City Council - Regular Meeting

This meeting of the Eau Claire City Council will come to order. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

All right, thank you, city clerk. And welcome to the Tuesday, August 11, meeting of the Eau Claire City Council. The first item on our agenda is our consent agenda. And some of you may be here for the consent agenda and set up agenda items number 1 through 18. Please know that unless an item is pulled out, all of the items will pass or fail with one vote. And you're good to leave if your item passes with the consent agenda, but you are also welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting. Do council members have any questions regarding the consent agenda or wish to remove any items for separate co

Council President, I just want to draw people's attention to item number 18 on this resolution, which is regarding invoicing Eau Claire County for care of veterans graves. Um, this is something that has come forward. It's actually been a request of a number of families and veterans, um, because of some damages that occurred, uh, on the, um, East Hill, um, cemetery some years ago. But, but this is really important because, um, a lot of the, the, uh, the stars on the graves had been damaged and families were obviously disheartened by this, but I'm really glad to see that, I believe this is the s

Thank you, Council Member Werthmann. Council Member Serrano.

Thank you, Council President Gregert. I also want to just point out to the public that we have a whole number of items on the consent agenda this evening, seven different items regarding special events. There are a lot of really interesting and quite fun events coming up that we're authorizing, a variety of sidewalk use, roadway use, things, different things. city-wide authorizations for a number of things that are happening. So please have a look at the packet. This is for items happening in September, October. And also I want to call special attention to item number 17, which means we're goi

Well, it doesn't appear we have any questions or want to pull any items. So we should move this item before we continue to discuss, but that's OK. So then on a motion by Council Member Serrano and seconded by Council Member Brewster, the consent agenda has been moved. Is there any further discussion of the consent agenda? OK. Seeing none, the city clerk, please call the roll.

All right, and the consent agenda passes unanimously. OK, so we're going to go into the business agenda. So agenda item number 19, resolution awarding a contract for procurement number 2026-45 Carson Park Stadium upgrades. And we have our recreation facilities, recreation and facilities manager, Patrick, Newkirk here to present.

thank you uh any questions from the council uh council member mboga thank you council president when i look at the package there was a the eau claire community foundation was supposed to split 50 50. is that right

So I know we are talking about phase one. There are three phases or four phases?

So do we just, I'm sorry that I'm way ahead. Are we, the city council, are we going to vote for more funding for these three, the coming three?

Any other questions from the council? OK. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So on a motion by Council Member Werthmann and seconded by Council Member Orth, this item is moved. Is there any discussion? Council Member Serrano.

Thank you, Council President Gregert. I want to thank our parks department for all the work in this planning, Patrick, you in particular also. I was out there, Carson Park is part of my district, and I was out there, I don't know, a month or two ago looking at the new dugouts and the impact to folks maybe in wheelchairs or with accessibility issues. And boy, this is a really needed project. in order to really be able to kind of make the stadium-going experience pleasant and equitable for our entire community. And I think that's a really important value for us. And so I'm, again, the dugout, ne

Thank you, Council Member Serrano. Yeah, I just want to thank everybody who's put in a decade of work into this, really. I was working at the Chippewa Valley Museum at the time that a lot of the discussion first started around some of these renovations and fundraising. And it is a special night, actually, tonight at the ballpark, because Eau Claire Express have a tie breaking. game in the playoffs for Northwoods League. So I was able to catch a couple games this year, and it's really, it's impressive how we can showcase our community really to the entire Midwest, you know, and, you know, throu

Aye. All right, and that passes unanimously. All right, we'll go on to agenda item number 20, resolution granting a class B fermented malt beverage license to Saki LLC, doing business as Motel 6, Eau Claire 2305, Craig Road, Arzu Patel, agent. This is postponed from May 26, 2026. And we have our assistant city attorney, Blake Herbison, to present.

Council Member Miller has a question. Thank you, Council President. Thank you, Assistant State Attorney Herbertson. Just administratively, if this were to be denied, is there any wait time for the applicant that we could reapply, or how would that work?

