And all these meetings do require 24 hours.

If all there's in gas could please take their seats, we will begin momentarily.

If all this in gas could please take their seats, we will begin momentarily.

Can you turn up the audio?

Still quiet.

Um I just want to test out the audio first.

Can people hear okay?

If you're in the back row, wave if you can hear me.

Okay, great.

Thank you.

Good evening, everyone.

The hour of six fifteen having arrived on this November sixth, a Thursday.

It is my honor to call to order the special session of the Common Council for the City of Racine.

Our first order of business is the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag.

If you could please rise as you are able and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Okay, thank you.

The public comment segment is an opportunity for citizens to speak directly to the common council.

Speakers will limit their remarks to three minutes.

Speakers during the public comment period shall follow all the 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.

And when situations like this happen, normally you have the police chief, the mayor, somebody, public information officers, somebody out there giving the community information as to what is being proactively done in this community to stop this particular type of violence.

But we haven't heard anything.

But maybe there's plans ahead.

Maybe there's a roadmap to solving the problem.

But if there's a roadmap or if there's a plan, at least give the community the knowledge to know that somebody somewhere is being proactive, and what are we doing in the form of transparency and accountability to solve this particular problem because it has got to epidemic proportion?

People are afraid to come out of their house.

Whoever in these positions up here, give the community information as to what is going on and how we're going to potentially move forward to stop this violence.

Thank you.

This concludes the public comment segment.

Move on to the next section of the agenda.

There's a motion and a second to approve the items as recommended by the committee of the whole yesterday evening.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

That motion carries.

On page four page?

Four.

Item 1077-25.

Uh Mr.

Mayor, I'd like a roll call for that first item.

The vote's already been committed, and all those items will be rolled into the next item, and we will have a roll call on that item.

Uh Alder Horton, would you like to make a motion regarding item 1077-25?

Move to approve.

It's a motion to approve item 1077-25.

Adoption of this item and the recommendations of the committee of the whole that were approved last night.

Discussion on this item.

Uh no, Your Honor.

Okay.

Alder Winer.

Thank you.

I would like to speak to this item seeing we just raced through all the amendments that we tried to make last night.

We should have had a separate vote on each one of those amendments this evening as well, and also should have been able to have the opportunity to amend those amendments last night, if that's something that this body chose to do.

I'm going to speak against adopting this motion for a very simple reason.

We have increased the levy, four and a half million dollars for this year.

That is a record amount, five times the amount that we've increased the levy going back to 2019.

Every year it's up about a half a million dollars.

This year it's 4.5 million, five times what we typically do.

So for example, in 2024, the operating levy was 38,673,000.

In 25, it was 38,008 dollars.

In 2026, it's up to 40 million forty-two thousand dollars.

That does include the 1.5 million of the referendum that the taxpayers uh so generously approved uh to retain the nine positions that was eliminated by this administration.

The big kicker is the debt service that you all need to be aware of.

The debt service went from 19 million four hundred and seventy-five thousand in 2024 to 20 million five hundred thousand last year.

This year it uh is up two and a half million dollars to twenty-two million eight hundred and eighty-one thousand.

That's a total of sixty-two million nine hundred and twenty-three thousand eighty-nine dollars that we will be levying our residents and businesses that own property in the city of Racine.

That number does not include the almost 12 million dollars additional levy that we will be taxing our residents, our constituents in levy from all these TIDs.

Half of that is from the five neighborhood TIDS that have been created since 2019.

So that gives an almost six million dollar, if my numbers are accurate, uh almost six million dollars in funds used in the neighbor in the neighborhoods at whatever way that the CDA or the administration wishes.

I've said it repeatedly.

I have heard this past year for more constituents in one year than I have combined in the 20 some years that I have served on the city council regarding the increase in their property taxes that they are continually to experience.

Adding four and a half million plus the 11, almost 12 million from the TIDS is gonna create a hardship for our residents who have to sometimes we hear about the food stamps where people have to make decisions between buying food and paying for their rent or paying for their medication.

The same thing is gonna happen when they get their property tax bill on Christmas Eve.

I would ask my colleagues to join with me in voting down this horrific, horrific budget, the worst I have ever seen in my career on common counsel.

Other discussion on item 1077-25.

Alder Allen.

I agree with uh Alder Weiner.

It is awful that we have to ask our residents to participate and partner with us so that we can offer services to them.

It really is.

Um it also requires that we do two things that we do have a conversation that includes what we are what those services entail.

