Common Council - Regular Meeting

All right. Good evening, everyone. We're going to call this meeting to order at 628 p.m. on September 10th, 2026. All council members are here and present. Please stand with me for the Pledge of Allegiance. Thank you. We recognize that the City of La Crosse occupies the land of the Ho-Chunk people. Please take a moment to celebrate and honor the ancestral Ho-Chunk land and the sacred lands of all indigenous people. Thank you. At this time, I'll take a motion to approve the minutes of August 13th, 2026. Oh, I see it now. Never mind. All right. Sounds good. Oh, I saw it. It popped up and then it went away. And I figured it out. Sorry. Thank you, Sandra. All right. Motion made by Council Member Middell, second by Council Member Calo. Any discussion? All right, seeing none, please vote. It's kinda cool. All right, and that motion passes. NEXT ITEM REPORTS 26-0951 FINANCIAL REPORT FROM THE DEPUTY DIRECTOR OF FINANCE FOR THE MONTH OF JULY. MOTION TO RECEIVE AND FILED BY COUNCILMEMBER MENDEL SECOND BY COUNCILMEMBER NORTHWOOD. ANY DISCUSSION? SEEING NONE, PLEASE VOTE. If I go too fast, please let me know. All right, now motion passes. Notices and discussions. I'll start today. For those that have notices and discussion, please hit your request to speak button. So council members on your desk in front of you, you all have the Burgermeister button as we get ready for Oktoberfest. Burgermeister is mayor. Special thing about this button is for those of you that don't know, some of you do. My dad was in the military. He fought in Desert Storm. So I was born in Hanau, Germany. And so on the Burgermeister button this year is the flag of Hanau, Germany. Yeah, so get ready to celebrate Oktoberfest with everyone. Burgermeister's mayor. I don't know the answer to that. All right, any other? I don't see any other speakers. I do not.

Oh, there we go.

All right, Councilmember Weston.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just want to give a shout out to our police department and also our planning department for the work that they have done on educating the public about our e-bike and e-scooter ordinances. It has been received. It is funny and also well received by both our school districts, our students, our college students coming back. It's necessary education, and I just appreciate the time and energy that both departments have put into it. and look forward to seeing more watermelon helmets, I think. So, yes, I appreciate the work that has happened from both departments. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Trost.

Thank you. I want to acknowledge the brave and hard work of the library board and staff who have made heartbreaking decisions over the last three years. They are volunteers on the library board. They are taxpayers. And they are our constituents. And I want to thank them for meeting the challenges head on. I know every decision they made was with integrity.

Thank you. Any other speakers? Y'all on here? All right. Council President Dixon, then Council Member Goggin, and then we'll go to Council Member Mindell.

Thank you. We're still getting used to our buttons, so I pushed one, but anyway, here we go. So I want to thank all the council members that have had a deluge of meetings in the last two weeks and for your attendance. This week specifically, we received an update from our Homeless Services Coordinator, Brian Sampson, and our Homeless Response System Manager, Jim Dries, on Tuesday at our council planning meeting. So we got an update on the Pathways Home and its process. Also wanna say that we are proud to say the Pathways Home leases can be celebrated, and we have signed some, and we should have five of them active very shortly. And that has been an action item for probably a year at least. And then I also want to thank Andy Burzynski. He's just my faithful inspector for the north side, and I appreciate everything that he does and how well he answers my questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Goggin.

I wanted to thank the police department and all those involved in the planning for the Labor Day parade that was held on the north side, and also for all the work and planning that went into the Labor Fest at Logger Field. They had to move it from the north end of Copeland into Logger Field, and it was gratifying to see how many people turned out along the parade route. There was a lot of candy being thrown around, and I think that the kids all enjoyed it, and the weather cooperated. So I just wanted a big, big shout out to all the people that participated and turned out to show all the hardworking residents in La Crosse that they appreciated them.

Thank you. Council Member Mandel.

