The Finance & Personnel Committee of the City of La Crosse met on Thursday, March 5, 2026, at 6:04 PM in the Council Chambers, City Hall. Chair Goggin presided. Present: Barb Janssen, Erin Goggin, Larry Sleznikow, Rosanne Northwood. Excused: Aron Newberry, Chris Kahlow. The meeting adjourned at 7:03 PM. The committee considered 11 resolutions and one collective bargaining update, including votes that split 2-2 on fire and police compression pay resolutions.
I'm gonna call this meeting to order for the first the for the finance and personnel committee Thursday March 5th 6 04 p.m. Um members of the finance and personnel commission are here. Excused are Councilmember Kalo and Councilmember Newberry. Our new business tonight starting with 26-0054 resolution approving investment service agreements for the period of April 1st, 2026 through March 31st, 2027. Councilmember Jansen. Move to approve. Move to approve by Councilmember Jansen, seconded by Councilmember Slesniko. Councilmember Slesniko. Um I'm hoping our director of finance can just give us an overview of what this involves. I I'm pretty sure I understand it, but just so that um the public as well understands what's happening here. Sure. Thank you for the question. Uh kind of anticipating to be asked, so uh so every year um as far back as I I know uh the city has or the city council has uh authorized the use of some of our invested funds, um a portion of it, not all of them, to be distributed amongst local investors here within the city. Um I think the idea and the goal is is that the local institutions would then utilize those funds to uh uh grant loans and and utilize that money to to the public, um benefiting the city as a whole. So um past practice has been to take 20 percent of uh a portion up to 25 percent of a portion of our investable cash and uh put that back into the local economy. So that's what this is doing, and then what we um one of the uh stipulations that they have to follow is that they have to uh beat our local government investment pool interest rates. Um so not only are we helping to benefit local economy and residents here, we're also uh receiving a little extra on our interest rates. Um so kind of a win-win all around. Thank you. Any other questions? Thanks, Director Hawkins. Any further discussion? Not seeing or hearing any, we'll move to the vote. That motion passes unanimously. Moving on to 26-0122 resolution amending appendix C of the municipal code for the city of Lacrosse entitled fee schedule regarding fees for building, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, and erosion control permits. Councilmember Slesniko. Move to approve motion to approve by councilmember Slesniko, seconded by councilmember Jansen. Is there any dis Councilmember Slesnikal? Um I'm not sure if who is here from planning who might be able to vote. Andrew, I see you online. Yes, I'm just curious why why this needs to come forward. What change will this be making that uh requires it to um you know come before council? Sure. So there were some updates that the council approved to change some of the fees with the fee schedule at the end of last year, effective 2026. So this is making the language in that. There was so there were some fees that were increased more than just the CPI. Current language says that it should change only based on the CPI. So this is updating that to allow that change to be not just the CPI. So the language in that was approved at J and A on Tuesday, and then this is the update of the approval of the fee, so the actual monetary amount associated with those permits. Thank you. Any other questions for Director Train? Thank you, Director Train. Any further discussion? Seeing none, we'll move forward with the vote. That motion passes unanimously. Next agenda item is 26-0128 resolution amending the compression pay for battalion chiefs, assistant fire chief, and fire chief. Sponsored by Mayor Washington Spivey. Councilmember Slesniko. Move to approve. Move to approve by Councilmember Slesniko.