Remarks by Andrew Werthmann
50 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 2 of 2
- Play at 1:33:57
“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…”
City Council · Aug 11, 2026
- Play at 21:19
“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States”
City Council · Aug 10, 2026
- Play at 30:46
“Thank you, Council President. Director White, my question is about this parking lot landscaping requirement. Can you remind me how much land it was determined was needed for, was it on a percentage basis or was it something else? Because I'm almost inclined if it's on a percentage basis to maybe look at reducing the percentage requested. It's interesting you bring up this parking lot too because this is in my neighborhood and you can see on here the boulevards where tree and grass would normally be are completely paved over. It's very weird. But you can't park there. So it actually is a very…”
City Council · Aug 10, 2026
- Play at 32:15
“Can I follow up? You have another question? No, yeah, I appreciate that. It's just a matter of, I should have gone and looked at the full LDO for this discussion, but I assume what it is is it's probably a percentage or something. And so, yeah, I think I'm just curious to see. I'm probably going to support doing an exemption for smaller lots, but I am curious how that generally works.”
City Council · Aug 10, 2026
- Play at 35:50
“Thank you. Director White, this is back to the dwelling three and four unit amendment. So as I'm reading this, this is an amendment that makes the ability to put three and four unit structures into neighborhoods, it makes it a lot more restrictive than the current LDO talks about. Am I understanding that right? Because if I remember, as it is written right now, anywhere on the block, if it includes a three or four unit, you could put another three or four unit or on a collector.”
City Council · Aug 10, 2026
- Play at 36:40
“So this is a pretty restrictive, uh, amendment. And I just wonder how it was arrived at to go in that direction. And if you felt, This was more in keeping with the council and the ZPAC discussions around this item? How are you seeing that change?”
City Council · Aug 10, 2026
- Play at 41:26
“Thank you, Council President. First, I want to just thank our city legal, our city staff helping to work through this process, and our sustainability advisory committee that held at least four, maybe five, publicly noticed meetings where community members, haulers, and many more had a chance to weigh in. We also did a special meeting about compost that was organized by our city manager, Dave Solberg, bringing a bunch of different folks together. So this compost ordinance, management of waste and recyclables, Essentially what this does is it helps to codify different ways that community…”
City Council · Aug 10, 2026
- Play at 50:10
“Yeah. If I could add to that, Council Member Mboga, that through tiers two, you would have to register your compost with the city. Tier three, you'd have to not only register, but have an inspection. And tier four is DNR regulated. So there are a number of different ways that check-in would happen to make sure that you're following the ordinance. But then, as a lot of things, things are complaint basis as well. We're setting up the parameters as best we can to encourage that people follow it.”
City Council · Aug 10, 2026
- Play at 51:04
“So the conversation tonight for public hearing and what we will vote on tomorrow is just setting up these four tiers of potential composting that people can engage in. um adding to it that special hauler and on top of it the potential of a city brush site including compost what we won't be talking about and which is not included in this ordinance is conversations around do we want compost service to be a part of the hauler experience that people in our community have do we want that to be an option or not we're not bringing that forward that part of the ordinance we felt was best left for a…”
City Council · Aug 10, 2026
- Play at 55:36
“No. But the one that would cost something is Tier 3, this larger scale, 10 cubic to 50 cubic. where they would likely be, because there's gonna be inspection, that would probably cost something. There would probably be a nominal fee on the registration for tier two as well, so like your community garden or your church, but we've talked about how we don't want it to be something that is prohibitive. If it's 20 bucks or 30 bucks, something that is reasonable to be able to notice. If you do it in your backyard, there's no cost there.”
City Council · Aug 10, 2026
- Play at 1:25:39
“Thank you. I wanted to ask a clarification on something that you mentioned. I just didn't, I don't know if I didn't hear you correctly, but you brought up white pine, and then you brought up hunting, and then you brought up treaty rights, but I know what treaty rights are, but I don't know how it connects with, one, I know how it connects with hunting, but the white pine, is this all one related thing about treaty rights for white pine access and hunting for indigenous communities?”