Okay. Thank you. Council Member Worth. Thank you, Assistant. Thank you, Council President, Assistant Attorney. Was the conversation at the license review pretty much unanimous on denial?

Thank you. I actually have a question. I believe in the packet it referenced postponing indefinitely as the recommendation as opposed to denial. Like is either option like equal, I guess you could say, or is there one that's preferred from your? Right. Department.

OK. Thank you. Any other questions from council? OK, so we'll move this item. Thank you. So on a motion by Councilmember Miller and seconded by Councilmember Johnson, this item is moved. Is there any discussion? We have Councilmember Miller.

Thank you, Council President. Yes, with the City Council, we give these licenses, and they are a privilege for businesses that meet the requirements. I understand. I don't want to see any business not do it the best it can, but they had 11 weeks since the last time that we met in order to come into compliance with the requirements for them. So at this point, and then going back to Council President's DISTINCTION BETWEEN POSTPONING DEFINITELY AND DENIAL. I RECALL THAT POSTPONING DEFINITELY IS GENERALLY THINGS WHERE PEOPLE LIKE DON'T WANT TO DO ANYMORE WITHDRAW BUT I THINK A DENIAL IN THIS CASE

Thank you, Council Member Miller. Council Member Otto.

Thank you, Council President. I agree with denial and just wanted to say that this location is in the middle of the Riverbend Redevelopment District and maybe now that we've set that up that we might have additional resources to identify and assist these types of issues in the future. I just thought that was an interesting connection.

Thank you. Any other discussion from Council before we move to a vote. OK. City Clerk, please call the roll.

Sorry. Yeah. Just to clarify a vote. to yes is to approve the light, approve the. No.

No. All right, and that feels zero to 10. All right, so we'll move on to, there's four different agenda items, 21 through 24, that will each be considered separately, but they're all under that excess land discussion that we had yesterday. So the first one is resolution granting excess land of,

So that's presenting on all four of the items at once, essentially.

Thank you. Yeah, so just to clarify that timeline, August 26 for waterways, parks and urban forestry, August 31 for plan commission, and September 8 for a vote by the city council. we'll have a public hearing that same day. So you want it on the public? I think that would make sense, yeah.

So questions from council? Council Member Otto.

Thank you, Council President. Is there any, I guess I'm not sure who could answer this, but is there any reason waterways and parks would be prohibited from also looking at Park Ridge, the Park Ridge Drive parsonage?

Thank you. Okay, any other questions from council? okay so thank you uh coordinator hufford and so we'll move agenda item number 21 so that'll be on a motion by council member mboga and seconded by council member otto um agenda item number 21 is moved is there any discussion this is just the parkridge drive um

property uh council member otto yeah i'd like to motion that we include park ridge drive with the lawrence street and riverview drive or review with waterways before it returns to us okay is there a second um point of information i think you just move it separately don't like uh this is three four separate items so yeah these i think you just want to

Motion to postpone this pending waterways and parks review.

Thanks. Yeah, so the motion is to postpone to go to waterways and then plan and then city council. Is there a second to that motion?

I will second that motion. That parcel of land is in my district, and I think there's always good benefit that can come from having a little bit more review. There's no urgency in time, so I feel like it makes good sense to have the waterways and forestry have a look at this one, too.

Okay, thank you. All right, so with that motion to postpone, is there any discussion? Councilmember Miller.

Thank you, Council President. If the mover or seconder could elaborate as to, so the parkway is right across, it's just kind of a little triangular piece of land that is bounded by homes on one side, a light industrial on the other side, and across the road from Rotten Gun Park, I understand you know having more time to hear things out but also every time we did postpone something or refer to committee that's more staff work goes into it that's more they've already worked in this so I'm always just cognizant of staff time where staff is very stretched very thinly so just given the size of this

Thank you, Council Member Miller. Council Member Otto.