Thank you, Mayor. Today I was able to go to the Women's Fund luncheon, which was really remarkable. And there were 500 people in attendance. It was really inspiring to hear the Young Women of Tomorrow, who was a grant recipient, from women's fund funds. There was also a woman who was a survivor in the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. And it was truly remarkable. You were there, right? I thought I saw you over there. It was truly remarkable to hear the remarks of this woman who had spent about six or seven hours underneath rubble and multiple bombings, continuing to have first responders have to leave her and come back until it was safe. And then, of course, I realized it's September 10th, the day before September 11th, and It's always, certainly for everybody, a reflective time. I remember last year, I was invited to go to Habitat for Humanity's remarks ceremony on 9th and Division. Our police department was there, our fire department was there, and various other officials. And just hearing the very real recollections of why I know our fire chief and police chief were not expecting me to say this, but just hearing their remarks, why they're in service, why a lot of our police and fire service members were called to work was really incredible to hear firsthand. I myself was in third grade, and I explained to them last year that in third grade I stood up to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and saw the TVs on, which was very uncommon. And I thought it was just like we're going to have a history lesson about something happened like 80 years ago. But I was just a little third grader, and it was the first time over the next few days that I realized in life that people could do really bad things. And so I just wanted to reflect on that. knowing that it's the day before, and thank our service, really all public servants. There's so many people, public health officials, health care workers coming together, running towards danger to keep our community members safe. And I see you all doing the hard work out there. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you. Council Member Bedford.

I wanted to start out by giving a shout out to all of the various different community organizations that came together and ran some really great back to school events at the library, at open houses. I know special shout out to the Lions Club, which helped me find out that my daughter needed glasses. a service that came up at the disability meeting earlier today and has been going since some of the members there were a child. So really great thanks to all of the organizations and people that put the effort in to make Back to School success for the many children in our community. I also wanted to talk about Week Without Driving, which is coming up. It's going to be September 29th to October 5th, and that is where community members are invited to experience a week without driving and what that might be like for people that either have barriers to driving themselves, they lack a car, or mobility issues that make driving inaccessible to them. It kicks off on September 23rd, and there's going to be a bunch of stuff going on, but kind of some highlights on The 1st of October, fares are going to be free on the MTU. So go ahead and take a ride on our buses, no charge. See how that works for you. And then there's also going to be a new rider guided ride on the MTU Saturday, October 4th. There's also a bingo sheet that you can find on weekwithoutdriving.org that will help you to participate in this. and a challenge from the disability committee for all of the council members to take this opportunity to kind of do a walk audit in your district and get an idea of what it's like for people in your district that have to go walking or using our public transportation. And lastly, I want to talk a little bit about voting. We're still a little bit out from that November 3rd date, but if you need to update your voting, you're going to want to do that online or in person. I think there's a couple other ways. You can do it in person with the city clerk here with documentation, or you can go online to... MyVote, where you will be able to update your address so long as it matches with what the DMV has on record. You can do that, again, before the 20 days. And after that point, I believe you need to come in person. But you do have to be at the new location for 28 days for it to count for Wisconsin residency laws. I also would like to invite everybody to try out the easy access voting, the express voting machines that we have here, which are very disability friendly, but they also can just make voting easier in general. On top of being something that helps with those that have hard of hearing or vision disabilities, they make sure that if it's a more complicated situation, you can't double vote. Sort of like with the last election, you know, we had Republican versus Democrat voting, If you voted in both of those, your ballot would be void. Using this machine stops an accident like that from happening and ensures that your vote is counted. So whether you just want to give it a try or it's something that helps you, really encourage people to try that out, especially district members, again, because when we use it, we are helping to make sure that the people working are... the workers are trained in how to use these machines for other people that come in, and then we're able to better spread how they're used to others in our community that might need them. Thank you very much.

It does not. Council Member Northwood.

I just wanted to thank the Center, the Seven Rivers, LGBTQ Connection, and community partners and allies that helped celebrate Pride this past weekend. I just think it's really great that we're able to celebrate everyone that lives in our community and provide a safe place where people can be authentically themselves and enjoy a festival. That's it. Thank you.

Thank you. Council Member Podeski. Thank you, Your Honor. Until I put my glasses on, I thought this said Burger Master, and I was going to challenge you to a platter of burgers, but I just want to congratulate you on your idea with your hometown. That's pretty cool. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much.

