Common Council - Regular Meeting

Good evening, everybody. We will call the May 19th meeting of the Common Council to order. I will ask our clerk to call the roll.

Alderperson Grisham. Here. Grove. Here. Haas.

Here.

Halverson.

Here.

Keene. Here. Novak. Here. Nolene. Here. Rote.

Alderman Rote is excused.

Turner.

Here.

Weigel. Here. Nine present, one excused.

We have a quorum present. Please rise if you are able and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance, which will be led by Alderwoman Grisham this evening. Thank you. Moving on to section D of the agenda, we do have four public hearings this evening. So I will ask our clerk to read out public hearing number one.

Conditional use permit for the Tennyson, a proposed event space, 5,000 or more square feet use at 6601 West National Avenue.

Thank you very much. Turn it over to staff, Mr. Schloss.

my name is patrick schloss the economic development executive director i don't normally do too many of the planning public hearings but just we were recognized for strong towns two of the planners are at that and my colleague steve who's the city planner well he's sending me pictures of italy today so i sent him a view from the council chambers here tonight so The first item that we have is the Condition of Use Permit for the Tennyson Vent Space. This is related to the owners of Antigua Restaurant, Lolly and Nicholas Ramos at 6601 West National Avenue. This is part of the Maker's Row redevelopment area. It's around 5,000 square feet. It's the south end of the Maker's Row buildings where the blue star is on on this image here. It's located pretty much at 66 in Lapham. I have to give a landmark type of location. This also accompanies the recent SONA development and also another item tonight's agenda, the SONA II residential developments. Again, Maker's Row is the predominant corner of 66th and West National Avenue, just to the west of the West Isles Farmers Market. By looking at this picture, you can see the light blue area. This is the designated public parking corridor through here, as well as the street parking along 66th Street in this corridor. The Maker's Row is a 15,000 square foot building. It's an event. Tennyson would occupy 6,000 square feet of that as well as the second item on tonight's agenda, the Black Rose Cocktail Bar and Small Plate Restaurant. The zoning is C3 commercial, which permits this conditional use occupancy. It's a conditional use because of assembly, people attending. Usually it has a little bit higher traffic of people coming and going. Kind of giving a view of the property here of the Maker's Row. Again, the Tennyson area is located to the south side of Maker's Row. this area will be the Black Rose venue. So the Tennyson overview is, again, C3 zoning, 6,000 square feet. Hours of operation are consistent between 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., and then Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, hours from 8 to midnight, and then Sunday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. There will be some minor building alterations and exterior site improvements that include a new patio. You can see the image of the location there in the picture. The primary focus of the event space, again, is weddings, business events, corporate luncheons, educational seminars, et cetera, weekend functions, weddings, quinceaneras, anniversaries, and school celebrations. Overall, the management and operations of the Tennyson, when people gather at an event, when they're coming to events today, often use services like Uber or other forms of transportation. They will have management staff with the flow of guests. And they will also make sure there's no unsupervised access to the premise. They will also coordinate with guests with guidelines and directions on where to park. Of course, there are two public parking spaces or lots just to the east Joining at the farmers markets when the farmers market is not in operation. There is public parking The staff will monitor the arrival and departure of guests and not to impede upon the neighborhood and other residents in the area Monitor noise levels and be compliance with local noise ordinances. I The inside of the space will include, again, the event and gathering space, bride room, storage, kitchen area, restroom. It will have a bar. The owners have applied for a liquor license. I believe the application was submitted today. Again, there will be a patio pretty much on the south side of the building along Lapham. This is for guests to step outside, get fresh air, have seating, et cetera. The installation will include a retaining wall, landscaping, guardrails, et cetera, and specialized lighting. The exterior facade, it's pretty much built today. There will be one additional window added as well as placement of awnings over those windows, and as well as the new patio with vertical steel posts and overhead string lighting. Gladly answer any questions you may have.

Thanks for the presentation, Mr. Schloss. Are there any questions from the Common Council on public hearing number one?

Mayor Devine.

Alderman Keene and then Alderman Grobe.

Patrick, on the side that there's going to be the patio and outdoor area, what's across the street from that?

It would be the new Sona 2. Are you talking about to the south?

Yeah.

It would be the Sona 2 apartment. I don't have a view of that, but it would be a new development.

So it would be residential?

Residential. At the ground level, it's a 2,000-square-foot commercial space, as well as their community amenity facility. space building.

Thank you.

Mayor, I just want to note, I didn't say, there have been no objections to date.

