Well, good evening, everyone.

The hour of six o'clock having arrived on this twenty first of October twenty twenty-five.

It is my honor to call to order the city Racine Common Council.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

And to the Republic, for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

No?

Louder?

If I could just ask IT in the back.

We had we turned it up a little bit last night.

If we could turn the volume up in the chamber a bit, that would be great.

First question is for uh President Horton.

Do we have any excused absences this evening?

Yes, Alta Perez and Alder Kelly.

Okay, duly noted.

The next item of business is the approval of the Journal of Council proceedings from the seventh of October.

There's a mo is there a motion to approve said minutes.

There's a motion to approve the minutes from Alder Pabone, seconded by Alder Mack.

Any discussion on said minutes.

See none.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Those opposed.

Motion carries.

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.

There will be two speakers this evening.

The first speaker is Melissa Marquez at 2053, North Wisconsin, Racine, Wisconsin, 53402.

Thank you, Alder Jordan.

All right, thank you.

Good evening.

My name is Melissa Marquez, and I have been a lifetime Racine resident uh downtown specifically, and I am getting my master's in sustainability from University of Wisconsin Park side in December.

I've chosen my capstone project to be downtown Racine and single use uh reduction of single use plastic and um re improvements to the recycling program.

I have uh a few um benchmark examples that I have from San Diego, of course, who does it best, and um Oshkosh, specifically for we'll start with downtown businesses, um, where they would do a pledge, you know, and receive some sort of seal.

Um, the Oshkosh example has three levels of seals, you know, kind of for their advertising or their window cling, you know, for their storefronts.

Um if they show that they are making a reduction in plastic, single use plastic use.

So uh the example from Oshkosh had three levels um that was harder to sustain, you know.

It's kind of like you have to have somebody that actually goes there and checks on this, whether it be yearly, you know, to maintain that that seal of approval or pledge.

Um, I have some ideas for improvements to the recycling program, which I was just driving here tonight and noticed already there's improvements, there's like double the amount of recycling bins.

There were only the black bins originally.

You guys remember?

And now there's blue bins, also.

And that was maybe a discussion I had with Ronald Um Pritzlav from Engineering here a couple weeks back.

Um, noting that hey, I only see the black bins.

What happens?

Is that stuff sorted?

It's not sorted, you know.

The black bins are not.

So parks and rack, I guess, run that that show.

Also have provided some other um recommendations for additional receptacles, receptacles at the beach where people can actually clean the shoreline, return the receptacle near the the garbage station.

Sam Myers Park is a good example where that could be used.

Um beach cleanups just are not you know sustainable unless they're done on a regular basis.

So those are just a few ideas.

I have a 40-page thesis drafted.

Um, so I'm hoping to get some traction with these ideas.

Thank you.

The next speaker is Jerry Hodiman, 3500 Wilshire, Racine, Wisconsin, 53402.

I just want to warn you this may start out sounding like negative, but it's gonna turn very positive.

So a number of years ago, Viddy and Cheska Park and one other park in the city of Racine were put under contract or grass cutting, and Vidy and Cheskill Park turned into what looked like a farm field with windrow.

And our alder woman who lived about four or five blocks would walk her dog in the park.

And I saw her one time when it was cutting the grass, and she said she didn't walk her dog in the park anymore because the grass was too high and too wet for her little dog.

And that's when I started making some presentations and trying to get the park, you know, really cut again, like it used to be years ago.

Uh I also had a meeting with the bark gallon that didn't go real well, so then I gave presentation to the public works department, and Bill Falstrom at that time stood up, and at the presentation said he would supervise the grass cutting of Viddy and Cheska Park from that time forward, and the park then looked great.

And then uh Bill retired, and the cutting went back a little bit to what the way it was before, and uh the grass at Viddy and Chesca Park is now being cut.

Looks like my grass.

Very nice.

And uh I'm here today again to thank Bill Folstrom for what he did.

You know, watching out for the citizens so it doesn't turn into a slum area or whatever and so forth, and also now Scott Salinas is supervising the park, and he's doing a great job too.

Uh and in fact, even in the contracts, there's uh requirement that the contractor can't let windrow and so forth go.

And I noticed one time when they cut the swell area late this fall.

So I'm here to like say to praise Bill Folstrom and Scott Salinas for the great job they're doing.

The park looks great and so forth, so it keeps the neighborhood looking great, and the kids are using it and stuff.

And also Tom Mobeck and stuff has done some nice things with the playground equipment and so forth.

So the park is looking good.

So thank you.

Thank you.

This concludes the public comment section.

Well, now move on to the budget presentation by finance director Kathleen Fisher.

Okay.

Good evening, everyone, and thank you for having me.

Mayor Mason, members of the common council, staff and citizens.

It's my privilege as finance director of the city of Racine to present the 2026 budget for the City of Racine.

This document represents a culmination of extensive work across all departments and is crafted to support the mission goals and strategic priorities of our community while remaining risk fiscally responsible and sustainable.

I want to shout out a couple of special thank yous first to Amber Pfeiffer Pfeiffer, the deputy finance director, who, although new to her role, led the budget process from start to finish with exceptional dedication and professionalism.