And so two things or three things that I'll acknowledge real quick. First and foremost is this past week, I was able to go to the honors flight, which was an amazing experience. If you have not seen an honors flight or been a part of that, it is a pretty cool thing to see. It basically allows for military veterans from. served in the Korean War, Vietnam War, World War II, etc. They get on a flight, go to D.C., go to some monuments, and then come back. I did not get up at 5 o'clock in the morning, so I did not send them off, but I was there to welcome them back home, and it was a great experience. Tomorrow, for 9-11, in remembrance of THAT TRAGIC DAY AT 7 40 A.M. AT CITY HALL WE ARE GOING TO BE LOWERING A FLAG AND DOING A MOMENT OF SILENCE AS WELL AS RINGING THE BELL. AND THEN THE LAST THING I'LL TALK ABOUT IS MUNG NEW YEAR IS ON SEPTEMBER 19TH. SO FOR THOSE OF YOU INTERESTED IN THAT AND LEARNING MORE ABOUT THE MUNG CULTURE AND THIS WEEKEND IS STEPPING OUT IN PINK TO ACKNOWLEDGE BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH. SEEING NO OTHER SPEAKERS We will move to our Council Matters. Let me just make sure. All right. 26-0950, Resolution Approving 2026 Bills and Engineering Estimates Paid in September 2026. Motion to approve by Council Member Northwood, second by Council Member Stein. This is going to be a fun meeting as everybody try to figure out how to vote and make motions. All right. Any motion has been made. There is a second. Any discussion? Seeing none, please vote. And that motion passes. I also want to just take a time to give a shout out to our IT and our clerks department as they get us acclimated to this new system. Moving on to appointments by the mayor, 26-0954, Heritage Preservation Commission, Council Member Lisa Weston. Motion to approve by Councilmember Troe, second by Councilmember Northwood. Any discussion? Seeing none, please vote. And that motion passes. Next agenda item, report of bids, quotes, and recommended to be adopted. 26-0673, report of bids and resolution award and contract to A1 Excavating LLC in the amount of $101,995 for Sunset Lane Sanitary Sewer Project. I'M NOT SEEING A MOTION. OH, YOU DID IT. ALL RIGHT. THERE WE GO.

YES.

I DID NOT. THANK YOU.

DO I NEED TO DO THAT FOR THIS?

OKAY.

I'LL GO BACK TO IT BEFORE WE GET TO THE OTHER ONE.

MOTION MADE BY COUNCILMEMBER MENDEL. AND THERE IS NOT A SECOND. I lied. Second by Councilmember Trost. All right. We are going to get through this on today. Any discussion about this item? All right. Seeing none, please vote. All right, that motion passes. Next agenda item 26-0730, report of bids and resolution, excuse me, report of bids and resolution award and contract to Fowler and Hammer Inc. in the amount of $766,662 for the Civic Center Park Project. Motion to approve by Councilmember Calo, second by Councilmember Slesnico. Any discussion? Seeing none, please vote. And that motion passes. Next agenda item 26-0845, report of bids and resolution awarding contract to Fowler and Hammer Inc. in the amount of $89,113 for the placement of accessible water bubbles project. Motion to approve by Councilmember Mendel, second by Councilmember Bedford. Any discussion? Councilmember Calo. Thank you, Mayor.

I have a question, because there wasn't much on the, on legislature regarding this. Could I get an explanation of what exactly this is? What's going to be placed where? And second question, are the historic bubblers being removed? Director Gallagher.

So what's in front of you right now is simply the portion that's being publicly bid to a concrete contractor to handle the installation of sidewalk and other concrete as required for placement of new and replacement of existing bubblers. So that's why it's 89 out of the 150. As to the second question, the old bubblers are staying near the new ones being in place. replaced or installed.

Can I follow up? So, just to be clear, this is for concrete, but do we have locations?

They have to stay roughly in the same spot. We just have to be someplace that's ADA accessible. So, maybe it's a few feet down the boulevard, maybe it's halfway down the block, but it's roughly the same locations.

Okay, thank you.

So I just want to be clear, none of the historic bubblers are going to be removed? Correct. Thank you.

Any other speakers? All right, seeing none, please vote. And that motion passes. Now let me take you back because I missed one. All right. Moving to the suspension of council rule, room and room rule XV for the following items. 26-0825, 26-0936, and 26-0959. Is there a motion? You were the motion maker. It's not showing up on mine, but that's okay. No, that's from the other one. There we go. I got you. I see it now. Oh, it just took some time. Motion made by Council Member Mendel, second by Council Member Podeski. Any discussion? Seeing none, please vote. We will all be pros by the end of this meeting. Moving to items recommended with, moving to items, excuse me, with no recommendation, 26-0894, a charter ordinance to amend various sections of the Charter of the Municipal Code of Ordinances of the City of La Crosse regarding the appointment of various department heads. Motion to approve by Councilmember Jansen, seconded by Councilmember Slesnicka. Any discussion? Councilmember Trost.