Gotcha. Alderman Grove.

Patrick, two quick things, and this maybe applies to the second one coming up here, but are they going to be simply catering in that space, or is there going to be kitchen space, or is that shared with item two here?

I understand that there will be a kitchen space for food prep, but They're also, I mean, Antigua does provide catering services, and I'm sure there might be ability to do outside catering as well, so.

And has there been any discussion about limiting or not having events during farmer's market times? Are there any concerns with that?

I'm not aware of that, but I believe the hours of the farmer's market, it's five. Some of the events that they would have would be after the general farmer's market time.

Except maybe Food Truck Friday.

Except Food Truck Friday.

All right, thank you.

But I think they will coordinate and manage their parking. And the one thing, there is a great deal of street parking throughout that corridor.

Thank you. Any other questions from the council? Seeing none, are there any questions from the audience on public hearing number one? Okay, seeing none, we will close our first public hearing, and I will ask our clerk to read out public hearing number two.

Conditional use permit for the Black Rose, a proposed restaurant use at 6601 West National Avenue.

Thank you. Mr. Schloss.

Mayor and members of the- Round two. Yes. Mayor, members of the Common Council, the Black Rose Bar and Restaurant is a prospect that the economic development team and planning have been working with for over a year. It has taken a lot to develop the plan to move into the space, and they are working with Bob Monit, the owner of the Maker's Row development. So this is 6601 West National Avenue. You can kind of see the overview. It's a 15,000 square foot building. The Black Rose Restaurant would be a small plate cocktail lounge, a very modern, artistic interior. The zoning is C3, which permits this type of use. And this is a type of use that's consistent with the overall vision of what Maker's Row was established to be. Again, I mentioned industrial, urban, retro, interior. They'll have a small coffee feature called Electric Rose. Cocktail bar with light food. Hours of operation, Wednesday through Thursday, 4 to 8 p.m., Friday, Saturday, 11 to 9 p.m., and Sunday, 11 to 9. Seating is around 116 patrons. Staffing, they're expecting between five full-time employees as well as an array of part-time employees. The space is set up with a round floor and then a mezzanine level interior-wise. And you can kind of see the layout here, which consists of a seating, a bar, kitchen area, and then the mezzanine for small meetings, and then the operations office. The notice of the block hearing was published. We have received no objections to date. I gladly answer any questions you may have.

Thanks, Mr. Schloss. Any questions from the council on public hearing number two? Seeing none, are there any questions from the audience on public hearing number two? All right, that will conclude our second public hearing, and we will move on to public hearing number three.

Resolution approving a substantial amendment to reallocate prior years unused community development block grant funds in the amount of $159,523 from 2020 through 2025, unprogrammed funding activities toward completing the 65th National Industrial Improvements Project activity.

Thank you very much. Mr. Schloss?

Under the Community Development Block Grant Program, the reason unprogrammed funds accumulate are either activities don't utilize their whole allotted grant funds, or two, programs like economic development or housing loans produce interest income. and repayments and those funds are put back into the overall funds for the grant programs and then we have extra money to award to different projects in this case there's a substantial amendment which is part of the citizen participation plan for the community development block grant program that requires any change of 100 or substantial change to the annual plan to require a public hearing and tonight the the project is a pedestrian improvement activity that would be located in the area of between 66th Street and the former railroad spur. It'd be in the middle area here, mainly a connection between the west and the Maker's Row. When people park on both sides of the street, allow people to improve the connection between the two properties and the redevelopment areas. The idea is to provide a safer crossing. And then the other unique part of this is a bicycle accommodation, which would be a repair station installed at the farmer's market. So this is the general program area that's been designated here between 65th and National Avenue. It's $159,523 for completing the overall project. The original budget was $110,000, $42,000 for design, and they had $68,000 for remaining budget for construction. But the bids were published and the actual construction bid came in at over $227,522. So with tonight's amendment would add the balance to complete this project. Again, improving the pedestrian improvement activity between 66 and the railroad spur. Gladly answer any questions you may have.

Thank you again, Mr. Schloss. Are there any questions on public hearing number three from the council? All in the room with Grisham.

Thank you. Patrick, as far as the improvements that are going for pedestrian crossing, is there any lighting? Is it more crosswalk related or what are you looking at?

I think this is, I have to refer to Melinda, our city engineer.

The flashing beacons?

Go ahead.

Yes.