Thank you, Council President. Rationals, yeah, I know it's across the street from Rod and Gun Park, near a waterway area. Probably not technically within the purview of waterways and parks. But I do know that this committee would want to look it over, would want to have a buy-in into it. And I guess ultimately it's a show of good faith toward the Waterways and Parks Committee. So not the biggest issue, small parcel like you said, but I see no harm in granting them additional review of this.

Thank you, Council Member Otto. Council Member Serrano.

Thank you, Council President Greger. For me, I mean, I'm always just aware, even if it's a small little piece, you know, developing any kind of parcels near Parkland already where wildlife lives, there are wildlife considerations to think about. And we're always balancing, you know, development and housing with green spaces. And I think, I know we don't want to apply, you know, send everything necessarily yet to to the waterways and forestry commission, but at this point I think this is close enough to an area where wildlife exists that that's my interest in kind of having them weigh in.

Okay, thank you. Any other discussion from council on this motion to postpone? I guess for me, I just, you know, I do feel that across the street from a park is Adjacent enough to be considered adjacent. I guess I also Mean I I know we just updated the purview of waterways parks and urban forestry and it is also a forested piece of property and like might be ambiguous as to where that fits in but I also just generally feel that every piece of land is a potential park so like to be able to have a perspective on from waterways and parks and urban forestry on this would be helpful. And I think wh

All right, and that postponement passes 9 to 1. So we will move on to agenda item number 22, resolution granting excess land of parcel 221091354. The address for this parcel is 2027 Vine Court. And. On a motion, yeah, we already had the presentation on this. So on a motion by Council Member Serrano and seconded by Council Member Brewster, this item is moved. Is there any discussion? Okay. We have Council Member Serrano.

Thank you, Council President Greger. I just, I totally support this. I think this is a great parcel to declare excess land so something useful can be done with it. This is also in my district.

Okay, thank you, Council Member Serrano. Any further discussion of agenda item number 22? OK, seeing none, city clerk, please call the roll.

All right, and that passes unanimously. OK, onto agenda item number 23, resolution granting excess land of parcel 201160477. And this property is on Lawrence Street. And since we've already discussed this, we can move it to, we've already gone through questions, we can move this item. So on a motion by Council Member Werthmann and seconded by Council Member Orth, this item is moved. Is there any discussion of the Lawrence Street excess land? We have Council Member Brewster.

Yeah, I would like to move to table this item pending review by Parks, Waterways, and Urban Forestry.

OK, so we have a motion. And do you intend to have it go to plan commission and city council as well? Yeah. So we have a motion by council member Brewster. And was it seconded by council member Werthmann? OK. So we have a motion to postpone just as we did with the Park Ridge property. Is there any discussion on this postponement? Okay, seeing none, city clerk, please call the roll on the postponement of agenda item number 23.

Aye. All right, and that passes unanimously. Onto agenda or that that post that is postponed unanimously I should say The next item is number 24 resolution granting excess land part of parcel two two one one six zero three six eight at East Riverview Drive And we've already had gone through questions about this item earlier. So on a motion by Councilmember Miller and seconded by Councilmember Johnson, this item is moved. Is there any discussion of agenda item number 24 on the East Riverview Drive? We have Councilmember Brewster.

Thank you, Council President. I would like to move to refer this to parks, waterways, and urban forestry as well, and then have it cycle back through plan commission and come back to council after a hearing or a public hearing. With a public hearing.

Okay, so we have a motion to postpone by Council Member Brewster, seconded by Council Member Otto, is there any discussion on this postponement proposal? Council Member Miller.

Thank you, Council President. Just to reiterate, it was said before, but since we canceled the meeting on Monday, September 8th, this will be on a public comment on Tuesday, the 8th at 4 p.m., followed immediately by the City Council meeting. So just be sure that if you want to come to the public comment, it's going to be on Tuesday, September 8th at 4 p.m.

