Public Works Committee - Regular Meeting

Good morning. I'd like to call this public works committee meeting to order. I am chairwoman, alderwoman, Mulele, a ties. I'm joined to my right by vice chair alderman Lamont Westmoreland. To his right, we are joined by alderman Robert Baumann.

To my left, I am joined by staff assistant Joanna or tease. To her left, alderman Alex Brower is excused. To the left, we are joined by alderwoman, Louisa Taylor. We also have president Jose Perez joining us here today as well as DPW infrastructure. We are going to hold item one for a few minutes, and we're going to I don't have to read it in on that door.

No. We're gonna go to item two, file number 251029, reappointment of Claiborne Benson to the Citizens Advisory Committee on the naming of public buildings, facilities, and streets by the mayor. And mister Benson is not present, but his attendance record It's in file. Is in the file. Is there any comment from committee? Alright. Would move approval for confirmation. Are there any objections? Hearing none, so ordered. Item number three, file number 251011.

Resolution relating to approving the levying of accessible

public improvement projects at various locations and approving appropriating funds for these purposes. Good morning. Holly Rutenberg with DPW. I'll be advising on the project details and assessment process. For those projects approved this morning, a bill will be sent to each property owner sometime after completion of the work.

Within forty five days upon receipt of the bill, the full amount may be paid without without interest. If the bill is not paid within the forty five day grace period, a charge of 8.5% simple interest per year will be added. If the assessment is at least a $125, the assessment can be paid over a period of ten years on the tax roll at the 8.5% interest. For those projects approved for late billing, a bill will not be sent before 01/01/2028. As part of this public hearing, an official notice was sent to all impacted property owners

and we will go

in the order that it's listed on the official notice. In the 12th Aldermanic District, West Beecher Street between South 8th Street to South 11th Street, install traffic calming raised crosswalk. Based on the results of the aldermanic survey, the alderman is in support of this project.

Is there anyone here to testify on the West Beach Street, South 8th Street, South 11th Street. No one is present. Alderman Westmoreland would move adopt is it adoption? Adoption? Approval. Approval. He will move approval. Are there any objection to that motion? Hearing none, so ordered.

In the 14th Aldermanic District, the intersection of South Ellen Street at South at East Estes Street installed traffic calming curve extensions. The majority of responses were in support of the project and the alderwoman supports the project.

Any questions from committee? Are there any residents present to testify on this item? Hearing none, order woman Taylor will move approval. Hearing objection, so ordered. Alderman Baumann will move approval of file two five one zero one one.

Hearing no objection, sole order. Item number four on file number two five one zero one two. Resolution determining it necessary to make various nonacceptable public improvements at various locations and appropriating funds for these purposes with the city engineering cost estimated to be $404,000 for a total estimated cost of these projects being $13,066,000. And we have a substitute a. Mhmm.

Anybody here? It's me. This is. Good morning.

Holly Ruttenbach. The substitute is to add a couple projects for additional funding because we're coming to the end of the construction season and we needed to add those in.

Any questions for committee? Order and man west or is proposed also already adopted? I will. It it needs to be. Mhmm. Order and Westmoreland will move to accept proposed subs to a. Arderwoman Taylor will move approval on the resolution as substituted. Are there any objections to that? Hearing none. Order.

Item number five, file number two five one zero one three resolution approving construction of nonaccessible public improvements at various locations and appropriating funds for these purposes with the city construction cost estimated to be $2,054,000 for a total estimated cost of these projects being $2,866,000. And we have a proposed substitute a. Alderman Baumann will move to put proposed substitute a in front of us. Holly?

Good morning. The proposed Objection. So order. Good morning. The proposed substitute similar to the last one was for adding additional funding to a couple projects due to The Us coming to end of the construction season.

Any questions from committee? Alderman Westmoreland will move approval of resolution as substituted. Are there any objections? Hearing none. So Item number six, resolution file number two five one zero one four. Resolution deferring payment of a special assessment and appropriating funds for this purpose.

Good morning. Holly Ruttenbach with DPW again. This is for a one new applicant on the deferred assessment program. So this individual follows all of the requirements laid out in the ordinance based off of their residency, real estate tax history, and their income.

Are there any questions from committee? Hearing none, auto woman Tyler will move adoption. Hearing no objection, so order. Item number seven, file number 251015. Resolution providing for continuous of deferred payment of assessments for worthy indigent resident property owners and appropriating funds for this purpose with a 2025 city cost to be $546.54 with a ten year total of the deferred properties being 7,390 and 52¢.

