City Council - Regular Meeting

All right, we are going to get started here. So I'm going to call this Tuesday, September 15th, 2026 meeting of the Common Council to order. I'm just going to make a couple of announcements before we do the Pledge of Allegiance here. So we are still having some technical difficulties with regard to Granicus, which is how we vote. So tonight we will be voice voting unless we can get this figured out. and also for any of the alders who would like to pull up the agenda, note that you can pull it up from your email or on the city website. All right, please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands,

Oh, we did not do roll call. I apologize.

I'm all thrown off. Christine is absent. Everett? Here. Wiggerson? Here. Piper? Here. Van Trieste? Here. Wells? Here. Mannion? Here. Moulton? Here. Witeska's Anderson? Here. Helgastead? Here. Matthews? Here. Miklitz? Here. Lemke? Here.

Camacho?

Here.

All right, thank you. As a note, a motion will be made pursuant to Wisconsin Statute 19.85, parents 1, parents E. to convene in closed session for the purpose of deliberating or negotiating the purchasing of public properties, the investing of public funds, or conducting other specified public business whenever competitive or bargaining reasons require a closed session, specifically to discuss negotiation strategies related to the acquisition and disposal of real property, including the water utility building. Is this the right one? Yeah. And potential inter-municipal agreements related to fire and rescue services. All right, next up we have the City Hall Art Gallery presentation. Alderperson Moulton.

Thank you. We'll wait for that to come up. Good evening. Today I am sharing with you the artwork of John Yost. Go to the next one, Jennifer. John is a former architect who started painting in 2016 while on a trip to Florida. He is a Waukesha native and is a self-taught artist. John chose many smaller paintings for this collection. This constrains the view to focus on one subject. The choice of the wide frames, which are sometimes ornate, complements that choice by enclosing the smaller point of view. There are several birds in this collection. The bright color of the birds bring them forward while the natural background fills the remaining frame. The birds flourish in both winter and summer temperatures. Several American flags are displayed for a patriotic theme. Some are more prominent than others. The flags are joined by a bald eagle, fireworks, a woodland area, and a snowy pine tree. The flag is a stoic symbol in each of the settings. A brick archway is included twice, once with a series of archways that may be a school or a conservatory. The other is outside in a tropical climate, and the plants are overtaking the archway. The passage to an unseen new area can be tempting. There is one spectacular sunset. Someone has a front row seat in a sailboat to witness the light display. The artist got this location just in time. It appears there's only 20 minutes left in the day. At one point, the collection moves to a scene in an arid place with spiky plants and in distant mountains. The plants are thriving in this location, which looks very different from our area here in Wisconsin. The collection showcases many flowers. They come in lots of colors. Sometimes they are in groups. Sometimes they are alone. They have complex and simple petal structures. Sometimes they barely fit in the frame. Each one is beautiful. This collection has a consistent style. Generally, the style is realism. In addition to that, this artist prefers bold, intense backgrounds. His lines are clearly defined. The shapes are discreet and do not blur together. The brush strokes define the details of the subject as much as the color choices. We thank John for showing his art at City Hall. He has brightened the day for city staff and visitors with his vision and strong colors. We appreciate the dedication to his art and participating in our public art forum. Thank you.

All right, next up is public comment. We did have a public comment that was emailed in to us earlier today that I'm going to read out as per the request of the resident. City resident name is Megan Locke. Address is 2724 Northview Road, Waukesha. This is her comment as she wants it read. I would like to urge the city to continue its strong support of the Waukesha Public Library. Our library is not a declining institution or a service our community is moving away from. In fact, the opposite is true. Engagement continues to increase year over year, demonstrating that Waukesha residents are actively using and valuing the resources the library provides. families rely on children's programming and literacy resources students need places to study and learn job seekers use technology and research tools and residents of all ages participate in educational and community programming a clear example of this is the 20th anniversary of the waksha reads program which kicked off last week on september 8th as waksha continues to grow and evolve our library is growing with it serving as one of the few truly accessible public spaces available to every member of our community. When more residents are using a public resource, our response should be to support that demand, not reduce our investment in it. The Waukesha Public Library is an investment in literacy, education, workforce development, technology access, community connection, and the overall quality of life in our city. Supporting the library means supporting Waukesha families and ensuring that the services residents are clearly asking for remain available and strong. I respectfully ask the city to recognize what the increasing engagement numbers are telling us. Our community uses its library, our community values its library, and our community deserves a library that is adequately supported to continue meeting that growing need. Thank you. Next up, we have James Wigderson. And if you can state your name and your address, please. Thank you.

James Wignerson, 1100 Anoka Avenue in Waukesha. I want to give you a brief history lesson tonight. Seems like it's only three minutes. When Ptolemy II created the library at Alexandria, he created it not just as a warehouse for books, he created it as a resource for his kingdom where the great scholars could gather and learn from each other and disseminate knowledge and share that knowledge with his country. And as a result, Alexandria grew to be a great city. That spirit of libraries has been passed down through history from Thomas Jefferson donating his library to the Library of Congress. You can look at the Trinity College Library in Dublin. And you can also look at the history of the library endowment from Andrew Carnegie. And we happen to have one of those libraries in our community. And we should be celebrating that. And in that spirit, we should be working to figure out how that library can best share its resources. It would take a myopic troglodyte to try to limit the access to that library. And if you don't know what a myopic troglodyte is, you can go look it up at the library. Thanks.

Thank you. Next up we have Gavin Leak. And again, if you can state your name and your address when you come up. Thank you.

Hi.