Uh I would say two years ago at the latest, I started messaging out that Southeast Wisconsin was the highest recipient of Medicare and Medicaid in the state of Wisconsin, and that when we are looking at how we are voting, we have to take into consideration what that vote impacts, right?

And so, and it's so yes, we did a referendum so that our fire services could continue to be uh at the standard that we want to see.

We actually on the school board, we did a referendum also so that we could continue to support our public school education.

Uh, and we did that knowing that there is a surplus of funds at the top of the state that we have been trying to negotiate to come down and help support us provide services to our constituents.

So, yes, I do agree.

It is, but when we have these conversations again, we've had a lot of our uh community come forward and stress, for instance, how much they want us to continue funding, our community safety program.

We know that they came in droves in support of our library as a hub for the racing uh community.

We only have one library.

Uh, when we're talking about what we want to offer as a home for our community, I think I've said it a few times that that has to include safety, it has to include jobs, and it has to include an ambiance for our families that retain, attract, and sustain our community.

And if you are only willing to be comfortable with the majority of our budget going to services that uh are geared towards law enforcement, and but you don't want to provide services or amenities to a community that inspires our people to stay here, then I'm not sure what kind of community we're trying to support.

So I guess what I'm saying is instead of my hearing responses all the time that well, that's not in my wheelhouse, and I don't see people going to actual community meetings.

I don't see people actually taking conscious um thought to what people are saying.

I'm not saying that we're not responsible for fiscal integrity.

I'm saying that our responsibility is twofold.

And when people come in front of us and say that they are willing to pay for service that services that increase their safety, increase their uh ability to make a living and to have a home here and and for the community demographic that feels that this is not a home that reaches out to them.

I think we deserve or we should have a responsibility to listen to them.

So yes, I do appreciate you calling out what our levy is, but I do not appreciate you not recognizing the fact that they are willing to pay for those services.

Other discussion on the budget.

When the clerk calls your name, please vote as you wish.

Alder Frazier, Alder Townsend, Alder Davis, Honor Mack, Otter Jorgensen, Alder Widener, Alder Horton, Alder Allen, Alder Pete, Otter Land, Alder Kelly, Alder Harmon, Alder Pavone.

Aye.

Eight ayes, five no's.

Motion passes.

That motion carries.

We have three more items that we need to adopt tonight.

Moving on to item 0935 at the bottom of page five.

Uh Alder Horton, would you like to make a motion regarding item 0935?

Move to approve.

The motion to approve item 0935-25.

This is consideration of the proposed 2026 City of Research and Wastewater Utility Operations and Maintenance Budget and the proposed 2000 2026 to 2035 capital improvement plan.

Alder Widener.

Thank you.

I have a question.

If the water wastewater budget includes the transferring of positions to City Hall, and if that includes funds that are being transferred from the water utility to the city of Racine.

To whom are you directing your question?

To well, I'll leave it up to you, Mr.

Chairman, as to who that question should be proposed to.

I will refer you to probably the city administrator.

I'll refer your question to the city clerk.

I would like if maybe the city attorney or city administrator could double check or maybe even a member of the water wastewater commission who is on this common council.

But last time I took a look at the water wastewater budget, it does not include a position page, and they do not approve positions within that budget.

So they only approve funding within that budget, not specific positions like it relates to the common council positions in their budget.

But I don't know if the water wastewater, any of the commissioners or if the city administrator or attorney would like to double check be on that one.

I'll ask the wastewater utility director to come to the DS and clarify further if need be.

Oh, sorry.

One moment.

Yes, so those positions are not funded under the wastewater budget.

Okay, great.

Other discussion on this item.

Seeing none when the clerk calls your name, please vote as you wish.

Alder Frazier, Otter Townsend, Otter Davis, Honor Mack, Otter Jorgensen, Otter Widener, Otter Horton, Otter Allen, Otter Pete, Otter Land, Otter Kelly, Otter Harmon, Otter Pavone.

12 ayes, one no.

Motion passes.

Moving on to the next item, item 0936-25 on page uh six.

Alder Horton, would you like to make a motion?

Move to approve.

This is the motion regarding item 0936-25, consideration of the 2026 sewer service rates.

Uh, any discussion on this item, Alder Wider.

Thank you.

I'm just gonna point out that uh the taxpayers that I represent get their water bill quarterly and their total fees that they pay on their water bill, a lot of it to the uh utility is about a thousand dollars a year.

Uh so I'm gonna vote against this because we continue to squeeze the very taxpayers that we are here to represent.

Okay, Alder Allen.

I just need a clarification.

The or this originated, these rates that we have.

Is this go does this go back to that contract that we have uh with the county regarding our water?

