Village Board - Regular Meeting

All right. Good afternoon. I will call to order, uh, the village board meeting of August 10th. Let's see. We got Anna and Tara. Okay. Yeah. We're good to go. Uh, Aaron, can you please call the roll, please?

Yes. Trustee Saunders.

Here.

Trustee Sarabin. Here. Trustee Casper.

Here.

Trustee Vaneevanhoban, Detman, and, um, Heller will be absent tonight, then President Buckley.

Here. Thank you. All right. First order of business is the consent agenda. We've got three items on the agenda. The minutes of the regular meeting on July 20th, the check register from July of 2026, and the strategic plan quarterly report. Any questions or concerns? Hearing none, I'm seeing a motion. I'm generally looking at you a lot. Yeah, I kind of had that feeling. And I'm going to be seconding, because why not? Well, I mean, they... I guess you can chime in.

Real quick, thank you to Anna for the quarterly report. And with that said, I move the Village Board approve the consent agenda as presented.

Thank you. Do I hear a second from... Second. Thank you, Anna. Excellent. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Next, under the report of the village officers, Mr. Village Attorney.

Nothing to report tonight, Mr. President. Village Manager.

Sure. Lake Drive will be one way northbound only. So no southbound traffic starting in a few days on Wednesday, August 12th for two weeks. So we ask the public to utilize detours and allow for additional cleaning time and appreciate everyone's patience. I have notified both Bayside and Fox Point who will also be sending out that information to their residents as well.

All right, thank you. It should be noted that Sendix now has a placard in their front door that says that they are closing on August 23rd and reopening hopefully September 23rd. Next, I just have to call out the fact that tomorrow is a election primary, and I hope that everybody at Whitefish Bay votes. And good luck to our staff who are going to be here for the entire day, and then some. And finally, Sounds of Summer is on this Saturday, and I hope to see everybody there. Thanks in advance to the Whitefish Bay Civic Foundation and Village resident Steve Bagoon for playing on our stage next Saturday from 5 to 10. I think that's the answer. Any miscellaneous trustee reports?

One question. I know that it's a private business, but are we going to put the SendX closing date on the weekly construction update?

So far, we haven't been communicating anything. I'm not sure I'm opposed, but I can ask them. I know that they've been directly communicating with customers as well.

I understand. It's just if... I wouldn't say yes for, you know, just any business in, in the district, but since this is something that we are sending weekly updates on, I don't, I think it would be, it wouldn't hurt us, especially since traffic is going to already be a mess in that area during the closing or doing, especially the beginning of the closing. I think it, If people see that and maybe don't go that way on purpose, that might be helpful.

Agreed.

Any other? Yep, go ahead.

I was just going to say I was thinking the same thing. Agreed.

Well, then I just know. All right. Any other trustee reports? Then hearing none, I will move on to petitions and communications. This is an opportunity for anyone in the audience to address the village board on any issue that is not on the current agenda. Is there anyone here for an item not on the current agenda? Once, twice. Okay. We'll close petitions and communications and move on to general business. We've got six-ish items on the agenda. The first is a discussion on the 2027 village budget, projects, priorities, and visioning. Jamie, come on down.

All right. So this is something that we added a couple of years ago, kind of just to get feedback from the board on any other items they might want us to research for the budget. We have done a lot of work in the last couple of years to kind of help give us guidelines or planning documents for what we want on the budget. So we've obviously adopted our strategic plan. We did our capital improvement plan last year, and then also a financial management plan with Ehlers, which I think does guide a lot of this. So this is kind of looking for anything outside of that. I did add some other information this year, kind of on the levy limit increases and the net new construction. We are anticipating that our 2027 budget will have an allowable increase about the same as the 2026 budget, which was about 60,000. So then that does get us into using the abated debt to pay for more kind of capital items. So that's all explained here. So kind of getting at just if there's any other priorities you want us to research. And then the other thing that we were looking for feedback on that did not make it into the memo, unfortunately, was on last year, the health department, we kind of gave more money to above what their request was and if there's a desire to do that again. If that's something we should kind of be building into the budget or if we want to see how it shakes out or that. So that is what I have for you guys. And obviously any questions on the memo I'm going to answer.

Any trustee questions?

I have a few things to mention. First of all, thank you for all of this and then all of what's to come. Secondly, my opinion would be we should wait until things shake out with the health department. I You know, let's hope that they're not in the same situation they were a year ago. But, you know, I think that either a we should either we should wait and or allow someone else in the North Shore to. take a kick at the can. I don't know if anyone else did last year, but maybe this can be a jumping off point for other people to try to budget a little extra money for the health department as we did last year. There are a couple of There are a couple of smaller things that I have interest in the interest in staff's research regarding the budget. They're small because, Jamie, as you mentioned, the roadmap that the board and the staff have laid out over the past few years has made this part of the budget process challenging. almost a moot point, which is fantastic. Um, that's a couple of things that I've thought about. Uh, I'm interested in possible increase in training and travel, travel and training, um, mostly for staff, but also potentially for, um, village board members. And that doesn't necessarily have to mean travel. I mean, there is a glut of, uh, thanks to in part to the, the, the pandemic. Now there's a glut of organizations that do online only training, uh, whether it's live or, uh, recorded and it's things that don't, you know, cost a lot, you know, depending on what the, uh, depending on what the subject matter is. I think it, there's probably, there are probably things out there that would help, um, that would help us, that would help us all just be, you know, learn more about our jobs and get it from experts outside of the area. You know, I think that would start with, obviously it would start with department heads, you know, just to see if they have any particular needs. I know Nyama has done that off and on through the years with not only herself and but sending her staff members to training opportunities. So I think that that is something that we should be looking into. I'm also interested with the opening of SendX next year. I'm very interested in looking into the potential for a vast increase in or the development of a part-time marketing and communications person. I think that this, while Sendix, while it's just the one business that is opening on Silver Spring Drive that we know of in 2027, it is... going to be a huge deal in the North shore and really at the East side in general. I think people are going to I think people are going to flock to the store and I think we should work with the bid. I think we should work with with the who I'm missing civic foundation because we're going to have an opportunity in 2027 to market and promote the crap out of whitefish Bay. because, and I think this could, the opening of Syndex could kickstart other businesses to give a serious look into our village. And I think we should not be, we should be very proactive with this and not just rest on our laurels and say, oh, well, Syndex opening will take care of itself. We have an opportunity and I think an obligation to, to not just let the bid do it, to not just let this, I think we should be, we should be driving that, that train. And I think that I would like to know some different options and I can certainly talk to you guys later about, you know, the things I have in mind, but the different options that might, that that might entail and what the cost might be. I think that would, I think 2027 is, is an opportunity for us to really trumpet our village for, in a lot of different ways. And at, One more thing, I really, this year, I know we always hear from, I know we always hear and you guys talk to department heads, but I'd be really interested this year in knowing if there's anything in particular that, not a big ticket item, but something that might be considered a smaller ticket item that they haven't really discussed. thought about asking for because they weren't sure if there's money or, you know, I'd be interested in almost a Barbie dream house from a report from all the department heads just to, just to know, you know, what they're thinking about as they move their departments forward. So with that, I will. See you in my time.

Thank you. Jay, just a quick question about your marketing person position type thing. I think you're talking about the business district, but are you talking about other things of Bay? Yes. What are your thoughts?

