Common Council - Regular Meeting

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Please stand for the pledge of allegiance, please. To the flag of the United States of America to the republic for it stands nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Okay, first on the agenda is comments and suggestions from citizens present. If you wish to address the council, please uh don't use specific names, please state your name and address and you have up to three minutes. If there's someone that's already gone before you and you disagree with that person, if you just want to share your agreement with them and you be want to speak today,

Amanda Gallas My name is Amanda Kra. I live at 400 South Washington Street. Um, I don't have very much prepared today um, as a busy mom and educator myself, but I find I find it really important to share my voice um, and to add to the conversation about the library. Um, when I moved here six years ago with my young family, the library is where I found community when I knew nobody. It's where my oldest son, who's now eight, um grew to love learning about reading um and playing with peers. Um he was develop developmentally behind in many many ways and the library really helped us as well as the talk replay center which is now housed inside the library. Um I'm not much of a public speaker. I I have just a couple notes. Um, my husband and I are also artists and educators, and we also use the library's various resources, such as the maker space, which I think is very unique. Um, that Watertown has a community space where people can go and use tools that are sometimes inaccessible to different um incomes. So, there's sewing machines, there's computers, there's a Cricut machine. Um, educators use the diecut machine all the time. I think accessing these creative tools is important. Um, many people use them on the weekends and also during the week. Last week, I saw a post on social media. The library is unfortunately considering how to navigate this very drastic budget cut and they are thinking about which days to close during the week and on the

weekends. And I suggest um to the that the library stay open seven days a week. And I think that is because the community needs a space um not only for creativity um but for connecting um for meeting other people. As an educator, I spend many hours there grading papers. Um I use the internet, I use Libby, I use countless resources from our our very generous um library. And I think if the library were to close during the week or on the weekends, community and also nearby communities are losing access and losing opportunities for growth. Um, like I said, it helps me in my in my profession, as an educator. It helps me as a mother. Um, it helps me um just as a person um seeking a free space in town where where I can do all the that I need to do to be successful. Um, and to give back to my own community as well. Um, it's where we can gain new skills and put it back out into the community. I think the library needs to be open seven days a week.

You did a nice job, Amanda. Thank you.

Aaron O'Neal. Hello, my name is Aaron O'Neal and I live at 209 Derby Lane in Watertown, Wisconsin. I am currently a member of the library board. I have been on it since the year 2010. I took a year and a half off at one point, but I'm back on. I love what I do with the library. Um, I am sharing an email that I sent to Robert um just a couple days ago. So, I'd like to read some of that to you. Hello, Mayor Stocks. And and thank you. He did reply. Um, hello, Mayor Stocks. I am writing to you again to reiterate the potential fallout that can happen with the decreased library budget. The library sees approximately 450. Did we get that? 450 plus patrons per day with less on Saturdays and Sundays, more during the weekdays, but it is over 450 patrons who do come through our door. Where else in Watertown can 450 people go for free? They can go for entertainment, classes, craft groups, story times, study rooms, socialization, Watertown Family Connection services, books, DVDs, magazines, newspapers, ebooks, etc. The library offers services that no other business or organization can offer under one roof. The library is a vital building in this city. So, our director Peg Czech eye did do an informal survey on the library's Facebook page about potential cuts to these services. She did a great job polling the patrons and the staff. We have a library board meeting this Thursday. The new budget kicks in on

January 1st. We, as the board, needed input as to what cuts need to be made at this upcoming meeting. to blindside the patrons would be wrong. We receive substantial input and we will make our decisions accordingly. I am saying that this cut, this additional $100,000, not just affects you, me, it affects the entire 23,000 plus people who live and reside in Watertown, the people who live in the out surrounding communities, the 450 who do come and visit. So, I looked up Miriam Webster and I looked up the definition of a hero. A hero is someone who is admired for courage. And I'm wondering who is going to be the hero tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Sue Rupnau.

Hi, my name is Sue Rupnau. I live at 1213 Josephine Street here in Watertown. I have patronized the library since my young adult children were very young. It was our quality time. I have worked at the library for over six years now. I love my job. I love what I do, the people I work with and the people I work for. I also feel that I work for the community of Watertown as well and for the surrounding communities that patronize us and it is very rewarding. Yes, the budget cut will affect me and my family, but I am here to speak for the community. I cannot express enough how much support we are getting from the community more than ever. How many people come up and tell me how much they love our library and use our library. How many refer to it as the gem of the city, how they do not even want to lose one possible day of the week of it being accessible to them. and how sorry they are to hear of the recent vote. Some of them have even been in tears. They feel so strongly about it. It's not only patrons who come into the library who approach me like this, but people I run into at church, at Walmart, everywhere. And it is humbling to hear all of their support and encouragement. And it does feel really good. However, it is disheartening at the same time that it may not even matter or make a difference anyways. If anything should make a difference, it should be the voice of the community. And by not listening to it is like it is like silencing their voice. I was going to quote numerous comments supporters have made on social media and elsewhere, but I feel like most people here have read it, have heard it, and maybe have even felt it themselves. Some people may not know how much the library actually benefits the community. A lot of it has been said before, but I will say it again. The library is more

than just books. It is a warm, safe haven for those who need a place to go or to cool off in the summer, even if it's just to relax and hang out. It is a hangout place for teenagers to get them off of the street and not loitering elsewhere. It is a learning space and learning resources for children and adults of all ages. Family time for many memories being made. Computers and internet for those who may not have it at home. Sometimes for use to find employment or can be used to just get away to a quiet space to work, do homework, have meetings for their work, meet with clients, or just read a book, newspaper or magazine, to research history and family lineage. It is a place to send or receive faxes or make copies or print things from your email or phone or to scan things. It's friendly faces and conversations for anyone. A welcoming place for all. Some may be lonely or depressed or in need of it more than people know. It is movies, video games. It's free passes to museums and the zoo. Outings for families that may not be able to afford them otherwise. It's a place to rent rooms for parties. Um, in final note, I would like to just say thank you for my time. Um, the community speaks. Please hear them.

Thank you. Greg Zipple.

Hello. My name is Greg Zipple. I'm in District 1. Uh, I know tonight the common council is tasked with uh passing a fair consistent positive budget for the city of Watertown. I know that this is a task that has been taken upon by the council members. This budget must be consistent with current and future needs of the city. I know it's been rough trying to meet all the needs and wants of the various departments. But during this budgeting process, one of the steps that takes place is a budget request from all the departments. This invariably ends with requests that can't be met with financial restraints at the CS. I understand not all items can be met. However, in this budget, all the departments were met with either a small increase or same with the 2025 budget, all but one, that is the library. This budget plunders and pillages of the library with 18% reduction in support. No other departments have faced this. The library serves as a means for many, many of our citizens to have resources available to them that are just not available anywhere else in the city. The library was built with unanimous unanimous approval of the city. The majority of the funds were private and raised by the library board. The city made a financial commitment at that time to fund and support the balance of those costs. This commitment was not contingent on anything else. The library though has continued to thrive and be an important asset to the city in spite of all the lack of full support needed to sustain its operations. They've had large personnel reductions in spite of doubling of the space of the library. maintenance, repairs, and everything else should be funded through their city's the city's annual budget. In my opinion, library should be made to absorb a donian cut made to its budget. I actually feel that their budget funds should have been increased by at least $250,000 to properly maintain staff its needs, not have all these cuts. The library, its administration and staff is something that the city should be proud of, not porn out. The library should not be the sole source of support for the

previous any of the previous cuts and overages that have spent have hurt the budget process. I get that. But if the big thing like fire department is causing the the issues, then let the fire department absorb the absorb the the necessary funds that have to be spent there to get it even. You know, maybe push back debt payments for a year uh to give the mayor and the council uh a year to properly reset the budget. But the ransack the library's funding is not the method need to fund the city's needs. Thus, I respectfully request that the massive cut to the funding of the library be quickly amended before the proposed 2026 budget. Thank you.