Good morning. This is for four individuals that are continuing their deferred assessments this year.

Any questions from committee? Hearing none, other alderman will move adoption. Hearing no objection, so order. Item number eight, filed with two five one zero one six, resolution authorizing the commissioner of public works to execute change orders to Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewage District Green infrastructure grant funding agreements for projects at various locations in the city of Milwaukee.

Yeah. Good morning. Tony Jaszek, DPW Stormwater. So, this file authorizes some change orders between three funding agreements. So, we had a project, a green parking lot that's no longer being pursued by DPW and these change orders allow that grant funding which expires at the end of the year to be used on other projects prior to its expiration.

Any questions for committee? And an order man was one of local adoptions. I had no objections on order. Item number nine. File number 25102 resolution that's in the active streets for business program.

Good morning, madam chair.

Good morning.

Alders, James Washington, public works coordination manager. This is our standard file that's used to extend the active streets for business program throughout the winter. This is extending the program for 2020 and it's extended it for the last time.

Any questions from committee?

Madam Chair. Could you could you just explain that a little bit when you say

at streets, what that includes?

So the at the streets is a program that was started under the pandemic in 2020. This was to allow people to use outdoor dining, which is different from a sidewalk cafe which is strictly on the tree border and is different from a parklet where it's an actual structure set up in the street. So this actually allows a closure of the street or using the street similar to MLK, North Of State Street or like Zocalo or in District 3 on Arlington off of Brady Street.

Okay. And so this includes other parklets?

This doesn't strictly include parklets. Parklets are a separate program.

Okay. Alright. So I just want to get that on the record because I I did introduce a file. It's on street closures. We want to do something on parklets too. And then you say you're extending this for the last year, what does that mean?

As you can see on the file, we extended this because it was supposed to be a temporary program. Again, it started in 2020. So, it extends every spring and every fall. So in the spring, it extends for the warm weather months. This one that we have now is for the Active Streets program for winter. So we've been coming here for the last five years doing these temporary extensions. So in 2026, we want to have this actually codified in the ordinance so we don't have to repeatedly come here and make it formal. And who who's gonna sponsor that file

for the ordinance that you want to codify?

We currently don't have a sponsor but I'd be more than happy to talk to you or the Yeah.

No, I I

want to sponsor that file because I've we've had, you know, this we've had several discussions about street closures, parklets, and the parklet seem like a sense of entitlement because you apply and we believe they should I believe that there should be some buy in to some of that. So from the neighborhood. So we want to work on that collaboratively. So I just want get that on

the record. Sure. I'd be more than happy to have those conversations.

Any other questions for committee? Underwoman, Taylor would move adoption. Hearing no objections, so ordered. We're gonna go back to item one. File number 251069. Appointment of Benjamin Tim to serve as municipal port director by the mayor. Could Benjamin Tim please come to the front?

Good morning. Good morning. Benjamin Tim.

I'm going to let the administration if you want to say something.

Oh, thank you. Good morning. Amber Daniels, council liaison to Mayor what the circumstances I you're I

you're

what able nomination? Was there a national search? Was there a resident? Was there was it advertised? Were there other applicants? What was the process?

Right. So the there was a national search if you will. I mean the applications were open and we had folks from all over the country apply. We did narrow it down from like five to four. And obviously, we landed with Benjie Timm, who's an incredible person and he'll share more. But yes, the applications are open, shared with networks, port networks around the the nation.

And when did that process start? Check-in

August, I believe.

And and and the committee consisted of the selection committee was?

I'm not prepared for that information but I can give it

to you. I can get it for you. Okay. Do you know how many people are fired?

I do not. I can also get that information here. And

and what was and after you selected was there any community outreach in any process of this stakeholder outreach? Talk a little bit about how you reached out to the council. Sure.

Sure. Well, when we did nominate Ben Giaz, our nominee, President and President, you were the first to know along with Alderman Pratt because she's on the Harper Commission and also spoke to a few elders in person as well. Outreach was an email sent to all of the council letting them know that we went with Benjie and offering one on one meetings. And then I did follow-up again with committee members at this table to remind folks. And Benjie's had an opportunity to talk to several council members casually. We've got a meeting set up today and continue to do outreach that way.

Yeah. And just going back a little bit to how many people they interviewed, I do know that there were 12 people that were interviewed in an attempt to narrow down the shortlist. It was a pretty deep pool.

Thank you. Any more questions before we let them? All right. Go ahead. Just tell us about this.