Can we get some explanation about why this charter ordinance is coming forward now and why it is what it is?

Where is this coming from? Yes. Attorney Matty, are you able to speak to this? I'll just kind of shine a little light and then collect me where I'm wrong or provide more explanation if necessary. So this is actually coming from as we reviewed the EMPLOYEE HANDBOOK AND SOME OTHER ITEMS, WHAT WE NOTICED WAS, ONE, THE FINANCE DIRECTOR AND THE H.R. DIRECTOR WERE STILL COMBINED IN CERTAIN AREAS. IN ADDITION TO THE CURRENTLY DEPARTMENT HEADS DO NOT HAVE A PROBATIONARY PERIOD UPON HIRE, BUT EVERY OTHER STAFF MEMBER DOES. AND SO WANTED TO CORRECT THAT AS WELL. SO SOME OF THIS IS MORE HOUSEKEEPING MATTERS THAN ANYTHING.

Yeah, what I did was I submitted an updated report and I identified the three things, the three purposes that I discussed at the last meeting. And again, like the mayor had identified, Some of the charter ordinances are obsolete because you as a body have made decisions. One of those, like it was mentioned, that the finance director and the HR director are supposed to be separate positions, not a combined position. You've also eliminated the lacrosse center manager, so that one is being deleted. And one of the things this legislation does also takes the transit director and makes that position also a for-cause position after the probationary period. is over, and like the Mayor said, it adds a probationary period for all of these positions of one year.

Council Member Weston.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. This is just technical speaking. What we are able to see as far as the staff report is blank in here, so I'm not sure what's linked in Legistar, but is everyone seeing a blank staff report? Okay. I wonder if it's just the way that it uploads into this platform because it is complete in the legislature.

Yeah, I just pulled it up in legislature. It is complete in legislature. Any other speakers? All right. Seeing none, a motion has been made in a second. Or maybe not. Council member Charles.

I was actually going to move that we refer this for 30 days so that we discuss this charter ordinance after we've had a larger discussion about our options for municipal government and also I need more time to think about a big charter ordinance change. So motion to refer for 30 days.

There's a motion to refer for 30 days. Is there a second? Second by Councilmember Bedford. Any discussion? Do a thumb vote on this? Okay. The only thing I would add is that none of those things are related, but you as a council body do what you choose.

Right, and since it's not urgent.

All right, seeing no other discussion. All in favor, please signify with a thumbs up. All opposed, please signify with thumbs down. All right, that motion passes. This is referred now for 30 days. All right, moving on to our next agenda item with no recommendation. 26-0780, application of TAC Citgo INC DBA Citgo on state for a Class A liquor license and a Class A beer license at 1914 State Road. Motion to approve. approved by Councilmember Troves, second by Councilmember Mendel. Oh, well, can you state your motion just so that I'm clear?

Yes, my motion is to deny the license and have a wait period of 12 months along the lines of what the J&A committee recommended.

Awesome. And Councilman Dell, you seconded as you understand the motion? I just want to make sure they're correct. Don't vote? Okay. All right. Any discussion on this item? All right. Seeing none, all in favor, please signify by a thumbs up. And that motion passes unanimously. Next item, excuse me, 260879, complaining in the matter of City of La Crosse versus Bennett O'Reilly's LLC, DBA, Bennett O'Reilly's with the notice of intent. FOR REVOCATION OR SUSPENSION OF COMBINATION CLASS B BEER AND LIQUOR LICENSE FOR THE PREMISE ADDRESS 213 3rd STREET, SOUTH LA CROSSE, WISCONSIN. MOTION, YES, YEAH, I WAS GOING TO ASK ABOUT THIS.

For this item and the next item, you need to hear if any of the parties have objections to the report and recommendation from the J&A Committee before deciding to take action on this matter. So for both this one, it's not a public hearing. It's just the parties that are involved have the opportunity under state statute to provide an objection to the recommendation from the J&A Committee if they so wish. Prior to this, the J&A Committee did convene those written decision that was given to the parties on both these matters.

Okay, thank you. So at this time, I will ask if there's a representative for Bennett O'Reilly's LLC, if you would like to speak, this is your time. Please state your name and municipality when you come to the microphone. Hit the little person.

