Ordinance & License Committee - Regular Meeting

It is six o'clock, so we will call to order the Monday, August 10th, 2026 meeting of the Ordinance and Licensing Committee. Is anyone here for, Alderperson Halgastead is absent today. He warned me ahead of time he wasn't gonna make it. All of the members of the committee are present, so we do have a quorum. Is anyone here for public comment? City employees, anyone? No, okay. There's no one else out there, so we will move on from public comment to approval of minutes. Does anyone have any concerns with either of the attached minutes from June 22nd, 2026? We had a minor correction we needed to make there. Or July 13th, 2026. Any concerns with the agendas? Seeing none, we'll consider both of those approved by unanimous consent. Moving on to bartender applications first up we have Chelsea Gorsuch Look certainly appears as though Chelsea is not here, so we will hold that License over to the next meeting Moving on to other applications I Molly, were there any concerns on these applications from the... No concerns from the clerk's office. Okay. Any concerns from any committee members? Yes, please. That would be lovely.

I'll make a motion to approve the other license applications as presented that includes CVS Pharmacy number 8947, Class A beer and liquor, Club 400's extension of premise, Joey's Resale, secondhand article dealer, and Wings and Wheels 2026 Class B temporary license.

Yep, that's it. All right, and I will second the motion to approve those. So we have a motion by Alderperson Mannion, seconded by myself, to approve the other license applications. CVS Pharmacy, number 8947, Class A Beer and Liquor, Club 400, extension to premises. Joey's Resale, secondhand article dealer, Wings and Wheels, 2026, temporary, Class B. All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Anyone abstaining? All right. All right, those pass unanimously. Moving on to ID 2604063, review and possible action on updates to the Waukesha Municipal Code 6.12, snow and ice removal from sidewalks, curb ramps, bus pads, and fire hydrants. Guessing one of you will handle this.

Yep, I can go over that perfect.

Thank you.

Yeah, so overall there's a lot of oh I'm Emma Hastings. I work as an engineer technician So going over this there's a lot of red on this document Primarily the red is just consolidating sections that had similar or the same requirements so previously it was The bus pads, fire hydrants, curb ramps, and sidewalks are all separate sections. We have now combined them into one because they do share the same requirements for clearing. And then the overall main thing that was updated beyond that was just the ordinance timeline going from 12 hours to 24 hours. So the example I shared in Board of Public Works was we typically do these right away in the morning at 8 AM. If I was to go out there and write a ticket at 8 AM to have that cleared, I would have to return by 8 PM. And the contractor is not available at that point to do any further work. That would better align us with just realistic enforcement timelines, but also other municipalities that are nearby or the same size as us in Wisconsin. And then the other just general overview is we added the definition of what a formal sidewalk was as opposed to a recreational path, and then changed the adjacent to a sidewalk as to adjacent to a public right-of-way if there is a section of like grass between the property and the sidewalk in the middle there that may not directly abut that sidewalk. This now captures those properties as well. So there's really no change to that. It's just there would be grass between the private property and the sidewalk on the interior portion of that sidewalk. They were currently not required to.

They have been required to, but... It wasn't really necessarily completely enforceable, so we're making that more enforceable.

Thank you. So if there's...

So, for example, there's spots in the city where the sidewalk is immediately adjacent to it, and that's kind of what was spoken to in the ordinance. And then there's spots where it's a foot off, two feet off, eight feet off, varying distances off. We've always required them to shovel that. There's some instances maybe that it's passed underneath and they haven't had to do it, but we just want to clarify it to make it completely clear that it is required.

Okay. And you said this was already to Board of Public Works?

Yes.

Do they have any concerns?