Thank you, sir.

Tom Kohl's. My name is Tom Kohl's. I live at 250 South Concord Avenue. I'm a member of the uh board of trustees for the library. And I'd like to talk about the library and the awful budget cuts that this city council has decided to enact. Our li library consistently ranks as one of the finest and well-run libraries in the state. jewel of this great city. It is a meeting place, a place to vote, a place for toddlers to prepare prepare for kindergarten, a warming center, place for parents to have their kids play and they can relax. A place that you can use a computer, a place for older people like myself who may be living at home to just go and sit and look out the window and maybe talk to others. And it's so much more. and it's for free. Because of these cuts, many of the programs that we have for this for our library will have to be cut. It's just the way it is. We'll have to lose maybe a day, maybe two days out of a week. I'm not angry anymore. I am ashamed of what this council did and especially disappointed in those who voted for these cuts.

Thank you, sir. Amy Wyers Amy Wyers 800 Court I'm just coming to speak about the library as a parent and a member of the community. It is extremely important to my family and the first common council meeting I ever saw was last week's and that was because the library posted a Facebook about what day would they close and in the comments there was a to the meeting and that's why I watched it after my kids went to sleep. I watched the whole meeting and it just hurt watching it and seeing these people come and talk about something that they love so much possibly being taken away. Uh it's important to all of our kids in the community. It's a great place for resources, knowledge, so much more than what we use it for is my family uses it as a place for reading and getting out with our kids. Um, and just the thought of one day not being able to do that, that affects us, but it's so much more than that. And we use it for just a small percentage of what's available. And the thought that my kids may grow up in a community that isn't doesn't have that option to them every day to be able to go to the library and play and read and just enjoy knowledge. It's difficult for me. And so I just came here to speak and hope that you can revote and rethink that maybe we can figure out something else because I'll drive on gravel roads to the library. We'll get there. We like it. I sadly I've been in the community for 10 years and I don't recognize any of you. But my kid recognizes Miss Tina. A lot of kids recognize Miss Tina and support the knowledge and growth of the children in the community. and I just hope that it uh remains open to us every

day and that this budget cut can be rethought. Thank you. Thank you,

Carrie Gunderson. Good evening, Mayor Stocks and honorable council members. My name is Carrie Anderson. I'm on North Montgomery Street. I'm in District 7. I'm here tonight representing my family and many other community members to urge you not to cut funding for our library. It is the absolute last place that should face cuts. This wonderful library is a treasure in our community. It is a year- round draw for people into the city bring consistent foot traffic to our local businesses. What else provides that? I have worked at the Waterton Library for 13 years. Day after day, year after year, I see firsthand how the library makes people's lives better. From early literacy programs for toddlers and job searching resources to reading programs that engage hundreds of families, the library serves all demographics. Investing in our library is investing in the future of Watertown. Please reconsider defunding the library. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you.

Emily Nory.

Hi, Emily Nory. 10:15 South N Street. I'm here tonight because I'm outraged by the vote to cut funding for the library. This decision is unacceptable and it does not reflect the needs, priorities, or values of the people who live here. Our library is not a luxury. It is a lifeline. It serves every demographic in this community. Children discovering reading, teens who need a safe place after school, seniors who rely on programs and connection, job seekers who depend on a computers and internet access, and families who need accessible educational resources. Cutting its funding harms all of them. Elderman, we voted for you. We believed you would represent us. The issues that we're seeing now, you're not You're not speaking for the community. You heard overwhelming public opposition. You saw residents show up, speak out, and plead for you to protect a service that touches every corner of the city. To move forward with these cuts anyways shows a disregard for the people you were elected to serve. I am standing here tonight to say clearly, this community expects better. We expect you to listen, to take responsibility, and to correct this mistake. I urge you to reverse your vote and restore full library funding. Our residents deserve leadership that reflects their voices, not leadership that ignores them. Do the right thing. Protect our library. Thank you.

Thank you.

John Kadesh. I am John Cadish, 204 West Main Street. Um, last time I was here, I was asking the question, where is the support in favor of this cut? I have been looking at social media. I've been speaking with elders. I've been contacting whoever I could that would speak with me and um trying to find the the support. I see it here again tonight. I've looked on social media. I have found a few of people who are not only against the library, but against fire station and the town square and shark corner park and you know everything combined. But um I literally mean a handful. I mean maybe three, four, six if you really stretch it just in extended comments back and forth between individuals about another subject. But I'm not still not feeling where you see this the support. There was one individual that responded and said that um well you you haven't looked you have to go back and look at the voice of the people that was in the newspaper back when the library expansion was an idea. And he said we didn't want it then. You can see it at the voice of the people. Well, the voice of the people I see and that I hear was in the referendum at the B at the ballot box. That was the voice of the people that said they wanted it. And it's I just think again that that's that's just not following what people wanted. This is not just the people. You have to look at Yes, you have to look at the people, the harm it's going to do to the people, harm it's going to do to the staff of the library. But then I was looking through other things because I enjoy reading and

looking at the project narrative of the Oxbow project. This was posted in the packet at the plan commission for the Oxbow project and it clearly states this is their words not mine and it says that um Northtown partners collaborated with Abacus Arctics to bring the Oxbow project to life. After several visits to Watertown, the project team was inspired by the public library, which served as the foundation for the project's theme. They go on to speak about the library favorably after that, but again, this is their their thing, the picture of the library, first thing on there. So, just understand that this does not just affect patrons and staff. this is being looked at by potential developers and this developer especially that we're hopefully close to getting over the finish line on. So again, I'm just trying to put it in perspective. Thank you for your time.

Thank you, John. That's all I have. Okay, move on to resolutions. Exhibit 9807 resolution to approve 2026 budgets for funds 2 357 through 20 22 through 26 30 60 65 sponsored by myself and finance committee Mayor Stocks Miss Davis

I would like to make a motion to resend the motion adopted by this council on November 18th that reduced amount account 0155146 library contribution and the general fund by $100,000 increased account 015154 3160 streets capital outlay in the general fund by $100,000 and reduced account 05581 1169 annual streets in fund five by $100,000.

Okay, I have a motion by Davis, Mr. Wetszel. Okay, a second by Mr. Wetszel. Miss Davis, go ahead.

So, I think um many of us were taken completely by surprise by the motion made um November 18th at the council meeting during the public hearing time. Although the motion did not technically have to be noticed ahead of time, that's completely okay. I think there are perhaps some unintended consequences by this surprise approach. For example, the council members didn't have time before the meeting to study the issue, talk to their constituents, and make sure that they had all their questions answered about the budget. After the motion was passed by the council with a simple majority, the public has been loud and clear in expressing their opposition. Honestly, and I mean this sincerely, I don't think I can recollect ever seeing the citizens of Watertown so completely unified around a single issue. Everywhere I go, people want to talk about it. Across all demographics and political affiliations, people are united in their support for the library. If we step back for a minute, this could potentially be a good thing. As you all know, the budget process is supposed to be a collaborative process. That's the way the state law and our city codes have designed it. We welcome and we encourage public input and participation. So, we had a motion that was passed in the city budget public hearing by this council. When the residents learned of that decision, they engaged in the process. They provided input. They voiced their opposition. So, now it comes back to the council to decide how we are going to incorporate this feedback that we've received from the residents. One thing that I think we could very easily do is just slow down and hit the reset button. We can resend the November 18th motion and return the budget to the version that was passed by finance unanimously at that time published in notice for the public to view and comment on. What we have here

tonight is something that we did not have when this motion came before this council on November 18th. We have public input. We didn't have that when this motion came for a vote, but we have it now. This is new data. This is new information. We now have clear communication from the public. They oppose the decision to decrease funding the library operation fund. Remember, the budget can be adjusted at any point next year with a two-third vote of the council. All a vote to resend tonight does is return the budget to the proposed budget that was passed unanimously by the finance committee. A vote to resend tonight is a very reasonable way that we can incorporate the public feedback that we have now received.

