lemke?

No. All right, that motion does pass 15 to 0. Thank you very much, Jennifer. Next up, we have the 2027 CDBG allocation resolution. Jeff, do you want to take it away?

Yeah, for some of the new aldermen, just to kind of go over a little bit of the background of this, the city of Waukesha is considered a HUD CDBG entitlement community, meaning we get a certain allocation of community development block funds, block grant funds every year to use for specific purposes that meet all their criteria, and it's based on our population. So every year, we have a citizen advisory committee made up of citizens and two aldermen to review applications. And these are only through city departments, applications for the use of those monies. And this would be for 2027. So this year, they met last month. And we're expected that the allocation for next year is going to be around $233,000, a little bit over that. And of that money, they kind of put it in two pots. One is facilities, housing, and economic development, and that's 85% of that money. You can't go any higher than that. And then the remaining 15% can go into programs, like specific programs that the city does. So I guess some in your cover sheet and packet was a detailed list of all the applications Some highlights for what the committee recommended that the council approved and again, they make a recommendation the council approves the allocation and Traditionally funded programs including the Landmarks Commission paint repair grant which helps people that live in historic Districts or homes to with top them with repairs to the exterior of their building Those go through the Landmarks Commission also a public art fund which we used to purchase public art throughout the city and then we brought back downtown and central city wayfinding to replace some of the wayfinding signs and to install wayfinding downtown banners and other elements like that in areas that maybe hadn't had them yet. In addition to that, there's the Buckner Park ADA and playground surface project, which would be putting the resilient, replacing the resilient surface at Buckner Park, at the playground there, and then improving accessibility to that. And then the other one is Grandview Boulevard. There's a crosswalk there right now, and it's had some issues. It's very old, and sometimes it doesn't work properly, so some of the, the CDBG board recommended $65,000 go to a new ADA crosswalk there, and that will connect the neighborhood to the west across the street into Grandview Park, and Grandview's a very busy street, and this is kind of a mid-block crossing. It'll have flashing lights and stuff, so it'll definitely improve pedestrian safety in the area. Then moving on to programs. These all typically come through parks, recreation, forestry. It would just be helping to fund certain positions, including a senior activity coordinator, an adaptive education specialist, as well as to run the Buckner or maybe Horeb swim, park, and play program, which is kind of a summer program. that gets kids from low to moderate income neighborhoods to come to the park, do different activities, learn how to swim. So it's a really successful program. So those are the three things that the board recommended for program funds. So I guess I'll take any questions on that.

Are there any questions? Alderperson Vantrieste.

Hey Joe, origin of this grant money, where does that come from?

comes from the federal government after the housing and urban development department uh... records several decades ago and the idea is to help communities uncertain populations with things like mom improving housing stock uh... creating economic opportunities in low to moderate income areas and a lot of these programs we're going to target towards those areas like buckner park itself uh... and actually Grandview Park are not in an actual LMI area, but they're right adjacent, like across the street, so it's serving that neighborhood. So really that's, and then the downtown, a lot of these programs are around downtown. And then other things like housing, that can be citywide.

So which side of the, which bucket does that come out of, the 85%?

So those will be 85, all the facilities, housing and economic development programs, that would be the Buckner, the Crosswalk, Landmarks Paint Repair Grant, Public Art, and... wayfunding that falls under the facilities and then the programs is more like an actual you're not actually building anything you're just you're having a programming that's going to benefit um lmi neighborhoods a lot of non-income so the 15 is our discretion how we want to spend it yes okay and typically that almost all those funds are always usually only requested by parks because they run these programs for the city okay thanks joel alderperson paper

I'll make a motion to approve the 2027 or 2020. Yeah, excuse me. 2027 CDBG allocation as presented.

Alderperson Helga Stead.

Second.

All right. Are there any other comments? Alderperson Camacho.

I had to raise my hand a little higher. I just wanted to let the council know as part of this committee and one of the things that we did when we went through this in discussion was that this was the most balanced way of dispersing the funds. So I'm very in favor of doing this in this way so that we can blanket as many different programs and other things that we need for the city.

Thank you. Alderperson Piper? And I just would like to add quickly that Grandview Park is in my district. It's the only park that I have in the Fighting Forth. And speed has been a challenge for all 20 years on Grandview Boulevard. And Tim Nekich, who was an alderman before me, is nodding his head. And we've done a lot of various mitigations to control speed. And having this crosswalk upgraded and maintained is going to be very important to the neighbors, especially to the West and the West Town neighborhood. And unfortunately, about three weeks ago, we had a kid get hit at that crosswalk by someone who apparently was not paying too much attention. Thankfully, they're going to make a full recovery. But this request is very timely, and I certainly ask for your support. Thank you.

Thank you. Are there any other comments? Alderperson Ebert. The money that's going to be Turn on your mic, please.

The money that is going to be allotted for all this? Yep. The city taxpayer doesn't have to pay for any of that? It's all federal money?

So it's federal money that comes into the city, yes. And there's not any city budget impact on this, because it's all coming in from the federal government. And it's managed through Waukesha County. We have an agreement with them, program agreement with them, where they do all the admin with HUD, and we just end up getting the money, and we just deal with them. Yeah.