I just have a question. No, they do not. So this isn't necessarily related to your changes, just in general regarding fire hydrants. Sure. Okay. So do we have something in the ordinance right now about... I will just say that I've been very lucky with the recent water update on my street to now have a fire hydrant on my corner. I've lived in the house for 27 years, never had to shovel it out except for the last two winters since Genesee was redone. I'm just curious because I have had some of my other elderly constituents talk about this so I'm just wondering what kind of leeway or help do we give to the elderly regarding the fire hydrants considering with some of the snow though I mean they're sometimes they're completely buried and I know if I didn't have my two kids at home it would be really hard to maintain that that hot fire hydrant so I'm just curious do we have anything built into the ordinance in regards to capability of the fire hydrant or they're just expected to have it shoveled

yet there's nothing specifically built into the ordinance to cover that i do know in a lot of like the city communications we you know kind of ask neighbors to pitch in and be neighborly um but there's nothing written as part of the ordinance okay

This is purely on enforcement. We enforce based on resident complaint, typically. Public Works doesn't go out looking for sidewalks that need shoveling. We receive lots of complaints that sidewalks aren't shoveled, and then we respond to those areas.

How about, have you considered, and I'm fairly sure it's not in here, I think it was last year we were talking about Springdale Road when we were redoing the road and we were adding a sidewalk and there were people who had people who were in the subdivision on the other side, and so they had like two sidewalks, and they were complaining that they had to, there's nothing in here about that, and they're still required to do both.

It's still required to do both sides, and in that instance that you're talking about, there's sections like that all over the city where there's sidewalks on both sides, probably in each one of your districts.

I literally was thinking about it driving here, because I drove down Sunset, and there's, I think it's technically a, Mike's district, but yeah, it's down sunset and there's a portion that has sidewalk basically any not any, but most.

Like arterial streets where there's a subdivision adjacent to it. Yeah, there's houses in there that have sidewalk on their residential street and then also the arterial like MacArthur and Madison Street Summit, Northview, all of those streets, Moreland.

Yeah. Yeah.

Go ahead. And just to make sure, there are fines that go along for people that don't want to play along to get along, right?

Yes. So we ask a contractor to come out and complete that work. And then we have a cost schedule associated to that work that then we bill back to that property owner that did not complete the clearing.

Very good. Thank you.

Good, so I'm just going to make sure because I know that I did get complaints last last winter. So they have 24 hours to complete the cleaning after the complaint has been made. Correct?

Yep, so we would receive the complaint. I would go out and verify the complaint. Then we would provide them a door hanger that gives the timeline for that action needs to be taken. By the time that I would then return, that would be at the point we would contact that contractor and have that removed. So they have 24 hours from the time of, I guess, me verifying the complaint is legitimate. Okay, got it.

In the ordinance, they have 24 hours to clear the snow as well. After a snowfall, yeah.

Okay. Any other questions from anybody?

All right. Perfect, thank you.

I'll make a motion to pass the, what is this? 26-04063, Waukesha Municipal Code 6.12, snow and ice removal from sidewalks, curb ramps, bus pads, and fire hydrants.

I second.

All right, excellent. So we have a motion to approve, or recommend approval to the council for, made by Alderperson Wigderson, seconded by Alderperson Everett. All those in favor, aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Anyone abstaining? Motion passes unanimously. Thanks, Emma. Thanks, Alex. Have a nice night. Thank you. All right. Up next, we have... review and recommendation on an ordinance determining the polling place for the November 17, 2026 primary and December 15, 2026 special election. Anything to present, Molly, or are we just on our own with this one?