City Council · Aug 10, 2026
- Play at 1:26:14
“What is it? it's it's from back in the 1800s an agreement to allow um native americans to be able to hunt on public land i understand thank you so that's the name of that that specific treaty and you're saying that that your opinion is that by it doesn't impact i mean there's obviously less places to exercise treaty rights but Your opinion was that when looking at it, it doesn't have a significant impact on those treaty rights.”
City Council · Aug 10, 2026
- Play at 1:26:58
“Oh, that's really interesting because I know in some places, treaty rights come first, even whether...”
City Council · Aug 10, 2026
- Play at 1:40:03
“I'm curious about the map that you brought. Just if it's possible to see.”
City Council · Aug 10, 2026
- Play at 25:07
“Yeah, I would like to support this amendment. And it's something that I think will help us, as these redevelopment districts get off the ground, to think about both and. So how do we revitalize, energize, bring in more investment while at the same time investing in the homeowners that live there, the already existing community businesses? How do we help folks who maybe need that support to keep their places affordable while also seeing the benefits of investment. I like how this sets up as not a combative relationship, but as a collaborative relationship and seeing how we can do both things.…”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 31:26
“Thank you, Council President. I am really excited about both of these plans for different reasons. But I think first and foremost, one of the first ways that people often experience our community is actually through this Riverbend district. For me, it was coming to school at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. visiting with my family. But we have many visitors that come in off the highway that utilize a lot of that corridor, thousands of people, probably daily. It's how they experience it. And right now, it needs help. And this RDA district, which I know a lot of work has gone in from our…”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 40:10
“the uh on this particular agenda item we have council member worthman thank you council president uh appreciate the recognition this uh much of this district um stretches within my city council district um and some of the things that i think about are the fact that Just the way that Eau Claire developed with an industrial core for at least a century of our city's history, logging and manufacturing the tire factory, et cetera, those things really helped kind of I would say prop up our community through those periods, but I think everyone can see, and it's part of what this addresses, the fact…”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 52:53
“Thank you, Council President, Director Ness. As I understand it, We had done a first ordinance change of a number of different intersections. This seems like a second wave. And as I've heard you say, there's a third and maybe even a fourth wave of intersections that we're going to be looking at coming up. Is that still the right understanding?”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 54:12
“Could I follow up? Yeah, please. Was the intersection, which is within my district and my neighborhood, Lindale and Roderick come up for consideration? Because I think I have called that in from a couple near misses that I've had. Is there any chance that you looked at that intersection particularly?”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 1:03:10
“explain here as well because this came up last night with the public hearing is the enforcement part of this yep um but essentially that there will be mechanisms for enforcement beyond just um people reporting um that the technology is there to do that yeah we currently have two hour parking enforcement so this is the same thing it's just 15 minutes instead of two hours”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 1:11:27
“I wanted to follow up on that and thank our law enforcement and our first responders for support during the Eau Claire Festival. It was a very hot couple of days, but it seemed overall to run smoothly, and I saw a lot of our Eau Claire Police Department. folks out and about during the two-day concert. Just want to thank them for being there on scene. And then, of course, all of our Parks and Rec and the people who help set up and get everything ready as well out at Carson Park. I know a lot of work goes into doing that, but I got to imagine there was close to 5,000 people, maybe more, that…”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 1:12:33
“There was 9,000. Oh, wow. Okay. I was just eyeballing it. I got the count wrong. I don't know. It feels right, though.”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 1:23:15
“I think for some reason I am interested in bringing some amendment and I already have some language I've been working on so I um it's a little complicated but like it's like three or four sections that just need a small tweak a table and a few other things so um let's not cross that bridge unless we have to but I do I would want Because it's not only them, that would be an impact that I kind of feel right now. Even down the road, I might bring forward language that makes it a little more permissive to run small cottage businesses in neighborhoods. I don't know, as a policy. Cool. Thanks for…”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 1:24:05
“I tried to elevate it as a huge deal. Yeah.”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026
- Play at 2:03:32
“Just the question is, why is the focus more narrowly on parks and recreation versus all of the other fee areas?”
City Council · Jul 28, 2026