Gavin Leake, 1119 Evergreen Drive in Waukesha. I'd like to start by saying I will definitely email this next time. I didn't know we could do that. Way less stressful, I feel. I'd like to make some comments on the flock systems and other ALPRs, in case you guys have not heard enough on that yet. First off, I am not an activist of any kind, that's for sure. I've lived in Waukesha since 2009. I found the city to be safe, well-run, and a wonderful place to raise my family. I attribute that to the efforts of all the people in this room. So my interaction with local government has been essentially zero until tonight. But the multitude of these cameras and the pace at which they've been quietly installed leads me to believe it's the only responsible option for us, the citizens, to speak out about it. When I first inquired about this, my alderman generously offered to put me in touch with someone at the police station who would show me how they use that system. Unfortunately, I think the particular way in which a local agency interfaces with the system is largely irrelevant. I think it misses the point because that system should not exist. According to dfloc.org, there were about 440 of these flock style cameras of different brands noted in early 2024. By August 2026, that number had risen to about 120,000. So this rise, this rapid rise of the reported cameras could be attributed to great business for flock, increased deployments, or it could be that citizens started to become aware of cameras that had already been installed in their communities. Now, both of these possibilities are equally disturbing to me. So to look at an inter network system of over 120,000 AI powered cameras, Spanning the entirety of the contiguous United States, and to call that anything but a pervasive surveillance state, is in my opinion disingenuous. It appears that the trees have been sold to local agencies while the forest has been being built nationally. This camera network absolutely seconds remaining. Oh, thank you. It absolutely creates a mosaic of daily life for everyone who passes by. And this is all done nationally and without a warrant, as you know. So my requests are to rescind, cancel or otherwise discontinue all agreements with LPR systems. And prior to the implementation of similar systems in the future, leave that to a public vote with extensive public notice prior to this happening. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak during public comment? All right, seeing no one, next up we have approval of the minutes from our last meeting. Alderperson Manion?

Motion to approve.

Alderperson Helgastead? Second. All right, please, are we good to vote or no? No, all right. So all those in favor of approving the minutes from our September 1st meeting, please raise your hand. Oh no, I gotta you have to do a roll call vote alright. Well, I'm going to go around the room. I think that's probably the easiest way. If that's OK with you, no. Oh alright, Katie's gotta do it.

Everett Wigderson Piper Fantrieste. Well, Wells. Manion Molson. Anderson? Aye. Helgastead? Aye. Matthews? Aye. Miklitz? Aye. Lemke? Aye. Camacho?

Aye.

All right. That motion passes 12 to 0 with one abstention. Did I have that right? Good. Thank you. Excellent. All right. Next up is consent agenda. This is going to be a fun one, guys. Next up is consent agenda. Are there any items to be removed from consent agenda? All right, seeing none, the consent agenda has passed. First up, everybody's favorite item on this agenda is review and possible action on the 2027 to 2031 community investment program. Alderperson Piper, I will let you kick us off.

Great, thank you. As we get into the reviewing of the capital budget and the five-year plan this evening, Joe Shuro has... Overview that he's going to share with the council and then certainly take any questions that you may have Once that presentation is done. I'll make a motion On the budget with a second and then we'll go from there so with that I'll yield to to Joe and Tony for an overview of the capital budget and certainly anything that he'll Joe and or Tony will take any questions that the council has I

all right thank you just need my screen to be shared if i can there it is there we go okay i just have actually a couple of slides to to share with the council tonight um we have the last two finance committee meetings we have uh our committee's done a lot of work in review of of uh the details in the rcip document and uh the the first meeting we we got to do the show and tell we got this you know really touch and see those fleet items that we're planning to replace and then last meeting we got to kind of discuss more in depth about fleet and non-fleet items and so what i'm here to kind of show you tonight is what was recommended out of finance committee So real quick, the five-year total from 2027 to 2031 that was recommended from Finance Committee had a total CIP value of $179,539,873. Now, We are approving the five year plan, but the items that are most urgent obviously would be the next year's budget. So 2027 is the focus of the presentation today. And again, like I said, there's just a couple of slides, but I'm going to go through a couple of things here. This is the summary that kind of shows the breakout between governmental funds and business type funds, and then the shows the total. So the total for 2027 that came out of Finance Committee was $40,675,107. And that's kind of in the top half that shows kind of like the categories, major projects, equipment replacement, and fleet. And then the thing I really want to draw your attention to outside of that number is the first line item related to funding, which is the bottom half. within that document to fund the $40 million, we have slightly over $20 million shown as general obligation debt. That is the piece that has the strongest impact on the residence tax bill. So at least that's what I'm pointing out to is that is generally the thing that is that most folks are interested in. And that is, again, it has the impact on the tax levy. So the five-year plan, and I'll kind of focus on the 27-year, this is the tax levy projection that we anticipate with the five-year plan that's being presented tonight. So if you look at the middle, you can kind of see the 2027 column. We're expecting the levy for debt service and capital to increase about 2.89%. The thing you can also note there is that for the entire five-year plan, staff has made a concerted effort to make sure that that particular piece of the levy stays under a 3% increase from year to year in the future years. That is what is being proposed in the document tonight. You can see that that is definitely a slowdown from the previous five years that is currently displayed. You can look back at 2022 and 2023 where we had 23% increase and a 10% increase. Those items were related to debt service increasing because of our larger projects that the city decided to do the city hall the police department building improvements and buckner pool that was really the impact of those projects so we're kind of with the document that's showing tonight is really about replacement of existing infrastructure and capital that the city has that's really what we tried to focus on for the most part and that's why we're also trying to make sure we're managing future annual increases in this in this part of the levy so that is kind of the the summary of the presentation is there any questions on these two slides before we move forward with further discussion

if not i'll turn it back over to alderman piper great thank you joe so the kind of the run of show for the council in the public this evening is i'm about to make a motion to recommend to the full council the 2027 cip and five-year plan that was approved unanimously out of the finance committee From there, we're going to take any amendments from the council. So this would be your opportunity, the full council's opportunity to propose any amendments to the capital budget that you would like to make. And as you know, that would be up for a total vote of the entire council and majority rules in that regard. So with that, kind of step by step, I will make a motion to approve the 2027 CIP budget of $40,675,107 and the 2027 to 2031 CIP budget of $179,539,873. And with a second, I will speak again briefly. Okay, Alderperson Wigderson. I will second that motion. Great. Take it away. Thank you. So as I mentioned, now we're at the point where amendments are going to be taken, and I'm going to yield the floor to the police chief. The police department approached us and is proposing an amendment to the CIP budget that they are looking to make post coming out of the finance committee. So with that, I'm going to yield to Chief Thompson to take us through an item, and then we will come back for a vote on that. Once that item is settled, we'll turn it back over to the entire Common Council for any other amendments that the Council has. Chief.

