Finance Committee - Regular Meeting

All right, good evening, everyone. We'll call the Tuesday, June 9th, 2026 meeting of the Finance Committee to order. We do have a quorum. First, our next item on our agenda is Pledge of Allegiance. Please stand.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

All right. Next item on the agenda is public comments. I do not see any members of the public here this evening. That'll bring us to item number 4A, which is approval of minutes for the 28th of April. Any changes to those minutes from the committee? All right, seeing no changes, those minutes are approved through unanimous consent. We have three business items tonight, all of which are from the Fire Department. Item number 5A, which is a review and possible action on a radio grant for fiscal year 2026. Assistant Chief Fleming, if you'd come up and introduce yourself to the folks at home, and the floor is yours.

I think we're unmuted there, yes? Good evening. There we go. Good evening. Tim Fleming, Assistant Chief with the City of Waukesha Fire Department. Thank you for your time this evening. All right, so radio grant. We were able to take advantage of a grant opportunity that came about. This is part of the 2028 countywide radio system change. This is an opportunity for us to offset some of those costs that are projected for the 2028 CIP.

Tim, could you just give us a quick little bit of a background on the county change with radios?

Certainly. I guess in general, the county is looking to increase the capacity of the current radio system and work a little bit more through interoperability with other area counties. In Milwaukee, we're seeing in the south, And basically, if you think of it as a two-lane highway to a four- or five-lane highway in creating a bigger capacity as all of the radios are interacting on that system, known as the OASIS system. The upgrade allows that the county gets, if we don't upgrade our radios, even though that capacity is in place, we're still taking up multiple lanes each time we make a transition. I'm sorry, transmission on the radio system. SO PUTTING THIS TECHNOLOGY INTO THE EXISTING RADIOS THAT HAVE THE CAPABILITY OR REPLACING THE RADIOS THAT ARE NO LONGER SUPPORTED OR HAVE THAT TECHNOLOGY AVAILABLE. SO THIS WILL BE A TWO-PART PROCESS WITH THIS GRANT. IT WILL BE WHAT'S CALLED FLASHING WHICH IS ADDING THE TECHNOLOGY TO EXISTING MOBILE RADIOS THAT ARE AVAILABLE WITHIN OUR SYSTEM AND THEN STARTING THAT REPLACEMENT PROGRAM WITH OUR PORTABLE RADIOS With the cost of these radios, we're looking at flashing, bear with me here, a total of 41 of the mobile radios, and then replacing four of the portable radios. Those prices are included in the financial remarks. The portable radios are $11,600 each, and the flash cost is $5,648, so very advantageous to take advantage of this opportunity now, knowing that we'll be tackling this as a citywide project in the 2028 CIP.

Great. Thanks, Tim. Questions from the committee? Alderperson Anderson?

Just one quick one. Acceptance of this grant doesn't come with any strings attached or that we have to do anything or buy specific radios or anything with that money?

No, the system is exclusive, not exclusive, but we use Motorola radios on the system, so we will be working with Motorola for replacement, but there are no requirements as far as how the money is spent. Correct. Okay, thank you.

Any other questions for Chief on this? I'd entertain a motion for approval. Alderman Lemke?

I move to accept the fiscal year 26 interoperable radio program from the Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs Office of Emergency Communications.

Is there a second? I'll second it. Seconded by Alderman Matthews. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? We'll do voice vote. All those in favor sign aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? That item passes unanimously. Tim, item number 5B is review and possible action on the 2026 to 2028 urban search and rescue agreement with the state of Wisconsin.

Yes, thank you. So this is the next round or next contract to continue our membership. If you will, as part of Wisconsin task force 1, this is part of our special services team, urban search and rescue and technical response within the state program. We currently have 2 members. This is the. Next contract and there are minimal changes to language. They remove some language that referred to covid cleaned up some other language that was a bit ambiguous. Those were highlighted in the contract that was shared with this. And other than that, there are no major changes renewing this contract as far as operating for us.

And you touched on it. This is something that cities already the city's been in for a handful of years, correct?

Yep.

How often how often do we get called out under this agreement?

We're deployed through training resources, but we only have two members on it as a department at this point, so they have not been deployed on an actual deployment that would not be considered training.

Which is a good thing. It is a good thing. Nobody needs searching or rescuing.

Correct. It does provide additional training opportunities for us, and it keeps us in touch with the state teams so that we're working in conjunction together. with them at all times, even with our local incidents. That don't require bringing in Wisconsin Task Force. We're still operating that same platform.