Okay. I'll give some prepared remarks, and then I'll open it up to questions. Happy to do So good morning. I've come before the council, the Redevelopment Authority and the Board of Harbor Commissioners on dozens of times in my over twenty five years of experience. In my capacity at DCD, I worked with and supported Port Milwaukee on real estate matters, RFPs, environmental questions, infrastructure issues, railroad issues and most recently the Milwaukee Estuary area of concern.

The skills and experience and networks that I've developed over the past two decades will allow me to continue to work on behalf of the city of Milwaukee, just on a larger stage at Port Milwaukee. Port Milwaukee is unique in the fact that it has more of a regional, national and even international exposure compared to other city departments. I've spent my career working on some of Milwaukee's most complex properties. My work involves cross collaboration among city departments, state and federal agencies, community partners and other local players. I've also worked closely, like I mentioned, with the port staff.

From my experience, I can pick up the phone and call anyone at the local level, state level, federal level. If there's an opportunity or if a problem arises, I'm confident that I can lead the port forward. The port is our gateway to the world for shipping, economic development and most recently tourism. Port Milwaukee is expected to welcome 62 cruise ships in 2026. That's going bring 19,000 visitors to the city of Milwaukee.

And I look forward to kind of building on the successes that Jackie Carter and Adam Tindle Schlutt have had in this realm in the tourist area. I'll bring my relationships and experience with property management, lease development, construction management, economic development and environmental policy to Port Milwaukee. These relationships include working with M7, WEDC, regulatory agencies, local companies and community partners. I will help create closer ties working ties with DCD and Port Milwaukee. And I think there's tremendous opportunity there to attract businesses to Milwaukee as well as support the businesses who are already here and help them grow.

And my near term goals are to work with other partners like Visit Milwaukee, the state of Wisconsin and the business community to support the tourism in the region, to help as I mentioned, to help existing companies grow and attract businesses. In addition, the Milwaukee Estuary area of concern is the largest cleanup in Great Lakes history. And the Port Milwaukee is going to take a leading role in making that cleanup a reality. If you drive south in the Home Bridge, there's a new 40 acre structure being created. That's going to manage all of the sediment that will be cleaned up out of our waterways.

And we're actually going to add 40 acres to the city of Milwaukee. So the city of Milwaukee is growing. And so I've been on the AOC team for the city since the beginning, and I'll take that leadership to the port. In closing, I just want to express my unwavering commitment to the city of Milwaukee. The port is a place that brings my personal interests and professional expertise together in water sustainability as well as industry. I look forward to leading an experienced and knowledgeable port staff. I'll manage the port in a fiscally responsible way. And I'll bring I'll work on elevating Milwaukee's identity as the best destination to do business and to visit on the Great Lakes. So thank you. Any questions?

Any questions from committees?

Yeah, Madam Chair, please. Auditor Memberbone. Yeah, I do have some concerns here. Number one, how many employees are currently on the port roster?

So FTE is approved by the budget. Last Friday were 21.

21. Which of your previous experience have you had management experience over 21 people?

A lot of it actually. For example? So I manage over $20,000,000 worth of projects

for that city. Money I understand, but people.

Sure. Yes. No, no. There are teams that work for each of those on each of those projects. There's also, as I mentioned, cross collaboration between city departments. So in a sense, I manage without authority because I work on behalf of DNS for Northridge. I work with DNS staff. I work with DCD staff. So I really work with a lot of staff and manage what they do. You work with them,

but you weren't the boss.

Well, as a project manager, am the boss, yes. So and I have people I've had people under me at DCD. Currently, don't, but I have in the past.

And what in your past experience has caused you to become familiar with the trade and commerce related to shipping?

Sure. I have extensive experience with railroad shipping and commodities. The port is one of two railroads in the city of Milwaukee. Century City is the other one. There's a number of companies at Century City that bring bulk commodities in. I'm currently working with them on an expansion project. Is working with economic development, I talked to a lot of companies who are looking at Milwaukee, looking at the port as an opportunity, looking at other areas. And that's one of the things I'd like to do is bring the port more into the city.

We're talking about shipping by water, not rail.

No, I know. I know. But that's a component of it. Was I don't

know what it is.

I think it's an entirely separate world and a unique world that involves international trade and lakes trade and long the unique set of regulatory procedures and regulatory agencies that govern shipping. So I don't know that anything you've done is would cause you to be familiar with nautical trade.

Well, are 20 other staff at Port Milwaukee who do know and they have experience.

So that's the answer. You're going to rely on your staff to fill the void of knowledge that you possess?

Well, to some degree, yes.