Thank you. Mayor and members of the Common Council, I want to begin by expressing how honored I am to serve this outstanding community and to lead the dedicated professionals of the Waukesha Police Department. We serve with honor, integrity, and courage. We take this responsibility to be guardians of this community very seriously. We also understand that protecting Waukesha requires us to use modern technology thoughtfully, lawfully, and responsibly. In more than 35 years of law enforcement service, automated license plate readers, helpers, have proven to be among the most effective public safety tools I've seen. Alper technology helps law enforcement prevent and solve crimes, recover stolen vehicles, apprehend dangerous individuals, protect endangered people, and provide officers with timely information that can make a critical difference. I want to be unequivocal. I strongly support Alper technology. I have full confidence in both its constitutionality and its effectiveness when it's used for legitimate law enforcement purposes, under clear policies, proper supervision, strong audit controls, and meaningful accountability. When I speak about service, I also take pride in the culture we have built within the Waukesha Police Department. Trust is central to that culture. We recognize that every technology we use must be supported by strict governance and that protects the public, protects our officers, and preserves the confidence of the community that we serve. Public safety and constitutional liberty are not competing responsibilities. Warshaw's goal is to protect both. Good governance is not weak and effective technology. It is what makes the use of that technology responsible, sustainable, and worthy of public trust. With that responsibility in mind, I have concerns regarding certain business practices, contractual language, and representations associated with our current vendor, Flock Safety. Those concerns are about the vendor, not about the value, effectiveness, or constitutionality of Alper technology. For that reason, I'm asking council to remove funding for Flock from the 2027 CIP budget. However, I'm not recommending that we immediately discontinue our existing Alper systems. The FLOC contract is fully funded for the remainder of 2026, so pulling funding from the 2027 budget will terminate FLOC operations on December 31 of 2026. This transition period is necessary to protect officer safety, preserve investigative continuity, and prevent a gap in an important public safety capability while the city evaluates and implements a replacement system. Specifically, I'm requesting that the council not appropriate funds for flock services beginning January 1 of 2027. Second item, authorize appropriate city officials in consultation with the city attorney to take whatever action necessary to terminate the flock agreement as of January 1 of 2027. Permit the police department to continue operating the existing flock system through and up to December 31st of 2026. And authorize us to do a competitive review of qualified output providers with particular attention to transparency, data security, data ownership, audit controls, interoperability, vendor accountability, and system performance and total cost. And require replacement recommendation and transition plan early enough to implement the new system without interrupting coverage. This is not a choice between FLOC and eliminating Alpers. It's a decision about whether FLOC remains the right technology partner for the City of Waukesha. I strongly support continuing the use of Alper technology. My goal is to preserve this important public safety capability, conclude our relationship with FLOC in a legally and financially responsible manner, and transition to a trusted provider without compromising officer safety, public safety, constitutional protections, or ongoing investigations. I respectfully ask the council to support that course of action. Thank you.

Thank you, Chief.

Alderperson Piper? With what the police chief has presented this evening, I will make a motion to amend the 2027 CIP and the five-year plan for the amount of $292,000, which will remove funding not only for 2027, as noted, but for the balance of the five-year plan. And with a second, I would speak briefly to that.

I will second. Thank you.

Thank you. So I support all of the comments that the police chief made this evening. For me, I support the technology but have lost confidence in the vendor. And that is why I made the motion that I did, and I look forward to continued conversations, and I ask the council to support the motion this evening as presented. Thank you.

All right, before we start discussion, just as a reminder, we are specifically talking about this motion to amend the CIP. The motion is to essentially end our contract with FLOC. This is not necessarily saying that we need to get rid of or we would even want to get rid of ELPER technology. I think the Chief did a really great job in telling us what the value is of ELPER technology. So I want to make sure that the conversations that we're having tonight are specifically regarding our contract with FLOC. First up, Alderperson Lemke.

So, as I understand the motion, we're eliminating the funding for flock, but can we leave the amount of money in the budget so that we can have the funds for 2027?

Yes, Alderperson Piper, if you want to answer that one.

I'll take this and potentially defer to Brian. It's my understanding, Alderman Lemke, that in order for us to terminate the contract, we need to have an affirmative vote to not appropriate the funds to flock at all. That's why I made the motion as the way I did. Thank you.

Any other discussion on the motion? All right, then we will do a roll call vote on the motion. Again, this is just for the amendment to remove the funding for the flock contract. Katie, I will defer back to you.

Everett. Wigderson. Aye. Piper. Aye. Bantrieste. Aye. Wells. Aye. Mannion voted. Moulton. Aye. Anderson, Helgastead? Aye. Matthews? Aye. Miklitz? Aye. Lemke? Aye. Camacho?

Aye.

All right. That motion passes 13 to 0. Good. I counted correctly. Are we up and running for voting? Because you were able to.

It looks like it.

OK. I'm assuming we need to log out, log back in again? Excellent. All right. Let's work on that while we get back to the main motion. Are there any additional amendments or discussion on the motion for the CIP? Alderperson Helgestad.

I'd like to make a motion to reinstate funding for the saltbending locker at the library and the total project amount of $50,000. And with a second, I'll speak to it.

Alderperson Wells.

Second. All right, go ahead.

Thank you.

Just very briefly, this is an item that was originally in the CIP, and I'm requesting that we bring that back into the budget. This is, just for everyone's information, this is a locker that's at the library. Today, it was originally funded by ARPA funds, and the library's looking to replace it because the unit that's there today is closed. failing the hardware's breaking down. The function of that is only available to our city residents, and the good news is that city residents are taking advantage of it. Like myself, usage has been going up year over year. Another advantage of this is it will save the library staff every week uh hours an effort that they do manually today so it's going to create some efficiencies there and it also as it is today expanding access to our materials collection at the library so that folks who you know otherwise you know would have trouble making the library hours can access it literally 24 hours a day so um thank you

Thank you. Is there any discussion regarding putting the funding back into the CIP for the library lockers, Alderperson Wells, and then Matthews?

