Remarks by Andrew Werthmann
50 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 2
- Play at 23:20
“Thank you, Council President Greger. City Attorney Nick, I'm looking at this big substantial change on the first bulleted paragraph. There's two things that jump out at me. One is that it used to be that people could present on things that had citywide application or things that we legislatively could do or make some impact on as a local government unit. And my understanding is now that this change essentially opens up beyond, unless I'm misreading this, opens up beyond simply things that are policies that we can impact. So we could have people coming in here and talking about state and…”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 33:54
“Thank you. Council Member Werthmann. Thank you, Council President. I wanted to pick up on that point. And that is on the reference to profanity. And so I can imagine, let me pull up my packet here real quick. Profane. You can imagine profanity being used in a way that's probably First Amendment protected, where you say such and such policy is expletive, you know. Hurting my family or whatever where you add it. They're not disruptive, but it's probably allowed versus profanity. That's like You're swearing at some of the members or something It's it's a in a different context and so that seems…”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 40:06
“Thank you, Council President. I'll be supporting these changes, and I want to also let my fellow council members know that I think that this policy might actually need some additional conversation around this specific piece, the 20-minute public comment period. And I don't know the answer to this, but I would like the... council to also weigh in at some point about who gets to speak during this period this was a policy set eight years ago and I think it's important that we clarify maybe we like the limited nature of it but maybe we want to open it up more broadly and so I intend in coming…”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 1:14:10
“Thank you, Council President. I wanted to ask something about just a couple of boundary things here. There had been discussion a few years back about road connection potentially up to, I think it was Ball Street from Galloway. And I'm wondering if that's still something in the consideration. Do you remember this, City Manager Solberg? Could this potentially fund something like that?”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 1:15:08
“And I assume that the boundary doesn't have to include the end of Ball Street in order to get funding for a project like that?”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 1:15:40
“Thanks. It was just a little unclear on the map, so I appreciate the clarification. And then I wanted to bring up this idea because it's helpful for the public to know. One thing you put on there is that this doesn't impact people's taxes. It's probably the number one pushback we've heard on these two other TID districts in downtown when they were first founded. and I think there's that perception is like if we're increasing our overall valuation in our community how would that potentially impact uh the the you know folks across the community who pay taxes uh how should they think about that…”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 1:33:14
“Thank you, Council President. I just want to thank staff and elders, everyone who worked on this. This is a huge deal for our community. As someone who has been a part of some of the decision making on these other blight districts and seeing the transformation truly impactful for our community, I'm really excited for what this can provide. There's a number of things that I think are incredibly promising. One is the potential of new housing projects within this corridor. Anyway, I think we've been waiting for that kind of new development for some time, and this will help kickstart those kinds…”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 1:44:02
“Thank you, Council President. If I could request an update, is that allowed? for next for maybe yeah for next council meeting um and it's regarding the biodiversity fund that was in the budget last year i think council member sean and i sorry um vice president sean and i worked on i'm wondering if we could get an update on the progress on that fund uh kind of where it's at and um yeah just anything that you might have on it for for next council”
City Council · Sep 22, 2026
- Play at 41:58
“Thank you, Council President Gragert. Director White, one of the things that makes these kinds of rezones tricky is what will go in this space in coming months and years. And I say that with an eye toward things like lighting and what sort of lighting might be present, the height of a potential use, things like that can affect property values for nearby. So how do we put those kinds of things into context without knowing fully what this is going to be? Or maybe we do know what this is going to be at this stage.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 43:33
“And I raise that because we already do get, you know, some calls from neighbors about current impacts of this site. And I want to be mindful of what may happen here so that we don't cause further impact on residences nearby.”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:07:11
“Thanks, yeah. If I could just follow up on this map so I'm understanding this. So help me understand what the F6453F2, what are those future wells?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:07:35
“Are those future well sites, or what do those represent?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:09:46
“Could I ask a question back to the other map, which is, those future well sites, those might just be like, possible sites, but they look awfully close to where a potential residential could go under this excess land if we go down that road. How far away are those potential locations from where a residential could go?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:10:20
“No, 50 feet from the excess land proposed, excess land site?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:53:40
“Coordinator Hufford, is it your understanding that once or if the council approves an excess land designation for this, that it can then be purchased by, like if someone were to want to purchase this, not for development of residential, they could potentially? How does that go? Do we lock in what kind of purchase happens? Or is it just open?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 1:54:37
“Can I ask a follow-up? Sure. So what is your understanding about, this is a very unique parcel of land in the sense that when you look on our comprehensive plan, or yeah, at our comp plan, most sizable green spaces within our community are either designated as park, land, or green space, greenway. this isn't kind of in either bucket but it is our wellfield area and so it does hold a certain significance in terms of thinking about we want clean water so we want to be careful how we use this space but then also there's been over however many decades a growing use of this area as recreation and…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:09:36
“Thank you, Council President. I was also torn about this decision. I serve on Waterways Parks and Urban Forestry. One of the reasons I was torn about this is because of the fact that East Riverview Drive essentially, it seems, was stubbed in for residential use. Development in the 1980s. I think that's the right date sometime in the 80s there. This was imagined to have Residences it has since then grown a forest and as part of an overall recreational area that If you check your emails the neighborhood clearly loves and utilizes and wants to see continue I actually, I think that the council…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:32:47
“Yeah, thank you so much, Council President. I kind of want to get, I want to figure out if I can get more clarity on what is planned for this space. And I want to share my, I want to put my cards on the table, is that this is obviously golf-related, which is great. But the difference between what golf, what that could be, is part of my concern. So if this is more oriented toward, like, putting range or something along those lines with family friendly, I would see that as one kind of thing. If it's a driving range with the sort of huge monstrosity of nets that go up, more lighting, potentially…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:34:28
“Could I ask a follow-up? Yeah. What would be the process and how would the public or other community or elected leaders have a say going forward on this if this is approved? Will there be other check-ins on like a site plan or things like that or a chance for the public to be involved or the council? Or is this just purely administrative after this point?”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:36:22
“So I'll just share one of my concerns, and this may not be a concern for other council members or even the public. Well, there's a few, but the driving ranges that you see when you go into other communities, and I think about the one near Madison, DeForest area. There's one in western Twin Cities. They're huge, and the whole skyline is filled with a net. And that's something that I would want there to be some discussion around. If I'm a person living nearby, I want to be a part of that discussion about whether a five story, you say it wouldn't be, but that's one of my concerns. The other part…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 2:49:04
“I don't know if it's a two-story netting, a four-story. I mean, we have Director White sharing that it won't be five stories, and that gives me some hope. But we're supposed to be voting on the intended use of this land, and it's not clear to me the intended use that's about to happen. And this is our last check-in on this item. From here, it goes forward for staff approval. And my concern is, again, impact to the nearby neighbors, because I don't know exactly what we're voting on, the wildlife concern that I have, the lighting, and now I forgot about golf courses and how much water and how…”
City Council · Sep 8, 2026
- Play at 14:53
“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…”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 33:11
“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?”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 1:02:50
“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…”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 1:09:42
“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…”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026