Okay. And how do you view the port? And I'll tell you why I asked that question because I was on the port commission for many years and I frankly withdrew from the whole process because I saw the port as a grossly underutilized asset.

I agree.

And I had hoped to see at some point the port become a self sustaining enterprise fund where it lived off its revenue and it was a profit center for the city rather than just a landlord and asset manager, which is essentially what the role has been historically.

So right now it's revenue neutral.

Well, yes, neutral. That's what I pointed.

It's neutral. Well, why

it generating a significant return?

So that's one of my goals is I see my skill set and my abilities to basically reach out to business leaders. I agree.

You've never had profit and loss responsibility in any of these previous positions. You become you're very capable at managing land and building. I give you that without hesitation. And on the environmental side, you become very adept at dealing with the EPA and polluted sites and brownfields and that's been fantastic. But this is a whole different ballgame. This is a business office, a business center not asset management.

Get I do have

concerns on this. So

the parts budget is $7,000,000 and I have managed $20,000,000 projects or higher in some Yes.

No, I agree. Yes. But this isn't just managing, this is P and L, profit and loss responsibility.

One of the things I feel very fortunate about is that Jackie Carter is still with the city and she's a phone call away. If there are any questions or challenges, can pick it up and give her a call. Again, the court has a very competent staff who have done this for a long time. And I will act as a manager for them, but they also have the technical expertise to do what needs to be done.

Okay. Any other questions from committee? Alderman Prayer.

Yeah. I I

how you doing, veggie? It's been a long time. Yeah. I agree a lot with Alderman Baumann said your commitment and your experience at 30th Street in that corridor, those things have been phenomenal. I want to just get a little dig a little deeper on talking when you talk about bringing in businesses and companies and using that. I I want to get a little more specific on what that looks like. Sure. When you think we look back and say, you know, there was nothing there now because of you. There's something here. Mhmm.

Moving. And then can you say that about talk a little bit about how you did that at 30th Street that you're responsible for some of the vacant land because of your your know how reaching out to businesses, cultivating, bringing them there, that they're there.

Sure. And so economic development at the port is different than economic development at DCD, let's say. The port is really not it's really a secondary supply chain. They bring bulk materials in. One of the growing assets right now and growing businesses is the long. So if you look at the numbers of train cars coming in, of boats coming in, DeLong is outpacing their original goals for agricultural products in the area. And that has farther reaches. That's bringing farmers from Madison to Milwaukee. It's having a larger regional impact on our economy here. It's kind of create the port leverages jobs both in the port, in the city of Milwaukee, but also in the region.

So one of the things working with the 33 Corridor, working with RiverWorks, working with Granville and Havenwoods and others is working with local companies, finding out what their needs are, one, making them aware of what the port is, what its assets are, what its opportunities are and then figuring out ways we can leverage that resource with companies in the city of Milwaukee as well as beyond. And as I mentioned to Alderman Baumann, I'm working with companies in the Century City area who are looking at using the port more. So I think there's tremendous opportunity to grow its economic impact in this region. The tourism aspect is new. It's going to be huge.

Like I said, it's bringing 19,000 people to the city of Milwaukee in 2026. There's capacity for more with the new cruise ship dock. There the I think the port is an underused asset and underused opportunity and I want to grow that. Okay. So

I'm glad you talked about some of the local stuff. I mean even beyond, I mean the little bit I read, I hear there's leakage leaving from other ports nearby. Right? They're they're in

what way?

Chicago or some of these other ports that just there's leakage leaving. They they come in. There's no capacity for them. They're looking for other places to do business. Yeah. I I mean I I I just want to know or hear about the the the big fish out there, the bigger plan to recruit them to bring them in. If it's a neutral P and L process right now, I don't know if what we have in places working then to get us to that point.

So you're right. Other ports are so we have a much better port than City Of Chicago. We have more

They're turning away business. We're not. No, no, no. They're not coming to us.

But there's different assets there, too. I'd be happy to talk with you offline. I don't know if this is the proper forum to talk about some of the opportunities that we're exploring right now. But there are opportunities to do different types of shipping in the region through Port Milwaukee. There are opportunities to attract new businesses here. Like I mentioned, the DeLong, the agricultural products industry is growing. It's huge. There's huge opportunities. People have seen the investments that are being made in Port Milwaukee, and that's one of the tools we use to attract other people to this area is they're making million multimillion dollar investments here. You can too. And the infrastructure that we're building to support that and we have built is one of the things that's going to make Milwaukee, part of Milwaukee better.