No, I will go ahead and present. So I'll just reiterate a little bit of what is stated in the cover sheet. And then I just have some additional notes to share with the committee as well. So due to the unfortunate passing of County Executive Paul Farrow, a vacancy now exists in the office of Waukesha County Executive. So due to this, on July 10th, 2026, County clerk Georgia Maxwell issued the order and notice of special election for December 15th, 2026. If a primary special election is required, it will be held on November 17th of 2026. Uh, city staff contacted all of our current polling locations regarding both the special primary and the special general election dates. And several facilities do not have availability for the additional elections on the required dates. So due to that we are thinking of having a centralized location for voting for those at City Hall Since City Hall is centrally located itself It is a DA accessible and will ensure adequate staffing for the special primary and special general election and then the county clerk has estimated a 15% voter turnout for the special election and which is roughly 6,500 voters for the city of Waukesha. So that's kind of what the cover sheet went over, but just some additional notes about this. I just want to highlight that this ordinance is solely to move people These elections to City Hall just for those special elections and those only. Also another note, there is an extremely short turnaround time between the November 3rd general election and the November 17th special primary. The special primary occurring two weeks after the general election. And then early voting for the special election primary has been noticed to start Wednesday, November 4th, 2026, which is the day after the November 3rd, 2026 general election. And at this point in time, the county has communicated to us that they are 100% positive that there's going to be a special primary. And then... So, as of right now, the current plan would be not to give any communications specifically about this change until November 3rd, 2026, which is the date of that general election. Just to minimize any confusion about where people need to go for which election to vote. And then the plan for that as well would be to give out flyers regarding the special primary and the special general election on November 3rd at all the different polling places. So we can directly give voters that are coming to vote that day the information about both of those elections. And then just an additional note as well, there continues to be an increase in absentee voting. As of right now, about 4,500 ballots have been returned for the August 11th, 2026 primary as of now. And then voters with calendar year absentee requests on file or indefinitely confined absentee requests on file would automatically receive ballots as well for those two special elections.

will do my best if there's any additional questions about this to give you some answers thank you so just to be clear so my understanding so for the primary because the major election is November 3rd you'll be passing a flyers at that election They are here. Correct.

So the plan would be to pass that those flyers out for the November 3rd general election.

Okay. And then when are we doing any city of Waukesha notifications on the website starting the 4th?

So we would obviously have to discuss pending approval, but the plan would be, yes, basically that day we would get out as many different platforms as possible communications regarding it along with the flyers. to make sure that people aren't.

I know we're probably going to get some complaints, but I don't see any other way of trying to squash any type of confusion regarding all those dates so close together.

So OK. Yeah, because you can't do it now because you're going to confuse everybody for. Any other questions?

Whoever I make a motion to approve, sorry. It's not on my paper. I gotta look it up Okay, sorry, I almost ended the meeting Oh four oh eight three An ordinance determining the polling place for the November 17th 2026 primary and December 15th 2026 special election I'll second that motion.

Can I make a quick comment? Absolutely Molly I would just say the one Maybe it's implied, but just for the record, I would recommend whatever flyer we push out, we distribute that during early voting of the main fall election as well, not just at the polling place since so many people are voting early now. Maybe that was always intended, but you said at the polling. The main election but early voting is more and more prevalent now. So we need to have that ready to go for those folks as well All right, so we have a motion

To approve the recommendation for the polling place for November 17th, 2026 primary and December 15th, 2026 special election, motion by Alderperson Wiggerson, seconded by Alderperson Mannion. All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Anyone abstaining? Passes unanimously. Moving on. Review and recommendation on AB 105 submitted by North Pillar Brewing Company for Fiesta Del Rio on September 6th, 2026 from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Frame Park Amphitheater, 701 East Moreland Boulevard. Yeah, technology throwing me for a loop here, sorry. I might, that's a good question.

No. Is it the other folder?

No, that's just bartenders. I mean, I don't have any concerns. I mean, it's North Pillar, right? So I'll... Huh?

I'm just reading where... I was expecting a map.

No, because this is the different kind of license. This is the state-run thing. So they've already applied for... Minor hold here. All right, I'll make a motion to approve the AB 105 submitted by North Pillar Brewing Company for Fiesta Del Rio on September 6, 2026 from noon to 9 PM at Frame Park Amphitheater.

I second.

All right, motion by myself to approve, seconded by Alderperson Everett. Any, all in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstaining? That passes unanimously. Communications, anything from the clerk's office?

I was actually just going to say, looking back, it looks like our bartender was not invited. So even though she's, so obviously she wouldn't be here tonight. So if you are wanting to take action on that application tonight, the cover sheet doesn't have a check mark next to invited. So it looks like she was not invited.

I think we should invite her.

All right, I'll make a note of that.

Thank you very much. And there's no objection. We are adjourned at 6.20. Thank you. Thanks, everybody.