Yeah, thank you, Council Member Miller, for that clarification. It's helpful. So any other discussion on the postponement of the East Riverview Drive excess land? OK, seeing none, city clerk, please call the roll on postponing this agenda item.

All right, and that postponement passes unanimously. All right, now into agenda item number 25. Resolution approving a final plat called Orchard Hills first addition for phase two of Orchard Hills located along Fuji Lane. File P-1-26. And we have our community development director. Aaron White to present.

been a lot this is the next phase of a very long-running project and it's it's conforming to all of our required codes and zoning all right thank you director white is there any questions from the council all right well thanks for your presentation let's see so on a motion by council member mboga and seconded by Council Member Otto, this item is moved. Is there any discussion? OK. Seeing no discussion, City Clerk, would you please call the roll?

Next agenda item, number 26, resolution authorizing the city manager to enter into a subdivision infrastructure agreement with CDPG Developers LLC for street and utility improvements within the plat of Orchard Hills first addition. And we have our engineering director, Leah Ness, here. Thank you for joining us.

Thank you, Director Nuss. Any questions from the council?

All right. Thank you. Thanks for your presentation.

All right. So on a motion by Councilmember Reed and seconded by Councilmember Serrano, this item is moved. Is there any discussion? All right. Seeing no discussion, city clerk, please call the roll.

Reed? Aye. All right, and that passes unanimously. All right, next agenda item is number 27, resolution authorizing the city manager to execute a collective bargaining agreement between the city of Eau Claire and firefighters local 487. We have our Human Resources Director, Carrie Riepel, to present. Thank you.

Okay, any questions? Council Member Mboga.

Thank you, Council President. Walk me through this. I did not understand. Did you say they did not have a contract for two years? No, no, no. You said they did not have a contract for two years.

Yeah, thank you, Director Riepel. Oh, sorry. Council Member Serrano has a question.

Thank you, Council President Gregert. Yes, Director Ripo, question. The extra vacation or the vacation day upon hire, what happens to folks that we've hired like in the last two years with that extra vacation day? How does that backdating of the early vacation day get implemented?

Thank you. Any other questions from the council? All right, thank you, Director Riepel. So on a motion by Council Member Brewster and seconded by Council Member Werthmann, this item is moved. Is there any discussion? Council Member Serrano.

Thank you, Council President Gragert. I'm really glad we are getting this contract finalized and that parties have negotiated. And I just want to express my thanks for our firefighter force here in Eau Claire, second to none, and just really appreciate all their service. Just very glad to get this contract completed. Thanks to everybody that worked on it, our legal, HR, and the firefighters local also. Thanks to everybody.

Thank you, Council Member Serrano. All right. Any further discussion? All right. Seeing none, city clerk, please call the roll.

All right, and that passes unanimously. All right, so we're going to go into the category of ordinances for action. Ordinance to amend our agenda item number 28, ordinance to amend title 17 land development ordinance, or LDO, and the official zoning map. And we, again, have our community development director, White, to comment.

Thank you, Director White. Thank you. So on a motion by Councilmember Orth and seconded by Councilmember Miller, this item is moved. Is there any discussion on these amendments to the LDO? Councilmember Werthmann.

Thank you, Council President Gragert. One of the things I wanted to highlight in this package is, and we heard last night from one of the business owners, but the additional flexibility that this provides to people doing businesses out of their home, more artisan type businesses, I'm really happy that this change is happening. It allows not only the folks that we heard from last night to be able to transition from Banbury into their home to continue making chocolates, but It allows other businesses that are very low impact to consider how to operate out of their home. I do think there's going

Aye. All right, and that passes unanimously. Next is agenda item number 29, ordinance amending chapter 8.32 entitled Management of Waste and Recyclables of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Eau Claire to create a comprehensive organics management and composting program. And is there any further presentation? Maybe we'll just move it, and then we can have further discussion from the mover. So on a motion by Council Member Werthmann and seconded by Council Member Miller, this item is moved. Is there any further presentation or discussion on this agenda item? Council Member Mboga.