And was is that the contract that has been in place for over two decades?

Yeah, so this is a it's it's not directly I would say the wastewater agreement is what governs the internet intergovernmental relationship between the city and the outlying communities, um, but the rate increase specifically aren't necessarily because of the agreement, it's just the vehicle by which these things are assessed, but the rates don't go up or down per se because of the agreement.

Okay, thank you for the clarification.

Alder Kelly.

Thank you.

Um can I just get some clarification on some of these uh rates?

Uh the rate increases.

I'm seeing city of Racine 4.5%, and then on the second page, there's a 3.1%.

Can somebody kind of give a little bit deeper explanation on that?

I will refer your question to the wastewater utility director, director Tillis.

Thank you.

Can you tell me which page you're seeing the four and a half?

It's the attachment so we're scene wastewater utility class two charges 2026.

Class class two charges?

Yes.

So class two charges are our industrial customers, class one are residential customers.

Okay, so either one you can speak on which would pick one you want to choose.

Class one.

So our class one rates you're showing a 3.1%.

So the the utility is not allowed to make a profit.

So we project for the previous year what our flows are going to be the next year, and that's our revenue, and then our expenditures are on this side, and whatever we don't cover, but our expenditures are either a plus or minus at the end of the year.

So at the end of the year, we total that up, and we had some increases on our operating budget, so that's reflected in the 3.1%.

Okay.

And I don't have the information in front of me, so I apologize.

So would you say whoever this question might go to, an average increase every year would probably be like three percent for the wastewater?

Is that fair to say?

Like average.

Yes.

Yes.

But but our flows depend a lot on the weather.

And and we can't we can't know what the weather is, so we have to kind of project on you know previous years.

So yes, it's kind of an average, but it's it's it's very weather dependent.

Right.

So I guess the point I just want to make because I just went through this whole exercise at my own municipality.

Um when I was first hired, uh, they had not raised uh wastewater and stream storm rates for quite some time.

And um the impact to the customers was uh staggering at that point because one of them was 10 years, the other one was almost 20 years.

So if you you know get those up to speed, it is um devastating for the customers.

So small incremental to keep up with the cost of running a water and a wastewater plant is um it's unfortunately as much as I don't like to have to say that it's just something that is needed in order to keep up with the cost.

So I'm unfortunately deep in the minutias on all that stuff, so I understand that, and I just wanted to make that point.

So thank you.

Alder Widener.

Thank you.

I have a question for Director Tillis.

Please state your question.

Thank you.

My question is each year the utility pays a pilot to the city of Racine.

I think that to the tune of about two and a half million.

And is any of the rate increases for either the city of Racine uh rate users or Caledonia Mount Pleasant?

Does that any of that fund into that annual pilot?

So the pilot um which is payment in lieu of taxes is done by the water utility.

Okay, so that doesn't have anything to do with this rate increase.

No, it doesn't.

Okay, thank you.

Any other discussion?

Item item 0936-25.

See none when the clerk calls your name, please vote as you wish.

Alder Frazier, Alder Townsend, Alder Davis, Alder Mack, Alder Jorgensen, Alder Widener, Alder Horton, Alder Allen, Alder Pete, Alderland, Alder Kelly, Alder Harmon, Alder Babone.

Thirteen ayes, one no.

Motion passes.

Motion carries.

Moving on then to our final item, item 0942-25.

Alder Horton, would you like to make a motion?

No, to approve.

This is item 0942-25 consideration of the proposed 2026 City of Racine water utility operations and maintenance budget in the proposed 2026 to 2035 capital improvement plan.

Is there a second on this motion?

Second by Alder Frazier.

Discussion on this item.

Seeing none when the clerk calls your name, please vote as you wish.

Alder Frazier, Alder Townsend, Alder Davis, Honor Mack, Otter Jorgensen, Alder Widener, Otta Horton, Honor Allen, Alder Pete, Honor Land, Aldo Kelly, Alder Harman, Alder Bavone.

Thirteen ayes, one no.

Motion passes.

This can uh that concludes our agenda.

I do want to thank uh all the Alders for the time that we've been able to spend with each other for this uh budget process.

I also really want to thank the staff for the countless amount of hours and time that they spent answering your questions, the public's questions, and a month's long process.

Deeply appreciate the work that they've done in this budget and the services they provide to the public uh on getting this budget done.

So with that, uh does exhaust our agenda.

I would entertain a motion to adjourn.

The motion is second to adjourn.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Opposed.

Motion carries.

We are adjourned.

Congratulations, everyone.