Mr. Barts, go ahead.

Just a question to the finance director following the motion made by Alderman Davis. Um, does this adjustment to the budget, does that still have to be publicly published and does it make still allow us to meet the timeline for the city for uh reporting the mill rate to state and county? We will have to publish any changes that take place, but through the advice of uh Ally, our council, um anything that is approved uh would have to go to the state. I have a a Monday deadline to get it to the state and the counties. Uh but uh what is being pres presented as a net change of zero on fund one. So it should be able to be approved. Mr. Smith, I I just have a question. [clears throat] Are we discussing exhibit 9807?

Yes. Uh, a My my impression was yes because one of the accounts referenced was0558169 and we have the two resolutions split fund five and fund one into two different resolutions. Correct.

Well, I'm just inquiring because uh Mr. Stevens response focused upon the net effect of no uh substantial change in the fund one budget and the fund one budget is [snorts] in the next exhibit. So I presume that we would talk about that under exhibit 9808. It has is it is as Mr. Atlampy indicated because the motion on the floor includes fund five. I don't see how you can't have conversation because it does include fund five. Just just to make everyone understand why do we have the separation? Uh because they're all pretty much all the same. The other two that are on the next resolution have an impact on debt levy and general levy. And so that's why those two are separated from the rest of the batch. state attorney is comfortable with us with any changes being done here under a

um I I just wanted to speak to the uh uh the motion that Alder Davis made and of course I am in favor of that. Okay, you have any comments? Uh, not not off hand. Um, okay. Just making sure. Okay. Yes, Mr. Watson.

Your microphone, please. Mr. Watson,

these funds are being taken from the library endowment, correct? No. Out of fund one. Okay, I'll wait. If no more discussion, we'll take a bullet. Wait a little bit. Mr. Smith. So if we deal with this amendment [clears throat] and then the the amended exhibit then uh there also will be changes to 9808 and then I'm wondering will they be effective notwithstanding the fact we have not passed that exhibit. I believe we'd be adding. Sorry, Mr. Just going to say that any motion that is provided um that impacts the budget impacts the budget. Um so when it is presented, it would impact um obviously the future budget, but the the modification on the tax levy stays the same. There is no change on the tax levy with this suggested proposal.

Mr. Mayor, yes, Mr. I guess then what I would do to try to simplify our way forward is to simply suggest that we bring both exhibit 9807 and 9808 to the floor at the same time and discuss them together. Mr. Go ahead.

Well, understanding Mr. Smith's suggestion there uh from a parliamentary procedure perspective, we have to do one motion at a time. However, perhaps need to ask the city's attorney perspective on this, but my perspective is that 9807 and 9808 are presented to us as published and that making the motion to resend will not have effect on retroactive effect on those published resolutions. And we will still need to have amendments made to those published resolutions to reflect the changes that have occurred because we're what have been what's refed on the agenda is what's been presented and published. So, I think we can we can have the motion to rescend, but I think you'd still have to have individual amendments on 9807 and 988 for the changes requested because they're presented to us here as published. You there, Ally?

I am. Um, let me pull up the specific language of our resolutions. One second, please. Can you hear me? Yeah, you're good. Thank you.

Okay, very good. Okay. I actually don't [clears throat] I do not believe that we would have to take separate uh amendments for each of the resolutions. We could move forward with the motion to resend the action that was taken at the November meeting at the public hearing. um the budget that you would be adopting under the the two resolutions that would be inclusive of any successful motion to resend it. Of course, uh as this motion uh this or this motion does require a twothirds vote.

Thank you, Ally.

Mr. Smith, go ahead. Again, just to return to the thought which I think will leave all of this in proper parliamentary position is I think we should simply um withdraw the amendment, withdraw the motion to [clears throat] bring exhibit 9807 to the floor and then seek the council's approval. approval to bring both exhibit 9807 and 98 to the council floor together, discuss them together, and vote on them together. There have been any number of times when we have passed uh resolutions for the adoption of all of the budgets in a single resolution. this is um simply an occasion where they have been um placed on the agenda to come before us separately, but I don't see any detriment in bringing them to the council floor together, discussing them together. the motion and the amendment as I understand it affects both of them and then a single vote would deal with each of those two resolutions. Um the amendment would and then there can be um votes and we can um request a separate vote on each of them. Just because we've discussed them together and amended them together

is not a detriment to doing this in a way that is clear in what is the proposed outcome.

Yes, Miss Davis. Um, I'll of course defer to our attorney, but a motion to resend is the motion that is on the floor and a motion to resend undoes voids the previous motion that was made on November 18th. So, that is the motion that is before us right now. Um, it's my understanding and um that that is what we are to vote on and um I'll defer to the attorney though as to uh whether or not there's a need um to first discuss the resolutions and make amendments and then decide on the motion to resend. You currently have a motion before you right now. So that's what you need to consider at this point in time. Okay. else will take a vote on it then. Davis.

Hi. Lampy. Hi. Berg. No. Barts. Hi. Lanky. No. Smith. No. Arnett. Wetszel. Hi. Moldenhower. No. Motion failed. Okay. Mr. Mayor, concern.

I would like to ask for the attorney's opinion on Mr. Smith's suggestion of taking both 9807 and 9808 in the same motion so they can be discussed together since the obvious items of interest branch both of those exhibits. Can I bring Go ahead, Allie. Sorry, that's fine. You can take them both at the same time.

Okay, I'll start over. Resolutions. Exhibit 9807 resolution to approve 2026 budgets for funds 235 7 through 20 22 through 26 30 60 and 65. Also exhibit 9808 resolution to approve 2026 budgets for general fund debt service general fund one debt service fund 4 and corresponding levies and tax rates both sponsored by myself and the finance committee. Move for adoption. Okay. Motion for both to come together. Sorry. Motion by Burke, second by Barts.

Mr. Mayor.

Yes, Mr. Mr. I want to make some comments if I can to uh generate probably more discussion, but I want to start off by saying thank you to our mayor stocks and the finance committee that I've been a member of for making a uh the best of a of a difficult decision that we had in making this recommendation to you. Um but I want to give some context and that's why I want to hopefully hit on points that uh have some application for tonight. Fund balances are an important component in financing our city operating budgets. Fund balances are typically excess revenues in a budget that can be carried over from year to year. Uh the accumulation of yearly fund balances are significant amount of money that we attain and we have. Our fund balance last year was 33% of our operating budget or 8,571,000. The problem wasn't using or spending some of that fund balance. It was how it was used to balance last year's budget, which had $993,000 more in expenditures than revenues. That is the the context of what our finance committee started off with when we met together as a board and a and a committee. We did as a finance committee cut 1,582,736 from department and and program requests that were uh given to us initially. uh and we looked at them. But obviously in the context of trying to comply with the expenditure restraint program, those dollar amounts again 1,582,736 were taken out to uh move us forward and to give us the budget we have in front of us today. Um but we did we did add a new fire marshal. We did add a police

captain to our 2026 budget uh at a cost of roughly $256,000 for salary and benefits. Um that was the plus and minus of what we did there. So again, before we got really started too much into that budget, we were almost $1,300,000 in the whole if you look at that context. Property taxes, state revenue sharing, and city fees and charges for services rendered are the predictable sources of revenue that cities actually and municipalities have to work with. Fund balances are not uh a reliable source of income. Uh and when you stop using them to balance a city budget, you have what they call a deficit type budget. And that's what we again inherited. Uh and and my point is uh the concern I have on using fund balance for that type approach. We're we're not allowed as a city to give a bal a budget that's not balanced. We have to offset the two together. They have to equal out. And that's what we did last year by using that fund balance to balance out the budget. Uh this is going to take a few years though for our council if we if we can wean oursel away from that fund balance uh in order to balance our budget going forward at some point in a more normal type way. Um and that's what I uh if we have the discipline to do it that's what we will at some point do but it is not very easy and it's going to take more than a couple years to get us away from uh what we used in order to balance it last year. Our finance committee made a strong statement for fixing our deteriorating streets by approving an additional $500,000 into uh street repairs. That was a significant statement by our finance committee. It was meant to address a problem that everybody talks about as far as our streets being neglected,