Her ability to navigate complexities while keeping a sense of humor and making me laugh the whole time is truly appreciated.

I also extend sincere thanks to administrative managers, city staff, Mayor Mason, City Administrator, for their diligence and hard work and attention to detail during the process.

Theoretically.

No, let's try that one.

Okay, we're going up.

Great.

Um so navigating the budget book.

I just want to go through the different sections of the budget book, particularly for the new alders.

It's a relatively large document at well over 300 pages, and we kind of break it up into different sections relating to the different areas of the book.

The document itself is defined designed to be comprehensive, meaning that there's many sections within the document, all that work cohesively together to support the numbers within the document itself.

So this document is much more than just numbers and detailed pages, but rather has a very nice overview at the beginning, which will talk about the detailed numbers, of course, which is always my favorite part, uh, the positions that are supported within the document and the fiscals, the fee schedules associated with the ordinances that are built into the code, uh, and the fees that the departments would charge for all of the services, um, particularly ordinance modifications, and then also the capital improvement tenure capital improvement plan, all of which have their own separate tab within the book that you hold in front of you.

Just a little bit more on navigating the book.

Um, again, so there's an overview at the very beginning of the book book.

The first 24 pages uh is an overview written by me.

Um, just to give you a snapshot in time of some of the highlights of the budget.

Certainly doesn't get into full detail, but gives a little bit of detail as a one-stop shop.

The agenda that's included at the in the kind of binder part of the front of your white book.

That'll give you a really good guide to look at a specific department and all of the different areas of that department, whether it's their fee schedule, whether it's their detail, or uh whether it's their capital plan.

Um navigating again into the detail pages of the budget book.

So there's detailed expenditures for each department within the budget book.

There's also detailed revenues, there's also goal setting statements within this document.

The goal setting statements are created by the administrative managers of the department reviewed with the um the administration team.

Um those goals and the funding for those goals are all associated and work comprehensively in this budget.

And the administrative managers are held accountable for those goals throughout the year and have to report to administration on their goals and their progress towards their goals.

Fun stuff.

Also, within each one of the departments, you have a summary by unit.

Those are by appropriation unit.

That is the way we manage our budget for the city of Racine under budget policy.

Those units are salary infringed benefits, operating expenses, and interdepartmental expenses.

And then again, that expenditure detail, which will be the detail of all the expenses for each department.

Also behind one of your tabs in your white binder will be positions.

These are all the positions that are funded within the City of Racine budget document.

Within this position page, there's a couple of different things going on.

So if it is a part-time position next to a position that's part-time, there may be kind of a bracketed one, for example.

That means that there's one position, but the columns on the right-hand side are FTEs, meaning you may have a person that works 20 hours a week, they'd be a 0.5 FTE, but it's one position.

Full-time equivalents are included there, like I said, and there's a comparison from 25 to 26 as well.

And then we also have the allocations of how those positions are funded.

Some of them are general funds, some of them are funded with other funding sources.

Moving on to the fee schedule, as I referenced previously, again, there's another tab in your budget binder relating to the fee schedule.

That fee schedule is by department.

It again gives a comparison between 25 and 26 to give the alders a snapshot of what fees increased.

It's a relatively long and detailed document, but it is adopted as part of this budget process.

There are increases in fees in several areas throughout the budget, and I'll talk about those in just a minute.

There are agenda briefing memos included with each one of those ordinances.

Thank you to the attorney's office for working so hard on that.

But each one of these ordinances reflects the fiscal numbers that are within the budget and are required to be adopted as part of this budget if the fiscal remains the same.

Maybe my clicker works.

There we go.

Again, impacts operations.

The 10-year capital plan is your last tab.

So then this is the 10-year capital plan for the city of Racine.

We prepare a 10-year capital plan to give us an idea of capital needs going forward.

We have well over $600 million worth of assets in the City of Racine, all of which are aging in different ways.

So we use this capital plan to guide our borrowings in subsequent years and give a really good vision of what is coming forward, and then prior prioritize those projects as needs are necessary.

Again, that capital plan is by department, and you'll see on that on that kind of listing by department.

You'll see where their capital plan, what page it is on the capital plan.

The 2026 column of the tenure capital plan will is what would be adopted with the 2026 budget.

The out years are a plan, they are a guide, and they get reviewed each year with the budget itself.

Moving on to some of the highlights of the budget.

We have net new construction of over 73 million dollars in 2020 for the 2026 budget, that is the highest ever for the city of Racine.

We have a tax rate at 11.75 cents per thousand.

That is the lowest for the city of Racine in over 15 years.

We have levy limit increase, meaning that our property tax levy for operations was allowed to increase for the 2026 budget.

So you will see an increase in that space, both from the referendum that was approved by the voters in uh 2025, as well as from net new construction.

We have some items for employee retention and recruitment that are within the budget.

So we have a 1% increase for non-represented employees, both full and part-time.

We have HSA contributions for employees as well.

Those are the same as the prior year, and then we do have new health care plan options that the common council adopted month or so ago under a new Centivo plan.

Some more highlights.

We have some new positions that are proposed in this budget.