Okay. Yeah, I mean, the district is the jumping off point. But, you know, this... I think there are a lot of things that people don't know about Whitefish Bay that they could know or should know or, you know, are, you know, that we're not, I mean, I don't want us to be viewed as some sleepy little village because we're not. There are a lot of great things happening here. And I think that we have an opportunity to, with not only what's happening on Silver Spring, but in other parts of our village, what we've already done at the parks, what we're continuing to do at the parks. I'm sorry, I'm blanking on, but I just think that there is an opportunity there for us to just go

Yeah, I guess I wanted to ask the question because the village funds the bid to the tune of $60,000 a year, if I think that's right. And so a lion's share of that fund goes to the mailers they put out, the social media stuff they do. And so... It's a conversation to say, well, let's increase the bid funding, which, by the way, comes through the CDA and comes through the TIF funds and whatnot. So that's an interesting conversation to have. That's why I asked, were you talking about other things outside of business?

I do think there are other things. I can remember... I don't remember how many years ago now, we had a part-time communications position. There's a young lady, Jenny Hayden, that did, it was pretty basic, but Maybe that's the grade A Wagyu beef version of what I'm talking about. Like I said, I think this is an opportunity for us as a village in general to attract people. And there's going to be an increase of traffic on Silver Spring because of that. There are going to be changes that are going to be made up and down Port Washington and Glendale that are a quick jaunt up to Silver Spring and over is Whitefish Bay. And so I think that this is an opportunity that we should grab.

Fair enough, okay. Anna or Tara, do you have anything to comment on about this budget visioning? Let's see, let's go with, you're both unmuted, so let's go with Anna first.

Are you asking about what Jay just said or?

Anything you'd like to comment on.

You know, I think the CIP has a lot to it. So, I mean, it's all good stuff that needs work. I always think pedestrian safety, something that's not on that list, I think would be adding improvements down Hampton, more improvements down Hampton, not just where Santa Monica is. Yeah. And like I said, the CIP has a ton of things that.

Just if I could build on that, on Hampton, but also particularly Santa Monica, one of the things that we will have in the next 12-ish months would be two new monument signs on Silver Spring. Perhaps we could build funding into the budget for monument signs, replacing the ones on Hampton and Santa Monica. That just popped into my head, not to mention the signage that we have on Lake. uh henry clay and anyone else that's probably it lake north and south um that being said we have grant funding on the line for uh projects on lake that included monument signs so perhaps that doesn't need to be in any budget line item and maybe we'll luck out and get crap and i do hear from residents that um the sidewalks when you enter into the road it feels like you're walking

farther into the road onto Hampton and then coming back onto the sidewalk. And I know people would love to have those reconfigured.

All right. Tara, do you have anything to add?

Um, a question for Jay, Jay, when you're talking about this new position, are you considering this to be an ongoing or a temporary, you know, for 2027 kind of position? What, what is your thinking there? Is this going to be an ongoing expense?

My thinking is it can be whatever it ends up being. Um, my initial thought is, uh, yes, 2027 is going to be, um, you know, a big year. So, you know, if we want to try to find, you know, someone to, you know, to help us in a part-time, you know, one-year only capacity, that's fine. If we find out that, it's something fantastic and we're going to continue to have growth in the district and in the village, then, you know, maybe it's something we, you know, look at again, you know, this time next year, but initially my thoughts are 2027. Okay.

Okay. And then I guess for me, kind of along the lines of what Anna was saying, potentially it's, I know that we have very many initiatives, and obviously I've always got a lens when it comes to public works and what's all happening within public works and our parks. And so I'm a little hesitant to add anything additional to the plate for staff. I feel like our staff is pretty... Stretched right now, and especially as we're going into, you know, really kicking off the lead pipe stuff, I I'm just a little hesitant to add anything further. Anything real big. So my priority obviously always is getting things done, public works, making sure that we've got our services where they need to be. You know, for residents, that's always, you know, number one for me. And then obviously we've got so many things in the CIP to continue to work on. So that would be my two cents about it.

All right, thank you. Indeed, we started to do these pre-budget visioning comments about five, six years ago, and it was the moment that trustees could give some thought as to new projects that we'd like to have executed. I think that we have really changed our way of planning in that now we have a six year CIP and we've put hundreds and thousands of man hours into creating that and approving it and looking at it and analyzing it. And so these meetings where trustees share other capital ideas, while we'll still continue to do them, the CIP is what really guides what we're doing here and it lessens the importance of this particular conversation. Anyways, that being said, a couple of quick comments. I agree with Jay about the North Shore Health Department. And I guess, unfortunately, we'd have to wait until we hear what their request is, unless they've already made their request, because Last year's budget conversation was they had asked for a relatively sizable percentage increase that other municipalities were unable, unwilling to do. And that's when Whitefish Bay kind of stepped up. So I guess my first comment is we need to hear what are their needs or what are their, I don't know, wishes before we can kind of respond to anything like that. Next is... Can we talk about your memo just a little bit in terms of the abated debt calculations that you've come up with? Has that changed from the AILERS list that we had? We had a conversation maybe two, three months ago about abated debt. And where I'm going with this, you don't really need to answer that question other than to say part of that long-term calculation financial management plan was the concept that we were going to run out of levy limits in 2028, I think was the number. Have we bumped that number at all with any of this abated debt conversation?

That I don't have an answer on. I know that the 2026 budget We used less abated debt than Ehlers was anticipating we were going to use, but no, we don't have like an updated, I guess, estimate.

But more is helpful, right? Having more abated debt identified is a helpful position to be in.

yeah but so we have a lot of abated debt but we need to be able to identify things like in the general fund budget that we could borrow for and that's where we can't make those match like we've identified you know 600 000 of sources we could use we have three million dollars of debt but we don't want to use it if we couldn't borrow for it sure sure yeah so

That I think this budget is going to tell us a lot because when we went through the budget last time around, We realized somewhat late in the process that we were right up against levy limits. We were working on the financial management plan. All the information was coming at us really quickly. This budget we're entering with that mindset. And so as we're doing our budget departmental reviews, we're going to be looking more for these opportunities, doing more of a fine-tooth nail, like really looking. And I am very optimistic that that number for our abated debt capacity will get higher.

Okay.

But I just I don't know what that will end up being. And Ehlers was estimating that they agree we need to actually be able to point and have a list of here's the things we could borrow for in a pinch if we needed to in the future. So all that to say is I am very hopeful we'll have a much more realistic picture at the conclusion of this budget.

Do we update Aylers with that so that they can create the next rendition of our, yeah?

Well, so they actually just emailed. What was the estimate to update it? $15,000. I believe, which we thought was high. We were thinking every two to three years, maybe.

I leave that up to you to figure out when you're going to update. I mean, and I assume that some of the spreadsheets are perhaps ours. No.

Just the PDFs.

Well, the PDFs anyways. Yeah. They don't give you a work product?

Not in a form that is helpful in Excel documents. But all that to say, I mean, they're going to be part of the conversation. They always answer the phone when we call. They're always willing to answer questions. And so as we're working through this, we'll make sure that they're on the same page, that we're not surprised in three years when we update that plan.

Works for me. I think that was it for me. That new construction continues to disappoint. Does it disappoint you in the number? It just seems always so low.

I guess I don't know enough about how it's calculated, but I think with being landlocked, and it's not rebuilt, it's literally just new construction. We continue to have this debate. New construction or remodeling, where you're

Yes.

It has to be, it can't be a remodel of your existing structure. It has to be an addition. Teardown rebuild is additional value. So like the Hamptons, Marguerite, all those would be like new value in this equation, but not all of those would have been the full year. Like Marguerite, I think was just a partial. I don't remember. In 2031, when we close TID 1, there will be an influx as well with all of that increased, that increment. Really? Come on. My initial estimates weren't as much as I was hoping, but that still is promising as well. So that will happen.