needing attention. We gave extra money beyond our normal uh appropriation for addressing streets. We gave that as a way of sending a message. This would have also been a good example of a fund balance type use because that's a non-recurring type cost. Uh the problem again with fund balances that when you use them for recurring costs and you don't keep putting the money in from your fund balance, you have deficit spending and that's the problem we uh dealt with again this year. Um but we couldn't use it. It would have been perfect if we would have had our our fund balance in a healthier way. We could have paid for that 500,000 and not had to borrow, which we did 500,000 on that. Um anyways um in doing that we did also look at the fact that this year's levy uh when you look at a at a city we have a general fund and we have a debt levy type of of uh service debt service levy the two together equal our overall uh impact on what we're proposing for approval and u uh last year's u debt service was uh levy was 5,300,000 this year's 6,100,000. That was a 15% increase, which is a very healthy large increase in in debt levy, but it was needed obviously to address this year uh the beginning of borrowings to uh fund uh the retirement of our 14.5 million U fire station that we have in place and is obviously an asset to our city. Um, we also did partially fund the McGrath study uh pay plan to help address some of the inequities in our in our salary we pay city employees and that cost us $328,000. But on the topic of our library um obviously no I I

Yes. So topic the resolution is dealing with funds 2 35 720 22 to 26 30 60 and 65. Um, I think the alderman's comments should be limited to those funds.

The the library did receive a cut of $140,000, which was significant in a budget of $1.3 million for next year. Our finance director um uh did provide information to me today u projecting that the library will have about $60,000 of uh carryover in their budget for this year when at the end of the year. and that that $60,000 of additional money unspent is going to be added to the current balance they have right now of $452,000. At the end of this year, they're going to have $510,000 in their fund balance for the library. Obviously, that's a healthy balance. When you look at the 510,000 in relation to their 1.3 million, that's a 38% fund balance that they have, which is envious of anyone to have. So, I'm I'm proud of them to have it, but I'm I'm trying to get across the point, which is I know that our finance committee, I know that our council is receptive to the idea of listening to their problem uh at a time in the future once they move into their um their year 2026. Uh I'm encouraging them to look at that 510,000, use it as a funding source for now. uh do as much as you can to uh critically look at uh where the savings and where the cuts need to be made and then to do it in the context of giving it some time not to be uh abruptly uh potentially changing uh things that have uh a more dramatic impact on the on the on the integrity of that library and the things that we're all proud of as as a city. So, I'm I'm encouraging them to uh to give it some time to use some of the fund balance and to come back and at our city council and finance committee will meet with them anytime next year that they feel they want to talk more more about it if they show us their financial state of affairs and if we can be proven that it's in a position where they need

additional funds and that we can buy into that concept at a different time once they've made the effort then I think u you'll see a council and a finance committee receptive to them. Uh, in closing, I just want to point out that I feel next year is going to be a a better year for us. We know that there's been a significant amount of new homes being built. That's going to create revenue we don't have now. I also know that the debt service levy, which went up 15%, is going to be bought into and incorporated into our new debt service. So, that going forward, we're not going to have large increases like that. Uh, because we've we've accepted that debt on the on the fire station. and it will now be built into a baseline of expenditure which will make it easier and the increases on debt will be much more manageable after this budget. And I'm we did a nice job of uh dealing with the general fund and we did a lot of changes that I'm proud of. I just pointed out a few of them, but I'm I'm confident that we did the best we could. I'm confident we can address the issues of the library and I'm asking them to uh give us some time and to try to do as much as they can to keep things intact the way they are for now.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Mr. Clarification on Alder Davis's comment. As I understand it, the current motion on the floor is for 9807 and 9808. You're right. Sure. Thank you. Mr. Lampy,

don't mean to play ping pong with things. Thank you, mayor. Uh, thank you members of Watertown's law enforcement community who have chosen to join us at this time. I think this is my first budget process with loes in process, and I I hope you are enjoying the process and learning along with us. So for the community tonight, we are we are presenting a budget that it increases taxes to implement a brand new pay scale uh that we've been hoping for for employees for a long time. That's a very important step. Uh we also are providing raises to our employees, which is absolutely one of the critical things that we need to do and continue to do to make sure that we have uh the best people in the area. We have a budget that increases taxes to pay for, as as others have mentioned, we're hiring a new police captain next year. We're hiring a new fire marshal, which you know, frankly, has been one of my priorities as long as I've been on uh the council. We are definitely increasing taxes to pay for roads. And I I mention it in this this context here because when we talk about taxing and spending, the things that people like, the things that people understand, uh they can get behind it and they can say that these are things that are important to us and we should continue to do that. I also mention that because there is no budget crisis we're facing here. This is all spending we decided to take on ourselves. These are all decisions we decided to make ourselves. Until the last few weeks, there was no cannibalization of department fighting department for for funds. And I I I think of the absolutely embarrassing example that happened in Monomony Falls earlier this year at last where essentially you had huge allocation taken right out of one department, a library and dropped another department happened the police in that department and that just set off you know just just a firestorm of complaints in that community and we've kind of brought that on ourselves over the last couple of

weeks. So this is my fourth year serving on the finance uh committee and we normally do things where we sit down, we talk intensely for weeks. We have meetings that last for hours and hours through an entire week, sometimes into a second week like it was this year. Uh we have other norms that surround the budget process like we schedule what we're going to talk about which night, which departments we're bringing in. If you have a particular committee or department heads that are involved in a particular night, we give them heads up that we're going to talk about their topics that night and then we're going to talk through those topics and hopefully settle things and move things on to the council. This year we were on a pretty good track and one of those topics of course was the library. We came in with a budget that had a $40,000 cut. I wasn't a huge fan of that. Tried to reverse it in finance. That got voted down. Um Alder Smith thought the cut wasn't big enough. tried to add another $25,000 to it. Also got shot down at finance. Great. Uh we've discussed it. We've come to a consensus. We're going to move on. And so that is the consensus budget that we adopted unanimously as Alder Davis mentioned in her remarks. But this year we did a couple of things differently. We had this very strange fifth finance meeting which was basically to clean up a couple of typos that we had in our in our other budget. Um, it was held in a weird place. It was a barn um that we use for, you know, park maintenance. There was a Zoom that didn't work. I basically ended up calling in to a phone using a speaker phone to get into it. It was just very strange. But the strangest part about that is that the subject of that meeting switched very quickly from cleaning up some typos in our budget to an attack on the library endowment. And it was an attack that was an order of magnitude larger than any of those that we've been discussing in finance. So there was no heads up any department head ads. There was no heads up to library board.

There's no heads up really to members of finance. There's no heads up to the public. It was frankly a betrayal of the process. And the chaos that that unleashed in the budget process is essentially what you're seeing over the past month. It just led to this sort of terrible reputation for the city, for the council, for anybody involved in the budget process. And as one of the speakers came up and said tonight, it's exactly the type of thing that scares away potential residents, scares away developers, scares away anybody who wants to do business with the city. So, um, I'm up for election this year. I'm very happy that I'm up for election this year. Um, I had a chance to get out and talk to a lot of people gathering up my signatures and and I I think I I've told a few of you I've never been able to get my signatures as fast as I did this year. Everybody that I talked to was angry, ashamed, clown show. There were all sorts of that were being launched at me being a council member. They didn't really know which way I voted until I talked about it. Um, but it was so fast to get those signatures that actually I picked up my my signature board and you know, the the clerk's got them on file now. Um, but I said, "This is too easy. This is shooting fish in a barrel on my own street." So, I actually picked up drove a mile and a half to get under my district and started, "All right, I'm just going to randomly pick a street and start collecting signatures there, knocking on doors." Same issue. Everybody wanted to talk about a the library, b leaf pickup, all the snow. Um, but primarily it was the library. And I've never gotten signatures that fast. I actually went home early that evening and had dinner with my wife, which I did not expect I was going to do. So, I know um things really haven't gone the way that I wanted on this particular budget cycle. Um I am very happy to see that there is a ton of interest um thanks to how people think this place is run in the almatic seats. Um I've heard from a lot of new voices who want to run uh for seats um in these districts. Reminder, you can only run for fourth,

sixth, and eighth right now. Um, I just encourage everybody who has looked at that to commit, get your signatures in this month. Um, and if you want, go check out my Facebook site. I put a little winners and losers from this year's budget. Talk about how point of order. Budget, please. I believe we're talking about the budget, not a campaign speech.