Okay. So I mean, two things. One, talk a little bit about what Alderman Baumann brought with these trade free zones. What's the benefit?

Sure.

How do we capitalize on them? And when do we look back? Yeah. And and here's why I say that, right? Because we the big plans and and they weren't your decision. You managed it, right? 30 Street Industrial Corridor, build it, they will come. Some might say we tried. We're out there marketing. It hasn't happened. At some point, you look at it and what are we going to do differently with it. I want to know when we look back at the port.

Sure. So just on the Foreign Trade Zone. So Port Milwaukee is in Foreign Trade Zone 41. That's a federal designation basically to offset tariffs and import fees. So very popular right now given what's happening in Washington, D. C. With all the talk of tariffs. There's been tremendous interest in FTZs in the use of it. So the Foreign Trade Zone 41 extends well beyond the city of Milwaukee, Milwaukee County. It goes up to Fond Du Lac County.

It's a multi county region. There are a number of users who use it, I think seven currently. And they've gotten tremendous number requests to expand that because of what's happening in D. C. So the port staff has been running around talking to different companies, trying to figure out get them involved in the program.

One of our challenges right now is that the federal government has to approve foreign trade zone, new users of the foreign trade zone. And with what's happening in Washington, that's a bit challenging right now. And in some cases, they're dragging their feet because this is a way to alleviate some of the burdens that the tariffs create. It's but companies are definitely looking at it and it's drawing more attention to the port and the city of Milwaukee. It's a tremendous asset we have and it's something we can leverage to get more here. To answer your question about Century City and other areas, so I guess you said as an example, I mean, don't have

to explain Century City. But for me, it's like when do we look back at the port and go, a year from now, we should have X, Y and Z or X. Like when do we look back?

I think we could do that on an annual basis and give you an update. Every year, maybe for the budget.

Can you predict what should happen in a year? I mean, what can we look forward to within the year?

Well, I hope to work with our partners to bring some new business to the city Of Milwaukee or help one of the businesses who's already here grow. And until I get into the position, I can't really speak to specifics, I

point.

I

I

question is what's what's the vision for the port? If the vision is status quo, you're a landlord and a property manager and an asset manager, you're perfectly qualified for that. You don't have to know the port director in Chicago or Green Bay. You don't have to know the industry. You don't have to know the shipping company.

Don't have to know any of that because the tenants handle all that. You're just a landlord and an asset manager and that's basically what you've done over the entirety of your career. If the goal is we want to become an entrepreneurial organization, we want an entrepreneurial spirit, we want to grow revenue, we want to become a profit center, we don't want to just be self breakeven or budget neutral. We want a port that's thrown off 3,000,004 million dollars a year in net income that can be used to support other city activities. And you don't have that experience. There's nothing in your budget that would suggest entrepreneurial.

Well, I've been there to set the budget. I mean, opportunities. I mean, with port authorities. So the state designates authorities like the redevelopment authority of the city of Milwaukee. I've worked with a number of other port authorities, Port of Cincinnati, Port of St.

Paul, who have that authority, who have different tools, different authorities, bonding authority, things like that to leverage new investments in their areas. And that is something we could explore for Port Milwaukee. There is I do see a lot of opportunities and I do see my experience playing a role in bringing the port to the next level. So Jackie and Adam have brought in the cruise ship industry, which again is huge. My experience is in real estate.

My experience is in economic development. I want to leverage that at Port Milwaukee. I want to work with our partners. I want to attract more people, businesses to the city. That's my skill set. That's what I bring to the port.

So there is available weighing around the port, right, that I think every year budget we ask about what success have we had in leasing it out or whatever, whatever. Are and listening to what you just said. Do think you will so do do you think you will be more successful or at least more focused on trying to make sure that that real estate does get leased out?

Yeah, absolutely. So, yeah, so you hit on it. So the port land has to be leased because it's, you know, on the other side of the public trust doctrine. So it's, again, it's a little bit different than land we'd sell for economic development in the city. But yes, my goal is to fill the port with users, credible users who are going to bring jobs and who are going to support other businesses in the city.

Working with the Harbor District, I've met with Tia prior to this, and we've talked about how to better engage Port Milwaukee and the Harbor District and the bid in that effort. I do one of the things I want to do is I want to take Port Milwaukee on a tour around the seven other industrial bids in the city of Milwaukee to see if we can leverage that and those relationships to bring in businesses. My priority is Milwaukee. How do we grow business and opportunities in Milwaukee? How we create jobs? And that's what I want to work toward. That's my mission. And just like Adam brought things to the port that were different, Jackie brought things to the port that were different, this is my thing.