So in 2031, our levy limit will take a step up.

Yep. Because you'll get to capture all that increment.

Yeah, I didn't know that. Yeah. So we just need to manage four years before we get to that 2031, right? From 2028 in theory.

Yeah, but I don't think it'll solve all of the issues. It'll help. It'll help. Yeah.

Okay. That's all I have. Any other trustee comments? Any members of the public wish to talk about budget priorities? No? Okay. In that case, I will move on to... You didn't need any motion on that. Nope. We'll move on to number two, discussion action on the Village Board Community Event Engagement Program Policy. Oh, Amelia, you're still here. Two more weeks. Okay.

So this program is based off of one of the outcomes from the strategic plan, as well as a continuation of discussion from the May 18th village board meeting. So this is a community event engagement program. So it's kind of combining some of the events within the village with allowing village board members to have informal discussions with residents where residents can talk about different things that they're seeing within the village and the concerns and just have more informal conversations. Staff will evaluate which events can be a part of this program through the special event process. So as they're evaluating applications, they can then say, is this a good event to have village board members at? Those events will then be a part of the weekly administrative update. And if two or more village board members say that they can attend the event, then staff will coordinate with the event organizers of how village board members can be a part of that event. And at a high level, if there's any question.

Did other communities have policies like this?

We based this off kind of the village of Oregon. They have a really similar program.

Village of Oregon. I have a question. I think this would be more for Kelsey. There are a lot of events in the village where More than two village board members are attending, but aren't attending in a... Social. Yeah, but aren't attending in a way that this is... In a way that this is intending. If there were... two village board members who were directly involved in the event engagement but we know that there are going to be other village board members attending the event do you still need to notice it so our plan is to notice every event even if it's only two people okay that's just it's so easy to notice okay i didn't know that yep okay no problem you don't have to do an agenda you just notice it's a notice of possible quorum okay I didn't want to, you know, have to hand over my social calendar for me.

Any other trustee questions?

I love this, by the way.

Yeah, it's a nice person. Hearing none. Enjoy your last two weeks in Whitefish Bay.

Amelia has been wonderful. She's been wonderful. She helps everyone and has been amazing. So we're going to miss her, but I think she'll be back maybe this winter and we're crossing our fingers maybe next summer.

Wow. Okay.

Yeah. She's been great. So you can have left. Thank you.

Thank you, Amelia.

All right. We will then move on to number three discussion, discussion on abolishing the Whitefish Bay Municipal Court and joining the North Shore.

There was no motion, right? There's no motion.

Do you want to adopt the policy? Oh, I'm sorry. Well, then we'll stop and we'll go right. Yes, I'm sorry. I missed number two. I move the village board adopt the village board community event engagement program is presented.

Do I hear a second? Second.

Thank you, Anna.

Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay. Now we'll move on to discussion on abolishing the Whitefish Bay Municipal Court and joining the North Shore Municipal Court.

Sure. So the Village of Whitefish Bay currently operates our own municipal court. And we recently participated in a shared services feasibility study, which was funded by an innovation grant through the state of Wisconsin. So the state has been really trying to encourage municipalities to explore consolidation or shared services in an effort to hopefully reduce costs. You may remember that the village utilized that grant program to do both a study and then we actually are receiving a grant. This is the first year to consolidate our IT services with Bayside. So that's one example. This feasibility study was done around the same, or started around the same time, but just was completed later. So what they were looking at is if the three North Shore communities, River Hills, Shorewood, and Whitefish Bay, who currently don't participate in the North Shore Municipal Court, basically if there were any benefits to those three communities joining the others as a larger partnership. So the study was attached in the packet. And I'm just going to walk through a little bit at a high level, basically how it would work. So basically the village could potentially join Glendale. The court operates out of Glendale and then Brown Deer and Bayside are participants in that program. Under a consolidated model, all the tickets would need to be paid online, mailed or in person at the Glendale City Hall. So from a public facing standpoint, that would probably be the most noticeable impact. Currently, you can come into Village Hall to pay that. You would need to go to Glendale. And then obviously the court days would also be held in Glendale. They would no longer be held in this room in the village. There would be one judge that's elected to serve all the municipalities participating in the North Shore Court. And that judge would be elected by all the communities. I mentioned that the court be held in Glendale. We would have the same night as one other community, which that community has not yet been identified. The village would be responsible for paying our share of the total North Shore Court expenditures each year. And that would be based on a percentage of the tickets written. So that'd be approximately 16% if all three of those communities joined or 23% if only Whitefish Bay joins the existing communities. Each community would retain their own court fees and ticket revenue. There's a chart on page two of the memo that breaks out the village's existing expenditures in comparison to the estimates for joining the North Shore Municipal Court. You can see there's like an existing column for costs and then if all join, it's important to look at it separately because obviously each community will be making their own decision and those decisions will be made at different times. So if all those communities join, you can see the cost and what that delta is or if only Whitefish Bay joins and what that delta is. But likely the savings on an annual basis would range from like $36,000 to $42,000. Let's see, in terms of process changes for our staff, currently we have a court clerk who prepares the records for court. This function would need to be transitioned to our police department staff. which our police chief has already kind of reviewed that and feels comfortable with that change. Additionally, there's parking citations, which are currently processed by the municipal court clerk, and this function would have to transition to our police department administrative assistant. That training has actually already started, and so we're feeling pretty comfortable about the ability for that to be able to happen. One operational benefit that was noted in the study that I just wanted to mention is that currently we have one court clerk. The functions of a court clerk is very technical. You have to make sure things are done a very specific way. You have to have access to certain programs. So we do not have a backup for that position. So sick leave, vacation, you know, an employee resigns, we would be relying on other communities and trying to navigate through those situations because we do not have internal redundancy.

Today.

Today. Yeah. But with the North Shore model, they do have I believe it's two or three court clerks, I can't remember the number, but they have that redundancy. And so if there are vacation or unexpected leaves, then they're able to account for that. And then the last thing I didn't mention, but wanted to just say in the presentation is that the innovation grant was used to fund the study, but also it's very likely that a new grant cycle will be released in the fall again. And so that is roughly $44,000 annually for five years, which is like $224,000 that the village would be eligible to apply for.

That's shared or just for the village?

So that would be determined by the contract. So in the case of IT, I was able to make the case that we were spending more for the services. And so all that money needed to be retained by the village. Okay. in this case um you know there might be transitional costs and such that would have to be negotiated out and how that money would be split but regardless that would be money available to the communities uh if it was awarded um to be able to use for whatever purpose makes sense for potentially five years for potentially five years so this is this is on top of the 31 to 40 whatever that number is So the way the grant works is it's 25% of the cost of service in the year prior to the transition of service. And so that's roughly $44,000. So for five years, it's $224,000. So staff for this evening is really just looking for direction. We wanted to have the initial conversation. Included in the packet is the existing contract. I wouldn't expect significant changes from that. It was actually already written in a way that has a process for other communities to be able to join the North Shore Court. So I would anticipate it'd be relatively similar. And then also include the study to have an initial discussion. And then if the Village Board was interested, then at a future meeting, likely August 31st, there'd be a discussion and potentially action around in ordinance to abolish the court, in ordinance to create the North Shore Court, and then the contract to join. So happy to answer any questions or?