All right. So, I will have to vote no, unfortunately, on these resolutions, 9807 and 9808. Um, I do apologize, Mayor Stocks. Um, this was This was a pretty good budget process and Alder Davis especially for leading us to a consensus in that budget process and getting us to a budget that we could drive a consensus around and get to council. But this is not that budget. I cannot support it. Hang on, Mr. B. Mr. Mayor, hang on. Mr. Apologize. I was saying something, but I'll just wait. Mr. Black, go ahead. So, I want to thank the members of the community for showing up tonight and keeping their comments civil. Um, I know that the budget can be a hot button issue, especially when it's something that we're passionate about. Over the last several weeks, there has been a lot of talk about the library budget. However, to provide some clarity, number one, city is not taking any money out of the endowment fund. That is a common thing that I have seen both on social and that has been said to me. The money is coming from fund balance. There is a very large difference between those two items. And over the last five years, the library's fund balance has increased by $77,699 and this year it's projected to increase

another $60,000. It's hard for me to understand how when the fund balance, or to put it another way, the savings account for the library continues to grow, how a cut to the budget is going to end the library. I will leave my comments at that for now. Thank you. Yes, Mr. Bird to

clarify that uh that example that's being brought up uh repeatedly on on the meeting at the at the street department's um building that they have was I think at the request of our mayor because we had an item in our uh proposed budget to uh to have a new facility out there. we uh had to take it out, but through uh some changes, we allocated 125,000 on repairs to that facility. And I think our mayor felt we needed to go there to see it firsthand and look at the condition of the building. And that from my understanding is the reason for going there. And as far as the internet and things that were not working, um I mean that that uh is is a hit or miss when it comes to that happening, but our intentions were well intended. We did a tour and after the tour we sat down and we did our meeting and uh if my my memor is working. Uh the motion was a voluntary request that was made uh and I think uh Alder person Smith made it and alder person um Dana Davis seconded the motion to uh to take it to the library board as a request for them to voluntarily make a a contribution to uh to help our debt service because of the circumstances we were in. That was the context of what happened that day. Thank you, Mr. Bird. I believe that was to improve improve the electrical and HBAC in those buildings. I was looking for a minute of 63,000. The finance gave me 50. I was just looking for 13,000 more, which is why I had that meeting there that they have to turn their lights on by using electric box that gets ice on in the winter. That's why that mean was there.

I do recall made the motion I did put in for a new building. I do recall made the motion to take that out. So if we have issues with the internet, perhaps we should fix those rather than taking the money out of the budget. Just a thought. But as a point of order, I I think we did. Point of order. Uh No, I Mr. Annette did. Mr. Annette took care of it. Thank you, Mr. I'm talking we as a council, we added Yes, he did as a council and I voted unanimously to put more money into it. Yes. 125,000.

Right. I'm just correcting why we had that meeting there in the first place. was that I was hoping

and I think it worked because I think you saw how bad that building is. I'd rather stay on the put it in total right now. Mr. Smith, go ahead. [clears throat and cough] Well, this is my first year back on the finance committee after many years off. I had a lot to learn and it was a very difficult year. Uh before I talk about some of the issues that I think are important for us all to keep in mind, I want to thank the public that has shoes seriously. uh the vast majority of whom have come in and thoughtfully and respectfully presented their point of view, requested responsiveness from our council, and have been the very epitome of engaged and uh helpful members of the public. Uh we've had a number of opportunities where the public has spoken. Uh we had the public hearing where a number of citizens spoke. We had the last council meeting a week ago tonight where a number of citizens came and spoke. We had a number who spoke tonight. the vast majority of whom are to be commended for their contribution to good government. There have been a few and it's understandable that people will get

upset over issues that matter a lot to them. And I understand that there inevitably will be people who say things that maybe in a more reflective moment might wish they had said things differently or maybe made personal attacks where substantive approaches could have been more helpful. Um, I certainly um recognize that there are issues that come up in almost every council meeting where there are areas of reasonable disagreement. And the approach that I have tried to take is to be respectful to everybody that is involved in the common process of moving our city in a direction that will serve the community well into the future. And these issues are extremely difficult. One reason I'm thankful for being on the finance committee this year is I got to work with some of the best members of the council who worked extraordinarily hard to try to make a better budget. And I'm extremely thankful for being able to pick up the challenge that we received to take a very very well-prepared budget by our mayor and do our best to make it better.

So at this moment, I mean, I remember what it was like to be a firstyear mayor, to have a massive increase in debt, and to try to make an almost impossible budget come out reasonably well. When I became mayor, we could not and did not borrow for three straight years to make up for the profleacy of borrowing that had taken place previously. There has been a very similar experience that our mayor has been through. an extremely difficult budget driven by explosive debt service. And without getting into the weeds, by trying to take a broad-based approach to this budget and be responsible for the financial decisions that were made previous to his coming into government here as our mayor, he put together a remarkably good budget. We have got very difficult problems on the horizon. And I'm not going to try to get into every specific reason why the budget is

as difficult and probably even fairly termed controversial this year as it is. I can tell you there are going to be hard decisions to make in the future. When I ran for the council, I made a promise to the people that individually visited and said that my number one goal would be to serve as the taxpayers's friend on the city council. Now, that doesn't mean saying no to everything that comes down the pike or having the only goal to drive the tax rate down. It is from my perspective a balanced approach where our city budget promotes value in services provided. That does it in the most efficient manner possible, but keeps before our eyes the people that trust us to make responsible decisions. not only in the short run, but that our financial posture may move into the future with a bright prospect before us. Right now, that is not the case. If we don't make decisions that are difficult, our financial position will get worse.

[clears throat]

So my responsibility is to try to be a representative of fiscal responsibility that promotes the services that our citizens have come to expect. That includes the library, but it also includes every other one of our departments. Now, I went to the library board in good faith and recognized it was a long shot. I honestly felt the best thing for both the city and the library was for a oneyear occasion where we received help toward the debt service from the endowment account. It was rejected. From my perspective, that issue was over. But there were remaining issues that were of concern to me to try to put us in a position where we were maybe a little bit better postured to make more good decisions the following year. And that's why I made a motion to reduce the um city contribution to the library by $100,000. At the point I made the motion, there was an anticipated subsidy of $810,000. The city's requirement was to provide $527,000. So what the reduction allowed was a

little bit less than $200,000 more subsidy than the state formula required. I wanted more than anything to be fair to the library. Even as we looked at this broader picture and as a member of the council, we have to be able to look each department as an equal participant in providing important services to our city. There have been cuts that I think every department head would say not only this year but in prior years. We have told our department heads to submit department requests with no increase in their budget. That was true last year. That was true the year before. Every department is having a difficult time. I wish it were not so. But if we don't recognize that it is so, we will be in increasingly difficult financial posture farther down the road. So right now [clears throat] we have to and again I I am not going to get into the weeds in details that are probably unnecessary but more than likely just confusing. The bottom line is our budgeted expenditures this year with all of the efforts that have been made by an excellent dedicated mayor and multiple weeks of work by an