Any other questions from the committee? Alright. There are no other questions. Do we have a motion? I motion that we move for approval. The motion by auto woman Tyler is confirmation. Are there any objections to that motion? I'm hearing one objection. The motion passes to the one. Good luck.

Thank you very much. And

Amber, if you could, those couple of questions at the beginning, if you could get us those. Yeah. I'll follow-up. Thank you. Next up, item number 10. File number 250936 resolution relating to application acceptance and expenditure for twenty twenty six Tatum, Wisconsin recycling Gauge.

Good morning, madam chair and members of the committee. I'm Laura Stevens, resource recovery program manager with DPW Sanitation. Thank you for having me today. This file is for the acceptance and expenditure of the annual state recycling grant. This is a statewide regulatory and financial assistance program which was created by the 1989 act three thirty five to encourage and in some cases require solid waste reduction and recycling.

The legislation also established several responsibilities for local units of the government related to recycling. These entities are called responsible units. City Milwaukee is responsible unit and responsible for implementing state mandated recycling program. Under this program responsible units are eligible for grants for a portion of eligible recycling expenses. The city of Milwaukee grant is about $2,300,000 annually and covers about 12% of program costs. So this is our annual grant.

Are there any questions from committee? And an alderman bombard would move adoption. And objection is so ordered.

Thank you.

Item number 11. File number 250980. Resolution authorizing city entry into green infrastructure funding agreement and conservation easements with MMSD, NPS, four NPS properties in the 3rd, 5th, 6th, 14th, and 15th automatic districts.

Yeah. Good morning. Tony Jaszak, DPW Stormwater. Yeah. So this is a standard file that authorizes MPS into and the city to enter into grant funding agreements for the green and healthy schools program. So this is, I believe, cohort eight. So five schools slated to be transformed with green infrastructure. And, yeah, every year we do this and this is just another continuation of that program.

Any questions from committee? Hearing now, Otto Woman Taylor will move adoption. Hearing objection, so order. File number 12 I mean, item number 12, file number two five zero nine eight one, resolution authorizing the commission of public works to execute an amendment to the intergovernmental cooperation agreement between the city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewer District for the purposes of delegating responsibilities for design and construction phases of the North 30th Street corridor phase to storm water West Bay in project.

K. Thank you. Good morning. Robert Saline, Department of Public Works Environmental Engineering section. Yeah. This is to amend an existing agreement to allow the city to reimburse MMSD for a storm sewer they're constructing on our behalf.

Any questions from committee? Hearing none. Article and entitled remove adoption. Hearing no objections. It passes. Alright. Thank you. Item number 13, file number 250986. Resolution approving a first amendment to the lease agreement with Tower Code twenty thirteen LLC for a portion of the parcel located at 3929 South 6th Street in the 13th Automatic District. I'm not sure. I have not heard from you.

We this is the city attorney shuttle.

I don't know if someone will move to hold to the call of the chair. Hearing no objections, so order. Item number 14, file number 250996 resolution authorizing the proper city officers to execute quick claim deed QCD2941 conveying a storm sewer to historic Patterson Place LLC in the 1st Automatic District. Good morning. Mahmoud Dekwar from City of Milwaukee Environmental Engineering section, and this resolution is for the conveyance of the public sewer main to the property owner at 4116 West Silver Spring Drive since the sewer no longer serves the public interest.

Any questions for committee? Hearing the order on the title remove adoption. Hearing no objections to order. Item number 15, file number two five one zero zero seven. Resolution authorizing the commissioner of public works to execute project agreements titled state municipal agreement for congestion mitigation mitigation and air quality projects with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation and to set up design engineering at a total estimated cost of $310,900 with an company.

Lot with of

to Multimodal company. Transportation Manager. This project agreement is for the 16th Street traffic safety project in the 13th District between Howard or Wilson Park in Manitoba, which is the KK River Trail.

Any questions on committees? Hearing, alderman Westmoreland, we'll move adoption. Hearing objection is sole order. Item number 16, file number two five one zero zero eight, resolution authorizing the city comptroller to transfer funds to the previously established projects for the Wisconsin Department of Transportation in the city of Milwaukee for cost participation with the extraction of traffic signal improvement projects with the total estimated cost increase for the projects of $0.

Good morning, madam chair. Scott Reinbacher with the Department of Public Works here. Today's file before you is to simply correct an accounting error to show that this project will be funded by grantor reimbursable costs instead of grantor non reimbursable costs. So no effect on any total costs on the project. Happy to answer any questions if there are any.