So we're doing a couple different things. We're creating bump outs at the corners. We're doing a mid block crossing, which again, not the best, but it's needed in this area because people are kind of crossing there. So we're putting in one of the rapid flashing rectangular beacons there we're also changing some of the parking in the area so the site distances are better so you can see people on the street and we're going all the way to 965th Street so we're also going through that intersection trying to make the sight lines better there and improving the crossings around the farmers market so it's a holistic approach in this quarter and then next year we have a companion project that we're going to be doing from that railroad crossing all the way to 70th Street, and improving bus pull-in lanes, which is also part of this project, and bump-outs, and just trying to make the whole area better pedestrian safety-wise.

Any other questions from the council on public hearing number three? Seeing none, are there any members of the audience with questions on public hearing number three? All right, then we will close public hearing number three, and I will ask the clerk to read out public hearing number four.

Resolution approving the fiscal year 2026 Annual Action Plan Community Development Block Grant Program, anticipated available funding of $1.4 million.

Thank you, Mr. Schloss.

Mayor and members of the Common Council, what this is, is last fall the Community Development Block Grant Committee received applications for funding for the 2026 year. Those applications were reviewed and then awarded here per what's established as the annual plan for the block grant program. Now, none of those agreements are signed until we actually have notification from Housing and Urban Development, HUD, of the actual level of funding that the city would receive. We received that notification on April 6th. It's around $11,000 less than estimated when we do the budget. Each year we have to do an estimate. with congress and continuing funding resolutions often when we get the letter it's delayed sometimes all the way to fall and this year we got it in april with this we have to have a public hearing on what the activities are that are funded this has actually come before council before but we're fulfilling the public hearing requirement and the overall budget is one million four hundred $430,732. There's $261,733 of program income estimated for the program year, and this is for all the 2027, or 2026 activities, and they fall under administrative, public service, housing rehab activities, economic development, and public facility improvements. The plan then, so each year our plan gets submitted. So the 2026 year, even though we're operating, it doesn't get reviewed by HUD until later this year. And then we actually get the money once that plan is approved by late this year. So it's a little bit of a backwards process, but that we're fulfilling the requirements therefore. So gladly answer any questions you may have.

Thank you. Any questions from the council on our fourth and final public hearing? Seeing none, are there any members of the audience with questions on our final public hearing? All right, then we will close our public hearings. We will now go on to public participation. This is where the council can receive information From the public, during this 30 minute period, each speaker must sign in, give us their name and their address, and limit their comments to one statement of no more than five minutes. The council cannot take action on topics raised by the speakers and cannot discuss the speaker's topics. Anyone wish to address the council under public participation, please approach the podium and turn on the microphone. All right, we will close public participation. And we will move on to item F. Our standing committees will be meeting during recess. Those room numbers are listed on the top of page two on the agendas. If you are here for a specific item, whether it be a license or approval of something, please take a look at the room numbers, or if you have any questions, Can't find the room numbers, please ask one of us when we break for recess and we will get you into the right spot. Now we will go with the mayor's report. And I'm gonna ask Tony Orkoshevsky to come up.

Can you fix my computer, Tony? I forgot my microphone.

I got music for him. Tony is a huge Rush fan. So before I read this proclamation, I just want to mention that I hope you all get these references. Tony always held this job closer to the heart. He left on his own free will. He will no longer be a working man. And as he enters the limelight of retirement, I hope he does not feel like time stands still.

Very clever.