Yeah, I wrote this one. I'll be supporting the goals of making the compost more accessible to Eau Claire residents. I believe keeping food and organic materials out of our landfill is a smart and long-term investment in our community. I also believe we need to do it This is a responsible making cost of the resident transparent. Educating people about what belong in the compost stream and address contamination and the messes. The amount of waste actually divided from the landfill. If we can do these things, I believe expanding compost collection is a positive step for our city. Thank you.

Thank you, Council Member Mboga. Any further discussion? Do we have any

Council Member Miller. Thank you, Council President. Although I'm the second on this item, I just wanted to thank, actually it was Council Member Werthmann that did the, Council Member Werthmann, city staff, and city legal that did a lot of work on this over the past couple months. So I just want to thank them for their efforts, and I'm happy to have help refine some of the points as we bring this forward here to hopefully approval today. Thank you. Council Member Serrano. Thank you.

Thank you, Council President Gregert. I also want to thank the mover and the seconder for this item. I want to just emphasize a few things for the public's benefit, because I think originally this was proposed as a more far-reaching proposal. And I just want to be clear, sometimes when that happens here on council, We get news stories and such about the original idea. It gets modified, but the public doesn't really get the news on the modifications. So I just want to be clear that this does not mandate that our trash haulers be obligated to offer composting services. I'm not saying that's a go

All right, thank you so much. Council Member Orth.

Thank you, Council President, and thank you to Council Member on my right, Council Member on my left, for bringing this forward and for all your work on it. I just think it's... Such a great opportunity for us to highlight this and make it known in our community that that 30 to 35% of our landfill doesn't need to be there. And I really appreciate it. Thank you.

Council Member Werthmann. Thank you, Council President. I'd just like to add a few things. Our assistant city attorney, Blake Herbison, was, and probably our city attorney, Steve Nick, incredibly helpful because this is a pretty complicated and lengthy ordinance, but with going through drafts and helping to guide this ordinance process. So I want to thank the assistant city attorney. Blake Herbison, the Sustainability Advisory Committee gave feedback on at least four different occasions, which I thought was incredibly helpful as well. Some of you attended those meetings. And then as background

Thank you, Council Member Werthmann. Any other discussion? OK, seeing none, city clerk, please call the roll on agenda item number 29 on the composting program.

Aye. That passes unanimously. All right. So we have maybe a new category of agenda item, agenda items that folks haven't seen before. It's under the category of options related to direct legislation. So it's agenda item number 30. There's two routes that can be taken with this. It'll be presented by two different staff. So agenda item number 30, options for petition for direct legislation. Option a ordinance creating chapter 2.5, three of the code of ordinances of the city of Eau Claire relating to the citizens advisory healthcare action committee. And then part B is resolution placing a refer

Thank you attorney Nick. Clerk Kerner, would you like to share a bit as well?

All right, thank you. Makes sense maybe to have our health department director, Liska Giese, present before we go into questions. Would that be helpful to council? And I know we received a couple of emails, at least one email from Director Giese. Thank you for joining us tonight.

Thank you, Director Yeezy. Yeah, I appreciate it. Maybe we might call you up soon, depending on the questions too. So the first person to have their light on, I believe was, I think it was Council Member Brewster. Yeah.

Thank you, Council President. I have a couple questions. One of them is for City Attorney Nick, and that is with regards to the language in here, does that offer a sufficient flexibility were we to pass it as written to fill... I'm reading the creation membership organization sections. Would we be allowed to... basically like fill the entire thing right away with people that have the staggered, you know, like have three people who have a four-year term, two people with a three-year term, you know, so we can like start the cycle because it looks very specific about how it wants that done and I'

And then second question is for Clark. Sure. Would this be printed, like is the extra cost just because ink is expensive? Like is it going, will it be a separate ballot because we have to print a lot of stuff on it? Or where is the extra cost there?

Okay. Very quick follow-up. Okay. But this wouldn't be printed in its entirety, right?