additional four members of our council to try to put our budget into solid position. is we have $1.1 million that has been moved from our fund balance into the budget. It is a it is a move that taken together with everything else that was done allows us to have the prospect of being able to have a better budget next year and that it need not be draconian in any way, but incrementally improved year by year. 1.1 million transferred from a fund balance to an operating budget is unsustainable. And so the future is just as important as this year. Now, $1.1 million. What's it mean? It means we've kept the lid on the tax rate. In my county that I'm representing, Dodge County, we have a 3.9% tax rate increase when the rate of inflation is less than that. I wished it had been possible to have kept our tax rate increase. And Jefferson County, I will say, is substantially closer for a variety of financial reasons, but I feel like there is still a lot of work to do. Our fund balance is going to drop to 28.9% and it is heading in the wrong direction

fast. Now, how does that compare to the fund balance for the library? First of all, let me say it is not the only it is not the only department that I looked at from the perspective of fund balance and using fund balance that was available. There are others that have made uh the where cuts have been made and where we have used up substantial amounts of fund balance to contribute to trying to get a handle on this financial position that either gets improved or we're in trouble. So the bottom line is from [clears throat] 19 from 2021 uh January 1st of 2021 the fund balance has increased the operational fund balance I'm not talking anymore about the endowment account the operational fund balance which is equatable to the fund balance I just told you the city took $1.1 million from to help balance our budget has increased four out of those five years. And when we started the uh 2025 fiscal year, the fund balance, the operational fund balance was 37% of the libraryies annual budget. Substantially healthier than the city's fund balance was in relationship to our budget. It is estimated that now as we approach the end of 2025,

somewhere between 60 and 80,000 additional dollars will spill into the library fund balance account, moving it to an amount somewhere between 510 and 525,000. The percentage of that fund balance to the budget as a whole is 43%. The city's fund balance has fallen to 28.9. So, as was done with other departments, uh the city uh made a determination to cut 100,000 from the city subsidy, which again is almost 200,000 more than the statutory requirement. [clears throat] that in do then that in doing that the city would be in a better position next year to hopefully be able to return some of the funding to a variety of the departments. And the result might very well be that we'll be in a position to um [clears throat] have fewer cuts that are viewed as um very very difficult. What does the library face in the upcoming year 2026 with $100,000 less to operate? The library hopefully will be in the same kind of a position that the city is

in that we that they will use a significant portion of that needed funding and perhaps instead of having 43% uh possibly their fund balance will drop to an amount possibly 32 33% But nevertheless, be in a position to fund all of the services that are being funded in 2025 and still have a fund balance that is substantially a larger percentage of their total budget than is the case for the city as a whole. That's the broader picture that I have been looking at. If I had my desires and I could wave the magic wand and make it come to pass, I would be much more inclined to fund so many of the things that we've had to cut. If the public as a whole only knew the number of requested additional personnel that were not approved, the number of requested initiatives that are very needful that were not funded, we have a capital improvement plan that slides more and more capital projects into the future as fewer and fewer are funded each year. I'm talking about major pieces of equipment. I'm talking about streets that need to be addressed. I'm talking about the kinds of things that if we don't do them, we're going to be in dreadful difficulties. [clears throat]

And the sad thing is this, that capital budget, every single dollar except for minor fees is borrowed money. Every street we do, it's funded with borrowing. Every time we buy a new piece of fire equipment, it's funded by debt. Every time we try to keep our infrastructure up, it's funded by debt. Every time we try to address a building, like our mayor is pulling his hair out to try to provide a safe building for the the workers in our park and wreck department.

Do your friends coming from? It's I'm not sure what's happening. It's all funded by debt. And what I'm telling you is some of these things are systemic problems that must be addressed. We're doing our best to try to do that. I'll do everything I can to try to in this next budget, if I'm on the council, to help the library return to the kind of funding that they had to supplement by their own fund balance just like we had to do this year. And Alderman Berg is right. There are rays of light on the horizon. There is increased revenue that is coming from development in our city. Future budgets have the prospect of being less difficult based upon builtin deficiencies that unressed will be to the detriment of our long-term city's well-being. So, all I can tell you is I'm not sure that every single vote I cast was right. I'm not sure that every single thing I tried to promote is right. But I did the best I could. I'm trying to apply a long range perspective to decisions that are very immediate. I know that any one of the departments could come to you and say this particular cut or this failure to fund an important need was not wise.

And I will respect every single person that has that point of view. I've heard from a number. Every year I have the honor to serve. I will try to do better. But right now, this is the best that I believe we can do. It's balanced. It's fair. A lot of good people have put extraordinarily much effort into it. And there's nothing here that anybody would complain about if we had a few million extra dollars to disperse, but we don't. But to make the prospect for the future more likely to be healthy than we are right now, we have made some tough decisions. So to the members of the finance committee, I say thank you. It has been an honor serving with you. To our mayor, I am extremely respectful of your efforts, which I consider nothing short of extraordinary. and you have done well. And to the members of the public that have come and helped us with your input, it has not gone unheard even if the vote doesn't come out the way you would like it to. But those comments will remain with us and I for one will remember them long and I will seek my best to apply a number of them as we move into the future. Thank you, Mr. Smith. I would like to correct Mr. Smith on well slightly something. Thanks for the compliments, but I'd like to give compliments to Mr. Stevens and the finance department as well too on this budget.

That's for sure. One more thing I was asked by department head that at some point our fourth budget meeting someone had mentioned was at a streets department and I'll make sure it was at the uh park shop on Iowa just for the paper some point it was we had four here five was oh sorry fifth okay somewhere it said it someone must have said streets building it was a park shop in Yeah, Mr. Lampy.

Um, thank you, Alder Smith. I think there's a lot that we do agree on in in in your comments. Um, we'll probably have to hash that out a little bit later, but there's there's a lot in there that we do agree on. U, I am asking for two clarifications on numbers in there. One would be the the fund balance change. Um, the latest budget I'm looking at has that at 810 rather than 1.1 million. I don't know where the 810 is. It's 1.1.

Okay. I the the one that I'm looking at is the the budget that the city put out actually a few days ago and it has an adopted line of 810 next to a finance line of 1.1. That's the one that went up on the Facebook site a few days ago. That's what I've been going off of. Better for worse. I think the finance is 1.1, but where it says adopted, it says 810,000. It's it's it's the it's the budget PDF. It's the

it's the one posted on our city page page 35. It could be that just the adopted 2026 fund balance line is incorrect. So I guess I guess I appreciate a follow up on that one to figure out what the the number should be and if we have to republish that budget the right number.

Do you see the one with the green arrows flowing down on two columns? We're not to the page yet.

My apologies. those numbers um I would have put in um as placeholders to try to figure out what was going on. If you went up that column, there are no numbers in that column. So, I would have been just using it for math, but then it's entered on the left hand side there under total fund balance and then there's the arrow. Yeah. Just because of where the calculator goes. Yeah. And all but yeah, if you scroll up on that entire document, there's nothing there except that 810 Could um given the importance of the fund balance decrease in our budget discussions, could we please get an updated copy? It's it is what the finance column is. The next column that

So if we adopt the budget tonight, can we get an updated copy that has the adopted figure? Yes. Correct.

Thank you. The the second figure though that I'd like to ask about is um we we've heard some figures tonight about the library's uh fund balance and I imagine we're talking about fund 11 which works as the library's operating fund. Um I have not seen any documentation about a potential increase in that fund for 2025 yet. So if that is being shared since we're talking about it and open if you could please share that also appreciate that and alder did request for me to calculate what I expected that uh fund one uh fund 11 would end with um because we're at 11 and a half months out of 12 uh months. So, I did that uh calculation and that's the numbers that you're hearing. Um I believe that uh there's approximately $63,000 additional in payroll expenses. Um and about $37,000 at least in additional accounts payable bills. Uh the current net increase of that fund is 160,000 minus the 63 in payroll minus the 37 in accounts payable. I have an approximate $60,000 net increase expected.