He motivated me. So now the proclamation. To be blunt, Tony wrote his own proclamation and at the top of the proclamation he had written file number, or file R-USH2112. and no one got it including kelly in our communications who said that's not how we format image he deleted the whole thing and send me a proclamation without tony's edits so that's why i had to do some music and some uh... some quotes from rush before we read this but so tony is retiring as i t director whereas anthony j work a chef ski has served as the i t director for the city west alice and the village of west milwaukee for over eight years and during this time His vision for progressive use of technology has resulted in the acquisition of a remarkable amount of IT resources, including a 200% increase in mobile technology solutions, allowing staff to use technology where the work actually happens. Introduction of axon cameras for squad cars, police staff, and conference rooms, deployment of over 140 dash cams for DPW fire and code enforcement vehicles, introduction of more than 90 pieces of digital voting equipment, including Badger books, express vote machines, and burner phones. He wrote his own. Whereas, gadgets aside, under Warkashevsky's tenure, the IT department also coordinated the implementation of numerous new software solutions, including Microsoft 365, DocuWare, AssetWorks, OpenGov, GIS, Legal Files, CAD2CAD, and Peregrine. And whereas the IT department under Tony's leadership took on many additional responsibilities, including the recording and streaming of all formal meetings, support for all audio visual conference room technology, printing and management of employee ID cards, and oversight of building security solutions, and a 7.5% reduction in overall city staffing levels, a 60% reduction in printing costs, Over 800,000 historical documents are now available to view on OpenGov. The ability for residents to pay for city services online by credit card, a fully automated parking permit system which eliminated the stickers, zero significant cyber security incidents and remarkable, don't jinx it, 30% reduction in IT department FTEs from 13 in 2017 to nine in 2026. whereas during his service he led the department with consistent professionalism, was always a team player, and worked well with staff across all departments. He regularly responded to last minute requests and often endless IT requests with grace, maintaining a calm and steady demeanor even under pressure, and whereas Tony took part in city events and causes, fostered teamwork within the department and consistently recognized his staff, frequently nominating them for score core awards, celebrating their achievements therefore be it resolved that the city of west allis wishes tony a relaxing technology-free retirement, while acknowledging the extraordinary efforts of the entire IT team, whose work is most noticeable only when something stops working, and therefore be it further resolved that the city extends its gratitude for the countless late nights, emergency calls, surprise outages, forgotten passwords, mysterious printer failures, and all the unseen work required to keep a modern local government functioning every single day. As mayor of the city, I declare May 19th, 2026 as Tony Warkoszewski Day.

So I didn't know it was going to be framed. It's nice. And I did do a draft of this. You did take out my reference to Rush. You took out all my one-liners. Somebody took out all my funny one-liners and made it twice as long as what I drafted. Thanks for your patience as the mayor read through all that. There's a few folks I want to say thank you to. First and foremost, the council. Not only the folks that are here today, but the council that came before you. I try not to ask for a lot, but every time I did come before you and ask for an investment in technology, you never said no. So I really appreciate the support I got from all of you, and I appreciate that you saw investments in technology were a way to improve the organization and serve the citizens. Number two, Rebecca Grill. I don't think she's probably watching tonight, but if Rebecca had asked me to join her team, none of what the mayor just read would have ever happened. We were very different, Rebecca and I. We almost killed each other a few times, to be truthful, but I hope she realizes after the fact that the things that made us so different are also the two things that made us the most powerful together. I think we got a lot of good stuff done for the city. Number three, I want to thank my IT staff, because with me as their leader, they didn't get a techno wizard, which really meant all the things that the mayor just read that we got done really fell on their shoulders. They're a hardworking group, very underappreciated. I want to make sure tonight they understand that I really appreciate from the bottom of my heart their loyalty to me and their loyalty to the city. It really is a great team. And last but not least, my wonderful wife, Ann Marie, who's attending her first Common Council meeting tonight.

I bet she'll be back. Yeah.

Annie, I know being married to an IT guy, it's not always the easiest thing to be married to an IT guy, because the phone kind of rings whenever somebody needs something. But I appreciate you standing by me all these years. I also thank you for waiting up for me on these Tuesday nights, so that when we got home together, we could watch Oak Island together. That was a big joy. Thanks, everyone.

All right, the rest of the mayor's report. Not as exciting, but for a couple things I just want to mention, quite a few actually for what I usually do in mayor's reports, but I just want to thank all the attendees on Saturday morning's city-wide cleanup. It was a pretty packed room, and I want to thank, I know Alderman Rhodes is not here, but Alderman Turner was in attendance, Judge Murphy, several community members, organizations, groups. really did a nice job in hitting a lot of different parts of the city. I also wanna recognize that May is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and we celebrate and honor the cultures, histories, and achievements and contributions of our Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. This week is also Public Works Week, so I wanna thank all of our crews as they, just all the work they do every day in all types of weather, reacting to all kinds of pivots and curveballs. I know they had the open house this past weekend, so I also wanna thank them for putting that on as a great community event. It is also EMS week, and today is EMS Safety Day, focused on protecting not only the patients and the community, but also the firefighters, EMTs, and paramedics who respond every day. And then the last thing I just want to mention, I know we had some traffic calming discussion in our public hearings, but we had a very unfortunate and avoidable event in our community last weekend where a four year old was struck by a vehicle while crossing the street in a crosswalk, which is what we want our kids to do. and luckily he was very minor in his injuries. Chief Schock and I visited him and his mom this afternoon and he is doing well. He is bumped up and scraped, but he was playing in his backyard with his siblings and he's back at daycare and he is doing great, but I just wanna take this moment to just tell everybody to just slow down Just slow down. There is no need for anybody watching or, and I'm guessing most of the people in this room are converted. I mean, even the police chief. But really, people, I mean, there is no need to drive like the way I see some people drive in this community unless you have lights and sirens on your car or if you are driving somebody for a medical emergency. It is not worth it. No one's that important. I know there's a lot of construction that can set people back, give yourself time, obey the rules, and let's just make the summer safe. It's not a good start with this little guy being hit. And it's not just kids, it's people of all ages in old cars, new cars. We're all driving incredibly selfishly and it's got to stop. So as I conclude my mayor's report, that's just my hope for this warm weather season that we are going to drive respectfully and try to keep everybody safe. That does conclude the mayor's report. Do we have any other person's reports?