Well, there are three people I would like to hear from on this. All three of them are in this room, oddly enough. I want to get, I would like to get opinions from attorney Jekyll's from chief Whitaker. And I noticed that our esteemed municipal court judge is here with us this evening. So those, those are the three, because I, and I, and I say that because from attorney Jekyll's side, you know what, I just want to know what the changes would mean for the, each of these three individuals in the case of Chief Witter, his department, because Kelsey, as you mentioned, there would be no more coming to pay, you know, tickets, which I believe is done at the police department window. I'm just double checking. Thank you. Not that I've ever gotten a ticket. And I just kind of want to know what changes it would mean for you individually in your departments and If that's a good change, a bad change, just kind of want to get your opinions because you would be the folks most impacted by this.

Would you mind, you're probably first in the batting order, the chief in that, a member of staff who can give us their concept of whether this is a good path or not.

Yeah, so we would be, our administrative staff would be taking on a few other things that they don't normally do right now. Like Kelsey said, we've already started processing unpaid citations that go to suspension on the registration of the vehicle. Um, we would be, uh, right now, Susan, uh, the court clerk, uh, handles the paperwork preparing for court and, and, you know, gathering the reports, the citations and everything, the video that's needed. Um, we've talked to Glendale, um, about that process in Bayside and, um, they're, um, right now looking at making it smoother, um, and, uh, paperless like we have now, um, So that would be an extra thing that our staff needs to do. But as you said, with people not showing up to pay citations, they would have to go to Glendale. That frees up some time for our clerk right now. We also have community service officers that can help out with that. In the end, I don't have any concerns that we won't be able to handle the additional workload.

Okay.

What would it mean for Your officers, because I don't assume this, but I would imagine that in a lot of situations, your officers are attending court hearings if it rises to a certain level.

Yeah. So if they're needed to testify in court, rather than walking upstairs, they would drive to Glendale.

How often does that?

We have trials once a month, not every trial night goes. So it's sporadic.

Would it, would you have any concerns about response time or any public safety concerns by having officers go to Glendale for court?

No. Um, you know, if they're here on overtime, that's an extra 10 minutes of travel time at the most. And, you know, we would make sure we have, we make sure we have coverage already if they have to be testifying.

Things I think of.

Any other questions for the chief from trustee Casper or Sermon? Okay. Thank you. Um, Mr. Jacobs, what do you think of this consolidation?

Well, we've had some discussions of that. It's very much a fait accompli at this point. It's, you know, because Bayside, for example, doesn't have a judge anymore. They, you know, become part of the North Shore Court. Where it's going to change is that the people we have doing the prosecution now may or may not be doing that prosecution in the future because there's discussion about going out for a request for proposals to hire, basically hire all new all new prosecutorial teams and share those among communities.

And is that a good thing? I mean, well, I'll say your firm, I think is what you're saying.

Yeah, it's very different, I'll say. Right now, there are various law firms doing, you know, somebody's doing Glendale's work, somebody's doing Brown Deer's work. I don't know what's done in Shorewood, for example. But long and short of it is that's probably going to change. because all these communities need to have consistent coverage. There's a big difference between Bayside, who was a small piece of the court, and from the monetary side, they function on a retainer, which is very different from what's probably gonna come out of the RFP process.

At what level would a full-time prosecutor be entertained? Or is that even possible with the number of, with the volume? You know, doesn't Milwaukee have their own prosecutors, for example?

They do. They do. But that's a massive municipal court. Sure.

I'm just, there's some level where there's a tipping point. I don't know what that is.

Yeah, it's been a long time since, in fact, I think Al Meyer was the last one that was his name in Shorewood. I mean, there hasn't been a dedicated prosecutor in decades.

Interesting. Well, right. But now we've if there is a North Shore court. the number of citations and cases that come up may rise to a certain level. And I don't know what that is, but maybe Kelsey does.

Our Brown Deer has an in-house prosecutor that works with Glendale. You know her.

Oh, yeah, Rebecca.

But I don't know what percentage of her time she spends on prosecution versus other purposes, but she is a Brown Deer.

She's pretty much only a prosecutor.

So right now, it sounds like essentially a shared prosecutor between two.

Which opens the door for another when others join. That's a topic for another day.

I'd love to continue prosecuting. Just so you know. But at the same time, I've got to recognize... Facts here.

Sort of. I would have saved this for the end, but when consolidation occurs for any particular department, I always look beyond the savings, right? Because there's always a number that, oh, we're going to save this, and hopefully that's a great estimate, and maybe it's higher, maybe it's lower. But, you know, policy boards are interested in saving money right but there's also a part where we look and say well what is if the savings is let's say 40 000 or maybe it's 80 depending on grant funding or whatever um what are we getting in return if we don't right what are we buying for 80 extra thousand dollars that we normally wouldn't get and so there's there's there's you know, benefits to spending more money when you get some benefits out of it. So I'm not, I wouldn't call it a done deal. I would say it's something we just need to evaluate. Sure. I guess our next guest is kind of a staff member, but just an esteemed member of the public. Why don't you state your name and address for the record? Sure.

My name is Craig Johnson.

Oh, sorry. Wait, could you, Trustee Sarabin, did you?

Yeah. Kevin, can I just ask a quick question of Attorney Jekyll's? I am hearing in your tone that that this is not something you would be in favor of other than the fact that, you know, you would like to continue to prosecute. Is there is there something else that you would consider to be a downside? Because I agree with Kevin. I did not come into this thinking this was a fait accompli at all. And so I would very much like to hear what your perspective is on this and whether you do think it is a good thing as much as you can possibly take yourself out of it. Is it a good thing for the village or are you thinking it is not a good thing for the village?

It depends on what you want out of your court. if you want everybody to know everybody's name, I mean, those days are gone. And in this case, I think we will be dealing with, and just, again, I'm reading the tea leaves, but we'll be dealing with a situation where, for example, the elected judge You know, people got very, very involved in the judge races here in Whitefish Bay because they had their favorite candidate or their good friend who does that kind of work. Or, you know, let's help elect this guy or that woman. It's not going to be that way because there's, you know, Judge Lipscomb is covering... uh way more way more territory um than uh than our current judge um and so that makes it makes it a completely different sort of tone for lack of a better description does that does that help

To some degree, if you were to say the percentage of people who are seeing in the courts are residents of Whitefish Bay versus not residents of Whitefish Bay, that maybe also indicates how important that piece of it is. Would you be able to give me a kind of a round number?

Oh, gosh, I think the chief could, because he and I have discussed this before, but I defer to him on that.

I wouldn't be able to give you an exact number, but my belief is roughly 20% of people come to court are residents. I guess people we write citations to, I shouldn't say that come to court.

Okay. So in some ways, that feeling of everybody knows everyone's name already doesn't exist.

Correct? I would agree with that. Yes.

We have a judge here who might have a better data set. I understand. I just I just really want to make sure I understand where Chris, you know, Attorney Jekyll's concerns are coming from and whether we think that this is, you know, ultimately because I agree with Kevin. There's a yes, there's there's money, but then there's also. the experience and you know in the same way that there are other services that i would not be in favor of combining because of the experiences for the village i'm wondering how much that would be impacted so that that was more what i was looking for thanks Okay, thank you.

My apologies.