I'd just like to add that this also expands the hours, as Alderman Helgastead mentioned. The library is great. Unfortunately, it can't be open all the time, and this does expand those hours that people can access materials.

Thank you. Alderperson Matthews?

I support the motion upon review. I know initially it was against it, no funding, looking at a want versus need, but upon visiting, upon having conversations with staff, looking at the efficiencies too. From a financial perspective, it's very efficient and it's going to save the staff some time and move things along. So I will be supporting and have changed and will be supporting this motion.

Excellent. Thank you. Any other discussion? Again, the motion is an amendment to add funding back in for the library lockers. I'm going to go back to Katie for the vote. But if you are able to get back onto your computer, please do so.

Everett? Hi. Wigderson? Aye. Piper?

Aye.

Vantrieste? Aye. Wells? Aye. Mannion? Aye. Moulton?

Aye.

Anderson? Aye. Helgastead? Aye. Matthews? Aye. Miklitz? Aye. Lemke? Aye. Camacho? Aye.

All right. So as it stands right now, we have removed funding for the flock contract and we have put funding back into the library lockers. I'm going to get back to Alderperson Piper who wants to make a comment.

I just want, before I do that, I just want to make sure that there's no other, I don't mean to do your job, Alicia, just want to make sure there's no other amendments from the council as it relates to the budget.

Alderperson Lumpke.

In my district and many others throughout the city, the sidewalks are in poor shape. I've given into this year making an amendment to the budget for this year, but I'd like to propose a $1 million sidewalk budget for next year. It's $300,000 proposed. It was 500,000 three years ago. It got dropped to 300,000 this year and last year. And so I'd like to put in the CIP that amount and then leave it to city staff to figure out the budget.

Are you making a motion?

Yes, my motion would be to take the sidewalk budget for next year, 28 to a million dollars. That'll barely make up for what we've taken out over the last three years.

All right, Tony.

So a couple of points of clarification. What's in the proposed capital budget right now is $500,000 for sidewalks in 2027. And then the second item is, are you saying a million dollars just for 2028?

or a million dollars for all the remaining years each year of uh... capital yes i was brought up by brandon that it'll take twenty years that are current budget to fix all of the sidewalks not including any of the sidewalks that break between now and twenty years so unless we make a substantial adjustment We're never gonna get caught up, but I've had three residents in the last year and a half break bones, and the Freeman said that there was a person who broke bones, and it's pretty bad throughout the city. Thank you.

All right, so there is a motion on the floor to add a million dollars into the CIP for 2028. Is there a second? Yes.

It was to just change it to a million dollars from 500.

So to change it to a million dollars. Thank you for the clarification. Is there a second for that motion? Tony?

oh we don't have a second so the thing i would say is a million dollars okay that's one thing but what is the funding source and then after that how is the council voting on the overall capital plan because we need to know those things if that is the intent well and i also want to just clarify then if we're talking about 2028

We have $300,000 in the sidewalk budget that is city funded through geo debt, general obligation debt, and 20,000 related to special assessed sidewalks. So I'm assuming you mean the city funded. So if we were to add, bring up the city funded sidewalks to a million dollars, that'd be adding $700,000 to 2028 to what it is now, and then adding $700,000 to general obligation debt for the funding.

So if I could make a further suggestion here to maybe clean up the motion a little bit. So it would be moved to increase the sidewalk replacement program in 2028 by $700,000 for a total amount of $1,000,000. Is that acceptable? And the funding source would be?

Raising the budget.

No. So essentially, the funding source will probably likely have to be debt. Yes.

OK. Is that? That is acceptable, and that's what I had in mind.

All right. Yes, Brian.

I believe the pending motion is to approve the 27 CIP budget, correct?

So Rick has made a motion, or Alderperson Lemke has made a motion, but we do not have a second on his motion to amend the CIP or...

Yes, Alderperson Piper. So to answer Brian's question, the motion is not only to approve the 2027 CIP, but also to approve the whole five-year plan in which this is what Alderman Lemke is looking to propose is 28, which is included in the five-year plan as part of my motion.

OK. Thank you. Just wanted to make sure the motions were in order.

Thank you. Is there a second to Alderperson Lemke's motion to increase the 2028 sidewalk budget by $700,000 and taking that money from geo debt? Alderperson Anderson. Okay, we have a motion and a second. Is there any additional conversation, discussion, questions? Alderperson Wells.

I'm very much in favor of improving our sidewalk conditions, adding sidewalk. I think pedestrian access is very important. I have found the record saying that we need to treat sidewalks more like we treat roads as a necessary form of transportation and infrastructure. That being said, I'm hesitant to just throw a million dollars at the problem without a plan of how we use that money to actually get the sidewalks fixed. It's not just a dollar value issue. It's how do we get that work done Are we using city staff to do that? Are we using outside contractors? Is that the best way to do it? I understand this is for the five-year plan and set that marker out there, but I prefer we have a better discussion on how we execute this. And given that it's not going until 2028, I'd rather not make that motion tonight or not take that action tonight.

Thank you. Alderperson Matthews.

I agree with what Alderman Wells says. I think part of the, and I'm 100% in favor of mitigating and working on our sidewalks. I think part of the conversation also needs to be mitigation of trees, because trees are there, and we are very much a tree-friendly community. We value that, and that's one of, makes Waukesha great. But I think that's also part of the situation. I think it's a bigger picture for that, so. I think that needs to be included as far as trees, who's going to do it, rather than just a dollar amount. But I am in favor of fixing the sidewalks.

Thank you. Alderperson Van Trieste. Thank you.

So this is for a point of clarity. I'd like to know, are we going to just put asphalt patching so we don't have trip and fall? Or is this to extend out the sidewalks and make more sidewalk in the city?

Alex, yes, I will let you answer that one.

So the additional money would be going towards the contracted removal and replacement of sidewalk, not the temporary patching. The temporary patching is done by city staff out of our operating budget. This would be CIP dollars that would be used to remove and replace additional square feet of sidewalk. Thank you.

Thank you. Alderperson Lemke.