Darren Householder. I GOT THE RECOMMENDATION. I CAN UNDERSTAND AND RESPECT THE DECISION OF THE J&A FOR A 10-DAY SUSPENSION. BUT I WOULD LIKE TO RESPECTFULLY OBJECT TO IT BEGINNING TOMORROW. MY STAFF IS RELYING ON THESE WAGES. AND AS YOU GUYS HAVE KIND OF TALKED ABOUT, WE GOT A COUPLE REAL BUSY WEEKENDS COMING UP. RENT IS DUE. SO I WOULD ASK TO, I GUESS, AMEND THAT RECOMMENDATION. for the suspension to begin September 28th and end on October 7th. This will give my staff a chance to save some money and be able to pay their bills. That would be my objection.

Can you repeat the date for me?

It would be September 28th. And then 10 days would end at October 7th. Okay. That'll give them a couple weeks to save some money and kind of know what they need to do as far as their finances go. Thank you. Good, Dr. Hayden?

No, you just hit the button. You're good. Attorney Maddie, just so I'm aware, if council wanted to go into closed session on this matter, to discuss this, or do we discuss it out here?

The matter is noticed for closed session, so you're able to go into closed session.

So I'm Gideon Wertheimer. I'm here as the attorney for the complainant. The dates for when the suspension is obviously up to you. There was no objection to the finding of the 10 days or anything like that. So I defer to the counsel in terms of the days. But I guess I just have to respond. So that's all I have. Thanks. Thank you.

So Councilmember Trost, you made the motion, so I'm going to defer to you.

Right. I made the motion, which was consistent with the recommendation that came out of J&A, which was to suspend the license for 10 days starting tomorrow.

All right.

And there was a second. Any discussion? Councilmember Selesico?

No. Okay.

Councilmember Cable? No.

Thank you, Mayor. I would like to amend the date of the suspension to start on 9-28.

All right, there's a motion to amend the date to start on 9-28. Is there a second? Second by Councilmember Podeski. Any discussion on this amendment? Council Member Cahill.

Thank you, Mayor. I understand the gravity of the violations. And I also understand that 10 days right now over two weekends would be a considerable financial impact to small business and to those staff working there. And I would ask that the council, since we have the ability to move the date, show a little bit of leniency while we see still are penalizing the full 10 days, thank you.

Any other discussion. Seeing none please vote, we're going to do a vote all in favor please signify by raising of the hand or a thumb is up. This is the amendment yes. Any opposed? All right. Say it again. Nine to four. So motion passes. Okay. And then we'll go back to the original amendment as amended. Any discussion? Council member Mendell.

So. These are difficult of course and I think the thing we I keep coming back to is that the state law states if the convictions are true if the offenses were made then we must have a 10 day suspension at minimum. So even though I feel for the business owners and the staff, um, the convictions, the offenses occurred, that was proven as fact. And therefore we have as a council to uphold the state law, I Now that that amendment has gone forward, I now will be struggling a lot, because we have given leniency to one, and now we will be giving our emotional flexibility to ones and not others. I will be just stating that I'm going to struggle with that while I understand why and I respect that decision. Now I'm like, how are we going to hold them all fair?

Any other discussion?

Council Member Podescu. Thank you, Your Honor. I get where Council Member Mendel is going, but by the same token, they are going to feel this. We are, we have to look at ourselves when we were, I was going to say younger, but everybody is younger but me, but, you know, to all of a sudden know that you're not going to be working for 10 days. I look at myself back in the day, and that is a hardship. We're still creating, You know, they're still going to learn. I don't think we'll ever see them here again under these circumstances. And I'm willing to vote for this amendment where before I voted against the suspension. I will vote for the suspension in this case because we are trying to have a little quid pro quo here with not just the owner, it's the employees. So thank you.

Council Member Trost. I certainly understand both sides of the discussion here, but I think we have a real problem with underage drinking in this city. And I think when we make these kind of allowances, we're showing some favoritism. And favoritism can turn into unequal approaches towards upholding legal requirements based on someone who may be knows somebody who knows somebody or has some sort of a sympathetic case. So I'm really concerned about the favoritism that this might show. So I'm not going to be voting in favor of the ultimate resolution if it passes this, if it goes this way.

Any other speakers? Council Member Mendel.