All right, any other comments? All right, we do have a motion and a second to approve the 2027 allocation resolution. Please vote when it is before you. All right, that motion does pass 15 to zero. Next up, we have reports, transit commission report, Alex.

All items were on consent tonight. Thank you. Excellent.

Keeping it easy. All right. Water Utility Commission, you weren't at our meeting.

I was unable to attend, so I have no official report unless you do, Madam Mayor.

We had a meeting. We were in closed session for most of it, so I can't say a whole lot, but exciting things are happening. End of report. All right. Next up, IT Board, Alderperson Mannion.

Our June meeting, which was scheduled for tomorrow night, has been canceled. You're free to attend the Landmarks Commission meeting instead.

End of report. Speaking of landmarks, Landmarks Commission. Alderperson Krasin.

Thank you. I'm quite confident the gallery will be triple in attendance tomorrow. We do meet tomorrow night, and I'll give a report at our next Common Council meeting. Thank you.

Excellent. Redevelopment Authority Report. Alderperson Lemke.

No meeting, no report. Our next meeting is the third Monday. Thank you.

Excellent. Parks, Recreation, and Forestry. Alderperson Wells?

No meeting. Pools open June 6th.

Yeah, pools are opening. All right, Library Board Report.

Alderperson Helgestad? Thank you. Our June meeting also has been canceled. The next Library Board meeting will be July 9th at 445.

And everyone should sign up for the summer reading program. All right, Cemetery Commission Report. Alderperson Krasine?

Thank you, Mayor. Our next meeting is coming up, and I'll give a follow-up report at the next Common Council meeting. Thank you.

All right. Waukesha Housing Authority, Alderperson Piper.

No report this evening.

Community Development Block Grant, Jennifer, anything? No additional items. Thank you. Public Art Committee, Alderperson Molson.

I see that there's new public art out there, so please take a look at it, and we will present it at some point.

Excellent. Plan Commission, Jennifer, anything? Everything was on consent. Great. Finance Committee, Alderperson Piper.

No report other than Tony made a mention in his weekly update that budget season has now started, and we'll have dates out for the Finance Committee and the Council as it relates to budget review, schedule for the Finance Committee, and most notably when we're going to get the show and tell scheduled. So more to come on that. End of report.

All right, building and grounds report. Alderperson Moulton? No report. All right, ordinance and licensing committee report. First up, we have revisions to municipal code chapter nine. And Brian, you are going to say something on this one.

Yes, thank you. This would be the third reading of these proposed changes to Chapter 9, and that would make it eligible for passage tonight. However, I did not get an actual ordinance form attached to the agenda before the publication deadline. So we do not have the actual ordinance form with the final form of the language. And it's preferable to have that, to have it attached to the agenda for legislative history purposes. So I would suggest that we hold off until the next meeting. We'll go four readings on this one so that I can then make the deadline the next time and get the actual ordinance form before you. I would note too that there were no inquiries, there were no comments, questions, anything about this. So I led to believe that everybody's okay with the proposed changes. But if you have anything, please feel free to get in touch with me.

And Brian, are you looking for a motion to hold this over or just take no action today?

I think you just don't take any action today.

Excellent. Does anybody have any questions while we're on this item since we are not going to take action today? No? All right. Moving right along. If you do have any additional questions or inquiries before our next meeting, please reach out to Brian. Next up, we have the Cobblestone Hotel and Suites and Wissota Chop House Liquor License Application. Paul, you got this one?

Yep, I believe this was just it was just a timing issue around when we had Owen Ellen the and the council meeting so I did speak with Katie beforehand there are no concerns or permits to be gotten for them, so I will make a motion to approve the liquor license for a cobblestone hotel and Suites and was so to stop up shot with soda chop house and Ask every second and to support it

Alderperson Halgastan. Second.

All right. Are there any comments, questions? All right. Then we do have a motion and a second to approve the liquor license for Cobblestone Hotel and Suites and Wissota Chophouse. Please vote when it is before you. All right. That motion does pass 15 to 0. Next up, Human Resources Committee Report. Alderperson Anderson.

All items on consent.

Excellent. Board of Public Works. Alex?

Good evening. We have two bids tonight to review. The first one would be the orders received on May 8th for the 2026 sanitary sewer lining and relay project. This project is on Burr Oak Drive. The Board of Public Works recommended moving forward with a low bid from Super Excavators. The amount of $398,821 to be awarded.

Alderperson Piper? So moved. Alderperson Wateska? Second. Any discussion? All right, please vote when it is before you. That motion does pass 15 to 0.

All right, thank you. The next bid is for the Prairie Park and Banting Park Facility Upgrades Project. The Board of Public Works recommended moving forward with a little bit from Will Surge Electric in the amount of $713,574.40. Alderperson Piper? So moved. Alderperson Wateska? Second. All right, any discussion?