Any questions from committee? Here now, I don't want the title remove adoption here in objection. So order. Thank you. I don't remember 17, file number 251099. Communication from Department of Public Works relating to the feasibility of dedicated sidewalk replacement crew.

Good morning, Chairwoman and members of the committee. Kevin Muse, City Engineer, Department of Public Works. I'm here to talk about the item we submitted with the communication file to actually in response to a footnote sponsored by you, Elder Woman Cogs last year and co sponsored by several other elders looking at the feasibility of doing our scattered sidewalk replacements in house with our internal concrete finishing staff. So attached to the file, hope, I believe, is a memo that our staff and I put together looking at what this would take. Very high level review is that we this is doable.

It will take some additional resources to get it done. Basically, the memo goes through and estimates our productivity. I do want to emphasize that, that we believe is a conservative estimate. We think we can actually accomplish more than what's in the memo, but we didn't want to oversell and under deliver. Basically, the takeaway is because of two things.

So one, having staff dedicated to this this effort whenever the weather is suitable to building to pouring concrete and sidewalks and not paying for contractor mobilization costs, which are very expensive relatively speaking for scattered site work across the city. We do think we can do this more efficiently. So the cost and actually it's on the very last page of the memo, Page four, the Table three. So the cost per property that would have its sidewalks repaired and replaced is we expect to be less with an internal crew. But because we are we would be adding staff to do this work, we are basically committing to a certain amount of this work going forward and committing to the financial obligation of paying for those staff year round, right?

So there is an impact impact on the O and M portion of DPW infrastructure's budget. And that's generally the main conclusion. The things that would need to be different from what is in our 2025 budget would be we would need authority for six more positions to cover the field staff necessary to do the work. There is a table on Page three that shows each of those positions, a cement finisher, cement finisher helper two, three infrastructure repair worker ones and one infrastructure repair crew leader. There is a cost, at least a startup cost for additional fleet to facilitate this work and then ongoing costs that are not included in our current budget to take this on.

If there is further interest or questions, I'm happy to answer those. The basic takeaway though is that again this would be more efficient, but there is an added cost to do it. It is not something we can do with either twenty twenty five allocated resources or the currently proposed 2026 budget.

So the extra added car how much are we spending now annually?

So we spend out of the capital budget. We spend roughly 1,000,000 on the scattered site sidewalks each year.

How backed up are we?

Backed up. The we had so so the the program goes back several years and frankly Alderman Baumann probably knows better than I the exact history of it. From ordinance perspective, sidewalks are technically the responsibility of the property owner. However, there's a substantial cost usually to property owners to replace the sidewalk and the city did establish this program where there was a 50% city cost share on the program and recognition of fact that more than just the property owners benefiting from a sidewalk, especially a sidewalk that's ADA compliant. And so that was the start of the program.

However, the increase in capital costs, which the program has increased in capital costs, but the increase over time has not kept up with demand for the program. So we have frankly probably a more than a five year backlog right now in the program.

Do we currently have a cost share thing for it? Is there currently a cost share for residential?

Yes. Yeah. So the what ordinance says is that the assessment is 50% of the cost approximately for the property owner unless the flaw in the sidewalk is caused by a city tree, then it's a 100% city cost. So if our trees in the in the tree border are lifting the sidewalk and causing the ADA issue, then it's our cost to replace it according to ordinance.

Does your estimate take that into consideration?

It does. It does. So the way so there's an assumption within here that we would reallocate some of our existing capital budget to this program to cover a chunk of staff costs and certainly the concrete and the forestry, actually the costs related to tree removal and replacement when necessary as well. That budget account includes a portion of assessable funding in it already. So, yes.

And so the total amount to do this in house would be is it that million 30 or

Yes. So table two is our estimate of the annual total costs. We did break it down. So as an example, so concrete entry removal, we would fund that from our existing capital account. So there is no additional resources required to do that.

We would just shift our scattered site program to rather than being contracted out to fund those efforts in house. In addition, as we do with other efforts that are capital, when our staff are working on the capital work, their salary and costs are attributed to that capital account. So a substantial portion of that $621,000 that's shown for salary there as well as I guess the fuel costs could be attributed to the capital account. But we would be paying people to be with us year round and we can't pour sidewalks year round. And so there's a time that they would be on our O and M accounts and that's that's really the cost that needs to be accounted for in our budget that isn't.

So at the current rate with the private stuff that we're doing, long will it take for the backlog to be taken care of?

