The Racine Common Council convened on October 21, 2025, to address routine administrative items, public comments from local residents, and the comprehensive presentation of the 2026 City Budget. Finance Director Kathleen Fisher detailed a budget totaling nearly $276 million, highlighting a structural deficit exacerbated by state levy limits and significant legacy costs. The council voted to rescind a previous decision regarding the acquisition of property at 90 Record Court to facilitate economic development and net new construction. The meeting concluded with various council announcements and the adoption of the consent agenda.
2026 City Budget Presentation
Rescission of Action on 90 Record Court Acquisition
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.