There's a recruiter position as the mayor discussed last night.

And then a new project coordinator position for our subpump program that Commissioner Rooney can certainly cover within his budget address.

Some other items, there will be fee increases across this budget.

We will talk about those in a minute.

But most certainly there will be fee increases.

The community safety department is part of the general fund as proposed within this budget.

The demolition of the McMinn parking ramp is included in the capital general obligation bond fund in the 2026 budget.

Consolidation and reorganization of utility functions is included in both the finance department and customer service.

Some of our challenges, which are the same challenges that I've been talking about for years and have covered in our individual sessions with the ALDES, the city continues to face what we will refer to as a structural deficit, which I'll get to in a minute, but basically overall, our costs of basic operations, just even regular infl um influm in regular cost increases.

We're just gonna go there.

Regular cost increases are rising faster than our revenue sources through net new construction or increases in property tax allowed.

Legacy costs relating to retiree health care, levy limits, as we have talked about and I will talk about in more detail.

Net new construction is always a challenge for the city of Racine, although uh it was better this year than most, and then sustainability long term and how we sustain it this trajectory.

Structural deficit, this is a chart really detailing out what is our structural deficit.

So the purple line on this chart reflects our regular inflationary costs in every year.

So the budget for the overall budget for uh our operating funds for 2026 are up about 3.2 percent, which is mostly wage and benefit increases for employees, but our net new construction came in at 1.36%.

That means that we were only allowed to increase our tax levy by 1.36%.

What that means is we have over a 2% deficit in our budget as we sit right now.

That is almost $2 million a year.

So it is significant.

We continue to look at different ways to solve that, but this is not an easy fix.

Legacy costs, as I've talked to you about at length.

The City of Racine has the largest per capita, what's called OPEB or long-term retiree health care benefit obligation in the state of Wisconsin.

Our overall obligation is 236 million dollars at this point in time.

That obligation is is definitely a negative impact on our bond rating, therefore increasing our interest costs costs on debt.

We continue to look at ways to mitigate this obligation.

It is significant.

Um, retiree costs for health care costs the city about 10 million dollars a year.

That obviously puts pressure on our ability to provide services for current employees or provide service for current residents.

Levy limits, as we've talked about a little bit in length, but again, I'm gonna go over it again as a challenge that we face.

State statute limits operational tax levy to last year's amount plus an allowance for net new construction.

Our net new construction for the city of Racine was 73 million dollars for 2026, an increase of 1.36%.

That's amazing for the city of Racine so far in history.

However, that got us, or we were able to increase the tax levy by about $500,000 because of that.

Whereas costs increased well over $2.5 million.

So we're still have a significant deficit there.

Also, net new construction as being one of the only tools that we have to increase our operational tax levy, also tells you why economic development in this community is so critically important for our ability to raise property taxes to provide services to our residents.

This budget does maximize our allow tax levy under the levy limit.

There is no room to increase the tax levy at all.

This is a graphical representation of the calculation of net new construction, and this gets super complicated, but I always like to show it because it shows the city of Racine highlighted in pink, which is 1.36%.

But again, you can look at some of our neighboring communities and see some of those percentages, including a Mount Pleasant at 17.15%.

These are the challenges that we have in the City of Racine.

The other thing that makes it a bit challenging for the larger communities with a lot of equalized value is the higher your equalized value, the harder it is to get a large percentage of growth in net new construction.

So we came in with a pretty high equalized value for the city of Racine, which is a very good thing, but it makes it very difficult.

So in this particular case, if we were to increase, if we were allowed to increase tax levy by the amount of our costs, our basic cost for 2026, we would need 170 million dollars of net new construction.

Okay.

That's three Woodmans in one year.

So this is a significant challenge with the way that the levy limits are set by the state of Wisconsin, and we continue to work through this.

But again, I will say it is why economic development is so critically important to the city of Racine.

Let's get into the numbers because that's super fun.

So total budget for the city of Racine, all funds is just over 275, just shy of 276 million dollars, an increase of about 4.7% across all funds from the 2025 budget.

The major areas of increase in the different funds is actually primarily in your special revenue funds, which actually is primarily because of the referendum that was passed.

All of the referendum funds and then the associated expenditures are included in a special revenue fund standalone.

Also, the debt service fund is seeing an increase.

Again, higher costs for principal and interest on debt associated with borrowings in the last several years.

Capital project funds are also seeing an increase in 2026.

A major item there is that demolition of Mi'min Ramp, which is about a million dollar item in there.

Is the general fund at about 95.2 million dollars for 2026, an increase of just 0.97%.

It's a relatively minor increase actually for the general fund, and it may look a little unusual.

The reason why the general fund looks like that is because costs associated with that referendum, i.e.

police and fire, I'm sorry, fire salary and benefits have been moved to a special revenue fund.

General fund expenditures, this is just to show you how we spend our money primarily in the city of Racine, and is a really good reflection of citywide.

About 74 to 75% of our expenses are salary and benefits.

It is the people, it is the people providing the services to the residents.

And then the vast majority of our costs also under public safety.

So well over 50% of our costs are allocated to public safety.