So just a procedural question, Attorney Maddie. So the amendment was passed, so now we're voting on the item as amended. What if we disagree with moving that start date of the 10-day suspension back? We would vote no, but then what happens if a majority votes no?

So the main motion on the floor is to suspend for 10 days with a specific start date. If you don't get an affirmative vote, then that motion fails and you're gonna have to decide what you're gonna want to do.

but the amendment passed already.

Right, the amendment passed, so there's a main motion to approve a 10-day suspension with a specific start date. That's the motion on the floor. So you're voting on that whole thing. So the question is, if there's a failure of that motion to pass, then you have, that motion has failed, you need a new main motion.

Gotcha. All right, any other, Councilmember Bedford? Councilmember Northwood, did you have your hand up? You had your hand up too? Listen, okay. It's not showing up on here, I got you. We'll go Bedford, Northwood, then Podeski. Anybody else?

And Goggin. I will be voting for this with the amended date. I voted for the amended date. I understand the concerns here as far as wanting to treat everybody fairly. I think, though, that there is a concern in the other direction of overcorrecting. As much as we want to make sure that we are sending a strong message, we also want to be, we want people to work with us as well, and part of that is working with them. We're still doing the 10 days. I think that as they have shown an effort to make changes, this is, I think, a reasonable And sometimes I find that when we do our best to remain strictly logical, we almost become illogical because you start pushing things to the side that do have weight in the matter, even though maybe it's not strictly something that you can measure in ones and zeros. And so I just wanted to put that out there. It's certainly hard to hold yourself accountable when you're making these decisions in all of this. But at the same time, if we decide that we are not going to take the room for judgment for using our judgment that we are given in the law as it doesn't state when it should take effect. I think that we are missing a part of it as well, so.

Council Member Northwood.

I am going to support the amended motion with the delayed start of the 10-day suspension. I appreciate the business owner coming forward and talking about their staff and their ability to pay their rents. When I am not here, I spend a lot of time working with folks that aren't able to meet their needs, and the folks that cannot meet their needs in our community continues to grow, and I do not want to be, I also get the favoritism and the precedent that we're setting, but I haven't had anyone come before me as I've sat here on council and asked for a delay in the suspension or something happening. This is the first time this has come up. I do think that people have, the service industry, you don't make a lot of money, you count on tips and those kind of things. You have to plan and you have to plan out your money and I am going to support it because I do not want to provide barriers to employees that work at an establishment that is the one that is getting the suspension, so I don't know. And I do, I get the struggle and I get what we're doing can set a precedent, but I do think we do need to think about all of the servers and what that would do to them and then the hardship on the community as a whole, so.

Council Member Podeski. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Actually, we're not setting a precedent. If I remember right, wasn't Chucks allowed to go after the 4th of July? they were allowed to have the 4th of July. So I don't think we're setting a precedent here. I think we're just keeping with a pattern of showing a little compassion, but also enforcing rules. Thank you.

Council Member Goggin.

I just want to be clear that I am voting without emotion and without favoritism. And I don't know anybody who knows somebody who knows somebody. I just feel that this is a reasonable request that we can still set precedent, still hold people accountable, and make the best decision for La Crosse business owners and its citizens.

Council Member Maddow.

Thank you, Mayor. I appreciate how much discussion we've had around these. I truly feel like I've heard everybody's thoughts and feelings, and we have not taken this decision lightly. Still where I'm landing, I respect the attempt to be reasonable and think about the business owner and the staff especially. I am going to vote against this as it is because we have as a body before us in the past we have cherry picked days so it has less impact and it puts us in a bad position because we will make decisions for some and then make decisions that are harder on others and we don't have a good way to equalize penalization. I support our police department in their efforts. I want to ensure that we follow the law as it is intended and not sort of like taking the law and twisting it and trying to Trying to still follow the law also. Amend things in a way that is hard to enforce equally so. I will be voting no.

Council President Dickinson.

I just want to express that I will continue to vote no. I just feel like this was a hard enough decision as it came. And for us to pick and choose dates is going to continue to be difficult. And this seemed to be something that was easy to apply to the future. So I will maintain my vote.

Council Member Jensen.

I appreciate everybody's opinions on this. The mistake was made by the owner of the bar, and I think we are holding them accountable. And if changing the date is for the employees, then my argument there would be that it's up to the owner of the business to make his employees whole and fix that problem. It is unfortunate that employees will be impacted by this, but as a business owner, we all have responsibilities. And so I don't put this on the employees. I think it's clearly the owner of the business that needs to address those concerns. So I will be voting no.

