Committee of the Whole Meeting: June 9, 2026 - Ballot Error, Licensing Outreach, Cell Phones, Communications Ordinance
Committee of the Whole Meeting: June 9, 2026
The Committee of the Whole met on June 9, 2026, to discuss four agenda items: the omission of the Municipal Judge race from the April 2026 ballot, constituent outreach regarding licensed establishments, a proposal to banish cell phone usage during meetings, and proposed changes to the city's communication procedures (Ordinance 0029-25). The meeting lasted approximately two hours and included detailed presentations and debate.
Consent Calendar
- Minutes Approval: The minutes from the May 11, 2026, meeting were approved unanimously.
Discussion Items
-
Item 0297-26: Missing Municipal Judge from Ballot
- City Clerk Tara detailed the timeline: On March 25, 2026, mid-afternoon, the city was notified that the Municipal Judge race (incumbent Rob Weber) was omitted from the April 2026 ballot. The county clerk is responsible for ballot design and printing; the city provides candidate information but does not review proofs. Ballots arrive at city hall with a 24-hour deadline to mail, leaving no time for accuracy checks. The city activated a contingency plan by printing B ballots. The clerk stated that going forward, staff will create cheat sheets to quickly verify ballots. Several alders asked about the process and notification to voters. Alder Wagner noted the letter to voters did not explain that if ballot B was not returned, ballot A would be used. The clerk stated the letter was state-mandated. No action taken beyond receiving and filing.
-
Item 0061-26: Constituent Outreach on Licensed Establishments
- Assistant City Attorney Ian Pomplin advised alders to forward videos, photos, or complaints to the police department rather than investigating themselves. The police compile a Licensed Premise Report every two weeks for the Public Safety and Licensing Committee. City Attorney Letney emphasized alders have quasi-judicial responsibilities and must avoid independent investigation to protect due process for license holders. The item was received and filed.
-
Item 0518-26: Banning Cell Phone Usage During Meetings
- Alder Widener introduced the topic, noting public concern about alders using phones during meetings. Several alders responded: some noted phones are used for agendas, closed captioning, or research; others agreed the public is watching. No formal policy was proposed. The item was received and filed.
-
Item 1265-25: Ordinance 0029-25 – Changes to Communication Procedures
- Alder Widener sponsored an ordinance to allow administrative managers to submit communications directly, to allow referral to any authority, board, or commission (not just standing committees), to impose a 90-day deferral limit, and to remove the provision allowing 250 elector petitions. The city attorney clarified parts. Extensive debate occurred. Alder Pabone moved to strike part five (the removal of the 250-signature provision), which passed (7-3). A motion to call the question on the amended ordinance passed (8-2). The final vote to approve the ordinance as amended (recommendation to full council) passed (9-1).
Key Outcomes
- Item 0297-26: Received and filed. No further action.
- Item 0061-26: Received and filed. Alders advised to forward evidence to police.
- Item 0518-26: Received and filed. No policy change.
- Item 1265-25: Ordinance 0029-25 approved as amended (striking part five, thereby retaining the 250-signature petition provision). This is a recommendation to the full Common Council for final consideration.
Meeting Transcript
So I'd call to order the committee of the whole. Let's do our excusals first. Alder Allen, I know that Alder Horton had reached out and asked to be excused. Were there any additional uh members that asked to be excused for this evening? All right, we will record those both as excused. So with that, I would be looking for an approval or motion to approve the minutes for the May 11th, 2026 meeting. All right, we have a motion from Walter Pabone, second from Alder Pete. All in favor, please say aye. Aye. Opposed. Motion carries. All right. So getting into the business for this evening, we're going to start out with uh item number zero two nine seven-two six. I would ask the clerk to uh um please come up to the podium. Um I just want to, as we're introducing this one, I just want to let everyone know an invitation was extended to the county clerk um to participate in this discussion. Uh I did not hear back. Um, I had checked it with the city clerk today. She had not had heard back either. We did send it through email as well as a certified mail for both. So she should be aware. Uh in uh because of that, I will try to uh let everyone know and keep on topic here. Uh uh, the city clerk can answer any questions related to um anything that happened within her office or within city business. Uh, it's really not a fair uh request to have her try to answer or speculate uh from the county clerk's perspective. Uh, if there are any questions that come up in discussion tonight to stay on topic to the agenda item and who we have here tonight, uh, I would ask that we would um state what we have as well as anything can be sent to the county clerk afterwards if there's follow-up. Um, maybe she would respond there. Um, we will jump in uh if the clerk could introduce the item. If you ought to push your button. Uh with that, uh please take it away. Hi, thank you. So this item came to me through the request via email. However, no specifics were requested. So I'm just gonna kind of give a brief overview of timeline of things that happen, of statutory responsibilities, and then, like President Jorgensen said, happy to answer any questions after that. Jerome passed out a packet, I believe, of backup information. The first item was the press release. So a little bit on the timeline. The morning of March 25th, which is the same day that the press release went out. Um we did become, I should even say morning, mid-afternoon. We did become aware that the municipal judge race in its entirety was missing from the ballot. At that point in time, we immediately got together with the comms director and worked through hey, we need to get this out there. We also got in touch with the county clerk to say what happened, what do we need to do, how do we rectify this, as well as the Wisconsin election commission. So the first two pages are just a copy of the press release what went out, and this was the beginning of when we found out that this had occurred. The next page is it says 7.10 county clerk. So this is the statutory responsibilities for the county clerk who is in charge of preparing the ballots. So what happens is offices for the municipality come into the city clerk. We then give all the information to the county clerk. The county clerk is responsible for designing and printing all of the ballots within the municipalities. So in this particular case, we'll go through all the paperwork that was submitted to the county in the rest of this packet, but it is the county clerk's responsibility to print and design those ballots. We do not receive a PDF, and we are not given the opportunity to review those ballots prior to them being printed. So we give our information to the county clerk, the county clerk then orders them, and the next thing we know they show up on our doorstep downstairs at City Hall Room 103, and that's the first opportunity we get to actually see a ballot. The next page is a copy of our type A notice.
openpublica.com