Our revenues on the revenue side of the equation, particularly in the general fund here, again, $95 million worth of revenues in the general fund.

We have major categories of revenues, one of the largest being property taxes, you'll see on the top here.

But some items of interest that you will see here, fines and forfeitures is presented in this budget to increase primarily that is parking fines that are being collected by the police department.

You will see a reduction in miscellaneous revenues.

That's a reduction primarily in interest income.

The interest rates were very high last year, they are coming down, and our cash on hand isn't quite as much as it used to be to be able to invest long term, so there's a slight reduction there.

And then you will see a 22% increase in the general fund in our use of fund balance or our use of reserves.

For those aldermen that came to my previous presentation to the alders, um, again, we are using about 4.5 million dollars of fund balance to balance the budget for 2026.

That number is not a sustainable number to be able to balance budgets long term.

Again, this is just a graphical representation of our revenues by type, which got really wacky in this presentation.

Did not look like that, I apologize.

Um, but the bottom two pieces, the pink and the orange on this chart, are property taxes and the intergovernmental revenues or shared revenues that the city of Racine receives from the state of Wisconsin.

Those two pieces make up 80% of our revenues to balance the budget and the general fund.

When those two pie pieces are frozen or close to flat, that is where you get yourself a structural deficit.

Let's talk about property tax levy.

So we have two components to the property tax levy for the city of Racine.

We have what's called an operational levy, which I talked about previously, is limited by that levy limit imposed by the state of Wisconsin.

However, for the city recent for 2026, our operational levy is going to go up a little over $2 million.

That's $500,000 from net new construction and $1.5 million from the referendum that was approved by the voters in 2025.

So you'll see a five little over 5% increase in the operational levy.

And then our debt service tax levy that is there to pay for principal and interest on debt.

It's going up about 11%, 11.5%.

And that is due to increased costs associated with principal and interest on borrowings.

We're borrowing more than we used to in the past.

And the interest rates are higher than they were most certainly the last about three or three years ago or so.

The property tax rate, as I talked about at the beginning of the presentation, is down to 1175, so 11.75 cents per thousand.

Basically, the way that that rate is calculated is that you take our total tax levy, which is debt service and operations, and you divide that by the total assessed value of the city of Racine, which is somewhere around 5.4 billion.

Um and then times a thousand, and that's where you get your rate.

Our rate will continue to decrease as assessed values continue to increase in the city of Racine, assuming that our tax levy is limited by the state of Wisconsin.

Fees, as I talked about earlier in the presentation, we have various larger fees that I just like to bring to the attention of the alders, although there are many, many, many other fees that are included in that very long packet in your book.

But these are always of interest to the alders.

So each one of the fees in this area are increasing in some way, shape, or form.

Again, the function of the state of Wisconsin levy limits and the constraints that they put on us force us to shift costs over to fees to be able to provide basic service to the citizenry.

So this is what you are going to continue to see.

So you'll see the sanitary sewer lateral fee, which is included on the tax bill.

It's a one-year annual charge going up about 4%.

You'll see these fees anywhere between 3% and 7% at the highest for stormwater.

Let's talk about fund balance or reserves or cash on hand.

You'll hear me talk about it in several different ways.

This budget, as I said, in the general fund, applies 4.5, a little bit more than 4.5 million dollars of fund balance to balance the operations of the general fund.

A million of that is proposed to come from wage provision to pay for salary and benefit increases, and the rest is going to come from budget stabilization, which again was set aside by the alders several years ago when the ARPA funds came and we had a lot of interest earnings to set aside into a budget stabilization fund.

It was always intended to spend down that budget stabilization fund over several years.

But again, using fund balance at this level in the general fund each year is not sustainable for long.

Again, graphical representation of our general fund reserves.

Some of the aldermen have seen something similar to this already.

Again, we have three categories of general fund reserves.

We have what's called a wage provision, which is kind of the aqua box on the top.

We have budget stabilization, which is the bluer one in the middle, and then our undesignated fund balance, which is the green.

You'll see this.

I projected it out a little bit through 2027 just so we can see that spend down and how you start seeing that go down.

It was the highest point right after we got the ARPA money and started setting it aside.

But as we spend down at these 4.5 million dollar levels, we are quickly going to get to that green box.

The minute that green box gets eaten into or chipped into is where we get into a lot of issues with our ability to have cash on hand.

Um I'm trying.

Well, my next slide.

Since you guys have it in front of me, we will we will wing it.

There we go.

Is the health insurance reserves?

This is just a graphical representation of our levels of fund balance in our health insurance fund.

Again, we are self-insured for health care, so it is imperative that we keep a decent fund balance in there.

In any bad year of health care, we could easily lose two million dollars based on claims because we are self-insured, but there is a good amount of reserves in the health care fund for that.

The long-term capital improvement plan, as I talked about, 2026 through 2035.

It's a tenure capital plan.

I'm gonna get into the details of the long-term debt piece.

We borrow two different types of debt.

Um, each year we borrow a long-term debt, which covers assets that are 10 years or more.

Um, and generally mostly for roads, bridges, sidewalks, buildings, that type of thing, the longer-term assets.