Thank you. Any other speakers? All right. Seeing none. All right. We are voting on the resolution as amended. All in favor, please signify with a thumbs up or your hand. All opposed, please raise your hand or thumbs down. Where does that put us? Is this supposed to be 2 thirds? OK. All right. So that motion passes. Moving to our next agenda item, 26-0880, complaint in the matter of the City of La Crosse versus Moonshine on Vine LLC DBA Dales Bar with the notice of intent for revocation for suspension of combination class B beer and liquor license for the premise address 229 3rd Street North, La Crosse, Wisconsin. At this time, I will have anyone that's here to represent Moonshine on Vine LLC come forward and state your name and municipality for the record.

Tammy Plorn? What else did you ask me for?

Municipality you live in.

What?

Are you a resident of La Crosse or wherever you're a resident of?

Yeah, I'm a resident of La Crosse, Wisconsin. I appreciate you guys deliberating and hearing our case. And of course, I'm very grateful that you did not choose revocation. I accept your decision for the suspension. And I would also recommend or request the start date of the same for Bennett O'Reilly's of 9-28. Of course, this will be very challenging and tough on our staff, so a little time to prepare and get them a little cushion so that they will be able to make a 10-day suspension as well. Our whole company will obviously feel the weight of this decision, so we don't take it lightly. I think moving forward, I also, I know that we're trying to have consistency and continuity in the decisions that you guys are making and trying to set precedents and making sure that we are solving a problem that you feel is heavy and pervasive in this town. We've obviously, I've been in the hospitality industry 24 years and so I've seen the ebb and flow of how that works and underage drinking is not good business for anybody. I will be one of the first to admit that. I will also say that it is a problem. So I hope that the council will consider the brevity of that problem and also look at all the components that assist in that problem and not just the business owners, but also the kids choosing to be underage drinkers and trying to get into the establishments and all the challenges that we face and trying to make sure that we do provide a safe and good environment for the people that are of age and that come to the city to enjoy our hospitality. Oktoberfest is coming up, so fall weather is coming up, so this will be, not only is it for the business and our employees, which it will be very challenging, everybody kind of lives paycheck to paycheck these days, but also people who come into this community to enjoy our community and our hospitality and Dells Bar. So I hope we will look at ways to help us work with those challenges. That would be appreciative. You guys also license bartenders, and I hope that you will look at maybe finding a way to hold them accountable on their licensing as well which is a lot of licensed people in this town that would be maybe also choose to take their jobs and positions a little more seriously if and when they would think that they would be facing suspension or application as well. That was just one of the ideas that I had come up with. Obviously I'm all for coming to the table and figuring out good solutions so that we can all work together to make sure that We do have a nice, safe, and welcoming hospitality community in this town, which is what this town is kind of built on. Thank you. That's all. Thank you.

Motion was made by Councilmember Rose, seconded by Council President Dickson.

Mayor, you have to let me speak.

I'm sorry, I forgot.

So again, I'm Gideon Wertheimer, Assistant City Attorney, attorney for the complainant. I guess just to kind of answer Councilmember Podeski's question, you are correct when we did the stipulation with Chuck's, it started on July 5th. So you were correct on that. I just wanted to note that, I guess, for purposes of your discussion, in terms of the shall for 10 days, complainant just thinks it's appropriate that those days should be consecutive, which I don't think anyone is talking about. I will also note for the committee's knowledge, September 28th is a Monday, so if you were to suspend them starting tomorrow, it would be two weekends. If you do the September 28th, it would obviously only be one weekend, but that is up to this council. Thank you.

Thank you. So motion was made by Councilmember Trost, second by Council President Dickinson. Councilmember Trost.

My motion was to suspend for 10 days beginning tomorrow, consistent with what came out of J&A's recommendation. Awesome.

And your second's okay with that? All right. Councilmember Bedford.

I would like to make a motion to amend to have the suspension start on September 28th going for 10 days.

Motion made by Councilmember Bedford, second by Councilmember Podeski. Any discussion? All right. So now we are voting on the amendment of moving the date to 9-28, 9-28, I should say. All in favor, please signify with a hand raised, thumb up. All opposed? All right, eight to five.

And that motion passes.