Thank you, Council President. I'm not sure who would answer it if it has an answer, but I know this was an initiative across the entire state. Do we know which options other cities are choosing or do we have a sense of which option other communities are choosing, A or B, if anybody knows that?

I guess my understanding is the only other community that I'm aware of is La Crosse, and so I'm not sure if they voted on it yet.

Okay. So, yeah, it's been voted to go to referendum in the city of La Crosse. Council Member Serrano.

Thank you, Council President Gragert. I have a question for City Clerk Kerner. The language that would be on the ballot, would we as council have an opportunity to review that language? Like how it's worded? A lot of times we get referendum items on ballots and the wording is not, you know, I don't know. I'm just curious to know what the approval process is for the wording of what actually people vote on.

Thank you, Council Member Serrano. Any other questions? Council Member Miller.

Thank you, Council President. City Clerk, following up on Council Member Cimarron's question, so are you the one that ultimately or perhaps the city legal determines the exact wording of the language? Who authors that wording?

So then it's not actually a binding city council? item would be possible legally possible to just submit it to city council electronically for any so just so we can see what it looks like before it goes for some feedback since it's ultimately uh the city clerk and city legal that determine that if you know i think councilman serrano was interested in seeing the language before it went out onto the ballot is this a feasible request

Yes, city attorney. Yes, city attorney. Nick, do you have any thoughts on that?

Yeah, thank you, City Attorney. I do now see, it says, in the form of the question, quote, shall an ordinance be enacted creating Chapter 2.53 of the Code of Ordinances of the City of Eau Claire, creating the Citizens Advisory Health Care Action Committee, question mark, end quote. So it looks like the language is already determined.

all right thank you for council member brewster as a question just one more quick question for city clerk kerner um i know we have a big election coming up um in november is it looking like the elections budget will be sufficient for that so if we decide to send this to referendum it won't need any additional funds

Thank you, Council President Riggard. I just wanted to note that we did have five community members who did speak to this issue last night. at the public discussion, and I believe all five of them were looking at it as it coming as a referendum question.

Thank you, Council Member Orth. All right, so in terms of queuing up an option for that we can discuss. Does anyone want to make a motion? Or do you have further questions? Make a motion for option B. Second.

Point of order, has this been moved yet, City Council President?

I think that's the intent in this motion is to move one of the options. Thank you. Thank you so much. So we have a motion by Council Member Werthmann and seconded by Council Member Brewster for option B. Is that correct? OK. So let's discuss that now.

Is there any, Council Member Brewster, you want to present? Thank you, Council President. I guess my thoughts in this are, if it was up to me to write something like this, I don't think it's a terrible idea. There's some tweaks that I'd like to make, and if we send it to referendum, And it passes. We're stuck with it for two years, possibly. If we take it right now, we're absolutely stuck with it for two years without the ability to modify it. So I would rather... have it go to referendum so we have a chance to take it if it does fail. My guess is it probably won't, but if it does, we could wo

Thank you, Council President. So this came about as a focused political effort with resources put in toward the campaign, and it is a good idea. I support putting it to referendum, just democratically that feels more, well, ethical, trustworthy. We'll put it in the hands of the public to let them decide.

Council Member Miller. Thank you, Council President. Yeah, so this direct legislation option here, so we don't have a lot of choices of what we do. As the City Council representative to the Board of Health, it is a little disappointing that the organizers of this, they took the time to canvass two cities and get thousands of votes, but at no point did the organizers communicate with the Board of Health or the Health Department. The Board of Health and Health Department's have overlapping purview with the function that this wants to create. So then we theoretically have a problem of one organiz

Thank you, Councilmember Miller. Any other discussion? Councilmember Werthmann.