That borrowing for 2026 is expected to be about 16.8 million dollars, if I can see that right.

Um, and we do see some increases in there in 2026, mostly associated with again that demolition of the McMinn ramp, which is a million-dollar item.

The short-term borrowing, which that should say 2026, the short-term borrowing by function for 2026.

Again, these are our shorter-term life assets.

So these are like your police cars that maybe last three years.

This is uh software, um, computer hardware, that type of thing.

For our short-term borrowing, how it works is we borrow short-term, meaning that we borrow and we pay that borrowing off in one year.

So it's not like we're amortizing that debt over a 15-year period of time.

We're paying it off in a one-year period of time.

This is a representation of our general obligation debt outstanding.

The mayor referenced this a little bit yesterday.

This is a different type of representation.

We have two different kinds of categories of debt.

The kind of aquacolor on the top is our development type or development associated debt.

Again, there are several instances where it is advantageous to borrow for development projects for that achievement of net new construction within the city of Racine.

This often happens within our TID districts, and again, is a valuable tool when it is necessary to be used.

You'll see an increase in that aqua colored area between 24 and 25.

That is the borrowing for the Lincoln King Community Center and Clinic that was authorized by the common council.

You will also see going into 26 and for the year ended 2026 that our green box, which is our general obligation debt that pays for our buildings and our roads and our regular capital plan.

You'll see a pretty big increase there.

That is the anticipation of a borrowing for a public safety facility in 2026.

So that'll be a significant borrowing, likely somewhere between 30 and 35 million dollars, and that'll be included in your capital plan under a special purpose bond because that will be bonded by itself standalone.

Just a little bit on the calendar going forward, which um administrator Sullivan covered a little bit yesterday.

Um, again, Wednesday the 22nd, which is tomorrow, 6 p.m.

Committee of the whole, administrative managers presentations, Thursday the 23rd, 6 p.m.

committee of the whole, questions and discussions from alders.

Thursday, the 30th, October, Thursday the 30th, 6 p.m.

will be the public hearing for the citizens to come and voice their opinions on the budget.

Wednesday, November 5th, 6 p.m.

will be questions and common council committee of the whole approval amendments, that type of thing.

Just a reminder, and it'll be on the next slide too.

Proposed amendments at per resolution of the common council are due to finance by end of day on the 31st, so that we can prepare and make sure that they all are in alignment with the resolutions passed by the common council.

And then Thursday, November 6th, 6 p.m.

would be the adoption by the common council.

I wanted to just bring up the resolution, which I think was actually sent out as a reminder to the alders as well.

There was a resolution passed by the Common Council earlier this year, which with the budget calendar, just listing out a few things kind of associated with the budget.

Basically, like I said, amendments must be submitted by close of day, close of business Friday, October 31st.

Any submission after will not be considered.

Budget amendments that add expenses must reduce expenses from an eligible category.

No additional use of fund balance will be accepted.

No amendments will be accepted that violate either expenditure restraint or the levy limits opposed by the state of Wisconsin.

I am obviously here for questions for a little bit tonight.

Um I do encourage the alders outside of these public meetings.

Reach out to the leaders in each of the departments.

They are well versed on their budgets and have been combing through the books, particularly what you guys have in front of you for the last day or so.

So they're well versed.

I encourage you to reach out to them outside of these meetings.

Um feel free to obviously reach out to myself and the city administrator with any questions you may have.

And please know that you may reach out to me and I may refer you to a department head who may be better versed to answer your question.

I'm not trying to throw you off.

I just think that that would be somebody else may be better versed in answering your question.

Okay, so before we open up to questions, what I'd like to do, because we do have a full agenda ahead of us tonight.

Just want to remind the council that Thursday of this week is the night set aside to uh allow the council to ask all the questions uh that they have regarding the budget.

Uh we're gonna get presentations from department heads tomorrow.

Thursday is a day for questions, but I want to allow about 15 minutes for questions now and then move on to our agenda uh from there.

So if there are general questions for the director, uh now would be an appropriate time.

Alder Weiner, you're the first in the queue.

Thank you.

Just a couple of questions.

Uh Kathleen, is the net new construction that's included within the TID district included or included in our net new construction?

Yes, it does.

Good question.

So net new construction counts both construction in a TID and construction outside of a TID.

So yes, that $73 million does include net new construction within a TID.

Okay.

And then is the budget stabilization fund the same as the fund balance?

Are those the same things?

Yes.

And then you said the operations levy is 5.35 based on the is that based on the average assessment increase, or is it had nothing to do with the assessments?

No, it has nothing to do with the assessment.

The 5.5% increase is an increase in the amount of tax levy that we can levy for operations compared to 2025.

So that was about a $2 million increase.

So $2 million divided by last year's tax levy is 5.35%.

That two million dollar increase again, 1.5 million dollars coming from referendum as approved by the voters, and then 500,000 from net new construction.

Okay, and then when you talk about uh short-term debt, are you talking about bonding?

Is that the same thing?

I'm sorry, could you repeat that?

And I missed you.

So when you talk about the short-term debt, is that the same as when you talk about bonding?