That's okay. Thank you very much for your time and your attention. My name is Craig Johnson. I am the Whitefish Bay Municipal Judge, elected in 2023, and my term ends next spring. And just to be clear, my opinions on this are totally not related to my serving as judge, because I made the decision about a year ago that I wasn't going to run for another term And I talked to a number of different lawyers locally who might be interested and sort of talked about why it's a nice position to have and a good way to serve the community, et cetera. And I think there are interested people who would like to serve in the position. But in that sense, it's not personal to me. whether or not Whitefish Bay maintains a municipal court. I can tell you that I think the figure in terms of people who show up to court who are Whitefish Bay residents is much higher than 20%. I think it's roughly probably 50%. I sort of keep a running mental note of it as we call cases, and I look at people's addresses regularly. And I think that makes sense because, you know, as for reasons I'll get into in a minute, this is a local court that is generally within walking distance of residents homes. And it's very easy thing. And I think it's one of the big attractions to having a local municipal court that people can feel that they can walk up and. weigh in on their parking ticket, on their speeding ticket, on their ticket for not shoveling snow, whatever it might be. They don't have to troop over to Glendale to make their case to a judge they've never seen before or heard of before, quite frankly. On a practical level, I don't think there's anybody who would prefer to go to Glendale to contest a ticket that they receive in Whitefish Bay who live in Whitefish Bay, your constituents, the residents of Whitefish Bay. When I went door to door running for this position a number of years ago, there was not one single person who told me, wow, I wish you would get rid of that court. I wish I could go to Glendale to fight my tickets. That would be much better for me as a resident of Whitefish Bay. That conversation never took place. I think people had ideas about the court. They had ideas about, you know, can you use Zoom? Can we figure out how to make it easier to more practical for people to come to court? But certainly never anybody discussed with me the idea of abolishing the court or consolidating it. The idea that it's a fait accompli, I would disagree and agree. The fact is, there is a North Shore Municipal Court right now. That is a fait accompli. It already exists. The question is, who's going to be a member of it? Glendale, Brown Deer, and Bayside are in the Whitefish Bay Combined Municipal Court. And as far as I can tell, they're happy with it. But That's not Whitefish Bay, and that's not Shorewood, and it's not Fox Point. Fox Point, for whatever reason, was not touched in the study. I don't know why. I've talked to the Fox Point municipal judge, and he assures me that Fox Point will not be getting rid of their municipal court. They will not be joining the North Shore municipal court. I've talked to the judge in Shorewood, and she assured me that when this item came up for discussion at their village board, it was tabled because they have no interest in joining the North Shore Municipal Court. So it will not be done in Shorewood either. So it will continue to consist of Bayside, a very small community, Glendale, a community about our size, and then Brown Deer. And it will be, the tricky thing about it is that right now you've got a judge, Judge Lipscomb, who's somewhat of a unicorn in that he devotes a good percentage of his time as a lawyer being a judge. And he's paid somewhat commensurate to that. He's paid 30 to $38,000 a year for his service. At a municipality of our size, 2,000 tickets a year, it's one-third more of the workload. It's going to be one-third more of his time. It's going to be a shared night. So when you talk about police overtime, you can't talk about coming here and waiting for five minutes for the one trial we have. You're talking about a shared night over there with another community and officers waiting for significant more time is what I would expect, plus the commute time to go to Glendale. So I think the idea that you're not gonna see an increase in overtime cost is not correct. I think there's concern also with compliance with the earlier legislation Wisconsin, 2009 Wisconsin Act 402, which really wants to separate police department administrative staff from court staff. So if you have administrative staff in the police now doing some of the court work, that's potentially a problem under that state law in Chapter 755. And I think that's something, if the police is preparing records for court, could be a problem legally for the village if it does that. I think generally people like the fact that they know their local judge. They know their local court. The idea that this is a thing in the past where people don't know each other by name when they come to court, I can tell you that's not true. I run into people at Sendix. I run into people at... You know, 4th of July, Clody Park. They know me. Our kids went to Whitefish Bay schools. They know the people who, you know... People come to court, I know them. They know me. And that personal touch, I think, is something that people really appreciate, and I think it's something that people will miss if the court is over in Glendale. So I think they like the fact also that they can... If they don't like the judge, they can conceive of running against the judge, not them personally, but supporting a candidate locally in Whitefish Bay, an election here that's going to change who is going to be presiding in the court, right? In Glendale, that's going to be a combined court with Glendale, Brown Deer, Bayside, possibly River Hills. That's not going to be in any sense, a locally controlled court, right? It's going to be difficult to imagine, you know, how do you fight City Hall, right? That's always the question. You know, you can't fight City Hall. We certainly can't fight City Hall if it's located in Glendale, right? I mean, that's going to be the idea that people have about going to municipal court for Whitefish Bay when they're going to municipal court in Glendale. It's going to be a philosophically alienating, not to get too high in the sky, but this could be a philosophically alienating experience to have to go fight your parking ticket in front of a Glendale judge. And it will decrease the quality of service in that regard that Whitefish Bay delivers to its community. So I think you should look hard at this I think there's a number of concerns about it. I think the savings are not worth it, quite frankly, to maintain the local character that we have in our municipal court, where people can come and experience what oftentimes the Fox Point judge, Scott Wales, refers to as the people's court. That's what he calls it when people come to his court in Fox Point, which is right up in Village Hall in Santa Monica and he knows that people can come and they know who he is and they know what his personality is and what his philosophy is and things like that. So I think it's very important to maintain that local character for our municipal court and to not combine it with the other court. The other thing I would say about the study is that It talks about the joint feasibility study. It compares it to the Mid-Moraine Municipal Court, which is really a bad comparison because the Mid-Moraine Municipal Court has 16 communities, and they have 16 sites where they have court. Each community basically has court in their own community from Mequon to Germantown, all over the place. And they have a judge who's essentially a full-time judge, right? I mean, she, Chris Olis, basically does not practice law other than be a judge for the Mid-Marine Municipal Court. And her salary is commensurate with that. It's easily twice what Judge Lipscomb currently gets. The comparison between that and these little assortment of villages here is absolutely apples and oranges. There's no comparison in terms of the way that works and the way this would work here. I think it's very important that you think carefully about this before you make any decisions to go ahead with this. I think the system is working very well right now. I think there's a saying that goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, and it ain't broke. So thank you.

I'm just curious, the... study that was done, if I was creating a study, I think you would be one of the people I would interview.

I would think so too. They did not interview me. They did not interview you. They did not interview me.

That answers my question. I didn't hear from anybody either. Interesting.

Right. I mean, they didn't really get on the ground in terms of, I think the same is true of Shorewood. When I talked to Margo Kirchner, the Shorewood judge, she was surprised when this thing even came up. She was like, they did a study? Nobody told me.

Did they interview village staff? Where are they getting? They must have got a citation data.

Yeah, they got data, but I don't think they interviewed people. And they certainly didn't come to see how court works. As far as I can tell, they didn't do any on the ground investigation besides gathering data. I could be wrong.

Yeah, so they did a data request. There was talk or we were told there was potential that they'd be interviewing staff. And so Both of them were informed, but my understanding is that they didn't interview them.

My apologies. Who initiated this study?

So the village of Bayside is the one that applied for all the grants. And there were several that we were allowed to participate in. And so the North Shore managers were asked, which do you want to participate in? And we participated in all of them because there's no cost and why not?

And the confusing thing about Bayside initiating this study is that they were already in the court. They were already in the North Shore to Lyon court. So I'm not sure.

You know why I'm asking the question. I'm trying to figure out like, you know, how impartial all of this is. And it sounds like it's not completely.

Right. I would agree with that. Other questions or.

Yeah. Do any.

I have a question for Chris. Chris, you were talking about. for prosecution. Oh, sorry. Yeah.

I'm not sure who you're... Attorney Jekyll.

Sorry.

Okay.

You were talking about going out for RFP for prosecution. Did I hear that correct?

That's just what I've heard out on the street.

Okay. Do you think the numbers aren't really correct in the study then? It will actually be more expensive?