I've found we can always have a discussion later as to how we're gonna implement the funds. But without the funds being there, we can't come back three weeks from now and say we're gonna put it in the 20, we can't allocate for the funds. So that's why I'm allocate the funds for 2028. We can always have the discussion of what we're gonna do with the trees, but the funding is there. And that's why I'm making that motion.

Thank you. Any other discussion regarding the motion to amend? Thank you. Alderperson Miklitz.

I also agree that, you know, sidewalks is an issue. I get, you know, I get complaints all the time on it. But not only just the sidewalks, but also, you know, the trees coming down, like Alderman Matthews says, and the stumps that are still there. So, you know, the Park Rec Forestry is behind on even removing the stumps when they take the tree down. So...

to just throw a hundred thousand dollars at public works to say replace all these sidewalks i think it needs to you know be parceled out a little bit some to park park and rack and some to public works as well thank you any other discussion on the motion to amend the cip to increase the 2028 sidewalk budget by seven hundred thousand dollars All right. I will take that as a no. So we are voting again specifically on the motion to amend. Katie, I will throw it back to you. Everett? It did. Yes. Yeah. So now we're voting. Yes. Everett? No. Was that a no?

Yes.

OK. Wiggerson? No. Piper?

Nay.

Van Trieste? Wells?

No.

Mannion?

No.

Moulton? No. Anderson?

Yes.

Helgastead?

No.

Matthews?

Yes.

Miklitz? No. Lemke? Yes. Camacho?

Nay.

All right, that motion fails 10 to 3. Did I count right? Thank you. So we are back to the main motion to adopt the CIP. Is there any other discussion or amendments that we would like to make at this point? All right, any last comments from Alderperson Piper?

I'll buy Mr. Shuro a little bit of time to finish the math. I want to just thank the directors and the staff who spent a lot of time putting together the capital budget. I also want to thank John Weinkauf and the City Garage team for pulling together a very successful show and tell that we had 11 aldermen attend, which was a record. So thank you for attending probably my favorite meeting of the year. Also, certainly Joe Shiro, you and your team, Tony, and the entire Finance Committee and Common Council for putting together a capital budget. But we're only halfway there. So the operating budget discussion is going to kick off with a flurry here in the month of September into October. and Tony will send out a reminder as to what the Finance Committee calendar will be for the review of the operating budget, and I encourage all of you to attend, and certainly the public are welcome. So with that, I will make an amendment or I'll make an update to my original motion given the action that's been taken this evening. So I will make a motion to formally approve and recommend to the council the 2027 CIP budget of $40,669,107. and the 2027 to 2031 CIP budget, or five-year plan, of $179,297,873, which is reflective of the action taken by the council this evening. Thank you.

Okay. Is that acceptable? Alderperson Helga said you were the second, right? Yes, that's acceptable. No? Who was the second?

Wigderson. Oh, sorry.

Is that acceptable to you, Alderperson Wigderson?

Yes, it is.

Excellent. Is there any additional discussion on the CIP before we vote? All right, Katie, take it away. Everett? Yes.

Wigderson? Yes. Piper? Aye. Vantrieste? Aye. Wells?

Aye.

Moulton?

Yes.

Lemke? The motion carries 12 to 1.

Excellent. Thank you very much. Next up, we have Review Impossible Action on 2027 Municipal Exemption from Waukesha County Library Tax. Bruce, are you handling this one for us?

uh good evening bruce gay library director uh coming to you tonight with the annual uh county library tax exemption motion uh this is something that waukesha county requires for the city of waukesha to exempt itself from the county library tax And what it does is it just says that the city of Waukesha guarantees funding at. 2.234 million and $56 in 2027. Typically the libraries operating budget from the city has been $2.9 million, so this is a fairly easy floor for the library to pass. I'm happy to answer questions.

Alderperson Helges said? I'd like to make a motion that the council certifies to the Waukesha County and Bridges Library System that the city's 2027 tax liabilities for public library services and expenditures for its library fund will exceed $2,234,056. Alderperson Wells? Second.

Matthews, did you have? Nope. Any discussion? Was that your hand raised? Alderperson Lemke? Okay. All right, if there is no discussion, then we will vote. Katie?

Everett?

No.

Wigderson? Yes. Piper?

Aye.

Vantrieste? Aye. Wells?

Aye.

Mannion?

Aye.

Moulton? Helgastead?

Aye.

Matthews? Aye. Miklitz? Aye. Lemke? Aye. Camacho?

Aye.

Excellent. That motion passes 12 to 1. Awesome. Thank you very much. Thank you, Bruce. Next up, we have Transit Commission Report. Alex?

No meeting, no report.

Water Utility Commission, Alderperson Matthews?

Next meeting is Thursday at 6 o'clock. All are welcome to attend and report.

Thank you. IT board, Alderperson Manion.

Our September meeting was dedicated to a review of technology items that were part of the CIP, which we just approved. No further report.

Thank you. Landmarks Commission report. Alderperson Christina is not here. We'll just wait for the report at the next meeting. Redevelopment Authority report. Alderperson Lemke.

No meeting, no report.

Thank you. Parks, Recreation, and Forestry Board Report, Alderperson Wells.

Last meeting, we looked at the CIP, which was just approved, and get excited for Oktoberfest.

Excellent. Yes Library board report Alderperson Helga said thank you.

We met on September 10th happily celebrate my birthday at the library board I'm happy to report that the staff Recorded that we had a 15% increase in the summer reading program this year across all ages So a very healthy increase year-over-year I would like to remind you all that it is the 20th annual Waukesha reads program and the book this year is 33 Place Bruggeman. The books are available at the library along with the program for all the events that are planned this year. There's an excellent variety of them. And the first event is this coming weekend at North Pillar Brewing. They have collaborated with the library for a special beer called Casting Characters. And you can also pick up books at the brewery. So end of report.

Thank you. Cemetery Commission report. Do we have anybody that has a report? That's also Alderperson Krasine, so hopefully we'll hear from him at the next meeting. Waukesha Housing Authority report. Alderperson Piper?

No report this evening.

Okay. Community Development Block Grant Committee report. Jennifer? No report. Public Art Committee report. Alderperson Moulton? No further report. Plan Commission. Jennifer? No report. All right, Finance Committee Report. Alderperson Piper?