So, for example, when we bonded for the EU.

Yes, thank you for the clarification.

So when I talk about bonding, bonding covers both short-term debt and long-term debt.

Okay, and then we would bond for the safety building.

Is that what you said?

Correct.

We would issue a we refer to it as a special purpose bond.

The reason we do that is because we would issue that bond at a different time than we would issue our regular capital improvement bond.

So the short-term bonding that we did for the clitic, are we anticipating that would go on long-term debt in 2026?

Actually, that note, so that's a short-term note that was borrowed, and that will be uh refinanced in 2027.

So that note comes due in 2027 and would be refinanced long term.

However, I do not believe at this point in time that we will refinance the full 17 million as we have already received some different um revenues to offset that.

Okay, thank you.

Any other general questions on the budget or what Director Fisher has laid out here?

Seeing none, then we will move on to communications introduced by the council.

Umder land, would you like to make a motion regarding the items on the agenda being referred to your committee?

Yes, I would like to move to refer the following items to finance and personnel.

Item 0990-25 communication requesting permission to enter into an agreement and accept up to 26,400 from Wisconsin Coastal Management Program for Samuel Myers Parks Improvement.

Item 102025 communication requesting that the second shift premium for Department of Public Works Employees in the areas of flea maintenance be increased from 20 cents per hour to two dollars per hour.

Item 1040-25 communication requesting commission to apply for Wisconsin Emergency Management and Office of Emergency Communication for Interoperable Radio Grant Program.

Item 1059-25 communication on behalf uh requesting to apply for and if awarded accept the 2026 mayor's youth gang collaborative need a second motion there's a second on the motion.

Okay, um all those in favor of referring these items to the finance personnel committee, please say aye.

Aye opposed that motion carries.

We'll now move on to the Department of Public Works and Services.

Would you please like to make a motion?

I'd like to make a motion or uh I'll make a motion to refer the following items to the public works and services committee.

Item 1052-25 communication uh requesting use of city right away for the annual holiday parade on Saturday, November 8th, 2025.

Item 1053-25 communication submitting the following amendment to resolution 0826-25 regarding sanitary sewer changes and item 1075-25 communication um sponsored by Alderman Widener referred to public works to request waiver of alternate street parking restrictions on West Boulevard.

Motion and a second to refer these items to public work and services.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed that motion carries.

Moving on to the um public services and licensing committee.

Alder Whitner uh should be noted as excused for the remainder of the evening.

She had to depart.

And she's asked Alder Pabone to make the motion in her stead.

Alder Babone, would you like to make a motion regarding the items referred to the public safety and licensing committee?

Yes, Mr.

Mayor.

I would like to move to refer the following items to the public safety and licensing committee.

Um item number 1043-25 communication sponsored by Alder Widener on behalf of the city clerk's office, submitting a new application for a class A retail fermented malt beverage liquor uh license for RM Gas and Food Mark Inc.

TBA JD United Petroleum located at 1530 Douglas Avenue, Rupender Choir Agent Fourth District.

Item number 1044-25 communication sponsored by Alder Widener on behalf of the city clerk's office, submitting a new application for a Class B retail fermented malt beverage and intoxicating liquor license and a class C wine license for Mangya Payne LLC DBA Mangia Pain, located at 2310 South Green Bay Road, suite M.

Dana Martin, agent 14th district.

Item number 1069-25 communication sponsored by Alder Widener on behalf of the city clerk's office requesting their appearance of Marcella Rios for a new operator's license.

Item number 1071-25.

Communication sponsored by Alder Widener on behalf of the city of Forteseen Police Department for the license premise report.

An item number 1072-25.

Communications sponsored by Alder Widener requesting any consideration, any formal expression of concern or other actions pursuant to the police report.

And item number 1073-25.

Communications sponsored by Alder Jorgensen proposing ordinance 0012-25 spectating and other conduct at illegal traffic events.

Um and the recommendation that the ordinance 0012-25 spectating and other conduct at illegal traffic events be approved.

The motion and a second to refer these items to public safety and licensing.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

That motion carries.

We have one item to refer to the committee of the whole.

Submitting a proposed 2026 city erasing budget consisting of the general funds, special revenue fund, debt service fund, capital project funds, enterprise funds, internal service funds, associated budget, positions, ordinance, and fee schedules as attached are anticipated to be included in adoption of this item.

Staff recommendation the proposed 2026 city racing budget consisting of the general fund, special revenue funds, debt service funds, capital project funds, enterprise funds, and internal service funds, associated budget, position ordinance, and fee schedules are attached and anticipated to be included in adoption of this item.

Second motion and several seconds to refer this item, the budget to the committee of the whole.

All those in favor of referral, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed that motion carries.

We'll then move on to the committee reports.

Alder Land, did you have any items for separate consideration?

No, your honor, I do not.

And without objection, these items will be placed on the consent agenda.

We'll move on to Alder Mack.

Alder Mack, did you have any items for separate consideration?

I have none.

Then without objection, the entirety of this report will be placed on the consent agenda.

And we'll move on to Alder Pabone, who's been asked to do the report in the chair's absence.