Alderperson Vantrieste?

alex can you tell us uh can you break it down just uh you know not not to the the finite level but tell us what that seven hundred and thirteen thousand dollars is buying for for the city um for the two parks in question here the prairie park and the banting park it's uh resurfacing the pavement on the uh the courts as well as fencing on those parks

That's the majority of those projects.

No upgrades on lighting?

Yes, there are lighting. So bases is part of that as well. So those lighting upgrades are... The actual lights are going to be purchased separate but installed with this contract.

Does that also include the foam stuff underneath the playground equipment?

New bases. This does not include anything with the playgrounds. This is the... Just the court around yeah, if anybody wants to look at the plan said I can show you that after the meeting But it's the the courts the payment Alderperson Piper there's also for the council in the public There's a very detailed breakdown as part of the agenda item to that walks through every line item all

Let's see 41 line items of the bid and it also shows the other individuals that proposed or bid on the project as well.

So 41 detailed items think. Excellent.

Any other discussion? Alright, please vote when it is before you. All right, that motion does pass 15 to 0 director of Public Works report. Anything additional?

No other report tonight. Thank you.

Excellent city attorneys report. Brian anything.

Thank you. Yes, I want to report to you that in response to a lot of reports that we've been getting concerns about e-bikes, e-scooters, other electric powered vehicles on sidewalks and behaving inappropriately around the city. We have been studying this and we do intend to bring to the O&L committee next Monday a proposed ordinance that will begin to address the problem. So we are taking action in response to requests from council members and from the public. We're working with the police department and we will have a proposal coming up from O&L soon.

Thank you. I'm sure we're all very excited about that one. City Administrator's report, Tony.

Yeah, I just wanted to make the council aware of some recognition that the city has received nationally. So the first is from US News and World Report. So they have what's called a best places list. And for the city, we are ranked as the 87th best place to live in the United States and in the state of Wisconsin as the number two place to live. So I think that's a pretty significant recognition. And then also, Separately from that, even smart asset has recognized the city as the safest place, safest midsize city in the well, here, let me look real quickly. Eighth safest mid-sized city in the United States and then the safest mid-sized city in the state So I think that's certainly a recognition for the police department. So police officers dispatchers CSOs administrative professionals supervisors managers parking agents and anyone else that I forgot in that list and But truly it is something that I think we all should be proud of and celebrates over in the next couple of weeks will be sending out communications to that effect. Thank you.

Thank you very exciting. Mayor's report so I do have a couple of board and Commission appointments. Is there a motion? To approve of those Alderperson Molton.

I move to approve the Board and Commission appointments as listed in our agenda. Thank you.

Alderperson Manion?

I'll second.

All right. Any discussion? All right. Please vote when it is before you.

Alderman Lemke, yes.

All right, that motion does pass, 15 to 0. Next up, we do have one proclamation today. It is for Pride Month. Whereas this nation was founded upon the principles that every person is created equal, that each has the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that each shall be accorded the full recognition and protection of law, and whereas Pride Month is a time to recognize and celebrate the impact and history of LGBTQIA plus individuals locally, nationally, and internationally, And whereas our community is strengthened by the rich diversity of our residents and LGBTQIA plus residents and visitors should feel valued, safe, empowered, and supported by their peers, educators, and community leaders. And whereas it is essential that our LGBTQIA plus community members be accorded the freedom to be themselves without fear and live free from reprisal, discrimination, or bullying. And now, therefore, I, Alicia Haldensleben, the mayor of the city of Waukesha, hereby proclaim June as Pride Month in the city of Waukesha and encourage our community to eliminate prejudice wherever it exists, to celebrate our great diversity, and to actively promote the principles of equality, liberty, and justice for all. Thank you. Are there any referrals? Alderperson Evert?

This is my first one, so bear with me. I have a referral for O&L to amend an ordinance to extend premises for Maddie's Bar down. For events and fundraisers, I'll be emailing Katie about it.

Yeah, if you could email Katie, and I would recommend that you also copy Brian on that so he can help you with the language. Thank you. Thanks. Alderperson Van Trieste.

Yes, I have a referral, Meadow Lane. We've got a handicapped family there, the mother and four of her adopted children, and we need to get signage up there that would help people slow down on that road. We do have 25 mile an hour limit signs up, but going back to what City Attorney Running said about e-bikes, There's quite a few of them over in that area of my district and they're causing a lot of calamity. So Chief Thompson and I have talked about this and I will submit that to Katie after the meeting.

Thank you. I'm assuming that's for building and grounds.

yeah it's signage is what i'm looking for yep so building and grounds excellent thank you uh alderperson matthews and then wells and then camacho yeah this one's for uh bng and i've already had conversations with the chief um there's a uh referral to do a revamp of a speed study excuse me speed study on river valley road in between les paul parkway and river road so be passing out to bng thank you alderperson wells

Another BNG, please consider the installation of cross traffic does not stop to stop signs at Chapman and Spring City Drive.

Thank you. Alderperson Camacho. I am also a BNG guy. I'm submitting a referral for a no parking sign on the even street side of Dobb Street from Moreland to, for 100 feet from Moreland through Dobb. There, I did it.

Excellent. Any other referrals? There were lots today. All right, then barring any objections, we are adjourned.