Any questions for the chief on this item, the committee? With that, I'd entertain a motion for approval. Alderperson Wigderson?

I will do a motion to approve the, hold on a second, let me get back here to do the reading, the 2026-2028 Urban Search and Rescue Agreement with the State of Wisconsin.

Is there a second? Second by Alderman Lemke. We have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? all right all those in favor sign aye aye aye anyone opposed that item passes unanimously item number 5c is review and possible action on a reallocation of funds from the capital improvement program project 26 f08 chief thank you uh i promise this is the last ask i'll have this evening uh this is 26 fo8 that's the replacement of the uh outdated fire safety house that we walked through last year through the show and tell

We are just wrapping up that project. We will have delivery of the new trailer next week. It'll still have to go for graphics, but that'll be operational here in the very near future. And through that process, we were able to find some significant cost savings through that process. As you'll see in the financial remarks, we're looking at approximately $98,000 of available funds. So we're looking to use about $35,000 of that in working with the fleet manager. We were able to locate a vehicle for our MIH position. As we've discussed in the past, that position is responsible for responding out in non-emergency calls. It's that opportunity to not have our engines and ladders and frontline equipment responding to incidents that perhaps are non-emergency in that nature allow her to do that. But to do that, she needs a vehicle. So we're currently utilizing, I will call it an outdated fleet vehicle. So our two options here are to utilize these funds to purchase the new Ford Escape at the recommendation of the fleet manager and to pull that older SUV out of service before it becomes an expenditure that we don't want to maintain any longer.

Tim, could you give the committee maybe an example of a call that this individual goes on?

Certainly. So for example, if our folks respond out and they find somebody that is struggling for any need as far as caring for themselves, access to housing, access to city services, county services, they're referred through our MIH program. At that point, Megan is her name, responds out. She does a one-on-one assessment with these people. She has extraordinary patience and the ability to connect her to the services that this person may need. It can be as simple as getting in touch with a cell phone provider that's government assisted to allow them to get into contact with things. She can work with housing and different opportunities to get them if they're homeless, to get them opportunities for shelter. quite honestly, any need that comes upon us. So our folks are doing a very nice job of realizing that some of those calls that perhaps are concurrent users, people that are stuck in the system that aren't getting the care they need. This is that opportunity to pull back our frontline staff and realize these aren't emerging calls and allow her to get in contact with them and get these people the assistance they need to get their independence back and get them in the system where they're supported.

And that role is currently grant funded, similar to the police department's role, correct?

It is not.

How is that funded then?

That's a city position.

Okay, that's right. The police department is grant funded, this is a city?

Correct. This started through grant funding initially, but in 2026 it's fully funded as part of our org.

Okay. Questions on the vehicle, Alderman Anderson?

Well, I guess not on the vehicle, but on the money that's not going to the fire safety house. What's not being done to the fire safety house for 35,000 dollars. That we thought we might need it for.

Yeah, so obviously that's a pretty substantial leftover fund and I appreciate that. That number was estimated through by previous administration. If I'm being honest, as we work through the process to. To build out this trailer, we were able to take advantage of some competitive bid options with the company LSS and Dinges Fire that we worked with. We held it at a 27-foot trailer. It has all the ADA-compliant pieces that we were missing from the 1980s version that we're operating in. And we're very excited and like the project that is coming forward. I look forward to showing off to... The community as a whole, there are no components that we don't have on it. We just were able to realize some savings and had a number that we did not need to spend all of to get this project completed at an appropriate size.

Thank you.

You bet.

Other questions for.

So, it says here that an alternative option is to extend the use of an older. What year is that? And how many miles does it have on it?

The exact mileage I don't have on it. I'd be guessing. We just had this conversation with the fleet manager. I apologize. I didn't grab either of those numbers. I'm going to say it's a 2015, I believe, Ford Explorer. The mileage, I don't have.

More than $100,000?

I'd be guessing. I'd hate to put something on record to be off.