Alder Pabone, do you have any items for separate consideration for public safety and licensing?

I do not.

Okay.

We'll move on to the transit committee report.

Uh Alder Horton, do you have items for separate consideration?

Uh yes, I do.

Let me find it right here.

I have two items.

First item 0976-25 communication sponsored by Alder Horton on behalf of the Transit Mobility Director requesting authorization of the uh the mayor and the city clerk to sign the 2026-27 contract for ride racing transit service in the village of Caledonia and the village of Mount Pleasant.

Uh transit uh transit commission recommendation that the mayor and city clerk be authorized and directed to sign the 2026-27 contract for ride racing transit service in the village of Caledonia and the village of Mount Pleasant.

Fiscal note contracts will provide revenue of six hundred and fifty thousand dollars in 2026 and 703,750 in 2027 move to approve.

There's a motion and a second to approve this item.

Any discussion on item 0976-25.

Okay, seeing that just as a reminder, we are voting electronically tonight.

So when the clerk puts the issue on your screen, please vote as you wish that motion passes.

Alder Horton, would you like to read the next item for some consideration?

Next item 0977-25.

Communications sponsored by Alder Horton on behalf of the Transit Mobility Director requesting permission to apply for the 2026 public transit assistant grant through the Wisconsin Department of Transportation.

Uh transit uh recommendation that the transit and mobility director be granted permission to apply for the 2026 public transit assistance program to the Wisconsin Department of Transportation Grant Control Number 00671, state operating 00672 federal operating 00674 public prayer transit 00673 state capital estimate uh estimated operating and capital revenue determined by the Wisconsin statute A5 that point two oh a five two oh five and federal transit administration move to approve.

There's a motion and a second by Alder Prabone to approve this item.

Any discussion on this item seeing none when the clerk opens the roll, please vote on your screen as you wish.

There's a time on the PHDC correct attachment.

We now move on to the planning heritage and design committee.

Alder Pete, have you had a request for separate consideration on this item?

No, I do not reset.

Okay.

Then without objection, this item will be placed on the consent agenda.

I will then move on to the Office of the Mayor report.

All right.

Next item 1076-25 communication from Alder Fraser and Automac seeking rescission from the Common Council October 7, 2025, action on agenda item 1003-25.

And if rescinded, a further motion may be considered that the common council find that a comprehensive redevelopment plan is not necessary to determine the need for the acquisition of the real estate of 90 record court uh by the community development authority of the city of Racing CDA that uses the proper property after acquisition and the relations of the acquisition to other property redevelopment by the CDA, and that the CDA requires such property, notwithstanding that it is not an existent redevelopment area.

There's a motion and a second to approve this item.

Any discussion.

Thank you.

Two weeks ago, I hesitated when this vote came up.

Philosophically, you know, we hold a lot of property as a city, and I'm concerned that uh the turnover of that property isn't as quick as it should be.

Um the other hand, this affects a huge parcel in my district that is sat dormant for way too long.

And uh as I was frantically looking up the parcel during the meeting, trying to figure out you know how big it was, and um it was the issue was uh muddied up a little bit, and as I pondered that uh that evening and the next day, um I came to the conclusion that I think it's in the best interest of the city to acquire a very small parcel adjoining to that that um would just square up that parcel and make it more attractive for development.

I really think at some point, hopefully sooner than later, that um we will see a beautiful development of townhomes or or something there to to beautify what right now is a vacant lot, but is probably uh one of the most prime uh real estate parcels in the city that we have.

So I would encourage my colleagues to um support rescinding the um motion from two weeks ago so that uh we can allow the CDA to negotiate uh the purchase of that small parcel.

Thank you.

Alder Frazier.

Uh kind of echo on Alder Mac sentiments.

I think one of the biggest things that um was confusing is how much revenue uh the boat graveyard uh brings in and considering it's only sixteen hundred dollars in a year, uh, and also considering the work that uh director Williams is doing to uh increase the development for our city.

I think it is uh smart a smart investment for us to make.

So I encourage our authors to reconsider.

Uh thank you.

I just like to echo on what the other authors have said because it will definitely help what help what we've been talking about all night, which is net new construction, and that's all I need to say.

Thank you.

Yeah, I uh also met and I think that it would be at this point valuable to pick it up, but I also think that looking at our deficit and looking at our struggles with net new construction and stuff.

I think that if we are gonna do this, that we need to be more open to things that aren't what we have visioned for there.

So I just wanted to say that Alder Jorgensen.

Yes, so I uh I voted for this in favor of this uh two weeks ago, but I I wanted to take a moment and applaud my colleagues who uh took some more time with the issue, dug into it a bit more, uh, and uh and are coming around on the idea that this is is part of a master plan for this area.

This is you know something that will make this more marketable so that hopefully we can get the entire site off of the um the city's books and put this back on the tax roll.

I see nobody else in the queue to speak, just as a reminder and to clarify, this is a motion that rescinds the action taken at the last council meeting and authorizes the CDA to move forward.

Just want to make sure everybody's clear about that.

Alder Pavone.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Um listening to Alder Mack and Alder Fraser on the reason that they have uh changed their vote has uh certainly resonated with me.