Nothing further this evening.

Oh, thank goodness. All right, Building and Grounds Committee Report. Alderperson Moulton is going to be discussing an item that is further down on the agenda that needs to be moved up with regards to the name of Building and Grounds. So you can see that under BA, Communications and Referrals. I will let Alderman Wilson take it away.

We've renamed building and grounds to a really sexy name of traffic, what do we call this thing, traffic and parking regulations. I'm sure you'll want to tell people at cocktail parties about this meeting. But it is much more representative of what the building and grounds committee actually does. We do not look after buildings and we do not look after grounds. so we came up with something that was a lot more uh specific to what we do excuse me excuse me just a point of clarification i believe that the item that's being referenced is the older person request for traffic study form yes that was my mistake thank you the name change correct well i wanted to bring up the name change anyways we did it on consent and i'm sure you all read it but just as these agendas go forward the name will have changed Thank you. Do you want to talk about the form now or do you want to talk about it later?

If you want to talk about the form now, that would be great.

Thank you. In addition to changing the names, we've... designed, well I didn't, the engineering department did at my request make a form for all the persons to request a traffic study and the intent of the form is to aid in communications with the alder persons and staff so that we can get the legislative history and whether or not this is going forward in the building, I'm sorry, the Traffic and Regulations Committee. That's gonna take a bit of practice. We'll review these forms and you'll need three out of five members to bring forward a traffic study so that we do not do multiple traffic studies of the same area and things like that. I think it's very reasonable that individuals, you know, members of this council can justify some of their requests. So that's the purpose of this forum. If you've got any questions, I'd be happy to answer those.

Are there any questions? Alderperson Matthews.

So in order for a referral to go through for a traffic study, we need three. Is that the intent of this?

Well, there's five members of the traffic and regulations committee. So yeah, the three of the five of us would go forward with a traffic study and then it will, the traffic study will be done. And then any, any suggestions that arise from the traffic study would come again before traffic and regulations. And then we would decide what, if anything to implement.

Okay, so it's not, just to clarify, it's not three referrals or three residents requesting a study on the street. It's three members of the city, correct?

The intent is the alder person making the referral would fill out this form with the assistance of the engineering department.

Thank you.

Alder person Piper.

And just to clarify, Alderperson Moulton, this form is only required for a traffic study, not if we want to add parking or put a four-way stop in effect? Is it just tied to...

The communication gaps seem to be around the traffic studies. Signs, the referrals have been much more clear about what the person was asking for if you know put a sign here within 30 feet of you know that kind of those kinds of requests have already been fairly clear so i don't i don't anticipate going forward something like that so we're right you're you're right this this current form is just for traffic studies okay thank you uh alderman

Just to clarify the process, since this is new, is the expectation that the traffic study request will come to Council with a recommendation out of the formerly known as Building and Grounds Committee?

My intent was that the form would be part of the referral to traffic and regulations. So an alder would come before traffic and regulations and ask for a traffic study using that form, which would help us indicate, like, let's say we've got a brand-new alder who happens to live near Racine Avenue and knows that the citizens of Racine Avenue think we drive too fast. So if we were going to do a traffic study on that and the person was new, it wouldn't be me, even though I represent Racine Avenue, because we've already done this. So if we've already recently done a study, that would be a reason not to do another one. So with the communications with the engineering department would assist people on knowing, you know, what's the circumstances of what work have we done in the past? What was results of that work? And is your request different enough? Or let's say something changed. Like we changed a whole bunch of signs when Randall Elementary School turned into a university building because we didn't have all the traffic or all the kids. So that was a change in the environment, you know, creating a change in signs, which is not a great example because it didn't require a traffic study.

Alderperson Lemke.

From what I understand, traffic studies are the most expensive in building and ground. Signs are cheap, but the traffic study and the time it takes to do them, and when I read that form, it was to make clear why you wanted the traffic study, and that lets the city staff figure out what's going on to make a good referral to Building and Grounds and then Building and Grounds was gonna vote on it. It's a tool to make things clear to Building and Grounds rather than to just say, I'd like a traffic study on Silvernail Road. So it was a tool to make things clearer.

That's the intent. Alderperson Matthews?

Just from a procedure perspective, you know, I get the form and it does vet out a lot of things. My request would be just for ease of use for all of those alders. Can we make this in a DocuSign or an electronic format where we wouldn't have to fill it out, scan it, get back on it?

Well, we'll certainly take that suggestion under advisement.

Yeah. Electronic would be a lot easier and simpler, I think, and easier to fill out if we could, please.

And Chris left because he hates paper too. Any other discussion on this item? Brian.

Just a question. What is the process after this form is submitted to the committee? What happens?

The committee takes a vote on whether or not to forward that sheet to engineering department to actually do the work. So this is a request for the work. The committee approves or does not approve actually doing the study.

Okay.

I would think any reasonable request we would do, but the point being, like if we'd just done one last year, we might have a reason to say no to doing another one

Okay, in the past, have traffic studies been ordered by the committee or by the council?

By any individual alder.

Well, how is it actually accomplished, though?

Engineering did all of the work before.

No, I mean, who is giving the order to perform the traffic study?

Any individual alder used to be able to make a referral. And the engineering department, being very efficient folks that they are, would do the traffic study. So when a referral came to buildings and grounds, the traffic study was already done.

And the new procedure that you're talking about, the new traffic parking regulations committee, whatever it is.

Right.

Sorry. makes the order to the engineering department to conduct the traffic study. Is that correct?

Yes.

Okay. My comment is that I've always been opposed to the idea that any council member can make a referral without making a motion and having a second and a vote. And I still would like to see that change because that It would end a lot of this kind of confusion. But I think what you're asking for is for the committee to have the authority to order the traffic study being done. And I think that's an authority that has to be conferred by the council. So maybe part of what you're, well, I guess this is really not on the agenda for action.

It's not on the agenda.

Okay. I would suggest that if you're going to come up with that procedure, that it be formally authorized by the council.

Okay.

Rather than just cooking it up at the committee level without approval from the council.

Okay.