$35,000. Well, everybody wants a new vehicle. I have thousands and thousands of customers and constituents who are driving older than 10-year-old vehicles. If this isn't an emergency response where they're gonna go with lights and sirens to the site, I see nothing wrong with a 10-year-old vehicle with 100, 120,000 miles making the trip to, I mean, we're coming into budget season where we're gonna be looking for every cut that we can and I think if we bought a vehicle for $35,000 and the average 10 year old vehicle with 100, 125,000 mile escape at my shop where they get 90% of their work done doesn't spend $5,000 per year, we could get five years out of a vehicle like that. So I mean, I would not be in favor of it unless you came to the finance meeting the next time with the numbers where it makes sense. I mean, yeah, it's $35,000 left over, but if we keep spending our leftovers, we'll never get ahead of the game. And so if we have a vehicle that we can use, my opinion is that we should use it and not save taxpayers money, but use that money elsewhere. For example, and I'm just using this as an example for the committee, I have 85 sections of, of sidewalk in my subdivision that need to be replaced that we don't have the money to do. And Heritage Hills has numerous amounts. And I'm going to be pushing for an increase in the sidewalk budget because that's where people trip and fall. We've already got one broken arm. But that's my opinion. So I wouldn't be in favor of it without more knowledge. Thank you.

Other up, go ahead, Tim.

Yeah, I appreciate that. I just to clarify, we had that conversation with the fleet manager, which Mr. Weinkauf and had that exact conversation to evaluate both the concurrent, the current use of the vehicle versus replacement and the recommendation that he had based on his cost projections was to replace it. So just just wanted to answer that question. The due diligence was done and I apologize. I don't have the exact numbers, but it was evaluated with those numbers in mind.

Other questions? Alderperson Anderson.

Along the same lines of the cost of things, is there any value to the old fire safety house and what are we doing with it?

The old fire safety house has had some pretty substantial work done to the frame. The frame failed and then was welded, so it'll have to be evaluated to go to auction. Most likely that's where it'll go, but we'll be working with City Garage with Fleet just to assure that it's in a current state that would be safe to auction off, knowing that it came from our city. Thank you.

All right, any other questions for Chief on this item? So I'll make a motion to approve the reallocation of funds for the vehicle. Is there a second? Second by Alderman Anderson. Just kind of knowing the work that this individual does, and it's one of those things where, in the situation where a response like this is needed, you want a vehicle that's going to work, and you want to make sure that we're getting the folks that need the necessary help. The other thing that I have is that we've, in my humble opinion, done a better job of replacing things before they break and before they become more expensive. and especially as it relates to police and fire vehicles, I think this is something that rises to that for me, even though to Alderman Lemke's point that it's not something that's responding to an emergency call, but at the same time, we're not an individual that might be having a mental health crisis or something like that that is certainly deemed, you know, could be deemed an emergency. So I'll support it this evening at committee, but I think what you're hearing tonight, Tim, is that if you could bring some additional information to the Finance Committee and or even just email the Finance Committee with some more background on the existing vehicle prior to this going to Council.

I think that would be helpful.

Certainly.

Any other questions for the Chief on this? Alderman Lemke.

My last comment, and again, with 35 years of repair experience, 90% of broken down vehicles. It repaired the same day at our place, drop them off in the morning. They're done the same day. I think that can be done at the city garage. With a little bit of effort, and I don't always agree with Mr white coughs. Position of getting rid of vehicles when they're 10 years old. So.

uh i won't be voting no so that's just that's just one of five very good any other questions any other discussion alderman also to be included too we asked about mileage i'd like to maybe in the future see a statement uh break down you know a cost analysis of you know repair versus replace so over that you mentioned that he had recommended You know, it might be not be cost prohibitive, or it might be cost prohibitive to keep servicing that, but some, maybe something a statement or a write up for that would help out it as well.

Certainly. All right any other discussion or questions. All right, we'll take a vote all those in favor of the motion sign. Aye. Aye. Aye. Anyone opposed. All right, so that item does pass four to one. Assistant Chief, thank you very much. I know you've got your marching orders to get us a little bit more information prior to this going to council.

Certainly. Thank you all for your time. Appreciate it.

That'll move us on to item number six, communications. Mr. Brown.

I know that Chief Fleming had mentioned no more requests tonight, but pretty soon we're going to ramp up with the requests in terms of the city budget, the most probably important document that we create on an annual basis. So tomorrow I will be sending you along with the rest of the council members the budget calendar. But I'd be remiss if I did not say that you should mark your calendar for August 25th for the show and tell at the city garage. And then the one other item I would identify as something that is different from last year's schedule. is that we have two days for that finance committee to review the CIP as opposed to three. For probably the past, I would say, two, three years, we've been able to get through it in two meetings, so I'm pretty confident that we will this year as well. Other than that, that's all I have this evening. Thank you. Very good.

Any referrals from the committee? Any objection to adjourning? Seeing none, we are adjourned. Thank you, folks.