I don't know that it'll be more expensive. I know that some of the numbers I see in there are not the numbers... That I'm familiar with, if that makes sense.

I'll comment on that because I do think that the study numbers are overstated, which is why I did my own calculations in the memo. So specifically from the prosecution side, they had assumptions about number of hours spent on cases, which is based on what they have realized in the North Shore Court, but our numbers in prosecution hours have been significantly higher. So I used the same number of hours and then multiplied it by the hourly rate, which they got an actual quote on. So that isn't a made up number. That's a quote that was provided by the law firm that represents Brown Deer and Glendale currently. But yeah, the idea was that potentially the communities would go out to RFP. We would have per the contract, I think it's five or six years that we could remain with our current prosecution service or prosecution firm, or we could go out to RFP and that decision could be made at a later time. It doesn't have to be made now. But I guess all that to say is, yes, I think the prosecution savings in the study is overstated because it's based on an assumption of fewer hours

being spent which could or could not be realized and so i feel like my numbers are pretty conservative and so that's why i added those additional numbers in the memo the other thing i would say about that is if you're really talking about doing a court on the same night as another community in the glendale municipal court your prosecutors are going to be spending far more time there than they do here i mean we can get through cases quick here and if you're you know if judge Lipscomb is, I don't know what he's going to be doing, you know, five to seven, seven, you know, whatever it's going to be, it's going to be more difficult to do that. And that adds up to more hours as far as I can tell.

That's why initially there was discussion about Whitefish Bay being paired with Bayside because we have the same prosecutor. I'm not sure if that's what it would actually end up happening, but I do hear what you're saying. And that's part of the the reason why there's this desire from the existing participants to have joint prosecution.

That's always assuming or that's, that's assuming that we're always going to have the same prosecutor, which is a, I mean, it's, there's a big difference between are we always going to have the same prosecutor and are we always going to have a need for police and fire? I mean, there's a, there's, Consolidation in this situation is vastly different than other ways that we've done other consolidation in the North Shore.

Quick question just about the memo and the savings numbers, but particularly the innovation grant. Is that renewable? Like, you have a five-year window. Is it renewable after that? So, year six... any potential grant funding that's not on the table. Okay. So for, for long-term purposes, you, you are, and knowing that from what you're suggesting, that Shorewood is not interested. And so this all wife, you know, everybody joins this court is likely not happening you know the the the numbers are closer to the 36 and i'm sorry 36 or 31 31 it's 36 i really yeah i see so okay so it's 76 got it um 36 is the ongoing savings in your, especially in year six going forward. So that's, you know, it's nice to have the potential of an innovation grant, but, you know, I was on clock term and so on. All right. Are there any other questions for our judge? I want to thank you for coming. Thank you. Lots of great information that memos and studies don't give color to, and you've done a great job tonight.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate it. Should we call other members of the public? Yeah, are there other members of the public or anyone else, staff members, who'd like to speak on that? You will. All right. Come to the...

So my caveat is this is also my husband. So my name is Paige Styler. I'm obviously a resident of Whitefish Bay. I'm also a lawyer and I'm a public defender.

Do you need her address?

I speak really fast too. Sorry. You need my address? Address, please. 4918 North Idlewild Avenue. Oh, what a great neighborhood. Proud neighbor of Jay and his family.

I'm sorry to hear that. Yeah, I know.

So the one thing I just wanted to say to all of you is that I'm a real big believer in procedural justice. And when a person gets a ticket, even if they're totally guilty of that ticket, how they are treated makes a big difference. And I always, I have come up and I've watched my husband and yes, I'm very proud of him, but I'm proud of everyone I see in the court and how they treat people who are not only from Whitefish Bay, but outside the community. It's very important to me to have a good reputation about the people who come through here, whether or not that person is from here or not. You cannot control another, when you outsource, you can't control what happens. And if something bad happens and they say, well, this was a Whitefish Bay ticket and this is how I was treated, how are you going to defend yourselves? We control how we treat other human beings by keeping it local, by making it a people's court, when you have prosecutors who care about what they're doing, when you have a judge who cares, when you have a clerk who cares, when you have the police department bailiffs, I don't know how they're exactly called. I've seen amazing things in this very small court in which even when a person is found guilty, they're going to pay a fine, they're going to get something. they're very thankful to the court and how they were treated. And I just wanna say, you can't, that's something that money can't buy. And it's really important to how your community is viewed. And when Jay was talking about earlier about You know, we want everyone to love Whitefish Bay. We want to see the big boom. When you do these other things, they can be you just have one bad article and kind of that's where that goes. People have perceptions. So I want to just say that I think it's really important that we control it. And then if you don't like something that someone does, you vote them out. That's kind of the best way to handle it. And what else can I tell you? I just think it's great. You guys should be proud of yourselves. When I come up here and I watch, people think I'm ridiculous that I come and I watch my husband do ticket after ticket after ticket. But watching, you know, the court in action is really important and how people are treated. And there's also things like there's truancy. There's other things that come through here. I think having an understanding of the Whitefish Bay School system. is really important. And then lastly, what I would say is we all have great kids, right? We all have perfect children and they're never gonna make a mistake, but there are really good kids and you probably know of them that will get an underage drinking ticket. And there are really good kids that will do something wrong and they'll take a prank too far. And I think our community needs to make sure that whoever's elected to position, whatever this court is, make sure that they represent kind of where we want. I mean, people and children sometimes need to be held accountable, but we don't want to ruin their lives either. And you lose that control when it goes in a different community. I know that one thing that was very concerning to this community was pedestrians and to make sure that people were watching out for pedestrians. And so I know the police department did a lot of work in that area. And so I watched a lot of tickets come in front of my husband on that. And because he knew it was a concern for this community, it's when someone took the ticket or was being found guilty, he didn't just say, okay, you're guilty or whatever, whatever. He talked to them about the importance, how important it is to slow down, how important it is to watch out for pedestrians. We are a walking community. When you're judge, when you're police department, when you're clerk, when everyone knows the concerns of this community, I think you can really make your court represent it in a very good way. And I think it also gives you that latitude that when a good kid messes up, you can figure out a way that they can still become a nurse or they can still become a lawyer. They can still become some of these things without having something that they have to explain to a bar association 30 years later that they got an underage drinking ticket. So that's what I would say.

All right, thank you. Any other members of the public interested? Okay, so my next question is for Kelsey. What do you want from us tonight?

So this was just noticed as an initial introduction discussion. So if there's a desire then to continue having this conversation, then it would be direction of staff to draft the ordinances and the contract, or it could be direction for additional information or whatever the board needs.

So just a couple of things along those on that line. Judge Johnson kind of echoed, I would have echoed a lot of the concerns that he shared, especially the workloads and the people's court aspect. There's one caveat that I want to put in here for us to think about is I think we've been incredibly fortunate to have someone like Judge Johnson who actively wanted to take this role and is actively trying to recruit potential replacements. We might not always be that lucky. And I don't, you know, that in terms of getting a candidate, getting a candidate. I mean, there have been times where, you know, for and this is across all, you know, municipal elected officials, you know, I know that Judge Lipscomb in Glendale has been there a very long time, and to the best of my knowledge, has a great reputation. But what happens when he leaves? Are they going to have those kind of an issue? If there is a consolidated court... I think that we, all of the communities involved, would have an easier chance at, would have a better chance at having candidates because there would be such a workload. That is the only sticking point to me, is that it's possible that that becomes more than just a, you know, a, a, a part-time once a month, you know, gig, the more of these communities that, that come to it. Again, the only sticking point, I have no interest in, in this, in moving forward with it. But I just want to, if, if, If others do, that's one thing that I would throw out there.