Although I am very hesitant simply because of um all the land that we do own that has not yet been turned around.

Um if this is in the best interest of the city that would help us with net new construction um and the marketing of that of that entire land for development, then I would be in favor of this.

I just hope that we can see a turnaround um much quicker than with other properties that the CDA owns.

There's no one else in the queue.

When the clerk opens the roll, please vote on your screens as you wish motion passes 11 to 1.

Um that motion does pass.

Uh Alder Mack, did you have a comment you wanted to make?

Well, I'd like to make a motion at this time.

Um please proceed.

So I I'd like to make a motion that uh the common council find that a comprehensive redevelopment plan is not necessary to determine the need for acquisition of the real estate of 90 Rycord Court by the community development authority of the city of Racine, the uses of the property after acquisition and the relation of the acquisition to other property redevelopment by the CDA, and that the CDA acquires such property, notwithstanding that it's not in existing redevelopment area.

So uh Alder Mack, I don't know that your your um motion is necessary.

The last vote we took did both of those things within that motion.

It both rescinded and and approved uh the item.

I'll ask the city attorney to clarify if he would.

The the vote the motion could have been divided, but the way it was presented, it appeared to me that the common council wanted to, in one fell swoop, rescind last meeting's vote, and as you just suggested, find that a comprehensive redevelopment plan is not necessary, and so on.

And I think that fits within the way the agenda item is written, and it would it would be acceptable.

Alder Mack.

I'm sorry, I was confused because it said if rescinded a further motion may be considered.

Um, and that's where I was confused and and made the motion.

So my apologies for doing so.

Uh just to be clear though, while I've got the attorney on the mic, because I want to make clear we we have rescinded and authorized the ability to move forward.

Right.

The the motion that was made was to approve the item, which included all those things.

Probably typically we would have seen a motion to rescind separate from a motion to approve the next action, but it appeared it was all made in one motion.

So long as we're I think it's moving forward on that, I'm okay.

I believe that's what the common council approved.

Okay.

Uh then that allows us to move on to the consent agenda.

At this time, I would entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda.

So motion to approve the consent agenda, and it's been seconded.

All those in favor of the consent agenda, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

That motion carries.

Now we move on to announcements.

Just as a reminder, announcements are limited to recognition of city residents and employees, memorials, and non-political community events.

Discussion of matters related to governmental business is prohibited.

Alder Mack.

Thank you.

Um I'd like to wish my daughter a happy birthday.

Uh she will be turning something on the 28th of October.

And I'd like to wish my son a happy golden birthday.

He will be turning 31 on Halloween.

I'd also like to congratulate the Racine Library on their successful event featuring Racine Native and award-winning children's author Kevin Henkeys.

I had the honor of uh along with Alderman Townsend of presenting the proclamation that it was Kevin Henkey's day in Racine.

And my uh oldest said grandpa, would you buy me a book?

And 75 dollars later, we're standing in line uh getting them autographs.

So uh Nick's not here anymore, but great.

Or is he here?

Great job.

Alder Townsend.

Uh plus one on the library of Van Frank.

So it's cool, and also it was really cool to work with the city staff um with the clean sweep event.

Got to interact with a lot of people.

So if you guys are here, it was uh great to work alongside you and get to know you guys better and yeah.

Alder Probone.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

I just like to highlight that the 15th district did get an addition today effect uh officially today is the first opening day of the Wendy's on uh Three Mile and Douglas at 3935 Douglas Avenue.

So if you're in the area, stop by say hello, visit it.

It's nice.

I've been in there.

That's all Jorgensen.

I just wanted to uh let everyone know uh that the uh portion of Main Street that goes through uh the 5th district, and I think a portion of the the fourth uh is uh back open.

Uh cars are on it again.

So if you've been uh dreading uh driving through the district, having to meander through Erie and all around through the the many detours, uh you won't have to do that anymore.

Um come take a drive uh past the zoo uh in the lake.

Uh it's beautiful.

Uh and enjoy the new bike lanes uh that are on Main Street uh through that portion.

So uh just wanted to let everyone know that the the travel plans going through the fifth district should be much easier now.

All right, Alder Horton.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Uh, just like to uh uh thank Alder Mag for uh going to the library reading a proclamation.

Uh I couldn't make it, but he went, and uh it was a special event, so I just want to say appreciate it.

Thank you for going.

Thank you.

Any other announcements?

I did also want to echo um Alder Townsend's comment about the clean sweep.

I know I mentioned it at length in my speech last night, but it really was amazing and incredible to see all the city staff come together in different departments in the same neighborhood at the same time, helping our neighbors out and improving both the public space and and the places they call home.

So thank you for that.

I also want to adjourn in honor of the case cross-country team, which won conference for the first time uh in 30 years in that sport, uh, and congratulate my daughter who had her best time by almost a minute.

So it's a great race, and want to congratulate the case girls cross country team.

Unless there are any other announcements at this time, I would entertain a motion to adjourn.

So motion uh by Alder Probone to adjourn with many seconds.

All those in favor of adjournment, please say aye.

Opposed that motion carries, and we are adjourned.