That's my suggestion.

Okay. Oh, thank you. Can't see you over there. Alderperson Vantrieste.

So what I'd like to see on this form is that when this is enacted by the engineering department, we actually have each shift of the police department making sure that the equipment that has been installed for a speed study is actually working.

Thank you for that comment.

Excellent. All right, so Per Brian's comment, it sounds like we're going to need to bring this back when it's on the agenda to take actual action, or am I not understanding that correctly?

That is my suggestion, yeah. A committee by itself doesn't have authority to do anything other than make a recommendation to the council. But the council can give committees authority to act on their own, but we don't currently have that. Our committees exist in the council rules, but they don't actually have any assigned authority.

So the traffic study form is attached to the agenda, but are you suggesting that we...

If you don't mind... Yeah, go ahead. We've just kind of discussed this, and I'll take it up with Tony about how to proceed from here.

Okay. Does that work for her? Tony, you're good? All right, excellent. So we are not taking action on this item tonight. We will move right along. Anything else for Building and Grounds one last time for the, it'll be changed on the next agenda, I guess.

That's it, thank you. Thank you.

All right, Ordinance and Licensing Committee report. Alderperson Wateska is not here. Is there a volunteer from O&L that would like to take that over for him?

Anyone?

Alderperson Helgestad, thank you.

We met Monday evening, so yesterday, and we did review some licenses. I believe those will be on our next agenda. End of report.

Excellent. And then we do have one item under ordinance and licensing as well.

This was a trap, wasn't it?

So this is the third reading. So this is an item that we have discussed regarding the municipal code 6.12, snow and ice removal from sidewalks, curb ramps, bus pads, and fire hydrants. Brian, do you want to just do a quick recap on this one for us?

I'm going to kick this one over to Alex, actually.

Alex and Emma were the ones that presented it. So Emma is the one that worked on this. She worked on it with the attorney's office. This did go through Board of Public Works, O&L. There was Red once at council. Emma was here. on 818. I kind of gave a brief overview of the item so I can go through those couple items again here that are adjusting on this ordinance. The biggest change is the requirement for clearing snow, changing that from 12 hours to 24 hours. that's aligning it with multiple things, other communities around us, the feasibility of monitoring and the ability for residents to even complete the work, et cetera. And then a couple definitions were added in there, defining a sidewalk versus a recreational path. And then updating that an administrative fee would increase from $25 to $50 for repeat violations within the same snow season. So those were the main changes. If there's any more detailed questions, I or Brian can hopefully answer them. But attached to the agenda are the cover sheets that have those changes shown.

Thank you. Alderperson Mannion. I will make a motion to approve the changes to Municipal Code 6.12 as presented.

Okay. Alderperson Helgeson.

Second.

Any discussion on this item? Alderperson Pantrese. Okay.

so this is a general question but i do believe i saw this 6.12 it included bike paths and walkways not sidewalks and alex knows we've got an issue in my district that on the bypass and it's it's left with snow past 24 hours and it doesn't get plowed anymore. It used to up until two years ago. And they don't do it anymore because lack of equipment or personnel or both.

All right, any other discussion? Alderperson Evert.

So to be clear, the city will get the 24 hours to clear the stuff. It's for residents to clear the sidewalk within 24 hours. The residents sidewalks. Yep, so this ordinance is regarding requiring the cleaning of snow off of sidewalks, bus pads, curb ramps, etc. 24 hours, thank you.

OK, any other discussion? All right, then the motion is to approve the updates to municipal code 6.12 as presented. Katie, please take it away.

Everett.

Aye.

Wigderson. Aye. Piper. Aye. Vantrieste. Aye. Wells. Aye. Mannion. Aye. Molson.

Aye.

Huggestead. Aye. Matthews. Aye. Miklitz. Aye. Lemke. Aye.

Camacho. All right, that motion passes 13 to 0. Excellent. Next up, Human Resources Committee report. Alderperson Anderson?

No report.

Excellent. Board of Public Works report. Alex?

No items tonight. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. Do you have anything for Director of Public Works?

I'm good. Thank you.

All right. Excellent. City Attorney's report. Anything, Brian?

Couple of notes here. First of all, you're probably aware that the appeal of the solves to our circuit court decision was overturned by the Court of Appeals. And we are going to pursue a petition for review by the Supreme Court because the ordinance, I'm sorry, the statute upon which our summary judgment motion was based uh... is relatively new the supreme court has not ruled on it yet only the courts of appeals we think the court of appeals decision was egregiously wrong and it has long-term impact for the city and honestly for all cities and villages in the state of Wisconsin, we need the Supreme Court to clarify for us just exactly what the intent of that Section 781 was. We think that the Court of Appeals decision really kind of neuters the effectiveness of what was intended to be an anti-NIMBY statute. So a petition for review for the Supreme Court is going to be filed. And you should know that our liability insurance company has assured us that they will continue to foot the bill for the legal work. So it's not going to cost the city any additional money to pursue that. Secondly, you are probably aware that while I was on vacation last week, they had the nerve to file a lawsuit against us regarding the flock cameras. The point of that lawsuit is to get the courts to rule that a warrant is required any time flock data is accessed. claiming that the use of that flock camera data without a warrant is a violation of the Fourth Amendment. Twelve defendants were named in the lawsuit and currently the twelve defendants are coordinating among themselves and their insurance companies are coordinating among themselves to present a unified defense to it. So we will be filing an answer to that. I really wish that we had been able to keep that one in-house. That would have been a fun one to work on. But, well, we're going to let our insurance company foot the bill for that one, too. Finally, my plea for input on e-bike and e-scooter ordinance. has not generated an overwhelming response. But it's been long enough now that I think it's time to cut it off. If you're going to get anything to me, get it to me in the next 24 to 48 hours so we can go to work and put together a draft ordinance. I'll give you a 48-hour grace period. We don't need your input in order to come up with a draft, and of course there can always be discussion of the draft after it's created, but the object was to try to incorporate as much of your opinions and input into the draft as we could. So let me let me get an email from y'all. Thanks, that's all.

Thank you city administrators report Tony.