At the current funding level, because for the private, it's really about our funding level. At the current funding level, I don't think we would eliminate the backlog. We would need to step that up further. We did step it up a couple of years ago now and that did work for a year, but costs have continued to rise. So the backlog is not something that we expect to be able to eliminate unless the capital account is increased.

So with this, with an in house crew, long would it take to?

We're, again, we're conservatively estimating twelve years of work. And the reason it's twelve years is because it's this would allow us to keep pace with the demand rate we've seen plus chip away at the backlog a little bit year by year. Again, I do think this is a little bit conservative. So hopefully it would be less than twelve years. I do have some caution in that though because I suspect just from talking with residents and talking with my own neighbors, there are some people who don't request sidewalk replacement because they know how big the backlog is and they just don't want to deal with it at that point. And so we may run into our request rate going up as we decrease the backlog.

Any other questions on committee? Yes, Madam Chair. We

do allow property owners to repair their own sidewalks.

Of course.

And that they can do immediately at their cost.

Correct.

What would be the approximate cost of a square?

The square is Hang

on. They are five foot, right, typically?

Yes. Yes. So typical property cost, I just got to do some quick math here. Again, one square is kind of hard, but basically it's going to be 3 to $400 for a typical sidewalk square. Yes.

That's a

That's our contract, sorry. Property owner would pay more. So, yeah. Under $1,000 for a single square? Probably. Yeah. Again, it depends on the size of the work.

It has the means and doesn't want to wait five years, they can do it themselves. Yep.

They have that option. Yep. Okay. And I have seen that done occasionally,

rarely but They contractors that

we That are licensed to work in the city. Yes. Okay.

Yep. They can't be out there themselves chopping up the sidewalk necessarily.

No. And they would need it. It's in the right of way so they would need a I

So,

think that's

recommendation? We don't necessarily have a recommendation. We're we're trying to provide information. I guess if this is, I I would expect that if this is something that's of interest from an amendment perspective, we would work with you and the LRB to get you the information you needed if that is something that someone wants to at least explore. And that would be the opportunity to get you specific numbers and that type of thing.

Currently in a budget, how much is proposed for '26?

For scattered sidewalks? A million. Yeah. The whole program is about isn't about. It is $1,875,000 $875,000 of that goes to our area wide replacement and $1,000,000 roughly goes to the scattered sidewalk program.

The biggest thing you said that would be the six positions?

Yes. Yes. The six positions, there would be so it's really the impact to infrastructure's O and M budget. That's the potential levy impact, right? There's also one thing that could be a benefit of this, I would see it as a benefit of this personally at least, would be that there's some time that we wouldn't be able to do sidewalk work just due to weather conditions, but we probably could do utility cut restorations. So this would give us more capacity to repair sewer and waterworks utility cut restorations. There is an impact because we are billing that to the enterprise funds, right? So we would need to work with them on that impact, but that wouldn't be a levy impact.

Any other questions for our committee? Thank you. Uh-huh. I I do a lot of files asking about feasibility just to think of doing something differently. Out of all my years of doing it, it's probably one of the most thorough response is. Oh. So I do appreciate it.

Yeah. Absolutely.

There are no further questions. I'm trying to think. I guess there ain't no reason to hold it to the college here. Alderman West Malone will move to place it on file. I hear no objection. So order. Thank you. Item 18, I need to formally hold. Right? Mhmm.

Item 18, file number 251062, motion relating to the locations of various Marquis County transit system bus stops. Will move to hold to the call of the chair. Hearing objection is so ordered. On a 09:30AM agenda, item number 19, file number two four one one zero three, motion relating to the recommendations of public works relating to licenses.

Good morning, madam chair, committee members, Jim Cooney, license division. There's one taxi cab license, for your consideration today.

All right.

Quite a name.

Do you know how to pronounce this in Surum?

I'm going to take a shot here. I think it's Maharazki Teko Gibbsy.

Are you present? Seeing that he is mine. Is this his first nonappearance?

It's the first nonappearance, and the the license, if it's held today would carry him through until the next committee meeting and subsequent council.

Sure. Go

ahead. Before that motion, I just want to put it on the record that mister Jim Cooney has a very fantastic

chair. Are there any objections to that motion? Hearing none. So ordered. Thank you, mister. Item 20, file number 250991. Communication from the waterworks and department of public works relating to lead service line replacement at vacant properties. This has been asked to be held. Ordering involvement will move to hold to the call of the chair. Are there any objections to that motion? Hearing none. So ordered. Without any further business, we are adjourned.