That's the first thing. I heard the rumor that our judge wasn't continuing, and I wondered what happened if nobody stepped forward. So that is absolutely an accurate commentary. That being said, we've had two judges in 25 years.

They tend to stick around for a while. But again, we've been incredibly lucky. And same thing with Glendale. Judge Lipscomb has been there since the dawn of time, as far as I know.

There was a person who expressed interest in the position.

In ours? Yes. Yes. I mean, I know, but I just...

I think we'll fill it.

But four years from now, will we fill it? Four years from then, will we fill it?

You're not wrong.

That is the only sticking point for me.

Trustee Saravan or Casper. So, yeah, I'm curious what your thoughts are in that we need to direct staff. So let us know.

I came in here rather dubious about it. And then listening to two of the three people who spoke, I am leaving even more so. So I am not super enthusiastic about proceeding with this either.

Thank you. Trustee Casper?

Same. You both are really good attorneys. You changed my mind.

There you go. Yeah, my perspective really shared the same thoughts of the other three trustees in that if the savings number was double, triple, or quadruple, then you'd have my attention. I do look at this as... a $36,000 purchase. And what does Whitefish Bay get out of this by not consolidating? And I think what Judge Johnson just described was completely valuable, completely worth that kind of funds to pass up. So I think amongst the four of us currently, none of us are interested in continuing. We are missing three other trustees. I would like to hear from them at some point what their thoughts were, because at some point we did discuss this and whether this should be on the agenda. And I think it was like, hey, let's at least talk about it on the agenda. So I'm not entirely positive what the other three trustees think. So perhaps you could... Do we want to put it on a future agenda or could we have the three trustees reach out to the village manager to say they disagree with this and they would like to? I think it shouldn't be on a future agenda until another trustee that isn't here says that they'd like to put it on. I couldn't agree more. That makes the most sense.

I couldn't agree more. And I think you'll find at least one of the trustees who's not here that completely agrees with us.

Okay. I mean, the other little caveat I'd put in there is I'm basing this mostly on the math. If it turns out that we've made some assumption that's wrong and that the numbers are double and triple and because we are heading for a moment of levy limit issues. And so we shouldn't be leaving stones unturned. So my only caveat is simply let's continue to have an open mind as we any new information comes to light that changes the mathematics of this. But for the moment, I think it's four trustees have basically said, we're not interested in moving forward. And until another trustee steps forward or math has changed, I think it is off of our agenda. Did you, do you need, was there action for this? This is going to be staff direction. Yeah.

I mean, the entire budget of the minutes of court is like 180,000. So it's not going to be quadruple that.

Right. Yeah. Good point.

Yeah.

Good point.

Okay.

All right. Well, thank you for joining us tonight.

Thank you.

Appreciate your public service.

Thank you.

We will then move on to number four, discussion action on ordinance 1928 to reduce the speed limit on a portion of North Lake Drive to 15 miles per hour. Okay.

Yeah, so as part of our ongoing process to improve pedestrian and bike safety, I'm here to propose reducing the school zone speed limit on Lake Drive, the portion that's north of Silver Spring, which runs approximately Carlisle to Bell from 20 miles an hour to 15 miles an hour. This would align with the school zone state statutes and other school zones. The current 20 miles an hour limit was, is allowed under an exception in state law, which gives local municipalities an ability to have an exemption for different speed limits within a certain parameter. In 2023, the village board lowered the speed limit, the overall speed limit in that area from 30 to 25. To me, it makes sense to lower it to 15 when school is crossing. or school kids are going to and from school. This signage has already been approved by the village board to improve the outdated signs that are there so we can accommodate having the 15 miles an hour on those new signs.

And if I remember correctly, isn't it 15 on other school zones in Weishaupt, like Marlboro?

Yep, every school zone.

So this is correcting a oopsies, really.

State statute says the school zone is 15 miles per hour. Like I said, that same statute gives you the ability to change it, but I don't see a reason why we would have it at 20 miles an hour when it differs from anywhere in Whitefish Bay.

This was presented to the Public Works Committee, yes?

This one was not.

Well, the signage was.

The signage was.

But the ordinance never was. But the signage was approved. Correct. Yes.

Yeah. We just felt it prudent to get this done before the school year ended.

I have a slightly different topic question that I'm not sure it's going to be for the chief. I'm not sure who's going to answer the question, but we have the capacity to change the speed limits for different kinds of vehicles like trucks. Can you, you know, like there's highways, you can have truck speeds and regular speeds. Do you know if municipalities can differentiate between vehicles and trucks and speeds? I believe on local roads you can.

No. No?

Okay. I was just asking. I think so. Where I was going was differentiating with e-bikes and maximum speeds and if we can regulate truck speeds, but apparently we can't, so never mind. Are there any trustee questions about this or members of the public? Hearing none, Jay, do you think you could give me number four?

Yes, I'm sorry. I move the Village Board adopt ordinance number 1928 to amend the speed limit identified in Municipal Code 6-4 from 20 miles an hour to 15 miles an hour for North Lake Dry from .158 feet south of the south curb line of East Carlisle Avenue extended to .172 feet north of the north curb line of East Bell Avenue extended at such time children are present in the school crossing zone. Thank you. Do I hear a second?

Second.

Thank you, Anna. Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you. Okie dokie. Moving on. to number five, discussion action on ordinance 1929 to create article seven of chapter 14 of the municipal code in regard to lead service line replacement. Kelsey.

So actually, Attorney Jacobs is going to take this one because it's really largely a legal procedure that we need to adjust.

Yeah. Thank you. This is the result of some recent changes in the statutes, changes that were welcome changes. And I say this because we had been using the special assessment vehicle as a way to pay for improvements to properties and then to assess the cost of those improvements. The state now, the Department of Administration has come down and said, well, wait a minute, you can't. You can't be especially assessing private property. In other words, it's all got to be devoted to the public. Now, that being said, the legislature came out with Act 137, which is a statute they passed in 2017, which, by the way, has Public Service Commission advanced approval, which is important because Everything we talk about when we're paying for utilities like this is, are we on the right side of the PSC rules requirements? In this case, it's been determined that if we pursue this Act 137 approach, that we are free from having to submit everything to the Public Service Commission for approval. That's a bunch of legalese, unfortunately, but we just have to get our arms wrapped around that first. What the statute does is says that from now on, Basically, improvements can be made to private property specifically for lead service line laterals. And those improvements can be made using loans from the municipality, not from the utility. Everything has to be kept separate from the Whitefish Bay Water Utility. for our purposes on this. But the exemption allows for having work done and paying for that work with a special charge for current services. That's the same statute that you use when somebody doesn't cut their lawn and the village will come in and cut down the, you know, the chest high weeds or whatever it might be, clean something up and clear all that out. That under the statute can be put on the tax bill for the property that was affected. So it becomes a way of enforcement as well And I say that because the special charge for current services, that is done and set up. And in setting it up, there's a number of documents that have to be created to satisfy this regime. One, for example, is that there has to be an ordinance that says that nobody can maintain the laterals if there is a need to rehabilitate the sanitary right in that same location. or the water main. If a water main is replaced, the homeowner is required to take the actions to remove the lead lateral. The statute though also envisions a negotiated lease for that property. I guess lease is the wrong term, but an agreement to allow for lead service replacement and to do so under, so you've got today, ordinance 1929, that's the action we're taking today. But the lead policy, that's in the past, Act 37. Yeah, there's a loan agreement. That's what I was trying to drive at. So the loan agreement has to be entered into and then money can be paid. loaned out, essentially, the village borrows the money and then pays for the special charges with that money. And then it goes on the tax bill for that property or gets paid in a negotiated loan agreement, which will specify the term, the interest rates, which, by the way, are very low. And in the access. The access is also spelled out in some of the documents in the packet. And by the way, this is a kind of a complex, messy situation. And I applaud Kelsey for the memo she put together because it makes it a lot easier to understand what's going on here because it's all very succinct. So in the process, we've got a pre-construction inspection and private replacement commitment. That document has to be signed. And that essentially chooses between a loan agreement payment in full or a special charge. Now a special charge can sit on the tax rolls for the property until there is some sort of foreclosure or sale of the property. that makes sure that the village gets its money back no matter what. And so a lot of times when you sell a property, you have a closing, and at the closing in comes the list of exceptions from the title company. Well, this is one of those exceptions that's going to be on that title, and it has to be paid out in order to close it out. when the property is sold. If the property is not sold, you're still hoping to depend on the loan agreement and the property owner being current on their payments. The, The interesting thing that was added here is that in order to participate in section 660627 sub 8 AG 1, Really? Yes. Okay. Yes. And so that's where the amendment landed that I was talking about from 2017. It requires that in order to participate, and the PSC backs this up, in order to participate in the funding, every property in that jurisdiction should be subject to required connection. I'm sorry, required replacement. So that's required. If we're not maintaining that system as a village, again, not as a utility, then the Department of Administration or the Department of Natural Resources might withdraw our authority to conduct these programs. I say that But I point out that what Kelsey has put together here, including the list of attachments, accomplishes what needs to be accomplished and can help get this done. Let's see.