Mayor Devine.

Alderman Turner.

I just want to make sure that all people are aware that our own Robert, always messes his last name up, Lightshout, director of the Southwest Suburban Health Department, has been selected Wisconsin Health Officer of the Year for 2026 by Wisconsin Health Department and boards. And I think I can speak for all to say that is an honor he earned. He'll be receiving it at a dinner tomorrow night in the Dells.

Great, thank you, thanks for sharing.

Mayor Devine.

Other women, Keene, then Noling.

I just wanted to give a reminder that Monday morning there will be a ceremony for Memorial Day at Veterans Park, so please attend if you are able. If you're not, thank you to all of our veterans and we hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday.

Thank you, other woman Noling.

Just wanted to say thank you to the community members who joined Alderman Halverson and I for our office hours at Flappers this last week. Please stay tuned on social media for where the next location will be in June.

Thank you. Any other Alderperson's reports? This side of the room's really quiet.

Road's not here.

Road's not here. Mayor Devine. Alderman Haas. I move for approval of the May 5th, 2026 Common Council Minutes. Second.

There is a motion and a second. If there are no corrections or changes, all in favor, please say aye. Aye. Any opposed? The minutes are approved. Standing committee reports, we have none. We do. I'm sorry, it's right in front of me. Public Safety Committee.

I move for approval of the Public Safety Committee report.

We have a motion to approve. Is there any discussion? If not, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? The ayes have it. That motion is approved.

Mayor Devine.

Alderman Haas.

And then moving on to item K, our consent agenda. Do any council members wish for separate action on any of the items contained within our consent agenda? Then seeing none, I move for approval of item K, our consent agenda.

Second.

There is a motion and a second. There's no discussion. I will ask the clerk to call the roll on the consent agenda.

Alderperson Grisham. Aye. Grobe. Aye. Haas. Aye. Halverson. Aye. Keene. Aye. Novak. Aye. Nolle. Aye. Turner. Aye. Weigle. Aye. Nine in favor, zero opposed.

Motion carries.

Mayor Devine. Alderman Haas. I move that the Common Council stand in recess until the conclusion of our committee meetings.

Second.

There's a motion and a second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? We are in recess. Good evening. We'll call the common council back to order. And I will ask our clerk to call the roll.

Alderperson Grisham. Here. Grove. Here. Haas. Here. Halverson.

Here.

Keene. Here. Novak. Here. Noling. Here. Turner.

Here. Weigle. Here.

Knight present.

We have a quorum. We'll just skip administration and public works tonight. We'll go right to economic development.

The Economic Development Committee recommends granting of item 23, adoption of item 24, retroactive to all of 2026, approval of items 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, and 30.

Mayor Devine, I move in accordance with the committee report.

Thank you, Alderwoman Keene. Any discussion? If not, I will ask the clerk to call the roll.

Alderperson Grisham. Aye. Grobe. Aye. Haas. Aye. Halverson. Aye. Keene. Aye. Novak. Aye. Noling. Aye. Turner. Aye. Weigle.

Aye.

Nine in favor, zero opposed.

That motion carries and we will do the Public Safety Committee.

The Public Safety Committee recommends approval of item 31, passing of item 32, background checks of all individuals for in and out of state for item 33 and granting of item 34.

of the Public Safety Committee report.

Alderperson Grisham. Aye. Grobe. Aye. Haas. Aye. Halverson. Aye. Keene. Aye. Novak. Aye. Nolene. Aye. Turner. Aye. Weigle. Aye. Nine in favor, zero opposed.

Okay, we're back. Motion carries. Alderman Haas.

Second.

There's a motion, there's a second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

We are adjourned.