Racine Common Council Meeting – September 16, 2025 Summary
Racine Common Council Meeting – September 16, 2025
The Racine Common Council met on Tuesday, September 16, 2025, at 6:00 PM in City Hall, Room 205. A total of 14 aldermen were present, with Alder Weidner excused. The meeting included public comments, referral of several communications to committees, committee reports, approval of a consent agenda, and council announcements. The meeting was adjourned at 6:50 PM.
Consent Calendar
- Minutes from September 2 and September 8, 2025, were approved (13-0).
- All communications listed under "Communications Introduced to Council" and "Committee Reports" were referred to the appropriate committees on voice votes, except where separate votes were taken (see Key Outcomes). Items included grant applications for police enforcement ($15,000 alcohol enforcement, $8,500 seatbelt, $4,000 speed), infrastructure grants (Spring Street Bridge, 16th Street Reconstruction, West 6th Street Bridge Polymer Overlay), a $400,000 budget amendment for sewer repairs, a $2 million grant application for the Lincoln King Community Center, an agreement with Hyfi for flood monitoring, a stop sign change at Monroe and Victory Avenues, change orders for cemetery paving and sewer contracts, amendments to parking service contracts, and various license applications.
- Committee reports from Finance and Personnel, Public Works and Services, Public Safety and Licensing, and the Executive Committee were approved as part of the consent agenda (13-0).
Public Comments & Testimony
- Lisa Beaudoin (23 Olive Street) spoke about water safety following the drowning of two young children at the lakefront in August 2025. She reiterated four suggestions: 1) install no-swim zone signs with motion sensors (noting a sign is going up at Carrie Hogel Park but questioning if it has a sensor and if other areas are covered); 2) create an interactive toggle map of all Racine waterways with age-appropriate tutorials and homework slips for students; 3) build a Racine Water Safety two-story facility near the Yacht Club housing a dispatch center and an injury clinic; and 4) form a Racine Volunteer Water Safety Coalition to monitor no‑swim zones, conduct fundraisers, and provide safety classes. She expressed gratitude for city action but urged multiple coordinated efforts.
Discussion Items
- Resolution 0875-25: Authorizing the issuance of up to $18,835,000 in 2025 general obligation promissory notes for capital improvement projects and equipment. Finance Director Kathleen answered questions: $14.7 million of the borrowing is for long-term capital (paving, sidewalks, street lighting, parks, building improvements such as tuckpointing) and $4.1 million is short-term borrowing for vehicles and equipment paid back in the first year. The resolution passed 12‑0 (Weidner excused, Pabon excused).
- Resolution 0876-25: Authorizing the issuance of up to $4,085,000 in taxable general obligation promissory notes for the TID #26 developer incentive previously approved (Dominion Downtown Phase II). Finance Director explained the incentive was approved in April 2025 for $9.7 million total – $5.7 million from TID #9 and $4 million borrowed. This resolution covers the borrowing portion. Approved on a voice vote.
- Amended Public Comment Procedure (Ordinance 0004-25): The Executive Committee recommended deleting the line requiring a single designated speaker for groups sharing a viewpoint and adding language encouraging submission of detailed concerns in writing. The council approved the recommendation as part of the consent agenda.
Key Outcomes
- Vote on 0875-25: 12 ayes (Frazier, Townsend, Turquoise-Davis, Maack, Jorgensen, Esqueda, Allen, Peete, Land, Perez, Kelly, Harmon); 0 nays; 2 excused (Weidner, Pabon). Passed.
- Consent Agenda Approval: The motion to approve the consent agenda was approved 13‑0 (1 excused).
- Next Meeting: Scheduled for Tuesday, October 7, 2025.
Meeting Transcript
We're gonna get started. Can the audio take their seats? We are going to get started. Great. Grace. Can all just take their seat, please? Okay, we're gonna call to order our our common council meeting for Tuesday, September 16. We will uh have a roll call starting off with the uh pledge of allegiance. May we all stand, please. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty. Thank you. I it's been motioned and properly second. Hall of favor signify by saying aye. Opposed? Motion carries. At this time we will have our clerk to uh to read the guidelines for our public comments. The public comment segment is an opportunity for citizens to speak directly to the common council. Speakers will limit their remarks to three minutes. There shall be no dialogue or interaction between elect between the speaker and elected officials or staff. This time is not intended to be a debate or discussion. The common council shall not hear personal complaints or attacks against any city employee or elected official or any matter related to an individual claim, citation, appeal, or lawsuit. Profane, disruptive, threatening or conduct that otherwise impedes the safe, orderly, and effective conduct of the common council meeting is equally unacceptable during the public comment period as it is during all other portions of city meetings. When a group of people representing one viewpoint wishes to address the council, one person should be appointed the designated speaker for the group. Speakers during the public comment period shall follow all rules of the common council and rulings of the chair, including a decision to terminate the remarks if the speaker does not adhere to these rules. Public comments shall be limited to ideas or concerns regarding the city of Racine. There will be one speaker this evening, Lisa Baudon, twenty-three thirteen Olive Street. Excuse me, excuse me, push your push a button, please. I can turn you on. Hi, my name is Lisa Boudon, and I'm a child abuse survivor and a survivor coach. And I'm here today to speak once more about the tragedy of the two young victims that died at our lakefront just last month in August 2025. In your last session, I made four suggestions about the topic of water safety. First, wherever swimming's prohibitive to have a no-swim zone sign with motion sensors on the top of those signs to alert those responsible that there's someone in those unprotected area. I was told the sign is going up at the end of this month at the Carrie Hogel Park, and we should all be grateful to the families, the elders involved in that endeavor, and the mayor for making that happen. But my question are does that sign have a motion sensor? And is this the only sign going up? What about the other areas that are dangerous? Secondly, that the city have an interactive toggle map website page of all the bodies of Racine, which I did find such a page, but it needs updates. And from there, another page was with age-appropriate tutorials where the Racine Unified School District would send homework slips home with students to watch those tutorials and to do an online QA test. Once done, these slips would then be signed by guardians and students and sent back to school, but be monitored by the city. I have spoken with battalion chief, battalion fire chief Bedros Ohanian, and there's already something online that could be used for these classes. But again, it just needs some tweaking, which I will investigate further. Third, of having a Racine Water Safety two-story building, possibly around the Racine Yacht Club area. The upper floor would be used as the Racine Water Safety Dispatch Center, which monitors the lakefront and those motion sensors, and the lower as a water safety injury clinic with an ER, saving much needed response and transport reset response time. This building could also have a two-story garage that stores equipment and vehicles. With my final suggestion was for those interested to create a Racine Volunteer Water Safety Coalition where Racinians could volunteer and work in tandem with the city parks in REC to take turns watching the no-swim zones. They could also have fundraisers to help with everything I've spoken of, but also in providing water safety classes to students and survivor support groups. So in conclusion, it's clear that the city's taking action, but to me, there has to be multiple efforts made that work together by our entire community to help keep people safe in our waters in the Racine area. I thank the mayor, the common council, along with the citizens here for allowing me to speak. Thank you. This concludes the public comment segment.
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