Yeah, thank you, Council President Greger. Our city clerk reminded me yesterday that the last time that we had such a referendum, direct legislation, was in 2014, I believe, which was around a request to put one million, any project above one million would essentially go, as I understand it, sorry, it was around spending on the Performing Arts Center. DOWNTOWN. IT DIDN'T PASS. IT WAS 40%. BUT THIS I EXPECT WILL PASS BECAUSE I THINK WHAT THIS TELLS ME AND WHAT I'VE SEEN IN OUR COMMUNITY IS THAT PEOPLE DEEPLY CARE ABOUT HEALTH CARE AND ACCESS. The fact that they collected so many signatures wher

Thank you, Council Member Werthmann. Council Member Mboga.

Thank you. I will take back what Councilor Whitman said. We're going to have a premium coming up. We're going to go up to the beauty bill coming up in January. So I think when we put things under power, I feel like the community feel like they are part of the conversation. So they will decide it. Thank you.

Yes, thank you, Council President Gregert. I actually am feeling like I'm welcoming any additional groups of people that can brainstorm and can bring ideas forth of what can be done at the local level. about this problem. I mean, I appreciate that we have our Board of Health, we have other entities kind of trying to do what they can to report on the state of health in our community. But boy, if we can find another group of people with new energy also to advise us as a council my understanding is that one of the ideas is to make recommendations to city council what can we do locally boy i'm all

Thank you, Council President. I just wanted to clarify that, you know, my perhaps, you know, remarks on the process of how we got here today. I don't want to, like everyone has been echoing here, that I don't want to dismiss the sentiment that so many people have anxieties and concerns over health care access and the cost of health care. You know, they've got twice the number of signatures required to get to this point here today. So I do want to empathize with the people who this is a major concern, as it should be, as it is for all of us here on the council. So the process probably could hav

Thank you, Council Member Miller. I had a question, I guess, for staff, because we've had a lot of, I mean, I guess in recent years there's been a lot of discussion about the staff time it takes to make sure that our board's committees and commissions are a meaningful experience for volunteers, but also have real tangible power, right? as much as, and this one has advisory in its name, obviously, so it's in that category, but is there an estimate from staff, like, how much time some of these additional duties and objectives of the committee would take, like, over a period of the two years mini

Thank you. And do we, I mean, sometimes we have various boards, committees, and commissions that have multiple departments involved. And sometimes it's just within one. Is there a preliminary idea of this being housed within the city county health department and then maybe having support from planning? I don't want to assign anything here or imply anything here, but just want to try to get a sense of where What departments would be most involved?

Thank you, Council President. In reviewing the ordinance, the section of powers and duties, section B, states that hold at least two public meetings each year for the purpose of et cetera, et cetera. So reading through the ordinance, I see that there's a minimal requirement of having two meetings a year. So I would hope that future members of this committee will hopefully be able to have effective meetings and perhaps limited to just the two meetings per year as not to taxed resources of the city through this unfunded mandate. Okay.

Any further discussion of the motion to go with option B, which would be to pass a resolution placing a referendum on the November 3rd, 2026 ballot regarding a petition for direct legislation. Um, Any further discussion? Council Member Miller.

I think, also, I checked with the city clerk, and if we don't do anything, it automatically goes on the ballot anyway. So you can let that weigh into your vote. So I guess we all know it still goes in the referendum anyway. Would that be correct, city clerk?

Okay. Any further discussion? From council. All right, city clerk, please call the roll on the option B, please.

Aye. All right, and that passes 9 to 1 to place a referendum on the ballot. And then is there a motion to indefinitely postpone option of Council Member Miller?

Thank you, Council President. I move to indefinitely postpone option A.

Second. OK, we have a motion from Council Member Miller, seconded by Council Member Reed, to indefinitely postpone option A. Is there any? Discussion? Seeing none, city clerk, please call the roll.