Okay. Like like I said, if I could if I get the the written documentation on it, I would appreciate that. And I think that may go a long way to trying to um help clarify what budget figures we're going to be asking of the library in future years to see if they meet our standards for fiscal responsibility. My the owner says that nothing else. Mr. Sir,

one other I think we've hit on it to a to the point of hopefully getting that uh issue uh clarified and and made as an important issue, but the the point that Alder person Smith and I have pointed out on on the use of uh fund balance to to address uh some of the budget needs uh for the city. It was taken last year at the number I gave of 933,000. It is being used right now for a balanced budget of 1.1 million. What we did in in finance is we did uh placeholder, if you want to call it that in the in the contingency fund, 226,000 uh the mayor feeling that his needs were going to be minimal and that there was a a strong likelihood of transferring uh back around 200,000 to to uh to replenish the the fund balance um uh the following year uh a year from now hopefully in a way that will uh will improve approve that account. That's uh we we did it because of our expenditure restraint program which rewards us for spending up to the amount that we can for the cost of living and we did that uh up to the max u but we put money into that account hoping to pay down our our our improve our fund balance a year from now and that'll time will tell. We we can't predict the future, but there's some reassurance that that's likely to happen. And and and yet the the dependency on that fund balance to continue to operate our budget is is the biggest concern I have because we have a finite amount of money in that account and we can't afford to obviously dip into it on a continu continuing basis to fund our our operational budget. We have to get away from it. And in retrospect, it was a mistake to use it that that much last year, but it is what it is. I think we we had to do the best we could and we obviously funded it again with

with some fund balance, but we are are aware of it. We just know it's going to take more than a few years to get it uh to get away from that intent. Uh, since Alderberg brought up the concept, I guess I do also want to take a look at page one of the budget summary where we do talk about our expenditure restraint percentages. And one of the striking numbers there is is that although as a finance committee, we did intend to spend the allowable amount. I'm seeing an actual amount that's showing 0.05% lower on page one of the same document. That is our long-standing practice to make sure that we do not go beyond um you cannot equal it has to be less than. Appreciate the clarification because that that that's slightly different than some of the language we've been saying we've been spending at all or spending to the max. We spend to a reasonable threshold below so we don't go over the max. Correct. Thank you. What was your calculation Mr. Stevens is 0.9. Use a percentage. So we don't use exactly 100%.

I I subtracted 05. 05. Yeah. Okay.

Okay. point of order. Could you could the chair please state the specific um um we are voting on? Is this the amendment or is this the combined? I apologize. Yes, we had I motioned by Berg and second by Barts to combine exhibits 9807 and 9808. Apologize. I mean to go quick around Mr. Mayor would like to be recognized.

I'm sorry, Mr. Hern. That's right.

Sometimes you walk into a meeting, think you're going to say one thing and you end up Yeah, I'm thinking different. Our last discussion about this topic, I started off with a caution about the tone and the language I was hearing used by some. I would agree with with Alderman Smith that it's not a majority at all. It's Um um unfortunately that caution was not heeded by some body as well as members of city staff and as disappointed as I was the last time I couldn't be more disappointed now that behavior continued and continues to today. The results of that kind of language and tone are most unfortunate. I'm also very disappointed to see or I'll call, for lack of a better term, the kind of politic that we see at the state and national level in our wonderful city. One of the reasons why I like serving at a local level is because frankly local politics is different. It is still about public service more than anything. And it's just disappointing to see the kinds of exaggerations, selective presentation of facts, or in some cases outright demagoguery.

But again, I know that that behavior does not represent this community. It does not represent the broader Watertown community. I've been through a lot of heated discussions over the years, 30 plus years. Historically, we've been able to disagree in a civil manner and we focus on facts, we find a way through. Now, I was going to recount some facts that have definitely been omitted consciously or otherwise, but those have all been covered by other individuals here this evening. And you could certainly argue that from a pure factual perspective, you look at 452 as a library operational fund balance and 140 Is there a real problem? But all that said, while I was not prepared to support the prior motion to come completely undo the prior action, I guess I do want to ask the question of this body. Are we open for just a little bit of compromise? And I certainly could understand those that could feel after what's been aimed at people who are just trying to do their best and make a good make

a very tough decision. and to go through what we've gone through. It might stiffen your back, certainly stiffen mine at point, but I'm still at this point that is going to ask, does this body want to find some room for compromise on this? Just a little bit of room could go a long way. Thank you, Mr. I will answer his question and say yes. But what exactly did you have in mind?

Looking at a total of the 40 plus the additional 100. What if we were to reduce that to say 100? something on that order. It's still making a substantial move in the direction that align with what people are describing. Um, but it it shows movement. Go ahead, Mr. Smith. It's interesting. I um have enjoyed immensely serving on the um bike and pedestrian task force. And uh one of the members um on our task force is a member of the library board and after the meeting ended, I must have ended up spending 45 minutes or an hour talking with him. Um, I didn't know him well, but I came to respect him and what he brings to offer to the library board and they're in the city. and um he made a suggestion that um that he believed that the library could continue to serve well the community if it didn't have to undertake such extraordinary cuts. that um was something that I have been thinking about and I'm thankful for

uh Alderman Arnett and I have the highest regard for Alderman Blanki and um I had a similar conversation with Alderman Berg. Um, and uh, obviously we're we're at a supermajority vote requirement here, but I think that that could probably be addressed with a reasonable motion. So, the answer um, from my perspective, similar to Alderman Blankey's to Alderman Arnett, is yes. I think that would be something that would be um a move that would um transcend just finances, but I believe would help to bring our city um together, which uh if we had the world's easiest, strongest, and most um wellunded budget would um would simply pale in terms of the uh the inevitable result of the citizenry being at one another's throat. And uh so I would say um without being interested in um intervening in what is already the potential motion that Alderman Arnett is thinking of. I would be very eager to hear that and would be inclined to support it.

Mr. Bird,

I appreciate Alder person Smith uh being open to that and I I I've also been of that same persuasion. I did make comments that I felt our council would be receptive to uh listening to their uh their financial state of affairs at some point in time in the future and that in the meantime they could use fund balance. Uh, but I I do deeply appreciate um uh the the comment by our older person, Arnette, and I I do think that that is a gesture that will go a decent way and and showing sensitivity to the to the patrons and the and the supporters of that library in a in a good way. It doesn't fix their problem, but again, it does go in the right direction. I I think it moves it probably better into uh a baseline uh city contribution uh going from uh from SE 710 to 750. 750 is u is potentially closer to a a an amount that they can um they can deal with uh more realistically and and knowing the fund balance and everything they they have at their discretion. So I think it's a win-win. I appreciate the willingness to uh to make that overture and uh I also would be supportive of of that if I think there's a way to do it. I could do it but I I appreciate the alder person arett's intent. So please uh make a motion if you can.

Mr. B, um as I was trying to get before, we have a motion to put both exhibits together. Motion by Berg and second by Barts. So, we still need to vote to put both exhibits together. I just got that confirmed from our city attorney. So, once we go through our vote to put them together, then we can make motions. All you want to come online and confirm, please. [snorts]

Yep, that's correct. You said it correctly. We just need to take a vote on that [clears throat] and procedurally bringing both of them to the floor. So to clarify the vote, the next vote would be to merge the two into a single and then that would have to be followed by another motion to approve would have to be followed by a motion to amend. Correct. And I apologize. I was trying to get the motion to put them together before that went quicker. There's a lot going on. I apologize. Okay. Is that correct, Ally? They can go on vote to put them together first. Yes. Okay. So, that would be start with Berg again. B. Hi, Barts. Hi,

Linky. Hi, Smith. Um, I got to apologize, but I'm not sure. Sorry, Mr. Smith. We're just voting to put both exhibit 9807 and 9808 together. We never officially did that vote. All right. I Arnett I, Wetszel, I, Moldenhower, I, Davis, Lampy. Motion carried. Okay. Thank you. Now we have a motion that both exhibits are together. So now the next Mr. Mayor, the next proper motion would be a motion to approve those resolutions to pass those resolutions. I hang on. I believe Ally, they have to make if they're going to change anything. Now is the time, correct?