And this isn't specific to Wengish Bay. It's...

Right. The statute is in use elsewhere. Kelsey modeled a lot of these documents after the same process in Cedarburg. And they had some nice ordinances and whatnot. Kelsey brought them to my attention. I thought they were great. And so we've been in consultation with other communities like like like like I just like like I just described Cedarburg. But we've also consulted with experts in this field just to make sure there wasn't something that we weren't weren't catching. And I say experts, meaning experts. an attorney in particular who specializes in this statute and this action. And everything is in order. I will tell you that the money can only be spent in pursuant to a program that's administered by the municipality. In other words, nobody can just look up and say, well, I'm going to replace my lateral, my lead lateral to give me some money. It has to be part of a village program or, and Trustee Saruman had brought this up, possibly on an emergency basis. And we put together a draft to do that if we need to do that. Let's see.

I don't really have enough.

Yeah, I was going to say, you're going to want to stop me now.

Yeah, I'm going to stop you then. Quick comment. I thought Trustee Dettman had some questions that he contacted you and get this resolved.

Well, we talked over the phone. He had questions about... if we did the financial assistance program that's authorized through the PSC, if that would mean that we didn't have to do the mandatory replacement ordinance. And I looked into that, and my research showed that it would still be required.

Yeah, it's required. I just want to make sure in absentia that he got his words in.

It's required, and that's what keeps it out of the PSC's snare.

Got it. Are there any specific questions for... STAFF FROM ANY TRUSTEES? ANY MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC? HEARING NONE.

NEW SPEAKERS.

NEW SPEAKERS. NEW SPEAKERS. NEW SPEAKERS. NEW SPEAKERS. NEW SPEAKERS.

Or can you come up to the microphone just because we do have people at home.

Yeah, sorry.

I'll start my question over. So if a resident informs the DPW or utility that they're replacing their private side independently of a village project, it's my understanding that the utility has to replace their public side. So could those funds be used in that scenario? Because I think that that happens enough for it to be addressed.

You mean where it's just a single solo project?

Correct.

It can be done, but it can't be eligible for funding.

That was my question.

Okay.

Thank you.

And I'm going to look at Jay, unless he has a question to entertain motion number.

Sorry. First, did you want to jump in with your suggested amendment?

Yeah, yeah, I had just suggested and I think that's what the memo was that you guys got later this afternoon. I had suggested that since we were changing the ordinance now that if someone had an emergency with their with their service line, and we are now requiring that they replace it, we're no longer allowing them to repair it, that it seemed to me that would make it eligible for this money. And I think we kind of covered that already, but that was just what my thinking was behind it.

And so what was passed out is version two, and that's what we're discussing. So you don't have it in front of, well, you might, but we were delivered a new version of this with language on emergency replacements.

Correct.

Right.

So I just wanted to clarify for anybody that maybe is listening at home. It's different than what was included in the packet and that the eligibility language has changed to include emergency.

And so it is still different than someone just opting to do it, you know, absent an emergency, absent a break.

I'm sorry. Do we have.

I think we got it via email. We got it via email this afternoon, Jay?

No, no, no. What I'm asking is do we have what constitutes an emergency?

I think it described a break and that it had to be, you know, in consultation then with the village engineer who would look and confirm that this was a break that needed to be replaced.

Exactly. It's an administrative decision by the public works director. I believe is how it's written, right?

It's by the village engineer.

Village engineer, okay.

It used to be the same. It's not an emergency. A planned break.

That's one thing I didn't see and I still don't see it. Where is that in the ordinance?

It's on page three and it's in blue. It's the second line of blue text.

Oh, as determined, I'm sorry. Determined by the village engineer. Okay. Attorney Jekyll, you're good with that?

Yes, I've gone over this and edited it. Okay. Made some changes.

All right.

Actually, now that we have the word village engineer, do we still use the term village engineer?

That's all over our code. So that's why I didn't say a public word. Fair enough. It's a defined term.

Fair enough. I know we used to have one and then we, yeah.

Yeah, and that's why I instinctively said village.

You know, that's fine. If it's up there. Yeah. All right.

So if you'd like to make a motion, I don't know if you talked to trustee Casper on this. Okay. I'm looking out for you, Anna. Okay. um okay uh with that said i move the village board adopt ordinance number 129 creating article 7 of chapter 14 of the municipal code with regard to lead service line replacement as amended perfect do i hear a second second i'm gonna give that to anna i think she got it in wow um we're all yours

Any further discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. All right. Now we move into our final item of the night, which is to go into closed session.

Tara, do you want to do it?

No, I'll let you, Jay. You're there.

I'll do my best trustee Sarabin impression here. I moved the village board convening a closed session pursuant to Wisconsin State Statute 19.851C, considering employment, promotion, compensation, or performance evaluation data of any public employee over which the governmental body has jurisdiction or exercises responsibility specifically regarding... 2027 employee compensation benefits pursuant to Wisconsin State Statute 19.851E, deliberating or negotiating the purchase of public property, investing in public funds, conducting other specified business whenever competitive and or bargaining reasons require a closed session specifically regarding contract negotiations with the police union. Thank you.

Go ahead a second. I'll second it.

I was letting Anna do it. I was letting you do it.

PB, Harmon Zuckerman, All right, all those in favor of the motion to go into closed session say aye. PB, Sarah Silver, Aye. PB, Harmon Zuckerman, Any opposed. PB, Harmon Zuckerman, Motion carries. We are now going into closed session. PB, Harmon Zuckerman, On the recording. There's nobody else in the room. OK, we have reconvened into open session. It is 8.07. And the last thing we need to do is?

Mr. President, I move to adjourn.

Oh, I'm giving it to Jay. And is there anyone to second?

Second.

Thank you, Anna. All those in favor of adjourning, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. We are adjourned. Thank you all for spending two hours of your life with public meetings that we have.

Good night. Good night.