Aye. All right, that indefinite postponement passes unanimously. So we are done with agenda item number 30. And now we're into the category on our agenda of ordinances for introduction. I will read all three of those, and then we can go from there. Item number 31 for introduction is ordinance amending S2.72.010 entitled city of Eau Claire pay plan adopted specifically those parts thereof pertaining to firefighters, local 487 employees. And I'll read the next one. Agenda item number 32, ordinance amending the city of Eau Claire employee benefits and leaves plan, specifically those parts thereof

Thank you, Council President. I move to suspend the rule to take up ordinance item 31. And if I'm permitted to do so in the same motion, also do item number 32. OK. I think that's fine. I got a nod from the city attorney.

So we have a motion to take up items 31 and 32. Do we have a second? Council Member Serrano?

OK. So seconded by Council Member Serrano. So we will take up 31 and 32, but we'll do those separately. So we'll start with 31. Point of order. Sorry. You need to vote. Oh, we need to vote. And it requires a 2 thirds to pass. Sorry. So yeah, we have it requires a 2 thirds vote to suspend the rules, but in that motion can do so for both of those agenda items. So is there any discussion on whether to suspend the rules? Okay, so seeing none, city clerk, please call the roll on whether to suspend the rules for agenda items 31 and 32.

Aye. All right, and that passes unanimously. So we can now take up, we'll start with agenda item 31 and then later go to 32. Perhaps we could have a staff presentation on this, or maybe? So just to make sure we understand what we're considering.

OK. Thank you. Any questions for Director Riepel? Council Member Brewster.

Thank you, Council President. I guess my question is, we knew we would eventually have a contract, right? So have we been sort of like squirreling money away waiting for this moment?

Okay, any other questions from the council? OK, so we're going to move this item on a motion by Councilmember Johnson and seconded by Councilmember Amboga. This item is moved. Is there any discussion of agenda item 31? OK, seeing none, city clerk, please call the roll.

Aye. All right. And that passes unanimously. The next item is number 32 that was read earlier. Is there anything further to present from Director Rieppel?

Okay, thank you. Any questions from the council? All right, thank you. So on a motion, by Council Member Otto and seconded by Council Member Reid. This item is moved. Is there any discussion? All right. Seeing none, City Clerk, please call the roll on agenda item number 32.

Aye. All right. And item number 32 passes unanimously. Any other interest in suspending rules to take up the final item, number 33? Okay. All right. So we will move on to... So that concludes our agenda. So we can go on to announcements and updates from the city manager and the city council. So does anyone have any announcements? Oh, Council Member Amboga.

Thank you. I wanted to draw attention to one of the firefighters who lost his life. I think some, I don't know if it's the council or the staff, but we really want to thank him and thank his family for, you know, It is an emotional time to lose a family member, especially for somebody who worked for the city, you know, how long they worked, what time it was, all that kind of thing. God bless. Peace. That's what I want to say.

Council Member Miller. Thank you, Council President. I'll be on the Board of Health, and we have the health director here. It's probably been noted, but the health director is retiring from her position at the end of this year. She has served, I knew until I started talking, how many years has it been? Thank you. 14 years as the director of the Board of Health, including the COVID period, which is a very stressful time for us. But she's still here and has decided to retire. We are currently having applications open for a new director of the health department. That's open through August 31st. A

I decline, thank you. City Manager Solberg.

Thank you, city manager. Yeah, I just wanted to acknowledge that it is a primary election day today across the state of Wisconsin. And polls close at 8 o'clock, so there's still time to vote today. And I want to thank our city clerk and all the staff that work on the election, especially kind of doing double time with helping with a council meeting while the polls are open as well. And I just want to thank all of our poll workers and just the voters for getting out today and exciting competitive primaries, partly thanks to a previous council president as well. So we will go on to Council Membe

I just have to echo what Council President Braggart is saying. Many, many thanks to our elections department and our city clerk and our colleagues at the county also and the counting of ballots and all of the really incredible election integrity that we have here in Eau Claire and across the state. So people worked really, really hard to do this really, really well. So I'm just so grateful for them.

Well, if there are no other announcements, and if there's no objection from council, this meeting is adjourned. Thank you all for coming.

I brought a bunch of boys and girls, pub kids to the Lake Street.