I'm going to back Brian up here a little bit and say if you really, really please could give him comments in the next 48 hours, that would be greatly appreciated. because that certainly helps his office with understanding what your thoughts are to be able to craft that ordinance that ultimately will come to ONL. The only other thing I wanted to mention, and I have been thinking about this, and I think this meeting tonight kind of pointed this out, I would say that the council maybe should consider looking at the council rules. And the reason I say that is because just tonight, three things have come up related to them. The first is the name of the committee, or at least in the case of building and grounds. The second thing is determining the scope of what the committees actually do. As Brian noted, there's the listing within the council rules of the standing committees, but it doesn't actually outline what the committee's authority is and what they're supposed to be focusing on. And then the other thing is the referrals process that's come up a number of times over the past couple months in terms of how that process functions. So again, that would be something that I would recommend. I will be talking to all of you probably independently to see kind of the interest in doing something like that and what that process could look like. End of report.

Excellent. Thank you. I'm going to sound like a broken record and just say, hey, everyone should definitely email Brian about your thoughts on e-bikes because I'm sure that you have them and he definitely wants to hear them. We do have two proclamations today. First is for the Evangelical and Reformed United Church of Christ 160th Anniversary Proclamation, whereas the E&R United Church of Christ was founded in in 1866 and is celebrating its 160th anniversary this year, and whereas the first Evangelical and Reformed United Church of Christ House of Worship was located where Carroll University is now located, and whereas the Evangelical and Reformed United Church of Christ is currently located in downtown Waukesha at 413 Wisconsin Avenue. And whereas the E&R United Church of Christ, in addition to Sunday worship, offers a wide variety of programs for the benefit of its congregation and the community. And whereas the Evangelical and Reformed United Church of Christ is an active partner with other community organizations, such as Christmas Clearinghouse, Family Promise, Friends with Food, Habitat for Humanity, Hebron House, Hope Center, Pro Healthcare Foundation, school supplies, Waukesha Free Clinic, and the Women's Center. Therefore, now be it resolved that I, Alicia Hovindsley, Mayor of the City of Waukesha, do hereby congratulate the Evangelical and Reformed United Church of Christ for 160 years of being an integral part of the City of Waukesha and wish them continued success. Yes. And we have some folks here. If you want to just come up and just, if you'd like to say something real quick, that would be fine. If you don't want to, you don't have to. But you are here, so I want to make sure that you are welcomed.

Thank you, Mayor, for doing that. Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor and Council, for having us. I'm Brian Van Buren. I've been a member of ENR since 1996. I'm the history committee chair, excuse me, history committee chair, and we've been around for 64% of American history and a lot of time here in Waukesha, and we're very proud to be here. Pastor Wilkie.

Thank you so much for this proclamation and for recognizing 160 years. I have not been at this congregation for 160 years, and I have been here only four and a half years, and it has been my honor to be the first female settled minister at ENR UCC. And we are having a celebration during our worship service October 4th at 9 a.m., and you are all welcome to join us. So thank you so much. Thank you.

Thank you very much for being a part of our community.

And how did you know we were with the church?

That's what I want to know. I did have an email that you'd be here. I didn't know for sure who you were. Had no idea. All right. Thank you very much. Next up, we have a Family Promise Week proclamation. Whereas Family Promise of Waukesha County is a nonprofit organization dedicated to assisting families experiencing homelessness and helping low-income families regain and retain their independence. And whereas Family Promise of Waukesha County opened its doors in 2014 through a collaboration with 28 congregations to provide shelter to families experiencing homelessness. And whereas, since its founding, Family Promise of Waukesha County has served more than 500 families, including more than 400 households since 2020, as its programs have evolved to address the changing needs of families throughout Waukesha County. And whereas, Family Promise of Waukesha County recognizes that preventing homelessness is essential to protecting families from the trauma, stress, and long-term impacts associated with losing their homes, and its prevention program works to help families remain safely housed. And whereas Family Promise of Waukesha County continues to develop innovative approaches to family homelessness, including shelter diversion and emergency shelter programs designed to connect families with housing and other resources, including a new facility being developed in downtown Waukesha. And whereas the city of Waukesha recognizes the vital role that Family Promise of Waukesha County, its staff, volunteers, partners, and supporters play in strengthening families and helping them achieve stability and independence. Now, therefore, be it resolved that October 12th through October 16th is Family Promise Week. All right. From there, are there any referrals? Quiet group. No referrals. All right. So we are going to go into closed session once a motion is made. As a note, we are going to be convening the closed session in the training room. So assuming that the motion passes, please make your way to the training room once that happens. Alderperson Mannion?

Yeah, I will make a motion that the council go into closed session pursuant to Wisconsin Stat 19.85 , for the purpose of deliberating or negotiating the purchase of public properties, the investing of public funds, or conducting other specified public business. Whenever competitive or bargaining reasons require closed session specifically to discuss the negotiation strategies related to the acquisition and disposal of real property including the water utility built building and potential inter-municipal agreements related to fire and rescue services Alder person Piper second any discussion about going into closed session All right, Katie, I will let you take that away again.

I

Everett? Aye. Wigderson? Aye. Piper? Aye. Vantrieste? Aye. Wells? Aye. Mannion? Yes. Moulton?

Aye.

Anderson?

Yes.

Helgastead? Aye. Matthews?

Aye.

Miklitz? Aye. Lemke?

Aye.

Camacho?

Aye.

All right, that motion passes 13 to 0, so we are now going to go into closed session again in the training room.

Are we live?

We do have enough for quorum, so I will start with Alderperson Manion.

I will make a motion that we reconvene into open session.

Alderperson Piper?

Second.

Any discussion? All right. Katie, I believe you still have to tally our votes for us.

Everett is not here. Wigderson? Yes. Piper? Aye. Vantrieste? Aye. Wells? Aye. Mannion? Yes. Moulton?

Aye.

Anderson?

Yes.

Helgastead? Yes. Matthews? Aye. Miklitz? Aye. Lemke?

Camacho?

Aye.

All right, that motion passes 12 to 0. All right, I can count. All right, we are back in open session. After closed session, we are taking no additional action. So absent any objections, we are adjourned.