No. To bring the motions to the double check to the floor, then amend them. Motion to the floor. Just making sure that's correct. Yes. Okay. I'll make that motion. Okay. Motion by Berg. Second by Barts. Okay. I think we're probably ready. Just I'll double check, but we could probably just vote on that. No, I'm sorry, Mr. Mayor. We'll go ahead and make an amendment. Okay. Motion BS Barts for the So, passing and I'll look for a motion then. So, I'll move to amend in the following manner. Okay.

To increase the city's library allocation from 710 to 750 and to decrease the contingency b fund by $40,000. So that way the total general fund remains the same. I'll second a motion. Okay. Motion by. Okay. allocation remains the same then just take a contingency account. Okay. Okay. Motion by that second by Berg. Any further discussion on that then Mr. BS

just a question. What does that put our contingency fun 186,000

and no change to tax levy at all. Mr. Stevens, correct? This would be a easy fix for you. Okay, Mr. Lampy, go ahead, sir.

I I will support the motion. I'm sure everybody's interested in in in that. I think that that is a that is a step in the the right direction. I also think that it it sounds like a followup to these budget discussions is we need to discover what it is that we need to get comfortable with the library finances whatever degree of visibility needs to be done and basically to get those three funds I know it's complicated fund one allocation the fund 11 they work out of and then fund 20 all of those things in in the universe I would love to understand what it is that folks need to do to get comfortable with that and uh come to a common understanding about whether there's a budget problem there or there's no budget problem there. Okay, I'll wait a little bit. Okay. Objection, Mr.

No, call the question in the amendment. Okay. Okay. Okay. Sorry. Wait, we're calling now. We're voting on call the question on the amendment. Oh, okay. I thought you Arnett. I Wetszel Moldenhower. Hi, Davis. I Lampy Berg. Hi, Barts. Hi, Lanky. I Smith. Motion carried. Okay. Thank you. Go back to the original.

So the original I think was that was Bergen Barts I believe. Okay. Any further discussion on the actual budget right now as amended? As amended. Yes. We just amended that was passing to amend the 40,000. I got the budget in front of us yet. Mr. Lampy, I'll just note that I will I will vote for this. You worked hard on this, Mr. Lampy. I appreciate the compromise. Thank you.

Okay. Well, just I appreciate I had when the budget started back in April feels like I think July it's taking a little bit of time but I also had spent time not just with the finance holders but I appreciate the other five because at some point I know I had asked each one of you for advice and your thoughts. So thank you. I'll wait a few seconds yet any more discussion on the budget. Okay. Megan Berg. Hi Quartz. Hi Blanky.

Hi Smith. Hi Arnett. Hi Wetzel. Hi Moldenhower. Hi Davis. Hi Lampy. Hi.

Motion carried. I thought the budget of the Ron Creger during a recession was bad. This one took a little bit of time. Okay. Next, exhibit 9809 2026 payroll resolution sponsored by myself and the finance committee. Mr. Lampy move for exhibit 9809. Okay. Motion by Lampy. Second by Smith. So happy the thanks that came uh um the way of the the city departments and everybody else uh for putting this together. This was another multi-year effort. Uh this gets us essentially to the new pay table we've been looking at for a long time and does it um with a high degree of fiscal responsibility. So thank you again.

Okay. Anybody else? Okay. Ny Berg. Hi BS. Blinky I Smith I Arnett I Wetszel Moldenhower I Davis I motion carried okay thank you okay next that uh leads us to comments and suggestions from citizens present anybody wishing to address the council please state your name and address up to three minutes

cat Lewis Sorry, that was Cal Cal Lewis. I am living at uh South 7th Street. I am a new resident to Watertown. I just moved here from Michigan uh in September. This is the first time I've been involved in any sort of local government or any public speaking. This is sort of new to me, but I felt compelled to and I hope that speaks to how this sort of sparked my uh well it's an it has been emotional for a lot of people. Yes. But um with that uh I wanted to speak at the end uh because I was hoping to simply learn uh that is something that I was uh hoping to do is learn about the process and uh I think I have learned a lot although I've also learned that uh you know just the extreme amount of nuance can certainly uh uh affect I suppose I was sort of swayed in in the slightest bit. Um I certainly understand that funds will only go so far and and so on, but uh uh really I guess regardless of everything I've heard today um I still want to make comments and express my uh reflections on my perspective. Uh what I do think is very very powerful is accessible information and uh so speaking on the libraries cut in funding and the prospect of it uh having to close uh potentially for days of the

week um I feel is uh less opportunity and uh less um accessibility. So uh I think that informed citizens and uh really for me too uh become more and more interested in the history of uh city cities and uh just like local histories and uh the library has already been a great source of information for that. So moving here and learning about the local community has been fantastic by way of the uh library. Uh there's also resources there that I've already been able to use that the uh government expects you to be able to do like print things and stuff like that which I made use of. Uh so I was hoping that that was a decent example of how it helps people do what they got to do. uh never never before have I had such an interest in getting involved in expanding my knowledge uh regarding my role as a citizen, a neighbor and a contributor to local economy. Uh but the prospect of lessening library availability in the operating hours is especially concerning uh from my perspective as a software uh developer because uh anecdotal really evidence would show to me that uh I didn't get very far.

Okay, give a little more time. Sure.

Sure. Uh what I see is a large uh decrease in media literacy. Uh that's that's really anywhere. But uh I think that more and more folks increasingly allow the algorithms of tech giants with ulterior motives to shape their world views. Uh and yet still there exists a rise and shift of young and new generations who wish to unplug from algorithmic and divisive online spaces. They want to get nose deep into books, get involved and connect on deep personal levels. I believe that powerful and meaningful change is in the air and that the libraries exist as a nexus of such change. Uh they're an investment in people and a direct reflection of the degree to which we value knowledge itself. Um, I believe that going forward, future generations need only to inherit a future that we've proven to protect. Uh, and that sometimes it's books and cataloges of our actions that will all be all that remains of us. Um, like those which are housed in a library. Uh, [clears throat] this is not to mention all of the greatest stories ever told which inspire folks to do great things and be good people. Uh, I would hope that Not one person should ever miss out on such value and opportunity because of a budget cut or money relocation. Thank you.

Thank you. Cal John Kadesh.

Yes, I'm John Kadesh on 204 West Main Street. Um, I guess what I have to do first is agree with my council member, Mr. Arnett, in saying that we shouldn't be bringing national politics into our city. Um, I'm just afraid I think we've done that. Um, we are normalizing the abnormal. I don't believe it was normal to be asking for $200,000 from an endowment fund. It's not a normal thing and if you are getting responses from people saying oh they're taking it from the endowment fund never would have been a question never would have been anything had the abnormal not happened and have that asked it's not normal I also don't think even after the compromise that a cut of 12% the 100,000 to one department's budget which their entire city portion of that budget is paper and the 12% cut. It's not normal. Not in one year. So I I'm just afraid that we like we do on the national level as abnormal things happen. They just seem to sound normal. They seem to be a thing that we can accept as okay, that's the way it should be. I'm afraid I I just don't don't agree with that. I hope we can revisit this in the future and um try to return to something a bit more normal. I'm afraid even with this smaller cut to the library, there will be obvious changes in services at that library.

Um, I'm hoping nothing too noticeable, but it's still a substantial cut. And I also I I'm just afraid this is, you know, been framed at times that the increase in taxes that people are going to see in this city are somehow attached to the life. And with the initial 17% cut and now 12% cut to a single department's budget, how is that on the library that their taxes are going up at all? I'm sorry it's not. And I just wish we would get back to normaly. Thank you, John.

Okay. I'll look for a motion to adjurnn. So moved. I'm sorry. Sorry. Okay. Mot blankie. Yeah. Why? 92 years of common council experience between the 10 of us. I think come April as I said and I learned a lot myself this year too. Mot blankie. Second by. Okay. All those in favor say I. I. I. Opposed. Thank you. I think you do.

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