Moving to our next agenda item, 26. No. You're right. Now we're going to vote on the amendment as, or the resolution as amended.

Right.

Okay. All in favor, please signify with a hand up or a thumb up. All right, all opposed? Eight to five. Eight to five. Now moving to our next agenda item, 26-0959, resolution approving concession agreement with La Crosse Concessionaire Corporation for the La Crosse Center. Motion to approve by Councilmember Jansen, second by Councilmember Weston. Any discussion? All right. Seeing none, all in favor, please signify with a thumb up or raising of the hand, excuse me. And that passes unanimously. Moving to items recommended to be adopted. And I just want to check. Are we going to continue with the thumbs up or can we go back to this? That's fair. All right. Sounds good. Back to our original program. Item 26. Okay, all right, gotcha. Item 26-0871, amended resolution appropriating additional funds from tax incremental district number 17 to the Civic Park Center, excuse me, Civic Center Park Project CIP 778. Motion to approve by Councilmember Calo, second by Councilmember Weston. Any discussion? Council Member Middell.

Can we just have staff explain this one? I was not at J&A. I apologize.

F&P.

F&P. I was definitely on J&A.

Thank you very much, Jim.

Good evening. The Civic Center Park renovation, we had originally budgeted $450,000 to come out of T11. When we went out to bid, we got one bid. It came in over budget. And in order to get this project through using TID 11 money, it has to be under contract by October 12th. So, not being able to take it back to bid and get it completed in time to hit that deadline, we added some funds to it to try and keep the project moving and get it constructed in 2027. Thank you.

Any other questions, Council President?

So the addition, which TID is this coming from? Is it 11 for the first part, but 17 for the second?

Correct. Okay. 17 is going to help out.

Yes. Got it. Thanks.

Any other questions? Thank you very much. Motion has been made, and there was a second, but it's no longer showing. I don't know what happened. It just went off my screen, though.

All right. We're getting real fancy these days.

All right. Any other discussion? Council President?

So I just want to make sure this goes through correctly. It looks like it has been amended from the first submission. Do we need to indicate that we want it amended at some point?

We're okay. Okay. So the amendment was taken care of at F&P, so we're good to go. Awesome. Any other discussion? Seeing none, all in favor? Oh, sorry, no, go vote. Yeah, we're on a screen now.

I got used to it.

Yes. AND THAT MOTION PASSES. NEXT ITEM. 26-0892 RESOLUTION CREATING AND REALLOCATING EXISTING UNSPENT FUNDS FOR NEW CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT PROJECT FOR THE EXTENSION OF SANITARY SEWER SERVICE TO THREE CITY OF LACROSSE PARCES THAT CANNOT CURRENTLY REACH SANITARY SEWER INFRASTRUCTURE PER MUNICIPAL CODE ON THE WEST SIDE OF SUNSET LANE. Motion to approve by Councilmember Goggin, second by Councilmember Trost. Any discussion? All right, seeing none, please vote. THAT MOTION PASSES. NEXT IS ITEM 26-901, RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE INSUANCE OF NOT TO EXCEED $13,805,000 AGGREGATE PRINCIPAL AMOUNT OF GENERAL OBLIGATION PROMISSORY NOTES OF THE CITY OF LACROSSE, LACROSSE COUNTY, WISCONSIN, for the purpose of completing certain capital projects and for the city and purchasing certain equipment for the city, prescribing details of said notes in the form of note, authorizing the award of said notes to the purchaser, therefore levying taxes in related matters. That's a lot. Notes and notes and more notes. Motion made by Council President Dickinson, second by Council Member Calo. Any discussion? Seeing none, please vote. And that motion passes 12 yes, 1 no. The following consent agenda will be approved with a single voice vote based on the recommended actions, unless an item is removed at the request of the mayor or a council member. At this time, are there any items that any council members would like to have removed from the consent agenda, dare I ask? All right, seeing none, please vote. Oh, right, I do need a motion. No, I don't need a motion, do I? All right, I got a motion. I don't see the motion, but it's somewhere. It exists. It does not show up there either. That's great. Motion made by Councilmember Bedford, second by Councilmember Northwood. I said we'll be experts by the end of the night, and that is not the case. Any discussion? Seeing none, please vote.

That's hilarious.

And that motion passes. Have a great evening, everyone. Thank you for bearing with us. And thank you to Nikki, Sandra, and Jackie for all of your assistance.